Review: The Summer Children

The Summer Children by Dot Hutchison
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The book cover was beautiful. I picked it up the book from Net Galley when I found the average rating which was well above 4. I had huge expectations from the book but somewhere I could not connect with the characters.

This is about FBI agent Mercedes Ramirez working in the Crimes Against Children Dept who finds herself investigating murders when children are dropped at her home after being rescued from their abusive homes. She is aided by her colleagues Eddison, Vic and Sterling who, I guess, made an appearance in one of the previous book in the series. The agent herself has a dark history and mysteriously the killer trusts her to safeguard these children.

The book starts with a promise but it loses its pace with myriad characters flitting in and out of the plot. The narrative is dark and horrific. The crux of the plot is superb and the subject is quite macabre. However, I did not find it thrilling enough to keep me hooked. Maybe the earlier books in the series were far better. Also the characters from the Butterfly Garden (Priya, Inara and Victoria-Bliss) make an appearance without adding any value to the plot. However at some places it becomes quite emotional and disturbing to read about the sexual abuse faced by the children.

I thank Net Galley for a free copy of the book.

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Review: 11.22.63

11.22.63 by Stephen King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Absolutely fantastic ! My first Stephen King ! I never could lay my hands on Stephen King novel after watching the movie "The Shining". I simply did not like it at all. How I wish I had read his books long back ! This is a magnum opus sci-fi book about a man who is accidentally thrown into a rabbit hole, literally, and how and why he thwarts the assassination of the John Kennedy. Being an Indian, apart from the conspiracy theories and Oliver Stone's JFK, John Kennedy's assassination had little significance for me. But after reading this book, I now somewhat understand the magnitude of this crime which shook America.

Jake Epping is an English teacher from a small town in Maine who is coaxed by his friend Al Templeton to travel back in time to prevent the assassination of the President of USA in November 1963. The good thing about it is he can go back in time any number of times and stay as long as he wants but he will always enter September 1958 and if he comes back to the present, he will be gone for only two minutes. The catch here is , if Jake tries to change the past, the consequences would be better or worse, known as the butterfly effect.

Jake goes back to September 1958, lives four years, gets a job as an English teacher, falls in love with a school librarian, meets Lee Harvey Oswald (yeah, unbelievable right ? ) and his family with the sole aim of stopping him from killing the President and saving the world. Will he or won't he, looms the big question that is constantly there in the reader's sub-conscious mind.

I almost gave it a 4-star rating as I thought it was a tad too long at 740 pages. But after I read the climax, which was no less than a Christopher Nolan movie ending, I was simply struck by the stupefyingly brilliant plot. The language too is easy on reader. The characters are loveable. You even have some sympathy for L.H.Oswald and his family. This concept of time travel is different and entertaining. I am now raring to go for one of his horror books.

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Review: The Innocent

The Innocent by David Baldacci
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Another good read from Baldacci. This is about an assassin who gets caught in a political conspiracy when he botches up an assignment. He is now saddled with a teenager who becomes involved in an international conspiracy unknowingly.

A taut thriller, I enjoyed this immensely.

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Review: Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew

Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew by Shehan Karunatilaka
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I came across this book on GR and was absolutely bowled over (pun intended) by the blurb, the beautiful cover and the reviews. This is a fantastic story about an alcoholic sports journalist W G Karunasena and his quest to uncover the story of Pradeep Mathew who was perhaps the greatest spinner to have bowled on the Sri Lankan pitches. He is aided by his friend and neighbour Ari Byrd and a couple of other colourful characters.

The author has spun a beautiful story incorporating the politics of Sri Lankan cricket and the country. The book has anecdotes of cricket in the 80s and 90s. It also gives an insight into the Srilankan people and culture, the racial tensions between the Sinhalas and the Tamils and a little bit about the LTTE. He has also explained each and every cricketing term and jargon with beautiful illustrations so as to make it inclusive for a non-cricket fan. But according to me it can only be enjoyed by a cricket fan or at least somebody with a passing interest in cricket. However, I found the book a bit too long. Otherwise, this is a brilliant piece of work by the author.


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Review: Confessions

Confessions by Kanae Minato
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A fabulous thriller. I came across this book on Goodreads when I read someone's review. I had read Keigo Higashino's "Devotion of Suspect X". From then on I was hooked to Japanese thrillers which are so underrated as compared to English and American ones.

This is about two students who kill their teacher's daughter and how the teacher exacts revenge on her pupils. With lots of twists in the book, the narrative turns addictive and unpredictable. All the characters are dark and evil. What sets the book different is the plot which is written in the first person account with very few dialogues, in the form of a teacher's lecture or somebody's diary extract.
Thriller fans, enjoy this middle school drama !

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Review: Mayday

Mayday by Nelson DeMille
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a fantastic techno-thriller. All about a Tokyo-bound supersonic jet flying at 62000 feet hit by a naval missile inadvertently over the Pacific Ocean and how an amateur pilot and a flight steward try to bring the aircraft to safer grounds. The passengers are either dead or suffer from brain damage. The flight crew are all dead. There are only five survivors. The US naval officers in charge, the airline officials and the insurance agency try to cover it up for their own interests. The survivors are now fighting for survival against the turbulent weather, low fuel, malfunctioning controls and people who do not want the airline to land safely.

Fasten your seat belts and enjoy this turbulent ride !

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Review: The Unraveling

The Unraveling by Schmidt John R
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a brilliant piece of work by John Schmidt. He is an American ex-diplomat who was based in Pakistan for a long time and a subject matter expert on Pakistan. I wanted a neutral honest view of Pakistan and its foreign policies and I was absolutely bowled over by the author's work. It is a refreshing take on Pakistani foreign policies through the eyes of an American.

He has given a detailed inside account of Pakistan and its geo-political environment. What is commendable is that he has documented each and every terrorist attack inside the country and abroad by jihadist forces and its implications on Pakistan. In the initial chapters he has given a background of the feudal system, its political patronage given to powerful politicians and non-tax paying rich landowners, lack of public utilities and infrastructure and absence of sound education system which has contributed largely to the poverty and backwardness in the country. He has given a brief history of various terrorist organisations, their rise to power inside Pakistan and Afghanistan and in some cases their downfall. He goes into the history of Kashmir conflict and gives a concrete reasoning as to why the dispute may never get resolved. He goes into the root of the problem facing the country with respect to its policies towards India, Afghanistan, USA and China. The final two chapters provides all possible outcomes / scenarios like Pakistan falling into the hands of terrorists and its likely implications on USA and India over such a scenario, including the possibility of use of nuclear warheads in the likelihood of war with India.

Although this was read 5-6 years too late (book was published in 2011-12), not much has changed with the exception of a few more terrorist attacks in Pakistan and abroad and a change in the Afghan government. But you realize at some point that Pakistanis have suffered far more than Indians economically and financially on the world stage. The author should also have given us a glimpse of Pakistan and its relation with its closest ally, China which I found lacking in this book. But otherwise this is a mind blowing book for people interested in politics or history.

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