Eleventh Hour

Five years after 26 / 11, the siege of terror in Mumbai that brought the country to its knees, India still seeks justice. The terrorists who planned it have disappeared into the darkness they emerged from, and Mumbai seethes with fury. All the Indian government has achieved is the establishment of counterterrorism committees. But one man will stop at nothing in his quest to avenge the dastardly act.

The Army major who led the legendary September 2016 surgical strikes on terror launch pads across the LoC; a soldier who killed 11 terrorists in 10 days; a Navy officer who sailed into a treacherous port to rescue hundreds from an exploding war; a bleeding Air Force pilot who found himself flying a jet that had become a screaming fireball...their own accounts or of those who were with them in their final moments. 

Black Friday is a ghastly account of the one of the biggest terrorist attacks on Bombay, in 1993. The book chronicles the devastation caused to life and property due to the attacks and the trauma, both physical and mental, undergone by the people at large post the terrorist attacks and the consequent rift between the communities of Hindu and Muslims and hatred and clashes which often turned extremely violent.  

In Mossad, authors MichaelBar-Zohar and Nissim Mishal take us behind the closed curtain with riveting, eye-opening, boots-on-the-ground accounts of the most dangerous, most crucial missions in the agency's 60-year history.

On 8 November, when the clock strikes 8, your money will be no good. Somewhere on the India-Nepal border, a car full of passengers swerves off a highway and plunges into a valley, its trunk full of cash. In the UK, a Bollywood starlet wins Big Survivor, the most popular reality TV show in the country. In Panama, Central America, a whistle-blower at a law firm brings down billionaires across the globe. And in India, a new RBI Governor is appointed. Aditya Kesavan is dynamic, charismatic and ambitious. He's about to carry out the most brazen act of his life.

A Pallava prince travels to Cambodia to be crowned king, carrying with him secrets that will be the cause of great wars many centuries later. A Buddhist monk in ancient China treks south to India, searching for the missing pieces of a puzzle that could make his emperor all-powerful. A Neolithic tribe fights to preserve their sacred knowledge, oblivious to the war drums on the Indo-China border. Meanwhile, far away in the temple town of Kanchipuram, a reclusive scientist deciphers ancient texts even as a team of secret agents shadows his every move.

As Khushwant Singh wrote in the preface to the hardbound edition published in 1990 of this true account of Mohanlal Bhaskar's mission to find out about Pakistan's nuclear plans: 'He was betrayed by one of his colleagues, presumbly a double agent, and had to face the music on his own. The interrogation, which was done by the army and police, included torture of the worst kind imaginable. Many of his comrades went insane or ended their own lives.'

Temples are places of worship, oceans of tranquillity, or so everyone thinks, till a series of murders threatens to destroy the carefully cultivated reputation of the royal family of Thiruvanathapuram. And when fingers point towards the opening of the hitherto sealed vaults at the Padmanabha Swamy Temple that is under the control of the royals, all hell breaks loose. Meanwhile, a heist at the Wafi Mall in Dubai leads investigators to uncover a massive racket in the smuggling of antiques from the ruins of temples in south India.  

First-hand reports of the most riveting anti-terror encounters in the wake of the 2016 surgical strikes, the men who hunted terrorists in a magical Kashmir forest where day turns to night, a pair of young Navy men who gave their all to save their entire submarine crew, the Air Force commando who wouldn't sleep until he had avenged his buddies, the tax babu who found his soul in a terrifying Special Forces assault on Pakistani terrorists, and many more. Their own stories, in their own words. Or of those who were with them in their final moments.

Sometime in 2016, a series of dialogues took place which set out to find a meeting ground, even if only an illusion, between A.S. Dulat and Asad Durrani. One was a former chief of RAW, India's external intelligence agency, the other of ISI, its Pakistani counterpart. As they could not meet in their home countries, the conversations, guided by journalist Aditya Sinha, took place in cities like Istanbul, Bangkok and Kathmandu.  

Fifteen-year-old Maya and Arjun find their placid world suddenly overturned, when their favourite history teacher is found brutally murdered. The death shocks the students at the school and baffles the police. Meanwhile, a mysterious stranger’s reappearance after 5000 years strikes fear into the hearts of powerful members of a secret society, called the Sangha. Who is he and what is he after? What secrets are Arjun’s uncle and mother hiding, and why do they inexplicably decide to leave town for an unknown destination?

There is nothing really wrong with Priya Bakshi and Akash Srivastav's six-year-old marriage...except that Priya is having an affair. And Akash, too, seems to be on the lookout for sexual adventure. When Tarun, their richer, older, and manipulative friend, tells them about Delhi's couple-swapping parties, Akash wants to jump right in. With some reluctance, Priya agrees to give him company. Soon, Akash and Priya find themselves in a world of swinging couples and sexual abandon, joined by friends who are equally keen to test the the waters.  

What can strip away the polite veneer of an apartment complex and lay bare a world of secrets and lies? The discovery of a stranger’s body on its premises. Ira Dutta is an ambitious journalist who dislikes the ‘middle-class stagnation’ of Panorama Apartments. Nandana Roy is a stay-at-home mom, in the throes of an early midlife crisis. Mrs Ghoshal is an octogenarian whose life revolves around television soaps. Just three among many seemingly unconnected lives - until the murdered man is found in their building lift one night.

2017, Delhi - Vidyut’s dying ancestor summons him to Banaras. The old Brahmin chieftain of the Dev-Raakshasa Matth, or the God-Demon Clan, bears a chilling secret. Their bloodline carries an ancient curse that will plague mankind - towards its own violent extinction. 1700 BCE, Harappa - Harappa is a magnificent city on the banks of the mighty Saraswati river. The darkness of treachery, taantric exorcism and bloodshed unleashes itself on the last devta, paving the way for his devastating revenge...and the horrifying truth behind the fall of the glorious civilisation.

Tired of being bullied, a scrawny, impoverished Dawood Ibrahim is looking for a saviour, Khalid Khan Bachcha, who would teach him the ropes of handling a bunch of hooligans. Instead, what he gets is a mentor who eventually transforms him into a cunning mafia boss. In Dawood's Mentor, Dawood meets Khalid and they eventually forge an unlikely friendship. Together they defeat, crush, and neutralize every mafia gang in Mumbai. Khalid lays the foundation for the D-Gang as Dawood goes on to establish a crime syndicate like no other and becomes India's most wanted criminal.