The Innocent Bystanders

 Spy thriller from James Munro a.k.a. James William Mitchell.

John Craig is a tough hard as nails British spy set out to find a missing Russian scientist who has the knowledge to convert desert into life. Impracticable as it sounds, Craig is on a mission and in the process he travels to Turkey, America, Cyprus with Department K following him with two young recruits, and Force Three also on his trail. KGB is also interested in the missing scientist.

The scientist Aaron Kaplan is one of the ten men who broke out of a deadly prison in Siberia of whom apart from him, only two survived the escape. Force Three sends in Miriam Loman as the all in one help of Marcus Kaplan, brother of Aaron, who has not seen his brother for 25 years. Joanna and Royce are sent in by the Department.

There are plenty of thrills and spills and action in this fast paced adventure thriller from James Munro. The action moves from one location to another pretty fast. My first one of James Munro, and its good. Goodreads 3/5  

Enquiry

 

A fast paced thriller from Dick Francis "Enquiry" does'nt disappoint.

Its his favorite theme, horse racing and he excels at writing about it. Kelly Hughes is a race jockey and he has just ridden a favorite horse into second in the Miltonfizz Cup. The horse trainer is Dexter Cranfield. 

What follows is straight outside the box. They both are implicated at throwing the race and their licenses cancelled. Cranfield is a sulky kind of a guy and he goes into his shell, depressed. 

But Kelly Hughes is made of sterner stuff, he decides to fight back and find out who among the owners, trainers, stewards, race bookies had them implicated falsely. In the process, he had himself almost killed, wrecked in a car crash, through attempted monoxide poisoning.

Its a murky world out there - in horse racing, with jealousy, ego, blackmail, hatred all aplenty. In the meantime, Kelly gravitates towards the 19 year old Roberta, daughter of Dexter Cranfield. So there you are, plenty of thrills, excitement in this rollicking novel by Dick Francis. Goodreads 5/5  

The Liberators

The Liberators by James Pattinson, is a story of a revolution gone wrong. Harvey London is famous for doing odd jobs which require much skill and daring. In one such job, he is left bloodies and penniless when he is offered a job to transport a revolutionary leader to the coast of Anagua, a fictional country in Latin America bordering the Caribbean. He is a accompanied by Pete, a tough young man. They have to face hurricane winds and rains while on the way, lose their boat, get into a dinghy which also capsizes, but miraculously survive to find themselves on the shore of Anagua but in hostile territory. There one girl Anita helps them to navigate through rough country with hunger, starvation, deprivation, fight with enemies pulling them through in a city Oxaca which unfortunately is denuded by a volcano and earthquake. The conquistadors move to another town but spies within their network wreck their supplies of arms & ammunition which was essential to their hopes of winning the war. After untold misery and fight, these three people find themselves at the gate of the revolution, when the unexpected happens. The narrative by James Pattinson is nice, it is quite fast flowing, though some words used are quite archaic. Goodreads 4/5

James Pattinson (1915-2009) was a prolific British author with more than 100 thrillers to his name.

The Unquiet Sleep

The Unquiet Sleep by William Haggard is a British novel about a miracle drug gone wrong or potentially wrong. It is a drug manufactured by a pharma company in which the Junior Minister of Social Welfare or Parliamentary Secretary as he was called in the novel was working previous to his political career. The drug has some powers but not tested fully so is sent to the laboratory for full check. Meanwhile Greek Cypriot gangsters are interested in the drug to black market it and earn some money. The kingpin of the drug lords one Dick Asher ingratiates himself with the wife of this minister who is philandering. The junior minister's boss the senior minister Robert Seneschal is in trouble with the Prime Minister for the handling of this affair. Meanwhile Colonel Charles Russell heading a fictional Security Executive a kind of non official dirty works department and his lieutenant one Rachel Borrodaile who has previous experience in the French Resistance get into the act and try to sort things out. William Haggard a.k.a. Richard Henry Michael Clayton has written a lot of fictional thrillers set in the 1960s tto 1980s. His narrative in this novel becomes ponderous at times, when he goes on describing the procedures at Whitehall or when the characters go on a silent dialogue with their thoughts. Goodreads 3/5 

 

The Last Cop Out

The Last Cop out by Mickey Spillane, my first one by him, is an edge of the seat thriller of gangster wars gone wrong. Nobody knows who is killing the mobsters off one by one in clinical fashion. Gillian Burke is a knocked off ex-cop with a grudge against the underworld. He gets to come back to the police force to find out the goings on, because ostensibly he is the one who knows more about these gangsters. Frank Verdun is a Frenchman with a penchant for killing and Mark Shelby is eyeing the top spot after everybody is wiped out. Papa Menes is an old wizened hat at these matters. Couple of female characters as well, love as well as lust interest. Few oddball characters as well in the story. Goodreads 5/5

