The Mysterious Affair at Styles – Book Review

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is the first in the series by Christie I have begun with. I am really satisfied with her writing style which makes you stop not guessing who the murderer is but the irony is that it keeps on wavering whilst progressing towards the end pages of the book.

This book introduced the English literature’s most celebrated detective charecter Hercule Poirot. I am sure he makes an impression which would drive you to read the other books in the series,in which he is featured. Such is the kind of impact of this powerful little man with a whole lot of little ideas.A man of method he is for sure which you will accord by the end of the book.

I thoroughly enjoyed his conversations with Hastings, listed below…

->For it is of the most complicated! It puzzles me. Me, Hercule Poirot!

->there is method in his madness

->Poirot studied me attentively for a moment or two. Then, to my intense surprise, he shook his head decidedly.
“No, my friend.”
“Oh, look here, why not?”
“Two is enough for a secret”

->The colossal cheek of the little man!

->Who on earth but Poirot would have thought of a trial for murder as a restorer of conjugal happiness!

This is a must read for every one who loves mystery sort of things or to be precise for mystery genre beginners I believe.I am sure  I won’t be turned down by reading more of Hercule Poirot’s way of unveiling the mystery….with his ‘little ideas’……….

View all my reviews.

Won the Book Giveaway – The Husband

Today I  had received the book ( Dean Koontz – The Husband)won in the giveaway for  the October month from Stacy Putman’s Blog ( http://stacybuckeye.wordpress.com/2008/10/01/free-books-for-october/ )
Thank you Stacy for the book and will keep visiting your blog to grab the books every month. So nice of you that your giveaway helps many to whet their insatiable appetite for reading.

I have already read some positive reviews about the book and also blurbs around the web.I wish it turns out to be an interesting and thrilling one ,for which Dean’s  books are popular. Very soon I will review this book.

The Sultan's Battery by Aravind Adiga

The Man Booker Prize winner Adiga’s Short story appeared in Guardian 

The Sultan’s Battery, which appears on the way towards Salt Market Village, is one of the prime tourist attractions of Kittur.

He walked fast towards the white dome of the Dargah, a fold-up wooden stool under one arm, and in the other a red bag with his album of photographs and seven bottles full of white pills. When he got to the Dargah, he walked along the wall, without paying any attention to the long line of beggars along the wall: the lepers who were sitting on rags, the men with mutilated arms and legs, the men in wheelchairs and the men with bandages covering their eyes, and the one creature, with little brown stubs like a seal’s flippers where he should have had arms, a normal left leg, and a soft brown stump where he should have had a second leg, who lay on his left side, twitching his hip continuously, like an animal getting galvanic shocks, and intoning, with blank, mesmerised eyes: "Al-lah! Al-laaaah! Al-lah! Al-laaah!"

He walked past this sorrowful parade of humanity, and went behind the Dargah.

Now he went between the vendors squatting on the ground in a long line that extended for half a mile. He passed rows of baby shoes, bras, T-shirts bearing the logo "New York Fucking City", fake Ray-Ban sunglasses, fake Nike shoes and fake Adidas shoes, and piles of Urdu and Malayalam magazines. He spotted an opening in between a counterfeit shoe-seller and a counterfeit bra-vendor, and unfolded his stool there, and put a glossy black sheet of paper with gold lettering on the stool.

The golden words read:

RATNAKARA SHETTY, SPECIAL INVITEE, FOURTH PAN-ASIAN CONFERENCE ON SEXOLOGY, HOTEL NEW HILLTOP PALACE, NEW DELHI

APRIL 12-14 1987

The young men who had come to pray at the Dargah, or to eat lamb kebabs in one of the Muslim restaurants, or simply to watch the sea, began making a semicircle around Ratna, watching, as he put down on the stool a mauve photo album, and the seven bottles of white pills. With grave ceremony, he then rearranged the bottles, as if their position had to be exactly right for his work to begin. In truth, he was waiting for more onlookers.

They came. Standing in pairs or alone, the crowd of young men had now taken on the look of a human Stonehenge; some with their hands folded on a friend’s shoulder; some standing alone; and a few crouched by the ground, like fallen boulders.

All at once, Ratna began to talk. Young men came quicker, and the crowd became so thick that it was two-or three-persons deep at each point; and those at the back had to stand on their toes to get a partial glimpse of the sexologist.

He opened the album, and let the young men see the photos in plastic folders inside. The onlookers gasped.

To read more click here …The Sultan’s Battery by Aravind Adiga | Books | The Guardian