The Spider is a fantastic evocation of communal violence in India seen through the prism of family. That sounds like many Indian novels but at its heart, the relationship between a Bengali hitman father and his son who is being broken into the family business with all expected and unexpected attendant cruelties is a great reflection of where India is at in the age of autocracy and cut throat politics. This short novel is also extremely well written, I plowed through it in one setting.
A tale of mercenaries and myths, set amid the political turmoil of Bengal.
In the largely undocumented sphere of political violence in eastern India, Qadir the Spider is a mythological killer and casanova, known for the various assassinations and liaisons he carries out across the region. His oldest son Rahim is the latest entry to the field. A 13-year-old killer, the boy bides his time like his father-killing, farming, and getting high as the battles go on around him. In this world where they only follow orders, mutilation becomes their only expression, the nature of violence their only meaningful form…
The House on Gordon Place is a crime novel with two time lines - one set in today's London, the other in Vienna after World War 2. The story revolves around a house in central London where a murder takes place. A resident historian is tasked with solving the crime and as he investigates, he realises that all the other apartments in the house are inhabited by former MI5 agents or their off spring. All of this leads back to Vienna post 1945, The Third Man's Vienna, to be precise, because author Karina Urbach discovered a connection between the British security services and the making of the famous Graham Greene penned movie. Fascinating stuff.
Ein Mord in Londons teuerster Wohngegend, Spionage im Wien der Nachkriegszeit und ein berühmter Filmdreh als Tarnung
Ausgezeichnet mit dem deutschen Krimipreis 2024
Wien, 1948: Daphne Parson, eine britische MI6-Agentin, arbeitet in einem Abhörtunnel unterhalb der geteilten Stadt. Um unbemerkt in den sowjetischen Sektor Wiens zu gelangen, schließt sie sich einer Filmcrew an. Eine Mission, die tödliche Konsequenzen hat.
London, 2024: Der Historiker Professor Hunt lebt in Daphne Parsons ehemaliger Wohnung am Gordon Place. Als hier ein Mord geschieht, beginnt für Hunt eine verstörende Reise in die Vergangenheit.
Ein verwobenes Spiel auf mehreren Zeitebenen, basierend auf wahren Begebenheiten.
This fictional memoir by the infamous one-legged pirate from Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island is not for children. Silver was one of the first fully formed ambiguous characters in western literature. He was a bad guy with good qualities and a working class hero rebelling against the British upper classes. This is his hilarious, brutal account of his life. I found it endlessly inspiring and it helped make me the pirate I am today.
The true and eventful History of my Life of Liberty and Adventure as a Gentleman of Fortune and Enemy to Mankind.
What ever happened to Long John Silver, the enigmatic, treacherous and yet attractively subversive pirate whose exploits made him the anti-hero of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island? He lived out his twilight years on Madagascar, rich, one-legged and attended by a handful of devoted slaves whose freedom he had purchased in the West Indies by inciting them to rebellion.
That he had a price on his head and the Navy out looking to bring him to justice bothered him…
In 1992, mechanic Peter Hauser and two friends bought three old cars and set off from southern Germany to cross the Sahara and drive to Togo, where they planned to sell their vehicles. They never reached their destination. The young, free-wheeling adventurers were ambushed by Tuareg bandits on the Algeria-Mali border, kidnapped and disappeared into the vast nothingness of the desert. Thirty years later, Peter Hauser lives in a tent between jungle and ocean on a remote archipelago in Southern Thailand. Every day, Peter heads out into the deep blue to swim with tiger sharks, apex predators and masters over life and death, to find out what fear means to all of us.
Review by BookHookup: Sharkman is a gripping true-life adventure recounted by Tom Vater. The plot transports readers to the early 1990s in Mali and the Sahara, where Peter Hauser and two of his friends make a unique but dangerous journey. A thrill ride that became a little more thrilling than any of them expected.
Vater paints this harrowing tale within a rich historical framework. I enjoyed learning new things like how they drove across the desert carrying metal sheets in their vehicles to give them traction when needed, how borders weren’t well defined, and all these details came into play. The vivid descriptions of Hauser's distressing escapade had me on the edge of my seat as the trio comes face-to-face with Tuareg bandits in the unforgiving desert. Through Hauser's recollections, the characters come alive, and the line between friend and foe blurs, portraying a nuanced depiction of survival in a harsh landscape. As Hauser's story unfolds, it becomes clear how confronting death shapes one's perspective on life, evident in Hauser's present-day fearlessness, such as swimming with tiger sharks in Thailand.
Vater's skillful storytelling captures the essence of human resilience amidst adversity, offering readers a riveting read that resonates long after the final page. With its blend of danger, historical context, and introspection, this novella is a must-read for mature audiences seeking an adventure that transcends time and place. I give it 5 stars and recommend it to those looking for a real-life experience that keeps the pages turning.
