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Jinn Hunter: Book Three: The Perplexity
An oddball and loner, Oliver Quinn was raised by his uncle, the proprietor of Ozymandias & Son – New York’s most bizarre emporium of Oriental rugs.
Through a series of what he believes to be coincidences, Oliver discovers a portal in the basement of the shop – a portal to a magical world called Zonus.
Gradually, Oliver comes to understand that anything he had ever considered to be fact is actually fantasy, and that if he’s to survive, he’ll have to start thinking in an entirely new way.
Most importantly, he grasps that another life form exists – overlaid atop our own – that of the jinns. Far from being the loveable blue genies of Hollywood, they are terrifying in the extreme.
Learning that he’s descended from an ancestral line of Jinnslayers, and that the greatest jinn in existence has escaped, Oliver Quinn is enrolled into the Cadenta, the Academy of Jinn Hunters – the legion of defenders who protect us all from rogue jinns.
Through trials and tribulations, Oliver is made ready to take on the great jinn, Nequissimus, as life as we know it spirals out of control.
With nothing as it seems, and with every route a potential danger zone, the young Jinnslayer has no choice but to grapple with uncanny, ever-changing versions of reality.
A cross between A Thousand and One Nights and Men in Black, THE PERPLEXITY is the third extraordinary novel in Tahir Shah’s much-acclaimed JINN HUNTER series.
As bizarre as it is compelling, it sucks the reader deep into a realm conjured from the farthest limits of fantastical imagination.
Through a series of what he believes to be coincidences, Oliver discovers a portal in the basement of the shop – a portal to a magical world called Zonus.
Gradually, Oliver comes to understand that anything he had ever considered to be fact is actually fantasy, and that if he’s to survive, he’ll have to start thinking in an entirely new way.
Most importantly, he grasps that another life form exists – overlaid atop our own – that of the jinns. Far from being the loveable blue genies of Hollywood, they are terrifying in the extreme.
Learning that he’s descended from an ancestral line of Jinnslayers, and that the greatest jinn in existence has escaped, Oliver Quinn is enrolled into the Cadenta, the Academy of Jinn Hunters – the legion of defenders who protect us all from rogue jinns.
Through trials and tribulations, Oliver is made ready to take on the great jinn, Nequissimus, as life as we know it spirals out of control.
With nothing as it seems, and with every route a potential danger zone, the young Jinnslayer has no choice but to grapple with uncanny, ever-changing versions of reality.
A cross between A Thousand and One Nights and Men in Black, THE PERPLEXITY is the third extraordinary novel in Tahir Shah’s much-acclaimed JINN HUNTER series.
As bizarre as it is compelling, it sucks the reader deep into a realm conjured from the farthest limits of fantastical imagination.
410 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 22, 2024
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About the author
Tahir Shah
162 books634 followersTahir Shah was born in London, and raised primarily at the family’s home, Langton House, in the English countryside – where founder of the Boy Scouts, Lord Baden Powell was also brought up.
Along with his twin and elder sisters, Tahir was continually coaxed to regard the world around him through Oriental eyes. This included being exposed from early childhood to Eastern stories, and to the back-to-front humour of the wise fool, Nasrudin.
Having studied at a leading public school, Bryanston, Tahir took a degree in International Relations, his particular interest being in African dictatorships of the mid-1980s. His research in this area led him to travel alone through a wide number of failing African states, including Uganda, Sierra Leone, and Zaire.
After university, Tahir embarked on a plethora of widespread travels through the Indian subcontinent, Latin America, and Africa, drawing them together in his first travelogue, Beyond the Devil’s Teeth. In the years that followed, he published more than a dozen works of travel. These quests – for lost cities, treasure, Indian magic, and for the secrets of the so-called Birdmen of Peru – led to what is surely one of the most extraordinary bodies of travel work ever published.
In the early 2000s, with two small children, Tahir moved his young family from an apartment in London’s East End to a supposedly haunted mansion in the middle of a Casablanca shantytown. The tale of the adventure was published in his bestselling book, The Caliph’s House.
In recent years, Tahir Shah has released a cornucopia of work, embracing travel, fiction, and literary criticism. He has also made documentaries for National Geographic TV and the History Channel, and published hundreds of articles in leading magazines, newspapers, and journals. His oeuvre is regarded as exceptionally original and, as an author, he is considered as a champion of the new face of publishing.
www.tahirshah.com
www.twitter.com/humanstew
www.facebook.com/TahirShahAuthor
http://www.youtube.com/user/tahirshah999
www.pinterest.com/tahirshah
Along with his twin and elder sisters, Tahir was continually coaxed to regard the world around him through Oriental eyes. This included being exposed from early childhood to Eastern stories, and to the back-to-front humour of the wise fool, Nasrudin.
