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 .

The Cruelest Month (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #3)

Author – Louise Penny
Genre – Detective, Mystery, 
Source - Kindle
Rating - 5
Read - February 2016

And this is what we have been waiting for. Perfect. 

Previous Armand Gamache mysteries:
Still Life ;
A Fatal Grace .

Kalo Pordar Odike

Author – Sunil Gangopadhyay
Genre – Supernatural, Fantasy, Children's lit, Teen Lit.
Source - eBook
Rating - 2
Read - January 2016

What do you do when you revisit a book from your younger days, and find it a load of mumbo-jumbo hocus-pocus? You move on.

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.

Knots and Crosses (Inspector Rebus #1)

Author – Ian Rankin
Genre – Detective, Crime, Scotland
Source - Kindle
Rating - 3
Read - January 2016

I call myself a regular reader of detective fiction. It's what I read most often. Somehow though, I hadn't yet read Ian Rankin, who is one of the most well-known detective writers of the day and age. 

So yesterday, I was laid low by a bug - and since I had a couple of books of Rankin with me, I finished this, his first with the famous Inspector Rebus.

Great writing. Flawed, doomed characters - the chief protagonist, DS John Rebus, is a bloody brilliant creation. Great scenes. Pretty close to perfect as a starter to a series. 

However, as a detective mystery, standalone, this isn't exactly top-notch. 

Test 1: The mystery could not have been solved by anyone apart from Rebus. 

Test 2: Are there many things that the reader didn't know that were revealed to him/her late in the novel? Yes. 

Test 3: Was it (either) too easy (or) too vague? Yes. The latter. 

But here's the point. This wasn't a successful novel. It wasn't meant to be. It was the first novel in a series, and any reader who reads this book will be intrigued enough to read DS Rebus #2. This is the novel which builds up the character and the setting. 

And that's job well done. 

The Daughter of Time (Alan Grant #5)

Author – Josephine Tey

Genre – Detective, Crime, History

Source - Kindle

Rating - 5

Read - January 2016

What do you do when you find that a book you have not heard about at all is in the top (or nearabouts) in all of the lists of greatest detective / mystery books of all-time? You read it, of course.

So I did. 

The basic premise is fairly straightforward - Alan Grant, of the Scotland Yard, has had a broken leg. While recuperating, he is bored with the same old people, the same old food, the same old books et al. So he immerses himself in a historical mystery, of the 'Princes in the Tower' - and Richard III. Grant is not a historian by any stretch of the imagination - but he educated himself of the case, progressing from school books to quasi-historical tales, to proper historic tomes - and in the meantime, becomes friendly with a researcher, who does a good bit of the heavy lifting in terms of fact-checking. And the mystery unfolds.

It's nothing like anything I have read earlier. Thoroughly loved it. Completely worthy of all the adulation. 

And thank God for those best-of lists.

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.

Nayaker Prabesh o Prasthan

নায়কের প্রবেশ ও প্রস্থান 
Author – Mati Nandi

Genre – Fiction, Bengali

Source - Print

Rating - 5

Read - December 2015

This is an extraordinary piece of work. Remember that piece in 'Interpreter of Maladies', the first one? A Temporary Matter? Of how a quasi-estranged couple speak with each other in the middle of a week-long power-failure? This story, by Mati Nandi, reminded me of that. This is a story of how an entire small lane in Kolkata changes, or just comes to terms with itself, while a celebrity steps in, and then steps out of a building in that lane. This is quite extraordinary storytelling. Needs translation.

