Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian by Rick Riordan

Book: Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian.

Author: Rick Riordan

Publisher: Puffin Books. (www.puffinbooks.com) Penguin group.

ISBN : 978 0141346885

Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian is the last book in the Percy Jackson series.

On his sixteenth birthday, Percy gets a prophecy that could save or destroy the world…

“A half blood of the eldest gods

 Shall reach sixteen against all odds

 And see the world in endless sleep

 The hero’s soul, cursed blade shall reap

 A single choice shall end his days.

 Olympus to preserve or raze.”

The Titan lord Kronos, is starting to attack New York City. The dreaded monster Typhon is by his side. As if things could not get any worse, the enemy reports that they have a spy at camp….

Percy and just forty of his demigod friends set out against untold evil. Nico has a plan, but Percy doesn’t think he’s ready yet, it could kill him.

Hades and Poseidon have their own issues down there and cannot join the war.

But, like always, things don’t go the way they’re supposed to… Annabeth gets stabbed, Chiron gets buried, Rachel gets recent visions and the Ares cabin at camp refuses to come to the battle till they get the chariot back….

Is this Kronos’ way of dividing them to conquer Olympus? And things get more complicated when Percy gets Pandora’s jar as a gift from a Titan, who said that if they open it, and release ‘HOPE’ they will know that they have surrendered.

Percy’s only hope is to convince Luke to turn over and destroy Kronos, but it seems unlikely.

As the demigod of the prophecy all of this is on Percy’s shoulders….. Will they beat the Titan Kronos or will they be taken over by monsters….

Percy Jackson & Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan

Book: Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth.

Author: Rick Riordan

Publisher: Puffin Books. (www.puffinbooks.com) Penguin group.

ISBN : 978 0141146830

Percy Jackson and the battle of the Labyrinth is the fourth book of the Percy Jackson series.

The labyrinth was thought to be lost a millennia ago, but when they find a secret entrance right in the middle of camp, things start to go terribly wrong, and that’s just the beginning….

The Labyrinth was created by Daedalus, a maze, connected to his life force. It is a maze used to trap the Minotaur, a maze that is alive, where time and space are meaningless, keeps shifting and is full of horrors.

When a Labyrinth entrance is found in the heart of camp half blood, the enemy decides to use the Labyrinth to get inside camp. If they succeed, thousands of bloodthirsty monsters will invade camp.

But the enemy will only be able to navigate through the maze with Ariadne’s string. The string was kept with Daedalus, who was thought to be dead a million years ago, but as a demigod you can’t be sure…

Percy, Annabeth , Tyson and Grover are trying to find Daedalus before Luke can and convince him not to give Luke the string…

Percy, Annabeth, Tyson and Grover descend into darkness with the prophecy,

“You shall delve in the darkness of the endless maze.

  The dead, the traitor and lost one raise,

  You shall rise or fall by the ghost’s king hand,

  The child of Athena’s final stand.”

Will they accomplish their mission of will they end up with something else inside the Labyrinth………

Percy Jackson & the Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan

Book: Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters.

Author: Rick Riordan

Publisher: Puffin Books. (www.puffinbooks.com) Penguin group

ISBN : 978 0141146847

Percy Jackson and the Sea of monsters is the second book of the Percy Jackson Series.

It’s not easy being a demigod, even when Camp Half Blood is guarded by Thalia, a demigod who sacrificed her life and got turned into a tree way before Percy came to camp. The tree guarded the camp for years and kept out the monsters and mortals but things start to go terribly wrong when the tree’s magic starts fading, no one knows for what reason.

There is only one option from stopping war and the whole camp getting invaded by monsters, an option that was thought to be lost forever thousands of years ago … The Golden Fleece has to be found.

As if the worst is yet to come, Chiron, the activities director is replaced by Tantalus, a spirit from the Underworld, who seems to care nothing about the safety of camp and has already termed Percy as a problem and enemy.

