Book Review: Fiddlers by Ed McBain

Fiddlers is Ed McBain's 55th novel and the last in his long-running 87th Precinct series. Published after his death in 2005, it is set in the fictional city of Isola, which is loosely based on Manhattan, surrounded by districts that resemble New York’s other boroughs.

The story is about a string of chilling murders that seem unconnected at first, with each victim shot twice in the face by a killer the papers have dubbed The Glock Killer. The victims are as different as chalk and cheese—a blind violinist, a woman selling beauty products, a college professor, a priest and an elderly lady walking her dog—but they have all been killed with the same type of gun. In fact, what ties the murders together is the Glock. But what could be the motive?

(As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.)

Book Review: The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

I can never guess the culprit in Agatha Christie novels until Hercule Poirot lays it all out at the end. In the same way, I didn’t see the signs or the twists coming in Alex Michaelides’ debut novel The Silent Patient (2019), even if at times they might have seemed obvious. Just not to me. Maybe I wasn’t paying attention; so absorbed was I in this cleverly crafted psychological thriller.

The Silent Patient, to use a cliché, pulls you in from the start with an unsettling theme: thirty-three-year-old Alicia Berenson, a once-famous painter, shoots her husband and stops talking completely. Theo Faber, a psychotherapist, reads about her case in the papers and is determined to make her talk and find out why she did it—and, in fact, you can’t wait until he does. After all, Alicia, by her own admission, loved Gabriel and couldn’t imagine life without him.

(As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.)

Book Review: The Confession by John Grisham

I finished John Grisham’s The Confession in four straight days, and the first thing I did afterward was put up an Instagram story (the one that disappears after twenty-four hours) with the cover and the line: Reading this felt like an emotional gut punch. I found the story morally and ethically charged on the one hand, and riveting and unsettling on the other. Perhaps because it was uncomfortably close to reality.

The Confession is the heartbreaking story of Donté Drumm, a young Black football player from the small East Texas town of Sloan, who is wrongfully convicted of the abduction, rape and murder of Nicole Yarber, a popular high school White cheerleader—and sent to death row.

(As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.)

Following a malicious witness testimony, Drew Kerber, a crooked detective with the Sloan Police Department, picks up Donté and, after a gruelling and intimidating interrogation filled with lies, extracts a false confession from him.

There is no evidence against Donté and the case is riddled with holes. Despite the fact that he later recants his forced confession and that the girl’s body is never found, Donté is tried before an all-White jury and convicted of a crime he did not commit.

But that’s not where Grisham’s novel begins. It actually starts nine years after Donté’s incarceration, when Travis Boyette—a serial rapist and registered sex offender out on parole in another case—is struck by a rare moment of conscience and confesses to the crime before Keith Schroeder, a Lutheran minister living hundreds of miles away in Topeka, Kansas. Travis wants to clear Donté’s name—‘He didn’t do anything wrong’—because he is dying of an inoperable brain tumour and wants to do one good thing before he takes his last breath.

With less than twenty-four hours to go before the execution, Keith, much against the advice of his wife and a lawyer friend, drives Travis all the way to Sloan in the dead of night to meet Donté’s lawyer, Robbie Flak, in a last-ditch effort to save his life.

Can a guilty man, especially a depraved, loathsome one at that, convince the police, judges, district attorneys, the media, politicians and a state governor—many of them indirectly complicit—that they’re about to execute an innocent man?

The Confession goes well beyond crime and punishment. It explores the profound impact of a wrongful conviction on families, society, and the criminal justice system in Texas, across America, and beyond. The story feels hauntingly close to real-life cases where those serving life sentences, awaiting execution, or perhaps already executed were later found innocent.

As always, Grisham’s writing is gripping, and the story unfolds at a brisk pace, overlooking no detail—whether of characters, events or the judicial process. I thought some of the lengthy descriptions and backstories could have been left out, but that’s the author’s prerogative, not to mention his trademark style. But, in doing so, Grisham explores sensitive issues such as the fairness—or the lack thereof—of the justice system, bigotry and racial bias, social prejudices and, above all, the death penalty.

The two main characters—Donté’s lawyer Robbie Flak (and his legal team) and minister Keith Schroeder—handle the crisis with a sense of urgency and compassion. Travis Boyette’s attempt at redemption isn’t quite convincing. I expected his character to be more chilling than it is, especially when he repeatedly tells Keith his wife is cute and that they must be having fun together.

