ABSTRACT
A psychopathic killer is on the loose. Bodies are turning up in strange places. The police are developing elaborate theories but getting nowhere. And the killer has been given a catchy nickname-“The Pillowman.” To those familiar with Martin McDonagh’s works, this passage might seem a loose description of his 2003 play The Pillowman. It is, however, a sketch of an episode from Salman Rushdie’s 1999 novel, The Ground beneath Her Feet, in which a serial killer called Cyrus Cama is responsible for murders in Mysore, Bangalore, and Madras. Unable to “stand the anonymity” brought by his nickname, Rushdie’s Pillowman sends “a boastful letter to all the relevant police chiefs, incriminating himself while insisting that he would never be caught by such duffers as they” (136). He is later captured and incarcerated, but proves popular with his guards.1