Percy, Annabeth and Grover are denied the quest for the Golden Fleece, but they are not ready to give up, not yet. Percy is warned by Tantalus that he will be kicked out of Camp if he leaves for the quest.

Things take a turn when Percy discovers he has a brother, supposedly.

Now being turned into a guinea pig, being captured and given a makeover by an immortal sorceress and fighting Cyclopes seems normal to Percy.

Will Percy risk it and leave in search of the Fleece, or will he let Tantalus disregard the safety of camp…

A definite must buy for my teenage readers.

Percy Jackson & the Lightning Thief by author Rick Riordan

Book: Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief.

Author: Rick Riordan

Publisher: Disney Hyperion Books (www.DisneyBooks.com)

ISBN : 978 0786838653

Percy Jackson and the Lightning thief is the first book of the Percy Jackson Series.

It starts when ‘the problem child’ Percy gets kicked from his boarding school…again. He is sent to a summer camp, a camp for kids like him, where he finds the Greek Gods walking straight out of his textbooks .

His Latin teacher turns out to be a centaur who has trained great heroes like Achilles and his best friend turns out to be a satyr, half man half goat, his protector.

 And that’s the least of his troubles. The king of the gods, Zeus has lost the lightning bolt, the source of his power. The gods suspect Percy and he has to bring it back to prove himself innocent.

 He is warned of a friend who will betray him, and to solve that riddle Percy must first find the lightning bolt. He suspects this quest has something to do with his father who abandoned him, and his mother who died saving him.

     “You shall go west, and face the god who has turned

       You shall find what was stolen, and see it safe returned

       You shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend

       And you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end.”

This is the prophecy he gets from the Oracle, and if he doesn’t catch the culprit, Mount Olympus, the center of the power of the gods will be destroyed.

To solve this quest, he must unravel mysteries more ancient than the gods themselves.

This post today on account of Aug 18 being Percy Jackson's birthday.

Happy Birthday in advance Percy. Fans, you have to wear blue and eat blue food.

The Affair (a Jack Reacher novel) by author Lee Child

Book: The Affair  (Jack Reacher novel)
Author: Lee Child (www.jackreacher.co.uk )

Publisher: Bantam Books and Random House (www.booksattransworld.co.uk and www.rbooks.co.uk and www.randomhouse.co.uk )

ISBN: 978-0-593-06571-6

The hero of this series is Jack Reacher. Lets get it straight at the start of the review. He is a man’s hero and a woman’s dream man. No nonsense, less emotions, less of mushy wooshy stuff. Tough exterior, good looking in a rugged way. Drifter, who doesn’t have any strings, nor any loose ends. Retired trained Military police, or in his own words: the man who keeps trained killing machines in check and order. Absolute expert in weapons and martial arts. Doesn’t fight often, but when he fights you have to call in the insurance people…. for the place and the people. Do I have your attention?

Jack, in this novel, is still a major with the military police. He is sent undercover to investigate the military style murder of a woman in a small hicky town in Mississippi. The catch is that a big army base is the lifeline of that hicky town.

Jack has to coordinate with the County Sheriff,  an ex US marine, and a stunningly beautiful woman. Her investigation is going nowhere, with either Pentagon stonewalling her...... or she doesnt really want to find the killer.

Jack is faced with the double dilema of shadowing her and shadowing the killer. The climatic end with Reacher having to face a gang of US marines in a local bar is the stuff what makes the legend JackReacher.

The thing about Thugs by author Tabish Khair

Book : The thing about thugs

Author : Tabish Khair

Publisher : Harper Collins.

ISBN : 978 81 7223 978 7

This book: The things about Thugs , is the story of Amir Ali who leaves his life in hBihar to travel to England with an English Captain, William, to whom he narrates his life story, the story of a murderous thug.

While William tries to analyse the strange murderous cult of the Indian Thug, a group of Englishmen sets out to prove the inherent difference between races by examining their skulls- with bizarre consequences.

Set in Victorian London, this story of different voices from different places draws intricate lines of connection from the nineteenth to the twenty- first century, between England and India, across individual and cultural differences.

