The Frozen Dead by Bernard Minier
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Once in a while I land myself with a book that helps me in reassuring myself that all is well with crime writing and THE FROZEN DEAD by Bernard Minier was one of those. All along I have maintained that what I look for most in a Mystery or a thriller is the plot. Most of the times my ratings depend upon the pace and the tightness of the plot, and added to those two very important aspect, I also look for twists. Not someone to shy away from a generous offering, I love my twists especially when they are strewn liberally all over the book.

Right from the beginning when a headless dead horse is found hanging, through the brutal murder of another man, right upto the end where he kept his last twist alive, Minier wrote a book that was pretty impossible to not to finish at one go. And boy did he almost turn this piece of crime writing into a horror novel. The use of the secluded landscape, the chilly weather, and the “madhouse” he created an atmosphere where I got goosebumps while reading. And I live in a tropical country. Not for a long time had I been so involved in a book I was reading. The last instance that comes to mind was a duo experience of BLUE HEAVEN by C.J. Box and another brilliant French effort IRENE from Pierre Lemaittre. And now this.

I guess the only aspect where Minier followed the well trodden path is while developing martin Servaz. He was divorced, grumpy, middle aged and overweight. A pretty standard character who solves an extraordinary crime. But, one this that did make Servaz a bit different from other fictional policemen was the fact that he felt frightened when the situation was frightening. He wasn’t made into a Superman with no fright and all gloom.

All in all a definite entry into my top Mysteries of all time. The pace of the plot, the twists, the atmosphere, the mad house and its inhabitants all made this book an experience to cherish.



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Sidetracked by Henning Mankell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

My first brush with Mankell and Wallander wasn’t as exciting as I would have liked it to, or as I was lead to believe it would be. There was nothing wrong with the book; neither was there anything out of the world, or special about the book. It was just another Scandi crime thriller with some gore, a serial killer and a dose of “broken” police officer with a family and some personal troubles. The book wasn’t a dud, but to compare with Morse is a bit too much.

The problem began with the plot. I have serious issues with serial killers as focal point of a crime novel. Serial killers tend to be erratic, and they kill without any apparent motive, which in turn turns the book into a lengthy process of catch the guy with no motive to spice thing up in the finishing chapters. Though this wasn’t the case here, not at least in toto, but somehow by the end of the book I did feel that Mankell forgot to provide the reader with a motive as to why the four guys got killed. Yes, the motive is simple and the reader can sum it up on his own, but I guess it’s the duty of the writer to elucidate on that point. Bottom line, the book got over but we never got a motive.

And lastly the translation. I know it’s hard to capture the essence of a book when it’s getting translated, but is it too hard to try and not make the book sound like robot? Because that’s how the book sounded to me. Wooden and bland dialogues. Mankell took the way, where he shows us the culprit, and then takes us through a cat and mouse game where both the cat and the mouse is known to us. The tact was good, it was filled with suspense but the wooden words killed off any kind of suspense that was meant to be present.

Summing up, this is not a dud, as I had said earlier. But, neither is this a piece of art.


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The Darkest Room by Johan Theorin
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

When I had read Echoes from the Dead, I was not really expecting a taut thriller, with a sad and believable protagonist and a plot which racing between two time periods and an unlikely outcome, a twist in the very last pages. It kept me hooked up to the last page. I made the mistake of underestimating the book, and I was properly thrilled with its stature. And, then I made the mistake of over estimating The Darkest Room, and was not really thrilled by the book and its contents. Make no mistake of the fact, Johan Theorin is a great writer, and I still consider him a personal favourite, but somehow I guess he tried a little too hard to make this book exotic and in the process ended up in writing a book which neither could become a complete thriller nor a complete family drama.

The publishers note in my edition said, “In this powerhouse of suspense–at once a crime novel and a searing family drama…” So, from a purely crime fiction point of view I was sorely disappointed. The plot was not fast, it wasn’t well weaved, the crime never looked like a crime until almost 65% of the book had gone by, the criminal had, at most a total of 5 paragraphs dedicated to him and at the end neither did we get to know what was his fate. There was a subplot which at the end was revealed to be connected to the crime, but the sub plot was way too long and could have been shortened without causing any harm to the main plot. But I never skipped pages, because Theorin after all is a good writer. The book looked like a family drama, sounded like a family drama, read like a family drama, with a bit of supernatural thrown in. As for a work of crime fiction, it was not worth it.

The characters unlike the first book failed to make any mark on me. The semi-protagonist of Tilda Daviddsson gets way to little space to be fully developed, Joakim Westin also comes out as unfinished. His situation brings out sympathy but that’s not the credit of the writer. Reading about him made me bored, but thinking about a man who lost his wife made me sad. A character from the first book makes a cameo appearance and does the Mycroft Holmes thing by pointing out the crime, but sadly that doesn’t salvage the book. Even the old-new connection which worked so well in the last book failed this time. It was boring, and never felt remotely connected to the main plot.

