Colonel Samagra Vol XV

The omnibus edition again presents five of the Colonel's adventures unmasking the criminals of which certain are by the Colonel's own narration of events. The stories are

• Coloneler Journal Theke

As evident from the name itself it is documented  in Colonel's journal and curiously enough not so exciting a narration as compared to the more popular Jayanta's perspective. The case is mysterious but not so exciting as the plot unfolds.

• Arale Mrityur Phand

A trap is sprung in the entertainment industry and it is upto Colonel and Haldermoshai to save the innocent while Jayanta remains the witness of the adventure.

• Alexander Rahasya

Though this mutiplot story, again narrated by Colonel begins quite interestingly, but becomes very obvious before the actual climax.

•  Lalubabur Antardhyan Rahasya

Clearly the best of the collection this fast paced thriller includes Colonel, Haldermoshai and is narrated by Jayanta involving an interesting riddle that, though is not the central plot, but keeps the suspense running.

• Mukhosher Mukh

Another good short story that traps the villain in an abrupt move.

Though these mystery stories are quite good to read but a major dissapointment is the undue fast pace and the less focus on diversification of characters.

Hemendrakumar Rachanabali Vol - XV

The Hemendrakumar Rachanabali starts with a collection of horror stories, the first being Mohanpurer Sashan. Besides the title story in contains several others which will give you the creeps as you go through them. But in Jeebanta Mreetadeha the details are more about one of the great floods at Contai where the plight of a family and their visitors are described. The collection ends with Abhishapta Murti that relates how a cursed statue found half-buried in Konark terrorizes a family. As the horror series ends begins the adventure Jakshapatir Ratnapuri as observed from the perspective of Bimal, in which a chance incident at Calcutta directs Bimal and Kumar on an exciting trail of ancient treasure whose clue is planted in a curious little riddle. Next comes the best Digvijayee Napoleon, that is nothing short of a magnificent ode written in prose for one of the greatest emperors of all times. Not only was the emperor in Napoleon has been detailed but his astute war tactics, his intellect, his erudite soul and his passionate patriotism blended with his misfortunes and fortunes – all have been narrated with a passionate zeal in this prose. The next again brought back cherished memory of my childhood as Firoza-Mukut Rahasya was a whodunit that I had earlier read in a book of collection of mystery stories. The best part of the story was that the evidence against the supposed criminal was so strong it was left upon Jayanta’s sharp intellect to look beneath the strata of the apparently straightforward events and unearth the real culprit and the stolen fragment of the seemingly priceless Firoza crown. The detective’s adventure continues in the collection Jayantar Adventure that contains a handful of short stories with Jayanta-Manik and Sundarbabu in action solving curious crimes as narrated by Manik. It starts with the murder mystery in Bansai Rahasya that the sleuth solves humoring the police force. In Kamrar Mamla, the intriguing plot is shrewdly solved by Jayanta but the escape of the murderer after the crime was not very convincing. The next Double Mamlar Hamla was a plot where an apparent suicide turned into a cruel murder mystery. It is followed by the short but stylish Aprilasya Pratham Dibase whose title itself provides the clue to the entire story. The making of a sleuth is Jayanta at his younger days is depicted in the next, Revolver whose title and the opening few lines are sufficient to provide the main plot of the tale.

Asterix and the Golden Sickle

The 2nd of Asterix’s adventure begins with Getafix breaking his Golden sickle which was essential for the magic potion to be properly prepared and was also required by Getafix for the upcoming annual druid conference. So Asterix and Obelix set for Lutetia to purchase a sickle from the best manufacturer Metalurgix, a distant cousin of Obelix. But our heroes, as they reach Lutetia, find that Metallurgix is kidnapped and they get misled by the sickle-traffickers, who taking advantage of the demand for sickles as the conference date approaches near, raised their price. Also as usual the Romans got involved in the the happenings and we find the Gauls visiting and breaking the gaols more than once. The running gag of Obelix’s irritation on him not being allowed to have a drop of the potion and Cacofonix bound and gagged at the end of the book leaves the readers smiling still even at the final pages of this laugh riot.