சென்னையில் வேலை
இந்த புத்தகம் இரண்டு மர்ம கதைகள் கொண்டது. முதல் கதை ஒரு ஓட்ட பந்தய
இரண்டுமே பரத்-சுசீலா கதைகள் தான். இரண்டுமே விறுவிறுப்பான கதைக்களம் கொண்டது. முதல் கதையிலோ
மொத்தத்தில், ஒரு வாட்டி
When I browse unknown books and authors at the library or book fairs, I look for interesting covers with the one-liners on them When I am impressed by a cover, it feels like the book has chosen me. And believe me, most of the ones selected through book covers worked well for me. This was one such book that gave me the same vibe during my recent visit to the library. A simple book cover but I was genuinely interested enough to choose the one for reading. Plus I was smitten by the blurb as well.
Emma Carpenter is house-sitting in one of the private beachfront houses along the Strand Beach area with her dog, Laika. The only other contacts are the house owner Jules via phone and her neighbour Deek living half a mile away through telescopes in their houses. Emma has isolated herself due to something bad that happened in her life. She spends her days binge-reading on ebooks from Kindle Unlimited. One day, Deek recommends a book that she dislikes so much that she gives a one-star review on Amazon. Soon, the author contacts her over mail to take down the review which she does not. He warns her that this is not the end and soon after she starts realizing that someone is stalking the house. Does she survive? Is it the deranged writer or is it another of the serial killers targeting people in near-isolated areas? forms the remaining plot.
To start with, a highly engaging read. A great and interesting premise. I have always considered the scenario in this novel each time I write a book review. The novel gives us the vibe of a home invasion movie. I liked the way the author succeeds in getting us invested in the story. The writer has done a good job of maintaining the tempo of the story as well. Things are happening every few pages. Just when we think that the story is going to end or proceed one way, it goes the other way completely taking us by surprise. In some books, we get a feeling that things are happening in a forced way. The narration does feel like that towards the end but the way it is written does not give us time to mull over it. That's what made the read exciting enough for me. The language and style are simple enough to keep us reading. The few characters were nicely written and their emotions were well etched and the author succeeds in passing them over to the readers. Being a work of fiction, there are logical lapses that can be overlooked. Like I said earlier, there are moments where we feel that the story is getting dragged voluntarily. Even though we may overlook that in the flow of the story, the thought lingers once we complete the book.
In short, a very engaging book that keeps us rooted till the end. The book promises an exciting read that we can binge upon. I would like to see this being adapted into a movie in the future.
It's been quite a while since I took up a Japanese mystery book. What is better than a locked room mystery? 'The Tokyo Zodiac Murders' was a good read from Soji Shimada and I wanted to try this book. Plus the name was also interesting.
The Ice Floe Mansion sits over a cliff in one of the northernmost parts of Japan. The location is weird and the house itself is a very crooked and confusing structure - slopping floors, strange staircases, creepy masks and human-sized dolls. The owner of the house, Kozaburo Hamamoto and his daughter Eiko invite guests to spend Christmas at the House. The next day, a guest is found murdered inside a locked room within the house. Soon the police investigators from the region are trying to get to the bottom of this amidst the blizzard raging outside the house. Soon another locked room murder happens, and everyone is clueless. Tokyo police enlist the help of Kiyoshi Mitarai, the renewed sleuth. Will he be able to solve the locked room mystery and find the murderer forms the story.
First of all, yet another interesting locked room mystery for a master Japanese writer. The story also confines mostly within the house so there is more importance and interactions given to the characters. There was always something happening enough to keep me interested and invested in the plot. The layout map of the house and the rooms where the crimes happened were really helpful. As the name indicates, the house was so confusing that I had to go back and forth on the layout maps every time. Since there were guests allocated to each room, the reading was difficult at times. I had to pause and refer back half the time. The characters were well written and we get to know more details of each character as and when we go reading. The suspense was well maintained and the author was successful in maintaining the sombre mood throughout. I was able to guess the perpetrator midway but my reasoning was different. But the way it was executed could not be guessed at all. Kiyoshi enters the novel way past the halfway mark. But once he entered, the book seemed to catch up the speed. Some might find the slowness till then a bit dull. There may be logical flaws that you may notice here and there. Nevertheless, the book does keep you engaged. The writer has brought the landscape and the Japanese culture very well into the book. And I enjoyed how the whole thing unravelled. When it comes to translations, a big part needs to be played by the translator. Here also, I feel the translator has done full justice to keep us invested in the book. Pushkin Vertigo has been doing a wonderful job bringing out such classics to the front. I have read some amazing books from this publisher.
