4th of July by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

Lindsay Boxer has to shoot down two teenagers, a brother and a sister in an act of self - defence. She had no other alternative as the children were armed and fired first which hit Boxer and her partner Jacobi. The shooting killed the girl and left her little brother completely paralysed.


Things went awry when the parents of the children affected moved court seeking justice. It was at the same time, a series of murders appear though not in her jurisdiction.  The victims were whipped and it was of the similar murder that happened when Boxer assumed charge as the officer. Even after 10 years, she could not nab the culprit. Is there any connection between those murders. Will the current imbroglio she is in would present bottlenecks in her investigation? That you have to find out.


That's the brief. What always excites me is the craft that can put the readers on tenterhooks right from the beginning of the story. You feel as if you are running with the book, with the characters and the situations. It's not hard for a reader who has been reading crime noir to spot the culprit. But what makes you a super thriller reader is when you can spot the culprit through the situation that led to murder. And it's a pretty hard task and that makes the plot, a thrilling one.


I loved it. As I said in my previous post, I could go to Lindsay Boxer to break the reading as well as the book blogging block I experience very often.

- Shalet Jimmy

I am back!!!!

This is where I belong…amidst books.

After a hiatus, I am back. It’s been ten years since I started this blog. Much to my dismay, I have abandoned this blog on and off. Fortunately, I have always come back.

I always come back mostly in the month of December. I re-discover my passion for crime thrillers always in the month of December. And years ago, I was also born in December. That’s why the month holds special for me.

When I started off, this blog was called ‘Diary of a budding book reviewer ’. Now, I have loads of review copies in my kitty to review. I should pat my back for that, right…

Mary Higgins Clark has always helped me to re-discover my passion for crime thrillers. But this time, it is James Patterson.

I will soon come up with its review.

- Shalet Jimmy

Dragonmede by Rona Randall

" Dawn sliced through the curtains as the ghostly edges of a hoar frost," says Rona Randall in her Gothic mystery ' Dragonmede'. Eustacia Rochdale, the female lead in the story also experiences similar fate. Though she married the man she loved and wanted, it sliced her life as the ghostly edges of a hoar frost. When she married Julian Kershaw , little did she know that her yearning for a marital bliss would be a bane of her life. 

The story was set in the London of 1800's, when every doors opened for the nobility. It was this privilege which brought Julian Kershaw to Luella's ( Eustacia's mother's )gambling house. A born nonconformist, Luella never wanted her daughter to have a bohemian life which she was indulged in. She gave anything and everything to her daughter which was required for a girl to be a lady. Luella's efforts also did not go in vain as  Eustacia grew up with everything needed to be a lady though born to a bohemian mother.

Luella was overtly delighted when Julian, the heir of Dragonmede reached her threshold. Gambling on his passion for cards and his attraction for Eustacia, Luella realised that the time had come for Eustacia to tie the knot. Unaware of her mother's manipulations, Eustacia married Julian and reached Dragonmede, her husband's home which offered her nothing but a house full of mysteries.

Though I am a die hard of Gothic fiction, the story initially failed to lure my interest. As any other mystery fictions, I was expecting a twist at the very outset which was completely absent in the story. The only cue, the writer leaves is that there is some mystery but not easy for the reader to identify it. No murder, stealing, kidnapping, murder attempts, deaths but an all pervading sense of mystery. But when the story progressed, I could feel my pulse raising and could close the book only after finished reading it. The reader could definitely identify the culprit but only at the very end, with just two or three pages to complete.

 I felt a sense of satisfaction after reading 'Dragonmede'. The moment I finished it, I saw four stars shining. Yes, I am giving it 4/5.

Rebecca by ALFRED HITCHCOCK

Movie: Rebecca
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Release date: 1940
Cast: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, Judith Anderson 

I wouldn’t be exaggerating if I said Daphne du Maurier’s ‘ Rebecca’ was safe in the hands of Alfred Hitchcock. Though some alterations were made, he didn’t allow the essence of Maurier’s book to erode.


“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.”


She was narrating her dream about Manderley. She was nameless.

In her dream, she saw, Manderley was deserted and abandoned. The shrubs, the trees , the plants had encroached the drive and all around from their usual place giving it a ghostly look. Like any other bride, when she came to Manderley dreamt of a quiet life with her husband. But there was something sinister going on in Manderly.


Every wall of Manderley was yelling a name ‘ Rebecca’. She was the first wife of Max de Winter who died of drowning in the sea. Mrs Danvers, an ardent devotee of Rebecca and the head house keeper of Manderley intimidated the narrator.