Baobab

বাওবাব 

Author – Mati Nandi

Genre – Fiction, Bengali

Source - Print

Rating - 4

Read - December 2015

Mati Nandi gave me sports. And I will be eternally grateful to him for that. 
But even beyond his sports-writing, he was an exceptional writer of novels and novellas. And here in Baobab is a master of the written word, at near his peak. Suneet, the chief protagonist of the story, is probably quite the most heinous, morally destitute main protagonist you will ever encounter in a story, and yet somehow, Nandi is able to humanize him. Not by glorifying him, that would be gangster simple and it is easy to love pure evil; but by etching out this disgusting, disgusting human being with a level of finesse that you eventually get it - this is nonetheless a human being. With human thoughts, human urges and human passions. You cannot look away. 
This book is the work of an utterly skillful artisan.
I have a theory as to why Mati Nandi is not as famous as say Shirshendu or Bani Basu as a writer. The minor, and oft-stated answer is that the snobbish literary circle cannot and could not take a former writer of mere sports books seriously. The major answer, I think is that the Bengali reader is an emotional reader, and most, nay all of her favorites are stylistically emotional - Nandi's staccato, journalistic style of prose is not her natural habitat.

Antarghaat (eng. The Enemy Within)

অন্তর্ঘাত

Author – Bani Basu

Genre – Naxalite movement, Mystery, Thriller

Source - eBook

Rating - 4

Read - November 2015

Very interesting book, this. If you take it solely as a murder mystery novel, it is somewhat predictable, albeit with the deftness, fluency, and that mix of readability and literary merit which is a preserve of only the best of writers (as I often insist, middlebrow literature in India is only found in regional literature). As a social commentary of the future of many Naxalites of Kolkata after the '70s, it in honest, bold and brutal, but perhaps lacks some answers, and more importantly, some questions. 
But as a book, standalone, it is excellent! 

Do note, I really, really rate Bani Basu as a writer, her Gaandharvi, for example, remains one of my favorite short novels. Interesting to note that this was written in 1987, and is one of her earliest works.

PS: I hear that there's a decent translation available - details of the translation here.

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.

100 Best Mystery Novels - The Mystery Writers' Association (MWA) 1995

Okay, here's another list to target.The Mystery Writers' Association (MWA)'s 1995 list of best mystery novels.

1.   Arthur Conan Doyle: The Complete Sherlock Holmes (1887-1927)

2.   Dashiell Hammett: The Maltese Falcon (1930)

3.   Edgar Allan Poe: Tales of Mystery & Imagination (1852)

4.   Josephine Tey: The Daughter of Time (1951)

5.   Scott Turow: Presumed Innocent (1987)

6.   John le Carré: The Spy Who Came In From the Cold (1963)

7.   Wilkie Collins: The Moonstone (1868)

8.   Raymond Chandler: The Big Sleep (1939)

9.   Daphne du Maurier: Rebecca (1938)

10. Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None (1939)

11. Robert Traver: Anatomy of a Murder (1958)

12. Agatha Christie: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)

13. Raymond Chandler: The Long Goodbye (1953)

14. James M. Cain: The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934)

15. Mario Puzo: The Godfather (1969)

16. Thomas Harris: The Silence of the Lambs (1988)

17. Eric Ambler: A Coffin for Dimitrios (1939)

18. Dorothy L. Sayers: Gaudy Night (1935)

19. Agatha Christie: The Witness for the Prosecution (1948)

20. Frederick Forsyth: The Day of the Jackal (1971)

21. Raymond Chandler: Farewell My Lovely (1940)

22. John Buchan: The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915)

23. Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose (1980)

