Review: The Case of the Missing Servant by Tarquin Hall

The first book in Tarquin Hall's Vish Puri detective series, The Case of the Missing Servant, sounded fun and promising. With a quote like this on the back "If Mma Ramotswe is an African Marple, Puri is an Indian Poirot…" I didn't think I could go wrong.

Here's a taste of what you can expect from this book: "Meet Vish Puri, India's most private investigator. Portly, persistent and unmistakably Punjabi, he cuts a determined swathe through modern India s swindlers, cheats and murderers. In hot and dusty Delhi, where call centres and malls are changing the ancient fabric of Indian life, Puri s main work comes from screening prospective marriage partners, a job once the preserve of aunties and family priests. But when an honest public litigator is accused of murdering his maidservant, it takes all of Puri s resources to investigate. How will he trace the fate of the girl, known only as Mary, in a population of more than one billion? Who is taking pot shots at him and his prize chilli plants? And why is his widowed Mummy-ji attempting to play sleuth when everyone knows Mummies are not detectives? With his team of undercover operatives Tubelight, Flush and Facecream Puri ingeniously combines modern techniques with principles of detection established in India more than two thousand years ago -- long before that Johnny-come-lately Sherlock Holmes donned his Deerstalker. The search for Mary takes him to the desert oasis of Jaipur and the remote mines of Jharkhand. From his well-heeled Gymkhana Club to the slums where the servant classes live, Puri's adventures reveal modern India in all its seething complexity."

I really enjoyed this book. It was everything it promised to be.

The mystery was exactly that – quite a mystery. There were many twists and subplots that kept me entertained and it was interesting to watch it all unfold and see the roles that the individuals in the story each played in the resolution.

Hall was also able to work into his story the many different ways of life within India, from the slums to the middle and upper classes. I imagine that what I read was an accurate portrayal of the lives of many people in India (I say imagine because I have never been there).

If I sound like I am holding back a bit it is because of this: there was nothing original about this book. I know I know. What kind of originality could I possibly expect of a book of this nature? It's been done before; Puri is just a new character in a very well defined literary tradition.

I suppose I didn't expect it to be quite as unoriginal as I felt it was. In my mind I couldn't help but compare it with Shamini Flint's Inspector Singh Investigates: A Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder. This is a very similar book I read in 2011 that I still felt added something new in a way that The Case of the Missing Servant failed to do. Puri was a bit too close to Poirot for comfort, everything from the round body to the perfect moustache and the affected manners. This may have been done deliberately but it turned me off a little bit I have to admit.

Having said that, please don't let this turn you off the book. It was a very compelling read, with larger than life characters, mystery and heartbreak. For people who enjoy this genre, this is certainly a series you won't regret reading.

5.5 / 8

Enjoyable. I would recommend it.

Do you think I am being a bit harsh expecting something a bit more original from a book like this?



Happy Australia Day! You know you're Australian if......

I know it's a day late but happy belated Australia Day.  I found this on someone else's blog and couldn't help but laugh. It certainly coinjures up images that wouldn't apply to all Australian's by a long shot, but it's still worth sharing with you all. 

You know you're Australian if....

* You believe that stubbies can be either drunk or worn.

* You're liable to burst out laughing whenever you hear of Americans "rooting" for something.

* You pronounce Melbourne as 'Mel-bin'. You believe the 'L' in the word 'Australia' is optional.

* You can translate: 'Dazza and Shazza played Acca Dacca on the way to Maccas.'

* You believe it makes perfect sense for a nation to decorate its highways with large fibreglass bananas, prawns and sheep.

* You think 'Woolloomooloo' is a perfectly reasonable name for a place.

* You're secretly proud of our killer wildlife.

* You believe it makes sense for a country to have a $1 coin that's twice as big as its $2 coin.

* You understand that 'Wagga Wagga' can be abbreviated to 'Wagga' but 'Woy Woy' can't be called 'Woy'.