Final verdict, this book, as a work of crime fiction doesn’t stand up. But as far as reading it like a family drama goes, there might be some merit. But then again why would a reader read Johan Theorin to read a family drama???


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Irene by Pierre Lemaitre
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

What were the publishers thinking when they published the second instalment in the trilogy before they decided to translate and publish the first??? They were thinking right in doing so. Why?? Will come to that. Before that a bit of the plot, where a serial killer is on a killing spree with mutilated victims strewn all around. He kills them, tortures them, and uses classic crime fiction novels as his point of reference on torture methods and settings. As far as the basic premise of his crime and modus operandi goes he is clichéd to the core, with violence and madness mixed with the usual serial killer antics. Camille gets involved in the case and for those who have read Alex, will know gets involves personally too.

Now the publishers thought right because Alex is a far better Crime novel than Irene. If seen from a purely Crime Fiction POV Alex offered a lot of newness, ranging from the plot, the victims modus operandi, the change in the identity of a character from being good to bad, and back to being good again, or the nastiness of the violence made all the more potent with the mental brutality mixed with it. Compared to that, Irene was brutal, but so is most of the Scandi novels, even the new Robert Galbraith novel is brutal. Brutality didn’t work for me in this book. They were horrifying but it failed to create the level of horror which would make me sit on the edge of the seat.

The plot too, was nothing new. A serial killer taking on the main protagonist in a cat and mouse game, trying to show who is the boss. Been there done that. The use of classic Crime novel as a point of reference though new but is not that ground-breaking. Yes, it does offer a comprehensive course on Crime fiction of sorts, but we have had serial killers referencing ancient Spanish inquisition methods to torture the victims to killers leaving classic rock albums in their victims’ tortured bodies. So, this proved to be “not so exciting” to me. As it was the case with the “TWIST” in the last pages. Somehow the book was so long and a bit slow that by the time the twist came it failed to twist me in any way.

So, when the publishers decided to publish the second book first they knew they were publishing the better of the two books. And indeed it was a success, and for the sole reason that I enjoyed Alex, did I decide to stick with Irene up to the end. Had it been the other way round maybe Irene would have been shelved as UNFINISHED. But, the end result is that Pierre Lemaitre is one hell of a writer. Maybe this was a first-book-blues but he got class, and whoever had read Alex will surely agree that though slow, Irene wasn’t a pushover novel, and that maybe the third book in the trilogy will surpass the first two.


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The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

As someone growing up in Kolkata, I have been exposed to the Bengali brand of Detective novels from the very beginning of my reading life. These books almost always had a juvenile character, embroiled on his own or in the guise of helping an adult, in the thick of the mystery, trying to solve it. Though it was amusing at the beginning to see someone of my age fighting with culprits and solving crimes, but no sooner was I exposed to the crime writing of the west, then I started to realise what balderdash those so called “crime novels” were. And, the very thought of a policeman sharing clues with a kid was so disturbing that it almost took my mind away from the fact that those books had plots which could be easily used as a net to catch a shark. The holes were big, but not that big for a shark to escape.

So, when I found out that THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE featured an eleven year old precocious girl called Flavia De Luce as its main protagonist, I had my doubts. The same old feeling of making a comedy out of a crime thriller. But, I took the plunge, and thank God I did. If finishing the book in two days flat wasn’t proof enough to show that I devoured the book, the fact that i have decided to read all the remaining books in the series one after the another must prove that I have fallen, totally and completely, in awe of Flavia De Luce and her creator Mr. Alan Bradley.

But, this is not the first time that a crime thriller with a child protagonist had garnered such rave reviews, and actually came out as a fascinating read. But those books, be it Blacklands by Belinda Bauer or Last Child by John Hart, were standalones. The heroes never got another shot at glory. Unlike here, where Flavia not only gets to solve the crime of a dead man in their house, Buckshaw’s cucumber patch and save her father, thereby rescuing two very costly and famous memorabilia, one of them belonging to King George himself, and also solve a cold case of suicide which turned out to be murder, but also gets the chance to set herself as a little Miss Marple meets Sherlock Holmes in a series of well read and well received crime novels.

Lastly, Flavia De Luce. I don’t know in reality how to live around a child as precocious as she is, but in these pages she comes out as a character who can bring a smile even to the toughest of men. Her dialogues, courtesy of Mr. Bradley, her experiments with chemistry (a la Dexter’s laboratory) and her penchant for helping her father come out of the jinx makes her one of a kind. And, also her memory of her mother, who disappeared when she was too small to remember anything. Those lines can only bring sadness in the reader’s eyes, showing behind that bubbly little sleuth there remains a little girl who misses her mom.

