The Paperbackers

How do you write a James Bond novel? Take a suitably dashing and fearless hero,add a Rolex Oyster Perpetual to his wrist,a lady at his arm and another in his sight. Make him work for an organisation whose mission is to protect the Realm by any means necessary. Make the world face an imminent apocalyptic end,preferably by some foreign force. Throw in a villain by the name of Severan Hydt who revels in all things dead. Fire some guns,race a few expensive cars,let loose a bulldozer,ensure that the chase spans exotic locations and a 007 novel is ready and the movie version awaits. Jeffery Deavers Carte Blanche (Rs 499,Hachette) provides all these and a little more. It makes Bond a 21st century character who stays clear of the obvious sexism and racism of his 1950s avatar. He must save the world in six days and he does this with derring-do and some help from his iQphone (an advanced iPhone,naturally). Q,the head of the fictional research and development wing of the British Secret Service,has evolved into techie wizard Sanu Irani who is of Indian origin. Thus ensuring that the book is indeed very 21st century.

Deaver does a commendable job of resurrecting his childhood hero.

In The Redemption (Rs 350,Hachette),William Peter Blatty also takes the elements of a thriller torture,chases,battles,heroes and villains but throws in the supernatural for good measure. Blatty,author of The Exorcist,which also became one of the scariest movies of all time,knows best how to chill the soul with matters of demons and faith. The book opens in a police chamber in Albania 1973,where Blatty details accounts of torture on a man seemingly immune to pain. The prisoner ends up being an American agent called Dimiter,also known as the Agent of Hell. On the first page,the Interrogator asks him,Who are you? The rest of the novel,which then moves from Albania to a Jerusalem hospital,similarly explores this question. Who are these people who are getting cured in the hospital? Who is curing them? Who is behind them? The answers are not always found in this world,but in the next and in that vast expanse in the middle.