How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder by Nina McConigley

The British are Coming (to Kill Your Uncle)

It’s the summer of 1986 in Wyoming, and the teenage Creel sisters have just gotten away with murder.

When Georgie Ayyar and Agatha Krishna’s uncle dies abruptly, no one suspects foul play. At first glance, Georgie and Agatha’s lives at home and school both seem completely normal. Only the sisters know what’s really been happening, including the terrible things their uncle did to seal his fate. In Nina McConigley’s debut novel, How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder, themes of girlhood, gender-based violence, and colonialism are explored through a story that reads like a half murder confession, half journal entry.

While Georgie’s father is frequently away for work, her uncle, aunt, and cousin have recently immigrated from India and live at Georgie’s home, where both Georgie and her cousin experience sexual violence at the hands of their uncle Vinny. Georgie and her sister, Agatha, fear that if they tell anyone about their uncle, he––along with their aunt and cousin––will be forced to move back to India. Feeling like there is no other option, they decide to kill him.

The girls spend the summer slowly poisoning Vinny by adding antifreeze to his daily consumption of Mountain Dew. After Vinny dies, Georgie is anxious not only because they might get caught for their crime, but also because of her deteriorating relationship with her sister. They don’t even discuss the abuse they’ve experienced from Vinny with each other, which creates a fissure between the sisters. The distance between the girls shows another consequence of Vinny’s violence, one that he doesn’t even notice.

All of this is revealed through Georgie’s stream of consciousness, along with personality quizzes and the fourth-wall breaking, where Georgie/McConigley confronts the reader with questions related to the themes of the novel. Particularly, Georgie’s belief that the murder she and her sister committed is the ultimate result of colonialism and settler violence. While Georgie sees her uncle as culpable for his actions, she also discusses colonialism’s impact on him and the rest of their family. She juxtaposes Indians (people from India) and Indians (Indigenous/Native Americans) throughout the novel to illustrate how non-White people have been “othered” by America.

I really enjoyed Nina McConigley’s mainstream adult debut with How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder, as I found the teens funny, relatable, and blunt––particularly our narrator, Georgie.

I appreciated McConigley’s care and approach to handling sexual assault in the novel. Additionally, Georgie simultaneously confesses to the crime while explaining the context behind it, which enhances the pacing of the novel. I'd recommend this to fans of literary fiction, particularly those with a mystery/thriller bent.

How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder was published on January 20, 2026, by Pantheon Books.

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