Poirot is dead. And, with him went away the proverbial village mysteries, to be replaced by sour faced detectives with ecclesial taste in music, Nordic policemen for whom laughing is as bad as having to lead a normal life. Poirot wont come back, but with Flavia, her sidekick Gladys and the village has definitely brought the Golden Age Mysteries back on the map of crime writing world. And this book could have well been called Sweetness ALL over the Pie!!!


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Bones and Silence by Reginald Hill
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

BONES AND SILENCE by Reginald Hill is the eleventh book in the series featuring Andy Dalziel and Peter Pascoe. Dalziel starts receiving letters from a woman who has decided to commit suicide, and have also decided to let know the fat man of her decision through a series of letters. Dalziel then gets an offer to play God in a local play, as he witnesses a death of a woman. He is convinced that the husband is responsible for the crime, while all evidence along with his boss thinks it’s an accident. Things come to head when a crucial witness goes missing, as Dalziel realises that the main suspect is to play Lucifer to his God in the local play.

I normally tend to get bored by the type of crime novels where 10-15 odd pages gets filled with inter departmental chit-chat, the politics of the department, how the protagonist is trying to disobey his boss, and off course, his musical taste. These 15 pages are followed by a couple of pages of material related to the main plot, and then again the reader gets face to face with another 10-15 pages of the same stuff. All in the good name of “realistic” crime fiction.

Bones and Silence being a long book, had all the possibility of having all the above mentioned “real” points. But all it had was a tight plot, which meanders through a handful of clues. An ending which is not surprising, but still throws up a few delightful twists, and the great relation between Dalziel and Pascoe, which grows tighter with each passing book. In a way this was a complete crime novel, which justified its length.



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The Killings At Badger's Drift by Caroline Graham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Killings At Badger's Drift by Caroline Graham is the first instalment in the series of crime novels featuring DCI Tom Barnaby, set in the fictional village of Badger’s Drift. Emily Simpson while collecting corral root orchid, steps on to a couple making love out in the open. The sight she sees troubles her deeply. And in the next scene she dies, promptly ruled as heart attack by her doctor. Her friend, Miss Bellringer, refuses to accept. She forces the police to look into the matter. DCI Barnaby takes on the case to find himself standing face to face with a faulty ruling from the doctor, and a death that took place five years ago.

One of the blurbs had mentioned that this is a book which Agatha Christie would have been proud of. Though a bit speculative in its nature as to whether The Dame would really have been proud or not, the book did get nominated for an Agatha Award. And, it can be taken as a modern day tribute to the Dame’s style of writing. The plot is set in a village, which while appearing calm, and rather dull on the surface takes up a sinister atmosphere as lies and hatred gets revealed. Just like the villages of the Dame’s books. But, unlike Poirot, Tom Barnaby comes out as a normal human being, slightly disturbed by his wife’s cooking skills, and without any distinctive mannerisms. Another difference between the two writers would have been the motive for the crime or the act, the one to hide, which prompted the crime, would never had gotten into any of the Poirot or Marple novels. Maybe this book, published in 1987, tried to break away from rather “dull” crimes of the earlier period to provide the reader with something more risky, staying true to the format of a village crime, being solved by a local man.

This book has been hailed as one of the top 100 crime novels of all time, and it got nominated for a plethora of Awards too. For me all these accolades seem justified. This is a fast and entertaining work of crime fiction, which instead of going to the deep psychology of the human mind, stays true to the formula of twists and clever detection.


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Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin
My rating:0.5 of 5 stars

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin, is set in the rural town of Chabot, Mississippi, where a local policeman Silas “32” Jones lives and his long estranged school friend Larry Ott, a garage owner. Though both of them were world apart Silas being a black, son of a single mother, Larry was the son of a white mill worker, their friendship blossomed until one day Larry Ott takes a girl to a date in a drive in movie, and the girl is never seen again. Larry carries the burden of being a suspect all his life, as Silas returns to the town as a policeman. Back in the current period another girl goes missing and everyone starts looking suspiciously at Larry again and Silas tries to solve the crime of both the disappearance to bring the guilty to justice.

There are books which can be described in one single word like UNPUTDOWNABLE, and then there are books like these which wins heaps of awards and yet can be described in another single word, “BORING”. Yes this book bored me to death. I just don’t get one point, is it too difficult for a writer to write a clean cut crime novel instead of wrapping it in an extra mould of pseudo literary paragraphs thereby (maybe)trying to prove that, “Look as a writer I dont only write crime fiction, but my books also have a lot of human element in it”.

