Author(s): Paul Theroux

Crime

Award-winning writer Paul Theroux takes you on a journey through the streets of Calcutta where all is not as it seems and a smiling face could be harbouring a dark secret in the thrilling novel "A Dead Hand: a Crime in Calcutta". Jerry Delfont is a travel writer with writer's block. Lounging in Calcutta one day, he receives a mysterious letter. It comes from an American philanthropist, Mrs Merrill Unger. An Indian friend of her son is in trouble: he woke up in a hotel room with a dead body next to him; he panicked and fled, Mrs. Unger would like someone to discreetly look into this matter, to find out the truth. Will Delfont do her the honour? But Jerry is at first more intrigued by the beautiful, beguiling Mrs Unger and Tantric massages. Yet as he begins investigating the circumstances surrounding the body, he wonders what exactly is the nature of her philanthropy..."A Dead Hand" is a dark and twisted narrative of obsession and need from one of our finest writers. "The most gifted, the most prodigal writer of his generation". (Jonathan Raban). "Genuinely intriguing". ("The Times"). "Original and enlightening". ("Daily Telegraph"). American travel writer Paul Theroux is known for the rich descriptions of people and places that is often streaked with his distinctive sense of irony; his novels and collected short stories, "My Other Life", "The Collected Stories", "My Secret History", "The Lower River", "The Stranger at the Palazzo d'Oro, Millroy the Magician", "The Elephanta Suite", "Saint Jack", "The Consul's File", "The Family Arsenal", "The Mosquito Coast", and his works of non-fiction, including the iconic "The Great Railway Bazaar" are available from Penguin.