A Rule Against Murder (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #4)

Author – Louise Penny
Genre – Detective, Mystery, 
Source - Kindle
Rating - 4
Read - February 2016

As you would have figured, I am binge-reading Louise Penny's Three Pines series. 
About this one - I liked it. Liked it a lot. Very detailed insights into the characters - and one gets to see a lot more of Reine-Marie, who and Gamache are perhaps one of the nicest couples in literature. You cannot help but contrast Gamache and Reine-Marie with the other couples in the book, including the one we have already got to know very well.
Very observant portrait of a dysfunctional family. The writer understands. And is a very, very good writer. Some of the family feud scenes are bloody excellent!

So, 4/5? Why not 5? Well, the murder, and the murderer, are a bit meh. That's why. You'd have figured out by now that the murder is perhaps NOT THE MOST important part of the series. But that's all right by me.

Previously:
Still Life ;
A Fatal Grace ;
The Cruelest Month .

A Fatal Grace (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #2)

Author – Louise Penny
Genre – Detective, Crime, Quebec, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache
Source - Kindle
Rating - 4
Read - January 2016

Love you, Louise Penny, And you, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache. But.. but..... Cool down. Deep breaths. Be Calm, even, if you insist.
Could you have done without that final, final twist, maybe? It took the story from being a bona fide masterpiece of detective fiction, to ... eh, how do I put it across as gently as I could .... the realm of 'that's-a-little-impossible'...
Okay, on to #3 of the series then.

From Doon With Death (Chief Inspector Wexford #1)

Author – Ruth Rendell

Genre – Detective, Crime, fiction

Source - Kindle

Rating - 4

Read - December 2015

Some of you would know that I am doing a series with a newspaper on detective fiction. I am glad, therefore, that I am getting to revisit writers that I am fond of, or read ones that I had not earlier. Ruth Rendell was a master of the detective fiction genre, and I am familiar with her work, as I am with Chief Inspector Wexford, the main protagonist of many of her books. This, the first in the series, I had not read earlier. 
And I am glad to have done so now. An expert police procedural, this is a must-read for fans of the sub-genre. I am fond of these village-green police procedurals as I call them - they have in them both the comfort of the cozies, and the rootedness of the hardboiled (although little of the grit and the grime). This is excellent - solid plot, crisp storytelling, no pretension or unnecessary flourish, precise character development, a main protagonist you can root for, and a finish that's gentle but not without surprises. 
Dated? Well, it does indeed read like it was written in 1964 (its year of publication). But that does not hamper the story at all. Has aged quite well.

Will review in greater detail sometime in the future.

Dwitiyo Innings - er Por

দ্বিতীয় ইনিংসের পর 
Author – Mati Nandi

Genre – Fiction, Bengali

Source - Print

Rating - 4

Read - December 2015

A fine novella; based on test cricket what's more, which doesn't diminish at all on re-reading. Not a classic, not among his greatest, but still a fine piece. Mati Nandi is an expert novelist. I am glad to have re-discovered him.

Career Of Evil (Cormoran Strike #3)

Author – Robert Galbraith (J K Rowling)

Genre – Detective, Mystery, Thriller

Source - Audiobook

Rating - 4

Read - November 2015

So... interesting book, this. Very deeply researched, and it shows. Perhaps the most bloody and disturbing of all Cormoran Strike stories, and the violence does not seem out of place, there is a serial killer on the loose. So then, why do I reserve judgment? 
Look, there are a lot of good things in this book. First, Robin is excellent! This is the first strike book where Strike is not the lead protagonist, Robin is. And Robin is an excellent protagonist. Better, at a stretch, than Cormoran. Second, about the relationships. This is a seven-book series, and the narrative is held together by the chemistry between Strike and Robin, and this book is where JKR is pushing the envelop a little bit on the relationship front. Very interesting to see what happens. Perhaps she would want to rectify the Harry-Hermione mistake, as she calls it? We shall see. But let's say that this book has a better Robin, and in most parts a better Cormoran than the two previous ones. Third. the detection, the plot. Does it hold up? Is it innovative enough? Simple answer, yes. 
Then what doesn't work here? The ensemble. One of JKR's best traits has been creating excellent ensemble characters - something that's completely absent in this book. None of the other characters stay on in the reader's mind after the end. Even the serial killer seems like a prop. 
You do remember that both Cuckoo and Silkworm had excellent ensembles. As of course did Harry Potter, and Casual Vacancy was an ensemble piece anyway.
And so there you go. The first-ever less-than-perfect rating for a JKR book by a fanboy. 4/5.

