As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust by Alan Bradley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The last book had warned us readers, and this book confirmed our fears along with that of Flavia. She gets banished, to Miss. Bodycote’s Academy in Canada, to start her “training” which according to Aunt Felicity would fulfil her destiny, just like her mother. Flavia reaches Canada, accompanied by two “pills” called Dr. amd Mrs. Rainsmith. Mr. Rainsmith puts up his name in Flavia’s bad books as soon as he introduces himself,

“Dogger had once warned me to be wary of any man who introduced himself as “Mr.” It was an honorific, he said, a mark of respect to be bestowed by others, but never, ever, under any circumstances, upon oneself.”

On reaching Bodycote, Falvia gets assigned to a room called Edith Cavell. No sooner does she settles into her bed, she starts getting slapped, and then no sooner had she stopped and started the deduction process to find “why”, the assault-ress manages to bring down a body of a woman, which was hidden inside the chimney. As the head slides down the floor, the Chimney Sweepers come to dust, to clear away the puzzle regarding the dead woman, missing students and ghosts.

Flavia misses her village and her family, and Dogger. And we miss them as much as she does. But, to keep us away from our sadness we get to meet some entertaining students with nice names, a teacher suspected of homicide, a wheelchair bound mistress who keeps stuffed animals, birds and skulls in her laboratory and lastly a principal, who loves to punish her students in unimaginable ways.

Flavia transforms from a happy-go-lucky, and sometimes sad girl, into a “banished” adolescent far away from home, who realises that no letters are coming from home, except from Dogger. Who realises that the truth must be reached through facts, and only facts and that emotions should be kept at bay. And she also comes face to face with deep sadness. As such faced by a little girl who is far away from home, with no letters to look forward to, and no laboratory turn to.

“Magic doesn’t work when you’re sad.”

Flavia might have been heading towards new territory, but Alan Bradley stays rooted in his original position and presents us with a taut fast paced mystery, once a spy thriller and the next moment a gothic murder mystery, with “lights out after dark”, ghosts in the hall, and dead bodies never discovered, and if discovered, they are found stuffed inside chimneys. And he doesn’t disappoint when it comes to twists too. Not one, but two twists remain to be served in the last course.

P.S. Isn’t Dame Agatha Christie the greatest of them all?? Sometimes she looks to me like that Blues guitarist whose licks are sampled by everyone but no one gives him the credit for being a master musician. I think it’s for once and all that the tag attached to Christie, saying that she is a great plotter and a horrible writer, should be dropped. If she was a horrible writer then why would she be “sampled” hither and tither, and even if she IS a horrible writer, she still will remain the best. The Queen.
As Flavia said,
“Could I, by sheer chance, have stumbled upon one of those classic killings, such as those written about by Miss Christie, in which the murderer mocks the police by carrying out killings that mimic nursery rhymes or fairy tales?”


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The Snack Thief by Andrea Camilleri
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Snack Thief begins when a Tunisian immigrant, while on sea aboard a fishing boat is gunned down. Salvu refuses to get involved in that case as another body is found inside the elevator of a residential building. The two cases gets connected later as Salvu finds himself in front of a mystery involving characters ranging from a snack thief to an international criminal.

Camilleri, though used international politics in this book, kept it minimum and thus didn’t turn the book into a hardcore spy thriller. Rather he used the backdrop of international terrorism to create a piece of crime fiction which had a simple plot, and the flow of which wasn’t to bumpy. The book never entered the zone where the plot gets too twisted to follow; rather it maintained calmness throughout, with liberal sprinklings of twists here and there.

The book like the others from Camilleri weren’t devoid of humour. Paras which contained scenes of Salvu reading the newspaper and going through the headlines, though brutal, still brought laughter to the reader. These scenes return in every book, and the way in which the crimes are described makes them funny each time. Such is the quality of Andrea Camilleri as a writer.


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Anarchy and Old Dogs by Colin Cotterill
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When a blind man gets hit by a truck in Vientiene, Dr. Siri, Laos’ only coroner gets involved. The body of the dentist reveals nothing except for a blank page, which turns out to be a note written in invisible ink. Intrigued Dr. Siri along with Inspector Phosy visits the house of the deceased dentist and finds a clue that sends Dr. Siri and Civilai to Pakse in the south, and Phosy and Nurse Dtui east into Thailand.

