24 Patwardhan Cross. The solitary bone that surfaces in the garden there doesn’t mean much to police surgeon Dr Q or Inspector Savio. But Lalli, who collects curiosities, finds it curious. Things get curiouser when a dying gigolo whispers the address in terror, and curiouser still when a mummified finger with a chic manicure turns up in the same garden. Lalli might have ignored these curiosities had there not been a child at the heart of the matter. As she investigates what makes this garden grow, Lalli uncovers a gruesome tale.
Catagory: Crime, Thriller & Mystery
The Phoenix
NAME: Aryaman Khanna.
PROFILE: Ex-intelligence officer, Phoenix 5 division, Intelligence and Research Wing.
STATUS: Released from a high-security prison in Lakshadweep after serving a seven-year sentence for a botched counterterrorism operation led by Director General Amarjyot Bhushan.
KNOWN FAMILY: A mother, a son and a wife, who was attacked before she could publish an exposé about a bioweapon in her newspaper.
CURRENT LOCATION: Last seen heading to Mumbai in pursuit of his wife’s attackers and on a top-secret comeback mission.
MISSION: Foil the bioweapon strike an international terror group has been planning to carry out in Mumbai on the anniversary of 26/11.
The Phoenix tells a dystopian tale of espionage and global terror, of sleeper cells and double agents, of biological warfare and suicide attacks. But at its heart there’s a message of hope and one man’s love for his family and country.
The Runaways
AN EXPLOSIVE NEW NOVEL THAT ASKS DIFFICULT QUESTIONS ABOUT MODERN IDENTITY IN A WORLD ON FIRE
Anita Rose lives in a concrete block in one of Karachi’s biggest slums, languishing in poverty with her mother and older brother. Determined to escape her stifling circumstances, she struggles to educate herself, scribbling down English words-gleaned from watching TV or taught by her elderly neighbour-in her most prized possession: a glossy red notebook. All the while she is aware that a larger destiny awaits her.
On the other side of Karachi lives Monty, whose father owns half the city. But Monty wants more than fast cars and easy girls. When the rebellious Layla joins his school, he knows his life will never be the same again.
And far away in Portsmouth, Sunny fits in nowhere. It is only when he meets his charismatic, suntanned cousin Oz-whose smile makes Sunny feel found-that that he realizes his true purpose.
These three disparate lives will cross paths in the middle of a desert, a place where life and death walk hand-in-hand, and where their closely guarded secrets will force them to make a terrible choice.
A Burning
For readers of Tommy Orange, Yaa Gyasi, and Jhumpa Lahiri, an electrifying debut novel about three unforgettable characters who seek to rise-to the middle class, to political power, to fame in the movies-and find their lives entangled in the wake of a catastrophe in contemporary India
This is an electrifying debut novel about three unforgettable characters who find their lives entangled in the wake of a catastrophe. They seek to rise-to the middle class, to political power, to fame in the movies. One is Jivan, a Muslim girl from the slums accused of executing a terrorist attack on a train because of a careless comment on Facebook. The second is PT Sir, an opportunistic gym teacher who hitches his aspirations to a right-wing political party, only to find his own ascent linked to Jivan’s fall. And the third is Lovely, an irresistible outcast who has an alibi that can set Jivan free-but at the cost of everything she holds dear. Taut, symphonic, propulsive and riveting right from the outset, A Burning has the force of an epic while being so masterfully compressed that it can be read in a single sitting. Majumdar writes with dazzling assurance, at a breakneck pace, on complex themes that read as the components of a thriller: class, fate, corruption, justice and what it feels like to face profound obstacles while nurturing big dreams in a country spinning towards extremism.
Red Suits You
What if we don’t know our own dark secret?
A year after the horrifying death of his fiancé Kashika, Kanav Raghuwanshi finds himself in therapy struggling to move on. Anahita, his therapist cum confidante, tries her best to help him, but when Kanav starts to see unmistakable signs of Kashika’s reappearance all over the city, coupled with an unoccupied neighbouring flat that is the source of all things mysterious, Kanav enters a battle between his imagination and reality.
Meanwhile, Meenakshi, Kanav’s new love interest, is all set to steal his heart, until Kanav discovers she’s not who she says she is. In fact, it seems no one is who they say they are. Perhaps not even Kanav himself.