When I start reading a crime novel, I search for a tight plot, some exciting clue searches and a nicely balanced finish. This book had none, instead had pages after pages of flash backs, comprising of developing relationships between the two protagonists. Though this may be helpful in bringing back the reader’s childhood memories of school, but it did nothing excepting turning a boring plot into something which never came close to resembling anything remotely Crime fiction.

Then at last the book ended, and I felt as if I just got a new lease of life. Because I might have died of boredom. This book won a heap of awards including CWA Golden Dagger, which though have given away some deserving winners, have also decided on conferring the honour on some equally bad crime novels like this one.

Dear author, please, the next time you write a book, decide first what you want to write. Will it be a literary fiction, or a crime fiction? Take a decision and stick to it, but please dont write a book, trying to ride both the boat at the same time.


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Field of Blood by Denise Mina
My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

THE FIELD OF BLOOD by Denise Mina is the first of the three book series featuring Paddy Meehan, an overweight female working in the city of Glasgow as a copyboy in a newspaper. The book is set in the 1980s, when a toddler called Brian Wilcox gets kidnapped and is found brutally murdered a few days hence. The police swiftly latches on to two 10 year old school students as the prime suspects. But, Paddy egged on by the sense of duty (as one of the suspects in a distant relative), and more importantly on discovering a link which the police overlooked, Paddy takes it upon herself to unearth the real criminal, as she gets confirmed that the police is working on putting the blame on the students thereby washing their hands off the case.

The author like many fellow Scottish Crime writers, Denise Mina used the city of Glasgow and its atmosphere along with the underlying tension between the Catholics and the Protestants to create a vivid background for the whole novel. But, still I can’t say that I am ecstatic about this book. My singular point is, this is Crime fiction and if the crime part along with the solve and motive falls flat, then the whole book falls flat. No amount of Glasgow or religious tension can save it, atleast in my eyes.

The plot was flimsy, along with the motive. The reason given as to why the kid got kidnapped was too bad to be taken seriously. The parents of the kid hardly get mentioned. The culprit before being nabbed got only a few paras of exposure thereby making him an unknown entity that falls out of the sky to be branded as criminal with conveniently placed clues. And then there were the, atleast 100 extra pages of a commentary on the real life crime featuring a man named Paddy Meehan. I still can’t get the point, as to why the author wanted this incident in the book, or more importantly why the editor saw that it’s important for the book. Other than providing inspiration to the protagonist Paddy Meehan, those pages served no other function.

Summing up, I give this book 2.5 out of 5 stars. Though heralded as the new Queen of Tartan noir, Denise Mina disappointed me with this book. The plot had potential, and the book with 150 pages short and a bit of twist in the plot could have been a better work of Crime writing.


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Acid Row by Minette Walters
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

For a long time I was hearing that Minette Walters is THIS and THAT i.e. her books were a tour de force in the world of crime writing. Though I had 3 of her books in my to-read shelf but they were far away from where I was currently. So when the opportunity arose, where my mind was reluctant to continue with the book which was next in line, I, without any hesitation picked up the Minette Walters that was closest to my hand, Acid Row.

Frankly speaking the title was intriguing but the blurb wasn’t. The book was supposed to be about a day in the lives of the resident of a housing society graffited in to Assid Row from Bassindale Row, where an intended peaceful march against suspected paedophiles turns out into a violent mob thereby jeopardising the residents and anyone caught up in the situation. For me this kind of blurb means a boring book, where there is hardly any kind of crime, so no criminal, and so no cat and mouse chase.

Thus with heavy heart, and expecting another P.D. James phenomena, I opened the opening lines, and within first few bars I was being treated to the high tempo beat of bebop jazz, instead of a serene classical concerto which I had come to expect. The book is really an eye opener, with nothing confirming to the set standards of crime writing the book held my attention till the last page. There were scenes which made me sit right on the edge of my seat, and brutality that made me keep away the book for a minute in hope of removing the image created from my mind. Coming to brutality, Walters showed me that just like, one doesnt need to be crude to be erotic, a crime writer doesnt need to spill brains, or pluck out eyes to be brutal. The book was filled with scenes which had zero blood spills, but were brutal enough to make a man squirm. Thanks to her writing skills. The plot was neither a whodunit, nor a howcatchem. Though there is a subplot of child abduction, but the main pillar of the book never strays from the happenings on the Acid Row.

Summing up, I feel its very difficult to write a crime novel where the plot doesnt revolves around a dead body or a criminal activity in general. The book becomes tough, and readers like me get uneasy thereby resulting in unfinished tag. But, this one here, despite having the same features came out as a brilliantly plotted, fast piece of crime fiction. This book will go down as a must-read for any crime lover who is in search of speed, plot and believable characters.





