Saturday, April 26, 2014

The Case of the Baited Hook

In a stormy and rainy night, Perry Mason gets a call in his private number that takes him out to meet the most mysterious of client couples. The man tries to give a false name while the lady is masked and hooded and not interested to speak to the lawyer so as to prevent her identity slip. The case presented is also strange. The truth seeker is asked to represent the lady in case someting happens in future. The clients remain silent to further prodding though manages to convinve the lawyer to take the case. What happens next is a fast paced crime thriller starting the Perry trailing the probables of the case both for the knowhow of the client and the mystery itself. So it was not a ,surprise that he is really at the crossroads stumbling across a murdered man while ladies throng his office in numbers asking to make cases for various reasons. This adrenaline driven mystery drama crowds up with characters and Perry had a real tough task to solve the unique case with police sniffing up both the right and wrong trails making it more dangerous than ever. But the only unanswered part that remains likewise was how the clients got his private number. Except this the novel is a thrilling adventure where time seems to the only thing that seems precious.

Saturday, April 05, 2014

Inspector Brahmer 7 Tadanta

Contrasting to Mustafa Siraj's Colonel stories, Inspector Surapati Brahma is more of a professional detective. But as with the retired colonel he also exhibits a deceiving look that masks his shrewd thinking brain. An ex-professor of the English language, for which he is referred to as Sir by many of his contemporaries, he is a revered figure in the police force. Much to the dissatisfaction of his wife Suranjana, the responsible Brahma feels happy to remain busy even at home too. So the seven investigations that this compilation includes never for once will keep the reader idle. Assisted by the young, enthusiastic and intelligent sub-inspector Satyacharan Pathak he delves deeper into the human minds to unmask criminals and catch them red-handed. But the problem of the seven novels lie in the fact that more often the ambience that is described matches with each other in several of the instances. This repititiveness sheds a disappointment for the readers as do the incompleteness of several of the recurrent characters though it does not compromise the central theme at any time. But apparently the very best, that mixes a bit of science fiction with mystery remains incomplete in the sense that the detective never explains clearly how the clues led to the murderer in Tadanta 7. The investigations invariably starts with a murder and it remains upon the shrewd Brahma to unveil the criminals. Sometimes it is the case of a lecherous businessman in Tadanta 1, sometimes a renowned painter of yester years in Tadanta 4, sometimes an auditor who has stumbled upon a truth in Tadanta 6, sometimes a corporate killed in his flat in Tadanta 3, everytime the investigators catch hold of the truth by analysisng the clues. An intricate network of informers also help the police in several cases. Traps are sprung on the unsuspecting criminals as in Tadanta 2, web is weaved around the evil as in Tadanta 5 that completes the story satisfactorily. The curious point to note is Inspector Brahma considers the fictitious Colonel stories as trash but uses several of the phrases used by him while solving mysteries. Another interesting factor of the stories are these have been conceived during the time cell phones had not been so predominant. This adds an old world romance and the efficient use of technology during mystery solving.