I did not know that Georgette Heyer wrote mysteries. I picked the book from its place on a crowded shelf in the mysteries section for its clever title – Why Shoot A Butler? And finally ended up buying the book for its author. A murder mystery by Georgette Heyer, I had to read it. Think of Agatha Christie meets P. G. Wodehouse and a dash of Sherlock Homes thrown into the mix. There is a good balance of levity in…
The James Joyce Murder (A Kate Fansler Mystery) by Amanda Cross is unabashedly literary. Imagine an Agatha Christie bucolic setting complete with the aristocratic rich, the scandalous young and evil lurking close. Add to it, P. G. Wodehouse like whimsical sentence construction and a wholesome disregard to practicality. Most important to the novel, is a Jasper Fforde confident love for literature. I personally, have not read James Joyce, I blame that on my literary ignorance and not the high-handedness of Amanda Cross. If…
An overbearing old house with a haunting overshadowing past that looms over its inhabitants. Dorothy Eden uses this trait of gothic romance in a consummate setting for Death is a Red Rose. The book is whimsical and a breezy read even though the atmosphere inside the house is ominous and heavy with secrets and lies. The surest way to intrigue a suspense novel reader is to introduce the suspects. So, here goes – Arabia Bolton is a drama loving, senile, lonely old…
“do you know,” she asked with a curious airy smile, “he wrote the sherlock holmes stories?” the little boy on the wheelchair shook his head and pushed the large, gleaming rings next to the wheels, the chair rolled ahead. his tee-shirt was red, his hair was inky black, he held a small brown leather suitcase in his right hand. it swung over the right wheel. “but he never could solve the mystery! never could solve the mystery…!” the boy laughed and…
Not again.. A sassy rookie FBI agent who knows better than everyone? Not what I picked up to read.. That’s what I thought through the first chapter. It reminded me of Quantico (The Priyanka Chopra starring TV series on ABC). The Killing Hour review would not have made it to Writersbrew. However, a few chapters later things got decidedly better (or rather worse.. which is a great thing for a serial killer novel). At one point a live viper jumped…
It was here, on writersbrew, that ladki kijhy said, if I like murder mysteries I should read Reginald Hill. Sound advice; that I followed. So, I picked my first book following the legendary Dalziel and sergeant Pascoe. The book was Death Comes as an End. Mid way I googled out it was the 23rd book in the series, close to the very end. I enjoyed it enough to venture into the series for a 2nd time. This time I started at…
While I have a new addition to my family (a puppy!), I still managed to steal away some time to complete the ebook I had already started. So, let me tell you what Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Sword Princess is all about. By the way, don’t be too hard on yourself, wondering how a Sherlock mystery exists that you probably have not heard of before. This was an Amazon recommendation. A mix of classic Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s mystery…
I have recently been watching the BBC adaptation of Agatha Christie’s murder mystery novels featuring David Suchet as the renowned fastidious detective, Hercule Poirot. It’s a charming television adaptation of the books. So, thought it was time I spoke of this love of mine. Agatha Christie wrote over 60 crime fiction novels. Hercule Poirot, the Sherlock Homes like detective penned down by Agatha Christie, is the only known fictional character to have received an obituary, that too on the front…