Barnes & Noble Discover Great New WritersThe alchemical wedding of genres known as the "literary thriller" is more often than not a marriage of convenience — an ill-suited match that rarely survives the sober realization that neither party has much in common with the other. The basic elements of the thriller — intricate plotting, page-turning prose, and nonstop action — are not always compatible with more subtle literary devices such as multilevel exposition and depth of characterization. Self-examination, ancillary story lines, and "unnecessary" local color are seen as diversions that hinder, rather than enhance, the pace and direction of the novel. Only after a devoted readership has been established — the third or fourth book in a bestselling series, perhaps — is such artistic license likely to be accepted. Happily, in any given year, a number of exceptions to this rule present themselves — most recently Iain Pears's An Instance of the Fingerpost and Robert Stone's incomparable Damascus Gate. Now Leslie Forbes joins this distinguished company with her dazzling fiction debut. Bombay Ice is a true literary thriller that is at once a far-reaching meditation on the nature of chaos and an intriguing whodunit that scuds along with cyclonic velocity and force. Rosalind Bengal is a 33-year-old radio producer for the BBC, a "professional vampire" whose job it is to insinuate herself into others' lives and suck out their life stories.Belyingher Anglo-Indian heritage, she is tall, broad-shouldered, black-haired, and light-skinned — an imposing figure who, in her own assessment, embodies the panache of the early Kate Hepburn. (In a cruel parting shot, her last lover less generously compared her appearance to that of the late Elvis.) Twenty years after leaving India upon the shipwreck of her parents' tempestuous relationship, Roz finds herself lured back to her childhood home by a cryptic letter she