Monday, January 31, 2011

Partners in Crime by Agatha Christie (Short Story Collection)

A blend of thrill and humor, 'Partners in Crime' was the first Tommy & Tuppence mystery book I ever laid my hand upon.
The crime solving couple, Tommy & Tuppence get an opportunity to do some detective work, as Mr. Carter offers them to run International Detective Agency; Tommy assuming the role of Mr. Theodore Blunt and Tuppence playing the part of secretary, Miss Robinson. The book is a short story collection in which th husband wife duo solve murder case, round up gangs, find hidden treasure, deal with jewel robbery and other unusual cases. The book closes with Tommy saving Tuppence from a man called No. 16.
I enjoyed the very much.


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Saturday, January 22, 2011

Roll Call (Traces, Book 3) by Malcolm Rose

Three women are murdered. Surprisingly, all three of them share the same name: Emily Wonder. Are these deaths of people sharing the same name is merely a coincidence?
Sixteen year old, Forensic Investigator, Luke Harding, and Malc (his robotic assistant) handle their third case trying to find a possible link between the three deaths and unmask the serial killer "Q" (KEW: Killer Emily Wonder). Meanwhile, they find out that a fourth Emily Wonder, an eleven-year-old girl, has disappeared in London. Now, not only Luke has to unearth the hidden unknowns in left by the serial killer, he must also save the missing young girl who might be the next victim. Moreover, to his surprise there are 44 innocent Emily Wonders in England without any protection.
This book is marvelous. I picked it up, read a few pages and remain glued to it until I had finished more than half of the book. This book is fast paced and worth reading.


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Thursday, January 20, 2011

The Street Lawyer by John Grisham


A poorly dressed black man with unknown identity barges into Drake & Sweeney law firm office building and holds nine lawyers hostages; Michael Brock being one of them. Although the hostages are rescued and the assailant "Mister", as he called himself, is shot dead by police, the incident puts a strange impact on Michael’s life.
Michael, a thirty-two year old successful antitrust lawyer works 80 hours a week on his way to achieve his dream of earning millions a year. His relationship with his wife, however, is approaching a divorce stage.
After his encounter with the mysterious "Mister", Michael feels a strong urge of investigating about his assailant. His search leads him to the discovery of an illegal eviction of seventeen people, who were living as tenant in an old warehouse. As a result, a few of the evictees, being homeless now, died during the snowstorm. And to Michael's great surprise, the eviction was found to be forced by his own law firm, Drake & Sweeney. During the course of investigation, Michael meets Mordecai Green, a public interest lawyer, who introduces Michael to an entirely new side of life. Michael decides to leave his firm and become a street lawyer. Evidently this decision demands some sacrifices. Michael, however, is determined to unearth the illegal action of his firm. He begins collecting evidence and even steals a secret file from Drake & Sweeney. This gets him in trouble, though.


Although, the story may sound a bit straight and less thrilling, it was the theme of book I found inspirational.

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Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Passenger to Frankfurt by Agatha Christie

I'm a huge admirer of Agatha Christie but this book was a bit disappointing. 'Passenger to Frankfurt' is different from Christie's other works.
The book opens with a scene at Frankfurt airport. Stafford Nye, a middle-aged diplomat and rather bored from his Malaya conference, meets a mysterious woman in an airport lounge, on his way back to London. The woman begs Nye to lend her his passport and cloak since her life was in danger. Although Stafford Nye trust the woman very little but he has a taste for adventure. He agrees to help the woman and lets her use his identity. However, his adventure doesn't end here and the pair, quite accidently, meets again and again. To Nye's surprise, the woman appears to have several different identities: Mary Ann, Countess Renata Zerkowski, and Daphne Theodofanous. Nye is dragged along to join the league with the woman in order to combat a rebellion by youth. The rising youth war is led by Young Siegfried who is believed to be the son of Adolf Hitler. Moreover, the person behind this youth movement is a fat old woman, described in the book as a whale, called Big Charlotte.
The mystery opened very well but I personally think it could have been better. Aunt Matilda's speeches long and uninteresting speeches particularly bored me. Anyway, I liked the theme of the novel.


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