Sarah Waters - Fingersmith

It's the 1860s, and Lant Street, a dodgy street near Southwark Bridge, is inhabited by petty thieves, small-time burglars, piddling swindlers and the like. Here lives Sue Trinder, a seventeen year old, with Mrs. Sucksby (her guardian), and Mr. Ibbs (a man who fences stolen items), along with a bunch of infants, unwanted in this world, who Mrs. Sucksby brings up and introduces to the world of small crime; and, some adolescent pickpockets (or, "fingersmiths", if you like).

We were all more or less thieves at Lant Street. But we were that kind of thief that rather eased the dodgy deed along, than did it . We could pass anything, anything at all, at speeds which would astonish you.

One day, Gentleman, a fraudster who was born into a rich cultured family, but went wayward with time, comes to visit (as he oft' does), with a proposal: He wants to take Sue to become a maid to a rich heiress (standing to get the money upon marriage) who lives at The Briar (a dark miserable place, where the sun never seems to shine), with an eccentric Uncle: Maud. Maud is unaware of how much she is worth, and she is supposed to be a lady in all rights. Sue's job is simple: make Maud her confidante, and convince her to marry Gentleman. After marriage, Gentleman will have Maud committed to a mad person's home (lunatic asylum), and, take her fortune as his own. Sue will get £3,000 for her role in the affair, and while she is slightly dubious about the plan, she agrees, to make Mrs. Sucksby and Mr. Ibbs proud.

And so, after being trained by Gentleman, Sue heads to The Briar, and seeks to get the wheels in motion. Everything is going exactly according to the plan: the Gentleman arrives, Maud is completely smitten, they plan the elopement, and Sue helps at every stage.

However, just as you, the reader, thinks everything is happening as planned, and the plot falls into place, Waters does an incredible job of delivering twist after twist - things that you'd never expect, but that doesn't come across as unbelievable. It's a book about love, jealousy, betrayal and a web of lies, that seems to spin deeper and deeper, denser and denser. It's dark, ruthless, and sinister. The characters almost float off the page and dance before you, just as if to prove how real they are. However, despite being descriptive, the book isn't dull at any stage. Instead, it grips you, and you just keep turning the page, desperate to know what happens next. And... with amazing skill, Waters ensures that you're always guessing... for nothing is as it seems.

Rating: 5

Catherine O'Flynn - What Was Lost

Catherine O' Flynn's much acclaimed debut novel probably has one of the most fascinating opening chapters I've ever read, which revolves around Kate Meaney, a ten year old aspiring detective. Following Kate, and her 'partner' Mickey (a soft toy),  through her 'stakeouts' as she looks for 'suspicious' people, simultaneously trying to determine their possible motives, her friendship with Adrian, the neighbor's twenty-two year old son, her friends at school, and her life with her dad, the book comes across as an innocent feel-good book.

Anyone who asked for a chocolate lime was a killer, according to Adrian, due to his abhorrence of the sweet and his belief that no law-abiding person could like such an unnatural combination.

Things have a habit of going disarray, though, and when Kate's father dies in suspicious circumstances, her maternal grandmother becomes Kate's official guardian. She thinks it would do Kate a world of good to go to boarding school and be around kids her own age. Kate has other ideas, although she does promise her grandmother that she'll do the entrance exam, and give it her best shot. Adrian drops her off to the school for the exam, and Kate's never seen after that. When they look through the entrance exam papers, they can't find Kate's.

Cut twenty years later to Green Oaks mall, a popular stakeout location for Kate, and the reader is introduced to the two 'actual' protagonists of the book: Lisa, a duty manager at 'Your Music', and Kurt, a security guard, who spends most of his time observing the CCTV videos. One night, a long time ago, he had seen a young girl with a monkey on the screen, but when he attempted to find her, he failed. When he meets Lisa, and sees that she's holding the same monkey, the two somehow find themselves developing a kind-of relationship, and together try to find the 'lost girl' - a girl who has affected both their lives, although they don't know it yet!

There seems to be a fair bit of indirect social commentary, with the author taking pains to explain how things work in a big mall, where the employees are always under great stress and pressure due to unreasonable customers, who insist it's illegal to charge non-Sale prices once the sale is over. There's also added stress when they keep expecting an inspection that keeps everyone on their toes - more often than not, these inspection-alerts turn out to be false alarms. It also gives the reader a quick peek into how "new developments" like the mall ends up influencing the lives of so many people, leaving them jobless, or having to find an alternate career which isn't necessarily what they want to do.

While I loved the opening section of the book, I wasn't quite impressed with the way the book turned out. The narration itself seems to be in a passive voice, which makes the book slightly less exciting, and despite the fact that the characters are echoing their thoughts, it's done in third person, and not in quotes, making it slightly bizarre. Call it a writer's license, if you like.

But every night after another shitty day at work she was filled with an urge that would not be denied to go to the orange back room and get lost in a blur of words and faces and alcohol. The room where everything was so fucking hilarious, and where time whipped by at ten times its normal awful speed.

