In 1936, in only his tenth outing, Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay, wanted to retire Byomkesh. The books are written in classical Bengali, with a mood of noir - fast, gripping, uncompromising in their portrayal of violence or lust, with touches of wry humour.
The stories are chronicled by Ajit, a writer who meets Byomkesh in Satyanweshi. The first story appeared in print in 1932. He is shown with bushy eyebrows which end up almost as unibrow, a vast forehead and a gutting jaw. He is mostly portrayed as lean, lanky and a tall gentleman who minds his manners. He also has a solid grasp over Bengali literature and a working knowledge of the Sanskrit classics from which both he and Ajit quote freely. He is a sympathizer of the bengali refugees during the partition of India. He has no musical ear to speak of but, like many modern young Bengalis of the time, a passion for football. Where he stands out from other legendary detectives like Poirot or Sherlock Holmes is that he is more concerned with truth than with law as evidenced from his cases where he lets the perpetrator die by manipulating the circumstances using their own methods as a redemption and deliverance of justice for victim in absence of evidence as in Balak Jasoos, Ret Ka Daldal and few other cases.īyomkesh's only addictions are smoking and tea.
Unlike many other fictional detectives, Byomkesh ages, marries, has a son, starts a publishing firm with his assistant-come-chronicler Ajit (he makes a more stable income from this than from his seeking of the truth), buys a house in South Calcutta, and ponders buying a car for his wife Satyabati (note that "satya" occurs here again). He preferred the term satyanweshi, meaning seeker of truth.