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Promised Land by Robert B. Parker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I started reading Robert Crais’ Elvis Cole novels a few months back, and from the very onset I was hounded by reviews which complained Cole being a copy (albeit a poor one) of Robert Parker’s Spenser. The reviewers complained(or remarked) that the tongue-in-cheek dialogues coming out of Cole’s mouth were too much of a copy of those coming out of Spenser’s mouth, and they didn’t sound original. I was intrigued and by the second Elvis Cole novel I was tired of Cole, and his, what I considered a desperate attempt to sound smart-ass, “cool” attitude. And from that moment I wanted to read Parker and Spenser, if not for anyhting else, just to find out what kind of a character this Spenser is, whom Cole is supposedly imitating. Thus came PROMISED LAND and with the book came a realisation as to why Spenser is Spenser, and Cole, in atleast his first two novels was just a copy of him.

This is not my first Robert B. Parker novel. I had read MELANCHOLY BABY featuring Sunny Randall, and found it to be a book which was pleasant to read, but was not worth remembering for a long time. PROMISED LAND and I will remember this book for a long time. Not for the plot or the characters as a whole, but for a protagonist named Spenser and his partner named Susan Silverman. They are a couple. I cant describe the way they speak, or the way Spenser was made to speak. But, Robert Parker successfully created a protagonist, who is fun to read about, who is serious when it comes to matters relating to heart and client, who reads a lot, and who delivers his dialogues in a way to make me wish that I wish I could deliver lines like Spenser. Not for a single moment he or his character seems boring, over the top, or a smart-ass who is trying to hard to sound cool. The lines come out of his mouth, as if those lines are the most normal lines in the world and they are Spenser’s birthright. Hats off to the late great Parker.

But, I was disappointed with the plot. Actually I anticipated one with more element of mystery in it. A whodunit where Spenser uses his skill finds out a criminal who had committed a crime. This book was much of an adventure where the good and the bad guys were pointed out early and they stayed true to their colour. The ending was also the one which was anticipated, but what made this book a fun read was obviously Spenser, and the speed which made this “know all” adventure fast and not boring.

And, Hawk who starts out as a bad guy, but ultimately turns out to be a ‘sort’ of sidekick to Spenser. With Mouse and Joe Pike(another Cole connection) Hawk adds up to my list of another ‘sidekick’ who left on their own has enough ammo to overshadow the main guy.

P.S. Crais and Cole brought out their originality from the third book, and despite leaving their second book unfinished I raced through the third instalment and finished it with a contended sigh. Finally, Cole found out that he doesn’t need to be a shadow of Spenser, because left on his own he is himself that good.
.


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Death of the Mantis by Michael Stanley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Once again, while searching for another entry into my self created challenge of reading new authors in 2014, I came across the writer duo of Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip, who collectively writes crime fiction under the name of Michael Stanley, featuring the Botswana Policeman, Detective David Bengu nicknamed Kubu (Hippopotamus in the Setswana language) for his size.

Set in the southern African nation of Botswana (home of another very famous series created by Alexander McCall Smith) THE DEATH OF A MANTIS begins when a game ranger is found dead in the Kalahari Desert. The three Bushmen who found the dying man, is quickly arrested on suspicion of murder. Detective Kubu, based in Gaborone is asked by a schoolmate of his, Khumanego, a lawyer and a Bushman himself, to look into the matter and stopping the authorities from persecuting the Bushmen unnecessarily. Kubu, going aginst his boss, accepts to help and pushes headlong into the investigation as bodies start piling up one after another.

Detective Kubu, is a fat policeman (like Andy Dalziel), married (unlike Dalziel) with a baby girl. He likes to eat and doesn’t enjoy the salad diet his wife has forced on him. In toto, he comes out as a not-so-remarkable, but a standard fictional protagonist. He loves his family, and his dilemma over choosing between his work and family makes him more of a human. The other characters are shown, including the main culprit, in a one dimensional view.

But the book falls flat in the plot department. What made it sadder was that the plot had the potential to turn out into a page turner, and the authors, upto 65%, were taking the book into that direction. But suddenly the plot changed from being a whodunnit into a howcatchem. No prior warnings, clues or signals were given. The plot was flowing smoothly in one page, and suddenly in the next page the culprit revealed himself. There was not a single page where I felt that the detective had any inclination as to who the main culprit was. For me it’s okay if the reader is baffled, but if it turns out that even the main protagonist was out of his depths and had the culprit not revealed himself would have failed to point him out, puts a lot of question on the ability of both the author and the detective. And even the ending was just the same. Suddenly the detective stumbled upon the culprit. He had no idea, no clue whatsoever as to the whereabouts of the killer. Once again had the culprit chosen to run away, he would have never been caught. Not atleast by Detective Kubu or his creators.