She met him in Monte Carlo, France where she was accompanying a wealthy American woman called Van Hopper as a paid companion. Her employer’s illness gave her the opportunity to spend more time with Max and eventually, they ended up marrying.

It was not that she had to fight with humans but with the haunting and all pervading presence of Rebecca, the first Mrs de Winter who died of drowning in the sea.

Rebecca was dead. But Manderley retained her undaunting spirits. Mrs Danvers had kept Manderley as if Rebecca had just gone out for a brief vacation and would be back anytime. The narrator did not do anything to alter the situation as she did not want to risk losing Max, her husband whom she thought was still in love with his first wife.



Everyone compared her with Rebecca. Beatrice, Max’s sister told her that she was nothing like Rebecca and when she met Max’s grandmother who also in her senility insisted of meeting Rebecca, leaving our narrator all the more perplexed. When Rebecca was alive, they had their bedroom in the western wing of the Manderly and the second Mrs de Winter and Max used the rooms in the eastern wing which was comparatively smaller in size.

Mrs Danvers intimidated her to such an extent that the latter was almost successful in convincing her to commit suicide by saying on and on that she was unwanted in Manderley, even her husband did not love her. She would have jumped from the roof of Rebecca had the rockets were not fired indicating that a ship was aground in the sea near to the mansion with Max ordering everybody to offer help to the people in the ship.

A year ago, after Rebecca went missing in the sea, a dead-body of a woman had washed up on the shore and Max identified her as Rebecca. But, to everybody’s dismay, when the divers dived in to check the condition of the ship, they came across a boat with a woman’s body stuck in its little cabin. The boat was of Rebecca’s.

No doubt! there would be an inquest. It was then our narrator heard something from her husband which she never expected. He was not in love with Rebecca and he hated her to the core. She was a woman of loose morals. That one sentence just changed our narrator in a trice.

Why was  Mrs de Winter or the narrator of the story nameless? Was it because even after marrying Max de Winter, the owner of the famous Manterly, she was reduced to a shadow of his first wife. Perhaps yes!

She was living in her own world of imagination.

The revelation by Max that he never loved Rebecca came as a pleasant surprise to her though it came with a heavy price to pay.


Mrs Danvers was a woman who was absolutely mesmerized by Rebecca. They were alike in spirits -absolutely inconsiderate of other’s emotions. She considered Rebecca’s audacity to continue her clandestine relationships under the nose of everybody at Manderley as something heroic. Mrs Danvers was a cruel soul who lacked judgement. According to Mrs Danvers, Rebecca loved only herself.

Judith Anderson

Max, on the other hand, loved his second wife. But he was smarting over his own pain that he could not explicitly express that he was in love with Rebecca. I would say he was not bold enough to confront the reality.


Speaking of the cast, Joan Fontaine who played the second Mrs De winter was perfect for the role. She could bring forth a naive, timid girl. After ‘ Gone with wind’ actor Vivian Leigh who was Olivier Laurence’s fiancee then wanted to take up the role of second Mrs De Winter. She also gave a test. But it never happened as it was deemed that her personality was too strong to play the demure, timid and gauche second Mrs De Winter.

Joan Fontaine and Laurence Olivier

I have read the book before watching the movie and I could never imagine anybody else in the role other than Joan Fontaine. Though Vivian Leigh could not work with Hitchcock in that movie, Alfred Hitchcock thought there was one role she could play and it was none other than the role of ‘ Rebecca’.

Like Joan Fontaine, the other actor who took her character to another level was Judith Anderson. The sinister look she had on her face was horrifying and the rigid look never wavered even for one single moment.


One of the main alterations which Hitchcock did with the movie was the death of Rebecca. When Daphne made Max kill her, Alfred made it an accidental death.

Alfred Hitchcock

Laurence Olivier was good in his role as Max but it was more of Joan’s movie. My imagination of Max after reading the book was a bit different, the primary one being his look. I imagined him to be somebody without a moustache. It did not mean that I did not like the ‘ Olivier Max’. Daphne like his Max.

Out of 11 nominations, Rebecca won two Academy Awards - Best Picture . It was also the opening film at the first Berlin International Film Festival in 1951.

Loved the movie and always a Hitchcock fan.

by Shalet Jimmy

Peril at End House by Agatha Christie

Someone wants Nick Buckley to be killed and she had survived four death threats….

But things appear not too bleak as the famous detective Hercule Poirot with his best friend Hastings is in the vicinity.

But what perplexes Poirot is the lack of a substantial motive to kill Miss Buckley. The ‘ End House ’ she owns is already in debt and he could see no other motives which actually want someone to make an attempt on her life.

