Velvetpur Noir: Volume 1

About This Book

About the Collection

Velvetpur Noir: Volume 1 introduces readers to the City of Dreams—a coastal megacity where Bollywood glamour masks systemic corruption, where entertainment money fuels political power, and where secrets are the most valuable currency.

Six Interconnected Stories

Each story in this collection stands alone but shares the same universe. Characters from one story appear in others. Events reference each other. Locations recur. By the end, you'll understand how Velvetpur works—and why no one escapes unchanged.

The Audition opens the collection by showing an outsider's perspective: Maya Kapoor, a struggling actress desperate for her big break, attends a private audition that becomes a nightmare. When she witnesses something horrific, she must decide between her dreams and her conscience.

Last Call takes us to The Blue Hour, Marine Drive's elite bar where celebrities unwind. Arjun Mehta, the bartender who's seen everything, faces an impossible choice when a regular patron confesses to murder during last call.

The Ghostwriter connects entertainment to politics explicitly. Aditya Shukla, a speechwriter for a "reformer" politician, discovers his boss's anti-corruption campaign is funded by dirty money. Speaking truth could cost him everything.

Opening Night explores generational corruption through Roop Talkies, Velvetpur's oldest cinema facing demolition. When a body is discovered on the theatre's final night, buried secrets spanning 70 years come to light.

The Comeback follows Karan Mehra, a disgraced director getting one last chance to make a film. But someone from his past is sabotaging his comeback—and the truth is far worse than the public scandal.

Election Night brings everything together. As election results come in at a luxury hotel, a young activist investigating fraud is found dead. Multiple characters from previous stories converge for an explosive finale that exposes Velvetpur's power structure.

The Velvetpur Universe

Velvetpur is a fictional South Asian metropolis—the entertainment capital of the fictional nation of Aaryavarta. It's inspired by real places but exists in its own noir universe where:

• The film industry is the second largest in the world
• Money flows between entertainment, politics, and organized crime
• Corruption is systemic but hidden behind glamorous facades
• Silence is survival, and speaking truth is dangerous

The city itself is a character: golden sunset light through humid air, art deco buildings alongside glass towers, traffic chaos mixing with street food near luxury cars, paparazzi culture everywhere.

Themes

Each story explores moral complexity in a corrupt system:

• Price of Dreams: What are you willing to sacrifice for success?
• Complicity: How victims become participants in the system
• Power and Exploitation: Who protects predators and why
• Silence vs. Voice: The cost of speaking truth, the cost of staying silent
• Survival: Making impossible choices in desperate situations

For Readers Who Enjoy

• Noir fiction with international settings
• Morally complex characters and gray choices
• Interconnected story collections (like Martian Chronicles)
• Behind-the-scenes celebrity culture
• Political thrillers with systemic corruption
• Dark, atmospheric mystery

Author's Note

Velvetpur Noir is a personal creative project—no pressure to monetize, just pure storytelling. I'm writing these stories to explore noir themes in a fresh setting, to create flawed characters facing impossible choices, and to build a fictional universe that feels lived-in and real.

If you enjoy dark thrillers, morally ambiguous protagonists, and stories that don't provide easy answers, welcome to Velvetpur. The City of Dreams is waiting.

— Lauri Matthew