Ever hear of Japanese writer Keigo Higashino? Me neither, not until very recently. I stumbled upon his books while browsing through my local bookstore, and to be honest, it was the beautiful covers that drew my eye. The books in particular were Malice, The Devotion of Suspect X, and Salvation of a Saint. From the…
When an elderly heiress, sleeping alone in her room, is poisoned, it is up to private detective extraordinaire Hercule Poirot to solve the mysterious case and bring the criminal to justice! The small village of Styles St. Mary is shaken up when one of its most prominent, if not wealthiest, residents, namely, Mrs. Inglethorp, suddenly…
I’ve only read three Kazuo Ishiguro novels so far, all of which fall under different genres. The first one I read was his 2005 science fiction novel, Never Let Me Go, followed (many years later) by his Booker Prize-winning 1989 novel, The Remains of the Day, which is a Victorian/historical fiction. Recently, I read When We…
The Club Dumas by Spanish writer Arturo Perez-Reverte is a mystery novel about books – ancient, mysterious, and priceless books, to be exact. Lucas Corso, the protagonist of The Club Dumas, has a very unique job. He gets paid by collectors, booksellers, book aficionados, and wealthy eccentrics to track down and obtain special books; expensive…
Japan, 1936. An eccentric artist named Heikichi Umezawa is found dead – murdered in his locked studio. Along with his dead body, detectives also find his journal or “will,” describing a gruesome project he had planned to carry out. A staunch believer of astrology and the occult, Heikichi writes in his journal that his obsession with women has inspired…
There’s nothing like a good ol’ fashion mystery novel to get you out of a reading slump, and no one knows mystery better than Dame Agatha Christie. Known as the Queen of Mystery, Agatha Christie has written over 60 detective novels and is responsible for iconic detectives such as Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. One…
The Suspicions of Mr. Which or the Murder at Road Hill House by Kate Summerscale is a non-fiction novel that chronicles the rise in popularity of the private investigator, the detective/crime fiction genre in the mid 1800’s and how they were influenced by the gruesome murder of a boy in his home in the English countryside. Just before…
I only read one book in March because I was buddy-reading Middlemarch with a couple of people, but that didn’t stop me from buying new (and used) books to read sooner or later. Before I Go To Sleep – S.J. Watson The Woman in the Dunes – Kobo Abe White Teeth – Zadie Smith Dept.…
The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, or Kinkaku-ji, is a Zen Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan. The original structure was built in the 1300’s, and later acquired by a Shogun named Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. In his old age, the shogun was ordained as a zen priest, and after his death, the Kinkaku-ji complex was transformed into…
India’s Most Private Investigator, Vish Puri and his slew of sleuths are back in Tarquin Hall‘s second book in the Vish Puri series, The Case of the Man who Died Laughing. Like in the first novel, The Case of the Missing Servant, Vish Puri must solve a murder. But unlike the Case of the Missing…
The Misanthropologist 