But a murder was destined to happen. Even the foolproof arrangements made by Poirot could not prevent someone from getting murdered at the End House. Unfortunately, it was Maggie Buckley, her cousin who came to be with Nick gets killed. As she had worn her cousin’s shawl, the murderer easily got confused her with Nick.

But the lack of a motive continues to perplex Poirot and it goes to such an extent that even Hastings who has strong faith in his friend’s ‘ grey cells’ starts thinking that this case will be written off as Poirot’s unsolved mystery.


‘End House’ is considered as the one of best works of Agatha Christie.
From the beginning, I knew the culprit. But it might be just because of the tendency to pinpoint the most unlikely person as the murderer. Besides, being an ardent fan of her plots I, now want to acquire her skill of adeptly joining the dots that leads to the murderer.

If you are an Agatha Christie fan, this is a must read.

By Shalet Jimmy

The Accident on the A35 by Graeme Macrae Burnet

A few months ago, I chanced upon an interview of one of the greatest crime fiction writers, late P D James. Till then, I had not read a single book of hers.


But to my surprise, her interview made me look at crime fiction with a different perspective and it was much of a consolation for an ardent crime lover like me to know that unlike common perception where the so called ‘ serious readers’ brush crime noir aside as mere pulp fiction  ( I believe this is a trend in India and thankfully, it is slowly changing) , the genre really has a long back history and depth. Besides, we  have bequeathed rich classic crime literature that many are not aware of.

It made me delve into P D James’ celebrated book - “ An Unsuitable Job for a Woman”. Though I had been reading mysteries for quite a while, the book felt so different and new. It seemed as if I was seriously getting one with the characters in it. And for the first time, I learnt that the characters in the crime noir could have emotions . That was my first stint with the real crime noir.

Strangely,  I felt the same tempo when I was reading Graeme Macrae Burnet’s The Accident on the A35 ’ too.

It all began when an acclaimed solicitor Bertrand Barthelem’s car meets with an accident and owing to this, Police Chief Georges Gorski's daily routine is disrupted. Considering the social standing of the solicitor,
 Gorski believes that he himself should go and break the news to his family. But what perplexes him is that even after disclosing such a news, the solicitor’s wife Lucette and son Raymond are  hardly moved by the solicitor’s death.


And also the fact that Lucette seems to be many years younger than the solicitor makes the police chief stray a bit, who has already separated from his wife.

Partly to please Lucette, he starts an unofficial investigation when she says that her husband had no reasons to be on the A35 as he had the habit of ‘supping’ with his colleagues that particular day, every week. In no time, Gorski finds out that the solicitor had used his ‘ routine supper’ as a cover up to hide something from his wife. What was it? His further investigation reveals that the solicitor had withdrawn a huge amount of money on that day when he was killed.

Besides, he also thinks the solicitor has something to do with the murder of a woman at Strasbourg which happened the same day he got killed in the accident.

On the other hand, Solicitor's young son Raymond also begins a parallel investigation when he gets a paper neatly tucked
in a table of his father's study that bore the address of some woman.

The narration has the pace of a serious classic crime literature. I also felt a strong resemblance between James’ detective Cordelia Gray and Gorski especially when it comes to their vulnerability. He has delved deeply into the characters of Gorski and Raymond. To talk more about the latter, his troubled psyche has been analysed meticulously and Raymond evolves through the story.

Will it be far-fetched if I say Raymond resembles ‘Mersaul’t from Albert Camu’s ‘ The Stranger’- You decide.

The writing is like honey dripping from the comb. But what puzzles me is that though it is called a crime fiction, it does not actually fit the description.
The real objective of crime noir is the restoration of order. Here, though some situations are straightened out, there are some more mess to be cleaned up.
 The author leaves his readers midway  as ‘ the Murder on the A35 has a open ending. I am perfectly fine if there’s a sequel.

So, will there be a sequel ?

PS : This is a review copy, I received from Bee books, Kolkata

by Shalet Jimmy

Author Interview - Maniissh Arora

Some waits to be an author while some just take the deep plunge.  Writer Maniissh Arora belongs to the second category. His first story titled ‘Purple Diary’ was published in a well-known transnational journal - Illuminati, a few months ago. His debut fiction ‘Sunshine Town’ is all scheduled for a launch on November 2017

Let's hear from him how he tackled the arduous journey of being a writer and also about his new book – Sunshine Town.


Tell us a bit about yourself?

