The Night Of The Mi'raj , by Zoe Ferraris Book at Bedtime - from Monday, July 7 @10.45pm / BBC Radio 4

THIS WEEK'S BOOK At Bedtime offering, The Night Of The Mi'raj by Zoe Ferraris, is a gripping crime novel set in contemporary Saudi Arabia. When a young woman is found murdered in the desert, her family ask Nayir, a Palestinian-born desert guide, to investigate. As his inquiries progress, Nayir struggles with loyalties he has never before questioned - to old friends, to his faith and to a culture in which women take their secrets to their graves. Amongst the strands of her tightly woven plot, Ferraris illuminates life as it is lived in contemporary Saudi Arabia. She gives a clear sense both of the frustrations of women such as forensic scientist Katya - who want to pursue a career, but are forced to work in very restricted circumstances - and of bachelors such as Nayir, for whom women are a frightening mystery. As the novel progresses, amateur sleuths Katya and Nayir grow and learn from the unusual experience of working together - even as they look over their shoulder, fearing a visit from the Saudi Religious Police.

Black and Blue, by Ian Rankin Saturday / BBC Radio 4

EDINBURGH COP JOHN Rebus returns in a new two-part dramatisation of Ian Rankin's bestseller Black and Blue. As Rebus investigates the violent death of a North Sea oil worker in Edinburgh he uncovers possible motives ranging from gangland infighting over drugs to eco protests against oil exploration. But as Rebus's inquiries take him from Edinburgh to Glasgow and then on to Aberdeen he finds his investigation overlapping with a major hunt for a serial killer who has struck in all three Scottish cities.

Cheating at Canasta, by William Trevor Sunday / Radio 4

WILLIAM TREVOR HAS been lauded, quite rightly, as one of the world's leading short story writers. An Irishman, he has lived in England for many years because he thinks it gives him a better perspective of the life he writes about at home. Cheating at Canasta is the title story of William Trevor's latest collection, his first since the highly acclaimed A Bit on the Side (2004), and its themes of missed opportunities, the inevitability of change and the powerful but fragmentary quality of our memories are entirely characteristic of his unparalleled oeuvre.

Åsne Seierstad Bookclub- Sunday / Radio 4

Norwegian journalist Åsne Seierstad spent four months living with an Afghani family in Kabul, to experience life in the capital at first hand. She discusses her account of that time with James Naughtie and the readers at his Book Club. Two weeks after 9/11, Åsne went to Afghanistan to report on the conflict, from the frontline of the Northern Alliance in the mountains. She came down to Kabul and visited Sultan Khan's shop, finding it filled with literary treasures. On her first visit, she bought seven books. She went back to listen to his stories. Khan had defied the authorities for 20 years in order to supply books to the people of Kabul. He was arrested, interrogated and imprisoned by the communists and watched illiterate Taliban soldiers burn piles of his books in the street. He invited Åsne for dinner one evening. It was a huge contrast from her dinners with the commandos in the mountains. The women answered only when spoken to but never initiated any conversations. She asked Khan if she might write his story and he agreed. The result was a best-selling novel, The Bookseller Of Kabul.