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The House Of Fear (novel)
''The House of Fear'' is the first English translation of the Ibne Safi's much celebrated Urdu novel ''Khaufnaak Imaraat'' that was first published in 1955. It is published by Random House and translated by Bilal Tanweer. It also carries another novella ''Shootout at the Rocks''. Both feature the stock character Imran, Ibne Safi, whose actual name was Asrar Narvi, wrote about 122 novels under this Imran Series. In the first story, the protagonist finds dead people in an empty house with three knife wounds each placed at exactly five inches. The hero who is considered an idiot by his secret-service colleagues solves the case in his own unique way between poetic recitations of Ghalib and praises of Indian film heroines. In the second story, a colonel called Zargham receives mysterious wooden animal-shaped toys, that we find later, are signature of ''Li Yu Ka'', a two hundred years old brotherhood of deadly killers, and very soon the man is the thick of big trouble from which only ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ibne Safi
Ibn-e-Safi (26 July 1928 – 26 July 1980) (also spelled as Ibne Safi) ( ur, ) was the pen name of Asrar Ahmad ( ur, ), a fiction writer, novelist and poet of Urdu from Pakistan. The word Ibn-e-Safi is an Persian expression which literally means ''Son of Safi'', where the word Safi means ''chaste'' or ''righteous''. He first wrote from the British India of the 1940s, and later Pakistan after the independence of British India in 1947. His main works were the 125-book series ''Jasoosi Dunya'' (''The Spy World'') and the 120-book ''Imran Series'', with a small canon of satirical works and poetry. His novels were characterised by a blend of mystery, adventure, suspense, violence, romance and comedy, achieving massive popularity across a broad readership in South Asia. Biography Early life and education Asrar Ahmad was born on 26 July 1928 in the town 'Nara' of district Allahabad, India. His father's name was Safiullah and mother's name was Naziran Bibi. He received a Bache ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crime Fiction
Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, often a murder. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as historical fiction or science fiction, but the boundaries are indistinct. Crime fiction has multiple subgenres, including detective fiction (such as the whodunit), courtroom drama, hard-boiled fiction, and legal thrillers. Most crime drama focuses on crime investigation and does not feature the courtroom. Suspense and mystery are key elements that are nearly ubiquitous to the genre. History The '' One Thousand and One Nights'' (''Arabian Nights'') contains the earliest known examples of crime fiction. One example of a story of this genre is the medieval Arabic tale of "The Three Apples", one of the tales narrated by Scheherazade in the ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Imran Series
The ''Imran'' Series (Urdu عمران سیریز) is an Urdu spy novel series created by Pakistani writer Ibn-e-Safi. Ali Imran is the pivotal character, a comical secret agent who controls the Secret Service as X-2 but appears to work as a normal member of the Secret Service. Except for a handful of people, no one knows his status as the chief of the Service. The first book, ''Khaufnaak Imarat'' (The Terrifying Building), was published in October 1955. In early books Imran appears as a solo detective, but later in the ninth book, ''Dhuaen ki Tehreer'' (The Scribbling in Smoke), he is portrayed as the chief of Secret Service as X-2. Humour is the essence of Ibn-e-Safi books. In this series by Mr. Safi had written a total of 120 books. Although Ibn-e-Safi is the creator of Imran Series, the Series rose to fame and popularity due to the work of Mazhar Kaleem who incorporated new elements into it and wrote more than 600 novels. Overview Following the footsteps of the first bes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Random House
Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. History Random House was founded in 1927 by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer, two years after they acquired the Modern Library imprint from publisher Horace Liveright, which reprints classic works of literature. Cerf is quoted as saying, "We just said we were going to publish a few books on the side at random," which suggested the name Random House. In 1934 they published the first authorized edition of James Joyce's novel ''Ulysses'' in the Anglophone world. ''Ulysses'' transformed Random House into a formidable publisher over the next two decades. In 1936, it absorbed the firm of Smith and Haas—Robert Haas became the third partner until retiring and selling his share back to Cerf and Klopfer in 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paperback
A paperback (softcover, softback) book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, and often held together with adhesive, glue rather than stitch (textile arts), stitches or Staple (fastener), staples. In contrast, hardcover (hardback) books are bound with cardboard covered with cloth, leather, paper, or plastic. Inexpensive books bound in paper have existed since at least the 19th century in such forms as pamphlets, yellow-backs, yellowbacks, dime novels, and airport novels. Modern paperbacks can be differentiated from one another by size. In the United States, there are "mass-market paperbacks" and larger, more durable "trade paperbacks". In the United Kingdom, there are A-format, B-format, and the largest C-format sizes. Paperback editions of books are issued when a publisher decides to release a book in a low-cost format. Lower-quality paper, glued (rather than stapled or sewn) bindings, and the lack of a hard cover may contribute to the lower cost of paperbacks. Paperb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bilal Tanweer
