The Sleeping Doll

I like Jeffery Deaver books because he provides so much of twists, double twists, re-twist, reverse twists to the plot that you actually wonder where it is leading to. His Lincoln Rhyme the master criminologist series were all good books. This one featured Kathryn Dance, interrogator and kinesics expert - a kind of study of body language. Daniel Pell has been incarcerated in Capitola jail for mass murders of a wealthy family, the Croytons of whom he left only little girl behind, who was hiding behind dolls, and hence the name of the book. From the book cover, you may think it is a horror book, but thankfully it is not. Pell manages to get  himself to another facility for interrogation by Dance but in the process he escapes and thereafter the plot starts getting interesting. The cat and mouse game being played between Pell and Dance is intense. To his favour Deaver has kept the interest intact but as expected in his genre, he has sprung many surprises. Dance keeps going back to her basics which is kinesics to break down the real story. Even after the plot ostensibly ended, Deaver has kept going on for a couple of chapters more, thereby intensifying the suspense. For one twists to many, I give Goodreads 4/5 

Children of the Thunder

Just got around to finish this book "Children of the Thunder" by John Brunner. It is a science fiction book and John Brunner takes a long time to get around to the story. It is about some kids who commit juvenile crime but of such proportions as to shock even the adult mind, crimes, such as running a prostitution racket, protection racket, murder etc. All these kids are ostensibly born out of surrogacy and there are doubts that all these kids might probably be from one donor. First there is an assumption of mind control in the sense that these kids have some kind of psychic power where they can read people's minds and they are brilliant but in a devious way. In between there are newspaper reports of some kind of catastrophe after another taking place somewhere in the world and there is also mention of a General Thrower who is a probably a menace to the society. Peter Levin is a science fiction writer who makes a living by digging up stories on calamities and Dr. Claudia is a science researcher from US who has developed the instinct that there is something violently wrong with these kids and could there be a connection between. Brunner has attempted to carve out a plausible story but it all ends up in one big disappointment, hence the 1 star.

Ultramarathon Man - Confessions of an All-Night Runner

Ultramarathon Man - Confessions of an All-Night Runner by Dean Karnazes is an absorbing and overwhelming story of his early athletic prowess in schools, loss of his sister to an accident, his subsequent forays away from running for 15 years, his rediscovery of running to running marathons, ultra marathons, crazy distances, unheard of before and impossible feats like running the South Pole marathon, running 199 miles non stop, etc. His heroic attempt at running the Western States 100 miler and Badwater Ultramarathon and failing the first time has been poignantly told. A nice inspirational story with dollops of quotable quotes for keeping in one's mirror or desktop. The paperback edition has given details of his diet, training, nutrition, strategy etc. so that becomes useful for people running ultra marathons. Dean has that rare gene which allows him to run continuously non stop unlike us mortals. He has also discovered the art of sleeping while on the run, albeit for  a few seconds. Dean has also run the 50 marathons in 50 states of the United States in 50 consecutive days, finishing the 50th day by running the NYC marathon. Goodreads 5/5 

Going Crazy

"Going Crazy" by Otto Friedrich is a kind of biography or a history of insanity or madness through the ages. Otto does a good job in keeping the narrative flowing throughout the pages with first hand accounts by many patients. Apart from celebrated cases he has also dwelt on the ordinary people's lives disrupted by what he calls as "craziness" - by all accounts all of us are somewhat crazy at some times or other - it only varies by degrees, but while majority are able to keep their thoughts clear there are many who lose control of their minds. He has also written about the cures which in medieval times ranged from cruelty itself like chaining the patients to drugs, therapies etc. It was surprising to read that so many celebrated people had problems in their lives. I would highly recommend this book to those interested in different genres like non-fiction, biographies etc. Rating 5/5

The Blood-Dimmed Tide

John Madden has retired as a detective from Scotland Yard and settled in his rural home happy with his surroundings. One day he and his wife Dr. Helen Madden were returning back to his house, when he chanced upon the body of a little girl, hidden, with a badly mutilated face and apparently raped also. His detective instincts kick in, despite protests from his wife, he gets involved in the case. Then another body is discovered in similar fashion but that disappearance was reported almost three years back. And another body in similar fashion. Case goes out of local police hands into Scotland Yard and slowly bits by pieces they stitch together a series of crimes being committed by a psychopath, all of young girls and all in similar fashion - rape and then post mortem mutilation and sometimes even post mortem rape. The gap of three years in the murders forces them to surmise that it could have been somebody who has been out of the country during that period. The murders are set in 1926 to 1929 period when Europe was in turmoil due to rising Nazism of that era. The case develops international ramifications but thankfully Rennie has not diverted too much attention to that part of the case. Rennie Airth's narrative is quite good and keeps the suspense intact. Goodreads 4/5  

The Fate of a Man and Early Stories

The Fate of a Man by Mikhail Sholokov, the Nobel Prize winner for literature in 1965 and six other short stories. All the stories are gut wrenching heart rending tales of sorrow, grieving, loss of family, sufferings due to the turmoil in Soviet Russia in the early part of the last century primarily the fight of the Cossacks against the then newly emerging Red Army. At several times during reading the stories, I had to take a break because it became extremely difficult to continue reading. The love of a father towards the children is the same whether it is in communist society or capitalist society and these were also evident in "Fathers and Sons" by Ivan Turgenev. Sholokov wrote "And Quiet Flows the Don" for which he was given the Nobel Prize. "The Fate of a Man" is another masterpiece from Sholokov.

Dangerous Curves

Picked up a book called "Dangerous Curves" by Peter Cheyney on a seconds books sale somewhere in Bombay, either because it was way too cheap or the it looked sorta good to read. Got down to reading it last week and was pleasantly surprised to read it - a riveting fast moving fiction with mystery suspense thrown in galore. Then I researched Peter Cheyney on the internet because i have never heard of this guy, was surprised to learn that he belonged to another era altogether, having been born in 1896 and died in 1951, relatively young just like Raymond Chandler another of my favorite. In the first few pages itself I discovered another of my favorite author James Hadley Chase in his writing. Chase who wrote many potboilers and wrote about the underdogs of the society has beautiful flowing narrative to his writing. This book is a Slim Callaghan mystery - that is the name of the investigator who is given the job of investigating the wayward stepson of a vivacious Thorla Riverton who is 30 years younger to her husband and whose husband is dying of complications from old age. Slim Callaghan has obviously a very disruptive style of operating which is not appreciated by Thorla Riverton and sparks fly between the two, she being attractive. Slim Callaghan being the quintessential fictional detective is able to comprehend the hidden facts as well as portend the future shape of things to come. One thing i did not like about Slim Callaghan is his excessive smoking and drinking, but what the hell, this book was written in 1939 when there were more worldly matters to be concerned than the post modern James Bondish type of fit action heroes. From this Wikipeadia entry here it seems Peter Cheyney lived the life of his fictional protagonists and died young having penned 35 novels and 150 short stories. This book is "out of print" and therefore a rare copy. Books such as these are rare to come by. Highly recommended reading for fiction fans. Goodreads 5/5