Elephants in the Room by Suraj Laxminarayanan
Published by The Write Place on 08/2018
Genres: Fiction
Pages: 600
Format: ARC
Goodreads

What is a better crime fiction novel where a crime revolves around not the detective who tries to fit pieces in a puzzle? A book that focuses on the crime, it’s after effects and the turmoil every individual involved goes through. Such is a book written by Suraj Laxminarayanan called Elephants in the Room.  

Set in Chennai this book is the debut of Suraj Laxminarayanan in the world of crime fiction. The plot revolves around a bank heist that leads to the story of three gangs coming face to face as the events in this book unfold. A group of friends plans a bank robbery which they think to be foolproof. They get into every detail and leave nothing out of their blueprint. It is kind of an Oceans’ 11 but here only 5 members are the mastermind behind it. They try to start their careers as robbers by mugging pedestrians to get hands-on experience. 

Things get interesting when another gang of robbers who have already established roots in the crime decides to rob the same bank on the same day with heavy weaponry. Bonds are developed among criminals but as they say, there is no honor among thieves, things get ugly.  

The storyline is a long one, written in more 590 pages, it intelligently unfolds every event and the reason behind the action taken which helps a reader like me to develop perspective. This also keeps it interesting until the end. The theme does not only revolves around the crime that is committed but every emotion exposure each character go through which leads to a thrilling drama that is lightened by occasional comic moments. 

I never expected this novel to be a thrilling one. The plot did sound interesting at the start and looking at the length of the book, I did wonder how the author will reach the conclusion of this tale which is full of twists and turns. He is imagination and construction of plot did exceed my expectations and so did his writing style. Written from a third person’s narrative there is not a single element I could find the can be said as a dragging one. He even provides insight into Chennai’s culture and its geography which I am nothing but unfamiliar. The characterization could have been better but I do not solely blame the author since there is a huge cast to manage.  

This book is an attraction for crime readers as it does not follow a traditional path of the subgenre but tries to redefine the perspective both of the reader and the writer because of its highly appreciable and well-organized plot.  

4 out of 5! 

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Vrushali Telang’s latest book, Prime Time Crime is a novella. It conspires a story of a news reporter and a mafia Gangster in the city of Mumbai. The plot is intriguing and at the same time well structured. It is something new to read and expect from an Indian writer.

The plot starts with the introduction to our first protagonist of the story, a shooter who works for top-notch don and kills at least 3 to four high profile people in a year. He intuition of using a rifle is what got him the job in the first place. Dwell further, we are then introduced to our second protagonist who is an intern as a news reporter.

Within a month after joining she manages to grab an interview with the gangster, A.T. This leads to a mutual attraction between. A. T. is then promoted by his voice as the leader of a particular gang and is assigned to kill rival gang leader without using a gun. Meanwhile, Ritika, the news reporter’s career goes up too with some help from A. T. Both are passionate about each other until Ritika is caught red-handed by a police officer who then tries to manipulate about getting whereabouts of the gangster.

The plot is well organized throughout the book and not once did I feel that it gets distracted. The theme of the plot is interesting to me and I am sure it will lure many readers towards itself. The author has used the element of gangster and underworld in a minimal manner but smartly. This is not a typical romance fiction or romance fiction at all. It is a tragic tale.

The characterization in this novel is good. Characters are completely developed and mature from the start. The only thing that progresses is the relationship between the two. The writing style is excellent and fully verbose. There has been some use of a dragging element in between though.

Something interesting, very intriguing and the writer’s effort in creating it is completely reflected throughout. Will keep an eye on Vrushali’s next books.

4 out of 5!

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A Murder on Malabar Hills by Sujata Massey
Series: Perveen Mistry #1
Published by Penguin on 09/02/2018
Genres: Mystery, Fiction
Pages: 304
Format: Paperback
Goodreads

Set in Bombay, India, 1921, A Murder on Malabar Hills is mystery fiction with touches of historical fiction and is written by Sujata Massey. The book follows a female solicitor who has joined her father’s law firm and happens to be the first female lawyer in India.

