Pan Macmillan India releases The Party Worker by Omar Shahid

Bestselling author Omar Shahid Hamid's third and most chilling novel yet

About the book

A burnt out New York cop; an eighty-year-old Parsi sitting in a decaying Karachi mansion; a hitman whose days are numbered; a journalist who dreams of the big time.

When a Jewish woman is killed on the steps of the Natural History Museum in New York, disparate lives are thrown together for one purpose: to bring about the downfall of the Don, the uncrowned king of Karachi.

The Party Worker explores the Machiavellian politics of Pakistan's busiest city, where friends come bearing bullets, and enemies can wait patiently for decades before striking.

Gritty, disturbing, and compelling, this is Omar Shahid Hamid at his best.

Praise for Omar Shahid Hamid

‘I strongly suggest that Western policy makers read The Prisoner before they next call for a military “crackdown” on Islamist militancy in Pakistan’ New York Review of Books

‘An exhilarating crime novel … Hamid’s portrayal of the city, the police, and the byzantine political play is nuanced and sophisticated’ NPR

‘A book that one simply will not be able to put down’ Dawn

‘[A] gripping crime thriller with a heart-wrenching denouement … a haunting human-interest story’ The Hindu

‘No matter how many books Omar Shahid Hamid writes, he will never fail to give you an ending you never, in your wildest dreams, expected’ Deccan Chronicle

‘A racy page-turner, a rollicking ride – but with dark undertones … Hamid has established his status as the first Pakistani crime writer writing in English’ Friday Times

About the author  

Omar Shahid Hamid has been a police officer in Pakistan for sixteen years and is a senior member of the Karachi Police's Counter Terrorism Department. In 2011, following an attack on his offices by the Pakistani Taliban, he took a five-year sabbatical to write books and worked as a political risk consultant. He has been widely quoted and regularly featured in major news outlets like The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Times, Le Monde, DW, Bloomberg, Reuters, CNN, BBC and NPR. His first novel, The Prisoner (2013), was longlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2015 and is now being adapted for a feature film. His second novel is The Spinner’s Tale (2015). In 2016, Omar returned to active duty as a Counter Terrorism Officer.