THE SCHOOL-GATE KIDNAPPING

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Literature & Fiction

THE SCHOOL-GATE KIDNAPPING

By: Kiran Manral

395.00

  • ISBN: 978-93-7646-877-5
  • Pages: 280 pages
  • Published: 05 April, 2026
  • Format: Paperback
  • Imprint: Rupa
  • Language: English

When a patent leather-jacketed biker kidnaps the daughter of a once-famous Bollywood actress right outside the school-gate, Kay Mehra is standing there holding her handbag and her opinions. 

And once Kay has an opinion, there is no such thing as ‘not my problem’. 

Within days, two elderly morning-walkers are knocked down by speeding superbikes on the city’s most infamous back-road. One of them dies. The glamorous former actress is found dead in her bed. And because Kay’s universe clearly enjoys an excess of death, a biker’s body turns up in the marshes off the same stretch of road. 

Kidnapping. Hit-and-runs. One dead diva. One dead biker. A suspicious amount of patent leather jackets. 

Kay has questions. Many, many questions. And no answers. 

Teaming up with her infinitely more professional detective friend Runa, Kay plunges into the loud, shiny, testosterone-fuelled world of superbikes, celebrity secrets, and men who believe superbikes are the true purpose of a midlife crisis. Between interrogating bikers, annoying the police, dodging danger and stress-eating Nutella at 3.00 a.m., Kay finds herself in the middle of a mystery that is far more complicated than it has any right to be. 

Will she untangle the suspicious deaths? 

Will she finally discover her life’s purpose? 

Or will she return to the comfort of powersuits, PowerPoints and pretending she did not just poke a hornet’s nest while wearing the most inconvenient sky-high wedge heels? 

Knowing Kay Mehra, pretending is not an option. 


Kiran Manral is a Mumbai-based writer, author and storyteller whose work sits at the intersection of culture, identity, and lived female experience. She has written extensively across fiction and non-fiction for adults and children, with books that explore everything from crime and relationships to parenting, resilience, and social change. 

Her fiction includes The Reluctant DetectiveOnce Upon a CrushSaving MayaMissing, Presumed DeadThe Face at the WindowThe Kitty Party MurderMore Things in Heaven and EarthAll Those Who Wander, and The Moon in the Lining of Her Skin. Her non-fiction spans titles such as Karmic KidsTrue Love StoriesA Boy’s Guide to Growing Up13 Steps to Bloody Good ParentingRaising Kids with Hope and Wonder in Times of a Pandemic and Climate ChangeRisingRising 2.0, and The Game Changers, along with short fiction published in several acclaimed anthologies. She has also received multiple honours for her contribution to writing and cultural discourse, including the Women Achievers Award from the Young Environmentalists Association and the International Women’s Day Award (2018) from ICUNR and the Ministry of Women and Child Welfare, Government of India. In 2021, she was listed as one of the Womennovator 1000 Women of Asia. She was named in the list of the top 75 Indian Women in STEAM (fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, Applied Arts and Mathematics) by the Red Dot Foundation and Beyond Black, in collaboration with the Office of the Principal Scientific Advisor, Government of India, and British High Commission, New Delhi in 2022. Beyond books, Kiran is the co-host of the widely followed podcast Not Your Aunty, alongside Shunali Khullar Shroff. The show is known for its candid, unsanitized conversations about ageing, ambition, reinvention, money, relationships, bodies, desire, and identity, conversations grown women have privately but rarely hear in public. The podcast has built a strong, engaged community and has ranked globally on Goodpods. 

She is also the founder of The Story Company India, a writing and storytelling consultancy that works across memoir, ghost writing, author mentoring, brand narratives, workshops, and editorial development. Through this platform, she collaborates with individuals and organizations to help them find clarity, voice, and narrative power in their stories.


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