* You believe that cooked-down axle grease makes a good breakfast spread. You've also squeezed it through Vita Wheats to make little Vegemite worms.

* You believe all famous Kiwis are actually Australian, until they stuff up, at which point they again become Kiwis.

* Beetroot with your Hamburger... Of course.

* You believe that the confectionery known as the Wagon Wheel has become smaller with every passing year.

* You believe that the more you shorten someone's name the more you like them.

* You understand that 'excuse me' can sound rude, While 'scuse me' is always polite.

* You know what it's like to swallow a fly, on occasion via your nose.

* You know it's not summer until the steering wheel is too hot to handle and a seat belt buckle becomes a pretty good branding iron.

* Your biggest family argument over the summer concerned the rules for beach cricket.

* You shake your head in horror when companies try to market what they call 'Anzac cookies'.

* You still think of Kylie as 'that girl off Neighbours'.

* When working on a bar, you understand male customers will feel the need to offer an excuse whenever they order low-alcohol beer.

* You know how to abbreviate every word, all of which usually end in -o: arvo, combo, garbo, kero, metho, milko, muso, rego, servo, smoko, speedo, righto, goodo etc.

* You know that there is a universal place called "woop woop" located in the middle of nowhere...no matter where you actually are. *

* You know that none of us actually drink Fosters beer, because it tastes like shit. But we let the world think we do. Because we can.

* You have some time in your life slept with Aeroguard on in the summer. Maybe even as perfume.

* You've only ever used the words - tops, ripper, sick, mad, rad, sweet - to mean good. And then you place 'bloody' in front of it when you REALLY mean it.

* You know that the barbecue is a political arena; the person holding the tongs is always the boss and usually a man. And the women make the Salad. (sad, but true in my experience)

* You say 'no worries' quite often, whether you realise it or not.

* You understand what no wucking furries means.

* You've drank your tea/coffee/milo through a Tim Tam.

* You own a Bond's chesty. In several different colours.

* You know that roo meat tastes pretty good, But not as good as barra. Or a meat pie.

* You know that some people pronounce Australia like "Straya" and that's ok.

All questions welcome if you need something explained!! 

Review: The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham

John Wyndham's The Midwich Cuckoos is another of his eery science fiction classics with universally significant themes.
 
The rural village of Midwich in country England was little known until "Dayout". The entire town becomes enclosed in an invisible dome. Everyone inside the dome falls asleep, and no one outside it can enter or determine what is happening. Just as inexplicably, the dome is soon lifted and the inhabitants come to.

Everything seems to go back to normal fairly quickly, but one by one each of the women of child bearing age and ability find themselves pregnant. Each bears a child, but these children are not what they seem. It soon becomes clear to the villagers that the Children have an ability to make people do their bidding, as well as a very special connection between each other. Eventually the town must make a choice, do they save themselves or do they save the world?

There was much to love about this book, although I found it somewhat of an anticlimax compared to his other books.

I think the reason for this is that the action that is so integral to his other novels takes a back seat to Wyndham's own philosophising on matters such as evolution, race, religion and justice.

The story of The Midwich Cuckoos provides the perfect mechanism for exploring these fascinating issues. Are the Children really men or some other species? If they are some other species, is it murder to kill them? Is it murder if they kill people in the village? How do the laws of one species govern the behaviour of another? Is justice about getting even or is there something more to it? If God created all species, did he intend that mankind's supremacy on earth come to an end when he created the Children, is it simply a part of evolution?

Then there is the more over arching question of collectivism vs individualism - should mankind as a whole be prioritised over the lives of some individuals that comprise mankind? How can such decisions be made and by who?

I am not quite sure where to place this in my thinking of the book, but it did occur to me that what Zellaby does at the end of the book reflects to a certain extent what Jesus Christ is said to have done for mankind. Going hand in hand with the question of individualism v collectivism is this idea of self sacrifice and what role it plays/should play in our lives. How far would be go for others and in what circumstances? This is something that is worth further thought, especially in conjunction with Wyndham's (through his characters) reflections on religion throughout the book. It's something I will reflect more on during a second reading of the book.