24. Fyodor Dostoyevsky: Crime and Punishment (1866)

25. Ken Follett: Eye of the Needle (1978)

26. John Mortimer: Rumpole of the Bailey (1978)

27. Thomas Harris: Red Dragon (1981)

28. Dorothy L. Sayers: The Nine Tailors (1934)

29. Gregory Mcdonald: Fletch (1974)

30. John Le Carré: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1974)

31. Dashiell Hammett: The Thin Man (1934)

32. Wilkie Collins: The Woman in White (1860)

33. E. C. Bentley: Trent's Last Case (1913)

34. James M. Cain: Double Indemnity (1943)

35. Martin Cruz Smith: Gorky Park (1981)

36. Dorothy L. Sayers: Strong Poison (1930)

37. Tony Hillerman: Dance Hall of the Dead (1973)

38. Donald E. Westlake: The Hot Rock (1970)

39. Dashiell Hammett: Red Harvest (1929)

40. Mary Roberts Rinehart: The Circular Staircase (1908)

41. Agatha Christie: Murder on the Orient Express (1934)

42. John Grisham: The Firm (1991)

43. Len Deighton: The IPCRESS File (1962)

44. Vera Caspary: Laura (1942)

45. Mickey Spillane: I, the Jury (1947)

46. Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö: The Laughing Policeman (1968)

47. Donald E. Westlake: Bank Shot (1972)

48. Graham Greene: The Third Man (1950)

49. Jim Thompson: The Killer Inside Me (1952)

50. Mary Higgins Clark: Where Are the Children? (1975)

51. Sue Grafton: "A" is for Alibi (1982)

52. Lawrence Sanders: The First Deadly Sin (1973)

53. Tony Hillerman: A Thief of Time (1989)

54. Truman Capote: In Cold Blood (1966)

55. Geoffrey Household: Rogue Male (1939)

56. Dorothy L. Sayers: Murder Must Advertise (1933)

57. G. K. Chesterton: The Innocence of Father Brown (1911)

58. John le Carré: Smiley's People (1979)

59. Raymond Chandler: The Lady in the Lake (1943)

60. Harper Lee: To Kill a Mockingbird (1960)

61. Graham Greene: Our Man in Havana (1958)

62. Charles Dickens: The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870)

63. Peter Lovesey: Wobble to Death (1970)

64. W. Somerset Maugham: Ashenden (1928)

65. Nicholas Meyer: The Seven Per-Cent Solution (1974)

66. Rex Stout: The Doorbell Rang (1965)

67. Elmore Leonard: Stick (1983)

68. John le Carré: The Little Drummer Girl (1983)

69. Graham Greene: Brighton Rock (1938)

70. Bram Stoker: Dracula (1897)

71. Patricia Highsmith: The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955)

72. Edmund Crispin: The Moving Toyshop (1946)

73. John Grisham: A Time to Kill (1989)

74. Hillary Waugh: Last Seen Wearing ... (1952)

75. W. R. Burnett: Little Caesar (1929)

76. George V. Higgins: The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1972)

77. Dorothy L. Sayers: Clouds of Witness (1927)

78. Ian Fleming: From Russia, with Love (1957)

79. Margaret Millar: Beast in View (1955)

80. Michael Gilbert: Smallbone Deceased (1950)

81. Josephine Tey: The Franchise Affair (1948)

82. Elizabeth Peters: Crocodile on the Sandbank (1975)

83. P. D. James: Shroud for a Nightingale (1971)

84. Tom Clancy: The Hunt for Red October (1984)

85. Ross Thomas: Chinaman's Chance (1978)

86. Joseph Conrad: The Secret Agent (1907)

87. John D. MacDonald: The Dreadful Lemon Sky (1975)

88. Dashiell Hammett: The Glass Key (1931)

89. Ruth Rendell: A Judgement in Stone (1977)

90. Josephine Tey: Brat Farrar (1950)

91. Ross Macdonald: The Chill (1963)

92. Walter Mosley: Devil in a Blue Dress (1990)

93. Joseph Wambaugh: The Choirboys (1975)

94. Donald E. Westlake: God Save the Mark (1967)

95. Craig Rice: Home Sweet Homicide (1944)

96. John Dickson Carr: The Three Coffins (1935)

97. Richard Condon: Prizzi's Honor (1982)

98. James McClure: The Steam Pig (1974)

99. Jack Finney: Time and Again (1970)

100.  Ellis Peters: A Morbid Taste for Bones (1977) and Ira Levin: Rosemary's Baby (1967) (tie)