Review: 14th Deadly Sin

BY Vanathi IN action, B, Thriller NO COMMENTS YET James Patterson, Maxine Paetro

By James Patterson & Maxine Paetro.  Women’s Murder Club #14. Grade: B

14th Deadly Sin

The Women’s murder club returns in their 14th installment to deal with yet another set of murderers and ruffians.

Detective Lindsay Boxer and her three best friends are back and recovering from the events that pushed them all to the edge.

After her near-death experience, Yuki is seeing her life from a new perspective and is considering a change in her law career. San Francisco Chronicle reporter Cindy has healed from her gunshot wound and has published a book on the infamous serial killers she helped to bring down. Lindsay is just happy that the gang are all still in one piece. But a new terror is sweeping the streets of San Francisco.

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Review: Fatal Margin

BY Guest Reviewer IN A, Thriller NO COMMENTS YET

By Umanath Nayak. Grade: A

Fatal Margin

In a revolutionary new thriller by Dr Umanath Nayak, Head of the Department, Head & Neck Oncology at Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad, and author of Enduring Cancer, Fatal Margin talks about how a famous doctor is penalized for medical malpractice and negligence. The book outlines his trials and tribulations as he conducts a revolutionary cancer trial involving hundreds of patients, but in turn ends up getting caught in a whirlwind of bureaucracy and red-tape. Is a doctor’s ability to treat and heal his patients better than his peers really a crime? Will the famous Dr Veer Raghavan be indicted for his crime, or will he emerge triumphant? This is a riveting courtroom drama that raises questions on modern medical ethics.… Continue Reading?

Review: Stellar Signs by Manjiri Prabhu

BY Titiksha Jindal IN A+, General Fiction, Thriller Comments Off

Stellar Signs

Join Sonia Samarth and her Stellar Investigations Detective Agency, as they confront a rash of baffling misdeeds plaguing the city of Pune and solve them as only they can, with a unique combination of traditional Indian wisdom, modern-day detection and ancient astrology.
After a slow start to the new year, Sonia Samarth’s crime-solving services are in high demand. There is the bride whose arranged marriage may include murderous in-laws, the theatrical team whose death scene was no act, and the deceptively happy couple whose stars foretell domestic danger. Good thing Sonia has her opinionated assistant Jatin to help, except that even he may be caught up in the unlawful fray. Fortunately, it takes more than a few misguided souls, not to mention a preposterous proposal from the world’s most notorious diamond thief, to rattle this yoga-practicing, astrologically inspired sleuth

The protagonist, Sonia Samarth runs her own private detective agency in Pune.… Continue Reading?

Review: The Magician Who Lost His Wallet

BY Vanathi IN B, Mystery, Thriller NO COMMENTS YET

By Gautam Acharya. Grade: B

Reviewed by Arun.

A thriller from Indian author Gautam Acharya is a first of its kind for me. The title of the book – The Magician Who Lost His Wallet – turns out to be a misnomer. There is no magician in this story which is set in Bengal. A seemingly white-collared crime leads to a murder and the mystery revolves around the identity and disappearance of both the murderer and the victim.

The story is told mostly in first person through various characters. The first few pages keep you engrossed and you turn the pages furiously. As the plot thickens, credibility is stretched a bit and the climax leaves a few loose ends untied.

The Magician Who Lost His Wallet

Debu Haldar is ready to grasp at anything that offers some excitement to his mundane life.

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Review: The Sad Demise of Manpreet Singh

BY Titiksha Jindal IN A, action, Thriller NO COMMENTS YET

By Patrick Bryson. Grade: B+

The Sad Demise of Manpreet Singh

Dominic ‘Biscuit’ McLeod is an expert in making the best of a bad situation. As a visa fraud investigator at the Australian High Commission, New Delhi, Biscuit is legendary for his prowess in drinking beer, playing cricket, and swearing like a Dilliwallah, until the tragic death of a junior colleague forces him to become something else – a conspiracy theorist who can’t let go. Armed only with a hangover, a loathing for authority, and an inability to believe the lies that he is being told, Biscuit stumbles from crisis to catastrophe in a shambolic search for the truth. From the villages of
Punjab to the cricket fields of Delhi, and the walled compounds of Gurgaon and Chanakyapuri, with dodgy visa agents, crooked cops, Aussie journalists, Afghani pimps and American spies for company,

It looks like Biscuit will never solve the case, or leave the party early.