But despite these major shortcomings the book was surprisingly unputdownable. Yes I felt a betrayed by the turn of events, but I never thought of putting the book down. The pace, the suspense, the thrill was ever present, in perfect proportions to make it a perfect work of crime fiction. If only a little art of detection was present, the book would have got a 5 star rating. But, since in a detective novel, the main stay is the detection part I chose to withdraw 2 stars and give it a 3 star rating.

Will you read this book? Yes, you should. Though not written by famous African writers trying to change the African world from their houses , this book, written by two men one living in Africa and the other in USA, while giving you a fast crime novel will also show you the plight of the Bushmen, their culture, the nature of conflict in Botswana between the ethnic people and the modernization all wrapped in a pulpy cover of Crime fiction.


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Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Starting this year everyone around me started accepting reading challenges like a fearless Gladiator, while I was still stuck, mostly, with the books I had bought way back in 2012 and 2013. Most of these books were from writers I have tasted before. So, with a determination and a sense of adventure I created my own reading challenge of getting to know as much as new crime writers as possible. New as in the sense, that I am experiencing his work for the first time, and not necessarily the author is a debut writer. So, with this target in mind, I picked up DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS by the celebrated African-American novelist Walter Mosley.

The book introduces Ezekiel a.k.a Easy Rawlins, an African-American WW 2 veteran who finds himself being handed the pink slip by the owner of the aircraft factory where he had a job. Jobless, and facing a mortgage payment he wanders into a bar owned by his friend Joppy, who in the process of helping him introduces to a white man called Mr. DeWitt Albright who tells him that for a price he might have a job for Easy. The job would be to find out the whereabouts of a white girl called Daphne Monet. Standard PI job. Easy takes the money, goes out looking for the girl, and finds himself deep in the woods with gangsters, persecuting police, racist white men and a bundle of lies and deceit from almost everyone. Up to his neck in troubles, he calls his old friend from Texas, Mouse Alexander a.k.a. Mouse. Mouse happens to be a trigger happy gangster who wouldnt hesitate to kill his friend Easy, if he stood between Mouse and a bag of money.

Purely from a Crime fiction point of view, the book was too confusing without a dynamic ending to justify the confusion. The confusion was mainly due to the presence of innumerable characters who barely had single pages dedicated to them. Had the plot, which did have some nasty shades to it, or the motive or the climax, been more awe inspiring, then the confusion might have added to the pleasure of reading. But with a standard plot, and a not too fast speed the confusion did what it does best, it confused me. I had difficulty in keeping up with character names, who they were, and what purpose are they serving in the plot. But, the plot as I said earlier was a standard PI plot, meaning that it wasn’t bad. Yes it wasn’t great, but it did have the element of suspense as its very difficult to figure out the main motive or the culprit beforehand.

Easy Rawlins is a laid off black man, who lived in the days when racism was nothing to be ashamed of. Black skin meant that “a man will always be called boy”. So, being a PI with no training or experience meant that it would be hard for him to survive. And it was hard. He faced opposition from authorities, saw how a white man can treat him like a dog without ever saying a mean word. So, in the process he called his friend Mouse, of whom he is afraid. Now this is a peculiar relation between a main protagonist and his sidekick. Most of them have a buddy or a love-hate relationship, but none of them have a chemistry where the main guy is frightened of his sidekick. Here, Easy is frightened of Mouse. And, as he is without any experience Easy tries out his connection within the community for clues instead of the standard procedures of a PI like hounding the authorities or searching files or looking up for fingerprints.

So, will you read this book? Yes, you should, as this book is an important part of Crime writing. There are very few credible African-American protagonist out there. Easy Rawlins is one of them. And, if you are not a fan of crime writing you can atleast read this book to see what it actually felt to be a black man back then, or at times even now, especially in my country, India.


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Blacklands by Belinda Bauer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Billy Peters got lost eighteen years ago never to be found again. Everyone believed that he was kidnapped and murdered by Arnold Avery a serial killer of children. But, Billy’s body was never found. So, when Billy’s nephew 12 year old Steven Lamb decides to find uncle Billy’s body, and in the process bring peace and mend his broken family consisting of his mum, his nan and his brother Davey, he enlists the help of the same person accused of murdering Billy, Arnold Avery. Thus starts Blacklands by Belinda Bauer and we are gifted with an Award winning crime novel featuring a cat and mouse game between a young boy of 15, who wants to find his peace, and a murderer who wants this boy to fulfil his one last wish.

Once again i was faced with a book where the suspense of a crime was absent as the protagonist and the antagonist gets marked from the very first pages. But, then the phenomena of “If we know both the parties, then why is this book a suspense novel” sets in. I got hooked into the thought of,
“Okay, Steven is a kid of 15, and Arnold is in gaol. So there must be some point lying somewhere in the pages ahead that will drive this book into a high gear suspense novel”.

