Book Review(s): A Dreadful Murder, Fan Mail, The Three Monarchs & Wrong Time, Wrong Place
"So many books, so little time." I yearn for those days when I would pick a book and read through it all day long without thinking about anything, completely engrossed in the story at hand, and feverishly turning the pages to know how it all played out. These days though, it's a blessing if I get to sit with a book, even if it were only for a collective few hours that I manage to squeeze in over the weekends!
Wrong Time, Wrong Place - Simon Kernick
A quartet of hikers in the Scottish Highlands rescue a teenage girl, running half-naked from her pursuers, but in an unfortunate turn of events, become prey themselves, forcing them to flee away to safety as if their life depended on it. Safe to say, this lightning-paced, pulse-pounding short story from Simon Kernick is stuff of nightmares, re-imagining the slasher genre to terrifying effects.
Fan Mail - Peter Robinson
A famous mystery author gets a bizarre mail from one of his ardent fans, who wants to enlist the writer's help in killing his good-for-nothing wife. Surprised and intrigued by the request, he eventually meets the fan in person and even decides on a modus operandi... but what happens to the fan, his wife and the author in the end makes for an interesting twist in the tale.
A Dreadful Murder - Minette Walters
Minette Walters' fictionalised retelling of the real unsolved murder of Caroline Mary Luard (also called Seal Chart Murder) in 1908 England makes for quite a puzzling Holmesian mystery, very much evocative of what Sir Arthur Conan Doyle might have himself conjured, at the same time benefiting from Walters' expert blending of true crime and fiction.
The Three Monarchs - Anthony Horowitz
When a befuddled Scotland Yard detective Athelney Jones (who is featured in a prominent role in Horowitz's Moriarty) requests Sherlock Holmes to help him solve a singular case involving a burglary and a murder, the private detective, accompanied by his sidekick Dr. Watson, take it upon themselves to get to the bottom of it all in this sufficiently engrossing Victorian mystery from Anthony Horowitz.
Wrong Time, Wrong Place - Simon Kernick
A quartet of hikers in the Scottish Highlands rescue a teenage girl, running half-naked from her pursuers, but in an unfortunate turn of events, become prey themselves, forcing them to flee away to safety as if their life depended on it. Safe to say, this lightning-paced, pulse-pounding short story from Simon Kernick is stuff of nightmares, re-imagining the slasher genre to terrifying effects.
Fan Mail - Peter Robinson
A famous mystery author gets a bizarre mail from one of his ardent fans, who wants to enlist the writer's help in killing his good-for-nothing wife. Surprised and intrigued by the request, he eventually meets the fan in person and even decides on a modus operandi... but what happens to the fan, his wife and the author in the end makes for an interesting twist in the tale.
A Dreadful Murder - Minette Walters
Minette Walters' fictionalised retelling of the real unsolved murder of Caroline Mary Luard (also called Seal Chart Murder) in 1908 England makes for quite a puzzling Holmesian mystery, very much evocative of what Sir Arthur Conan Doyle might have himself conjured, at the same time benefiting from Walters' expert blending of true crime and fiction.
The Three Monarchs - Anthony Horowitz
When a befuddled Scotland Yard detective Athelney Jones (who is featured in a prominent role in Horowitz's Moriarty) requests Sherlock Holmes to help him solve a singular case involving a burglary and a murder, the private detective, accompanied by his sidekick Dr. Watson, take it upon themselves to get to the bottom of it all in this sufficiently engrossing Victorian mystery from Anthony Horowitz.
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