The Front Page Murders

Puja Changoiwala, who covered the incidents as they unfolded, recounts in gripping detail the story behind the sensational case of multiple murders that shocked the country

It takes a fearless mind to harbor such a dark heart, a heart that knows no nobility, no apology...

The gruesome murder of a senior citizen in a wealthy Mumbai neighborhood leads the city’s Crime Branch to unearth several half-naked, mutilated and dismembered bodies rotting in the ravines of the Western Ghats on the outskirts of the city.

A trail of missing suspects, a lethal honey-trap, and unexpected links with Mumbai's film industry and the underworld, brings the investigators — and the press, ever hungry for breaking news — to Vijay Palande, a cold-blooded killer equipped with the sophistication of Charles Sobhraj, the manipulative genius of Ted Bundy and the cruelty of Jack the Ripper.

In The Front Page Murders, Puja Changoiwala, who covered the incidents as they unfolded, recounts in gripping detail the story behind the sensational case of multiple murders that shocked the country. Startling and intensely sobering by turns, her compelling narrative explores not just the murky depths of a serial killer's mind but, tellingly, the media's frenzy for a juicy story and the insatiable human appetite for horror in real life.

Puja Changoiwala has worked as a senior crime correspondent with the Hindustan Times and has spent most of her career covering Mumbai's sins and its casualties. Before she spotted her calling in Mumbai's appetite for felony, Puja worked as a political journalist and sub-editor with Asian Affairs, a London-based human rights magazine, and her writings have featured on BBC.com, Firstpost.com and in The Hindu, among other publications. Puja also holds an MA in Journalism from the University of Westminster, London.