I was born and brought up in a traditional Punjabi family, in Allahabad, a city located at the confluence (Sangam) of three rivers - Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati. Dad worked for state government and Mom was a home-maker. Soon after graduating from Allahabad University, I moved to Indore to pursue management studies.

In 2002, I began my corporate journey from Mumbai and since last fifteen years, I have had the opportunity to work with some of the finest global organizations. At present, I manage a leadership role with a well-respected Software organization.

Though, I inculcated reading habit quite late in life, I am now an avid reader. I love reading both fiction and non-fiction. My favorite authors are Dale Carnegie, Julia Cameron, Steven Pressfield, Robin Sharma, Louis Sachar, Agatha Christie and Stephen King.
Having been born and raised in North of India, I have a special interest in the people and culture of the region and my writing reflects the same.

Tell us about your short story - Purple Diary?

Purple Diary is a story of Shira - a young, plump, short and dusky girl. She aspires to be an Airhostess. The narrator in the story is a ward-boy, working in a government hospital, who accidentally finds Shira’s diary in the hospital. He is faced with a dilemma, to open and find out the rightful owner or not to venture into someone’s personal matter without permission. The purple colour is not just the colour of Shira’s diary, it also represents the presence of divinity and spirituality in Shira’s life.

What persuaded you to make it as the theme?

I wrote Purple Diary when I was in the middle of writing my second book. And in both the books, though female characters play critical roles, the protagonist is a male character.

For a very long time, I have been nurturing this thought of writing a book with a female character playing the central protagonist. I always wanted to explore female psyche in great depth, to understand how a girl would look at this world and react to various circumstances around her. Purple Diary gave me that opportunity, albeit, briefly. I have plans to write a book in future.

If I am not wrong, you are working on your two fiction projects besides your book called Sunshine Town which is going to be launched on November.

Yes, that is true. My debut fiction novel ‘Sunshine Town’ is scheduled for a launch in November 2017. Besides, I am working on two fiction projects, exploring family bonding a little further in them. Unlike Sunshine Town, which is written for teenagers and young adults, the other two projects would cater to mature audience who are dense readers.

What is ' Sunshine Town' all about? 

Sunshine Town is about Shlok, a lanky teenager, a serial day dreamer. He doesn’t want much from his life. A dream to make his parents happy and the affection of a neighborhood sweetheart, Natasha. Though, both are poles apart, their interest in nature and jogging bring them close in a bond. The rapids of life push Shlok and Natasha on an unexpected journey and they realize one can’t always be in control of circumstances.
Set in Varanasi, a city in North India, during the late 90s, before the pervasiveness of technology, the book is about the aspirations and emotional turmoil of being a teenager. This story deals with the themes of love, career and personal fulfilment.

Which are the other two fiction projects you are working on?

My second novel is about three characters and a train journey. It has a corporate scavenger who is struggling to save his Job in office, a monk who is a mind reader and a girl who is crazy about books and reading. All three of them are on the same train. The book is somewhere between fiction and non-fiction, focused on bringing meaning to life. The expected launch would be 2018 mid.

My third novel is still work in progress, I plan to finish it by mid of 2018. It is about a half-burnt book that plays God in the life of a protagonist - a teen who has lost his elder brother and is unable to cope with the loss.


Tell us about your struggle to get your first break? I mean how you approached the publishers and what was their response?

While writing my first book, I did extensive research on the publishing industry and its nuances. I observed three clear patterns - (a) Script must be of high quality and unless it goes through developmental or substantial editing phase, it would be hard for it to fly off the ground, this is applicable for budding authors since the quality of writing improves with time and with a lot of writing. (b) Irrespective of marketing and hype, if the story is good, the book will slowly pick up and do well and (c) Creativity is subjective in nature and one should be relentless in applying to publishers and literary agents across the globe, without giving up.

I applied to 100+ publishers and literary agents across the globe and after a year full of rejection letters, I finally got a break. It was also interesting that a few literary agents in the UK liked the book, but they were pretty tight in their publishing schedule hence they had put my script on hold and asked me to wait.

Lastly, I also must acknowledge the role of my mentor, who played a crucial role in guiding me on every step in my journey from writing to publishing.

You are working in a corporate sector. When did you feel that you also have a story to tell?

I think we all have a creative child inside us longing for coddling and nurturing. It doesn’t matter which profession we are in, we all are creative in some way or the other. The important thing is to nurture our child so that it matures with time. We all have stories in the form of experiences and imaginations, it has to be expressed.
Writing happened to me by some sort of accident and it was a book that gave me the courage and inspiration to embark on this journey. It is my way of unwinding from the cascades of life. I enjoy it.
All your themes are very different from each other and to come up with such threads is not an easy task. How do you do that?