Author Khair engages between the subalternist or post colonial narrative traditions and subtly and ironically deploys echoes from Victorian literature to modern literature.

Echo Burning (a Jack Reacher novel) by author Lee Child

Book: Echo Burning  (Jack Reacher Novel)

Author: Lee Child (www.jackreacher.co.uk )

Publisher: Bantam Books and Random House (www.booksattransworld.co.uk and www.rbooks.co.uk and www.randomhouse.co.uk )

ISBN: 978-0-553-81330-2

The hero of this series is Jack Reacher. Lets get it straight at the start of the review. He is a man’s hero and a woman’s dream man. No nonsense, less emotions, less of mushy wooshy stuff. Tough exterior, good looking in a rugged way. Drifter, who doesn’t have any strings, nor any loose ends. Retired trained Military police, or in his own words: the man who keeps trained killing machines in check and order. Absolute expert in weapons and martial arts. Doesn’t fight often, but when he fights you have to call in the insurance people…. for the place and the people. Do I have your attention?

In the blistering heat of Texas, Jack is doing what he always does. Walking and awaiting a ride. But is anyone going to give a six foot five, dangerous looking,  sweaty stranger a ride? That too when the rugged landscape is eerily empty and blistering?

A cadillac does stop. It is a very preety, young woman offering Jack a ride. But it has a hitch attached. The lady's husband is in jail. When he comes out he is going to kill her.

Jack agrees to help her, but is there more to the story than meets the eye? Her husbands family is clearly hostile, the cops cannot be trusted and lawyers wont help. 

But there is an understory of killing of the border crossers. Isthe local police involved? 

A gripping story of human debasement, domestic violence and corruption.

Another must read Jack Reacher novel.

Worth Dying For (a Jack Reacher novel) by author Lee Child

Book: Worth Dying For (Jack Reacher Novel)

Author: Lee Child (www.jackreacher.co.uk )

Publisher: Bantam Books and Random House (www.booksattransworld.co.uk and www.rbooks.co.uk and www.randomhouse.co.uk )

ISBN: 978-0-593-06567-9

The hero of this series is Jack Reacher. Lets get it straight at the start of the review. He is a man’s hero and a woman’s dream man. No nonsense, less emotions, less of mushy wooshy stuff. Tough exterior, good looking in a rugged way. Drifter, who doesn’t have any strings, nor any loose ends. Retired trained Military police, or in his own words: the man who keeps trained killing machines in check and order. Absolute expert in weapons and martial arts. Doesn’t fight often, but when he fights you have to call in the insurance people…. for the place and the people. Do I have your attention?

In Nebraska a drunk sits in an empty bar. The phone rings, and a woman asks for help. She has been badly beaten by her husband.

Seven men are having dinner in a nearby steakhouse. A stranger shows up and leaves one of them unconcious with a broken nose.

Someone gets a call about this tough & stubborn stranger. He settles in for a long wait with a sniper rifle.

And Jack is bruised & battered and isnt planning on sticking on long. But the clannish locals dont want him gone, they want him dead. 

This is what raises the hackles on Reachers neck. What is the secret of the lonely shed? What is there in the sleepy rural county? Is it worth dying for?.

The Hard Way (a Jack Reacher novel) by author Lee Child

Book: The Hard Way  (Jack Reacher Novel)

Author: Lee Child (www.jackreacher.co.uk )

Publisher: Bantam Books and Random House (www.booksattransworld.co.uk and www.rbooks.co.uk and www.randomhouse.co.uk )

ISBN: 978-0-553-81587-0

The hero of this series is Jack Reacher. Lets get it straight at the start of the review. He is a man’s hero and a woman’s dream man. No nonsense, less emotions, less of mushy wooshy stuff. Tough exterior, good looking in a rugged way. Drifter, who doesn’t have any strings, nor any loose ends. Retired trained Military police, or in his own words: the man who keeps trained killing machines in check and order. Absolute expert in weapons and martial arts. Doesn’t fight often, but when he fights you have to call in the insurance people…. for the place and the people. Do I have your attention?

