Special Guest Arvind Ethan David

Arvind Ethan David returns to Tea, Tonic & Toxin to discuss The Great Game, his debut prose novel. This historical mystery and conspiracy thriller brings an Indian military veteran and law student into the worlds of A. J. Raffles, Sherlock Holmes, and a young Winston Churchill.

A writer and producer whose work spans novels, graphic fiction, audio, television, film, and theatre, Arvind previously joined us to discuss his graphic adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s Trouble Is My Business.

All About Arvind Ethan David

Arvind Ethan David is a writer and producer whose work spans novels, graphic fiction, audio, television, film, and theatre.

His debut prose novel, The Great Game, is a historical mystery and conspiracy thriller set in London in 1905. The novel follows Balvinder dev Singh, an Indian military veteran and pupil barrister who supplements his income by committing burglaries with the gentleman thief A. J. Raffles. When their intended target is murdered, Bal and Raffles become entangled in a widening conspiracy involving Scotland Yard, an aging Sherlock Holmes, and an ambitious young Winston Churchill.

Arvind has written seven graphic novels, including his adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s Trouble Is My Business and the Bram Stoker Award–nominated Darkness Visible, created with Mike Carey. His other graphic work includes the Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency series and Gray, a reimagining of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray.

His audio work includes The Crimes of Dorian Gray, the science-fiction anthology series Earworms, and Douglas Adams: The Ends of the Earth, a nonfiction exploration of Adams’s life, work, and environmentalism.

For the stage, Arvind has adapted Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. His adaptation of Sir Lenny Henry’s The Boy With Wings was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Family Show. He also contributed additional material to The Infidel and was an originating and lead producer of the Tony and Grammy Award–winning Broadway musical Jagged Little Pill.

Arvind’s television work includes Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency for Netflix and BBC America, Anansi Boys for Amazon, and the Asian Academy Award–winning The Garden of Evening Mists for HBO.

Across these different forms, Arvind frequently revisits classic stories and characters from new perspectives, combining affection for the original works with questions about identity, power, empire, and who has traditionally been allowed to occupy the center of an adventure.

About The Great Game

Published in 2026, The Great Game is the debut prose novel by Arvind Ethan David.

London, 1905. Balvinder dev Singh is an Indian military veteran, law student, and accomplice to the gentleman thief A. J. Raffles. When an imperialist general is brutally murdered in his Mayfair library, Bal and Raffles find themselves implicated in a series of killings that draws the attention of Scotland Yard—and Sherlock Holmes.

As Bal attempts to clear his name, his friendship with the Irish violinist Maud Adler forces him to reconsider his relationship with Britain and its empire. What begins as a historical murder mystery expands into a conspiracy thriller and a provocative examination of loyalty, belonging, and colonial power.

About Trouble Is My Business

Trouble Is My Business is a new graphic novel by Raymond Chandler and Arvind Ethan David. The book is illustrated by Ilias Kyriazis. The forward was written by Ben H. Winters. The colorist is Cris Peter.

Los Angeles, 1930s. A rich old man who knows trouble when he sees it hires a detective agency to scare off a young woman who seems to be making his adopted son hemorrhage cash. Fortunately for the detective, a hard drinking man named Philip Marlowe, trouble is his business.

The young woman, Harriet, has an agenda all her own and aspirations beyond being a shill for a gambler. She’s nobody’s fool. Nor is the old man, for his part. He’s got serious muscle–a chauffeur with a degree from Dartmouth, the only Black student from his class, who knows his way around a gun and isn’t afraid to use it.

Right in the middle of it all is a big pile of money. And when the bodies begin to drop, only Philip Marlowe can sort out which of these suspects is pulling the trigger.

Raymond Chandler was the master practitioner of American hard-boiled crime fiction. In 1933, at the age of 45, he turned to writing fiction, publishing his first stories in Black Mask. Chandler’s detective stories often starred the brash but honorable Philip Marlowe, introduced in 1939 in his first novel, The Big Sleep.

Chandler’s novels were noted for their literate presentation and dead-on critical eye. He published only one collection of stories and seven novels in his lifetime. Some of his novels, like The Big Sleep, were made into classic movies that helped define the film noir style.

In the last year of his life, Raymond Chandler was elected president of the Mystery Writers of America. He died in La Jolla, California in 1959.

Weigh in on Trouble Is My Business, The Great Game, and Our Special Guest Arvind Ethan David

Tell us what you think, and we may share your thoughts in our next episode and send you a fabulous sticker! (It really is a pretty awesome sticker.)

About Tea, Tonic & Toxin

Tea, Tonic, and Toxin is a book club and podcast for people who love mysteries, thrillers, introspection, and good conversation. Each month, your hosts, Sarah Harrison and Carolyn Daughters, will discuss a game-changing mystery or thriller from the 19th and 20th centuries. Together, we’ll see firsthand how the genre evolved.

Along the way, we’ll entertain ideas, prospects, theories, doubts, and grudges, along with the occasional guest. And we hope to entertain you, dear friend. We want you to experience the joys of reading some of the best mysteries and thrillers ever written.

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