For me, it has always been a combination of my own experiences and the kind of books I have read and continue to read. In these years of writing, I have realized that I am an intuitive writer and more than anything else, spending time with a self-plays fulcrum and helps in firming up the thoughts into stories.

by Shalet Jimmy

READING THE CUCKOO'S CALLING

 J.K. Rowling discusses 'Strike - The Cuckoo's Calling'

A Tap on the Window by LINWOOD BARCLAY

Book: A Tap on the Window
Author: Linwood Barclay
Publication Date : 2013

P D James, the acclaimed crime fiction writer believed murder mysteries were made of clues and not coincidences. But when it came to Linwood Barclay's ' A tap on the window', it was just the opposite. It was just full of coincidences.

It all began when a teenage girl tapped on the window of Mr Weaver's car asking for a ride. He refused as he knew that it wouldn't be a good idea to give a lift to a girl at night. But he couldn't resist any longer when she said she knew his son Scott who died two months ago.

The death of his son was yet to sink in for him and his wife. They could not bring themselves to believe that he had jumped from a building. Of course, he was under the influence of ecstasy. Still! could he just jump to end his life?

Cal Weaver who was a private detective was in search of an answer for his son's death and when Claire Sanders, the girl asked for a ride said she knew Scott, he just admitted the girl into the car, thinking he might get some leads that could direct him to his son's death. On the way, she said she would like to stop at Iggy's, a restaurant for she was feeling sick and wanted to use the wash room before they proceed to her house.

Even after 15 minutes, when she did not come back, he decided to check. He couldn't find her anywhere in the bathroom. Thinking she might have left through another entrance, he came to the car just to see that she was sitting inside his vehicle. It just took a few seconds for Weaver to understand that the girl who was sitting inside his vehicle was not Claire but somebody else who dressed like her.

When the questions came pouring in, she demanded to get out of the car and Weaver had to drop her in the middle of the road. Very soon, he along with boyfriend found her dead body under the bridge where Weaver had dropped her. He was quick to realise that/if the second girl was killed, the life of Claire was no doubt in danger. And when he inquired he could find that she was missing too. Since he was dragged into it, he felt that he should go in search of her.

Weaver was sure that the girls were followed by somebody and they played the game to hoodwink the stalker.

At the same time, there were so many happenings taking place in Griffon city which was on the borders of Canada. The Police Chief and Mayor of the city were at loggerheads. Claires Sanders was the daughter of the Mayor Bert Sanders and the police chief Augustus Perry was the brother - in-law of Weaver.
Cops Brindles and Haines were giving Weaver, a tough time. Hanna who died was underage but was delivering beer to the people.

I have mixed feelings about this book. It might be due to the reason that for the past several days, I was just reading classics and classic mysteries. I really had to struggle hard to get out of that world and embrace the modernity.

Linwood Barclay

 For the first few pages, I couldn't find anything substantial happening and that dampened my spirit. I was expecting something else just like his wonderful book ' No time to say good bye ". Hence, I just searched for it in the good reads and my friends over there assured me with their reviews that it's a good book and you could witness the elements of suspense only if I read till the end. That was what I did. Still, I am in a dilemma. I could not specifically that I liked or disliked it. Maybe, I stand in the midway.

Sometimes, I used to think that Hercule Poirot or Sherlock Holmes would not have done this way. Then I reprimanded myself for thinking like that as this murder mystery was all about coincidences and our protagonist was dragged into it. He was a vulnerable man which was perfectly fine.

Barclay has effectively portrayed the emotional turmoil, the Weaver and his wife Donna was going through due to the death of their son. They blamed themselves. It was not that they were not caring parents. First I thought I was not convinced of the motive which made the culprit to take a few drastic steps. Later I realised it would be wrong to say that as the human nature was beyond comprehension. If you like Linwood Barclay, then go for this book.

- by Shalet Jimmy

Cards on the Table by AGATHA CHRISTIE

Book:  Cards On The Table
Author: Agatha Christie
Publication Date: 1936


Mr Shaitana was a  person of dubious character. He was attending a snuff box exhibition when he ran into our own detective Hercule Poirot. Shaitana was quick enough to invite him for dinner and lured him to meet some strange invitees.


There was something peculiar about that invitation. A collector of many strange things, Shaitana also nurtured a macabre habit. Some of the invitees to the dinner invitation were none other than people who have gotten away easily after committing murders. He had a strange talent of extracting hidden secrets from people and he used his talent arduously to find such people and bring them together to a dinner table at his house.


