This one is for fans of the hit TV series Castle, that airs in India on Star World. A series of books that feature reel life Castle's protagonist Nikki Heat that are a must have for all die-hard Castle fans.

We've all heard of TV series inspired by a book, but this has to be one of the few cases where books have been inspired by characters in a book in a TV series. Phew! If you don't watch the TV series, you probably won't get it. But if, like us, you are a fan of the TV series, you'll find the cross-references between the books and the TV series delightful. Don't miss out the acknowledgements section!

Buy all books by Richard Castle via Iglooo.
Buy part one Heat Wave, two Naked Heat or three Heat Rises individually.

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Amitav Ghosh is back with part 2 of the Ibis Trilogy.

Summary
In September 1838 a storm blows up on the Indian Ocean and the Ibis, a ship carrying a consignment of convicts and indentured laborers from Calcutta to Mauritius, is caught up in the whirlwind. When the seas settle, five men have disappeared - two lascars, two convicts and one of the passengers. Did the same storm upend the fortunes of those aboard the Anahita, an opium carrier heading towards Canton? And what fate befell those aboard the Redruth, a sturdy two-masted brig heading East out of Cornwall? Was it the storm that altered their course or were the destinies of these passengers at the mercy of even more powerful forces?

On the grand scale of an historical epic, River of Smoke follows its storm-tossed characters to the crowded harbors of China. There, despite efforts of the emperor to stop them, ships from Europe and India exchange their cargoes of opium for boxes of tea, silk, porcelain and silver. Among them are Bahram Modi, a wealthy Parsi opium merchant out of Bombay, his estranged half-Chinese son Ah Fatt, the orphaned Paulette and a motley collection of others whose pursuit of romance, riches and a legendary rare flower have thrown together. All struggle to cope with their losses - and for some, unimaginable freedoms - in the alleys and crowded waterways of 19th century Canton. As transporting and mesmerizing as an opiate induced dream, River of Smoke will soon be heralded as a masterpiece of twenty-first century literature.

Buy River of Smoke via Iglooo.
Other books by Amitav Ghosh on Iglooo.

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The Wandering Falcon
by Jamil Ahmad

‘. . . It is true, I am,
neither a Mahsud nor a Wazir.
But I can tell you as little about
who I am as I can about who I shall be.
Think of Tor Baz as your hunting falcon.
That should be enough...'

Jamil Ahmad makes his debut as an author at an unlikely age of 79. The Wandering Falcon provides a rare and vivid window on to the war-torn tribal areas of the Pakistan/Afghanistan border.

Review by Antara Das, Hindustan Times

After a lifetime of service as a bureaucrat in the wild terrains between Pakistan and Afghanistan, 78-year-old Jamil Ahmad has the perfect understanding and insight into a place that vexes many a strategist around the world today. The Wandering Falcon, his debut novel, is a product gleaned from that experience, a record of individual tales of honour and desire among the tribes inhabiting Balochistan, Waziristan or the Swat Valley, people for whom “the terrible struggle for life makes it impossible for too much time to be wasted over thoughts for the dead”.

Tor Baz is the eponymous falcon, who is born and grows into adulthood during the course of the novel. In a region of fierce tribal identities, his origins remain amorphous. Nor is he useful in lending narrative cohesion but ends up loosely linking the stories of his parents who defied the tribal code of honour and eloped, the nomadic Kharot tribe trying to come to terms with the limitations of political boundaries or the way of life of the Wazirs, Mahsuds or Afridis.

Set in the mid-20th century, it is the changing life and mores of the nomadic tribes that Ahmad captures in clear, haunting prose: “One set of values, one way of life had to die … The new way of life triumphed over the old.” His keen observation is not lacking in humour either: a peek inside the Mahsud jirga reveals not just a dour assembly of bearded men but also intense discussions about “the safest smuggling routes, the most profitable items of contraband …and all the current social gossip and scandals in the area.” For the sheer humanising of a much-misunderstood people, the book is worth a read.

Buy The Wandering Falcon via Iglooo.

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