Confessional by Jack Higgins

Posted on November 20, 2014 by Ajitabh

Confessional Book CoverThe Liam Devlin character is quite special in a way that he is not everywhere in the book and rather the author gives each and every character in a chance to be in the book and do justice to the story. At the end of this book I felt pity towards the bad guy and I must admit I kind of started liking him. He was the one who was in the book everywhere rather than the main character. Always three steps ahead of Devlin, he finally died but even then he won in a sense.

The story is very simple and strong and it keeps moving smoothly, always binding the user and wanting to finish it quickly. Devlin once again agreed to work for British in order to find a hidden KGB moul somewhere in Ireland who was disrupting the peace activities between IRA and British and always creating chaos. The chase started in Dublin and ended in Canterburry.

I would give three stars out of five.

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The Great Arc – A Dramatic Tale of How India was Mapped and Everest was named by John Keay

Posted on November 2, 2014 by Ajitabh

The Great Arc Book CoverThis book covers the story of trigonometrical survey carried out in India during the most part of 19th Century. The project was started by a British surveyor William Lambton and after his death the chief surveyor position was taken over by George Everest. However, surprisingly, people do not remember Lambton at all and Everest was only remembered because Mount Everest was named after him.

The book covers the hardship faced by the surveyors in the then prevailing geographic conditions. A good amount of surveyors died due to various diseases,  more specifically malaria and attacks by tigers and scorpios. The survey team also faced mobility problems as the survey instrument of those times weighed in tons and were difficult to transport.

If you are instructed in history and most specifically geographical history, then this book is a worth read.

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Touch The Devil by Jack Higgins

Posted on November 2, 2014 by Ajitabh

Touch The Devil Book CoverThis is the second book in the Liam Devlin series and the story timeline is the cold war period. The British secret service needed the services of Liam Devlin and one of the other X-IRA operative Martin Brosnan to assassinate another X-IRA operative turned terrorist. Martin Brosnan was jailed in a french prison so the first task was to get him freed from there. This part itself turned out to be a thrilling and gripping part. After Martin was freed up before he and Devlin could proceed further towards their intended target, the target found them and injured both of them before kidnapping Martin’s girlfriend, who was also a well known photographer. Then the chase followed and the target was eliminated, but by this time there was still about 10% of the book left, so I was wondering what next and was really pleased to see what comes up next (which I am not going to tell as I do not want to reveal the climax).

A very simple story line – a typical in the spy-thriller types genre, yet very effectively written. The book keeps you griped through out. 3 out of 5 is my rating for this book.

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City of Bones by by Michael Connelly

Posted on October 30, 2014 by Ajitabh

Book cover of city of bonesThis is my second book featuring detective Harry Bosch. This book is about investigation of a murder which took place close to two decades back. Harry Bosch was called to a crime scene when the bones of a child were accidentally discovered by a dog. Bosch did his due diligence and various suspects were investigated including a Hollywood set decorator, the father, sister and a childhood friend of the victim. During the course of the investigation, he had a short  affair with one of the fellow uniformed officers and tussle with his deputy chief.

The climax reveals the reason of the murder as mere greed (won’t reveal what, else the plot will be out) and the story ends with Bosch turning in his badge and walking away from his office.

This book is one of the faster book in the slow investigative books and keeps the reader interested through out the story. There are no unnecessary descriptions in the book. Overall a simple storyline and nice read.

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A Darkness More Than Night by Michael Connelly

Posted on October 20, 2014 by Ajitabh

Book Cover of A Darkness More Than NIghtThe book started with LAPD detective Jaye Winston visiting a retired FBI profiler, Terry McCaleb for his help in profiling the murderer. Initially reluctant McCaleb agreed to help and then he got involved too deep in the investigation, almost loosing his life at one point. The investigation almost threatened his peaceful personal life.

Another parallel story which was running in this book was a murder trial of a film director Storey who was accused of killing an actress and making the whole thing look like a suicide. Detective Harry Bosch to whom Storey boosted of the murder was the main witness in the trial.

Finally as predicted (by me) both the stories converge and the guilty were found and arrested.

This is the first book by Michael Connelly which I have read. As usual with most of the detective style books, there are many descriptions and its not a very fast paced book and hence need a lot of patience. I would give 3 stars (out of 5) to  this book. I am definitely going to read other books by this author.

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