The Paperbackers

As the book,another Scandinavian crime fiction,begins,Detective Morck8217;s promising career is on the brink as he anticipates a termination. Instead he is banished to the basement in charge of a new department called Q. Its he who will fight the corruption in the policing system and attempt to find the sought-after and lusted-over Lynggaard who disappeared five years ago. Readers will,however,be won over by Assad,the detectives new assistant,a Muslim with a meticulously organised and attractive book collection and is more of a page-turner. Set in Copenhagen,against the rich Danish tapestry of right-wing politicians,poverty and crime,Mercy looks at outcasts,misfits and the psychoses of the mentally deranged.

Supernatural levitation,crystal balls and bloodsucking makes way for yoga classes,Wikipedia and oysters in Deborah Harknesss A Discovery of Witches Hachette,Rs 499. It is essentially a frill-less fantasy,an attempt to humanise the dark arts and sorcery. It attempts to answer a couple of questions: How would witches exist today? Where would they converge?

Set in Oxford,revolving around the vast Bodleian Library,Diana Bishop,a 17th century historian,comes across a book,Ashmole 782. This is no ordinary book; its a palimpsest that lets out a soft sigh. Bishop is torn should she,a witch herself,use her powers or should she read it like a human? Lurching behind are some who believe the book contains answers to why we are here,others believe it has answers to immortality even. Enter the love interest,a hot vampire,more than 1,500 years old,a doctor of neuroscience,who too is after Ashmole 782.

A Discovery of Witches is a 592-page endurance test that at most leaves the reader educated about a time when astrology and witch-hunts yielded to Newton and Universal laws.

Reading Tudor inheritance law during the erratic reign of Henry VIII is simply no fun but C.J. Sansom has a way with words. In Heartstone Pan,Rs 299,he entices the reader to an adventure across England as it readies for war with France.

The hunchbacked lawyer Matthew Shardlake is favoured by the queen du jour Catherine Parr,but knocked upon by the king. He is sent on an assignment to right the wrongs of a young ward. The son of the queens lady-in-waiting has committed suicide after filling a Bill of Information alleging foul play in the Court of Wards. Inexplicable deaths and a subplot involving Bedlam inmate Ellen Fettiplace make this a fast-paced read. The real punch is saved for the last when Shardlake is hauled on board the kings warship Mary Rose.