Piu DasGupta
About Author
Author Piu DasGupta introduces her atmospheric adventure, The Golden Monkey Mystery, set in India at the end of the 19th century.
Piu was born in Calcutta, India, and grew up in India and the UK. She studied English at Oxford University and worked in several serious professions and places before following a long-nurtured dream to be a writer in a garret in Paris.
She now lives in Paris although not (thankfully) in a garret, with her family, two cats, and numerous pigeons who flap to the kitchen windowsill for regular snacks. When she finally grows up, she hopes to fulfil her ultimate fantasy and run away to join the circus.
You can find Piu on X @PiuDasGupta1 & Instagram @piudasgupta2023
Interview
January 2026
The Golden Monkey Mystery
The Golden Monkey Mystery is a fast-paced fantastical adventure that takes readers to the jungles and legends of Bengal in the 1880s. While it is written as a prequel to author Piu DasGupta's earlier novel, The Secrets of the Snakestone, the novels are stand-alone adventures.
ReadingZone spoke with author Piu DasGupta to find out more about The Golden Monkey Mystery, how she researched it, and the themes she covers including colonialism and its effects, finding the truth, and solving puzzles.
Review: "A gold star adventure. A real treasure that will find many children aged 9+ eager to read more in the same vein."
Read a chapter from The Golden Monkey Mystery
Q&A with Piu DasGupta, introducing The Golden Monkey Mystery
"I love fast-paced adventures with a superficially satisfying conclusion, but which niggle and torment you with questions
and layers of unresolved questions afterwards. The books that refuse to let you go."
1. Can you tell us a little about yourself - what brought you into writing for children and the kinds of stories you enjoy writing? What have been your author highlights so far?
I have always loved writing stories. Even from a very young age, all I wanted to do was be a writer! My dad was a journalist, and he used to give me his old typewriter when he bought a new one. I would type up my stories with one finger on the typewriter, when I was tiny! My favourite books are adventure and fantasy. The Snakestone books are adventure, with fantastical and magical elements - so I guess they combine the two!
The highlight of my career to date was probably when my first book, Secrets of the Snakestone, was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize last year. That was a real thrill!
2. What happens in your new book, The Golden Monkey Mystery, and how does it link to your debut, Secrets of the Snakestone? Can they be read as stand-alones?
The Golden Monkey Mystery is an exciting, fast-paced jungle adventure set in Bengal in the 1880s. It's the story of a girl called Roma, and her quest to return a rare golden monkey to its home in the Himalayas. On the way, she encounters all sorts of adventures and wild creatures, and also finds a path to realise her dreams!
The Golden Monkey Mystery is a prequel to Secrets of the Snakestone. Both books are set in the same world - the world of a cursed gem called The Snakestone, which travels through time causing havoc as it goes. But the books can be read in any order, or as standalones. Each reading experience will be different!
3. What inspired these stories about a plundered jewel, a curse and a mystery that begins in India?
I visited the Louvre Museum in Paris, where they have a very famous diamond called the Régent diamond that was mined in India and wound up in the French royal family. The gem is said to be cursed. That got me thinking of a cursed jewel, stolen from an Indian temple, winding up on the streets of Paris… and voilà, the first Snakestone story was born!
Interestingly, the Régent was not one of the valuable gems stolen in the Louvre heist in October 2025… perhaps the robbers were afraid of the curse?!!
4. How did you research the setting for The Golden Monkey Mystery, and what life would have been like in India at this time?
I read contemporary stories set in the time of the Raj, researched old maps and looked at art from the time. It was great fun to evoke the sights, sounds and smells of colonial India. However, it must be remembered that the book is not intended to be strictly historical, and that it contains magical and fantastical elements. I see the historical aspect as part of the mood/setting. It's not intended to be a strictly accurate work of historical fiction!
5. So how much of what we read about is based on reality? Does the golden monkey really exist, for example?
The Golden Monkey Mystery is based on 'real' elements - for example the stories of my ancestors in England and India, in particular my grandmother, who was an early Indian woman writer and feminist (there is more about her at the end of the book, in the Author's Note). The story of Roma and her struggle to be a doctor is based on that of the first Bengali woman to qualify as a doctor, Kadambini Ganguly.
On the other hand, there are magical and fantastical elements - made-up places and names, and the golden monkey itself is a fictional species based on the real, rare and endangered Golden Langur monkey of Assam. So, it is best to think of the book as a work of pure fiction/fantasy, inspired by factual events and people. Hopefully, it might inspire you to find out more!
6. Why did you decide on a jungle setting for this story, and how did you bring it to life for the reader? Is it based on places you are familiar with?
I really wanted to write an exciting jungle adventure, inspired by the classic jungle stories I read as a child (Kipling's Jungle Book, the adventures of Tarzan), but without the problematic aspects of those stories.
To bring it to life, I watched lots of videos and read up on the fauna and fauna of that world. The book is set in a fictional jungle, but to ground the setting in reality I based it on the Buxa Tiger Reserve in northern India. Most of the flora and fauna can be traced to this region.
7. There are clues and puzzles throughout the story - why did you want to include these, and what do they bring to a reading of the novel?
Puzzles are a recurring feature of the Snakestone series - the first book Secrets of the Snakestone included riddles. The Golden Monkey Mystery features visual puzzles and ambigrams, because I wanted to show how there are often many ways to look at a subject. Truth is often many-faceted, and sometimes you need to turn your thoughts upside down to find it!
8. In both the Golden Monkey Mystery and Secrets of the Snakestone, children discover that their fathers aren't quite who they thought they were. What would you like your readers to take from the characters' discoveries?
I think this feeds into the more general topic broached above in relation to puzzles, that is, that the world (and people) are never quite what they seem. Don't assume anything, and question everything! That is where true wisdom lies. I also think the revelations about the fathers (and mothers) in the book help children understand that their parents also are complex and many-faceted characters, which is perhaps one of the first major stages in the path to growing up.
9. What draws you back to writing about the stolen Snakestone? Do you have more adventures planned?
The story of the Snakestone is a perfect series concept, because it is both simple (the dramatic arc of the stolen stone), and yet timeless/many-layered. The possibilities of travelling in time back to the past and into the future are endless, because until the stone is returned to its rightful place (never?!!) - the story continues! It becomes effectively an extended exploration of colonialism and its ongoing consequences for the world.
10. What kinds of adventures make you happiest in real life?
I love fast-paced adventures with a superficially satisfying conclusion, but which niggle and torment you with questions and layers of unresolved questions afterwards. The books that refuse to let you go. That make you re-read them, like an endless puzzle. That is what I aspire to write.
Also by Piu DasGupta: Secrets of the Snakestone (Nosy Crow)
A stolen gemstone, a secret society and a girl seeking the truth about her missing father . . . Secrets of the Snakestone by debut author Piu DasGupta is a rich, fast-paced story set in the streets and catacombes of 19th century Paris, and with a backstory set in DasGupta's native India.
Read a Chapter from Secrets of the Snakestone and find out more from author Piu DasGupta in this short video:
The Golden Monkey Mystery (Secrets of the Snakestone)
Secrets of the Snakestone
