Thursday 23 February 2012

Theme Thursday

Theme Thursday is a fun weekly Meme hosted at Reading Between the Pages.

This week's theme is Smell, Breathe or anything to do with nose.
My snippet is from Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Real life oppressed me with its novelty so much that I could hardly breathe.

Double Indemnity by James M. Cain

I saw the movie Double Indemnity but had no clue it was based upon a book. I liked the movie so I wanted to try the book. Insurance agent Walter Huff knows what he is getting into when Mrs.Phyllis Nirdlinger asks him about Accident insurance. But he is so enamoured by Phyllis that he plans and executes the perfect crime for her. Will the police or insurance office find his role in the case? What will be the consequence of his crime? It is about planning and execution of a crime, so there will not be many surprises, right? Wrong, at just little more than 130 pages the book is a treat for Crime fiction lovers. Absolutely great! I am definitely reading other books by Cain.

This counts towards various challenges. I would categorise this as a caper story for the Merely Mystery Reading Challenge. The novella is published in 1935 and I borrowed it from my local library.

Ocracoke's Curse-The Mystery at Teach's Hole by Mark Duffey

Mike Callahan along with his brother Steve owns a boating supplies shop in North Carolina. After a fishing trip to Teach's Hole, Mike Callahan is changed. He develops taste for rum and sings pirate songs all the time in a strange British accent. He is no longer the caring dependable person he was before. Suzzane, his wife, is not able to understand this sudden change. Steve and his friend Sam are perturbed by his behaviour.  
 
There is increased pirate activity in the Ocracoke inlet. Fisherman have spotted a strange pirate on a ship named QAR. QAR is involved in many boat heists. Ocracoke is said to be haunted by Blackbeard, the infamous pirate who was beheaded there in 1718. 

What does Blackbeard want after nearly three centuries? What is wrong with Mike? What happened at Teach's Hole? Will he ever be normal again? Steve and Sam try to find out what's wrong with Mike. What do Steve and Sam find? 

Treasure Island is one of my favourite novels. I was expecting to read a pirate story. It is a pirate story with yo ho ho and a bottle of rum. While not entirely unpredictable there are a few twists. I liked the ending. 
 
The Author, Mark Duffey, sent me an ebook copy for review.

Monday 20 February 2012

Friday Memes

This is last Friday's Memes. I love these Friday Memes. One it gives a chance to see what others are reading and interesting snippets from the opening and page 56. Another, to see what I had been reading at a particular time. So what do the opening sentence and snippet in Page 56 bring back to memory after a time lapse. Now for the Memes. This is from The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz.

Friday Book Beginnings is a weekly Meme hosted at A Few More Pages.
Preface
I have often reflected upon the strange series of circumstances that led me to my long association with one of the most remarkable figures of my age.

One
The Wimbledon Art Dealer
'Influenza is unpleasant,' Sherlock Holmes remarked, 'but you are right in thinking that, with your wife's help, the child will recover soon.'


Friday 56 hosted @ Freda's Voice is a weekly Meme where we share an interesting snippet from page 56 of any book.

Even a masterpiece of Impressionism is to you nothing more than a piece of evidence to be used in the pursuit of a crime.

Friday 10 February 2012

Friday Memes

Friday Book Beginnings is a weekly Meme hosted at A Few More Pages..

This is from V is for Vengeance by Sue
Grafton

Las Vegas
August 1986

Phillip Lanahan drove to Vegas in his 1985 Prosche 911 Carreras Cabriolet, a snappy little red car his parents had given him two months before, when he graduated from Princeton.


Friday 56 hosted @ Freda's Voice is a weekly Meme where we share an interesting snippet from page 56 of any book. This is also V is for Vengeance by Sue Grafton.

Mentally, I squinted, trying to judge the truth value of his claim. I knew he believed it, but was there foundation in fact?

Sunday 5 February 2012

Friday Memes

Friday Book Beginnings is a weekly Meme hosted at A Few More Pages.

This is from The Black Tower by P D James

It was to be the consultant physician's last visit and Dalgliesh suspected that neither of then regretted it, arrogance and patronage on one side and weakness, gratitude and dependence on the other being no foundation for a satisfactory adult relationship however transitory.


Friday 56 hosted @ Freda's Voice is a weekly Meme where we share an interesting snippet from page 56 of any book. This is also from The Black Tower by P D James

She looked at Dalgliesh steadily with kind and interested eyes.

Thursday 2 February 2012

Theme Thursday



Theme Thursday is a fun weekly Meme hosted at Reading Between the Pages.

This week's theme is see, wink, roll
These snippets are from The Charing Cross Mystery by J S Fletcher

And Matherfield suddenly brightened, and gave Hetherwick an unmistakable wink.
one more
The driver showed his understanding by a nod and a wink and moved a little distance off to the kerbstone.

Wednesday 1 February 2012

The Monster in the Box by Ruth Rendell

In the Monster in the Box, Inspector Wexford reminicises about one of his early cases as a young detective. A woman was strangled to death in her home and the killer is still at large.

Wexford knows Eric Targo is the killer but has no evidence. If Wexford said that he knew Targo was the killer because of the way he looked at Wexford or because Targo stalked him would anybody believe him. Wexford never talked about this instinct to anybody. Well nearly after three decades his best buddy and side-kick Burden does not believe him. Wexford feels that Targo may have killed at least three people, he could have killed more. He has to find the evidence bring him to book. He can't let a psychopath run loose, can he?

Ruth Rendell presents a different kind of psychopath, animal lover but human hater here. Atheist feminist anti-racist pro-Muslim Detective Hannah Goldsmith has a difficult time trying to balance between her different -isms. There is the side story about young Tamima's forced marriage, imagined or otherwise. Ruth Rendell at her best. I loved it.
I borrowed this book from my local library.