In the end, The Confession is more than a legal thriller; it makes a strong case for empathy in law enforcement, due legal processes and criminal justice reforms. To err may be human, but to be fallible in matters of the death penalty is unthinkable. It made me think, as we all do from time to time: Why do bad things happen to good people?

Have you read The Confession? What other legal thrillers by John Grisham would you recommend?

Book Review: The Best Laid Plans by Sidney Sheldon

"Everybody's got a little skeleton buried somewhere. All you have to do is dig it up, and you'll be surprised how glad they'll be to help you with whatever you need."

Sidney Sheldon was one of the many authors I read back in college during the eighties. 

In those days, Sheldon—along with the likes of Frederick Forsyth, Jack Higgins, Lawrence Sanders, Jeffrey Archer, Dick Francis, Alistair MacLean, Arthur Hailey, Len Deighton, Ken Follett, Desmond Bagley, Wilbur Smith, and even Harold Robbins and Irving Wallace—was known as a bestselling author.

(As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.)

I suppose they were known as bestselling authors not only because they were prolific, but also because their novels were often racy and regularly topped fiction charts, sold in the millions, and achieved mass-market success—I'd find their paperbacks everywhere, from bookstores to railway stations, and from footpath bookstalls to private circulating libraries. They had a certain global appeal. Many of their books were also adapted for the screen.

For the past forty years, I've been reading a handful of their novels every year, never quite sure if they hold up as well as they did back then. Sometimes they do, and sometimes they don't.

Most recently, I read The Best Laid Plans (1997) and quite enjoyed it; although, I found the ending rather abrupt and anticlimactic. It left me somewhat disappointed. There, I've given the game away already!

Still, The Best Laid Plans is a fast-paced political thriller that, for some reason, reminded me of Gore Vidal's 1967 novel Washington, D.C. Perhaps it's because both novels are about political morality, or more precisely, the lack of it. Power-hungry men willing to do whatever it takes to reach the highest office in the land.

Set in Lexington, Kentucky, The Best Laid Plans follows the lives of Leslie Stewart, a young, smart and ambitious PR executive, and Oliver Russell, a charismatic lawyer and down-on-his-luck political aspirant. Oliver hires Leslie's agency to revive his career and improve his chances of becoming governor of Kentucky. She is put in charge of his campaign, and predictably, the two fall in love and plan to marry.

That is, until Oliver dumps her just days before the wedding to marry the daughter of Senator Todd Davis, a political kingmaker whose influence and wealth help him win the Kentucky gubernatorial race. Davis then helps his son-in-law win the presidency as well, except for the fact that the senator has a secret agenda of his own—he intends to call the shots from the Oval Office.

Leslie is heartbroken, but not done with Oliver. She vows to destroy him. She marries a middle-aged business tycoon and philanthropist, originally from Kentucky but settled in Arizona. Leslie transforms her husband's local newspaper into a powerful media empire, and uses it to bring Oliver down.

Does she succeed? Well, you'll have to read the book, which, by the way, also has subplots involving mysterious deaths linked to the drug Ecstasy, corruption, personal vendetta and media spin, all of which trace back to Oliver's administration and cover-ups.

The Best Laid Plans is classic Sidney Sheldon with its formula of power, betrayal and revenge, as we saw in his best-known work The Other Side of Midnight. The writing is crisp, the chapters short, there is plenty of dialogue, and just the right amount of suspense. All of this makes it entertaining, though there's not much depth to the primary characters and the plot feels a bit rushed toward the end.

In sum, a decent page-turner for the weekend.

My first visit to a comic bookstore

It took a long-haul flight from Mumbai to Vancouver for me to finally visit a comic bookstore I’d only read about online and watched with envy on The Big Bang Theory.

The comic bookstore I went to was on Vancouver Island, in a small, charming place called Coombs, within the district of Nanaimo. Coombs, as you might know, is famous for its Old Country Market—more popularly known as Goats on the Roof—where a family of goats actually lives on the low sodded roof. It attracts over a million tourists every year, apparently.

The comic bookstore, as it was simply called, was a single room and not very big. Its walls were lined with storage racks holding dozens of white boxes filled with comics in polyethylene bags, each neatly labelled with the names of superheroes on the side.

When I went in with my family, the place was nearly empty. A young man, presumably the owner, sat at a counter watching something on his phone, while a couple of kids were noisily sifting through trading cards in the centre of the store. I practically had the comic bookstore all to myself. I wandered through the shelves, looking for my favourite characters from DC and Marvel, and other imprints. They were all there, and some not so familiar ones too.