One of the prime reasons I read Dr. Siri mysteries is for the humor element. The plot as it is never reaches the dizzying heights of a whodunit, but Cotteril’s humor, along with his elegant writing style, his descriptions and mainly his take,via Dr. Siri, on Communism and its effect provides me with enough fodder to enjoy the book thoroughly. And it was no different this time. Be it the diplomat who got fried in his bathtub, or the musings of “Inspector Migraine” wanting to solve the murder by eliminating suspects “one by one” were notably laughable. And without giving away the plot, or shouting spoiler alert, the conversation between the two old friends, Siri and Civilai, are deep and insightful. Especially where Siri defends the revolution and the ensuing talk that follows.

If not a must read, but still a book which should be picked up just to feel Dr. Siri and frankly it’s a shame to miss even one Dr. Siri mystery.


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A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Bill Bryson is awesome, but his friend Stephen Katz is more awesome.

Published in 1998, Walk in The Woods, saw Bryson and his friend Stephen Katz team up once again(they travelled together in Europe, which is described in Neither Here Nor There) to hike the Appalachian Trail. The beginning of the book shows Bryson talking about the difficulties of the hike, as he tries to buy his hiking gear without embarrassing his son(who works in the store). Later as none of his friends responds to his call for becoming his hiking partner, he finds salvation in the form of his childhood friend Stephen Katz from his hometown of Des Moines. Thus they begin their journey from the state of Georgia, as Bryson realises that neither hiking is easy, nor Katz is fit for hiking.

The book is a trademark Bryson, where he mixes non-fiction with a great dose of humour. Though compared to his other books or travelogues the humour quotient of this book was much less. But, nonetheless, where he got the chance, he managed to bring out belly aching laughter from the reader through his descriptions and words. But, what made this book stand apart, or rather makes every Bill Bryson book stand apart is the simplification of the non-fiction part to an extent where not only does the facts and the figures lose any of their importance, but also never becomes boring to read. In a way they merge into the main stream of the travelogue without disturbing its flow.

But, clearly Bill Bryson is not the hero of the adventure, Stephen Katz is. Normally when Bryson travels, he becomes the undisputed King of Laughter. But, with passing pages I gradually realized, that with his dialogues, his guffaws and his penchant for throwing away things, Stephen Katz became the undisputed hero of the books. So much so, that the part where Bryson hikes the smaller parts of the trail without Katz, the book becomes much less interesting. Without Katz the trail loses its glamour!!!

P.S. Cant wait to see the movie with Robert Redford as Bill Bryson, and Nick Nolte as Stephen Katz.


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Slash And Burn by Colin Cotterill
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

“A good communist is like a tree. He stands firm but knows how to bend in a strong wind. He is fertile but gladly gives up his nuts to less fortunate creatures”

Slash and Burn, the eighth installment of the Dr.Siri mysteries, starts off when an American delegation led by Major Potter visits Laos, starting a joint operation to search for an American helicopter pilot who was lost during the war. Although presumed dead, a photograph delivered to the pilot’s dad, an American senator showed that he was still alive. Dr.Siri is asked to join the expedition. Then as a member of the team dies under unnatural circumstances, Dr.Siri smells foul and starts to investigate his death.

This was my first Colin Cotterill book, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Very few writers have the talent of combing crime writing with humor i.e. write a crime novel which would not only be a page turner but would also make the reader laugh. The only name that comes to mind is that of the late John Mortimer, who along with his legendary creation Horace Rumpole created the same potent mixture of crime and humor, just as Cotterill did with his Dr.Siri mysteries.

Dr.Siri is one of a kind. He is an old pathologist who is fighting for his retirement. He is also an amateur sleuth in a Communist country, who doesn’t gives a damn about what the politburo might think about his comments towards Communism. Matching his wit for their own, is his wife Madam Geung, the noodle shop owner, and his friend Civlai, an ex-politburo member and Auntie Bpoo a transgender and a cross dresser, who also is an amateur poet. The plot without being anything extraordinary was twisted, and it also incorporated the events of the helicopter crash in a foolproof manner. The amount of blood and gore was low, rather nil, and the pace was sedate.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book and would recommend it to every crime fiction reader. Because I realized after finishing, that if you haven’t encountered Dr.Siri, your Crime Fiction experience isn’t complete.


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