Category: crime

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Review: Lethal White

Rating: 3.5 Stars

I think it was a mistake to read this book right after reading Career Of Evil. For one, I kept wanting to read one more page till I realized that I had spent all night reading it, and for another, it was not because of the mystery but because I just wanted it to be over!

First, let’s talk about the thing everyone was waiting for: Robin and Matthew’s wedding, and what happened after Strike managed to reach the church in Career Of Evil. The whole sequence at the beginning of Lethal White left me underwhelmed and disappointed. I expected Robin’s character to grow more mature as we find out more and more about her. The first chapter again made me question how the same woman can be so brave, yet so weak? Then, suddenly we skip a whole year and realize that everything seems to be back at square one, except the agency is doing a tad bit better than in the last book.

The first chapter could have been redeemed if the actual mystery had been anything like the previous three installments. In the previous review, I talked about Robert Galbraith not being one to shy away from violence and gore. Looks like I talked to soon.

The story is not bad, and there is a definite mystery to be solved, but this detective series has suddenly become like an Agatha Christie book, only with long and tedious details that make you want to yawn. The fact that I was able to actually work it all out much sooner than the detectives themselves, was a downer. I just read on to see if my guess was correct.

It all looked really promising in the beginning with a mysterious visitor, and his strange story. I was ready to read something along the lines of The Silkworm. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. I’m still a big fan of murder mysteries, so I won’t say that it was a bad book, just that compared to the earlier books, this was a bit of a letdown. I have really begun to think that Galbraith needs a better editor who has the skills to make the whole plot tighter, and stop it from meandering around too much.

As for the Cormoran-Robin-Matthew relationship, it looks like we will keep going round and round in circles for a while yet. If characters from the past keep turning up at every corner, we can look forward to this whole thing being stretched on for another few books. At least this time the reader wasn’t left hanging with a strange ending!

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Review: Career Of Evil

Rating: 4 Stars

First of all, I don’t know why I didn’t read this book earlier, considering I have had this one since it came out in 2015. My excuse is that I made the mistake of reading reviews which said that it ended on a cliffhanger, and that it would be years before the next one came out. So, me being me, thought that I’d wait till the next one is released before tackling such a huge tome. Big mistake. If reading one thick book is daunting, committing to reading two, that too back to back, seems like a herculean task!

Fortunately, I was able to push myself to finish this one in a little more than 2 days, and now after really thinking about it, I’m ready to write a review.

Contrary to popular opinion, I actually liked this book. Yes, it’s slow, and yes, it leaves off at a strange turn, but these are not reason enough to not read it. When it comes to detective stories, I can be really patient. One of my most favorite detective series, written by P.D James, consists of huge books, with long, long narratives, describing things to death.

Career of Evil takes its own sweet time to come to the point, but the mystery is interesting, and Robert Galbraith never shies away from giving gory details of seemingly unimaginable cruelty. There are so many suspects, each with a plausible motive, which combined with Cormoran Strike’s own prejudices, makes for an interesting read. There is such a feeling of danger lurking around every corner that you keep expecting things to go wrong all the time. Which, of course, they do. With Robin Ellacott around to stir things up, it is but expected that things will become interesting.

One of the reasons for the heft of this book is that it has a parallel thread running through it. That of Robin’s back story. When I had read The Silkworm, I was really irritated with Robin, for it seemed like the woman who was not afraid to face danger head on, was a coward and a loser in her personal life. These two seemingly opposite traits made her an annoying character for me. This book tries to somewhat redress the balance in Robin’s favour.

It has been clear from the beginning that no one in Robin’s family takes her ambition to become a detective very seriously. It is therefore natural for them to be against her taking a very low paying job which comes with its own perils and dangers. She has stood up to these pressures till now, and continued to excel in her job. What is it then, that makes it impossible for her to stand up for herself in her personal life? What seemed like a contradiction, becomes clear in this book and you are better able to understand Robin’s behaviour.

Still, Strike and Robin come across as so clueless and stupid in some instances, that I wanted to club them on their heads with something. As far as the “cliffhanger” is concerned, Galbraith has done it before as well, though this time the exact point where the book left off was very irritating. Even then, the slow burn of the story and all the blood and gore are so typical Galbraith that even though I don’t love this book as much as The Silkworm, I still consider it pretty decent in this series and particularly in this genre.

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Review: An Unwanted Guest

Rating: 4 Stars

An old-fashioned murder mystery, set in an isolated hotel, where everyone is a suspect. What’s not to like in a book like this? An Agatha Christie fan like me can never get enough of these mysteries, and Shari Lapena delivers the goods most satisfactorily.

