Long time no blog?
I think bloggers should never sign-up for Facebook and Twitter! All that I want to write here as long posts, gets written in the form of 140 characters over there! Sigh! And then I am in no mood to write that same stuff again on the blog! So no more tweeting for the next one week! Pakka promise! :P
These days I am trying to better utilize my morning cab time by catching up on some reading, instead of snoozing every single day! :P Currently the ratio is 3 days sleeping, 2 days reading in the cab! Aakhi ye aaram ka maamla hai! :D
This week, I read a strange murder mystery - The Devotion of Suspect X . If I remember correctly, this book is a translation from the original Japanese version. Which is very clear from the nouns used in the book - and this my dear friends, was the one and only pain point of this book! See, remembering Seeta aur Geeta is relatively very easy, as compared with remembering Yasuko, Misato, Ishigami, and Togashi! Phew! :D
Coming back to the book, this isn't one of your typical murder mysteries! In the first 40-50 odd pages, the writer does three things - 1) Builds a very strong mental image of the town, 2) Introduces you to the key characters, 3)Takes you through the exact murder scene!!
Now, that's the best part about the book! Let me digress - So, how many of you like Sherlock Holmes, or Dr. House for that matter? The only common thing between these two characters - apart from the fact that both of them are big show-offs - is their attention for details! By noticing tiny details, these guys turn around their respective cases - be it a medical case or a criminal one!
The protagonist of this book, is no different from these guys. Just look at the following paragraph -
Now imagine, when such a modern-day-Sherlock is on the side of the murderer! The author, though the hands of the protagonist, takes you and the detectives on a ride! He takes the detectives on the route where he wants to take them, through meticulous plan - which obviously works 5 steps ahead than detectives!
The novel is very tightly written - no spare words used anywhere! And the best part is - no guns, knives or AK 47s used anywhere in the novel! On top of that, there are just one or two instances of even cars mentioned in the book! It is the story of a simple town in Japan, where the protagonist, his scientist friend and the detectives play brain games to solve or rather tangle the murder mystery!
I was so bloody impressed by the intelligence of the protagonist, that I wished that the book almost never ended! The only mistake I made was pick this book as my cab read! It was bloody hard to put it down in between, and wait for the cab next morning to pick this up again! Phew!
Read it if you want, I would recommend it, if that matters! But do take care of the Japanese names - they tend to get very confusing at times! Sigh! :D
Buy it from Flipkart - The Devotion of Suspect X
Sign up for the Book Review Program for Indian Bloggers. and get free books! Participate now!
I think bloggers should never sign-up for Facebook and Twitter! All that I want to write here as long posts, gets written in the form of 140 characters over there! Sigh! And then I am in no mood to write that same stuff again on the blog! So no more tweeting for the next one week! Pakka promise! :P
These days I am trying to better utilize my morning cab time by catching up on some reading, instead of snoozing every single day! :P Currently the ratio is 3 days sleeping, 2 days reading in the cab! Aakhi ye aaram ka maamla hai! :D
This week, I read a strange murder mystery - The Devotion of Suspect X . If I remember correctly, this book is a translation from the original Japanese version. Which is very clear from the nouns used in the book - and this my dear friends, was the one and only pain point of this book! See, remembering Seeta aur Geeta is relatively very easy, as compared with remembering Yasuko, Misato, Ishigami, and Togashi! Phew! :D
Coming back to the book, this isn't one of your typical murder mysteries! In the first 40-50 odd pages, the writer does three things - 1) Builds a very strong mental image of the town, 2) Introduces you to the key characters, 3)Takes you through the exact murder scene!!
Now, that's the best part about the book! Let me digress - So, how many of you like Sherlock Holmes, or Dr. House for that matter? The only common thing between these two characters - apart from the fact that both of them are big show-offs - is their attention for details! By noticing tiny details, these guys turn around their respective cases - be it a medical case or a criminal one!
The protagonist of this book, is no different from these guys. Just look at the following paragraph -
When I knocked on your door a few minutes ago, I smelled cigarette smoke. Figuring you had a guest, I looked for shoes by the door, but I couldn’t see any. I glanced into the room, and noticed it looked like someone was under your kotatsu, and the cord was pulled. But if someone wanted to hide, they could’ve just gone into the back room. Which meant that the person under the kotatsu wasn’t hiding there, they had been hidden there. When I put that together with the thumping noises that I had heard, and the fact that your hair was unusually dishevelled, it wasn’t hard to imagine what had happened. Oh, and one more thing: there aren’t any cockroaches in this building. I’ve lived here several years now and never seen one.
Now imagine, when such a modern-day-Sherlock is on the side of the murderer! The author, though the hands of the protagonist, takes you and the detectives on a ride! He takes the detectives on the route where he wants to take them, through meticulous plan - which obviously works 5 steps ahead than detectives!
The novel is very tightly written - no spare words used anywhere! And the best part is - no guns, knives or AK 47s used anywhere in the novel! On top of that, there are just one or two instances of even cars mentioned in the book! It is the story of a simple town in Japan, where the protagonist, his scientist friend and the detectives play brain games to solve or rather tangle the murder mystery!
I was so bloody impressed by the intelligence of the protagonist, that I wished that the book almost never ended! The only mistake I made was pick this book as my cab read! It was bloody hard to put it down in between, and wait for the cab next morning to pick this up again! Phew!
Read it if you want, I would recommend it, if that matters! But do take care of the Japanese names - they tend to get very confusing at times! Sigh! :D
Buy it from Flipkart - The Devotion of Suspect X
Sign up for the Book Review Program for Indian Bloggers. and get free books! Participate now!
2 comments:
hmm had read about this book on flipkart. Good review!
Have u read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo?
not yet
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