My reviews of previous Robert Galbraith books:
The Silkworm;
The Cuckoo's Calling;

My review of other JKR Books:
The Casual Vacancy;

Still Life (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #1)

Author – Louise Penny

Genre – Detective, Police Procedural, Mystery, Village Mystery

Source - Audiobook

Rating - 4

Read - October 2015

This is my first Louise Penny, and the first of the Armand Gamache series. It's an excellent book, comparable with (and in some ways similar to) Val McDermid. But while I read McDermid after the best of Flynn and Higashino, I read this after (excellent) non-fiction. And loved it more. Armand Gamache is just what a superb fictional detective should be, but often isn't. He is more a Byomkesh than a Holmes. More a Miss Marple than a Poirot. He is not quirky, but is sage and calm. and dignified. And a detective does not have to be quirky to be compelling. Gamache is proof. Superb insight into Francophone Quebec too. Complaint? The ending would read better than it sounds, I think. Good, satisfactory, but I have read better.

Third Man: Recollections from a life in Cricket

Author – V Ramnarayan

Genre – Autobiography, Sports, Cricket, Ranji Trophy

Source - Print

Rating - 4

Read - Sep-October 2015

Sporting Autobiographies / Biographies: The types I hate:
1. Heavily ghostwritten works, where you do not find the sportsperson, only the ghostwriter (e.g. Arsene Wenger's biography, and way too many others)
2. Ones that play it safe and are over-complimentary to everyone and their grandmothers (e.g. those of most currently playing sportspeople. Andrew Flintoff's)

3. Ones that are just intent on settling scores (e.g. Alex Ferguson's)

4. Ones that go on and on about personal milestones, and have no stories or interesting anecdotes to tell (e.g. Peter Roebuck's Sometimes I Forgot to Laugh, unfortunately. Especially because Roebuck is my favourite cricket writer. Read Roebuck's It Never Rains, instead. It's the journal of one cricketing season, and is absolutely excellent)

5. Ones that lack enthusiasm, humour or warmth (e.g. Sachin Tendulkar - Playing It My Way) 

6. Ones where the sportsperson comes across as a proper ass (e.g. eh... Nope. Many examples, but no names, alright?)

This is none of the above. Stellar stuff. Recommended. The book has its blemishes, but none are significant. The good things about this book, on the other hand, are numerous - the opposite of the six points above, to start with. And many more.

One Summer: America, 1927

Author – Bill Bryson

Genre – History, Journalism

Source - Audiobook

Rating - 4

Read - July-October 2015

This is how the book ends.

"Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs. The Federal Reserve made the mistake that precipitated the stock market crash. Al Capone enjoyed his last summer of eminence. The Jazz Singer was filmed. Television was created. Radio came of age. Sacco and Vanzetti were executed. President Coolidge chose not to run. Work began on Mount Rushmore. The Mississippi flooded as it never had before. A madman in Michigan blew up a school and killed 44 people in the worst slaughter of children in American history. Henry Ford stopped making the Model T and promised to stop insulting Jews. And a kid from Minnesota flew across an ocean and captivated the planet in a way it had never been captivated before. Whatever else it was, it was one hell of a summer."

And all that in Bill Bryson's flowing, humorous prose. And in Bill Bryson's voice. It's a treat! I loved this book.

The Long Goodbye

Author - Raymond Chandler
Genre - Detective, Hardboiled, Philip Marlowe, Crime, Murder
Source - Audiobook
Rating - 4
Read - July 2015

The Long Goodbye finds Marlowe at his most devil-may-care, at his most pungent, at his hardest, and at his most tender. He is going the extra mile, nay, the extra light-year for his friend, he is getting beaten to an inch of his life by the police, he is playing Steinitz in chess, and Chandler is, at one point almost sounding like literature (however much he might have detested me saying this). But he was supposed to give back murder to the people who commit it, wasn't he?
I am happy with the sequence in which I read the three Chandlers. The Big Sleep is the big one- with big characters, big plotlines, even big holes in the plot. Then, The Lady in the Lake is clean as a whistle - there's a master at his peak - it's not as powerful as The Big Sleep, but with its ducks very much in order. And then this - Ray Chandler is a world-weary man now, pouring his vitriol at the readers. It is a magnificent experience.
Raymond Chandler is a magnificent experience.

The Lady in the Lake

Author - Raymond Chandler
Genre - Detective, Hardboiled, Philip Marlowe, Crime, Murder
Source - Audiobook
Rating - 4
Read - July 2015

Philip Marlowe is a private eye, it is his job, he is doing a job, he can do this job - and he is also seeing the world for what it is. Dreary. Bitter. Futile. He is making us look at our world. 
As a murder mystery, this is better, more intricate, more intelligent, more complete than 'The Big Sleep' (my impressions of that book are here), but that is a better, more compelling book. This isn't much worse though.
Read both. Read Chandler. Our world hasn't changed much in the last 70 years. One of the other books I have started is 'The Dark Knight Returns', and that one smells the same as this.
Ray Chandler is the Poet Laureate of Sleaze Street. Indeed, was the poet laureate of Sleaze Street, a position now taken up by Frank Miller. Here's to them both.

