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.

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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.

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.”

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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.

Short Story: The Case of the Wandering Redhead by Leigh Brackett

I’d never read Leigh Brackett until now, and I’m glad I finally did. I discovered her short story, The Case of the Wandering Redhead, in the February 1951 issue of New Detective Magazine and thoroughly enjoyed it.

This is the introduction to the story.

“Here is the most ruthless man you’ve ever met—a filler whom death could not soften nor bullets stop—yet whose relentless fists battered to their last futile gesture that softest thing a man ever finds—the heart of a woman in love. It is with a definite sense of accomplishment that we welcome Miss Brackett to these pages—which many of you will find unforgettable!”

The “ruthless man” is Marty James, a territorial gangster who lives by his guns and fists and serves as the story’s narrator. He is hopelessly in love with Sheila Burke, a stunning redhead he is determined to marry, even though she detests the very idea. Sheila rejects him outright—just as decisively as he would gun down an adversary. And she has every reason to want nothing to do with him.

“Can I get it through your head? I hate you, Marty. I hate everything you stand for. All I want out of life is decency and peace and maybe a little happiness. You can’t give me any of them.”

But Marty has no intention of leaving Sheila alone. In fact, he is trying to force her into marriage when his sidekick summons him away on urgent business, only to betray him to a rival gangster eager to seize his territory. Marty fights and shoots his way out of captivity before returning to Sheila, carrying a cracked rib and two bullet wounds in his thigh.
 
"Six flights, with thin snow beginning to fall, thinking of Sheila’s voice saying, There’s blood on you, Marty. You’re not in my world.

"I thought, All right. That’s the way it is, Sheila. That’s the way we’ll play it. I was colder than the snow, and numb."

The Case of the Wandering Redhead is a cracker of a story. Its two central characters, Marty and Sheila, are vividly drawn. Marty may be a ruthless gangster, but he is also, in his own words, "human enough to go crazy over a girl."

"I looked at her. She was beautiful. She was like something the wind might cut out of a snowbank, with the red fire of her hair on top. Her eyes met mine, and there was an awful coldness in them, like I’d killed the spark inside her."

The story is a fine example of hard-boiled crime fiction from the Golden Age, though I still have plenty to explore and read in the genre.

Book Review: Stone: M.I.A. Hunter by Stephen Mertz

Stone: M.I.A. Hunter by American thriller writer Stephen Mertz is the first novel in the adrenaline-soaked Mark Stone: MIA Hunter series, which spans seventeen books. The series was created and plotted by Mertz, who collaborated with Joe R. Lansdale, Michael Newton and Bill Crider on the novels. Mertz and Newton also wrote several instalments of Mack Bolan: The Executioner, the long-running action series created by Don Pendleton.

My Kindle edition of Stone M.I.A. Hunter is a reprint of the first M.I.A. Hunter novel, retitled Leave No Man Behind and published in September 2017. 

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As the series title suggests, the M.I.A. Hunter is Mark Stone, a tough-as-they-come former Green Beret whose mission in the years following the Vietnam War is to locate American POWs forgotten by the government and officially listed as MIA or KIA, and bring them home. He knows he cannot rescue them all, but he is determined to save as many as he can.

Stone conducts his MIA-hunting missions in the jungles of Vietnam and Laos, and in other trouble spots around the world, accompanied by two trusted and battle-hardened companions: the six-foot-four Texan Hog Wiley and former British commando Terrance Loughlin. They rarely question Stone or his decisions, even when they lead them straight into hell and force them to fight their way out. Their loyalty to one another is absolute. 

Although Stone works for the CIA in an unofficial capacity, he often operates independently through Stone Investigative Consultants, a Los Angeles-based private investigation agency that provides a convenient cover for his missions.

M.I.A. Hunter begins in the Laotian jungle. Stone and his men, aided by anti-communist Laotian guerrillas, rescue a US Navy pilot and several other POWs who have been held by the Viet Cong since the end of the war. After fighting their way through more than a hundred miles of hostile territory, they finally reach their pickup point. But the waiting helicopter brings an unwelcome surprise: CIA operative Alan Coleman, a man with an agenda of his own. Coleman despises Stone and promptly places him and his companions under arrest for violating US law—or, as Stone sees it, for making the intelligence community look bad.

Back in L.A., Stone overcomes his legal hurdle with the help of Carol Jenner, a close friend who works for the Defence Department in Washington, and a sharp lawyer. Out on bail, he helps the widow of a Vietnam comrade rescue her teenage son from a Mexican drug cartel and set him on the right path. Just when he’s hoping for some MIA action, a badly wounded stranger turns up in his garage with shocking news before dying: Rosalyn James, an army nurse and the love of his life—believed killed in a Vietnam medevac—is still alive. For nearly fourteen years, she has been held captive on the Laos–China border by a brutal, torture-loving drug lord known only as the General.

Stone goes back with Wiley and Loughlin, in what could well be the most important MIA rescue mission of his life.

Stone: M.I.A. Hunter delivers nonstop, edge-of-the-seat action. Mark Stone and his team use weapons and hand-to-hand combat with lethal efficiency. It’s classic vigilante fiction where the heroes are near-invincible. They are men of honour, integrity and sacrifice. For many readers, including myself, it works because it satisfies a simple sense of justice—someone has to uphold it, even if only in fiction.

Stephen Mertz does not disappoint in telling the story of the MIA hunter and the forgotten war heroes he brings home. I will be reading more books in the series.

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.

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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.