Paperback Sunday

1. The Traveller by John Twelve Hawks, published by Corgi Books, pp 608, Rs 550

2. Turning Angel by Greg Iles, published by Coronet Books, pp 512, Rs 450

3. Life Expectancy by Dean Koontz, published by Time Warner Books, pp 560, Rs 500

4. The Lighthouse by PD James, published by Penguin Books, pp 480, Rs 500

5. Bangkok Eight by John Burdett, published by Corgi Books, pp 448, Rs 550

What the books are about:

The Traveller

Sometimes — not very often — a debut novel comes along which marks out a new writer as a consummate craftsman, seemingly fully formed with that first book. The Traveller is such a book; the mysterious John Twelve Hawks is such a writer. The first thing that strikes the reader about this unusual novel is its ambitious panoply, which is as exuberantly international as one could wish, moving through a vividly realised Prague, London and Los Angeles. His characters are disparate but characterised with great individuality, such as the brothers Gabriel and Michael Corrigan, who have been brought up in Los Angeles under the mesmerising spell of their fey father; he appears to possess certain unnatural powers. After he dies a violent death, the brothers vanish off the grid of society, living in a clandestine underworld. Meanwhile, in London, Maya is a self-possessed young woman whose everyday life conceals a strange secret: she is the last of a dynasty whose responsibility is to protect those in the human race who are differently gifted...

Turning Angel

Rape and murder aren’t new to the Deep South, but when the body of a popular high school girl is found dumped in the local river, the whole town of Natchez, Mississippi is shocked. Penn Cage no longer practises law, but when his best friend Drew is accused of the murder and asks for help, Penn must face the hardest questions of his life: Can he defend Drew against the town, the police and overwhelming evidence? Or could it be true that his friend is a brutal killer who has deceived Penn and everyone else?

Life Expectancy

In the dazzling new thriller from the master of dark suspense, the hand of fate reaches out to touch an ordinary man with greatness. So long as he is ready. So long as he is, above all, afraid. Jimmy Tock comes into the world on the very night his grandfather leaves it. As a violent storm rages outside the hospital, Rudy Tock spends long hours walking the corridors between the expectant fathers’ waiting room and his dying father’s bedside. It’s a strange vigil made all the stranger when, at the very height of the storm’s fury, Josef Tock suddenly sits up in bed and speaks coherently for the first and last time since his stroke. What he says before he dies is that there will be five dark days in the life of his grandson — five dates whose terrible events Jimmy will have to prepare himself to face. The first is to occur in his 20th year; the second in his 23rd year; the third in his 28th; the fourth in his 29th; the fifth in his 30th. Rudy is all too ready to discount his father’s last words as a dying man’s delusional rambling. But he discovers Josef also predicted the moment of his grandson’s birth to the minute, as well as his height, weight, and the fact that Jimmy would be born with syndactyly — the unexplained anomaly of fused digits on his left foot.

The Lighthouse

Combe Island, off the Cornish coast, has a bloodstained history of piracy and cruelty but now, privately owned, it offers respite to over-stressed men and women in positions of high authority who require privacy and guaranteed security. But the peace of Combe is vilated when one of the distinguished visitors is bizarrely murdered. Adam Dalgliesh is called in to solve the mystery quickly and discreetly, but at a difficult time for him and his depleted team, who all have worries of their own. Hardly have the team began to unravel the mystery when there is a second brutal killing and the investigation is jeopardised when Dalgliesh is faced with a potentially fatal danger... This powerful novel combines all the elements PD James fans have come to expect: a vivid evocation of place, sensitive characterisation and a superbly structured plot.

Bangkok Eight

In surreal Bangkok, city of temples and brothels, where Buddhist monks in saffron robes walk the same streets as world-class gangsters, a US marine sergeant is killed inside a locked Mercedes by a maddened python and a swarm of cobras. Two policemen — the only two in the city not on the take — arrive too late. Minutes later, only one is alive. The cop left standing, Sonchai Jitpleecheep, is a devout Buddhist and swears to avenge the death of his partner and soul brother. To do so he must use the forensic techniques of the modern policing and his own profound understanding of the mystical workings of the spirit world. Both will be vital as he immerses himself in the moneyed underbelly of Bangkok — where desire rules and where he will eventually find the killer, a predator of an even more sinister variety...

Information courtesy: UNITED BOOKS, Ganesh Man Singh building, Northfield Cafe ph: 4229 512; Bluebird stores in Lazimpat & Tripureshwore, ph: 4245 726; Momo’s and More, Old Baneshwor; Himalayan Java; Saturday Cafe, Bouddha; Namaste Supermarket in Pulchowk, ph: 5525 017