Finally, the fateful day had come. After the dinner, the guests decided to play bridge and divided themselves into two groups.

When the first group consisted of Dr Roberts, Major Despard, Mrs Lorrimer and Miss Anne Meredith, the second group consisted of Hercule Poirot, Superintendent Battle of Scotland Yard, detective fiction writer Mrs Adriane Oliver and Colonel Race, a retired secret service operative.

Both of the groups sat in two different rooms while Shaitana, the host did not take part in the game but sat in the first room by the fire, observing the players.

When they approached their host to bid good bye, after the bridge, to their utter shock, they found him murdered in his chair. He was stabbed in the neck with a stiletto.

In no time, Superintendent Battle took charge of the situation. It was then, the players in the second room realised that Shaitana had carefully picked his guests. While the guests in the second room were associated with investigation and authority, his choice of guests in the first room was a hint from Shaitana that they were possibly murderers who had gotten away after committing it. Shaitana had suggested the same thing to Hercule Poirot when they met at the snuff box exhibition.

Never in the wildest of his dreams, he might have thought that by inviting such people he was inviting his own death.

According to Christie, this was Hercule Poirot's favourite case though Hastings, his companion found it dull. For a change, she had come up with three other sleuths as well along with Poirot to nab the culprit from among the four possible murderers. It's not mostly the clues which had helped the four detectives in their sleuthing but pure psychology.

Though I understood the basic plot, the reading became a bit strainful when Poirot decided to analyse the suspects from their bridge scores. Because I don't know how to play bridge. Besides, there were many twists and turns.

Like most of her novels, Agatha Christie in this novel too was adamant that the reader shouldn't find out the culprit before she discloses it to them. Even though she had offered a clue in the foreword of the novel that there were four possible murderers, I failed miserably in detecting the real one. But that's the fun of it and that makes her the " Queen of Crime ".

To talk about the character Mrs Adriane Oliver, the 'whodunnit' mystery writer, she was full of energy and fun and Agatha Christie did leave no stones unturned to poke her.

Long and short, in her 25th novel, her plotting abilities were at its zenith.

- by Shalet Jimmy

An Unsuitable Job for a Woman by P D JAMES

Book: An Unsuitable Job for a Woman
Author : P D James
Publication Date : 1972

Cordelia Gray was just 22 when she had to take up the responsibility of a detective agency run by her partner, Bernie. He killed himself as he was ailing from cancer. The detective agency was not a huge success. It was then a famous scientist Mr Ronald Callender approached her to solve a case for him.

His son, Mark Callendar who was a dropout from Cambridge committed suicide. He wanted to know why he did so. After opting out of Cambridge, he had taken up a job as a gardener in the house of Markhlands. He was living in a small cottage in their compound. It was there he hanged himself.

When the police found his body, he was wearing jeans and had a smear of lipstick on his lips. Cordelia decided to shift to this cottage so that she could investigate the surroundings including the Cambridge. From Miss Markhland, she came to know that a girl had visited him before his death. Inside the cottage, she found freshly prepared stew and a coffee pot with coffee, definitely not the signs that indicated that he was contemplating suicide. It dawned upon her that it was not a suicide but murder.

Let me tell you, in the beginning, this is not a typical murder mystery. It can mar the fresh perspective, this particular one could offer. I did the same and it was when I reached the middle of the story  I realized that it had much more to it. It’s a Cordelia Grey mystery though Adam Dalgliesh would make his entry in the end.

What I liked about the book was the sheer sincerity of the character. Cordelia was not an expert like Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple and she knew that she was vulnerable and lacked experience. But that did not deter her from doing her bit.
Besides, it was also her story of survival. It was clearly said in the title of the book ‘ An unsuitable job for a woman’. Though many pointed out to her that the job was unsuitable, she was adamant about taking it up.

She did not have the experience but she was shrewd and knew how to confront a person during an investigation. Since his boss was dead, there was nobody she could rely upon with her instincts and intuitions. Still, she went ahead and did what she had to do.

This is my first P D James book. I am happy to know that this book comes first in the list of her works which one shouldn’t miss reading if one is a fervent murder mystery fan. I have watched many of P D James’ interviews and I would proudly call my teacher for she had taken me to a different level of the genre called the mystery.

I am sure that I will read this book again. Her writing was like honey dripping from the comb.

By Shalet Jimmy

Rebecca by DAPHNE DU MAURIER

Book : Rebecca
Author : Daphne Maurier
Publication Date : 1938 ( Great Britian)

Crime fiction writer P D James was right when she said " A novel is a good novel or not. It's foolish to say you can't write a good novel as a mystery."

