Malice : A Mystery

Author - Keigo Higashino
Genre - Detective, Mystery, Kyoichiro Kaga, Japan, Crime
Source - Audiobook
Rating - 4
Read - June 2015

Kyoichiro Kaga is a police detective. Kyoichiro Kaga is a very smart man, but that smartness never threatens the realms of genius or even spectacular brilliance. Kaga practices kendo. Kaga is not quirky, arrogant or pompous. Kaga is, as Frederick Forsyth will put it, a 'jagdhund', the African Sniffer dog - ungainly, neither super fast or super strong, but once he catches the trail of his target, he will not let go. In this first story of his that I read, the protagonists steal the show with their ingenuity and their ruthlessness, and lead Kaga down the wrong path more than once - but Kaga doesn't let go. Doggedness and perseverance, great traits though they are for a detective, do not translate well to literature. With Kaga though, I am impressed. Kyoichiro Kaga is no Manabu Yukawa, and that is just fine by me.

Salvation of a Saint

Author - Keigo Higashino
Genre - Detective, Mystery, Crime, Japan.
Source - Audiobook
Rating - 4
Read - June 2015

So then, to our second encounter with our (second) favorite pompous git of all time, Manabu Yukawa aka Detective Galileo. And to that excellent, bowfully-yours, 'let's have a round of badminton','you have gained weight I see' banter between him and Inspector Kusanagi. Remember 'The Devotion of Suspect X'? Remember the giddy excitement of reading this, 'Gone Girl' and 'A Place of Execution' one after the other? Our Manabu-man is back!
And a fine return it is! Not quite the equal of 'Suspect X' in ingenuity, this book nonetheless spins a dexterous web of its own, And what characters - a two-timing husband who treats his WAGs as baby-making factories, a wife who creates artwork worth millions, a pregnant protege, an enfant-terrible of a junior detective, and even a lovesick Kusanagi - a cast worthy of attention for any detective fiction aficionado. 
As usual, I would not reveal much in this review, but I will tell you this. There are only a handful of detective writers in history who compare with Higashino in the how-dunit. And this book is that master plotter in his elements. Read it.

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

Author - Alexander McCall Smith
Genre - Detective, Africa, Humour, Mystery
Source - Audiobook
Rating - 5
Read - June 2015

So this is an absolutely excellent book. I'd stand on a rooftop, but you have all read it anyway. You haven't? What are you waiting for, then? 
There are three books that I recommend, interchangeably, to the intelligent occasional-reader or non-fiction-reader, who wants to start reading fiction. They are 'The curious incident of the dog in the night time', 'High fidelity', and 'The Guernsey literary and potato peel pie society'. This, then, shall be my fourth.

Kaanta'y Kaanta'y #1

কাঁটায় - কাঁটায় ১

Author - Narayan Sanyal

Genre - Detective, Legal

Source - Print

Rating - 4

Read - June 2015

Copied full plotlines at times I hear, from James Hadley Chase (whom I have only sporadically read); but acknowledged the copy. And well written. Very well written. Unputdownable. High 3, almost 4.