Customer Reviews

North from Calcutta

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Beginning with Ian Fleming, who all but invented the genre, the very best Spy Novelists have been insiders who'd served as intelligence officers before they turned to writing. The greatest of them were also game changers, like John Le Carre, whose Spy Who Came in From the Cold rescued the Spy Novel from the "light entertainment" category and turned it into a hard-edged, gritty, reality-based literary form. I believe Duane Evans meets those pre-conditions for greatness: he is a distinguished, former CIA insider... who has written a book that deserves to become a genre game-changer.

North from Calcutta begins with a firefight "... in a remote valley deep in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province," and then roars ahead pedal-to-the-metal until a nuclear holocaust has been averted and the world for a while is once again safe from fanatical Islamic extremists. Evan's prose is honed-to-the-bone readable; his understanding of the history and cultures of the Pakistan-Kashmir-Afghanistan conflict zone is both profound and informed by the years he lived there while working for the CIA; and, last but not least, he's a gifted story-teller...

All good... but how could North from Calcutta qualify as a game changer? Well... consider this: Evans' hero is a Muslim, Tarek Durrani, an operative for the Pakistani Intelligence Service, who is rendered in such historical/cultural detail, and with such psychological authenticity, that I couldn't help but recognize his humanity and become enwrapped in his story.

Getting an American fan of spy novels to care about a Pakistani operative? That's surely different, and quite a trick to pull off, and Evans has done it. The only other popular Spy Novelist I've read who has successfully attempted this kind of literary sleight-of-hand is Barry Eisler whose Rain novels with their Japanese-American hero also break the stereotype of the modern intelligence operative as a blue-eyed, corn-fed white boy working for either the CIA or MI6. The difference between Eisler and Evans, however, is that Rain is still recognizably an American, albeit an exotic one, while Evans' hero is completely something-other-than-WASP-American.

Fleming, Le Carre, Eisler... that's daunting literary company to claim for any writer of popular fiction, let alone one who has just published his first book. And in truth, it remains to be seen if Evans can win enough readers to validate my assertion that he is a game-changer.

This, however, is undisputable: North from Calcutta is timely, engrossing, and well written enough to bear the weight of such praise... and deserves best-seller status. The book has made me a Duane Evans fan... who's hoping that North from Calcutta will be just the first in a series of novels which eventually will lift the name of Tarek Durrani up to the same level of literary renown as achieved by Fleming's James Bond, Le Carre's Smiley, and Eisler's John Rain.

Duane has written a timely and very enjoyable book. It is refreshing to read a book that looks through the eyes of Southwest Asians rather than Americans. I am certain we can expect more great suspense thrillers from this new author. Great read!!

Nuclear bomb? Check. Evil leader bent on instigating war? Check. Beautiful woman? Check. Optimistic overweight sidekick? Uh...check.

North from Calcutta follows Tarek Durrani, a Pakistani intelligence officer, to London, Bangladesh, Dubai, the Himalayas, and a few other places in attempt to stop a plot to cause a world-changing war between Pakistan and India, as well as save the woman he's hopelessly fallen in love with. Seems like a typical action/adventure, 'save-the-world-before-it's-too-late' kind of tale, but it's really not.

While meeting with architect Advani (his last name; his first is way too long to even attempt to spell) about the plans of a dam named Farakka Barrage built north of Calcutta (hence the book's name), he meets Advani's beautiful daughter Sahar and falls head over heels. But after obtaining the plans he needs for Farakka Barrage, Durrani learns of a plot to blow the dam and pin it on Pakistan. Worse still, a commencement ceremony at Farakka Barrage is to take place with both Advani and his daughter present, putting them as well as hundreds of others in the possible line of fire. It's no wonder Durrani call on his connected, jolly and plump sidekick Habibi to help in stopping the plot's execution.

To be Evans' first novel, he writes like a veteran. Could definitely be owed to his own personal experience as a CIA operative, but even still, he uses all the right words to describe the situation in just enough detail to keep the reader enthralled and begging for more. I'd recommend the writers of 24 pick this guy up - he could make for some amazing scripts for season 8!

- T.C. Robson

Duane Evans has penned a thriller that reads as if it were ripped from today's headlines. An Islamic Fundamentalist group within the Pakistani government plots to seize the Kashmiri province on India's western border and establish an Islamic state there - a provocation that could plunge the entire Asian continent, perhaps the entire world, into nuclear conflict.

The author's protagonist - hero is an old-fashioned word but might be the better one here - is an agent for Pakistan's ISI intelligence agency, and a complex man of considerable nuance: troubled by the failure of an early arranged marriage; haunted by the ghosts of those he has killed in his field work; a modern day Pakistan Muslim who reveres the poetry of Tagore, drinks wine, and falls in love with Sahar, an Indian Hindu. The supporting cast of characters is well drawn, too, including the beautiful Sahar; the evil Salim, head of the dissident cabal; and his right hand man, the ambitious General Huq; but even the minor characters in this novel come vividly to life.

The suspense builds slowly but inexorably, until with the last 100 pages or so the breathless reader is on the edge of his seat as Tarek races alone to avert a nuclear catastrophe and save the woman he loves.

Suspense,adventure and romance of the highest order.