There were so many fascinating questions explored, but I felt at times as though Wyndham was pushing his own agenda and views on me through the character of Zellaby, who does most of the philosophising in the book. It was somewhat frustrating, especially when it was mixed with what I consider old-fashioned ideas about religion and more particularly female gender roles.

Don't get me wrong, I loved this book. It was tense when it needed to be; there was danger and mystery. The premise of the story was unique and thought provoking. It only needed a little more action and a little more talk to make it one of my favourites.

6.5 / 8

Really enjoyable and well written. I recommend that you buy it. 

How did you find this one compared to his other books? Does it bother you when you feel like the author is more concerned with getting a message across than getting on with the story? I would also love to know what people thought of the movie adaptations if you have seen them.

Some personal reflections on the year ahead



I thought long and hard about whether I should even have gaols for 2012.

I vacillate between wanting to achieve something with my reading (and blogging to a lesser extent) and just reading what I am in the mood for at any given moment without any thought for anything but my own interest and enjoyment.

Both options have good and bad things about them.

If I aim to achieve something with my reading then no doubt I will find many more new authors, challenge myself, read a wider variety of books from a wider variety of countries etc. I suppose I would have to define what it is exactly I hope to achieve and how I want to set about doing it. My fear though is that in doing so I might read books I am not really all that interested in reading at points in time when I am not really interested in reading them. This would remove the pleasure from the activity (or some of it anyway) and I don't want to lose my pleasure in reading for the sake of achieving some currently undefined 'something'.

Then there is the option of reading for the moment – reading what I am in the mood for and when I am in the mood for it. This option appeals to me the most I have to admit. Reading is a pleasant thing to do to pass the time and activate my imagination, not something serious I do as a vocation or anything at all like that. So why not treat it as such? On the other hand, this does need to be balanced with making sure that I do challenge myself on occasion and try new genres and authors. Otherwise I risk becoming bored.

What I feel like I really need to do is start asking myself some bigger questions about my reading:

• What do I expect of myself as a reader?
• Do I challenge myself enough and if not, how important is it to me to challenge myself more?
• I listen to podcasts, read other blogs, read the papers and a literary magazine. There are always mentions of authors I would like to try and literary movements I have never heard of waiting to explore. Do I want to broaden my knowledge of literature, and if so, how and where do I start?

I think that these are questions that really need to be answered for me to really figure out whether I want to start pushing myself a bit more or keep cruising as I am now.

Having all that in mind, what I think I have decided is that this year my main goal should be to be realistic.

My goal originally was going to be a very simple one – keep my reading the same but stay up to date with my reviews. This year I was very guilty of writing reviews weeks (even months) after I had read the book. This of course meant that my original impressions and thoughts had disappeared as my experience with the book faded from my mind.

It seems like the perfect goal to at least stay on top of reviews and write them as soon as possible after I have read the book. The purpose of the reviews ultimately is for me to reflect on the books – meanings, themes, styles, intentions, language etc. By reflecting I hope to learn. I can’t do this if I am writing reviews months down the track.

Upon further reflection my goal is simply this – be realistic.

I am due to have a baby in 5.5 weeks (can you believe it!). I have absolutely no idea how this will change my life. I know that it will, but I don't think it's possible to fully appreciate what these changes will be and how significant an effect they will have on my life until they are actually here.

I have no doubt in my mind that in reality, this baby will give me a bit of perspective and questions like the ones I have posed above will seem very silly and unimportant in the scheme of things.

When I say my goal is to be realistic – at this point in time it means to not expect anything of myself. I will read when I can, what I want. I will blog when I can, what I want. I will leave the bigger questions to later.

