If you love stories about man-eating tigers, leeches, and tribal wars, the Vanam series is for you. Books like Naga Vanam and Mrugaya offer some of the best descriptions of Indian wildlife ever written in Malayalam.

While digital versions of older Malayalam pulp fiction can sometimes be hard to find, here are the best legitimate avenues to explore:

For the uninitiated, Pushpanath wasn’t just a writer; he was a phenomenon. Dubbed the "Prince of Speed" for his rapid-fire prose and breakneck plotting, he authored over 600 crime and spy thrillers. His most famous creations—Detective , Muller , and Maya Machhindranath —were the Indian answer to James Bond and Sherlock Holmes, but with a desi swagger that involved local politics, exotic locations, and gadgets that felt futuristic for the 1980s.