Mini Reviews - X

The Return of Moriarty (Professor Moriarty Book 1)
The Revenge of Moriarty (Professor Moriarty Book 2)
  - John Gardner
 
These offer an interesting take on Moriarty's exploits. However, it became repetitive after a point, describing the gangster's daily business of crimes. The major feats and character studu of Moriarty were more intriguing. In the second book also, the big plans and schemes and evolution of Moariarty's character were imaginative. However the descriptions of daily business felt even more repetitive. It is interesting to note that many of Holmes pastiche works have a PoV on Jack the Ripper crimes, and this novel also offered a decent twist on it.

Read and Reviewed in Oct 2020

My Man Jeeves (Jeeves #1)

  - P.G. Wodehouse

After receiving numerous recos for Wodehouse as the most wonderful work of english humour, I started with the Blandings Castle series and read six of them, after which it became kind of tedious. I think it is best to read them in between other works, to change the mood, rather than at a go.

Anyhow, these are tough times, and after reading a couple of other books, I thought I will give Jeeves a try. After all, he is perhaps the most famous creation of Wodehouse. My man Jeeves was entertaining and amusing alright, but I was also a bit disappointed. For one, I expected a novel, but it was a collection of stories. Secondly, only half of the stories featured Jeeves, the other half related the antics of another set of characters. Jeeves stories follow a similar pattern ... One of Bertie's friends gets into trouble, they seek Jeeves' advice, which backfires. Then when they give up, Jeeves manages to set it right. Not bad to cheer one up, but I feel they should rather be used as a palate cleanser.

Read and Reviewed in Apr 2020

The Woman in White
  - Collins, Wilkie 

Fairly good and entertaining suspense thriller, set in Victorian times. Though I found it a little too verbose .... there were lengthy descriptions, which I eventually skipped. I'm not particularly fond of reading a 7-page description of the heroine's beauty, or a character's tangential thought-line. It also was full of cliches, most of them non-endearing.

Read and Reviewed in Jan 2020

Bride of Pendorric
  - Holt, Victoria 

This was much better than the previous two Victoria Holt books I read (which were a huge disappointment to my memories of enjoying her books immensely). It was something of a typical Holt story - a titled, handsome hero, a young naive heroine, an immediate attraction and grave misunderstandings. It was an enjoyable read, even suspenseful during the middle, but by the last quarter I figured out what would be the big reveal.

What I don't understand is that why in all these 18th or 19th century romances, the young heroine, barely out of her teens, fall for a man 15 or more years older to her, practically double her age at the time.

Read and Reviewed in Jan 2020

The Time of the Hunter's Moon

The Time of the Hunter's Moon 

  - Victoria Holt
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

* Mild spoilers *

As far as the story and mystery part is concerned, it was as formulaic and simple as most of Victoria Holt novels, but entertaining nevertheless. My younger self might have found the sinister undertones intriguing, but now I seem to have become a seasoned veteran of mysteries, particularly cozy mysteries, and usually guess the villain in these by 50-60%, sometimes earlier. The long descriptions of the mundane activities of the school became very boring, and I skipped them after a while. She also tends to throw in a brief appearance from an alternate love interest, who is a really nice person but doesn't appeal to the heroine romantically.

What I could not digest was the heroine's attitude and attraction to the undoubtedly vile man who was the male lead. It is rather common in the books of this genre, set in this time period, for the naive young woman to fall for the much older man with a bad reputation (all the while finding an excuse for his past behavior and reforming him for future). In this book however, the said love interest goes a step further, and actually tries to rape her, and later tries (successfully?) to convince her that she had wanted it too and would have relished being intimate with him even in such circumstances. Even more disgusting was her feeling soft just because he didn't fulfill his intentions when she injured her arms trying to break the windows, finding references to this incident and his forceful attentions amusing, and eventually marrying him. In my view, endorsement of such behavior is even more reprehensible when coming from women authors.

It might have been a 2.5 star for the entertainment value, but had to pull down one star for repulsive behavior of the male lead, and the amused acceptance by the female lead.

The Black Opal

The Black Opal

  - Victoria Holt

My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

There are some childhood favorites that you can read over and over again, and then are some that are a big letdown when you revisit them as an adult. This second case has sadly been my experience with Victoria Holt. Though I wasn’t exactly a child when I got introduced to her - I was in the later years of school, and read a few of her books after a few years, while in college. I just loved her books then - they weren't typical romance, I found them more of historical fiction and thrilling mystery. I particularly remember 'The Shivering Sands', and 'The Night of the Seventh Moon', which sent a chill down my spine. Told in first person, creating an atmosphere of mystery and foreboding, and typically set in the houses of nobility, they were a combination of charm and thrill.

In last 3 years, I revisited the author and read two of her books. 'Seven for a secret' was such a disappointment, but after some discussion, I put it down to the book. I made another attempt with 'The Black Opal' this weekend. It was fairly enjoyable, and a good way to pass time on an idle weekend, but didn't revive my earlier experience with the author's works.

