Book Club

BOOK OF THE WEEK with Linda Jennings. I Am Pilgrim, Terry Hayes, ISBN 9780552160964 (Transworld). BD4.500 for Gulf Weekly Book Club members

What a huge read (in both size and calibre)! I am a fast reader but was up for two nights finishing this superb novel. If you are back in Bahrain now after the summer holidays, trying to get back into the mode, this is the book to take your mind off everything.

A debut mystery from a new thriller writer (former journalist and screen-writer) with a high-concept plot written with the greatest of skill, I Am Pilgrim ticks all the boxes for a pulsating thriller that never lets up until the end.

Can you commit the perfect crime? Pilgrim is the codename for a man who doesn’t exist. The adopted son of a wealthy American family, he once headed up a secret espionage unit for US intelligence before disappearing into anonymous retirement when he then wrote the definitive book on forensic criminal investigation.

The book came back to haunt him. It helped NYPD detective Ben Bradley track him down. And, it will take him to a rundown New York hotel room where the body of a woman is found face down in a bath of acid, her features erased, her teeth missing, her fingerprints gone.

It is a textbook murder - and Pilgrim wrote the book. What begins as an unusual and challenging investigation will become a terrifying race-against-time to save America from oblivion. Pilgrim will have to make a journey from a public beheading in Mecca to a deserted ruin on the Turkish coast via a Nazi death camp in Alsace and the barren wilderness of the Hindu Kush in search of the faceless man who would commit an appalling act of mass murder in the name of his God.

* Read it now in paperback

Second Honeymoon, James Patterson, ISBN 9780099574170 (Random) BD4.500 for Gulf Weekly Book Club members.

Huge bestsellers in hardback, Patterson’s stand-alone thrillers are one of his most popular strands and this one is in the current Top 5.

This is the gripping follow-up to Honeymoon but takes place four years after the first book so it is not vital to read that one first.

FBI agent John O’Hara receives a call from a man desperate for his help. His son and daughter-in-law have been found murdered on their honeymoon in the Caribbean. The grieving father wants justice, and will pay O’Hara handsomely to hunt down the killer.

Federal agents aren’t allowed to moonlight, but O’Hara is on suspension and battling some serious demons. He takes on the case, and soon discovers more murdered honeymoon couples. Meanwhile special agent and serial killer expert, Sarah Brubaker finds herself investigating a series of murders with a bizarre twist: all the victims are named John O’Hara so they soon find themselves involved in each other’s cases.

If you take one thing away from this compelling thriller, it is protect your personal online data!

* My favourite read-of-the-week

First Sight, Danielle Steel, ISBN 9780552159104 (Transworld) BD4.500 for Gulf Weekly Book Club members.

New York, London, Milan and Paris. Fashion week in all four cities; a month of endless interviews, parties, unflagging work and attention to detail.

At the centre of the storm is Timmie O’Neill, who has created an international empire that inspires, fills and consumes her life. Yet, as blessed as she feels by her success, Timmie harbours the private wounds of a devastating childhood and past tragedy. Always willing to take risks in business, she never risks her heart – until an intriguing Frenchman comes into her life during Paris Fashion Week.

There is every reason why they must remain apart. But neither can deny their growing friendship and the electricity that sparks whenever they meet. Are they brave enough to face what comes next?

The moving story of a talented designer whose success has bought her everything except love; a fun dreamy novel for these sultry days by the pool.