WRITER
A struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin (could be me, if I didn’t have a day job), Lowen, gets the opportunity of a lifetime to finish the remaining novels in the series of a successful writer, Verity. A car accident rendered Verity paralyzed, leading her husband Jeremy to hire Lowen. Not a bad idea (GRRM can consider), but it involves tremendous effort on the part of the new author, with an equally big reward.
“The Girl in the Glass Case” is the second book by author Devashish Sardana. Set in present-day Bhopal, this crime-thriller traces the journey of two serial killers – The Clipper, a veteran, one of the nation’s most notorious for the past few years; The Doll Maker, new on the scene but an elaborate showman (rather show-woman), who hogs all the limelight away from the former.
‘Four and Twenty Black Birds’ is a historical fiction by author Godfrey Joseph Pereira, chronicling the life and adventures of a Charlie Strongbow – an Englishman who refused to leave India when it won independence from the British. Charlie had never been the England, India was all he knew as home. Along with his colleagues from Victoria Docks, who had their own reasons to stay back in India, they did what they do best – crime.
‘Silvervägen’ is a Swedish novel by Stina Jackson which is translated into English by Susan Beard and titled ‘The Silver Road’. The translation is excellent and I wasn’t aware that it was one until after I finished reading it!
The silver road is where Lelle dropped his daughter—Lina, three years ago. Lina was supposed to board the bus, but she never did. And no one found her or heard from her after that. Lelle spends the nights driving down the silver road, investigating the people and properties around it, and bugging the police.
‘City of Jackals’ is the fifth book (a standalone read) in the Makana Investigation series by Parker Bilal (pseudonym of Jamal Mahjoub). The year is 2005. Large number of Sudanese are protesting in the middle of Cairo, Egypt, demanding a permanent refugee status. The government, elected with a suspicious 88% of the votes, has the riot police on stand-by with no interest in talking with the protestors. The rest of Cairo is divided between sympathizing with and antagonizing them. But both the groups are certain about one thing: it’s going to get very ugly, very soon.
‘You Beneath Your Skin’ is a confusing title, for starters. You have to read the blurb to ensure that it’s not a self-help book. Published by Simon & Schuster India, Damyanti Biswas’s debut novel is a literary crime fiction, set against a backdrop of a string of murders across the city of New Delhi, where slum women are found stuffed in body bags with their faces disfigured by acid (a hint to the title).
For those of you who may be unaware, Jerry Pinto is a Mumbai based prolific author. He was well known for his poetry and his writings on Mumbai and Bollywood, until his debut fiction ‘Em and the Big Hoom’ bagged four major awards, including Government of India’s Sahitya Akademi Award and Yale University’s Windham-Campbell Literature prize. I haven’t read that book (yet) and I’m glad for I could come to ‘Murder in Mahim’ without all that baggage.
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