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Review: Seduced by Murder

BY Guest Reviewer IN B, Mystery, Thriller NO COMMENTS YET

By Saurbh Katyal. Grade: B.

Reviewed  by Pratibha Jain

Writing a murder mystery is always a tricky business as it can fall either way, and the chances of losing the plot in between the pages is very high. The task of maintaining the unpredictability of plot is for no amateur. Well, the author did manage to pull it off well.

Seduced by Murder

“When detective Vishal Bajaj receives a call from his old flame Aditi, he is seduced into a vortex of family lies and a murder. Vishal sets out to catch the murderer while dealing with the resurgence of an irresistible desire for Aditi that he had buried years ago. Vishal is a witty, hard drinking, tough private detective who doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty as he races against time to catch a meticulous killer.

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Review: An Affair to Remember

BY Guest Reviewer IN action, F, Thriller NO COMMENTS YET Harkeerat Anand

By Harkeerat Anand. Grade: F. Reviewed by Swati Sharma.

When I started reading this book I expected it to be another dim-witted chick lit by another frustrated IIT-ian.  But boy …this book had something completely different in store for me. There are books which you read and forget and then there are books which leave you stunned and reside in your memory forever. This book falls in the second category, unfortunately. This is one book that I will probably never forget even though I so desperately want to. The author’s guts to COPY the entire plot from a Hollywood movie has actually left me stunned.  And not just any Hollywood movie, a really famous one and one of my favorites, for that matter.… Continue Reading?

Review: Mr. Mercedes

BY Sneha Roy IN A, Stephen King, Thriller NO COMMENTS YET Mercedes, Serial-Killer Thrillers

By Stephen King. Grade A When evaluating the Mr. Mercedes, I decided to come at it from two angles. The first and most important, is simply whether it’s a good book. I’m just going to give it to you up front: it is. Mr. Mercedes is a hard-boiled detective novel, a mega-stakes race-against-time setting in which three unlikely characters try to prevent a psychotic lone killer from blowing up thousands. (Your typical thriller that has taken over 21st century Television: The Wire, Dexter, CSI, NYPD are all cited in this book. Yet, it somehow manages to escape the dreaded ‘cliché’ tag.)

Mr. Mercedes

In the gloomy pre-dawn hours of a distressed Midwestern city, hundreds of unemployed hopefuls are lined up for a job fair.

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Review: Eve’s Tomb

BY Titiksha Jindal IN Adventure-Thriller, D. R. Hadrian, F, Thriller NO COMMENTS YET D. R. Hadrian

By D. R. Hadrian. Grade F

Eve’s Tomb

Vinamzi Lance, an Oxford graduate is shocked to hear about the murder of his Professor. He is more perplexed when he learns that the last message from the Professor is for him. However, the message turns out to be a code. Along with the Professor’s son Bruce, they embark on a frantic hunt through the Vatican and then to North America after the lost prophecy of Nostradamus. Retrieving the prophecy is not as easy as two great powers, the Church and the Virgins (a secret cult) embroil as they think it holds the destiny of the world.Ironically all the intricate plotting of the Virgins and the Church turn to mayhem as they confront an adroit deception.

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Review: The Target

BY Guest Reviewer IN A, action, David Baldacci, Political Thriller, Thriller NO COMMENTS YET Action thriller

By David Baldacci. Will Robie #3. Grade A

I cater to the Dan Brown and Tom Clancy style of writing and so having to read and review an adventurous thriller with a one week ‘target’ was more along the lines of ‘Yes! Bring it on!’ rather than a meek, ‘Can I get one more week to review please?’ I admit I did have to google who David Baldacci actually is, but once I got the gist I knew I had landed a potboiler (all the while cursing myself for not having read his books earlier).

The Target

The President knows it’s a perilous, high-risk assignment. If he gives the order, he has the opportunity to take down a global menace, once and for all.

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