When Mimi Went Missing: A Debut YA Thriller

When Mimi Went Missing by debut author Suja Sukumar

Debut Author Interview + Book & Author Info + Author Pet Corner!

Don’t miss any Debut Author Interviews! Click the link here for more.

When Mimi Went Missing

The splintered relationship between two Indian American cousins is at the center of this dark, twisty YA mystery—perfect for fans of Tiffany D. Jackson, Karen McManus, and Angeline Boulley.

Shy, nerdy Tanvi has always thought of her perfect cousin Mimi as her sister. Not only did Mimi’s family raise Tanvi after the tragic death of her parents, fierce Mimi has always protected Tanvi at school. At least until Mimi fell under the spell of their flawless, rich classmate, Beth . . . Tanvi’s biggest bully. Fearing another terrible year, Tanvi decides to take a desperate, preemptive strike—and captures an incriminating photo of Mimi and Beth at a party. When Tanvi wakes up the next day with a bump on her head, scratches on her leg, and no memory of what caused her injuries, Mimi is gone.

Tanvi begins to fill the gaps in her memory and question Mimi’s friends and enemies, hoping to bring her cousin home. But when new evidence comes to light, the search for Mimi takes a dark turn as the cops announce that they are now hunting a murderer. Could Tanvi be the killer?

To save her family, Tanvi must revisit the worst night of her life and the darkest parts of her past to discover if she’s capable of murder—and the truth of what happened to Mimi.

To purchase When Mimi Went Missing, click the link here.

Interview with When Mimi Went Missing Author Suja Sukumar

When Mimi Went Missing, is a YA thriller. It’s also dark and action-packed. What are the elements you think a YA Thriller must have to engage teen readers, and is there a line you wouldn’t cross, with your target audience 13-18?

I would say the most important thing is to know what matters most to teens and to center those in your story.

It’s important to appreciate that they face real traumas and often do not have the support they need to protect themselves. For example, in When Mimi Went Missing, Tanvi was bullied cruelly and that trauma shapes much of her actions throughout the story. She also lost her parents early in life and that makes her fearful she’ll lose the family she has left.

But I also wanted to show the resilience teens have and how they find strength within themselves, even after facing unimaginable tragedy, to not only defend themselves but also their community.

The line I wouldn’t cross—I’ll find it very hard to write about any type of physical abuse of kids by adults. It happens, I know, but it’ll really hurt to write anything like that.

When Mimi Went Missing focuses on the relationship between two Indian American cousins. The girls’ relationship is rocky, and they are also struggling with the challenges of what it means to be a teenager in today’s world. What drew you to exploring family dynamics and bullying alongside the psychological intrigue required for this genre of crime fiction?

I’ve always been fascinated by how much family dynamics and external societal issues play a part in shaping peoples’ behavior patterns. Kids can learn empathy and kindness and tolerance from adults, or they can learn to be cruel, entitled, and selfish.

In Tanvi’s case, her behaviors were triggered by an unfortunate incident in her life, namely her parents’ murder suicide. She was a happy eight-year-old loved by both parents until her mom had a miscarriage. Suffering from paranoia, her mom killed her dad and then herself. This led Tanvi to fear she could’ve inherited her mom’s homicidal tendencies. Her fears also make her susceptible to cruel bullying by the kids at school.

So here you have a teen who believes she’s weak and flawed and even evil, and that belief is instilled in her by the bullies at her school. But when faced with losing her cousin, she realizes she must learn to fight for her family, and to do that she has to start believing in herself. This character arc—where she starts realizing who she really is—parallels the key plot arc of the investigation itself.

Tell us about where When Mimi Went Missing is set. How does the often insular world of teenage girls collide with the larger community?

When Mimi Went Missing is set in a fictional small town in Michigan.

I love small-town mysteries because while everyone seems to know everyone else, these small communities often carry the deepest secrets.

Tanvi’s school is a community by itself, where the popular clique exacts a steep price for perfection and popularity. Mimi (Tanvi’s cousin) is lured into this group with the promise of acceptance and ends up betraying Tanvi and fracturing their sisterhood. The larger community remains oblivious to the machinations of this popular clique—until Mimi vanishes and the investigation kicks in.

Tell us about your journey to publication for your debut novel:

This story started as an idea about ten years ago, and I wrote it between work and my kids’ extracurriculars. I was lucky enough to get into a mentorship program called Author Mentor Match where Dana Mele, author of People Like Us, mentored me.

Dana is an awesome writer, and she not only helped edit but also supported me through the querying process. In 2018, I took part in #DVPit and that was how I found my agent. We started the submission process in late 2019, but then Covid hit, and everything shut down. My editor from Soho Teen had initially passed on the story because they were closed, but in late 2021 she emailed with an offer saying she couldn’t get the story out of her mind. I signed my contract mid-2022 for a fall 2024 release.

When you aren’t penning YA thrillers, you’re a physician in suburban Detroit. How does your job impact your fiction? What’s it like to save lives in one part of your life, and think up creative ways to endanger them at your computer?

Haha, it’s so true when you put it like that! I probably should be more conflicted by these contrasting motivations. But the one iron clad rule I’ve stuck with is to keep my two worlds separate from each other.

When I’m working, my writer self shuts down and my sole motivation then is to take care of my patients. Within the walls of the clinic, what drives me is the entrenched reflex to spring to action if anyone is endangered. But on the same note, when I’m writing in my personal time, I tune my doctor reflexes out, and then my natural instincts for crime fiction kicks in. During that time, I’m devising psychological intrigues and ways for a killer to hide a body 😊

I love this answer!

What are you working on now?

A YA horror where an Indian American teen returns to her ancestral home in India to prove her mother’s innocence in a decades-old murder—and finds the house haunted by an undead creature who happens to be the murder victim.

It’s based on folklore from Kerala, my native state in India, and is about Yakshis, who are bloodthirsty vampires driven by vengeance.

Words of Wisdom for Aspiring Writers:

Write for yourself and not for the market. It sounds cliché, but this can be a long journey, and the market trends keep changing. I’ve found that the best part of this writing journey is the peace of mind and the joy from the writing itself.

Great advice!

Author Pet Corner!

My cat, Tiger, turned twenty this July. We adopted him from the local vet when he was six weeks old.

He’s an indoor cat, and very loving.

Here, in the picture, he’s sitting on my lap next to my laptop and devising ways to interrupt my writing 😊

Author of When Mimi Went Missing — Suja Sukumar

Suja Sukumar loves hanging out in coffee shops and Indian restaurants, drawing inspiration from naan and malai kofta, masala chai and lassi.

She is a senior staff physician at a health system in suburban Detroit, where she lives with her husband, two wonderful, beautiful kids, and an elderly cat.

She is also a member of SCBWI, ITW, Crime Writers of Color, and SINC and an alum of Author Mentor Match.

When Mimi Went Missing is her debut novel