The Paperbackers

Teenage Carrie and New York summer; Theo Boone looks for clues in Facebook pages; and there is a murder in Bristol.

Lets admit it,youve watched Sex and the City and so have I. It is the television serial,the paperback book that we love to hate to preserve scholarly pretensions of any sort. Candace Bushnells Summer and the City (HarperCollins,Rs 299),like the title suggests,waxes on summer and such passing things rather than complicated matters of sex. It traces the journey of small-town Carrie in the labyrinths of New York,as she makes new friends (Samantha and Miranda) and falls for important men (Bernard Singer,the playwright).

This prequel reads like a Sex and the City for teens. Chanel bags are still aspirations and not acquisitions. Life as a writer is still an ambition and not a way of life. New York is still a destination and not yet home. Sex remains in the realm of theories over coffee. Readers might be a tad shocked to discover a hundred pages into the book that Carrie is yet to turn 18.

Okay,maybe a teenager can be excused for clichés like,Men suck,to prove a point about the opposite sex,and repetitions of Im going to be a writer even if it kills me. Is Carrie-the-teenager more interesting than Carrie Bradshaw-the-famous-New York-columnist? Im afraid not. Bushnell seems to have forgotten the coils and pains of youth. Carrie does not become young,just because she skips along New Yorks roads and because she is called Sparrow by her friends.

Story continues below this ad

The friendship between Carrie,Samantha and Miranda makes the characters somewhat real. They are still adjusting to each others quirk and edges,giving the book some soul.

John Grishams Theodore Boone series,also dwells on friendship between teenagers. While Grisham is best known for legal thrillers like The Firm (1991) and The Pelican Brief (1992),he has written two books about kid-lawyer Theodore Boone for young readers. The Abduction (Hachette,Rs 225) reminds you of stories in which the Famous Five drink apple cider in a tree house and solve mysteries on summer afternoons. Thirteen-year-old Theo whose parents are also lawyers must solve the disappearance of his best friend April. Set in the fictional small town of Strattenburg,where the traffic policeman knows the names of passing children,the book has a comforting old-world charm to it. Theo drinks milk,eats brownies and looks to Facebook and frat parties for clues that will lead to his friend. The children here are refreshingly identifiable.

Michael Robotham brings the action to the city of Bristol in the UK in Bleed for Me (Hachette,Rs 295). Joe OLoughlin,a clinical psychologist,investigates a murder,in which Sienna Hegarty is accused of killing her father. At the same time,his wife is involved in another seemingly separate investigation but the two plots bewilderingly come together.

While being a suspenseful thriller,Bleed for Me also delves into hidden psychologies and motivations. While unravelling a murder,it also looks at relationships and the drama of everyday life.