Freud, food and forgers

The Death Instinct (Headline Review, Rs 295) by Jed Rubenfeld opens on a fatal September day in New York as Wall Street is shaken by a powerful blast. The date, however, is not September 11, 2001. September 16, 1920 is just another desultory day in post-War America until Stratham Younger, a doctor, Colette Rousseau, a French émigré, and James Littlemore of the New York Police Department witness a bizarre unfolding of events in a corner of the business district as the lunch hour comes to an end. A cryptic note, with a human molar enclosed in it, left for Colette by a stranger deepen this intercontinental mystery. As with his earlier novel, The Interpretation of Murder, where Sigmund Freud played a seminal role, Rubenfeld takes the reader on a whirlwind tour — from Paris to Prague, from the chamber of Freud in Vienna to Washington DC. Along the way, history is evoked in a few deft strokes — in the glimpses of civil rights movement, for instance — but the narrative remains expertly controlled. Beginning in the world of circumstances, the journey ends in the dark crevices of the mind. This is psychological thriller at its most sophisticated.

The Delhi Walla: Food + Drink (Collins, Rs 199) by Mayank Austen Soofi is a selection of the many photographs and entries that appeared on the popular blog, The Delhi Walla, which came up in 2007. The author is clearly in love with his city, especially with its food, of which there is a seemingly endless variety. From the familiar Biryani and Paya-Nihari to the quirky Gobi Manchurian or Chuski, there is a bit of everything for everyone in Delhi, vegetarian or non-veg, weight-watchers or sinful eaters. Anecdotes and historical asides make the reading livelier, while the recipes and the photographs set the taste buds tingling.

The Geneva Deception (Harper, £6.99) by James Twining should delight those who are yet to have their fill of art thefts, brutal killings and alliances sealed in blood. Thanks to Dan Brown, every second thriller writer these days seems to consider a Vatican mystery the easiest to churn out and the surest route to success. Twining, a seasoned hand in his trade, does not disappoint with his latest offering. But conspiracy theories and mafiosi mumbo-jumbo can take you only thus far and no more — even when these are mediated by a handsome ex-thief and a glamorous female investigator.