With help from my family—since the boxes were quite heavy—I went through hundreds of backdated comic-books, mostly Superman and Batman (my childhood heroes), the Hulk, Flash, Daredevil, Captain America, Punisher, Justice League, Fantastic Four and the Avengers. I picked out several, put them back and then took them out again. Being spoilt for choice wasn’t easy. There were so many old titles, I wanted them all.

At one point, I decided to collect the multi-part Superman: Funeral for a Friend special series I had always wanted to own. With more help from my family, I spent over an hour searching for all the parts but came up three short. In the end, I dropped the idea and settled for the equally prized Reign of the Supermen! 1993 series instead.

I suppose you could say, “You lose a Superman, you gain a Superman!”

Some three hours later, as I was paying for my stack of comic-books, I suddenly realised I hadn’t seen two other favourite characters from my teens—Tarzan and his son Korak. They were there, all right; I had somehow missed them.

After the owner pointed them out, I got down on my haunches and quickly went through a couple of boxes of early Tarzan issues with their vintage-smelling covers, my comic-book antennae tingling with excitement for a second time that evening. Unfortunately, we were running late, and it was with some reluctance that I put the ape-man back in his box.

Comic-books have brought me endless joy since my school days, and visiting this little haven felt like a dream come true. I’ll be going back to Coombs again, hopefully in the not-too-distant future—for the comic-books and, of course, the goats on the roof.

Two debut thrillers and an exciting ebook

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides and Shiver by Allie Reynolds were gifts from my daughter. She'd enjoyed reading both the thrillers and thought my wife and I'd like them too. Her choice of crime fiction comes with high recommendations.

(As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.)

The Silent Patient is described as "A shocking psychological thriller of a woman's act of violence against her husband—and of the therapist obsessed with uncovering her motive."

The blurb on the back of the 339-page book tells us about the story of Alicia Berenson who "lived a seemingly perfect life until one day six years ago (when) she shot her husband in the head five times. Since then she hasn't spoken a single word. It's time to find out why."

"They were all there. So which one of them did it?" says the cover of Shiver (Headline, 2021). The 425-page book tells the story of "A reunion weekend in the French Alps (that turns deadly when five friends discover that someone has deliberately stranded them at their remote mountaintop resort during a snowstorm."

The Silent Patient and Shiver are both debut novels and were to be developed as a movie and a television series, respectively; although, I have no updates about either of the ventures.

Carolyn Arnold's The Little Grave (2021) is the first Detective Amanda Steele book in what appears to be a series of ten books. The 324-page Kindle edition was available for free on Amazon. My thanks to the author.

This is what the book is about:

"It's been five years since Detective Amanda Steele's life was derailed by the tragic death of her young daughter. The small community of Dumfries, Virginia, may have moved on, but Amanda cannot. When the man who killed Lindsey is found murdered, she can't keep away from the case. Fighting her sergeant to be allowed to work such a personal investigation, Amanda is in a race to prove that she can uncover the truth. But the more she digs into the past of the man who destroyed her future, the more shocking discoveries she makes."

At present, I'm reading The Silent Patient in paperback and The Little Grave on my tablet.

Why I chose to give away my books

Each one of us has a unique relationship with books. We all have anecdotes and stories to tell about the books we buy, collect, read, hoard, and never read. Then, one day, something—I don't know if it's age, wisdom, or common sense—prompts us to do what once seemed unthinkable: downsize our collection. Give away books we have been holding on to for years. Free up space on shelves, in cabinets, and up in the loft. And start again, one book at a time.

At least, that was my plan.

I owned very few books in my youth, the years between 14 and 25 when I read the most books. In those days, I could finish a novel in two or three sittings, sometimes in half a day, and start another by night. I borrowed books from private circulating libraries, the British Council Library and the American Library. 

Then, somewhere down the years, career and family life took precedence. I stopped going to libraries because of the distance and lack of time, and instead started buying books—more than I could read. Not that anyone or anything stopped me from reading as I did before. Yet, somehow, I never quite read with the same intensity again.

Over the next three decades, I accumulated so many books that several of my mysteries, thrillers and westerns followed me to every new place of work. They sat quietly in office desks and cabinets, seldom getting a chance to tell me their stories. Then came the comforts and distractions of the tech age, and my goal of reading a certain number of books and short stories every month—in other words, reducing my TBR pile—went out the window.

