Review #117: The Disease by George Hamilton

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


"And it will fall out as in a complication of diseases, that by applying a remedy to one sore, you will provoke another and that which removes the one ill symptom produces others."
                            
                                                 ----Sir Thomas More, an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist

George Hamilton, the English author, bewitched our mind with his engaging and intriguing book, The Disease, that takes us on trip behind the world of doctors and politics- all trying to fight against one rare disease in their own way.

Synopsis:
Doctor Ludmilla Toropov is a Gold Cross bearing Daughter of her Nation, a champion advocate for President for life, Emile Sakovich. Her estranged daughter, Olga, has joined the student dissidents. When a deadly virus sweeps the world, wiping out millions in weeks, her repressive East European nation, under sanctions from the international community, becomes the first to develop a vaccine. But with their antiquated production facilities, they are only able to satisfy the demand of a small section of their population. Doctor Toropov can either watch hundreds of her patients die, or defy the state that nurtured her by attempting to smuggle the drug out to the West to be synthesized. One choice will pit her against her daughter, the other could unearth unpalatable secrets, and land her in a gulag jail.

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Review #111: Until Death by Ali Knight

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


”Marriage is like a cage; one sees the birds outside desperate to get in, and those inside equally desperate to get out.”
----Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, one of the most influential philosophers of the French Renaissance

Ali Knight, an English author, arrested our minds and hearts with her latest psychological thriller, Until Death which shows us that how marriage can be the biggest curse or flaw in a person’s life as well as it can be the greatest boon in one’s life.

Synopsis:
Marriage is a prison for Kelly. Her controlling and manipulative husband Christos videos her in the house, has her followed and tracks her every move. She may be desperate to leave, but she's not stupid. If she runs, he'll make sure she never sees her children again. Christos has a mistress, Sylvie, keen to pander to his every whim and even keener to step into Kelly's shoes, should she ever vacate them. Kelly thinks it's stalemate for their twisted threesome, but one of Christos's container ships is about to dock in London with a secret cargo that will change all their lives forever. If Kelly is to escape, it will be in a way she never imagined, and people will" get hurt . . .

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Review #108: Raven Black by Ann Cleeves

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


No one knew he had this beautiful creature to visit him.
She was his treasure, the raven in his cage.
----Ann Cleeves, Raven Black

Ann Cleeves, the award-winning British crime author, penned her first book in the Shetland series called, Raven Black , which later went on to win the The Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger in the year 2006. Raven Black cannot be compared to atypical crime novel, instead, this book promises us with a mystery that will only pull us more into its darker side, and also it promises us with one of the finest detectives in the British Literature- DI Jimmy Perez.

Synopsis:
It is a cold January morning and Shetland lies buried beneath a deep layer of snow. Trudging home, Fran Hunter's eye is drawn to a vivid splash of colour on the white ground, ravens circling above. It is the strangled body of her teenage neighbour Catherine Ross. As Fran opens her mouth to scream, the ravens continue their deadly dance . . .

The locals on the quiet island stubbornly focus their gaze on one man - loner and simpleton Magnus Tait. But when police insist on opening out the investigation a veil of suspicion and fear is thrown over the entire community. For the first time in years, Catherine's neighbours nervously lock their doors, whilst a killer lives on in their midst.

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Review #96: Dead Water (Shetland #5) by Ann Cleeves

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“The most loving parents and relatives commit murder with smiles on their faces. They force us to destroy the person we really are: a subtle kind of murder.”
----Jim Morrison

Ann Cleeves, the English best-selling author of Shetland series, which is now the major BBC1 drama starring Douglas Henshall, SHETLAND, has penned down the fifth book in the Shetland series, called, Dead Water .

Synopsis:
When the body of journalist Jerry Markham is found in a traditional Shetland boat, outside the house of the Fiscal, down at the Marina, young Detective Inspector Willow Reeves is drafted in to head up the investigation. Since the death of his fiancée, Inspector Jimmy Perez has been out of the loop, but his interest in this new case stirred and he decides to help the inquiry. Markham -- originally a Shetlander but who had made a name for himself in London -- had left the islands years before. In his wake, he left a scandal involving a young girl, Evie Watt, who is now engaged to a seaman. He had few friends in Shetland, so why was he back? Willow and Jimmy led to Sullum Voe, the heart of Shetland's North Sea oil and gas industry. It soon emerges from their investigation that Markham was chasing a story in his final days. One that must have been significant enough to warrant his death...

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Review #91: An Appetite for Violets by Martine Bailey

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Michael Foley, an English author, has quoted about "servants" as:

“The perfect servant is the one who attends to all the master's whims - anyone can do that - but the one who anticipates the whims.”

Martine Bailey, another English author, has penned her debut novel named, An Appetite For Violets about the miserable lives of servants and how sometimes, by a simple stroke of luck, they are born with a new identity.

Synopsis:
“That's how it is for us servants. No one pays you much heed; mostly you're invisible as furniture. Yet you overhear a conversation here, and add a little gossip there. Then you find something, something you should not have found.”