In short, this is a good locked-room mystery that can be a good read for mystery lovers. I have been a fan of Japanese mysteries and this adds one more significant addition to my "Read" list.
Archaeology and History have always fascinated me from a young age. Even back in my school days, I enjoyed reading about history. For me, archaeologists were adventurous individuals who dug up the earth to uncover entire cities, explore unknown structures, and discover fascinating artefacts. I was the only one in my class who wanted to become one growing up. Well! Life had different plans; but to date, I enjoy both history and archaeology through the books, and documentaries I have come across. Recently I encountered this book and jumped right in to see what it had to offer.
This book talks about the history and evolution of archaeology. The book follows how long ago, this was about robbing artefacts and how the study became systematic to the field of study we see now. Brian, an archaeologist himself takes us to various parts of the world and talks about the ancient discoveries: Egyptian pyramids, Angor Wat, Stonehenge, Jamestown, Mayans, Pompeii, Greater Zimbabwe, Mohandejaro and more. When archaeology seemed a predominantly male-dominated field, there were been few very remarkable females who brought change to the way we see things. The book also introduces them along with some of the world-famous archaeologists who were game-changers in this field and changed the way things were done. Brian also traces the progress of development from shovels to underwater archaeology to state-of-the-art LIDAR technology and satellite imaging.
First of all, I simply loved the book. True that this is not a book for everyone. For interested people like me, the book just caters perfectly. To be clear, this book does not talk in-depth about the history behind all those sites. This book is about how archaeology evolved over time and the reader needs to be clear of that. The language was simple enough and the style engaging enough with not much-complicated lingo to hinder the flow. The book is not a quick read and it took me 2 months to finish the book. One cannot maybe finish this in a single read or a couple of them. I am a slow reader when it comes to such topics and did take my sweet time finishing it parallelly taking time to do some further reading or check videos on related topics. At around 290 or 300 pages, you are getting ample facts from the read. But do not expect exhaustive information which this book does not provide. I liked how he set the chapters in chronological order as per the growth of technology in the field. Also, I liked the last chapter which was sort of a quick run-through of what all were told in the book and how archaeology is shaping up in the future.
In short, a good book for people interested in the topic of archaeology and history. The book may not be exhaustive but provides a base for a good factual read.
I came across this book during a recent visit to a nearby book fair. I had heard about Freida McFadden and her book, The Housemaid quite often and read the same. Even though not up to the hype, it was an interesting read. I have not heard of this book but then the blurb did seem interesting which made me go for the book.
Brooke Sullivan has just moved back to her home town to work as a nurse practitioner at a men's maximum security prison. Nobody in the prison knows that she is connected to one of the most notorious inmates of the prison, Shane Nelson. According to Brooke, Shane had murdered Brooke's friends and tried to kill her as well. It was Brooke's testimony that got him incarcerated. Even though she hates Shane, there is a tinge of attraction somewhere remaining in her. Shane during one of his visits to the medical room tells her that he is innocent and it was Tim, a close friend of Brooke who was present then, who committed this crime. What happened during the fateful night? Did Brooke make a mistake back then? Is Shane telling the truth? Is Tim not as innocent as he seems? forms the story.
As I said at the start, the blurb was interesting. But at the same time, the blurb if not developed properly into a story can be a total mess. Well! For me, it was such an experience reading this. The read is very quick and you can finish this up in a few hours. The language was okayish enough. The story alternates between timelines - 'Then' and 'Now' with 'Then' being my favourite among the timelines. The few characters present were written well except Brooke. Since I was not able to attach myself to the central character, connecting with the book was difficult for me. There are only a very few handful of characters of which Brooke is the central character. I found her irritating most of the time and dumb in parts. That seems to be the main problem with the novel. When the main character is such a person, I am unable to connect with the story. I mean the start was good. Nice idea in the first place. Brooke returning to her home town with her son, and settling into her new job seemed fine, which was promising. Once Tim and Shane come back into her life, it starts messing up big time. Brooke appears confused almost throughout the book. She seemed easily prone to manipulations and easily thrown around by other characters. Shane seemed a manipulative sort of person and the author succeeds in making us uncomfortable when the character is around. There seemed to be some loose ends as well at places that did not quite add up. Having said all this, I did enjoy the twists towards the climax and how the novel ends. It was unexpected and it did blow my mind off.
In short, the novel was an average read for me but with a good climax. If you want a quick read, you can go for this book without raising your hopes. For me, this is not a book befitting the person who wrote 'The Housemaid'.
For my reviews on other books by Freida McFadden, check the below link.
The Housemaid - The Housemaid