#Paris in July: The Occupation Trilogy by Patrick Modiano (1968-72)

This July as we celebrate all things French, here's a description of another July in Paris: July is the fireworks season. A whole world, on the brink of extinction, was sending up one last flurry of sparks beneath the foliage and the paper lanterns. People jostled each other, they spoke in loud voices, laughed, pinched …

Halloween Horror: The Hungry Goblin by John Dickson Carr (1972)

It is 1896. Christopher 'Kit' Farrell arrives in London after years in the US where working as a newspaper-reporter, he had covered the civil war. His destination is Hotel Langham where he is supposed to meet old chum, Nigel Seagrave. Seagrave, an explorer, had been given up for dead in Africa soon after his marriage …

Friday’s Forgotten Book: Night Watch by Lucille Fletcher (1972)

Elaine (Vaguely, dreamily, moving to the window): The question is... the question is....What really happened that awful morning.Helga: Why, you saw that shade go up! You saw that dead man, yah.Elaine (Brooding, staring at the window): I thought I did, But did I? Did I, Helga? Did that shade go up - or was it …

Short Reviews: Prison and Chocolate Cake, and Forty Years of Test Cricket: India-England

Recently, I completed two books related to India (and England).The first one, Prison and Chocolate Cake, is a memoir by Nayantara Sahgal, chronicling her young days growing up during the Raj. As niece of independent India's first prime minister Jawahar Lal Nehru and daughter of India's first ambassador to the U.N., Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, Nayantara …

FFB: N is for No Comebacks by Fredrick Forsyth

Frederick Forsyth is one of my father's favourite authors and when my sisters and I were young, Papa would often narrate to us certain incidents/ episodes from his novels: The Day of the Jackal., The Odessa File, The Dogs of War etc. Though, these novels, esp Jackal, have long been on my wishlist, somehow I …