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Review #89: Unmasking Juliet by Teri Wilson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“My only love sprung from my only hate!
Too early seen unknown, and known too late!
Prodigious birth of love it is to me,
That I must love a loathed enemy.”
----- William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

Teri Wilson, an American author, has spun a remarkable modern-day tale based on Shakespeare’s famous play, Romeo and Juliet, named, Unmasking Juliet. I warn you, this enchanting tale is bound to arrest your soul into the high ride of emotions and confusion.

Synopsis:
Ever since she was a little girl learning to make decadent truffles in her family's chocolate shop, Juliet Arabella has been aware of the bitter feud between the Arabellas and the Mezzanottes. With their rival chocolate boutiques on the same street in Napa Valley, these families never mix. Until one night, when Juliet anonymously attends the annual masquerade ball. In a moonlit vineyard, she finds herself falling for a gorgeous stranger; a man who reminds her what passion is like outside of the kitchen. But her bliss is short-lived when she discovers her masked prince is actually Leo Mezzanotte, newly returned from Paris and the heir to her archenemy's confection dynasty.

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Review #87: Limoncello Yellow by Traci Andrighetti

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Christian Louboutin, the world-famous French footwear designer, has quoted about "heels" as:

The higher the better. It's more about an attitude. High heels empower women in a way.

You must be wondering that I'm going to tell you about a book which portrays about women and their high-heels. Well, you're wrong! Traci Andrighetti, an Italian author, has penned her debut book, named, Limoncello Yellow which is about female private investigators with a lot of Italian flare, glamor, glitz and some bad-ass actions.

Synopsis:
Francesca "Franki" Amato is a tough-talking rookie cop in Austin, Texas—until an unfortunate 911 call involving her boyfriend, Vince, and a German female wrestler convinces her once and for all that she just isn't cut out for a life on the police force. So Franki makes the snap decision to move to New Orleans to work at her friend Veronica's detective agency, Private Chicks, Inc. But Franki's hopes for a more stable life are soon dashed when Private Chicks is hired by the prime suspect in a murder case to find out what really happened to a beautiful young boutique manager who was found strangled to death with a cheap yellow scarf. When she's not investigating, Franki is hoping to seduce handsome bank executive Bradley Hartmann, but most of her time is spent dodging date offers from a string of "good Italian boys"—make that not-so-good aging Italian men—that her meddlesome Sicilian grandma has recruited as marriage candidates. As Mardi Gras approaches and the mystery of the murdered shop girl gets more complicated, Franki must decipher the odd ramblings of a Voodoo priestess to solve both the murder and the mystery of her own love life.

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Review #84: The Lodger: A Novel by Louisa Treger

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Kami Garcia, a New York Times bestselling author has been quoted while saying:

“We don't get to chose what is true. We only get to choose what we do about it.”

Louisa Treger, an English author, has portrayed the life and times of a writer named, Dorothy Richardson, who was the peer of Virginia Woolf, lover of H.G. Wells, and ultimately got stuck between the crossfire’s of her past and a new era of unconventional world where she desires to be a writer of modernist fiction, in her debut novel, The Lodger.

Synopsis:
Dorothy exist just above the poverty line, doing secretarial work at a dentist's surgery and living in a seedy boarding house in Bloomsbury, when she is invited to spend the weekend with a childhood friend. Jane recently married a writer who is hovering on the brink of fame. His name is H.G. Wells or Bertie as he is known to friends.

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Review #83: Portrait of Stella by Susan Wüthrich

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“Often the right path is the one that may be hardest for you to follow. But the hard path is also the one that will make you grow as a human being.”
----Karen Mueller Coombs, author

Susan Wüthrich, an English author, has envisioned a heart-touching story in her debut book, Portrait of Stella, which is about the journey of a young woman, named Jemima searching for her real identity and roots.

Synopsis:
A fake birth certificate! No record of her existence in the UK data base. Jemima Ashton is desperate to discover her real identity.
With scant information and the burning question 'who am I?', she embarks on an incredible journey of detection.

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Review #82: The Sham by Ellen Allen

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


After reading The Sham by Ellen Allen, I can't stop myself from quoting Arthur Conan Doyle’s remarkable words:

“The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.”

Ellen Allen, an indie YA author, who has woven a spectacular story in her debut book, The Sham about simple unexplained mysteries surrounding us, and which will force you to stop and think before trusting anyone so blindly.

Synopsis:
Eighteen-year-old Emily Heath would love to leave her dead-end town, known locally as "The Sham", with her boyfriend, Jack, but he's very, very sick; his body is failing and his brain is shutting down. He's also in hiding, under suspicion of murder. Six months' ago, strange signs were painted across town in a dialect no one has spoken for decades and one of Emily's classmates washed up in the local floods.
Emily has never trusted her instincts and now they're pulling her towards Jack, who the police think is a sham himself, someone else entirely. As the town wakes to discover new signs plastered across its walls, Emily must decide who and what she trusts, and fast: local vigilantes are hunting Jack; the floods, the police, and her parents are blocking her path; and the town doesn’t need another dead body.