Jack Reacher is sitting in a New York cafe sipping a coffee. He knows he is being shadowed. But the feeling is not new to him. And he awaits for the hunter to approach him.

The hunter does. But what surprises Jack that it is an appeal to help locate a kidnapped wife and her child. And the one making the appeal, the hunter, himself is a n ex British Army soldier and so is his entire team and he himself runs a security agency.

Now this is an intriguing case. Jack has to sweat the details and work the clues. But it has to be done the hard way.

What starts on the busy streets of New York explodes into a battle for love and life in the sleepish English Countryside.  And there is reacher amidst this, armed and dangerous.

A must buy and a must read. 

One Shot (a Jack Reacher novel) by author Lee Child

Book: One Shot  (Jack Reacher Novel)

Author: Lee Child (www.jackreacher.co.uk )

Publisher: Bantam Books and Random House (www.booksattransworld.co.uk and www.rbooks.co.uk and www.randomhouse.co.uk )

ISBN: 978-0-553-81586-3 and 0-553-81586-5

The hero of this series is Jack Reacher. Lets get it straight at the start of the review. He is a man’s hero and a woman’s dream man. No nonsense, less emotions, less of mushy wooshy stuff. Tough exterior, good looking in a rugged way. Drifter, who doesn’t have any strings, nor any loose ends. Retired trained Military police, or in his own words: the man who keeps trained killing machines in check and order. Absolute expert in weapons and martial arts. Doesn’t fight often, but when he fights you have to call in the insurance people…. for the place and the people. Do I have your attention?

In one of the many heartland cities of America, during the noon, around lunch hour, 6 shots are fired indiscriminately into a crowd of innocent people. This random shooring leaves 5 dead.

But within hours the cops have it all solved and wrapped up. .... or as they call it a slam dunk case. The have picked an ex army veteran with all the clues matching........ Except one thing....

The accused man keeps on repeating :Youve got the wrong guy..... and Get Reacher for me.

Reacher responds to a veterans call and steps in to investigate this act of random vileness. Or is there more to these 6 shots than meets the eye?

The Afghan by author Frederick Forsyth

Book : The Afghan.

Author: Frederick Forsyth

Publisher : Random House India

ISBN: 9 780552 155052

Frederick Forsyth was a very big part of my growing up. I have read all of his books. His books are all action and adventure. Some of them are too tacky or dramatic beyond logic. But good fun, all in all.

The British and American intelligence catch a rumour in the wind of a major Al Qaeda operation being planned. But how can they infiltrate the ghost organization, which never has a fixed base or organized structure.

But they have the Afghan, a former senior commander of the Taliban and now in Guntanamo bay. So the MI6 and the FBI and CIA plan the most audacious of the audacious plans. They plan to send in Colonel Mike Martin as the Afghan, a pale face amogst the Arabs, the lion amongst the wolves. Will it work? Mike  is first taken into Afghanistan as a prisoner and then allowed to escape.

And amidst all this deception the true Afghan escapes due to a freak accident. And now it is a race against time to catch the Afghan, keep Mike safe and yet unravel the Al Qaeda plot  

True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole by author Sue Townsend

Book True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole

Author: Sue Townsend

Publisher : Penguin

ISBN: 9 780141 0 10854

True confessions of Adrian Mole is a brilliant humour by author Sue Townsend. These are diary pages of a boy of 16, living in gloomy Great Britain, a less than middle class existence. And all his conversations, aspirations, fantasies, fears and retorts are poured out from his heart onto the pages of his diary.

The diary opens up to a pre christmas scenario. Adrian is waking up to the dreary possibility that Santa and Christmas is losing all its charm and he is not going to get any gifts.  He was made to sit through 2 hours of dreary carols and a nativity play. He has to spend Christmas with his “lousy inbred relatives from Norfolk” and he wonders is it because he is “too worldy, mature and literate” that Beaonos Annuals humour doesn’t appeal to him anymore?