Larry McMurty, who grew up on a Texas ranch, was perfectly suited to tell the now famous story about the adventures of two ex-Texas Rangers in Lonesome Dove. In a similar way, Duane Evans, A highly decorated former CIA operations officer, quite clearly had all the right credentials to tell this engaging life and death tale of espionage and romance, played out in primarily in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. As a former CIA operations officer myself, I find it hard to read most spy novels. Unfortunately, most are written by people who don't understand the trade and whose stories have little basis in fact. This book is a refreshing exception. If you like a good spy story but are tired of suspending belief, you will love this book. You will find yourself transported into a real world adventure of real world proportions.

Tarek Durrani, ex-Pakistani army and former Mujahedeen, is a ranking ISI spook. If you don't follow news, ISI is Pakistani intelligence, one of the scariest spy agencies on earth. And in Duane Evans' debut novel, he is the only man who stands between Pakistan, India, and nuclear war.

Evans makes Durrani a South Asian James Bond, a man of action and principle, willing to desert his own people to do the right thing. As nationalism captures governments in the subcontinent, Durrani finds his own work turned against him. His store of allies is dwindling, and he's fallen in love with somebody forbidden: a Hindu woman who must never find out that he's ISI.

The story turns on Lashkar-e-Taiba, insurgents fighting the war in Kashmir. But in a suitable twist, the warriors turn their attention to Farakka Barrage, a very real and very controversial dam on the Ganges river. The fictionalized events surrounding Kashmir and the Barrage may push two nuclear powers to the brink of the most destructive war in world history.

Durrani is a gripping character whose moral compass, coupled with desire to protect the people he cares for, put him in places where lesser men would crumble. He races from Islamabad to Calcutta, from Abu Dhabi to Dhaka, from London to Washington, trying to prevent a war no one can win. Time and again, the story forces him to ask himself what he's willing to die for.

Evans, a former CIA agent, is not a professional writer. He could use someone to remind him that episodes of agents checking into hotel rooms and falling asleep are not interesting. And he lapses into some wordy discursions as characters explain what we should know to understand Indo-Pakistani politics. A little judicious trimming could shorten this book by a hundred pages.

But Evans also mercifully lets the Indians and Pakistanis tell their own stories. Though there are a few American and European characters, they are guests. Our Pakistani hero ultimately has to prevent war without recourse to the White Man's Burden, a trap a lesser writer might have fallen into too easily. This Indo-Pakistani spy drama belongs to its own people alone.

Duane Evans' debut is smart and ambitious, courting an audience that reads Tom Clancy, but also an audience that is hip to current events and world affairs. It's imperfect, but it makes up in confidence and intelligence what it lacks in polish. I have a suspicion that Evans may be a talent to watch future, a bright light in a crowded and often lusterless espionage lit market.

This book was a very pleasant surprise. I enjoy "Intelligence Services" type of novels, but they were normally centered around the CIA, KGB or Mossad. This is the first one I have read concerning another country. It will hold your interest very well. It is a combination spy and love story. The action is very realistic and believable. I definitely would read another novel by this author.

NORTH FROM CALCUTTA is a thrilling adventure through modern day India and Pakistan. Tarek Durrani the Pakistani intelligence officer discovers that a terrorist group will attack somewhere that could cause a war or worse; a nuclear disaster. The group, headed by Salim will stop at nothing to achieve their goal. To make matters complicated, Tarek falls in love with Sahar, an Indian archictect. Duane Evans' writing flows and makes you feel that you are there. He slowly builds the suspense as he introduces you to the characters that make up this intriguing problem. Then towards the last quarter of the book, the pages explode with action that keeps you hoping that Tarek will succeed, stop the bad guys and get the girl. But you have to read the book to find out.

Duane Evans has created an equally interesting and engaging story with his novel, NORTH FROM CALCUTTA. In a world of Islamic terrorism and Pakastani intelligence, this book reads like an espionage thriller on the other side of the world.

The main character, Tarek Durrani, is a believable, if not a troubled person in his own right. Fighting his own demons along the way to ensuring that India and Pakistan do not end up destroying each other (and the rest of the world) in nuclear war over Kashmir. Evans has a talent for painting a remarkably bleak picture with a hint of sunlight in the corner, and realizing this light in NORTH FROM CALCUTTA is as engaging as it gets.

One of the best features of NORTH FROM CALCUTTA is the pace at which the story is told. The story is engaging and builds chapter by chapter to an explosive conclusion that will be hard to forget. Every chapter is equally fulfilling and their is no down chapters or lagging that sometimes exists to move the plot along. The plot moves perfectly.

If you like espionage thrillers and you are looking for a change in venue for spy exploits, you should take a good look at NORTH FROM CALCUTTA. If you liked THE INCREMENT by David Ignatius you will enjoy NORTH FROM CALCUTTA and vice versa.

Good reading,

J.Stoner

It takes a talented writer to take an ordinary person from North America and plunk them down in the middle of the Middle East with all their politics and belief systems. Duane Evans does that very effectively in North from Calcutta.

One of the reasons I was drawn to this book was Evans' real-life CIA experience. I knew that would add a surreal edge to this story. Through a cast of true-to-life characters, Evans takes the reader on a journey into India and a dam that if destroyed could change the balance of power in the region.

A great debut espionage thriller!