The Great Game

“Breathtaking! The Great Game is nothing short of transcendent. Yes, it is a brilliant, relentlessly paced classic crime thriller of good versus evil, populated with living, breathing characters (some familiar to us, some not, but all so fully fleshed out that they might be our neighbors). Yet it soars beyond that, offering psychological, cultural, and political insights that touch our souls—often on issues that have been tragically neglected. Told in a unique and captivating literary voice, this is a roller coaster of a tale that, I promise, you’ll read in one sitting. Bravo!” —Jeffery Deaver, author of the Colter Shaw novels (the basis for the television series Tracker)

“The Great Game is a thrilling tale about a fascinating new hero (or two), along with a familiar cast of characters—Holmes! Watson! Raffles! Churchill!—(and a surprise or two!) struggling for the fate of the British Empire. Please, Mr. David, tell us that there will be more!” —Leslie S. Klinger, editor, New Annotated Sherlock Holmes

“David breathes new life into familiar characters with this wry, wickedly arch tale about decolonization, integration, and imperial arrogance, not just interrogating the classic caper but elevating it—stealing it out from under the Empire’s nose.” —Dave Rudden, Sunday Times bestselling author of Sister Wake

“An audacious book…[The Great Game] has the pace of a thriller, the voice of history, and the charm of a writer who knows his way around a story…Full of intrigue and mystery and a completely unique story. One for fans of Vaseem Khan and Abir Mukherjee.” —Imran Mahmood, award-winning author of You Don’t Know Me

“Arvind Ethan David’s The Great Game has the heart of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the social conscience of Charles Dickens. A wonderful trip to the origin of crime fiction…infused with real people from early twentieth-century London and also fictional characters of the day. A tantalizing whodunit.” —Matt Goldman, New York Times bestselling author of the Nils Shapiro series

“The Great Game is an endlessly charming historical thriller, breathlessly paced and told with a sharp, original voice. The kind of debut novel that makes one excited for what comes next.” —Ben H. Winters, New York Times and Edgar Award-winning author of The Last Policeman

“Fact and fiction, literature and lived history collide and explode in David’s bravura mash-up.” —M. R. Carey, bestselling author of The Girl With All The Gifts

Arvind has written seven graphic novels, including most recently his adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s Trouble Is My Business (Pantheon, May 2025) and the Bram Stoker Award–nominated Darkness Visible with Mike Carey. Arvind has also written multiple hit audio originals, including the science fiction anthology series Earworms, The Crimes of Dorian Gray, and the nonfiction audiobook Douglas Adams: The Ends of the Earth.

In theatre, Arvind’s plays include The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, both based on the novels by Douglas Adams, and he received an Olivier nomination for his family musical The Boy With Wings, based on Lenny Henry’s children’s book. He also contributed additional material for David Baddiel and Erran Baron Cohen’s musical The Infidel and was a lead producer of the Grammy and Tony Award–winning Broadway musical Jagged Little Pill.

Arvind has written and produced extensively in television, including Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency for Netflix, Anansi Boys for Amazon, and the Asian Academy Award winner The Garden of Evening Mists for HBO.

The Great Game is his debut prose novel.