And then there was murder

Havoc in its Third Year (Review, ? 3.25) by Ronan Bennett captures the peculiarly intense and bleak atmosphere of northern England in the 1630s. John Brigge, the coroner in a small town, is ?a man of the old faith?. He is caught up, unwillingly, in a case of alleged murder and disappearance, in a world of fanaticism and prejudice, of discomfort, disease and beauty, where the House of Correction overlooks a road that is mud and stone and water. Havoc is an award-winning novel, the fourth in the Irish writer?s oeuvre.

The Men Inside: chronicles of a modern mariner (Rupa, Rs 195) by George Phillipos is engaging reading for anyone interested in the oddly confined lives that men live when on sea. Drawn from his experience of life at sea as a marine engineer, Phillipos spins 20 short stories out of anecdotes and memories. The apparent limitlessness of the surrounding sea and the inturned passions and conflicting interests and beliefs of the men on ship provide the dramatic context within which the brief episodes flare and die. Some of the tales, such as ?The Radio Officer? or ?Stomme Kluitzak (The Dud)?, are powerful and moving. But the monotony of the backdrop and a certain lack of modulation in the language occasionally threaten the reader with dullness.

Of cricket, guinness and gandhi: essays on indian history and culture (Seagull and Penguin, Rs 295) by Vinay Lal is an offering of eight essays that promise the reader ?a dissenting, futurist, and hermeneutic perspective on Indian civilization?. Lal writes on public and popular culture, cultural politics and categories of knowledge, including among other subjects, Gandhi (two essays), hijras, cricket, Hindi films, Guinness and the insecurity of Indian security. The provocative title is, therefore, rigorously truthful as well.

The twelfth card (Hodder and Stoughton, ? 6.90) by Jeffery Deaver is one more gripping thriller in the Lincoln Rhyme series. The tale is, as usual, full of unexpected complications, demanding of its characters, both the hunters and the hunted, a level of physical endurance and luck that is clearly impossible but charmingly persuasive. It is presented with a pace and clarity of narration that leave the reader breathless.