Ten people check into Mitchell’s Inn, a beautiful hotel in the Catskill Mountains, away from the crowded and busy life of the city. There is no wi-fi or mobile connectivity in this location to disturb the peace that the guests are looking for. On this particular weekend, however, the weather is horrible as a fierce storm rages outside, threatening to cut off the electricity and heat supplies. With only the owner and his son as the staff, the hotel is also short-staffed because of the storm.

But the weather is not the worst enemy that they have to face.

The first body is found lying down the stairs, seemingly having tripped. Everyone is skeptical when the possibility of a murder is raised. This skepticism doesn’t last long as they realize that they don’t know anything about each other, and that there is possibly a murderer among them.

Fast-paced and slick, this book reminded me of my favourite And Then There Were None, with the suspicion moving from one person to the next. However, that is where the similarity ended.

While Agatha Christie had strong back stories for all the characters, here the motive lacked that strength.

Everyone has something to hide, a secret which they don’t want others to know. While some secrets were really worth hiding, others seem to be made up just to move the story forward. In real life, there aren’t many people who will really care about something like this in someone’s past. But, like I said, something was needed to move the story forward.

The second weakness in the narrative was the sudden wrapping up of the whole case. I found it a bit abrupt, as I expected something better from the writer who gave us the brilliant ending of The Couple Next Door. Then again, I said the same thing about the last chapter of A Stranger In The House, so I think the bar was set so high with The Couple Next Door, that it is difficult to reach that level again.

Overall, I loved this book because of its typical murder mystery feel, and the suspense and terror it managed to create.

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Review: Need To Know

Rating: 3.75 Stars

This book really took me by surprise! I don’t know why I bought it, maybe because there wasn’t much choice at the time, but I’m so glad that I did. This is one book that all fans of suspense, thrills and espionage should read. That it is written by a former CIA analyst, is a big bonus.

I have always been a big fan of Alias and 24, Sidney Bristow being my ideal woman since I was a teenager. Need To Know has a similar vibe of intrigue and suspense, with lots of twists thrown in for good measure. Most of the time you don’t know what to believe and what to suspect.

Here, I have to say that I found the character of Vivian a bit naive and gullible, but that’s how most normal people are. I might be suspicious of the characters in a book, but I’m sure given such a situation, I will probably react in the same way. It’s just not a good feeling to see a woman go through all this on paper, even if we will all do whatever we can to save our family too.

Writing a long review might lead to spoilers, and that is something that I don’t want to do at all. The things I loved about this book is the fast pace (I finished it in half a day!) and the constant feeling of being on the edge of your seat. However, there were some things I didn’t like at all.

I felt that in making the story so interesting, the author forgot to make the characters interesting too. Somehow the characters didn’t feel very real. It was as if they were all going through the motions but their heart really wasn’t in it. I found it hard to sympathize with Vivian even while my heart was pounding at what she was about to do! Similarly, the negative character did not frighten me, even though their actions made me sick and frightened.

Another problem was that I wasn’t surprised by the twist at the end at all. It was a good one though, but I had worked it out for myself. Maybe I just have a suspicious nature when it comes to books!

I can see this book turned into a movie or a TV series, it’s got all the potential. I wouldn’t even be surprised if there is a sequel to that movie, given the last twist. A thrilling, fun read for me.

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Review: The Girl Before

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Another day, another thriller. This one, while above average, still fails where it counts the most…. the climax. It’s not a boring book, not at all. It is so interesting that once I started reading, I found it hard to put it down, and finished it in one day only. It was in the last 50 or so pages that I was disappointed.

Jane is going through a tragic phase in her life, and she needs change. In her search for an affordable house, she comes across an opportunity that is hard to resist. The house is extremely minimalist, and comes with a long list of rules that are almost impossible to follow. Yet, Jane feels like the house is calling out to her, and decides to apply for a chance to live there.

As she settles down in the house, she comes to know that one of the previous tenants, Emma, died in the house. Her death was ruled as an accident, but her ex-boyfriend is convinced that it’s a murder. As Jane embarks on an affair with an enigmatic man, she becomes more and more determined to find out the truth of what happened to Emma three years ago.

The book alternates between the voices of Emma and Jane, the past and the present. There are quite a few surprises in store, and every chapter leaves you confused and thinking about what actually happened.

The build up is great, and even though I was not really surprised by the turn in the story, I thought it would make for an interesting climax. Except that for me, the last few chapters fell flat on their face. I found the ending to be okay, nothing spectacular. I wish there had been something more shocking or disturbing to end it with.

Overall, it is a good book with quite a sinister feel to it. So, if you don’t mind a mediocre ending, it will be an enjoyable and spooky read.

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Review: Lord Edgeware Dies

Rating: 4 Stars

It is strange knowing that I have read all these books by Agatha Christie and loved them, yet I cannot remember even a little percentage of the stories! So, now reading them again feels like I’m reading a new book.

