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The Warehouse
The Warehouse is an original and contemporary novel set in Pakistan’s dreaded Waziristan, on the borders of Afghanistan a hotbed of crime, terrorism and harsh brutality.
Cash, an insurance surveyor is sent out to Waziristan to find the recipient of an insurance claim that has remained open for several years. He is persuaded to go on this dangerous journey by an old flame – Sonya. There is also money to be made, money he can use to help fund his daughter’s education in Karachi.
On his trip he encounters corrupt police, scurrilous locals and eventually the Taliban who kidnap him. They hold him prisoner and make use of his computer skills. He meets Bilqis, a beautiful widow, and has an opportunity to escape arises after a year of captivity, he and his fellow prisoners escape, trying to return to Pakistan.
Cash, an insurance surveyor is sent out to Waziristan to find the recipient of an insurance claim that has remained open for several years. He is persuaded to go on this dangerous journey by an old flame – Sonya. There is also money to be made, money he can use to help fund his daughter’s education in Karachi.
On his trip he encounters corrupt police, scurrilous locals and eventually the Taliban who kidnap him. They hold him prisoner and make use of his computer skills. He meets Bilqis, a beautiful widow, and has an opportunity to escape arises after a year of captivity, he and his fellow prisoners escape, trying to return to Pakistan.
258 pages, Paperback
Published March 30, 2017
About the author
S.S. Mausoof
1 book7 followersS.S. Mausoof grew up in Karachi and currently lives in San Francisco. He has written several screenplays and has multiple IMDB credits, including an award-winning thriller shot in Karachi called Kala Pul – The Black Bridge. His short stories have been published in several periodicals including the South Asian Review Creative Writing Issue.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 5, 2017
In noir thrillers, the hero often experiences a series of unpleasant events. In noir thrillers set in Waziristan the hero gets done over in so many exotic and deeply unpleasant ways that you just need to doff your hat to the author. A very enjoyable take on the genre.
July 13, 2016
Takes one of the world's most violent places, an unconventional protagonist and spins an engrossing story of agendas and motivations far divorced from what we read in the headlines..
May 15, 2017
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. S. S. Mausoof's protagonist is both guide and pawn, leading the reader deep into a world that most westerners little or no conception of. With building tension that kept me up late at night past my normal bedtime, I tore through this book, wondering how the flawed actors could hope to survive in a part of the world known more for war than compassion. I look forward to future works.
August 9, 2020
The Warehouse from SS Mausoof, started with a lot of promise, backed up by very good noir writing, which I believe is scarce in my side of the world. Writers choice of words were quite refreshing in almost all scenes the background, the location description, the emotional scenes, the action scenes or even romance for that matter. You could tell lot of thoughts went to those sentences to make it hard hitting and viscerally convincing.
The story's starts with Qais (cash) who is a insurance investigator accepting to settle a burned warehouse claim, in a dangerous location, as a favor to his ex-lover working for insurance company. Qais sensing some quick bucks to be made treads the dangerous path to Waziristan a Taliban controlled area to discover the claim falsely attributed to fire mishap while it was in-fact a drone attack. While Qais tactically settles the claim as his employer wanted him to do, he is unwittingly caught in between the clutches of power hungry Taliban and money hungry Pakistan army.
Although promising as it sounds, the Warehouse plays a very little role in this book, except for drawing Qais out of his hometown to a different land. I was looking forward to a conspiracy constructed around the whole thing, and it acting as a mainstay. But the author chose a different path, by pin balling the protagonist form one cult to another, while giving the picture of internal affairs and functioning of different organisation thus influencing the transition he undergoes as man, as father, lover and as human in general.
Its possible that my expectation were wrong from the beginning, but the narrative stretches long and mundane as we see Qais moved from one place to another, with new characters adding in at every turn of page.
Brilliant writing with an original protagonist, let down by a expansive plot, that drifts far from a tight knit thriller.
The story's starts with Qais (cash) who is a insurance investigator accepting to settle a burned warehouse claim, in a dangerous location, as a favor to his ex-lover working for insurance company. Qais sensing some quick bucks to be made treads the dangerous path to Waziristan a Taliban controlled area to discover the claim falsely attributed to fire mishap while it was in-fact a drone attack. While Qais tactically settles the claim as his employer wanted him to do, he is unwittingly caught in between the clutches of power hungry Taliban and money hungry Pakistan army.
Although promising as it sounds, the Warehouse plays a very little role in this book, except for drawing Qais out of his hometown to a different land. I was looking forward to a conspiracy constructed around the whole thing, and it acting as a mainstay. But the author chose a different path, by pin balling the protagonist form one cult to another, while giving the picture of internal affairs and functioning of different organisation thus influencing the transition he undergoes as man, as father, lover and as human in general.
Its possible that my expectation were wrong from the beginning, but the narrative stretches long and mundane as we see Qais moved from one place to another, with new characters adding in at every turn of page.
Brilliant writing with an original protagonist, let down by a expansive plot, that drifts far from a tight knit thriller.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews