The Paperbackers

A fortnightly look at brisk sellers and quick reads. A masterpiece goes missing,a billionaires wife goes from penthouse to prison,and a pack of malformed dragons goes in search of their mythic home

Paperback potentate Sidney Sheldons demise in 2007 left many a bedside table bereft of startlingly beautiful heroines,diamonds,villas,rape,murder,mafias and nakedness. Tilly Bagshawe compensates with three years worth of these Sheldonesque thrills in Sidney Sheldons After the Darkness (Harper,Rs 250). Lithe,blonde,and,of course,startlingly beautiful,Grace Bernstein leads a wildly luxurious life as the wife of hedge-fund billionaire Lenny Bernstein. Until his mysterious death and the crash of his fund deal a fatal blow to its blue-collar investors and the market. Grace,whos then seen as a Manhattan Marie Antoinette,finds herself bitterly vilified,and then in maximum security prison,which she escapes to prove her innocence.

The book speaks the melodramatic language of mini-series. Lenny is drawn to Grace because he wants to hold that innocence in his hand. To own it. She gushes,on seeing their Nantucket getaway: The house is enormous. Almost as big as your heart,my darling. And,like a heroine in a Bollywood dance routine surrounded by fish-faced extras in ill-fitted scales,the women who surround Grace are trashy,tawdry,and morally bankrupt. Her two sisters could be called Goneril and Regan,while the others are equally fearsome creatures: Cruella de Vils and bauble whores trussed up in red Dior lipstick and silicone,with nipples like rotting mushrooms.

If you like your fearsome creatures quaint and medieval,you might try The Dragon Keeper (by Robin Hobb,HarperCollins,Rs 325). Hobbs previous Liveship trilogy played with ideas about the social costs of our servitude to technology and trade,through (since this is fantasy) talking ships and dragon cocoons. In this one,the dragons are no majestic,celestial creatures,but weak,damaged misfits. Driven out,the hatchlings decide to go in search of their ancient home,Kelsingra,and they find two misfits a self-taught dragon scholar and a tree-dwelling mutant to accompany them on their perilous journey.

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The journey is transatlantic rather than mythic in The Rembrandt Affair by Daniel Silva (Penguin,Rs 499),but its no less perilous. When an art restorer is brutally killed and a Rembrandt stolen,a London art dealer urges Gabriel Allon,Israeli assassin and art restorer,to track down the painting. Sometimes the best way to find a painting is to discover where its been, Allon declares to his Italian wife Chiara.

This takes them to Amsterdam to meet the Holocaust survivors from whom the painting was stolen in Auschwitz,and then Buenos Aires,and finally,to a villa on the shores of Lake Geneva. The original misdeed can be traced to its owner,Swiss billionaire Martin Landesmann,whose banker father made an untold fortune allowing the Nazis to stash away their misbegotten wealth and art. Here,they appeal to the conscience and amateur espionage services of Zoe Reed,a beautiful financial journalist and sometime mistress of the billionaire.

As you tot up your own air miles,this book,which flits between Paris and London,Tel Aviv and Geneva,is a fittingly well-travelled travel companion.

SP leader Azam Khan walks out of jail after 23 months, hundreds of supporters welcome him

Cities23 min ago

Senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan, who is facing multiple cases, walked out of the Sitapur jail today after 23 months. He was scheduled to be released early Tuesday morning, but it was delayed due to impending court proceedings. Hundreds of supporters gathered outside the Sitapur jail, waiting for the SP leader to walk out of prison.

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