During that time, women were not allowed to appear in court under British law. One of the touches of history this book provides. Young Perveen Mistry is appointed to execute the will of Omar Farid, a wealthy mill owner and her suspicions are aroused by a curious provision which could disinherit Farid’s three widows and leave them vulnerable. These widows who by the Muslim law follow a strict seclusion and never leave their quarters or speaking to men. Perveen thinks they are being taken advantage by their guardian appointed by the husband on his deathbed.

She decides to investigate the matter and the tension in the Farid’s household starts to escalate. But then, a murder happens at Farid’s home as she discovers the body and soon she realizes that her identity as solicitor changes.

The setting of the plot is something that not many Indian writers have explored. It is an era before the independence of India, just after the world war and full of political tension. There is more than to the plot than a traditional murder mystery. Massey has put a lot of effort in exploring the communities of Parsis majorly. The setting of Perveen’s household, the detailing of Bombay, Parsis’ their religious rituals and marital laws make this book a realistic enough. At that time, the city of Bombay contained a multiplicity of cultures, classes, and languages and Massey has done well in the department of researching it thoroughly. Written in engrossingly in a third person narrative voice, there is a subplot set in 1916-17 that spotlights Perveen’s past and her short marriage and how she came across to be the first solicitor. This backstory is one of the good signs that there will be a second book and pulling skeletons out of the closet of a character is always a delight for a reader, reading the mystery. Not only that, the backstory copes well with the ongoing plot and does not feel at all as a dragging element.

The characterization of in this novel is realistic. The character of Perveen, our protagonist, her family including her father, brother, sister-in-law, and mother. Her British friend and the three widows of Farid household. Even the supporting characters fill well. There is some reflection of a typical Indian household between a child and their parents, especially a girl child, by showcasing Perveen’s relationship with her father.

The major theme of the book is gender equality. It is not only that Perveen’s work as a detective in solving the mystery, though she is not the typical type. A lot of emphases has been put on the theme and I think it is necessary even after almost a hundred years, there is suffering from that all over the world, I am sure. Some might think it is hardcore feminism, but I do not think it that way. I think it is an urgency and an ultimate necessity in such an advanced age to be responsible for it and make a change by eliminating this norm developed by an ancient bunch of men to feel powerful over the infinite. The powerful character of Perveen is 23 years old and in those many years, the author has shown how much she has been through in her span of life.

This book is perfect in many ways. I think I am doing justice to it by writing this review, but to do the justice yourself, you should read this book.

5 out of 5!

Note: I got the invite from the publisher to attend a Blogger’s Meet (including Book signing) with the author herself. Will be posting the recorded session in an upcoming post. Stay tuned.

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Murderous Greed by Arun K. Nair
Published by Notionpress on 2017
Genres: Mystery, Fiction
Pages: 203
Format: Paperback
Goodreads

Crime Fiction is one of my favourites genre to read. I can read books falling under this genre in no time. In my reading years, after reading both classics and contemporary crime fiction novels, I have concluded that a good crime fiction is written with variant in its narrative pace. Not only it keeps the reader driving forward, continue the guess work, but it eliminates the possibility of having dragging components in between. Murderous Greed by Arun K is an excellent example of that.

The plot is set in town of Avadi, Tamil Nadu where two tragic occasions have happened on one morning. In the first one a woman falls victim to chain snatching and gives away her life in the process. In the second case, a young business man falls short of his life and his shot at least twice, reported by the witness. A police officer is on the roll and has a deadline to match to complete these cases. But more over he suspects are these two cases interwind somehow? Follow Satyajit, the contemporary detective inspector, as he attempts to uncover these dubious questions.

The storyline has an average start as it takes time to build up the whole situation and the life around the characters involved. I always, when introducing a detective, or protagonist in mystery or crime fiction novels, a writer should spend some amount of time in the process of building up the surreal reality. It is always a good sign, or a good start in my opinion and is an essential step in crime fiction genre. The author of this book does that. The narrative voice uses third person element gracefully.

