Review of The Complaints by Ian Rankin Another good thriller from Ian Rankin. This is a straightforward police story, bringing together multiple threads – an internal police investigation, child pornography and straightforward murder – into a well-paced tale. A knowledge of Edinburgh & a familiarity with Scottish terms and mannerisms will only add to the [...]
Archive for July, 2010
Review of The Complaints
Posted in Reviews, tagged Edinburgh, Ian Rankin, Rebus, The Complaints on July 30, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Review of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest
Posted in Reviews, tagged Lisbeth Salander, Millenium series, Stieg Larsson, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest on July 27, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Awesome, what a superbly crafted tale! Stieg Larsson’s final part of the Millenium trilogy is a superlative example of his mastery over the art of crime writing. The book takes the story of Lisbeth Salander to a much-awaited and expected conclusion, but it’s the manner in which we are taken to the conclusion that makes [...]
Review of The Page 3 Murders
Posted in Reviews, tagged Indian detective, Kalpana Swaminathan, Lalli, The Page 3 Murders on July 22, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
The Page 3 Murders, by Kalpana Swaminathan This is supposed to be a murder mystery but if you have expectations of a fascinating tale of crime & detection, then revise your expectations. I am yet to come across a murder mystery where the first corpse only turns up around page 175 of this 280-page first [...]
Stieg Larsson and the Millenium series…
Posted in Comment, tagged Millenium series, Stieg Larsson on July 14, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
The Guardian (www.guardian.co.uk) carries an article today stating that there is a possible fourth story that in the Millenium series by Stieg Larsson. It is believed that Stieg’s partner has the never-before-printed draft of the next adventure featuring the unforgettable Lisbeth Salander and her journalist friend Mikael Blomkvist. For the millions of fans of Lisbeth [...]
Review of The 65 Lakh Heist
Posted in Reviews, tagged Book review, Hindi pulp fiction, Surender Mohan Pathak, The 65 Lakh Heist on July 12, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
This is classic James Hadley Chase set in an Indian context. Bunch of guys plan a robbery, execute it deftly and then things begin to go wrong & unravel. There is always one fall guy amongst the robbers. Surender Mohan Pathak, who wrote this book, used to be a translator of James Hadley Chase books [...]
Review of The Girl Who Played With Fire
Posted in Reviews, tagged Lisbeth Salander, Millenium series, Stieg Larsson, The Girl Who Played With Fire on July 11, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
This is one of the best sequels I have read – if you enjoyed The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, then you will enjoy this even more. Lisbeth Salander – what a babe! – is as unpredictable as ever. There are parts when she seems to have disappeared completely, leaving the action with Mikael Blomqvist [...]
Review of The Nine Billion Names of God
Posted in Reviews, tagged Arthur C Clarke, Book review, Science Fiction, The Nine Billion Names of God on July 10, 2010 | 3 Comments »
The Nine Billion Names of God is a collection of short stories by one of the masters of SF – Arthur C Clarke. I am an SF addict since childhood, but for reasons I myself don’t understand I’ve only read Isaac Asimov, neglecting all other SF writers in the process. Arthur C Clarke is as [...]
Mumbai is the favourite setting of Indian writers
Posted in Comment, tagged Bombay, Mumbai on July 20, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Apparently Mumbai – and the old Bombay – is the favourite setting of Indian writers writing in English, according to a BBC article that appears here. The BBC’s Soutik Biswas who writes a regular blog connected to the BBC News website discusses quite a few books – new and old – set in this city. [...]
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