Book – Ring a Ding Dead

Format read – Ebook

Publication Date – Advance Reader Copy

Author – Claire Logan

Rating – 4.5/5

Wow!! I received an advance reader copy (ARC) of this upcoming murder mystery through a goodreads group. I usually do not opt for these ARC prompts because many a times the story/ writing is very raw or of a genre I seldom read and most of the times due to the time commitmment required. However, the premise of this story was very interesting and I opted for an ARC out of sheer impulse.

The storyline traces a couple (the Jacksons) who check in to Myriad Hotel for their honeymoon but get caught up in a mystery when people start dropping dead all around them. However, if you think that is the only mystery in the book then you are in for a joy ride. There is a lot of untold mystery and intrigue surrounding the couple whether it is their relationship, profession or even their back story . Add to this mix , the intrusiveness of an elderly couple which has made the hotel their home since the last 3 years and the fun just keeps piling on.

I am a big fan of Agatha Christie who was a master of murder mysteries set in holiday locations / hotels with atleast a handful of culprits having equally plausible motives. This book reminded me of a Christie novel and thats the biggest compliment I can pay the author.

The biggest feature of this book is the dialogue writing which I found to be funny, direct and also forces the readers to ‘read between the lines’. Although this is a murder mystery there are some moments in the book which had me laughing especially how the couple lands up at almost all the crime scenes.

When you are reading a fast paced mystery such as this, you seldom expect to come across emotional moments between the characters but this book has a very beautiful scene towards the climax where the elderly guest (Dowager Duchess) , a widower who has remarried, helps Mrs. Jackson make sense of her own feelings of betrayal and guilt while expressing her love for Mr. Jackson whom she has married under similar circumstances.

This book has it all and also leaves some open ends which makes you feel that this will be a series in the making and not just a standalone mystery. Just like a Christie novel, if you pay attention to the dialogue you will be able to guess the culprit before it is revealed in the end. However, the book holds you till the very end irrespective of whether you guess the culprit and there isn’t a dull moment in the narrative.

A word of advice to all the readers !! Keep reading carefully even after the culprit is caught because there is a moment which reveals something interesting about the couple.

The book answers the question of the killer but it leaves many questions unanswered like the background of the couple, their individual and collective motivations, the circumstances of their marriage, etc. I am sure there are going to be many books coming our way where each such layer will be peeled off slowly by the author and frankly I can’t wait to read the next story.

Great work.. I am sure we have a bestseller on our hands..

Book Review – Victims for Sale

Book Name- Victims for Sale

Author – Nish Amarnath

Format – Ebook

Rating – 3.5/5.0

The author , Nish Amarnath, is a journalist and writer based out of New York and ‘Victims for Sale’ is her first foray into fiction writing, having written some non fiction titles previously. Considering it is her first attempt at fiction, she has naturally drawn from her journalistic experiences and put forth a very intriguing mystery for her readers.

The book is based on a budding journalist , Sandhya Raman. Sandhya is already an experienced reporter with ABP News in India but due to some personal trauma moves to London to pursue higher studies in journalism at the London School of Economics. In London, she is put up as a house guest with an Indian family (Sawants)who are her brother’s acquaintances.

This is where the story kicks off. The family Sandhya moves in with has its own closely guarded secrets. Sandhya realises pretty soon that things are not as they seem and while developing friendship with some of the family members, she starts understanding the complexities and friction between their relationships.

She builds up a healthy rapport with Nimmy (the son) and Asha ( the daughter) who is also a girl with special needs.

Parallely, at LSE, she meets Ritchie and develops a deep friendship with him which matures into a relationship as the story progresses.

During a career fair held by LSE, Sandhya meets up with Keisha Douglas , a producer/programmer with BBC and is offered an opportunity to collaborate on a docu-series which focuses on physical and financial empowerment and rehabilitation of people with special needs.

Sandhya takes to this project like a fish to water which translates into BBC trusting her with conducting independent background and field work to identify and collaborate with organisations already working in this field and in turn give them national coverage. It is during this research that Sandhya comes across an organisation which is involved in anti-social activities and human rights violations under the garb of helping people ,especially women, with special needs. To add to this discovery, she also realises that Asha, her host’s daughter, is also a victim of this organisation and this further drives her to expose these atrocities and the people responsible for them. She takes it upon herself to bring the people to book and unbeknownst to herself kicks up a mighty storm.

Her investigation of the organisation and its fallout is what forms the crux of the story. Her relationships are tested, friends are lost, new friendships formed and what we are left with is an intriguing tale of deceit, mistrust, heartbreak, murder and love.