About a year after the onset of the pandemic, I decided enough was enough. We were in the middle of a home renovation when I took stock of my collection and removed nearly two hundred books. I eventually gave them away to anyone who was interested or sold them to footpath booksellers at throwaway prices. 

I had little choice. Some of those books had remained unread for years. My logic was simple: if I hadn't read them by then, I sure as hell wasn't going to read them now. Fortunately, most of the books I weeded out were secondhand and didn’t cost a lot of money, though the parting did hurt for a while.

Now I have fewer than a hundred books, mostly paperbacks by some of my favourite authors and a small collection of nonfiction. Among them are a dozen books on the craft of writing by seasoned writers such as Stephen King, Francine Prose, Ray Bradbury, Anne Lamott, Benjamin Dreyer, Annie Dillard, and Bill Bryson. These are the books I return to often. They are my writing companions, offering lessons in craft, sharing the wisdom of experience, and helping me become a better reader and writer.

Over the past three years, I have made up for the "loss" of my books by buying ebooks or downloading them from public-domain and online libraries. I read them on my Kindle and Samsung tablet. I still buy paper books, of course, but no more than half a dozen a year. Most come from Amazon, second-hand booksellers, and book fairs, depending on what I happen to find.

The thing about de-cluttering books, to borrow a phrase from George Bernard Shaw in another context, is the illusion that it has taken place. No matter how many books we discard, there are always plenty around the place. I guess the only way to pare down our collections is to read books as soon as we buy them.

A visit to a book fair in South Mumbai

My wife and I frequently travel to South Mumbai, roughly 22 km (17 miles) from our home in the suburbs, to spend a few delightful hours among its art deco buildings, historical landmarks, art galleries and cultural scenes; walk along the sea-facing promenades; visit footpath booksellers and book exhibitions; shop on the causeway; and eat at traditional restaurants.

The island city holds a special place for us. We both grew up there. You can read more about our trip at our new website Pocketful of Happiness.

Here are a few pictures from a book exhibition that we went to. There were literally thousands of books–fiction and nonfiction, paperbacks and hardbacks. Most books cost no more than a dollar or two. We bought a few. The book fair was organised by Ashish Book Centre and held near Churchgate, which serves as the headquarters of the suburban Western Railway network in South Mumbai.

 

© All photographs by Prashant C. Trikannad

The Ann Patchett excerpt that made me buy her books

Excerpts often influence whether I pick up books by authors I have never read before. That, along with a post on Twitter (now X), is how I discovered the award-winning American author Ann Patchett, who writes both fiction and nonfiction.

I was drawn to her writing when I read about her latest book Tom Lake, which is described as a “Beautiful and moving novel about family, love and growing up” or in the words of The Guardian, “A truth that feels like life rather than literature.”

(As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.)

Those are the kind of books I have always enjoyed reading, and hope to write someday, now more so since my wife and I launched a website Pocketful of Happiness which stemmed from our desire to be as happy as possible and spread a little joy among our readers. Books like these have a feel-good quality about them. 

Ann Patchett's writing has been variously described as warm, poetic, illuminating, rich, poignant, funny, powerful, compelling and stirring. This was evident from the many excerpts I read including this affecting passage from This is the Story of a Happy Marriage (2013):

“People seem able to love their dogs with an unabashed acceptance that they rarely demonstrate with family or friends. The dogs do not disappoint them, or if they do, the owners manage to forget about it quickly. I want to learn to love people like this, the way I love my dog, with pride and enthusiasm and a complete amnesia for faults. In short, to love others the way my dog loves me.”

It prompted me to buy the book along with These Precious Days: Essays (2021). Both are personal  and literary collections of essays and memoir.

I look forward to reading one of these books as soon as I finish Agatha Christie’s The Murder on the Links.

Why I left a book fair empty-handed

About a month ago, I visited a Books by Weight exhibition in South Mumbai hosted by Butterfly Books and, in a rare display of self-restraint, left empty-handed. 

It wasn't because there were no good books to buy. I simply didn't feel the urge. Perhaps two years of working from home, followed by a hybrid routine, had something to do with it. Apart from evening walks, the occasional social visit and grocery runs in the neighbourhood, I had barely ventured out until that day.

I was also conscious that there was little point in adding to a collection of books that already contained many unread books. Only a few months earlier, my wife and I had given away more than a hundred paperbacks. I had no desire to replace them with another stack that might sit unread for months, if not years.