The switchover from present-day to twenty years later (or twenty years earlier to today, depending on how you look at it) was sudden, and I was left baffled for a couple of minutes trying to figure out where the story had turned a corner, and which direction it was accelerating towards.

The characters aren't really built up and seem fairly two-dimensional. Kate and Adrian, in my opinion, are the only characters that seemed to have another dimension (and their roles lasted only seventy-odd pages!). It might have something to do with the other characters being caught up in the monotony of their daily lives while dealing with the past tragedies in a mechanical manner, which I can relate to - Since I've started working, I feel like my life's fairly robotic, and I just go about doing things without really thinking about them.

The mystery of Kate going missing does get solved (no surprises there), but the ending was unimpressive, and left me feeling like there was much to be desired.

Rating: 3

John le Carré - A Murder Of Quality

Background:

This book was also picked up as part of the Take A Chance Challenge - Judge A Book By Its Cover. The copy of the book has a cover identical to the one on the left, and I fell in love with it! I've only read one le Carré before: The Constant Gardener. That was about four years ago, and while I liked the book, for some reason I can't pinpoint, I've never picked up another one... until now!

So, what's so special about the cover? Well, for starters, it's simple. It's not glossy, like most covers out there. Instead, it's got a matte finish, with the title of the book being glossy. I love the way the title is sprawled, the font and the color. Finally, there's the picture: it shows a hut in the middle of nowhere.

Taking all of the above into account, you know it's got to be a good mystery. The author is well-known, the cover is simple (which would normally signify the plot being simple and not overtly convoluted, which tarnishes most mystery books), and it's got the 'surprise' factor: "where is this happening? Is it realistic?" And most importantly, is it a proper 'whodunnit', with ample clues scattered around, to that the inner detective can piece them together?

It's always amazing, when you pick up a book randomly, and it turns out to be fantastic, meeting your expectations almost all the way.

Review:

An unpopular teacher's wife is killed in a prestigious boarding school, Carne. A school where 'perception dies with puberty,' and one of its oldest teachers claims never to have taught a student. Instead, the rare scholar that does go through has ignored the 'cult of mediocrity' which the school has propagated through the generations.

A murder in a school is always going to be talked about - by the students, the staff, and the media. However, what makes this murder slightly more bizarre is the fact that the victim wrote to Christian Voice, claiming that her husband was going to kill her. By the time Miss Aisla, the editor, received the letter, and got in touch with an old friend, George Smiley, to help her investigate the veracity of it, Stella Rode was dead. So, you have the obvious suspect: the husband! But, what if he has an airtight alibi?

As Smiley sets out to determine who the culprit is, the reader is given an insight into how respectable people really aren't as straightforward as you'd expect them to be. Conversely, they tend to be petty and small-minded, attracting attention to themselves, as possible suspects, for... if it comes down to that, everyone has a motive.

The book is not complicated; it doesn't twist and turn, looking for the 'shock' ending. However, what le Carré masterfully does is, weave a story, which keeps the user engrossed and guessing. Honestly, I didn't figure out who the perpetrator was, but, when it was disclosed, almost casually, I wasn't surprised. The other thing is, the book was kept short and simple, at 180 pages, and that's what a good mystery novel should do!

Rating: 4

Mary Higgins Clark - Where Are You Now

I saw this book in a WH Smith in Euston, and bought it immediately, being a huge fan of Mary Higgins Clark. Why, and how is this relevant, you ask? Well, because I normally don’t buy books from WH Smith, let alone the ones in Euston, where the queues are so long that by the time it’s my turn probably three of my trains have come and gone. However, the prospect of reading a new suspense thriller was enough to convince me that the wait in the queue would be for the greater good.

The book focuses around twenty-six year old Carolyn, a lawyer on the brink of beginning her career, who decides to look into the sudden and mysterious disappearance of her older brother ten years earlier, to attain closure. Mack, a senior in college at the time was about to graduate. Yet, he disappeared one fine day, and ever since, only called up his family once a year, on Mother’s Day, to let them know that he was alive and well. It’s the one day of the year their mother looks forward to.

Even the death of their father on 9/11 doesn’t bring him home. This seems strange and unnatural.

Carolyn convinced that her older brother is in some kind of trouble, begins her investigation. She talks to a detective, hoping for help, but is quickly dismissed. However, when young women start disappearing, the detective finds reason to believe that Carolyn’s brother is a key suspect. Clues begin to emerge, Carolyn is convinced of her brother’s innocence, and she sets out on a full-fledged investigation, talking to the house babysitters of her brother’s college apartment, his roommates, and girlfriend, and digging into the events of a decade earlier. Of course, while all this is going on, her mother is blaming her for destroying her brother’s reputation.

As the plot thickens, and both, Carolyn and the detectives set out to find the truth, the results are surprising. The book’s a page-turner (as you’d expect it to be), and I challenge any reader to determine the guilty party and their underlying motivation for the crime.

Thoroughly enjoyable. Vintage Mary Higgins Clark. 7 on 10.