That is all I will write about the story line. As is the case with all my reviews, I do not spill out the plot but I prefer commenting on what the author has brought to the table through their writing which makes or breaks a book. So here goes a list of my perceived strengths and weaknesses of the book.

Strengths:

1) Sandhya – I loved the potrayal of the protagonist Sandhya by the author. It would have been very easy for the author to describe the protagonist as an infallible, courageous and larger than life hero who would single handedly solve a crime and make the world a better place. The only way I can describe the author’s characterisation of Sandhya is that she has stayed very realistic in describing her as a person who has her flaws and faults. During the course of the book you realise how flawed Sandhya is and how her reactions are as much shaped by her past trauma as well her immaturity in trusting people on the go. She is shown to have a lot of courage but at the same time has some self doubts about her relationships and friendships. There is an underlying theme of guilt which drives her to get to the bottom of the mystery as opposed to most of the books we read on similar lines where the protagonist is driven by a greater goal of making the world a better place. I am not saying that is not a consideration for Sandhya, but her guilt at being the cause of hurt /injury to people around her is what appears to keep her going towards the end of this book.

2) The plot – The author has picked on a subject which is very disturbing but not unbeliveable. Considering the author is a journalist, I would not be surprised if the plot has some bearing to her experiences in the field. But I pray to God that if anything like this exists that it should be nipped in the bud and should not be at a magnitude as described in the novel. I loved the plot and the reveal towards the end of the book makes for a fast paced and interesting read.

Weaknesses

1) Relationships- Just like I admire how the author has taken the pains to characterise Sandhya so beautifully it pains me to say that the lack of relationship building amongst the characters is a big let down. Around 20% into the book , we realise that Sandhya has developed a sweet relationship with Asha which further affects her when she realises that Asha is also a victim of the organisation. However, there does not seem to be much thought given to let the reader understand how the relationship has developed. This made me feel disconnected from the book. The same goes with her relationship with Nimmy and her friendship with Keisha and Charlotte. There is not much space given for the readers to understand the depth and complexities of these relationships and hence you feel disconnected when Sandhya describes her feelings of guilt because you have not read much about her connection with these people.

2) Cliff Hangers- There are two instances where chapters in the book end with cliff hangers where Sandhya has been attacked ( shot at and pushed in front of an approaching train!) and you are curious to read what happens next. However, the author, in the next chapter/ paragraph just bursts the suspense bubble by non-chalantly mentioning her survival as a side note. I think a trick was missed there because building up on such scenes would have made this a real page turner.

3) Mistrust- There are times in this book where I felt Sandhya was very stupid in how she went about trusting people with her expose even when she sees people close to her being attacked just because they are in the know how. At one point she is shown to blabber her entire story out to a virtual stranger ( Lord Bradshaw) whom she has just interviewed for a completely different purpose. I felt this was done just to add to the suspects list in the book rather than adding any value to the already strong plot.

4) Too Many Characters- The author had my head in a spin when in the first 3 chapters of the book she hurriedly introduces almost 8-10 characters who have a bearing on the plot. It took me sometime to wrap my head around who is who but I would advice readers to just soldier on as it gets interesting later on. But I still feel there was ample scope to introduce many characters smoothly in the flow rather than go all at once.

5) Heavy Vocabulary – Being a book lover, it will sound very hypocritical of me if I say that there is just too much heavy vocabulary being unnecessarily used in the book when not needed but I cannot help stating this as it was a major put off for me while reading. I love to have a flow while reading and some of the words just had me reaching for dictionary to understand what exactly the author wants to convey. There is use of words like caliginous, paroxysm and terms like ‘a pathetic attempt to scarper from an unhinged ogre’ which do not add to the narrative and end up being roadblocks in the flow . There is also a line towards the end which made me do a double take to realise that she is describing the perpetrator’s eyes , it goes ‘ A pair of daggers shot out in vivid streaks of saffron gold, alternately dilating and contracting with psychotic rage’. I just fail to see the reason behind using such words when simpler words would drive home the point equally well.

6) At the end of the book, the perpetrator says that he would never let an immigrant girl scupper his plans. This is surprising choice of words as throughout the entire book the author has never given any hint of the immigrant issue.

All in all, this book is a fun read. For me the impact of the plot line and characterisation of the protagonist overshadows the weaknesses I have listed.

In the end, for me, it all boils down to the points below:

Did I enjoy reading it ? Yes

Will I recommend this book to others ? Yes

Will I be interested in reading the authors future work ? Yes !

Happy reading guys !

Hope you guys get a chance to read this book !