Having studied at a leading public school, Bryanston, Tahir took a degree in International Relations, his particular interest being in African dictatorships of the mid-1980s. His research in this area led him to travel alone through a wide number of failing African states, including Uganda, Sierra Leone, and Zaire.
After university, Tahir embarked on a plethora of widespread travels through the Indian subcontinent, Latin America, and Africa, drawing them together in his first travelogue, Beyond the Devil’s Teeth. In the years that followed, he published more than a dozen works of travel. These quests – for lost cities, treasure, Indian magic, and for the secrets of the so-called Birdmen of Peru – led to what is surely one of the most extraordinary bodies of travel work ever published.
In the early 2000s, with two small children, Tahir moved his young family from an apartment in London’s East End to a supposedly haunted mansion in the middle of a Casablanca shantytown. The tale of the adventure was published in his bestselling book, The Caliph’s House.
In recent years, Tahir Shah has released a cornucopia of work, embracing travel, fiction, and literary criticism. He has also made documentaries for National Geographic TV and the History Channel, and published hundreds of articles in leading magazines, newspapers, and journals. His oeuvre is regarded as exceptionally original and, as an author, he is considered as a champion of the new face of publishing.
www.tahirshah.com
www.twitter.com/humanstew
www.facebook.com/TahirShahAuthor
http://www.youtube.com/user/tahirshah999
www.pinterest.com/tahirshah
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
October 13, 2025
P 106 THE PERPLEXITY BY TAHIR SHAH 13/10/25
Quote: ‘At times there is a need to keep up certain pretences, Annis said. To maintain a disguise - for the purpose of allowing certain events to take place. Events that might be hindered or made impossible were certain pieces of knowledge known. D’you understand?’
'Why didn't you tell me about it, or about what it could do?
'Because the doorway only opens if you work it out for yourself.' Page 107 Paper back.
Worlds within Worlds, explanations, pointers. 'So much of the realm was now infected with insanity that a snow balling had occurred, leading to a process of fruition.
Although the process was still not quite understood, the result was that the lunacy had begun to take on a consciousness of its own. Having reached a point of critical mass, the state of psychosis had metamorphosed into an actual species of creature.' Page 190 paperback.
Reading The Perplexity. 'Permutations of time and space.' Last sentence of Hannibal Fogg: ‘All hell is about to break loose. There's not a moment to lose.'
From Jinn Hunter, The Prism. Pg 246: 'Always remember something,' he said, his voice sour. 'For it may save your life, or even the future of the Realm itself. It is this: ‘The ability to defeat evil does not come in the form of great physical strength, or even a dazzling mind. It occurs not from the outside but from the inside. An inner strength... a fortitude... it lies in a way of thought... in the reverse of everything you know to be true.'
People of the Secret, page 51: ‘From the present moment of a life time of seventy years, all would seem the whim of chance and accident, all without purpose and meaning.’
From The Perplexity, Page 185: ‘In normal circumstances the gas was quite harmless. But for travellers hastening from one conduit to the next it had a peculiar effect. The gas turned imagined fears into reality.’
To see how bad things can get: My life - From Brigand to King, A life of Amir Habibullah.
Read read READ.
Quote: ‘At times there is a need to keep up certain pretences, Annis said. To maintain a disguise - for the purpose of allowing certain events to take place. Events that might be hindered or made impossible were certain pieces of knowledge known. D’you understand?’
'Why didn't you tell me about it, or about what it could do?
'Because the doorway only opens if you work it out for yourself.' Page 107 Paper back.
Worlds within Worlds, explanations, pointers. 'So much of the realm was now infected with insanity that a snow balling had occurred, leading to a process of fruition.
Although the process was still not quite understood, the result was that the lunacy had begun to take on a consciousness of its own. Having reached a point of critical mass, the state of psychosis had metamorphosed into an actual species of creature.' Page 190 paperback.
Reading The Perplexity. 'Permutations of time and space.' Last sentence of Hannibal Fogg: ‘All hell is about to break loose. There's not a moment to lose.'
From Jinn Hunter, The Prism. Pg 246: 'Always remember something,' he said, his voice sour. 'For it may save your life, or even the future of the Realm itself. It is this: ‘The ability to defeat evil does not come in the form of great physical strength, or even a dazzling mind. It occurs not from the outside but from the inside. An inner strength... a fortitude... it lies in a way of thought... in the reverse of everything you know to be true.'
People of the Secret, page 51: ‘From the present moment of a life time of seventy years, all would seem the whim of chance and accident, all without purpose and meaning.’
From The Perplexity, Page 185: ‘In normal circumstances the gas was quite harmless. But for travellers hastening from one conduit to the next it had a peculiar effect. The gas turned imagined fears into reality.’
To see how bad things can get: My life - From Brigand to King, A life of Amir Habibullah.
Read read READ.
Displaying 1 of 1 review