Read Runners discussion

1.The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches by Alan Bradley

5 of 5 stars

“Mother,” I whispered. “It’s me—Flavia.”

And thus starts the sixth instalment of the acclaimed Flavia De Luce mysteries by Alan Bradley. As Flavia and her family awaits the return of her mother on the platform of Bishop’s Lacey, a train carrying her mother arrives. Along with the train a man comes and speaks a few words into the ears of Flavia, and then falls under the train to his death. Flavia caught in between her grief, her family and the man’s words, sets about in a dangerous and ground braking task, only to unmask the person responsible for her mother, Harriet’s death.

This is a sad, sad book. The indication was there that this might be Flavia’s last year at Buckshaw. And this turned every line of humor into sadness, as every such line made us reader realise that this is the last time the girl will say such words in Buckshaw. The mention of Gladys made me wonder how the thing will cope without Flavia, or for that matter Dogger, Mrs. Mullet and Esmeralda. But, this is also a novel of retribution, of revenge, of coming face to face with one’s destiny. Flavia gets to know why she is hated by her sisters. She comes to know how she got her Christmas wishes for new glassware, every year without hitch. She flies on Blithe Spirit just like her mother. She finds out what her father thinks about her. Most of all, she finds out who The Gamekeeper is. She finds out what her destiny has in store for us as the youngest girl of a De Luce family. This novel makes a little woman of Flavia out of the girl.

The original book deal for Mr. Bradley was a 6 book deal. So, in a way there was a sense of fear that this might be the last Flavia. But thanks to the brilliant talent of Mr. Bradley the book deal has been extended into a 10 book deal, and in a recent interview the author stated that he is well into the seventh book. The seventh book will be something every Flavia fan should and will look forward too. With different settings, and a grown up and more matured Flavia entrusted with the secrets of her family, will be a different ballgame altogether. But, whatever it may be, but keeping faith in Alan Bradley and Flavia Sabina De Luce, one can place a safe bet, that the seventh book wont disappoint, and if anything would surpass the previous six.

Though a hugely enjoyable book, but for reader who are new to Flavia De Luce series, for them I would suggest that they take up the series from the first book to get the true flavour of Flavia.

2. A Quiet Flame (Bernard Gunther, #5)A Quiet Flame by Philip Kerr
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Some books are never meant to be happy. Although in a Crime novel the outcome, most of the time, provides a solution to a crime, and brings a criminal to justice, but often it also leaves the reader with sadness. Either connected to a character, or to the general atmosphere created by the book. A QUIET FLAME by Phillip Kerr left me sad, and on both the counts of character and atmosphere. The book dealt with a theme which was dark from the very beginning. A case involving disappearance of missing girls is dark enough, but when this whole nasty business is coupled with a the Nazi pogrom of massacring Jews, and the infamous but never acknowledged Directive 11 as promoted by Juan Peron of Argentina the book becomes a ride, which not makes the reader uneasy but leaves him with a sadness. At least it left me sad.

But, if judged from a POV of a crime novel, this book can be called mediocre at its best. The atmosphere was electric, the way Kerr jumped between Berlin and Buenos Aires was impressive. The fear, the uncertainty and the hatred portrayed by his words that were present during the 1930s, as the Nazis are on the verge of gaining power was very potent. But sadly, although these may add to the general feeling of a crime novel but it can never substitute the real plot. If the plot is shallow then no amount of Nazi, Peron or Argentina can save the book and that’s what happened for me with this book. Bernie Gunther as a protagonist had the right mix of scepticism and quick wit, but even he with his smart mouth wasn’t good enough to salvage the plot.

The plot when it started had great expectations oozing from it. It had the quality of a plot which starts with a bizarre crime and ends with a solution and motive equally bizarre and believable. But here, somewhere in between numerous jumps between periods, and more than enough characters, with one overlapping the other the plot lost its fizz. And the ending, or the part of it when it arrived almost went past me, before I realised that I had just read one solution to one of the subplots. And then the act of joining one subplot to the other and connecting the solutions to both through a single character was once again equally bad. It spoke of huge amount of coincidence. And I don’t like much coincidence in my crime novels.

On its own this book would get 2 stars out of 5. But, as I said the side dishes of atmosphere and history was very tasty, on an average I upped my rating to a 3 star.

The Lion (John Corey, #5)The Lion by Nelson DeMille
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Which is the greatest Cat-n-Mouse chase story of all times? It’s surely the one that took place between a cat named Tom and a mouse named Jerry. I loved watching them when I was a kid, and today, when i can safely say that I have grown up, a little bit, I still enjoy their antics. But, would I have enjoyed them had their show ran for say 90 mins? No, then it would have turned boring. Definitely I wouldn’t have liked watching Tom create booby traps, one after another for jerry to fall into and Jerry annoying Tom and escaping time and time again, with no plot whatsoever and within a same setting for a period of 90 mins. No wonder their shows had a running time of max 10 mins and always featured a different setting and a new storyline with the central theme of Cat-n-mouse game intact.

THE LION by Nelson DeMille was a similar story, a Cat-n-mouse chase with some add-ons like high male testosterone infused in both the Cat(Asad Khalil) and Mouse(John Corey). Everyone was out there to show how macho they are, how bad mouthed they can be. Corey was out there to prove that he is a knight in the shining armor, whose injured wife won’t come in front of him in his quest for duty. Who, like every typical American hero, must have a dumb guy-cum-political aspirant-cum-no gooder as his boss. Who must have a personal animosity with the bad guy, the bad guy must kill someone close to him, and the book being a typical DeMille book must be HUGE. Yess, this was NDM’s version of Tom and Jerry garnished with a lot of macho antics, dead bodies, Libya-Al Qaeda-Terrorist, Islamic fanaticism, and no plot whatsoever.

But, then what made this book get 3 stars? Well, beside all the faults this book had one big point in its favor. Its pace. Frankly I am not a big fan of the John Le Carre type of spy fiction, where everything happens too slow and the book is itself written in a style which shouts of pseudo-literarism. I need and love speed in thrillers, and this book had plenty. Yess although at times the macho-ness, the dialogues, the characters seemed over the top, but the pace made me race through those areas without letting me devote much time upon the faults that existed. In a way, this is a clever book without much plot but with a lot of pace which after finishing it leaves the reader like me, with a peculiar sense of satisfaction from reading a very mediocre spy thriller.