Patriots and Partisans

Author - Ramachandra Guha
Genre - Politics, Society, Academic, Research, Media, Magazine, Congress, RSS, Communist Parties, BJP, Nehru, Gandhi, Mahatma, MK Gandhi, Press.
Source - Print
Rating - 4
Read - July 2015

The gift of Ramachandra Guha is to present serious academic discussions to us, reasonably well-read non-academics, in a tone that is neither academic nor over-simplistic. It is to his great credit that the reasonably well-read non-academic can actually read his points-of-view, and digest them well enough to create a coherent opposing view. Reading Ramachandra Guha is a gift - even if one disagrees vehemently. I was about to point out a few chapters that are must-reads, but there are way too many. Buy it. Read it.

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.

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.

Prothom Alo (First Light)

Author: Sunil Gangopadhyay

Genre: Historical Fiction, Bengali

Source: Print

Rating: 4

May 2015

Done with it. Have been struggling with this one for the last 5 months - started reading it on Jan 1st of this year. But 1000 pages of intricate story-line takes its toll. Was really tempted to do a Part 1 and Part 2 to ensure I do not fall back in the reading challenge. But I will desist.

Anyway, about the book now. For better or for worse, Sunil Gangopadhyay, who had been a trendsetter of a poet, will be remembered as the chronicler of Kolkata, the city. The time between 1850-1930 'odd, is a favorite of the Bengali - this was the time of the Bengali Renaissance; a magical, mysterious time. Characters, larger than life, brilliant, iconoclastic, innovative, abounded. And all this was done while the society was slowly moving away from stifling orthodoxy (and orthodoxy was not letting go without a fight!). 'Shei Shomoy' was the first book of Sunil Gangopadhyay's chronicling the time, and I have reviewed it here in this blog. Prothom Alo is the second. And it will forever stay in the shadows of the former. It shouldn't - the characters that inhabit this book are the more well known - Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekananda, Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Dr. Mahendralal Sarkar, Aurobindo Ghose and the Anushilan Samity, even the Mahatma. It's just that the base on which the stories of these great lives are built, the doomed love story of Bharat and Bhumisuta, is not a comparison to the magnificence of Nabin Chandra Singha in the former.
But standalone, this is a fantastic book. You can see the expert hand of the writer chronicling the time, treating the characters, famous, known, and unknown, with extreme felicity. For a huge, huge book, this is extremely readable. 

Rijuda Samagra (Part 5)

Author: Buddhadeb Guha
Genre: Thriller, Young readers, Wildlife, Shikaar
Source: eBook
Rated: 4/5
Read: March 2015

Review alongwith the review of with Ruaha

CivilWarLand in Bad Decline

Author: George Saunders
Genre: Short stories, novella, dystropian
Source: Print
Rated: 4/5
Read: Feb 2015

Saunders is a magician of the written word. These are superbly well crafted stories, each a decidedly original take on the world around us, and each does the work of holding up a mirror of our world in all is darkest (Bounty, the novella, is a miracle). Where is separates from the later 'Tenth of December', Saunders' masterpiece in my opinion, is that even though dark, somewhere is Tenth is something very hopeful and life-affirming, while all that you will find in Civilwarland is a sense of overwhelming bleakness and hopelessness. The mirror showed such depressing images that sometimes they made this reader want to just close the book and prefer the placebo of turning away.

The Shadow of the Wind

(The Cemetery Of Forgotten Books, in Spanish)

Author - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Genre - Fiction, Thriller, Adventure, Modern Classic

Source - Audiobook

Rating - 4

January 2015 (started ages back)

Magnificent. Sprawling. Meandering. Rambling. Confusing. Contradictory. Infuriating. Grandiose.
Doomed, defeated, flawed characters. Caricatures. Swathed in Black and White.
This is the novel that Dumas, were he alive today, would have written. and Dumas is (almost) the reason I read.
So... so read. It's a 3.8 on 5 that I will recommend more highly than most 4.8s.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Author - Mary Ann Shaffer and Angie Barrows

Genre - Fiction, World War II

Source - Print

Rating - 4

January 2015

May all books have a soul like The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society.
I have become choosy and selective in my appraisal. Maybe even a bit snooty. That's the only reason I can think of why I would not rate this a 5. But I didn't. 
But read. Do read. 

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman

Author - Haruki Murakami

Genre - Fiction, Short Stories

Source - Print

Rating - 4

October 2014

Dated Review:
You know that I am fairly ambivalent about Murakami. I do not get him. 
That is going to get rephrased now.
You know that I am fairly ambivalent about Murakami's novels; I don't get them. 
I do get his short stories. They are special.