These are some of the books that our Books Editor received recently. They may be reviewed later
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Seven Wonders
by Ben Mezrich (William Heinemann)
Jeremy Grady, a reclusive mathematician is murdered, and it is up to his brother, Jack, to get to the bottom of it.
He travels around the world as he unravels a mystery that links the Seven Wonders of the World.
Jack realises that Jeremy may have come upon something that has been hidden for centuries.
He enlists the help of scientist Sloane Costa and together they discover a conspiracy to hide a road map to the Garden of Eden.
Seven Wonders is a thriller written in the vein of the Da Vinci Code – a combination of history, conspiracy theories and adventure.
It is the first in a trilogy.
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Time and Time Again
by Ben Elton (Random House Struik, R285)
June 1, 1914: Hugh Stanton is literally the loneliest man on earth.
No one he has ever known has been born yet, and there is a possibility that they never will be.
Hugh knows a terrible war is coming. It is a war that will destroy Europe and bring misery to millions in the century to come. He knows this because, for him, the century is already history. Hugh has to change this history – he must prevent the war.
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The Ways of the Dead
by Neely Tucker (Century)
A powerful federal judge’s daughter is murdered and her body is found in a dodgy Washington DC neighbourhood.
Pressure is on for the police to close the high-profile case. They immediately arrest the three nearest black kids.
The case looks like a slam dunk.
But Sully Carter is not convinced. He suspects there is more to the case than the police are letting on.
The nation is clamouring for a conviction as the bereaved judge is due for a Supreme Court nomination.
Despite dangerous people ordering Sully to lay off, he pursues his own investigation into the murder.
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rEVOLution
by Russell Brand (Random House Struik, R315)
I’ve never been a Russell Brand groupie, but I am aware of his “alternative” politics.
The current world system, according to Brand, is not working – governments are corrupt, our culture is vacuous. And we have accepted this without complaint.
In this book Brand offers a vision for a fairer, sexier society that’s fun and inclusive.
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Eichmann before Jerusalem
by Bettina Stangneth (The Bodley Head)
Adolf Eichmann lived in exile in Argentina for many years before he was captured by Mossad agents in 1960.
During his trial, the “manager of the Holocaust” portrayed himself as “just a small cog in Adolf Hitler’s extermination machine”.
This book draws on newly discovered documentation, including Eichmann’s own notes and recordings in a 1950s Nazi salon.
It maps out the post-war lives of many Nazis living in exile and the community they nurtured.
Eichmann is portrayed as an unrepentant murderer and reclusive war criminal on the run, an adept social manipulator who was always able to reinvent himself.