As I grow older, though not necessarily wiser, I find myself increasingly drawn to the idea of owning fewer things and making better use of what I already have. That applies to books as much as anything else: read them, enjoy them and then pass them on. 

One evening, my wife asked me, "What are you finally going to do with all your books? It's time to move on." 

She had a point. It's not as though I own a treasure trove of rare and valuable editions, aside from a few out-of-print western paperbacks and some books with particularly memorable covers. What she really meant, I think, was that I needed to outgrow the habit of buying books simply because I loved the idea of owning them. There was a time for that, and perhaps that time had passed.  

We still have many books, I more than she. I'm also holding on to my comic books, some of which I've owned for decades. What will become of them when I retire, I don't know. Paper, after all, has a shelf life.

These days, I do most of my reading on a Kindle and a tablet. Both are convenient, reader-friendly and, above all, kind to limited shelf space. Physical books possess a charm that ebooks can never quite replicate, but practicality has led me to draw a line between the two. My reading is now roughly 70 per cent digital and 30 per cent print.

I still buy the occasional paperback from secondhand bookshops and book exhibitions, but only after asking myself if it's really worth having the book and wouldn't an ebook serve my purpose just as well. 

The answer to those questions is increasingly shaping my book-buying habits. Having fewer books doesn't mean reading less.

The last books I bought before lockdown

If there was one thing I missed during the lockdown and the long months of working from home, it was regular visits to secondhand bookshops, pavement booksellers and book exhibitions. 

During that period, I bought only two books from Amazon India—a used but rare Corgi edition of Sudden and a new Fantastic Four: The Coming of Galactus comic-book digest, both featured here. 

Finding Sudden felt like winning the lottery. I was surprised and delighted to come across the paperback—with its striking cover art—on Amazon India for just Rs.295. My favourite western isn't the sort of book one easily stumbles upon at second-hand book sales in Mumbai.

Most of the books in this post, however, were purchased in the weeks and months before the pandemic changed our routines. I've included their covers, original publication years and brief synopses below. 

(As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.)

The New Collected Short Stories by Jeffrey Archer

"This brand new edition brings together three of Jeffrey Archer's classic collections of short stories—To Cut a Long Story Short, Cat O' Nine Tales and And Thereby Hangs a Tale—showcasing the master storyteller's skill like never before. Every reader will have their own favourites: the choices run from love at first sight across the train tracks to the cleverest of confidence tricks, from the quirks of the legal profession, and those who are able to manipulate both sides of the Bar, to the creative financial talents of a member of Her Majesty's diplomatic service—but for a good cause. In `Caste-Off', Jamwal and Nisha fall in love while waiting for a traffic light to turn green in Delhi, and in `Don't Drink The Water', a company chairman tries to poison his wife while on a trip to St Petersburg, with unexpected consequences... The stories held in these pages are irresistible: ingeniously plotted, with richly drawn characters and deliciously unexpected conclusions. Some will make you laugh. Others will bring you to tears. And, as always, every one of them will keep you spellbound."

The Twisted Thing by Mickey Spillane

"This was some household.

"The kid was a genius, the father a scientist of international repute. Money was problem. Not shortage of money but the opposite: too much. The sort of money that brings the envious and the scheming clustering like flies round a pile of ripe offal: nieces, nephews, cousins - a family of mean minds and gross appetites.

"The hired help had its peculiarities too: the chauffeur, an ex-con; the governess, formerly a featured act in strip clubs from New York and Miami; a secretary with a well developed taste in other women.

"Quite a household. And not one to welcome the arrival of Mike Hammer—not when the kid had been kidnapped and everyone else was a suspect."

Snobs by Julian Fellowes

"The English, of all classes as it happens, are addicted to exclusivity. Leave three Englishmen in a room and they will invent a rule that prevents a fourth joining them."

"The best comedies of manners are often deceptively simple, seamlessly blending social critique with character and story. In his superbly observed first novel, Julian Fellowes, creator of the Masterpiece sensation Downton Abbey and winner of an Academy Award for his original screenplay of Gosford Park, brings us an insider's look at a contemporary England that is still not as classless as is popularly supposed.

"Edith Lavery, an English blonde with large eyes and nice manners, is the daughter of a moderately successful accountant and his social-climbing wife. While visiting his parents' stately home as a paying guest, Edith meets Charles, the Earl Broughton, and heir to the Marquess of Uckfield, who runs the family estates in East Sussex and Norfolk. To the gossip columns he is one of the most eligible young aristocrats around.

