How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder

A fierce and marvelous book with an utterly unique, brightly burning lifeforce

Maggie Shipstead, author of GREAT CIRCLE

Nina McConigley is a true original. With a wit so sharp that it makes you bleed as soon as it would make you laugh, she slices through the postcolonial dilemma with all of its complexities and absurdities. Heart-mending and heart-breaking - as only the truth can be

Tayari Jones, author of AN AMERICAN MARRIAGE

I have been waiting for Nina McConigley's debut novel for years and it's even better than I could have imagined. How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder takes all the expected stories about growing up Indian American, slices them open with razor-sharp wit, and turns them inside out. A moving portrayal of sisterhood and a much-needed examination of how power is abused - over girls, over countries, over cultures - and the possibilities, and costs, of reclaiming that power

Celeste Ng, author of OUR MISSING HEARTS

Part thriller, part coming-of-age, part magazine quiz, Nina McConigley's inventive and captivating How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder boldly examines the often hidden and scary parts of childhood. Full of heart and soul, this is a knockout work that deftly tackles the complex bonds of friendship and family - offering up compelling questions for our notions of what it means to truly love

Aimee Nezhukumatathil, author of WORLD OF WONDERS

Spirited and witty, stylish and audacious, How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder is gorgeously in possession of itself. Its avid curiosity about the world, its alertness to history, and its enormously fun storytelling - with a twist at the end - held me in their spell

Megha Majumdar, author of A BURNING

Witty and ultimately profound . . . McConigley blends the macabre material with clever stylistic devices . . . This thrilling bildungsroman is perfect for fans of Celeste Ng

Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Framed like a funny, ferociously allusive grown-up version of a YA whodunit, McConigley's debut novel carries deeper, knottier mysteries than the curious crime at its center. Wittily observant and achingly tender

Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Refreshing . . . In addition to describing growing up Indian American in 1980s Wyoming, McConigley's debut novel artfully shares universalizing details of Georgie's and Agatha's everyday lives, like cheerleading and watching TV . . . McConigley's impactful work will linger. Interspersed with details of the U.S. in the late 20th century, this is a book for all collections

Library Journal (starred review)

How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder is the story of a fractured family and a portrait of an era and place, but it is also a deeply thoughtful meditation on the lingering effects of colonial violence . . . The Ayyars, the Creels, the working-class Wyoming families, the displaced Arapahoe - all of them are hurt by colonial violence, a legacy claiming that might is right and one that inserts itself even in seemingly innocuous situations. McConigley offers no easy answers or neatly wrapped solutions, but some wisps of hope emerge . . . [A] wise, insightful novel

Washington Post

A playfully experimental novel detailing how two out-of-place half-Indian sisters, Georgette Ayyar and Agatha Krishna Creel, living in mid-'80s Wyoming decide to poison their sexually abusive uncle. But the tone of the book is lighter than it sounds. McConigley slowly unravels its central promise - or threat - with patience and a dedication to scene-setting, carefully undercutting its lightness and humor with the macabre as she goes

Vulture

A vivid portrait of an extended family, a moving story of sisterhood, and a playful ode to the 80s - all packaged as a murder mystery (of sorts)

People

For the sisters in Nina McConigley's debut novel, How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder, their intimacy ebbs and flows as the strain of trauma both brings them together and wedges them apart . . . McConigley has captured a unique narrative experience and shared it with an equally unique voice

Chicago Review of Books

[A] striking debut . . . Set against the crushing legacy of British colonialism and the isolation of life as a racial minority in rural America, McConigley's book interrogates sisterhood, otherness, and culpability in this coming-of-age tale

Bustle

Cleverly twisted . . . McConigley manages to both create a spot-on coming-of-age story and offer a close look at the pitfalls of growing up in the American West in the 1980s

The Center for Fiction

Full of wit and wisdom, Nina McConigley unconventionally captures the intricacies of postcolonialism, and how they play out in the lives of everyday Americans

Ms. Magazine

A love letter to the 1980s as a tragic reminder of the vulnerability of young girls

Elle

A tale of girlhood, and sisterhood, and all the ways a family bond can fracture. [The] narration is wry and sharp, often speaking directly to the reader, and in this way, we are forced to reckon with her choices as if they were our own. How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder is the kind of book that is difficult to describe, but so very easy to recommend

TODAY

A delightful read. McConigley's prose is sublime, and her storytelling is equally imaginative

Foreign Policy

Daring . . . How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder packs the kind of gut punch that leaves a reader breathless

Alta, 'Split Self, Split Sisters'

A witty and ultimately profound tale

The Millions

Fiercely original . . . Audacious and quirky . . . A striking exploration of identity, belonging, and inherited trauma . . . McConigley brings a fresh, fearless voice to the page . . . Powerful in all the ways a story should be

Goop

This compulsive literary thriller uncovers a long-standing familial and historical collective violence, delivered with an incredible satisfying twist. Nina McConigley is daring and incredibly witty in her debut novel

The Culture Newspaper

Darkly witty

Denver Life

A bold, darkly clever novel . . . with a wickedly sharp voice that blends teenage reality with biting social observation

Loaded Magazine

Playful yet cutting, silly but also deadly serious . . . The narrator lays out what an average American reader reader of fiction by an Indian-American woman might expect: mangoes and saris and magical realism and colonialism . . . British imperialism and American imperialism become so entangled that India's independence in 1947 resulted in a 'new line that scalped the country' Everything is connected and we are all implicated, and in this mire Georgie must figure out how to live 'a good life in spite of

Maris Review

McConigley confronts post-colonialism with a novel full of twists . . . [How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder] spans the experiences of biracial Asian Americans, rural white life, and the intricacies of South Asian Indian and American Indian identity complexes . . . [A] bold and unique contribution to post-colonial literature

Brown Girl Bookshelf

Punchy, bold, honest . . . McConigley cleverly blends the thrill of a murder novel with the tragedy of real life, creating a story that feels wholly unique . . . With vivid characters who stand tall upon the pages and evoke emotions that go straight to the gut . . . A standout novel

Zimmer Magazine

Genre-defying . . . Direct, quirky, sometimes playful, even when it's talking about the pain . . . McConigley isn't giving you clean answers or easy solace, she's giving you texture. The laughter that bubbles up alongside the sorrow, the comic relief that sits right alongside the trauma, the inexplicable draw of belonging and not belonging at the same time . . . A taut, funny, tragic and fresh approach to how lives are lead - the messiness of it all, how families are all over the world, the guilt we live with, the redemption we seek, the wounds we hide, and how we ultimately heal

Hungry Reader

Fierce, funny . . . McConigley's coming-of-age story tackles weighty themes with the lightest of touches . . . A compelling story of sisterhood and survival, it also ponders the legacies of stolen lives, lands and culture

Daily Mail

McConigley's nervy debut . . . [takes] unexpected turn[s]

Alta, ‘The Best New Books for 2026’

Praised for her 'razor-sharp wit,' McConigley takes a story about what it means to be Indian American and flips it on its head, dealing with issues of British colonialism, generational abuse, and life out West during the 1980s

Story Exchange

Set in the late 1980s and exploring the impacts of colonization and immigration, this fierce portrait of sisterhood is ultimately a life-affirming tale

Real Simple

Lyrical and surprisingly humorous . . . A story about the all-too-fragile bonds between sisters and the near-universal awkwardness of finding one's place while coming of age

Book Reporter

A bracing story of abuse and protection bolstered by virtuosic writing that is simultaneously spare and poetic, subtle and brutal . . . Addictive and formidable, Nina McConigley's novel demands to be devoured in a single sitting but will stay on your mind long after you put it down

BookPage (starred review)