First Read of 2023: The Puffin Book of Funny Stories (2005)

After the rather tepid last read of 2022, Frank Baker's The Twisted Tree, which ended on a disturbing note, I wanted to start 2023 with something much more cheerful. LO had borrowed this book from the library and I read it today. The book features some of the most well-known and loved authors of India: …

(Impossible) Crime in Translation: The Seventh Guest by Gaston Boca (1935)

Then a dispute arose between d’Arlon, his wife, and Émile. There were six of us, including Émile, who were supposed to share the table. But seven settings had been laid.Émile claimed he had taken the number of place settings prepared by his mistress. She claimed to have laid out the correct number. According to John …

In Translation: Three Novels

This year, I read only three books in translation. THE DOGS AND THE WOLVES (LES CHIENS ET LES LOUPS) by IRENE NEMIROVSKY (1940) Ada Sinner, from the wrong side of the fence, has a glimpse of her wealthy cousin, Harry and falls in love with him. This is no childhood infatuation because even in her …

Women in Translation: Shadow Sister by Simone Van Der Vlugt

Usually, I don't enjoy modern mysteries because I feel the world intrudes too much. Racism, sexism, pedophilia, dysfunctional families become the foci of the novel rather than the murder. However, while reading Simone Van Der Vlugt's Shadow Sister, I was surprised when I became more interested in the problems that a teacher of a school …

The Purple Roomby Mauro Casiraghi

The Purple Room by Mauro CasiraghiMy rating: 3 of 5 stars "We left the courtroom in silence. Without saying a word, we each knew what was going through the other’s mind. Every moment of our life together, from the day we first met, until the exact moment when it all ended. It was the inventory …

Reading Challenge: European Reading 2017

Signing up once again for the European Reading Challenge @ Rose City Reader which encourages us to read books by European authors or set in the various countries of Europe.Signing up for the Five Star level which means I'll be reading books by five different European authors or set in five different European countries.

Tuesday Night Bloggers: 1222 by Anne Holt

Though Scandinavian mysteries were the rage a few years ago (Perhaps still are for all I know), I didn't really find the couple of books that I read very appealing.Then I heard about 1222 by Norwegian author Anne Holt and how it was a homage to Agatha Christie and so was excited enough to borrow …

Tuesday Night Bloggers: The Sixth Simenon Omnibus

Georges Simenon, was a prolific Belgian author, most famous for his fictional commissaire of Paris' Brigade Criminelle, Jules Maigret. However, he also wrote many books which did not feature Maigret.The Sixth Simenon Omnibus contains three novels which discuss the role that sex has in people's lives - whether as a way of exhibiting their power …

Initial Impressions: Malice by Keigo Higashino

I feel that Japanese writer Keigo Higashino is one of the finest writers of mysteries. First I readThe Devotion of Suspect X and marvelled at his ingenuity. Then came Salvation of a Saint which I found to be even better than Devotion and now I have read Malice which is a fantastic mystery, a police …

Forgotten Book: Satyanveshi Vyomkesh by Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay

Despite my love for mysteries, I haven't read much of our Indian detectives. But this month, I was determined to read the exploits of Byomkesh Bakshi, a detective created by Bengali writer Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay, in 1932 and to whom I was first introduced to by an eponymous TV serial that was telecast in 1993.Though, I …