The premise of the story (without spoilers) is this - it tells us (in first person) the story of Carmel, who is found as a newborn in the garden of a relatively wealthy family. She is suspected of having gypsy parentage, but to the surprise and chagrin of the nanny, is taken in by the family, and put in the nursery with the children. Here, the nanny is mean to her, the lady of the house ignores her, the father doesn't take much notice though displays kindness. Nanny's assistant loves her, children are usually friendly, and later a new governess comes in, who is very kind and affectionate to the children. Then a tragedy befalls the family, and Carmel goes off to Australia for next few years. Upon her return, she learns of the facts behind the tragedy which had been hidden from her all these years. The truth, and closure, is what she seeks.

It works alright as a story, even though not quite believable, with several coincidences helping it along. Description of life in Australia was warm and interesting. What doesn't work is the mystery part of it. I could spot most of the twists well before the author pitched them in. I also didn't quite like the writing style - almost entire first half is narrated from the viewpoint of Carmel when she was a child. But it is the adult Carmel who is narrating it, and hence the juvenile voice it is told in, feels quite jarring. During the first half of the book, she mentions a sense of foreboding so many times (and with nothing significant happening after most of them), that they ceased to create any sort of tension after a while. Overall, things seemed to be very simple, almost superficial.

*** SPOILER ALERT

Some examples of the surprises which were quite evident before the author revealed them ...

The typical Victoria Holt hero is rich, titled and mysterious. Hence, when Lucian is introduced in the beginning, and shows considerable kindness towards Carmel, I knew that he is the one that Carmel is going to end up with, other suitors notwithstanding. As the Holt hero, he needs to be enveloped in an aura of mystery and false perception, in comes the completely unnecessary angle of his failed marriage, a dead wife and a young child who he doesn't care for. Also as the typical hero, he could have done no wrong, so it turns out that he is the one who has been wronged!

When Zingara made her first appearance and met Carmel, it was evident to the readers that she was her mother.

Also, when Toby mentioned that Dr Martine was not expected to live long, and avoided details, it became clear that he had received a death penalty for murdering his wife.

*** SPOILERS END

 

So here I am, wondering whether due to an unfortunate coincidence I got hold of her lesser works, or have I become a more mature and discerning reader. When I first read her books, other than children’s books, the only books for adults I had read were Sherlock Homes, H. G. Wells, and a little of Agatha Christie. Since I was young and had little exposure, I may not have seen through plot holes, and definitely wouldn’t have had the experience to contemplate the style. The next time I read her, I had gone through Gardner, MacLean, Bagley, Forsyth etc., but she still held an allure. For more than 15 years I had been trying to find her books, and now that I have done a couple, I am not sure I want to read her any more.

Mini Reviews - IV

Roald Dahl - Matilda
 

I must confess that I still like reading stories meant for kids (with some pre-conditions). They can be meaningful and heart-warming without being complex. I found this one quite entertaining. However, I think that though it is frequently cited as one of the best children's books of all time, I can't really recommend it for children. For the younger children, who would enjoy it, I find it quite unsuitable - it uses a lot of curse words, which I wouldn't want to explain to a child, and the message it could give to their impressionable minds may be twisted around. And I am afraid that the older children, who could possibly have understood it better, may not find it as exciting as a lot of the other series available to them today.

Sue Townsend  - The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole
 

I really failed to understand what made this series so popular. It may have less to do with the difference in age, and more with the difference in culture. I felt that it features all the cliches of the projected "ills" of the western culture - a troubled, self-obsessed teenager, selfish parents, infidelity, broken marriage, casual flings, parents not caring for children and vice-versa .... The only thing that offers warmth is when Adrian really starts caring for old Bert, whom he is assigned to assist as part of his volunteer work. I also didn't find it particularly entertaining; though it was amusing in bits and parts - when Adrian laments for his misunderstood genius or when the Sikh family shows greater patriotic towards their adopted home than the native English.

Shilpa Somaya Gowda - Secret Daughter

This book is written in the format of a series of clips, and the writing is good. The story in itself did not stand out particularly, but it is told well, with some moving descriptions. One reason that the story seemed something of routine was that because I have read a few stories of adopted children, the one that moved me most was the true story of an Indian girl adopted by a family abroad (Daughter of the Ganges). At one point I strongly felt that Secret Daughter may have been inspired by it, down to the name of the adopted child (Asha), and the device of coming back to India (journalism/documentary). It may have been, or perhaps it is a coincidence, since most adopted children are naturally curious to know about their birth parents. At one point I became really apprehensive that it was going to do a logic-defying bollywood-style reunion, and was relieved that it did not.
It is a nice book, though not exceptional. The last couple of chapters I liked best.

Victoria Holt - Seven For A Secret
 

Now, this did not turn out to be as interesting as I expected. I don't know whether it is one of her worse works, or whether her books may not so intriguing to a mature adult as they could be to a school/college student. I read a few of her books way back then, and loved them. I was never much into romances, but found her kind of romantic thrillers quite enjoyable. I didn't find another of her books since then, and was thrilled to find one at Blossoms a couple of weeks back. And I was rather disappointed. It was all too predictable, and the suspense/secret wasn't that good for all the build-up.