Of course! There's an element of mystery in it. Just because of it, confining Daphne Maurier's Rebecca only to the genre of mystery would be a great injustice to this wonderful literary piece of work. It has everything - intrigue, romance, beautiful prose, in - depth and round characters. It had all the qualities to become a classic just like ' Jane Eyre', ' Wuthering Heights' etc.

"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again." 

She was narrating her dream about Manderley. She was nameless and was living with her husband, an exile's life.

In her dream, she saw, Manderley was deserted and abandoned. The shrubs, the trees, the plants had encroached the drive and all around from their usual place giving it a ghostly look. Like any other bride, when she came to Manderley dreamt of a quiet life with her husband. But there was something sinister going on in Manderly.

Every wall of Manderely was yelling a name ' Rebecca'. She was the first wife of Max de winter who died of drowning in the sea. Mrs Danvers, an ardent devotee of  Rebecca intimidated the narrator.

 It was not that she had to fight with humans, but with the haunting and all pervading presence of Rebecca, the first Mrs de winter who died of drowning in the sea.

Rebecca was dead. But Manderley retained her daunting spirits. Mrs Danvers, had kept Manderley as if she had just gone out for a brief vacation and would be back anytime. The narrator did not do anything to alter the situation as she did not want to risk losing Max, her husband, whom she thought was still in love with his first wife.

She met him in Monte Carlo, France, where she was accompanying a wealthy American woman called Van Hopper as a paid companion. Her employer's illness gave her the opportunity to spend more time with Max and eventually, they ended up marrying.

Everyone compared her with Rebecca. Beatrice, Max's sister told her that she was nothing like Rebecca, and when she met Max's grandmother who also in her senility insisted on meeting Rebecca, leaving our narrator all the more perplexed. When Rebecca was alive, they had their bedroom in the western wing of the Manderley whereas; the second Mrs de winter and Max used the rooms in the eastern wing which was comparatively smaller in size for he did not want to go to the western side.


Mrs Danvers had gone to such an extent that  she was almost successful in convincing our narrator to commit suicide by saying on and on that she was unwanted in Manderley and her husband did not love her. It would have happened if the rockets were not fired, indicating that a ship was aground in the sea  near to the mansion with Max ordering everybody to offer help to the people in the ship.

A year ago, after Rebecca went missing in the sea, a dead body of a woman had washed up on the shore and Max identified her as Rebecca. But, to everybody's dismay, when the divers dived in to check the condition of the stuck ship, they came across a boat with a woman's body stuck in its little cabin. The boat was of Rebecca's.

No doubt! There would be an inquest. It was then our narrator heard something from her husband which she never expected. He was not in love with Rebecca and he hated her to the core. She was a woman of loose morals. That one sentence just changed our narrator in a trice.

“The moment of crisis had come, and I must face it. My old fears, my diffidence, my shyness, my hopeless sense of inferiority, must be conquered now and thrust aside. If I failed now I should fail forever," she told herself.

From that moment onwards, she had taken over Manderley. Mrs Danvers could not shake her anymore and nothing in the world could prevent her from adorning the title Mrs de winter. She was there lending her full support to her husband during the inquest.

Why was the narrator nameless? Was it the author's attempt to show that she never had any identity? Even after marrying Max de Winter, the owner of the famous Manterley, she was reduced to a shadow of his first wife. Perhaps yes!

She was living in her own world of imagination. Except for Mrs Danvers, everybody liked her- Maxim, his sister Beatrice, Frank even the insane Ben, living near the cottage near to Manderley.

"“I had built up false pictures in my mind and sat before them. I had never had the courage to demand the truth," she told herself.

The revelation of Max that he never loved Rebecca came as a pleasant surprise to her though it came with a heavy price to pay.

Kits Browning, Maurier's son says that her mother did not know what to call her. The only thing a reader could make out from the book was that she had a beautiful surname and she was very young than Max who was in his forties.

Then, as the story progressed, Maurier took it as a challenge to complete the whole story without giving the narrator, a name.

The book was a study in jealousy, according to Maurier. Before marrying Daphne, her husband Browning was engaged to a lady called Jan Ricardo who had a dark hair like Rebecca. Ricardo committed suicide by throwing herself in front of a train but the incident was not in any way related to Maurier's and Browning's marriage. At times, Maurier had felt there was no lessening of her husband's attraction to his late fiancee.

Maurier had also put some of her qualities in both the female characters though it were the traits of second de winter that could be seen in her mother, said her son Browning.  But like Rebecca, she was also good at sailing and had all the toughness just like her.