The characterisation of this novel is interesting because these characters play bigger role. The character of protagonist gets the reader’s attention from the start and does take enough time to develop and it feels his character might fall flat in the first half of the novel. Believe me, things get a lot more interesting in the second half, as soon as your half way through this novel. The pace of this book is smooth at times but picks speed when it has too. This novel does not classify as a complete thriller until the climax but in my opinion it does not have too. There are strong vibes from the start that mystery included is going to be larger than life kind of thing.

As a reader, to fulfil the challenge of solving the mystery is a bit difficult int this novel. I am sure, many might do but I could not. The reason being the well use of red-herring element by the author. A master display of that. I am surprised by the conclusion and found it a delight at the same time.

Pick this one up if you have taste for crime fiction or mystery. There is a sequel coming this year.

4 out of 5

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Pages: 448, Kindle Edition

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Pages: 640
Published: April, 2017 by Opulencesix Digital Private Limited
Cover Rating: 4/5

March to Opulence is a unique book. It consists stories from different era’s and around the world. This vast number of stories of various genres, and cultures are hard to find in a single collection such that readers of different age group have access to them.

The book is divided in three sections. First section is for children and young teenagers and include some masterpieces that will definitely indulge them in the act of reading. Stories from Hans Christian Andersen, Arthur Conan Doyle, Anton Chekhov, Lewis Carroll, Oscar Wilde are finest in their genres. The next section covers Teens and Youth. These stories are similar to or share those authors that are being read across the globe in their text books such as H. H. Munro, Guy de Maupassant, Nikola Tesla, Mark Twain, Jerome K. Jerome are few to mention. The last section, with increase in the level of prose is targeted to mature audience. Reading time of most of the proses is under half an hour but it varies as few might take up to an hour or so.

In the book, editor and his team has been clear from the start regarding the target audience of the book. The main audience of the book are children and youth covering a huge range of 10 to 25 years. This is where complexity comes in handy. As the book progresses, the stories or the chapters in the book are longer, mature, and significantly complex such that specific age group is able to appreciate the initial prose targeted to. There are also reading guidelines described that I think are helpful for very young readers as it gives proper direction to perform the act of reading. One thing I would like to mention that, this book can be a great resource if your child or teenager wants to form a reading habit willingly.

Compiling these stories with increasing level of complexity to target potential readers (however, there is no hard rule for reading these stories) is a job of pure effort since a lot of research and study goes into with the least amount of being biased. Thus, I want to appreciate the effort of the editor Mr. Parikshit Nagesh Samant.

The editor has done a favour on the reader by explaining the selection criteria of the passages that the collection consists of and thus maintains the transparency with his readers. As with the multi-cultural prose the book does not contain any poetry at all. I wonder what choices of poems could have been. May be in a separate volume.

The book, in my opinion, gives a good and a positive reading experience. To help the target audience, each story consists of a brief summary at the start for a reader to understand the context. In the last section, the editorial team has been kind of to recommend the resources such as gutenberg.org and archive.org that are under public domain and hold many possibilities that are yet to be explored by me. I have been using both of them exclusively since my teenage days.

I will recommend this book to potential audience (and their parents) since it is a perfect fit to get familiar with different cultures and observe the how similar morality define us as single species regardless of the geographical location.

4 out of 5!

Buy the book from Amazon.in

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I must confess the Hercule Poirot is not one of my favourite detectives. Not even close. But that’s personal opinion. What I enjoy most Poirot’s cases or I must say, Agatha Christie’s writing is the how the cases unfold in the end after reaching the climax. This book has a brilliant ending, that’s all. No spoilers. I enjoy her writing which never fails to create a tension on the reader to get to the end of it. And Then There Were None is the best case scenario.