Adrians diary also mentions very heavily his love, his princess Pandora. Some of Adrians friends didn’t celebrate Christmas “as Mrs Thatcher took their jobs”. Adrian also   puts down in his diary the letters to his penpal Hamish and the peoms, in praise of Pandora, he sends to BBC “if the would like to air them”

This and the other books of Adrian Mole series are a laughter riot and a very understated gloomy humour. I am a fan of author Sue Townsend.

Fatherhood by author Bill Cosby

Book : Fatherhood

Author: Bill Cosby

Publisher : Dolphin Doubleday, New York.

ISBN: 0 385 23410 4

Bill Cosby is one of the most famous stand up comics of America. His show ”The Cosby Show “ and “Kids say the darndest things” is one of my personal favorites. My thebooksurgeon.blogspot.in always appreciates humour in any form. I think I own all of Bill Cosby’s books and they are the pride of my library.

Fatherhood is pretending that the gift you love most is a soap on a rope. Fatherhood is knowing that you’re in trouble when the child says “No problem”.

Fatherhood is thinking that the height of fashion is matching socks.

Fatherhood is helping your children learn English as a foreign language.

Fatherhood is not being the boss of the house, bcos you’ve seen the boss’s job and you don’t want it.

In Fatherhood Bill Cosbys special brand of humour, wisdom and plain wonderful humanity come together to create the joyous celebration of being a father. In a marvelous collection of ruminations , anecdotes and vignettes based on his own experience as a son and father, Bill Cosby covers the entire paternal gamut from the happy announcement “it’s a girl” to the challenges of raising a teenager and the perplexing ambivalence of watching kids leave the nest. For men Fatherhood is a must read for everyone who is a father, wants to become a father or who wants to learn more about his own father. And for women it is guide to better understanding the men in their lives, their husbands and fathers.

Fatherhood is another must buy and must read from Bill Cosby.

I'm not really here by author Tim Allen

Book : I’m not really here

Author: Tim Allen

Publisher : Hyperion.

ISBN: 0 7868 6257 2

 

Tim Allen is a leading humorist and stand up comic from America. His show “Home Improvement” is a super hit. His movies series “Santa Clause” were a super hit.

 

In the book : I’m not really here, Tim takes a look at men in their midlife, the crisis, their relationship with their wives, children, friends, universe, God and why its so tough to get a good nights sleep.

 

The book opens with Tim waking from a strange dream. He has been reading late into the night about quantum physics and what he has learnt about the nature of reality really disturbs him. Fortunately he’s got plenty of time to mull it over. Tim is home alone with his dog Spot, and initially he is excited about eating what he wants, watch sci fi videos and complete restoration work on the 1946 Ford. Unfortunately he cant find the one of a kind hood ornament.

 

He encounters very strange coincidences, meets people who seem to know too much about him and wonders if his life is half full or half empty. As he roams from room to room, he ponders how we end up sounding like our parents while raising our kids, men’s fascination with pricey gadgets and how romantic chemistry really works. He describes his own rise to celebrity , the allure of hot cars, and his obsession with his place in the cosmos.

Chilhood by author Bill Cosby

Book : Childhood

Author: Bill Cosby

Publisher : G P Putnam Publishers, New York.

ISBN: 0 339 13647 9

 

Bill Cosby is one of the most famous stand up comics of America. His show ”The Cosby Show “ and “Kids say the darndest things” is one of my personal favorites. My thebooksurgeon.blogspot.in always appreciates humour in any form. I think I own all of Bill Cosby’s books and they are the pride of my library.

 

The book  Childhood is absolutely Bill Cosby country. In this ntertaining and endearing book , which ranges from the warmly to the wildly funny, Cosby hold forth with the most marvelous stories he has ever told about his childhood.

