The Paperbackers

The twist in the tale is that these victims are themselves giggling monsters paedophiles whove been snared in chatrooms. And it is up to the London Metropolitan Police,and the books singularly unsympathetic heroine,DI Stacey Collins,to find the bloodthirsty baiter. There is much dwelling on grey ooze seeping from headless bodies,and blowflies buzzing merrily around ragged tissue that hangs like shredded curtains. But real fans of forensic thrillers,for whom 360-degree veering of plots produces as sickening a thrill as descriptions of scalpels crunching through bone,will soon tire of the plodding expository dialogue,studious references to real-life killers and agonisingly slow plot turns.

The Increment Quercus,

Rs 299 may not reek of blood and decomposed tissue,but the blurb promises that it reeks of authenticity. David Ignatius,the author,is a longtime Washington Post journalist in the Middle East,and every last keenly observed detail from his stint with them in Iran contributes to this verisimilitudinous reek like pedestrians skittering like waterbugs across a North Tehran pavement,the latest in indie Persian music and bad hijab fashion,and neon signs for Nokia and Hyundai winking alongside banners of martyrs.

Wending his way through it all is an iPod-toting,MacBook-owning young scientist,who offers to share details of a top-secret nuclear programme with Harry Pappas,head of the CIAs Iran desk. To draw him in,Pappas enlists the aid of the Increment,a shadowy,elite group of covert operatives. But there are surprises along the way; the biggest of them being wildcard hitman Al-Majnoun,the Crazy One,whose face is like a haphazard Etch-a-Sketch due to successive plastic surgeries on-the-fly.

Shape-shifting is no mundane man-made affair for Carter and Sadie Kane,siblings and heroes of the keenly awaited,young adult sensation The Red Pyramid Puffin,Rs 350 by Rick Riordan. During a trip to the British Museum with their Egyptologist father,they discover they are godlings,descendents of pharaohs who get temporarily possessed by Egyptian deities. In the same eventful evening,the Rosetta Stone shatters,releasing Set,the Egyptian God of Chaos,who imprisons their father in a golden coffin.

Accompanied by ancient papyrus scrolls and clay companions that come to life to guide them,the duo set off on a quest to defeat Set,shape-shifting into various animals as they teleport themselves between London,Paris,Cairo and Phoenix. They may be demigods and magicians but theyre still siblings,slinging tart retorts alongside ancient spells. Like Carter,who says,My sister,with her ratty red-highlighted hair8230; what goddess would possess her,except maybe the goddess of chewing gum? Be warned,your little demigod will soon magick this book out of you.