Curtain is the last novel starring Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot. Narrated by Captain Hastings, Poirot’s friend who never fails to represent himself as a sidekick. Poriot has summoned Hastings to him in order for them to investigate one last case together at  Styles. Poirot now elderly and unable to walk is bound on a wheelchair. Even though in his pitiful situation, he assures his friend, Captain Hastings that he still the same man and his core, the mind, or the grey cells as Poirot refers to a multiple times are working as much as they were in their first meeting in The Mysterious Affair at Styles. He tells Hastings about a mysterious “X” who Poirot believes to be a connection in five murders. Poirot believes that “X” is going to strike again and someone at Styles will be murdered. Since Poirot cannot interview and pick people’s brains per usual, Hastings is to be his eyes, ears, and legs in this case.

Interesting point to note is that, Poirot is at his close to best in this book. The best book of Hercule Poirot that I have read and can recall, please note I have read very limited amounts of Poirot’s, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. Other characters in this book are somewhat misleading but none of them gives a feeling of the usual red-herring until the read reaches the end of the book with narrator himself. There’s not much of Poirot’s mind games but nonetheless, I have came to a realisation, he’s not that sort of a detective.

Plot follows a steady pace, not so fast but nor a slow one. Some might feel an adrenaline rush in their bodies towards the end of the book. That’s where the climax is. Brilliantly done. This novel produces a clever solution that I desperately failed to even come close to. However, at the same time, I disliked that not a single hint or glimpse of an adrenaline rush, through a red-herring or something else, was given in between the tale. The author discuss the possible red-herrings just before the ending.

If you haven’t read it, go read it.

3 out of 5

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Rebus’ life is full of twists and turns, some are the creation of his own actions along with jeopardising investigations he is often involved in. Strip Jack is another one of those. The depth Rankin bestows in his character is enchanting. Rankin’s words complete Rebus. They’re companionship is brawny. Without one of them, I cannot imagine other one’s world.

I have read more than half of the books published under John Rebus’ series and this one is a masterpiece. If you ask me, why? For the reason that I have never seen any of the Rankin’s story to start and end at equal levels so astonishingly.

The story begins with a police operation. Raiding a brothel in a relatively high-class neighbourhood but, they happen to find the an MP name Gregor Jack belonging to North and South Esk constituency who, so far in the public eye had been an immaculate. However, Rebus was convinced that there was something strange about it, considering the horde of reporters who were waiting outside the brothel during the raid, something which only the police had known. Jack’s wife is missing and is eventually found in the river, murdered. MP Gregor Jack is bereaved and at the same time, is going through a bad time because of the brothel incident and John Rebus, is keen to uncover the mystery surrounding this incident.

The plot moves steadily, if you have read any of the Rankin’s books before, you  can imagine how it moves, transparently. Rankin certainly has his own visionary way of representing Scotland to his readers. Music is another big part of both the character and its creator and I believe that’s one personal touch provided by the author to his artistry creation.

This complete mystery is perfect for a wintry weekend. Recommended!

5 out of 5

Explore Ian Rankin:

Book Reviews- Set in Darkness, Saints of the Shadow Bible, A Cool Head

Essay on John Rebus

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This book does not lack even a drop of suspense. ‘Thrilling‘ is just another word to describe it. And yes, the more you read, the more you will find yourself surrounded by the likes of Clarence Starling, Dr. Hannibal Lecter, Jack Crawford, Dr. Chilton, in other words, the world of Hannibal created executively by Thomas Harris.

I remember watching The Silence of the Lambs, and then I had no idea in what I am indulging my curiosity. But it was fascinating, and horrifying, and more fascinating. Then came Hannibal created by Bryan Fuller which I can say just polishes one’s fascination and is adapted in a whole new way. Playing with original characters with elegance and style is what Bryan Fuller has done with it. 

The world of Hannibal, even though he eats other mammals, is one of the most captivating one. We, humans, will be referring it for ages. Even though we know it is morally wrong to eat our own species, and the fact that he has maroon eyes but we love Hannibal for it. He is a source of fulfilling our darkest fantasies. He is the one antagonist that none are reluctant to. Okay, I know I am being obsessive, but I am not a cannibal and I don’t even eat meat. (And I am not going to eat you so that you can continue to read the post).