 

There are tales that you will never forget, including his heroic quest for Spanish Fly or the one about when he was the school crossing guard for a day and he was so smitten by his crush that he almost waved his heart throb under a bus. And in a delightful counterpoint to his own legendary childhood, Cosby seasons the general hilarity with comic insights about kids today.

 

Childhood finds Cosby in the territiory he knows best, amid the trials of bed wetting , fears of the Loch Ness monster, tribulations of bad table manners. He holds forth on coping with the early demise of his children’s pets, his own days spent smoking in the boys room, out on the street playing stick ball, and back home lusting after Wonder Woman.

 

Please buy and read every Bill Cosby book.

 

A Thousand Splendid Suns by author Khaled Hosseini

Book :  A Thousand Splendid Suns
Author: Khaled Hosseini
Publisher: Bloomsbury (www.bloomsbury.com/ khaledhosseini)
ISBN:  978-0-7475-8297-7

The author Khaled Hosseini is also author of the the book "Kite Runner" , also a reviewed book in our blog thebooksurgeon.blogspot.in and now a major film.   Mariam grows up, in Herat, Afghanistan, hearing the word harami (bastard) all her early life and feeling somehow it was her fault. Her father Jalil tries to express his love but his sentiments fall short when ridiculed by Mariams mother..

When she is 15 Mariam decides to "look in" on her extended family in Herat and she returns to her mothers body dangling from a tree. She is taken in by her fathers family, to be then forced into marriage to a suitor thrice her sge, a cobbler in Kabul.

Mariam is thrown into domesticity, keeping the house, cooking food, understanding a new city, new neighbours and the burqa. She, a small town girl of Herat, is suddenly brought to face with the modern Afghan woman of Kabul. Slowly and slowly she is also exposed to the bestial nature of her husband.

Not yet anured to love in the relationship, Mariam suffers a miscarriage. And suddenly her husband becomes more distant. The Communist faction of Afghanistan declares a coup and that night Rasheed makes Mariam chew on pebbles bcos he finds a stone in his rice.

And then the focus shifts to the story of Laila, a daughter of a professor and whose brother goes to the front to fight against Russians. Her story is slowly interlinked with Mariam.   And then the Taliban mujahideen entered their lives, with the warring factions of Hazaras and Pashtuns. Laila is all set to leave this madness with her paramour Tariq , when a bomb kills her family and shatters her world.

A destitute numb Laila is taken in by Mariam. And the devious lascivious mind of Rasheed starts eyeing her as his second wife.   Buy this book and read on to find the horrific details of Afghan women under Talibani rule and the perseverance of Spirit.

The Kite Runner by author Khaled Hosseini

Book: The Kite Runner
 Author: Khaled Hosseini.
 Publisher: Bloomsbury (www.Bloomsbury.com/khaledhosseini)
ISBN:978-9-7475-9488-8

The story is set in the beautiful, strong, snowcapped mountains of Afghanistan. The story starts around 1970, before the invasion by Russia.

It is the story of Hasan and Amir, two kids in prewar Afghanistan, flying kites, running around in the meadows and doing all the fun filled things that two young boys would do. Amir, the son of a well to do land owner and Hasan the son of their servant. And yet the friendship being strong.

Then happens an incident which no kid will speak of and yet a lot is implied in the silence.The friendship takes on a stubborn silence from one and a devious, plotting maliciousness on part of the other.

Then comes the Afghan invasion. All of Afghanistan is thrown into turmoil. The social fibre is torn asunder. Families flee the incoming armies. Amir and his father emigrate to America, Hasan lives on, their mutual secret alive.

Years later, Amir receives a plea for help, a letter from the country of his childhood, Afghanistan. It is a plea to save an orphan from an orphanage run by the dreaded fundamentalists in Afghanistan. What is in that letter that forces Amir to return to a war torn Afghanistan? What does he try to find in the county? Will he find his lost childhood or will the shamed secret again overpower him?

Read this powerful novel to find an awesome undercurrent of emotions and a visual treat of a rugged mountainous country.