The Magic Bullet

The Magic Bullet by Harry Stein is a medical thriller on the likes of Robin Cook books The Coma. Daniel Logan is an up and coming medical scientist who wants to work in frontier research in cancer cure. He is accepted into the prestigious American Cancer Foundation, and stumbles upon a magic cure for cancer. But the machinations and deviousness of his seniors at the ACF puts paid to his efforts. How he extricates himself and his Italian girlfriend forms the rest of the narrative. I would sya a pulsating throbbing medical thriller. Goodreads 5/5

Body of Evidence

My first one of Patricia Cornwell. Dr. Kay Scarpetta is a Chief Medical Examiner in Richmond, Virginia called upon to examine the body of one Beryl Madison, a gruesome murder victim. As a forensic pathologist her job is only to examine the bodies for various clues. But she goes beyond that and delves into the reason for the murder of the writer Beryl. One murder leads to another that of Cary Harper the mentor of Beryl, followed soon by the death of Cary's sister. Patricia's throws clues here and there and finally manages to connect all of them together. There is edge of seat suspense in the book, probably because Patricia brings in a lot of events and incidents not within the original realm of thought but brings them together spectacularly. There is sleaze lawyer Sparacino out for his two cents worth of glory and a suspense. There is Al Hunt a young kid with clairvoyant thoughts and his own story. Nice racy read. Goodreads 4/5

Personal Injuries

Personal Injuries is a legal thriller from Scott Turow. Robbie Feaver is  a personal injury lawyer in Kindle County and he is being used by FBI to go undercover and ferret out other judges to whom regular paybacks take place in order to deliver favourable orders. There is a whole of emotional drama to this story, with his wife dying of ALS, a female agent attached to him, his best friend in his firm whom he wants to protect at any cost. The story appears to be on weak ground at many places, though it started off very well. The narrative of Scott Turow, however is extremely good. Goodreads 3/5 

The Chase by Richard Unekis

Finally a book that's pulsating with action. The Chase by Richard Unekis begins with a robbery at a departmental store in a small town America, followed by a high speed chase through a maze around the corn fields near by to Chicago. The police superintendent is a maths addict so he uses game theory and probability to close in on the robbers. Almost succeeds on two occasions when police cars try to intercept the fleeing robbers in a Chevrolet. The car driver in the robber car is a highly skilled driver, the police is using maths, there are corn fields around in a maze so the following police cars are in a blind and the robbbers are listening into the police radios. Makes for an interesting read. Goodreads 5/5 

Birth of Thunder

Birth of Thunder is a 1963 novel written by Robin Cranford. It is a story of an young airman Carraday who is basically an introvert and shy unlike the garrulous ones that you find in the services. He is the butt of jokes in his regiment. He flies a sortie with his team over enemy territory, but unfortunately his plane gets hit, he has to eject into enemy territory in Yugoslavia. He gets captured by a friendly enemy force of locals who are fighting the Germans themselves, a ragtag bunch of brave soldiers with barely fighting experience but brave nevertheless. He gets drawn to a young soldier Jelena and then trouble starts for him all over again. But first he gets some hits against enemies so Carraday becomes strongly confident fighter. How they escape then forms part of the rest of the story.

The narrative by Robin Cranford is absolutely brilliant. I tried to Wiki on Robin, but could find no entry whatsoever anywhere, which is strange, unless this is his pseudonym. The book cover says he was born in South Africa in 1923 and has flown with the South African Air Force    

The Red Fox

The Red Fox by Anthony Hyde is his debut novel and set in the Cold war era. An ex girlfriend calls for help in locating her missing father and the search leads the protagonist to Canada, France and Soviet Union. Starts off well, but just when we thought we are coming to the end of the suspense, it meanders off to Soviet Union and further adventures. Anthony has managed to keep the suspense intact until the end, the very last paragraph.  Goodreads rating 2/5

Just a Matter of Time

“Just a matter of time” by james Hadley chase is a book i picked up from the flea stall near churchgate station for rupees 20/- and i am a big fan of james Hadley chase. It is a short book of 190 pages which typically is the average size of chase books. Chase does not disappoint again. He is unarguably the best story teller with fast paced stories which typically involves crime, intrigue, suspense, blackmail, sex and he typically writes about the under dregs of society. Mrs. Morely Johnson is an almost blind widower with loads of money, jewellery, paintings, investments and only one heir, a nephew who is a good for nothing fella, so she disowns him in the will, most of which goes to charity a few to the investment banker who takes care of her investments. Assorted characters descend on the plot in the form of driver, nurse one of whom is a master forger and the other a sex bomb. The plot moves inextricably fast from one scheme gone good to another gone awry into an interesting climax. I would rate it 5/5 and chase fans don’t need a second recommendation at all – if they are like me, they would devour all of james Hadley chase books. 