The Silence of the Lambs tells the story of FBI student Clarice Starling and her work with Jack Crawford, the head of Behavioral Science, the FBI division that deals with serial murder, to find serial killer ‘Buffalo Bill’. He sends her on what seems a harmless errand, to present a questionnaire to one Dr. Hannibal ‘The Cannibal’ Lecter, and with this the chase for Buffalo Bill is on. The conflict and themes are varied, the dialogue is quite genuine, the plot is twisted and the details are well researched.

The unnamed narrator delivers the story with a controlled omniscient view that allows us to experience the events from many perspectives, even the antagonists, yet the reader’s connection with the protagonists, Starling and Crawford, is unquestioned. We root for Starling because we’ve all been in situations where it felt as if the world worked against, while the reader sympathies with Crawford and his tragedy. The narrator then develops the relation between Starling and Lecter.

Leaving out the characters of Starling, Lecter, and Crawford, one will find that other characters are well-formed too. There is no lack of scheming by Harris in forming his characters. Whenever he thinks, a reader might fall in love with or sympathies with one of his puppets, he adds another knot to the thread.

Highly recommended if you are looking to buzz your imagination.

5 out of 5!

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Rebus, to me, is a hypnotist himself. I sometimes feel that he has inherited his father’s abilities even not following the profession. He takes a reader’s conscience bit by bit and hypnotize him until that reader is plunging in the darkness of John Rebus. He’s the surreal Scotsman, the more you hate, the more you will end up loving him.

Ian Rankin prefers to leave the physical appearance of his characters to the reader’s imagination, although when Rebus is first introduced in Knots and Crosses, we learn that he has brown hair and green eyes. His enisle lifestyle means that his clothes are often less than immaculate. He was married, but divorced sometime in the 1980s. His ex-wife and his daughter appear frequently in the novels both as human and ghosts of past.

John Rebus has a fierce drive to succeed in his field and identifies closely with others who are facing adversity. Although he holds a law enforcement position, his postwar upbringing has influenced him to have a distrust of authority and an intimidating personality.

The depth given by Ian Rankin in this character’s mind is enchanting. A great deal happens in his life, His relationship with his daughter has ups and downs, his relationships with girlfriends have downs and downs, he incarcerates Big Ger Cafferty and then more than once depends on favours done him by the gangster, he gets into varyingly severe degrees of trouble with his bosses, and has friends and colleagues get into all sorts of difficulties around him, and through all this is essentially unchanged. Stubbornness is Rebus’s most deep-seated characteristic. All the various ways in which he could improve the quality of his life – which boil down essentially to his being less impossible are somehow unthinkable. He stands in everybody else’s way, but he stands in his own way too; difficult, determined, remorseless, honorable, honest, and proud of his lack of charm. The complexity of Rebus’ surroundings and his own mind is at the same level as yours or mine.

Rebus’ life is full of twists and turns, some are the creation of his own actions along with jeopardizing investigations he often involved. Juggling with multiple matters at a time, Rebus taught me how to look at different subjects from various perspectives at the same time and find an optimal way tackle those subjects. If inept, get on with the some Scotch and a bit of Jazz music.

Rebus is one of the best companion in one’s darkest times. He has been mine. It has been three years since we met and our paths keep on coinciding with each other through time. Mingling with his own ghosts and creepy past, he will make you feel complete only if you allow him some space in the back of your mind.

Rebus is now 19 novels old, and yes of course, some short stories too. Rankin is fabulous in plotting. In real-time, Rebus is growing old. And there are few skeletons still left in his closet. I am eagerly looking forward to which skeletons the author will allow his reader’s to perceive.

Titles like Set In Darkness, Saints of the Shadow Bible, Hide & Seek, Fleshmarket Close are just some of the glimpses. A complete collection of Rebus short stories called The Beat Goes On, was released earlier this month.

John Rebus is a fabulation and one of the best intoxicant out there.

Essay appreciated by Mr. Ian Rankin himself:

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