Red Suits You is a short psychological thriller by Novoneel Chakraborty that promises to keep you pinned to the edge of your seat.
Lost in Terror
Set in the backdrop of the uprising against the
armed forces in Kashmir in the late 1980s, Lost in Terror
is the tale of a young, educated, career-conscious woman
who finds herself sucked into a maelstrom of death and
destruction. She also cherishes the dream of Azadi and plays
strong to face the wrath of the security forces. But when she
uncovers her husband’s discreet links with gunmen who have
become obsessed with the dream of Azadi at the expense of
the family’s security, she becomes fragile and begins to lose
her hold on her home, her relationships and Azadi itself.
When her dreams for a perfect family and a thriving
career are turned upside down and her life comes to
a standstill, fate offers her a leap of faith-but will she take it?
Shekhar
On the night before he is to be hanged as a political prisoner, Shekhar finds himself drawn into a vortex of scattered memories–flashes of childhood angst and youthful love amidst days of high idealism and constant struggle against the British Raj. Enveloped by his past and wracked by a tumult of emotions, he muses on the philosophical questions that have consumed him and the ideological fervour that has led him to his inevitable fate. And as the appointed hour approaches, he must reconcile himself with who he has become and what he truly stands for.
Regarded as one of the most influential Hindi novels of all time, Shekhar powerfully reimagines the journey of an outspoken young underground revolutionary in pre-Independence India. This sparkling new translation brings to life the psychological acuity and literary richness of Agyeya’s most profound work.
Immortal
Professor Bharadvaj is more than just another whisky-loving, gun-toting historian-for-hire. Behind the assumed identity of a cynical academic is a man who has walked the earth for scores of years. He is Asvatthama-the cursed immortal, the man who cannot die.
When Professor Bharadvaj is approached by the enigmatic Maya Jervois to search for a historical artefact unlike any other, he is reluctant to pursue it. The object in question, the Vajra, is rumoured to possess incredible alchemical powers, but the Professor does not believe it exists. After all, he has spent many lifetimes-and identities-searching for it, in a bid to unearth the secret to his unending life.
Yet, as the evidence of the Vajra’s existence becomes increasingly compelling, the professor is plunged into an adrenaline-fuelled adventure that takes him from the labyrinthine passages beneath the Somnath temple to the legendary home of the siddhas in the Nilgiris, and finally into the deserts of Pakistan to solve a confounding puzzle left behind by the ancients.
But who is behind the dangerous mercenaries trying to thwart his discoveries at every step? And is the professor-a legendary warrior in a long-ago life-cursed to walk the path of death and bloodshed forever?
3
Early thirteenth century CE. The Srivijaya Empire, considered to be one of the world’s greatest maritime forces, has been abruptly left powerless in a swift political exchange.
With nothing but a meaningless crown, a once-lauded navy and the will to keep alive the name of Srivijaya against the endless onslaughts of old enemies and ambitious neighbours, Emperor Prabhu Dharmasena and his kin leave behind their island realm to traverse the seas, desperate and homeless. Sailing amongst them is Dharmasena’s youngest son, Nila Utama, for whom loyalty and honour have ceased to have meaning since he saw his father forsake their beloved land.
Now, all that is left to do is survive…
Or so Nila thinks, till a voyage across turbulent seas brings him to a fishing village, where the headstrong prince, so far insistent on keeping to the shadows, is forced to step up to his responsibility, face his old demons and discover what it truly means to be a king.
Based on the founding legend of the island of Singapore, also known as Singapura or the Lion City, 3 is an engrossing tale – told in an exquisitely rich voice – of love, self-realization and adventure on the high seas.
House of Stars
Kabir follows the most beautiful girl he has ever seen into a mall. But there are gunshots and screams as terrorists storm inside after fleeing an operation gone wrong. Kabir and Diya find themselves trapped, along with other hostages. The terrorists make their demands and announce that until they are met, one person will die every hour. The situation begins to spiral out of control.
Held hostage by fate, looking death in the face, it could be Kabir and Diya’s last chance at love. But, as they watch time run out, it turns out both of them are hiding secrets. Secrets that make their love even more impossible.