Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
The Investigation, J M Lee, ISBN 9781447228257 (MacMillan) BD4.500 for Gulf Weekly Book Club members
FUKUOKA Prison, 1944. Beyond the prison walls the war rages; inside a man is found brutally murdered. Yuichi Watanabe, a young guard with a passion for reading, is ordered to investigate.
The victim, Sugiyama - also a guard – was feared and despised throughout the prison and inquiries have barely begun when a powerful inmate confesses. But Watanabe is unconvinced; and as he interrogates both the suspect and Yun Dong-ju, a talented Korean poet, he begins to realise that the fearsome guard was not all he appeared to be.
As Watanabe unravels Sugiyama’s final months, he begins to discover what is really going on inside this dark and violent institution, which few inmates survive: a man who will stop at nothing to dig his way to freedom; a governor whose greed knows no limits; a little girl whose kite finds her an unlikely friend and Yun Dong-ju, the poet , whose works hold such beauty they can break the hardest of hearts.
As the war moves towards its devastating close and bombs rain down upon the prison, Watanabe realises that he must find a way to protect Yun Dong-ju, no matter what it takes. This decision will lead the young guard back to the investigation where he will discover a devastating truth.
At once a captivating mystery and an epic lament for lost freedom and humanity in the darkest of times, The Investigation (inspired by a true story) is a sweeping, gripping tale perfect for fans of The Shadow of the Wind and has recently been shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Prize.
* Read it now in paperback
The Wolf in Winter, John Connolly, ISBN 9781444755350 (Hodder) BD4.500 for Gulf Weekly Book Club members
THIS is the latest offering in the highly-regarded Charlie Parker crime series.
His client is dead. But Charlie Parker will not rest. The community of Prosperous, Maine, has always thrived when others have suffered. Its inhabitants are wealthy, its children’s future secure.
It shuns outsiders. It guards its own. However, the death of a homeless man and the disappearance of his daughter draw the haunted, lethal private investigator Charlie Parker to the town.
Parker is a dangerous man, driven by compassion, by rage and by the desire for vengeance. In him the town and its protectors sense a threat graver than any they have faced in their long history, and in the comfortable, sheltered inhabitants of a small Maine town, Parker will encounter his most vicious opponents yet.
Charlie Parker has been marked to die so that Prosperous may survive.
* My favourite read-of-the-week
Remember Me This Way, Sabine Durrant, ISBN 9781444762488 (Hodder) BD4.500 for Gulf Weekly Book Club members
THIS splendidly creepy second novel by Sabine Durrant will leave you looking over your shoulder and not sleeping well at night.
When Lizzie’s husband Zach is killed one night in a car accident, she thought losing him was the worst thing that could happen.
She was wrong.
Her sister, the police, everyone tell her it’s only natural when someone close to you dies to see him everywhere, sense him still nearby.
But they don’t know Zach like she does.
How much he loved her. How he liked things just his way, or how far he would go to get revenge.
Related in the years running up to his death by Zach and then in the present day by Lizzie, his widow, fans of Gone Girl will love this psychological thriller.
Not for the faint-hearted, but it is as tense and terrifying as they come; sinister and clever.
The Bookcase has teamed up with GulfWeekly to launch a regular Book of the Week column with Robert Jennings reviewing the non-fiction and business and Linda Jennings checking out the latest fictional titles.
Readers can join the Gulf Weekly Book Club by emailing bookclub@gulfweekly.com with their names and contact details.
It will entitle them to free membership to The Bookcase Reward Scheme, normally costing BD1, which gives 10 per cent off every day and 20 per cent discount on Mondays if the customer has ‘liked’ the store’s Facebook page.
Yes, and on top of that, we will be offering Gulf Weekly Book Club members ONLY a special 25 per cent discount from the shop price of all books featured on the page throughout the entire month during which they were reviewed.
* READERS can continue to pick up a FREE copy of the travellers’ guide 101 Thing to See & Do in Bahrain by joining the FREE Gulf Weekly Book Club while supplies are available.
This essential read, published by Arab World Tours and retailing at BD2, includes a pullout map.
Join the Gulf Weekly Book Club by sending your name and contact details to bookclub@gulfweekly.com. We have a limited supply left of free books available so do not delay, join today.