As the name suggests, in this book Lord Edgeware dies, leaving behind a confused police force, and a mystified Poirot. The case appears to be open and shut, as all suspicion falls on Lady Edgeware who was the last person to see him. The butler saw her, as did the secretary. They are positive about her identity. Her motive couldn’t be more evident, and she herself told Hercule Poirot that she wanted to kill him.

Yet, Lady Edgeware was present at a dinner party where at least 12 other people dined with her at the time when she was supposed to be visiting Lord Edgeware. She was within sight of someone or the other at all times until the party ended.

Lord Edgeware himself was no innocent. He had led such a life that had made many people his enemies, not least his nephew and heir, and his daughter herself. In addition to these people, there is the shady butler who is a bit too good-looking, and the prim secretary who is an unreliable witness.

As the murderer strikes again, it becomes a race against time for Poirot, who is convinced that a person who has killed once, will not stop at just one murder. The whole case is in danger of remaining unsolved, or a wrong person being punished for the crime, unless Poirot can get to the bottom of the whole affair. It almost becomes the case Hercule Poirot couldn’t solve.

I would have given the book 3 stars if I had even guessed half of the story right, As it turned out, while my mind was presenting many solutions, the actual solution never occurred to me. It is the genius of Agatha Christie that she came up with such brilliant plots for her novels. Read this book for the answers even if you get bored by the whole case after a while.

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Review:Luckiest Girl Alive

Rating: 3 Stars

No matter what you think when you see the cover and read the blurb, Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll is NOT a thriller. I went in expecting a thriller, and kept waiting for the twist which never came. I had seen the book on bookstagram, and as always, avoided reading reviews, which is why I never knew what genre the book belonged to. Not to say that I don’t like reading other genres, I do. And this book is not too bad.

I admit I am very squeamish reading about sexual assault and rape, especially so when it is a teenager who is later ostracized for it. It was something that made Bear Town almost unbearable for me even though I was so invested in the characters. This book also made me uncomfortable and angry, but I couldn’t connect with the characters at all.

Ani FaNelli was a character I had really high hopes of; she came off as cunning, ruthless, and a bit twisted in the beginning, and I was waiting for the moment when everything will go to hell because she was intent on taking revenge. So it was a shock when suddenly in the last quarter of the book, she became a victim and lost all the characteristics that Knoll had built over the course of the book.

The story is fast paced and keeps you interested. The past is such a big presence in the present that you want to find out what happened quickly. The author, however, makes you wait for the whole story, which is a testament to the author’s skillful writing. What doesn’t come up to the mark is the climax, or in this case, the lack of one. It is like suddenly it’s all over and we should sympathise with the poor victim, and isn’t it great how everything worked out to prove how strong a woman she is.

After writing in such detail about everything past and present, Knoll suddenly decided to end the book on a high note, with Ani becoming the ultimate hero of her own story. I just felt that there was something missing in that last quarter of the book. I wish I could have enjoyed the last part as much as I enjoyed the rest of the book.

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Review: Lying In Wait

Rating: 3.5 Stars
Warning: Spoilers

Lying In Wait, by Liz Nugent, introduces us to Lydia Fitzsimons, a woman with the perfect life. She lives in a beautiful mansion with her husband and son, both of whom love her unconditionally. Yet Lydia is not satisfied. She wants something more, and her husband will do anything to get it for her, even commit murder. However, it is the consequences of that murder that make it difficult to get up every morning and look in the mirror. Not so for Lydia though. She will go to any length to rise above the unfortunate event.

There are very few characters that inspire the hatred that Lydia does. Her character is one of the most twisted and cold characters that you will ever come across. You don’t want to kill her, you want to run far away from her. She is a dangerous and manipulative woman, incapable of comprehending anything beyond her own wishes and desires. Reading her parts of the story always left me with a chill running through my spine, not wanting to read more, yet compelled to do so.

Laurence, the overweight son of Lydia and Andrew, who is over protected and smothered with motherly love, is the second narrator of this tale. It is difficult to decide whether to give him sympathy or a slap across his face. Clearly, he is a normal person with a guilty conscience at war with his love for his mother. Yet, we also see traces of meanness and cruelty that make him his mother’s son. Throughout the book, he was one person I really did feel sorry for, even with his moronic obedience and love for his crazy mother.

The third narrator, Karen, is the person I liked the least in this book. Her character was as dull as Lydia’s is evil. I would have given this book a higher rating if it hadn’t been for Karen. Other than being beautiful, there isn’t much to recommend her to the reader. Her choices and decisions are so contradictory that you become as confused about her character as she herself is in her life. Somehow, I found it very hard to sympathize with Karen.