"When he proposes. Edith accepts. But is she really in love with Charles? Or with his title, his position, and all that goes with it?"

Sudden: Law O' The Lariat by Oliver Strange

"The word had filtered out that Sudden was dead—and there was no one around to contradict it. Men who had cringed before, swaggered now; others boasted of their encounters with Sudden, the coward.

"Only one man stayed quiet: a tall, saturnine fellow wearing two guns tied low. When he heard the rumours, he gave a thin smile; and when someone asked him who he was, he said shortly: James Green. James Green — alias Sudden!"

Maigret and the Headless Corpse by Georges Simenon

"Two brothers find a grisly package clinging to the propeller of their barge in the Canal de Saint Martins, and by the time Maigret arrives most of a mysterious corpse has been assembled, except for the head. The search shifts from finding the missing piece to finding a motive, as the Inspector's keen mind assembles clues from the dismembered torse which lead to a trio of suspects. A flash of intuition linking the principal suspect's sordid life to the whereabouts of her victim on his last day alive closes the case but opens Maigret's mind to the reason for the crime."

I have yet to read Julian Fellowes and Georges Simenon.

Book Review: Drink with the Devil by Jack Higgins

I read Drink with the Devil—the fifth appearance of Jack Higgins' trademark hero Sean Dillon—before the lockdown and decided to finally review it during my sixth month of working from home. Somehow, I always seem to pick up a Higgins novel to revive my blog every few months. Maybe it's because he is my favourite action-thriller writer and also one of my comfort reads.

(As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.)

In Drink with the Devil (1996), Higgins offers a glimpse into Dillon's early life—first as a disillusioned IRA assassin, then as a skilled mercenary for the PLO and the Israelis, the KGB and the Red Brigades, and finally as an operative for a highly secret British intelligence unit answerable only to the prime minister.

The story begins in 1985, London.

The IRA sends Sean Dillon—posing as Martin Keogh—to team up with legendary Loyalist militant Michael Ryan and his young niece Kathleen. Together, they hijack a truck carrying £50 million worth of gold bullion. The IRA wants to prevent Ryan from using the gold to buy arms and ignite a civil war in Northern Ireland. Fortunately for Dillon, things do not go according to plan. One night, while he and Ryan are transporting the bullion across the Irish Sea aboard a hired boat, the crew attempts to seize the treasure for themselves. The resulting confrontation ends with the boat being blown up and the gold plunging to the bottom of the rough sea.

Cut to 1995, New York State.

Michael and Kathleen have vanished from the radar of both the IRA and British intelligence. The gold has never been recovered. Michael is serving a 25-year sentence in a New York State prison for a botched bank robbery and the shooting of a police officer. Kathleen, now working as a nurse at a nearby hospital, visits him every day. Living under the names Liam and Jean Kelly, they are believed to have died years earlier. 

But news of the lost bullion reaches the mafia family of Don Antonio Russo, who strikes a deal with Michael and Kathleen: a share of the gold—now worth £100 million—in exchange for their freedom. The discovery also attracts the attention of the American and British intelligence services, the president and the prime minister, and the IRA.

Enter Sean Dillon. The former IRA hitman is given a single mission: prevent the gold from jeopardising the fragile peace process in Northern Ireland. A decade after their last encounter, he comes face to face with his old friends Michael and Kathleen once again—and that is where the real twists begin.

While I haven't read many of the nearly two dozen Sean Dillon novels, I can say that Drink with the Devil is not one of his best. The story moves at a steady pace and has enough action and dialogue to keep the pages turning, but the plot felt rather flimsy. At times, it seemed as though even an amateur could have got away with stealing the gold. I also found it hard to believe that British intelligence could not trace either the missing bullion or the whereabouts of Michael and Kathleen. They could hardly have disappeared without a trace.

In Jack Higgins' defence, however, Dillon, his boss Brigadier Charles Ferguson, who heads the secret unit known as the Prime Minister's Private Army, and Special Agent Hannah Bernstein do not enter the picture until much later. Their story starts in 1995, when the tale of the Irish Rose lying beneath the Irish Sea begins.

Drink with the Devil has all the hallmarks of Higgins' simple, direct and conversational storytelling style. The characters—including the appearance of his other endearing hero, Liam Devlin—and the charming Lake District setting in northwest England, with its pubs and cafés frequented by Republicans and Loyalists alike, make the novel a fairly entertaining read. As in many of his IRA-themed novels, Higgins weaves the Northern Ireland conflict and its assorted players into the narrative. As a history buff, I found those political and historical undercurrents particularly interesting.