So, all in all for my readers that probably means that you shouldn't expect anything different this year from Page Turners. I will be keeping things as is and the volume of posts will no doubt decrease. I am happy with that and I hope that you all will all be too.

Review: Embassytown by China Mieville

China Mieville’s Embassytown had a lot of potential. Modern day science fiction from a universally admired author with a reputation for producing quality writing and exciting plots. I only wish it could have lived up to my expectations. 

Embassytown’s plot certainly seemed to have potential. It is written from the perspective of Avice Benner, a woman who grew up on the planet of Arieka in a town called Embassytown. He describers herself thus:

“When I was seven years old I left Embassytown. Kissed my shiftparents and siblings goodbye. I returned when I was eleven: married; not rich but with savings and a bit of property; knowing how to fight, how to obey orders, how and when to disobey them; and how to immerse.”

On Arieka, the human colonisers live side by side with the original inhabitants or Hosts, who have a completely different Language system and who are incapable of telling lies. Avice leaves the planet to travel the Immer and is only convinced to her return to her home planet when she marries a linguist named Scile who is fascinated by the Hosts.

This is about as far as I got into the book.

I could recognise that there were some interesting ideas in this book, particularly about the use of language. It seems an interesting and rather unique subject matter for a hard science fiction novel.

The issue I had with the book, and ultimately the reason I abandoned it, was because I found it far too conceptually challenging to be enjoyable. I don’t know if I used the correct phrase there, but this is what I mean. There were too many invented words and Mieville provided no explanation for what they referred to. In fact, Mieville invented many fictional concepts, characters, names, words, experiences, existences etc names, but he didn’t devote enough time to explaining what they were or what they meant.

I don’t mind having to figure things out for myself, but I at least need some descriptive clues to do it, and I felt that these were completely lacking. What it meant was that I spent the entire time I was reading Embassytown trying to figure out what I was reading instead of just enjoying the story.

In the end, I felt as though he left me with no choice but to move on to the next book.

1 / 8

Abandoned

Has anyone else has a disappointing experience with China Mieville? I really want to read something of his that I enjoy, but now I am nervous about exploring his works further for fear of being disappointed again. Any suggestions?

I think it only fair to add that since I attempted to read this book and since I wrote the review of it, I have read a couple of reviews that have made me re-think my initial reaction to Embassytown. This is a book that requires a lot from the reader and I think that perhaps I might not have lived up to my end of the bargain. At the time I read it I was pregnant (still am come to think of it) and this has had a serious effect on my brain capacity (no joke sadly). I was also on holidays, and if there is one thing I want from a holiday read it is that it is easy and fun (ok, two things). 

I am not going to give up on this one entirely. I think I will approach it again when I am in a better frame of mind and am willing to put in the effort that Mieville has asked of me. I hope that this effort will eventually be rewarded. Since this is unlikely to happen any time soon (need to get the baby out first) I might see I have better luck with another of his books.

Review: Dumb Witness by Agatha Christie

Although Dumb Witness is not one of Agatha Christie's best novels, I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Dumb Witness centres around the death of Miss Emily Arundell. On her death, her estate is made over to her companion Miss Lawson, a move that is greatly resented by Miss Arundell's money hungry family. Miss Arudell's death is taken by everyone to be one of natural causes. Hercule Poirot, however, receives a letter some weeks after her death from Miss Arundell herself, outlining her fears that one of her family members is trying to kill her.

Fascinated by the circumstances and convinced that a murder has taken place (despite all initial evidence to the contrary), Poirot cannot help but attempt to bring the murderer to justice.

I did enjoy Dumb Wintess because it delivered everything I have to expect from an Agatha Christie novel. Interesting characters. Tight knit plot. A certain Poirot and a doubting Hastings. A murderer I could never have guessed at. In short, a page turner.