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Review #80: The Magdalene Mystery by Christine Sunderland

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


"Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s household manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means."
----Luke 8:1-3 (English Standard Version), Mary in the New Testament

Christine Sunderland, an American author has portrayed the most notorious and most debated theory about Mary Magdalene's life and truth in her new thriller, The Magdalene Mystery , which is a subtle tale about a middle-aged woman trying to live up to her late god father's last wish in order to bring the truth of Mary Magdalene's life in front of the whole world.

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Review #79: Roadrage by M.J. Johnson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Nenia Campbell, an American author, has been quoted while saying:

“It takes many sheep to satisfy one wolf.”

M.J. Johnson, an English author, has spun a spectacular psychological thriller in his new book, Roadrage . And honestly, if you ask me how the book was, I'd rather say that I never ever read anything so dark, vulnerable and so sick!! M.J. Johnson has not only written it from the view point of creating a sick trauma and fear in the minds of his readers but he has delivered the whole book with a hell lot of compassion, thus it made me completely hooked to the story till the very end, and after reading this book, I'm now an official fan of Martin and will be looking forward in reading his next book.

Synopsis:
Gil Harper is traveling home in severe weather conditions when he encounters another car on a deserted motorway. The other driver provokes him into a dangerous race at high speed. Although deeply shaken by the experience, Gil eventually gets away and completes his journey safely. A short time afterwards there begins a series of apparently unrelated events. What seems at first to be a vindictive game escalates into a terrifying ordeal with lethal consequences, not only for Gil, but for all those he loves and cares about. Trouble isn't always personal.

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Review #78: Poison Pill by Glenn Kaplan

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


“An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.”
----Mahatma Gandhi

That's incredibly correct. What will be left of us, if we all start to do that "eye-for-an-eye" thing- the world will be certainly doomed. But in this 21st century, we've clearly and proudly chose the road to doomed future rather than a better future- courtesy: thanks to revenge.

Well, sorry for drifting away from the topic, I mean that's what I was literally feeling after reading, Glenn Kaplan, a New York Times bestselling author's latest book, Poison Pill . Although my initial reaction after reading the book was WTF!?!! , still I felt it was something worth reading to have a reading-Robin-Cook-kind-novel-experience only till the mid-way of the book. And the ending was drastic, so w\out-of-the-world, and really crappy! End of story!

Synopsis:
Caught in a war that pits greed and ambition against conscience and love, Emma Conway faces the fight of her life—to save her family, her company, and everything she treasures.
Emma is finally living the dream—a happy second marriage and a great career. She has built Percival & Baxter’s painkiller, Acordinol, into a huge success. But her dream becomes a nightmare when a Wall Street raider threatens a hostile takeover. Worse, the raider is no ordinary cutthroat but her ex-husband Josh Katz, father of their teenage son.

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Review #75: Venice in the Moonlight by Elizabeth McKenna

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“This was Venice, the flattering and suspect beauty - this city, half fairy tale and half tourist trap, in whose insalubrious air the arts once rankly and voluptuously blossomed, where composers have been inspired to lulling tones of somniferous eroticism.” --Paul Thomas Mann, German novelist, penned these words in his book Death in Venice.

Turn back the clock to 18th century and find Venice as a lover's paradise, where every men end up with more than 1 lover in their lifetime in Venice and those carnivals where the masked men and women find each other equally. All these beauty has been strikingly portrayed by the author, Elizabeth McKenna, in her new novel, Venice in the Moonlight. This book portrays a beautiful love-story wrapped in a dark and terrifying thrilling mystery.

Synopsis:
A young widow, Marietta Gatti, was shunned from her in-laws house after her husband's death, and soon finds herself travelling back to Venice to her father, where she belonged. But en-route, she discovers that her father has died very recently and because of her evil mother-in-law, she never ever once could contact her father for once after her marriage. But reaching Venice, she finds out from her father's lover that her father was murdered by some powerful men. Meanwhile, Nico Foscari, the most famous womanizer and playboy of Venice, tries all his means to woo Marietta. But being reluctant and determined to find her father's killer and not to end up with a man like her deceased husband, she never pays heeds to his conquest. As Marietta digs deeper into her father's past, the more she invited danger to herself. After almost getting killed and losing Nico, she finally uncovers the real villain.

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Review #73: Murder at Cape Three Points by Kwei Quartey

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Rick Riordan, the #1 New York Times bestselling author, has quoted about families in his book, The Sea of Monsters ;

“Families are messy. Immortal families are eternally messy. Sometimes the best we can do is to remind each other that we're related for better or for worse...and try to keep the maiming and killing to a minimum.”

Kwei Quartey, an American crime fiction writer and physician, has penned his third novel in the Darko Dawson series called, Murder at Cape Three Points , which is not only a mind-blowing story about messy families and instances of blood running deep but it also takes you to places which are exotic and less-traveled. Yes, this novel is set in Accra- the capital city of Ghana, Sekondi-Takoradi and Cape Three Points- a beautiful coastal town in Ghana and the author's vivid description of Ghana will completely transport you there and you can watch Darko investigating the most famous murder case of Ghana right in front of your eyes.

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