Whatever the strengths and weaknesses, it is always a pleasure to read Jack Higgins.

Secondhand Book Finds: Able Team, Louis L’Amour and Sudden

In my first blog post of 2020, I wrote about my poor reading through most of the previous year. That, however, did not stop me from buying more books, some of which I mentioned in that post. Here are three paperbacks—two westerns and a thriller—that I picked up secondhand in 2019. I was especially pleased with Able Team and Sudden, both of which are rare finds where I live.

(As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.)

Ironman is the 19th book in the Able Team action-adventure series written under the pseudonyms authors, G.H. Frost and Dick Stivers. The series—a spinoff of Mack Bolan: The Executioner, created by Don Pendleton—was first published in 1982 by Gold Eagle.

I have been collecting Mack Bolan and its spinoffs—Able Team, Phoenix Force and Stony Man— for nearly a decade and own some 25 novels, including a few written by Pendleton himself. These books take me back to my teens, when I used to read James Hadley Chase, Nick Carter and Perry Mason, many of which are still available in secondhand bookshops in Mumbai.

Synopsis: "Able Team's Carl Lyons travels to the cloud-swept Sierra Madre without his partners and without his weapons. But what was supposed to be well-earned R&R turns into a nightmare of conspiracy and terror when a Fascist international surveillance team identifies Lyons as one of the American specialists who wrecked Unomundo's attempt to seize Guatemala two years earlier."

Carl 'Ironman' Lyons is an old Able Team hand. As a bright LAPD detective, Lyons was tasked with bringing Bolan in—dead or alive; that is, till the Executioner saved his life. Later, he is recruited by Hal Brognola who heads a special organised crime task force.

Western fiction is my favourite genre. I think of Westerns as a blend of several others—crime, mystery, suspense, action, romance, politics, war, and even religion. So I had no hesitation in picking up the Bantam edition of Hanging Woman Creek by Louis L'Amour, another author I read widely in my younger days.

Synopsis: "Barnabus Pike is no gunfighter and not much of a street fighter. Eddie Holt is a black boxer in a white man's world. They've both taken their share of hard knocks. Now they're looking to survive a brutal winter in a remote Montana line shack, collect their pay, and settle down for good. Then they cross paths with a hardworking Irish immigrant and his beautiful, spirited sister, who've been burned off their land. It's a fight Pike and Holt don't want, don't need, and don't dare turn their backs on-especially when one of the perpetrators might be one of Pike's old friends. Hunted like animals across the frozen countryside, Pike and Holt will risk everything-including their reputations, their dreams-and their lives."

If you're familiar with my blog, you'll know how much I enjoy reading the Sudden novels. James Green—better known as Sudden, the Texas outlaw— was created by British writer Oliver Strange, who wrote only ten books. Later, English author Frederick Nolan added five more Sudden novels, including Apache Fighter, under the pseudonym Frederick H. Christian. The original Corgi editions are so rare in India that they sell for hundreds, even thousands of rupees.

Synopsis: "There was a reward of five thousand dollars for the man who could bring Barbara Davis out of Apacheria alive. Every outlaw, gunman, and scalphunter in the south-west had drifted in to Tucson, then out into Apache country, lured by the dream of easy gold. The Apaches killed some of them slowly and horribly; but still they came. Governor Bleke knew unless the girl was brought out soon, he would have a full-scale Indian war on his hands. He sent for the one man who might be able to do it. A tall, slow-drawling man who wore his six-guns tied low and looked as if he knew how to use them. A Texas outlaw on the run: SUDDEN!"

I have been reading these books through different phases of my reading life, and I pick them up whenever I find them in secondhand bookshops and book sales.

Book Review: A Lesson in Deceit by Gillian Larkin

They came to a crossing and Sam pressed the button. “Anyway, let’s talk about you. How many dead bodies have you found now? Granddad thinks you’re cursed.”

“It’s not my fault I keep finding them,” Julia said with a note of indignation.

(As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.)

A Lesson in Deceit by Yorkshire-based author Gillian Larkin is the first book in her Julia Blake cozy mystery series. It is a delightful novella about a murder set in the University of Edinburgh.

