The Paperbackers

The world is divided into those who have read JRR Tolkien and Philip Pullman and those who haven’t. Among the ones who have are writers who have spawned a whole load of fantasy fiction that borrows from The Lord of the Rings and His Dark Materials,only to add ‘new’ and ‘improved’ horrors. In American writer Paul Hoffman’s first fantasy novel,The Left Hand of God (Penguin,Rs 499) the darkness is located in the Sanctuary of Redeemers,a prison for young boys. They’re looked after,or not,by the Lord Redeemers who are preparing the boys for a war against the Antagonists. Our protagonist,young Thomas Cale accidentally witnesses the Lord of Discipline torturing a young girl. The Lord spots him and to save himself from punishment,Cale kills him. He’s on the run and the book follows him to an imaginary city. The 437-page book will either scare you or make you chuckle.

Speaking of running,in the start of Jon Stock’s Dead Spy Running (HarperCollins,Rs 250),Daniel Marchant,a suspended MI6 agent is participating in the London marathon. Running alongside is Pradeep,a man strapped with explosives,and a detonator that will go off if he drops his speed. The man is from India and,perhaps,so is the terror plot. Marchant then travels to Delhi with a fellow spy Leila.

Spies make for the best stories,and if they are true stories,what more could you ask for? The Times columnist Ben Macintyre tells us the real story behind WWII’s best-kept secret in Operation Mincemeat: The True Spy Story That Changed The Course of World War II (Bloomsbury,12.99 pounds). It is 1943 and the Allied troops have landed in Sicily. Hitler has been fooled into believing that the enemy would attack Greece and Sardinia,leaving Sicily unguarded and ripe for invasion. How was Hitler deceived and without a major body count? A dead body has all the answers.