Bilal Tanweer is a Pakistani writer and translator from Lahore, Pakistan. His novel '' The Scatter Here Is Too Great'' was awarded the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize in 2014, and was shortlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature and the Chautauqua Prize in 2015. He received the PEN Translation Fund Grant for his translation of Muhammad Khalid Akhtar's novel ''Chakiwara Mein Visaal''. Early life Tanweer was born in 1983 in Karachi, Pakistan. He earned his Master of Fine Arts degree from Columbia University and received a Fulbright Scholarship. He presently resides in Lahore, Pakistan and works as an associate professor at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). He is a mentor and organiser of LUMS Young Writers Workshop for young writers in Pakistan. Works His writing has appeared in various newspapers and magazines including The New York Times, Dawn, Granta, Vallum, Critical Muslim, The Caravan and Words Without Borders. His novel, ''The Scatter Here is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ali Imran
Ali Imran ( ur, علی عمران) is a fictional character in various Urdu language detective novels written by Asrar Ahmed under the pseudonym of Ibn-e-Safi. He serves as the titular protagonist in the ''Imran Series'' novels. He is usually referred to only by his last name in the context of the novels. Imran is written out as a bright and young Oxford graduate, holding both a master's degree and a doctorate in chemistry. Although being highly inquisitive and trained in the matters of criminology, Imran is portrayed rather as showing clumsiness at times to hide the fact that he is a spymaster for a special branch of secret service spy operatives, working for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Like Inspector Clouseau in ''The Pink Panther'', this facet of his personality serves also as comic relief throughout the novel series and teems the extreme morbidity and ruthlessness espionage with decent humour. Biography Early years Ali Imran is an ageless character. He is described to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery ''The Mousetrap'', which has been performed in the West End since 1952. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime". She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. ''Guinness World Records'' lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies. Christie was born into a wealthy upper middle class family in Torquay, Devon, and was largely home-schooled. She was initially an unsuccessful writer with six co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mystery Fiction
Mystery is a genre fiction, fiction genre where the nature of an event, usually a murder or other crime, remains wiktionary:mysterious, mysterious until the end of the story. Often within a closed circle of suspects, each suspect is usually provided with a credible motive and a reasonable opportunity for committing the crime. The central character is often a detective (such as Sherlock Holmes), who eventually solves the mystery by logical deduction from facts presented to the reader. Some mystery books are non-fiction. Mystery fiction can be detective stories in which the emphasis is on the puzzle or suspense element and its logical solution such as a whodunit. Mystery fiction can be contrasted with hardboiled detective stories, which focus on action and gritty realism. Mystery fiction can involve a supernatural mystery in which the solution does not have to be logical and even in which there is no crime involved. This usage was common in the pulp magazines of the 1930s and 1940s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Radio Pakistan
Radio Pakistan serves as the national public broadcaster for radio in Pakistan. Although some local stations predate Radio Pakistan's founding, it is the oldest existing broadcasting network in Pakistan. The network was established on 14 August 1947, following Pakistan's independence from Britain. Radio Pakistan services include AM news services and FM 101 (music) and FM 93. History Radio Pakistan was originally known as the ''Pakistan Broadcasting Service'' at the time of its inception on 14 August 1947. It had the honour of publicly announcing Pakistan's independence from Britain on 13 August 1947 at 11:59 pm. Mustafa Ali Hamdani made the announcement from Lahore in Urdu and English, while Abdullah Jan Maghmoom made the announcement from Peshawar in Pashto. The announcement was heard as follows: The English translation of this announcement is as follows: Greetings Pakistan Broadcasting Service. We are speaking from Lahore. The night between the thirteenth an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crime Novels
Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, often a murder. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as historical fiction or science fiction, but the boundaries are indistinct. Crime fiction has multiple subgenres, including detective fiction (such as the whodunit), courtroom drama, hard-boiled fiction, and legal thrillers. Most crime drama focuses on crime investigation and does not feature the courtroom. Suspense and mystery are key elements that are nearly ubiquitous to the genre. History The ''One Thousand and One Nights'' (''Arabian Nights'') contains the earliest known examples of crime fiction. One example of a story of this genre is the medieval Arabic tale of "The Three Apples", one of the tales narrated by Scheherazade in the ''Arabian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