Julia Blake has a son, Sam, and a daughter, both of whom she dotes on. She lives in Leeds with her Scottish shortbread-loving father and runs a cleaning business to support her family. Life has not been easy since her husband left. But her hardships have not deterred her from caring for her family or from finding herself drawn into murder mysteries, often unintentionally and to the annoyance of DI Clarke of Leeds.

Julia is visiting Sam at his university and is full of maternal affection and concern. Sam takes her around the campus, including the local pub where he works part-time. There, he introduces Julia to his close friend Elliott, who is covering his shift that day. Elliott works many shifts because he needs the money and, as a result, often misses lectures. Lately, he hasn’t been himself, prompting Sam to suspect that something is troubling his once happy-go-lucky friend. Elliott’s situation stirs Julia’s maternal instincts.

But before Julia can think of helping him in any way, her father’s prophetic words come true again—she finds Elliott dead in his room. There are no signs of injury or a struggle. Did he overdose on painkillers and sleeping tablets? Or was he poisoned with a combination of the two drugs?

DI Thostlewaite, who has heard of Julia’s reputation and her tendency to turn up where corpses do, gently advises her not to interfere in the case. But she has no choice when the local police detain Sam as a suspect.

“Grandad wants to know if you’ve found any dead bodies yet. Ha! He’s so funny.”

“Dead bodies are never funny,” Julia replied.

A Lesson in Deceit is not a murder mystery in the true sense. There is no major investigation or extended unearthing of clues, which Julia predictably does at some risk to her life. She and Sam are likeable characters, mainly because of their strong familial bond, easy relationship and light banter. The author also neatly interlaces the narrative with values. For instance, when Julia offers Sam extra money so he does not have to work at the pub, he tells his mother that she has done enough and that he wants to pay his own way—a nice lesson for young readers. 

The novella is written in an easy, engaging style, and will appeal to both younger and older readers alike.

The Ganesha Arati Book: Understanding Sukhakarta Dukhaharta

Sukhakarta Dukhaharta—the harbinger of light and the dispeller of darkness—is one of the most popular aratis, or devotional hymns, in the Hindu religion. It is a heartfelt prayer that seeks Lord Ganesha's blessings for peace, happiness and prosperity, while asking for relief from pain, difficulties and obstacles.

The arati is traditionally attributed to Samarth Ramadas, the renowned 17th-century poet-saint from Maharashtra, who is believed to have composed it in praise of the beloved Hindu deity, Ganesha. It is said Ramadas was inspired to write the hymn in Marathi after receiving a vision of Mayureshwara at the Mayureshwar Temple in Morgaon, one of the most revered centres of Ganesha worship in Maharashtra.

© lalbaugcharaja.co.in

The elephant-headed Hindu god of wisdom, intellect and new beginnings, is revered across India, particularly in Maharashtra and the neighbouring states. The patron deity of arts and sciences, he is worshipped as the remover of obstacles and the bestower of good fortune.

Ganesha is also venerated for his benevolence and compassion towards those who seek his protection. For this reason, he occupies a special place in the Hindu pantheon as well as in the hearts and minds of devotees of all ages. Children, in particular, are drawn to his endearing form and often regard him with a mixture of affection, wonder and reverence.

The Ganesha Arati Book: Understanding Sukhakarta Dukhaharta is more than an exposition of one of the most widely sung aratis at pujas and religious ceremonies, especially during Ganesh Chaturthi, the popular 11-day festival celebrating the birth and glory of Ganesha. It brings out the essence of the hymn in a way that helps worshippers—and families who pray together—better understand its uplifting message, even as they join hands and sing the arati with devotion before the resplendent idol. For to understand the true significance of a prayer is to deepen one's spiritual experience and enrich the soul.

The book provides an easy-to-understand English translation of Sukhakarta Dukhaharta comprising three main stanzas and a chorus repeated after each one. Interspersed between the stanzas are three engaging stories—The Legend of Mayureshwara, The Birth of Ganesha and The Story of Kubera's Feast—which explore the origins of the deity and recount one of his most enduring lessons in humility and human values.

The distinctive horizontal format of the book is inspired by the pathi, echoing the size and style of traditional scriptures and devotional texts. Each page of the 48-page hardbound volume is adorned with colourful motifs and illustrations drawn from India's rich temple tradition, while a glossary at the end explains non-English words used in the text.

Together, these elements make The Ganesha Arati Book: Understanding Sukhakarta Dukhaharta a book to cherish, read and preserve for future generations. It is published by Atah Lifestyle, a Pune-based company that creates products inspired by Indian art and culture, and is available on Amazon.