I was wrong, as no such revelations are made, but I was also right as Bauer made the whole part of the cat and mouse chase dangerous, and created an atmosphere where I, the reader started biting my nails, and felt that this is wrong, and wanted to shout out at Steven, as I knew that what he was doing would surely lead him to a trap. But then Steven did not know that and he went on his way searching for Uncle Billy, and the tension rose within me as I desperately wanted to know what happened? Did he succeed, or did he fail? There were no hidden secrets in the book, but the feeling of helplessness on part of the reader fills it with nail biting suspense.

Writing a credible crime novel, with a juvenile as its protagonist is one of the toughest aspect of crime writing. John hart did it in Last Child, Belinda Bauer does it in Blacklands. And what a character did she create. Steven lamb. A Liverpool fan, who belongs to a family broken by the death of a member which happened 18 years ago. His nan, and mother doesn’t love him, he gets bullied at school. Though these might seemed clichéd, but while reading the book, Steven and his life is sure to make the reader feel heartbroken and sad.

A must read for any crime fiction lover. A book which strays from the conventional norm of crime writing, yet delivers in a big way.


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Blue Heaven by C.J. Box
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Blue Heaven by C.J. Box starts when little Annie and her brother William, while walking in the North Idaho woods stumble upon a group of four men, who they witness executing a fifth man. Immediately the siblings get spotted by the killers, and they are on the run. Later they end up on the farm of Jess Rawlins, a rancher, who is broke and whose ranch is on the verge of foreclosure. The local Sherriff, overwhelmed by the incident of missing children, accepts the help of the same four killers, who happens to be respected ex-LAPD, for helping him in the search of the missing children.

Officially C.J. Box has become my favourite author, period. What a piece of crime writing. With this book he took the extreme risk of pointing out the good and the bad guys from the very beginning. Normally I don’t appreciate this type of crime fiction, where the element of suspense or detection is not much present. As was the case here. From page one we come to know the four bad guys, we find out the victims on the run, we also recognise the hero of the story. But, instead of getting bored by the format of the novel, I got hooked to it from the beginning. Box using his talent as a writer created moments which were full of suspense, created characters who were not totally white, but various shades of grey. And to keep the ambience of a crime novel intact, he even threw in a subplot, which at the beginning looked like a subplot, but in the end merged with the main storyline, and formed the base of the motive for the crime. Another point scored by Box was the creation of the 4 killers. He made them feel real, cold, brutal, cunning and ruthless. And the fact that he made them ex-cops also added a feather to his hat, as this made the culprits more villainous, as it showed that it can get real bad when the saviour turns into the hunter.

Jess Rawlins, I wish there were men like you in real. They used to be, but now you are an extinct breed. What a man, what a hero. Never the knight in shining armour, he fights his own personal tragedies and his fear, to save the siblings. The scenes where he sees his ranch slipping away from him, and where he sees his son, but fails to communicate with him in a normal way, can get the heart bleeding in the toughest of men. I wish there were many more characters like him in fiction and in real life.

Lastly, the setting of North Idaho. Although I like reading crime novels set in exotic places, but if the novel gets interesting I gradually start losing interest in the setting, concentrating more on the plot. Here that was not the case; he made me feel the weather, the surroundings and the people of North Idaho. He made it impossible for me to ignore this aspect, and wrote about the place in such a way that by the end of the book I felt that had Blue heaven been set in any other place than North Idaho, the book would have lost 50% of its charm.

This book goes highly recommended for all crime fiction fans. Read it not as a suspense novel, but as a western where you know the outcome, but still want to read it as it is set in a beautiful place, full of cunning criminals, a hero with a big heart and personal tragedies, a damsel in distress, and most importantly of all, read it because it is written by a great author, who knows how to write.

P.S. If possible read the last 50 pages with a Ennio Morricone spaghetti western soundtrack playing in the background.




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Alex by Pierre Lemaitre
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A well deserved CWA International Dagger winner!!

During November this year Crime Writers Association came up with a poll, which among other categories voted Agatha Christie as the best ever crime writer. Maxim Jakubowski, a CWA member and a celebrated crime novelist was not happy with the verdict or the choices put up in the poll. According to him, and I also believe, that although Dame Christie remains as the doyenne of crime writing, but the genre in itself has developed way beyond what she created, and that today its encompasses much more than just being populist literature. But, it’s also true that any crime writer does need to pay his respect to the shrine of Christie, atleast once in his/her career. Alex by Pierre Lemaitre shows us in the clearest way possible how crime fiction has travelled this long way to stand where it is today.

