On the face of it, Peter James’ first Roy Grace novel, Dead Simple should be a rollicking crime novel. It is in some ways. A harmless stag-night prank—even though ‘harmless’ is a relative term when coffins are involved—goes horrifiying wrong when Michael Harrison ends up buried alive and the only people who know about his […]
Crossword Children’s Book Award 2014: Timmi in Tangles
Being asked to be on the jury panel for the 2014 Raymond Crossword Book Award 2014 for Children’s Writing was not only exciting, but also an immense responsibility. To evaluate the 60-odd books—including picture books and illustrated books, middle-grade and young adult novels, non-fiction and various others that bucked easy slotting—written and illustrated by contemporaries […]
Review #14: The Paying Guests
Sarah Waters makes no secret of the fact that she is “writing with a clear lesbian agenda”. Thus, it is no surprise that her latest, The Paying Guests, is a story of an illicit romance set in 1920s London. When Frances Wray and her mother start taking in lodgers to supplement their meagre finances, the […]
Reviews 12, 13: No. 9 on the Shade Card and Starcursed
Given the drop in the frequency of updates, it would be logical to assume that I’m being rather lazy. However, that is not true. In fact, I’ve been quite busy reviewing children’s fiction from India for Goodbooks. Two of my reviews went up in the past weeks. No. 9 on the Shade Card (Kavitha Mandana) […]
Review #11: Hitman Absolution
Hitman: Absolution continues the story of our favourite shiny-headed, barcoded and stony-faced assassin, Agent 47. The player takes on the role of this genetically-engineered killing machine to carry out a series of contracts—ahem, and we don’t mean the kind of contracts you and I usually sign. Mr 47 is skilled in all manner of grisly […]
Review #10: My Brother’s Wedding
Insane. Hilarious. Nerve-wracking. Noisy. These are just some of the adjectives that can describe an Indian Wedding. Andaleeb Wajid’s My Brother’s Wedding is all about the insanity, hilarity and other things that ensue when Saba decides to blog about her brother’s upcoming wedding. What starts out as a promised chronicle of a ‘typical Muslim wedding […]
Review #9: The Year It All Ended
Reviewing a book by an author you’ve worked with is a path strewn with thorns. So when I started reading Kirsty Murray’s The Year It All Ended—my very own autographed copy, thank you very much—I’d decided that I wouldn’t say anything at all if I didn’t like it. But as it turns out, it was […]
Review #8: Miss Carter’s War
Miss Carter’s War by Sheila Hancock was sent to me for review by Sunday Herald, the Sunday supplement of Deccan Herald. Now, Sheila Hancock is not a name that rings a bell, but upon discovering that she was married to John Thaw, immortalized (for me at least) as Inspector Morse on the TV series, I […]
Review #7: Asus G551JK Republic of Gamers laptop
The best thing about being a tech writer is that you get gadgets to play with. Unfortunately, you have to give them back eventually. Be that as it may, ever since I found out—and this was eons ago—that ‘gaming laptop’ is a real thing and not a figment of my wishful imagination, I’ve always wanted […]
Review #6: Cross and Burn
Resurfacing after a holiday and a bout of illness with a review of Val McDermid’s Cross and Burn. This is the eighth installment of the Carol Jordan and Tony Hill saga, even though they spend most of this book resolutely avoiding and refusing to talk to each other. If, like me, you’ve long lost your […]