Mrs Danvers was a woman who was absolutely mesmerized by Rebecca. They were alike in spirits -absolutely inconsiderate of other's emotions. She considered Rebecca's audacity to continue her clandestine relationships under the nose of everybody at Mandereley as something heroic.

Mrs Danvers was a cruel soul who lacked judgement. According to Mrs Danvers, Rebecca loved only herself and Mrs Danvers was her ally, the only confidante. Even she was ditched by Rebecca before she died.

Max, on the other hand loved his second wife. But he was smarting over his own pain that he could not explicitly express that he was in love with her. The death of  Rebecca was hovering over his head like a dark cloud.

The Gothic mansion, Manderley will stay in your literature mind just like Thrushcross Grange of” Wuthering Heights' and Thornfield Hall of " Jane Eyre".

Maurier conceived the idea of Manderley from Milton Hall and she adopted the settings of Menabilly, her own house which was hidden away in the woods.

I am still at Manderley. Loved the book.

- by Shalet Jimmy

Death at the Opera by GLADYS MITCHELL

Book: Death at the Opera
Author: Gladys Mitchell
Publication year: 1934

It was the realisation on the importance of reading golden age crime fiction which led me to various renowned authors such as Daphne Maurier, Dorothy L Sayers, G K Chesterton, Gladys Mitchell etc. And it was 'Death at the Opera' by Mitchell, I chose to read first.

Since I was accustomed to the writings of certain authors whom I read incessantly, I always found it a bit difficult to adjust to the style of new authors at least for a couple of pages. To my surprise, Mitchell's writing did not pose any such hurdles before me. I was totally engrossed in the book right from the first page.

Miss Calma Ferris was dead. She chose to commit suicide on the night of opera in the Hillmaston school where she taught. She was found sitting in a chair with her head drowned in a wash basin full of water. Miss Ferris was supposed to play the potent role of ' Katisha' in the opera called ' The Mikado'. Since she was found missing on that night, her part was enacted by another staff, Mrs Boyle.

The coroner's verdict said it's suicide.  But Mr Cliffordson, Headmaster of the school had his doubts as he found the pipe of wash basin was tampered with. It was blocked with clay.

Without wasting much time he sought the help of an elderly and sly psychoanalyst Mrs Bradley to investigate the case. The first few chapters were devoted to showing the kind of person Miss Ferris was. She had none except an aunt who was running a lodge. Though kind on her face, the aunt never had a sincere liking for Ferris.

 Her life was colourless and moral values very high. But she was a sort of person who could be happy with all the goodness happening to others. Her life was sans expectations with little time for rantings and ravings.

It's rather surprising to know that an inoffensive woman like Ferris could get murdered.

Through her analysis, Mrs Bradley came across people who had the opportunity and motives to kill Calma Ferris. But she was caught on the horns of a dilemma for the people who had the motives to kill never had the opportunity and those with opportunity did not have the motives.

 Even the motives did not seem like substantial ones that could make a person take somebody else's life. For instance,
 1) Ferris had destroyed a clay statuette, Mr Smith, the art teacher was making, not deliberate of course. He was given compensation by Mrs Boyle, later.

 2) She had witnessed Miss Cliffordson, another staff and Hurstwood, a student kissing. When the student was head over heels in love with Miss Cliffordson, she never forbade him from seeking any intimacy with her. She never loved him, though.

3) She had discovered the clandestine relationship between two senior staff Mr Hampstead and Mrs Boyle. The former's wife was an alcoholic and was admitted to an asylum and the latter was a widow. They were in a relationship for the past 11 years.

Just a few days before the opera, Ferris' aunt had sent a telegram warning him of a person called Helm whom she had met while staying in the lodge run by her aunt. That was the only clue which could make the reader think there was more to the plot. This took Bradley to Bognor and there comes the twist in the tale - Two more murders by drowning. ' An epidemic of drowning' as she would like to call them.

I cannot talk about my dislikes for the book I am reading her for the first time. Mrs Bradley is new to me and I am sure I will get to know the kind of person she is through her other stories. I like the method  Mrs Bradley employs to deduce who's the culprit. It's helpful for a reader who wants to be a writer.
Even though Mrs Bradley was noting down the causes that could make someone a potential murderer, which also gave the reader a feeling that she/he was moving along with her in finding out the culprit, I failed to pinpoint the real murderer.

 I was clueless who the murderer was until the end. But what I could not come to terms with was the motive that made the culprit commit the murder. It sounded flimsy. But I would like to think that a human being cannot be expected to behave in a certain way. Sometimes feelings and emotions can be betraying.

by Shalet Jimmy