The book becomes a bit boring and repetitive halfway through, with things seemingly going round and round in circles. The side characters are somewhat stereotypical, especially Bridget and her family who are shown to be lackluster just to contrast with Karen’s beauty. Yet, Karen is the one who comes out as the bad guy in this whole scenario. It wouldn’t have hurt to make Bridget a bit better looking, and not make her do what she did in the end because it all went against her character. It was unnecessary to turn Bridget into a vindictive bitch just to absolve Andrew and Karen from their selfishness.

The end is chilling and satisfying, though I saw it coming. Lydia’s character stays true to form till the end, and Andrew remains as clueless as ever. Karen’s character remains confused like always. She was so irritating for me that I really thought she got what she deserved.

Overall, a satisfying book for lovers of creepy stories.

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Review: The Perfect Stranger

Rating: 3 Stars

I have found that if you have not read a writer before, don’t read their best rated book first, because it will set the bar higher for subsequent books. I had not read Megan Miranda before, and all reviews pointed at All The Missing Girls being the greatest book ever written. Of course, that made me wary of getting it. As I was ordering some books from Amazon, I saw The Perfect Stranger by Megan Miranda, and added it to my basket without reading any reviews or ratings. I wasn’t disappointed.

Leah Stevens moves to a small town in Pennsylvania with her friend Emmy Grey. She needs to start over and leave behind the scandal that ended her journalism career and almost destroyed her. She takes up a teaching position in the local high school while Emmy, with her background in NGO work, struggles with part-time jobs. It is not a peaceful existence as she struggles with forgetting her past and getting used to living in the isolated house near the lake that Emmy was intent on living in.

When there is a vicious crime near Leah’s house, and Leah reports Emmy missing, all hell breaks loose. Leah realizes that her new house is not so safe after all, and someone seems to be stalking her. As things unravel, it dawns on Leah that there is no evidence that Emmy Grey even existed, and now she herself is the prime suspect in a murder investigation. Now Leah not only has to prove herself innocent by finding Emmy Grey, she also has to see her past with new eyes.

The character of Leah is a good one. She has a journalist’s instincts and reactions, and she is ready to go to any length to get to the truth. The setting of the book is also true to a thriller. The glass walls that make the front of the house visible to anyone from outside, struck as quite creepy, and I kept imagining how it would feel to sleep in a house like that. Even though the characters and setting were good, I wish the writer had given some more reality to the narrative.

The irritant in this book was the way Leah Stevens describes everything, from her relationship to her family, to the scandal that made her run away, in terms that seemed to be coming out of the mouth of a psychologist rather than a journalist. Saying something like, “Have you ever wondered if what we’re doing is the only path? If we weren’t meant for something else?” when all her sister asked was what was going on; who talks like that in the real world?

The climax was also a bit of a disappointment. After so many twists and turns, the end was like a fizzled bomb. It was rushed. and there were some loose ends that were not dealt with. The most glaring one being the fate of Theo Burton and how the evidence that seemed so flimsy a couple of pages back, was suddenly enough to detain him. Then there was the last confrontation that was over almost as soon as it began, and leaves you feeling like you were cheated out of a good climax after spending so much time reading the book.

Overall, I enjoyed reading the book and would give it 3.5 stars. I just wish the ending had been a better.

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Review: The Wife Between Us

Rating: 3 Stars

Either I read too many thrillers, or I somehow end up reading similar books very close together. I wish I hadn’t read The Last Mrs. Parrish before this one. Because even though The Wife Between Us is infinitely better than that book, the main idea is so similar that it looks like the same person shared their ideas with the authors!

The Wife Between Us starts out as a simple enough narrative, told in two alternate voices, one a first-hand narrative, and the other in Third Person about a girl called Nellie. The first twist comes out of nowhere. Even though I had read the blurb and was ready to question everything, I didn’t see that one coming. I was able to predict a couple of things but not the first twist. For me, this turned everything I thought upside down, and I had to go back and read a few things again. This twist was so good that I had very high expectations from the rest of the book.

Alas, the second part of the book is just spent in clearing up all that happens in the first part. All loose ends are dealt with and everything is neatly tied up. Not a good idea for a Thriller. While you want to know what actually happened, all the suspense is dead and you just read on to find the motives and conclusion. The one thing that the authors seem to think we don’t know, is glaringly obvious from almost the beginning. At a time when domestic abuse is in the spotlight, it is impossible to misconstrue any clues about its existence.

The most unnecessary part of the story comes in the Epilogue. There was no need for that twist, if you can all it a twist. It just emphasized the feeling that the writers were trying too hard. Sometimes, it is ok to leave a few stories untold, a few ends untied. After all, that’s what happens in real life. It sounds too good to be true to have all your demons laid to rest in one go.

Overall, I like the book even though there wasn’t anything different about it. I liked the way the authors have dealt with domestic abuse and its aftermath. A domestic abuse victim can never want another person to go through the same experience, no matter how desperate they are. A good one time read.

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