Dont read this book. If your life is almost perfect. If you have a cozy atmosphere surrounding you, if you are yet to face crumbling situations, and insane brutality which makes you realise that there is always “Evil Under The Sun”. Because this book will make you sad, angry, will make you feel helpless, will make you wonder what kind of a person is capable of such brutality. But, then again, read it. Read it because if you like crime fiction, you will be guilty of murder if you skip this book. Because as soon as you finish it you will rush out of your house catch anyone you see first, and will start babbling that you have just finished an awfully gruesome, conceited, twisted crime thriller which you need to talk about.

As the name of the book suggests this book is about Alex Prevost. Every chapter, every page is dedicated to this character. For all those who thought Amy from Gone Girl was intriguing, they will have a tough choice in front of them once they have finished this book.

Commandant Camille Verhoeven, the protagonist, a bitter man who has just lost his pregnant wife to a kidnapper, reminded me of Endeavor Morse. Easily irritated, living alone he even has a assistant whose name is Louis. Even the relation between him and his superior Le Guen, reminded me of Morse and Strange. And somewhat for this reason the character of Verhoeven never made a definite impression on my mind. Maybe because it was the close proximity to Morse’s character, but what the real reason was, the presence of Alex. In a book whenever there remains a character as enigmatic as Alex Prevost, it becomes too difficult for the other characters to make an impression over and above her.

The plot is something which I have never read before. While the conventional points of twists and pace was ever present, but what would make this book as different as possible from most crime fiction, is the.....the problem here is, the reader should go into the book without any inkling of what’s there in the plot, what to expect. That way the enjoyment (if the emotion that emerges at the end of the book can be called that) will be at its zenith.

So, Monsieur Lemaitre, the end of my edition says that you will be coming out with next book in 2014. 2014 is here, and I cant wait to get my hands on it.
P.S. For all those who thought Jo Nesbo could be gory and brutal (including me), please take the plunge.


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The Monkey's Raincoat by Robert Crais
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Monkey’s Raincoat is the debut effort by much celebrated American crime novelist Robert Crais. The novel features his protagonist; Vietnam Vet turned Private Investigator, Elvis Cole and his business partner and sidekick Joe Pike.

The novel starts with Ellen Lang, who comes to Crais’ office asking for his help in finding out her husband Mort and their son Perry. Mort was supposed to pick up Perry from school, but neither the husband nor the kid ever reached home. Crais’ writing style baffled me. Frankly speaking, the over-the-top quirky dialogues were not helping me. They seemed unreal and glib. Reading them made me feel that Crais and Cole were both trying too hard.

The plot was not much on the suspense quotient. By 3/4th of the book the plot ceases to have any suspense left in it. But, Crais’ managed to portray Ellen Lang’s troubles and her process of developing her self confidence in a credible manner. The action scene in the climax was good. It was good enough for me to read through the whole scene without skipping a single page.

All in all, a decent debut effort from a famous author. For me it wasn’t a Great Read but it didn’t disappoint me either.



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Open Season by C.J. Box
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Open Season by C.J. Box, published in the year 2001, is the first in the series of crime fiction novels featuring the protagonist Joe Picket, a Game Warden in the Twelve Sleep County, Wyoming. The books opens with a prologue as Picket tries to stop a poacher. The events start piling up from the first chapter itself as the same poacher who Joe had confronted in the prologue is found dead and murdered in his backyard. The police after a routine investigation close the case, and handing over a culprit. But, Joe takes it personally, as the body was found in his own backyard, and apparently not satisfied with the result of the investigation starts to dig deeper into the case. As he digs deeper, he is confronted with the risk of losing the job he loves and thereby losing his family.

The book was nothing extraordinary, as in respect to the plot. This sort of crime novel has been written before and by the half of the book it becomes obvious as to the identity of the culprit. But, what made this one an enjoyable read was the setting. Most of the times a very exceptional thriller gets dull as it doesn’t get the required support from the setting. The setting fails to inject any sort of suspense or sense of adventure in to the plot. But, here wild Wyoming added the perfect amount of adventure quotient, to keep the reader moving on in a steady pace. For a city dweller like me, a crime novel based in the wild becomes much more than a regular crime thriller, it sort of turns into a thriller-cum-travelogue, as it happened here.

Joe Pickett is a family man, with the values in the right places. At times he may seem dull, but given the fact that this is the first book in the series, he comes out as a strong man, who supports his family, and despite all the luring stays true to his profession and values. He is shown in a much toned down human way. Although based in the wild, he is no Tarzan or Lone Ranger. He has emotions, he confesses to be a lousy shot, he even manages to lose his gun.

A well written book, with smooth dialogues, this will be enjoyed by anyone who wants to try a crime novel set outside the dreariness of a concrete jungle, and set in the lush green of the wild.


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