Honour Among Thieves by author Jeffrey Archer

Book :  Honour Among Thieves
Author: Jeffrey Archer
Publisher: Harper Collins (www.harpercollins.co.in.)
ISBN:  0 00 0647606 6

 Jeffrey Archer is one author who thebooksurgeon.blogspot.in respects a lot. Awesome writing, brilliant plotting, ver sharp character delineation and a taut storyline. My favorite books of Jrffery Archer are "Not a penny more,  not a penny less" and  "First among Equals" and his Short stories.

The time is 1993. The President of USA, Bush, has been replaced. Margaret Thatcher has been ousted by her party.  Gorbachev has been toppled by unknown forces. And the sole opposition survivor of the Gulf War is Saddam Hussein. And Saddam is plannning a retaliation so severe that USA will have to retaliate.

 Caught amidst this is Scott Bradley, a young Professor at Yale Law School. Scott is sent by CIA to discover why a beautifil Mossad agent has been dropped into the Iraqi Interest Section of the Jordanian Embassy in Paris..

 And unexpectedly Sadams plot begins to unravel. An intriguing novel. A must read, as is any Jeffrey Archer novel.

The Big Bad Wolf (Alex Cross Novel), author James Patterson

Book: The Big Bad Wolf  (Alex Cross Novel)

Author: James Patterson  (www.jamespatterson.com )

Publisher: Hachette Book Group USA   (www.HachetteBookGroupUSA.com)

ISBN : 0-446-61022-4

Alex Cross is now FBI. He was with the Washington DC Police force. Single father. Melancholic, mulling and contemplative personality. Not a grab, wham, kow pow kind of action action hero. But a regular cop. What is his forte is his tenaciousness with a case and his incisively deductive abilities, coupled with a team that adores him, and a family that is his strength.

This is his first case after  joining FBI. There is a human trafficking racket going on in the  high places, the big cities of USA. Women are being targeted for their particular traits and features. They are being kidnapped and sold into the houses of USA as slaves. Slaves to crimes of lust and passion or just obsession.

At the centre of this human slave trafficking is whispers of a name : The Wolf, rumored to be Ex KGB or Ex Russian Mafioso. The Wolf, name whispered in the crime streets with dread and loathing because of his high handed and brutal style of dealing with dissent.

Alex Cross has to track down the Wolf in the mean labyrinthine jungles of USA and to do so he has to become a wolf himself. Shall Alex solve this human trafficking case in time?….. In time to save his ex fiancée who just suddenly jumps into the picture.?

Read this book to enjoy one more adventure of Alex Cross.

Ruler of the World by author Alex Rutherford

Book: Ruler of the world ( Book 3 of series www.empireofthemoghul.co.uk )

Author: Alex Rutherford

Publisher: Hachette India ( www.hachetteindia.com ) (www.headline.co.uk)

ISBN 978-0-7553-4757-5

In his series, “Empire of the Moghul”, the author: Alex Rutherford, as always, relies on historical facts and deftly weaves them into a fictional biographical story that encompasses the mightiest and longest dynastical rulers of India, the Moghuls. Book 1 was the story of Babur the emperor and conqueror. Book 2 was the tale of his son and 2^nd Mughal emperor, Humayun.

Book 3 : Ruler of the world, is the story of India’s most remembered, oft quoted and oft written Mughal emperor, Jalaluddin Mohammed Akbar . Or better remembered as just Akbar the great, the 3^rd Mughal emperor.

This book explores in detail how Akbar from birth itself was raised and nurtured on the battle field and in the bastions of an army perpetually on move. He was under the care of a faithful alamgir and a wet nurse, whom he called his second mother.

This book also explores Akbars rise into an individual from the cloistered confines of a protected childhood into a man who will be India’s most loved and remembered Mughal king.

But as is the curse of the Mughal dynasty, Akbar while building the modern Hindustan of his dreams has to face the salaciousness, duplicity and plotting of his own son Salim. This book explores the love of a father deftly counterposed against the duties and rigidity of an emperor.

A must read for adventure lovers and history buffs.