Bear Island

Just finished reading “Bear Island” by Alistair Maclean my favourite author.  Dr. Marlowe is a doctor on board a fishing trawler Morning Rose which is headed towards Bear Island in Barents Sea for some film shooting of which nobody knows what the script is about. Enroute, the film crew start getting murdered one after another in mysterious circumstances. The plot gets murkier when the crew lands on the inhospitable and alien Bear Island and the murders continue. Written in first person narrative, Maclean gradually lets the suspense out one after another taking the story to some connection in post war Europe. A gripping enthralling book, a typically pot boiler by Alistair Maclean. Rating 5/5 – Highly Recommended

The Way Through the Woods

Just finished reading "The Way Through the Woods" by Colin Dexter, my first one of him. It is an Inspector Morse mystery. It is a mystery about a sudden disappearance of a Swedish maiden in England but the case comes to life fully one year after her exit for whatever reasons. Dexter has a different style of writing compared to others such as Agatha Christie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle etc. in the sense that he keeps on dropping some hints here and there by weaving in and out of the story by juxtaposing with riddles etc. The plot keeps the reader in suspense and I like his interplay with relevant quotes at the beginning of each chapter. I would say that Dexter is a "dexterous" writer in that sense.  Goodreads 3/5

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 

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

Black Wind

Black Wind is a thriller from Clive Cussler alongwith his son Dirk Cussler. During the world war II, a Japanese submarine carrying some deadly biological warfare was sunk by US boats. 40 years later, a North Korean businessman masquerading as a South Korean tries to get hold of those biological canisters in order to wreak havoc on the US. His logic - US forces are occupying the DMZ between North and South Korea and therefore preventing a re-unification between the two Koreas on North Korean terms. Enter Dirk Pitt Jr. and his sister Summer, both agents with NUMA, (National Underwater & Marine Agency), they stumble upon this rapacious plot of the North Korean to let loose biological warfare over the American air and soil during the G-20 summit. One thing leads to another, there is a lot of chase all over the place from Phillipines to Japan to South Korea and back to San Deigo. Dirk and Summer's father Dirk Pitt Sr. is also involved in the plot. Nice racy thriller a bit technical with all the nautical adventures but Clive Cussler has managed to keep the narrative flowing smoothly. Rating 4/5 

Brought in Dead

Written by Jack Higgins, but originally published under the name of Harry Peterson, this Nick Miller series features an apparent suicide by a young girl who has gone to great lengths to conceal her identity. When Nick and his colleague Brady finally identify her, she is Joanne Craig, a gifted painter and daughter of Colonel Duncan Craig. Joanne is a quiet, well mannered dutiful girl but changes completely upon coming into contact with one Max Vernon a rich thug & drug dealer. Under Vernon, Joanne becomes a drug addict herself, becomes pregnant and when Vernon throws her out, she goes and commits suicide. The judge and jury let of Max Vernon on no evidence basis. But the father who is an ex-military operative and an electrical engineer to boot, seeks revenge for the death of his daughter. There is a nice cat and mouse game being played between Max, Nick and Craig, with Craig using his intelligence to kill one of his Vernon's agents after another.

Jack Higgins, whose real name is Harry Peterson, is of course a well known author for his fast paced crime thrillers. This is my second book of him, first one being "The Last Place God Made"  

Death is now my neighbour by Colin Dexter

Just finished reading "Death is Now my Neighbour" by Colin Dexter, a Inspector Morse murder mystery. Morse and his assistant Lewis are on the trail of a murder of a woman and their prime suspect is her next door neighbour. Investigation progresses when another murder takes place in the same neighbourhood. Also suspects are two individuals who are contesting for the position of a Master at a Local college, which is supposedly a prestigious post for both of them. The plot unravels slowly and in between Morse has had to be confined to hospital for his usual health problem. Colin Dexter is a fascinating writer and i particularly liked the way in he introduced each chapter with a quotation from the classics or mundane which might or might not have been relevant to the case.  

Tokyo station by Martin Cruz Smith

Another brilliant book by Martin Cruz Smith, this one "Tokyo station" set in 1941 at the beginning of the greatest war known to mankind. Harry Niles, son of missionary parents is brought up in the Tokyo underworld and he is more Japanese than American. He is seen as a spy by the Japanese and not trusted by the Americans also. In between there is a colonel who is after his blood for betrayal during the chinese war in Nanking in 1937 and his mistress Michiko who is torn between loyalty to him and the nation. Puts in brilliant perspective the Pearl Harbour strike and the beginning of the war for Japan. Intrigue, betrayal, suspense are the hallmark of this brilliant narrative by Smith. Highly recommended.

It is also known as December 6 in some editions.