Having said that, Dumb Witness was not up to Christie's usual standards. My complaint is twofold. Firstly, some of the story elements were too farfetched and too convenient, even for a Christie novel (I am thinking of that nail, string and varnish being set up in the middle of the night for example). Secondly, the story was just a little lacklustre compared to her normal fare. There was no real drama or compelling force pulling me into the novel. Instead it just plodded along from one event to the next without any great feeling of… 'oomph' so to speak.

6 / 8

Really enjoyable and well written. I would recommend it.

Have you read Dumb Witness, and did you find it lacklustre compared to some of her other books? What other Christie books have you found a little disappointing?

Review: The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde

ALIEN'S BORING, REPORT SHOWS

An official report confirms what most of us had already suspected; that the alien visitors who arrived unexpectedly on the planet four years ago are not particularly bright, nor interesting. The thirteen page government document describes our interstellar chums as being 'dull'and únable to plan long term'. The report, which has been compiled from citizenship application forms and interview transcripts, paints a picture of a race who are 'prone to put high importance on inconsequential minutiae'and are éasily distracted from important issues'. On an entirely separate note, the aliens were reported to be merging into human society far better than has been expected - the reason for this is unclear. 

~extract from The Owl, 4 June 2001.

Jasper Fforde's The Big Over Easy is the first in his Jack Spratt detective series; a pastiche of nursery rhymes, fairytales and the 'real world' that is hilarious from beginning to end. 

Detective Inspector Jack Spratt is head of the Nursery Crime Division, based at Reading Central Police Station. His job is to investigate all crimes involving nursery rhyme characters, with his new partner.... Mary Mary. Their Easter takes a complicated turn when Humpty Stuyvesant Van Dumpty III is found dead beneath his wall and they find themselves with one complicated murder to solve.

Not only does DI Jack Spratt have to solve the murder, he also has to gain a place in the Guild of Detectives, keep his division from closing and hold his arch enemy DI Friedland Chymes at bay as he tried to muscle in on Spratt's investigation. 

Everything is funny about this book; the nursery rhyme characters who don't know that they are nursery rhyme characters, the nursery rhyme and fairy tale jokes and the appearances of the Ginerbread Man, Mrs Hubbard, Rapunzel and Willy Winkie, just to name a few. Mary Mary, well what can I say? She's quite contrary. And Jack Spratt seems to be blend of Jack Spratt and Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk. And that's right, you can expect an appearance from that magic beanstalk.

Fforde is at his best in The Big Over Easy with his plays on words and the fun he has with language in general. Take this extract for example from page 82. It's a discussion between Mary Mary and Tibbit (another member of the Nursery Crime Division):

“…Father liked word games. He was fourteen times world Scrabble champion. When he died, we buried him at Queenzieburn to make use of the triple word score. He spent the greater part of his life campaigning to have respelt those words that look as though they are spelt wrongly but arent.”

“Such as….?”

“Oh, skiing, vacuum, freest, eczema, gnu, diarrhea, that sort of thing. He also thought that ‘abbreviation’ was too long for its meaning, that ‘monosyllable’ should have one syllable, ‘dyslexic’ should be renamed ‘O’ and ‘unspeakable’ should be respelt ‘unsfzpxkable.’”

Fforde's cleverness and ingenuity never cease to amaze me. I was a big fan of the Thursday Next series, but I found The Big Over Easy to be a more fun and easy read. Some familiarity with nursery rhymes and fairy tales is essential to really appreciate this book, and thankfully I had thorough enough familiarity with them to really appreciate the jokes. I couldn't stop laughing the whole way through this book.

The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde is a funny and satirical piece of detective fiction, and one I recommend to everyone who likes to have a bit of fun with their reading every now and again.

7 / 8

Brilliant, couldn't put it down. Recommend that you buy it.

Have you read this, did you enjoy it as much as the Thursday Next series? Do you have a weakness (like me) for modern day parody's of nursery rhymes and fairy tales? If you do, I recommend The Third Pig Detective Agency by Bob Burke. If you like Jasper Fforde, you are likely to enjoy it.