Wentworth, Patricia -- The Listening Eye

Your eye might as well have been listening. The visual function it performs while reading this book only renders to dull your brain. That sums the tone of the review this book is about to get.

"Great British Tradition" - this is how the mystery is weaved in front of your eyes. So, there is everything - the murder, Scotland Yard (not the new one, for that, go to Er. J, P.D.), disgruntled family members, pancakes, thankfully very little tea, and pesto! the aging single detective-ess.

The problem? Not the pancakes, but the plot. If there is one, it makes itself clear as a crystal in the first few pages. For one, anyone worth their salt would expect murdery mysteries, especially written in the G.B. tradition to have a string of murders or murder attempts. That being the give away, how would you like it if the author goes into exquisite details of the personal lamentations of all the characters, while painting the suspects in every disgraceful shade possible?

The part about the deaf lady doing the listening through her eye was the eye - catcher for me, if you will excuse the pun (I wonder why!). That ends in the first five pages. To make matters worse, the love scenes are obnoxious, and the last five pages do not help. Yes, it does turn into a poorly written romance novel.

All in all, Miss Silver, you might have solved many cases, I don't think they were either exciting, or I suspect your ghost writer had any imagination whatsoever.

2/5 -- Not worth reading, unless you are embarked on the path to a PhD (permanent yada yada) on "Sloppy Mystery Novel Writing Exercises in 20th century G.B"

PS: Of course, there is a post script. What were you thinking? Given my recent poor reviews on British novels, please don't presume any antipathy towards the British. After all, I love the scribbles of the C.D., A.D, PGW and so on. If you are biting your nails for censure of bad American novels, you won't have to wait much longer....

Wodehouse, P.G. -- Piccadily Jim

I did not read this book recently. It was read a few years ago, circa 2000. But you know how it is, some books just remain in memory forever.

Piccadily Jim is one of those books. Funny, hilarious, ridiculous, rumbunctious, this book is a must read. Not much needs to be said about the thin veiled plots and the repetition of cliches just to tick you off.

P.G. Wodehouse is definitely among the most skilled authors that ever wrote in English. He had a way to take words and meddle them in and out of context in a way that leaves your stomach aching and your lungs thirsting for air.

This one, is no doubt, 5/5

Crichton, Michael -- State of Fear

This book is somewhere in between a research document and a work of fiction. To add an element of complexity, looks like Michael Crichton really wants someone to make a movie out of everything he writes.

Given that, this book is about climate change, global warming and related shebangs, and if you think reading about that extensively is burdensome, wait till you meet the haphazard set of characters.

There are a few too many people to be called handful, and so many things happen at the same time. That would be okay, if it resembled a Christie novel with 13 people whose characters are stripped naked for everyone to read. This novel, however discomombulates a mix of characters, theories, events, locations and timelines.

Its still not a bad read. If nothing, its slow, but the book is thought provoking. It offers different theories for the problem at hand, and once you put it down, it has you thinking about the foundations of some of the principles you believe in.

For this reason, I recommend this book, and ask you to bear Crichton's aging writing style.

2.5/5

James, P.D. -- Shroud for a Nightingale

Books can be about murder. Books can also be about tea. It's in the eye of the beholder!

What, hoewver can you do, when the murder in the book happens, and then every other page you flip, someone is drinking tea? Well, you just put up with it. But what do you do when the plot is shallow and narrow?

I don't know. However, the book does offer a typical ornamental British discussion of everything from thin air to the London tower in exquisite imaginary detail. Oh, and don't forget the tea....

So the low down is, the plot is thin, not too easy to discern in say, the first fifty pages. After that you will probably read it for propriety, to just get done with it.

Not recommended, unless you never read a mystery novel before, and never want to read one again...

1.5/5

Adams, Douglas -- The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

5/5 - let's agree on that. Okay, it is probably biased, but there are few books that are so rare, so outrageous, that are funny even before the title begins, and the fun lasts through the last word and leaves you wondering, why all this had to end...

Sarcasm, cynicism, witticism and slap - stick are supposed to be different forms of comedy. While it takes a lot of talent to make one laugh, it takes a genius to combine all the different art forms of comedy into one book.

Very few authors ever reach this pinnacle in penpersonship (being politically correct here). Douglas Adams beats it all. In the lines of Charles Dickens (Pickwick Papers) and P.G. Wodehouse, came this brilliant author with his trilogy of five novels...

While there is no point in revealing any portion of the plot, which is thick and thin at once, I suggest you read "The Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy first". I watched the movie instead, and people tell me the book is much better.

5/5

Definitely recommended for fans of sarcasm and humor!

Strieber, Whitley -- The Forbidden Zone

The book thankfully, is not too deep into the forbidden zone! If you wanted to read a book that deals with the unworldly and a low level of references to the over - exhausted metaphor of good vs. evil, then you have a catch.

Tailor made in an attempt to become YASFM - Yet Another SciFi Movie, the book has all the necessary elements, an isolated town, yada and then more yada.

However, the description of events surrounding the characters is rich, and somewhat fresh. Its suspense wears off fast, but the thriller or the action part continues for a while.

The book does take a fall of two steps below commonplace towards the end of the story just before the plot rolls up when the author loses it.

It may be read by hardcore SciFi fans, and the author does try to keep you engaged with a very low key sexual attractor as the weapon.

All in all, the book is not too bad, did keep me wanting to know the finer details even if it was easy to figure out how it would end. Some of the most common, bizzare endings were avoided.

Rating: 1.75/5

Bagley, Desmond -- The Snow Tiger

This is one of those run - of - the - mill action thrillers. However, it does have a yin - yang storytelling style, where the author takes you back and forth between the current and the flashback.

This means, there is a certain level of interest, and a certain plot involved, but its all thin ice. Read this book if all your books burnt and you had nothing else to read, except what you write.

I would say the book is a 2/5.