Booklist - Jan 19, 2011

I plan to make this book list a regular feature and will offer my views on the books that I have read recently. Expect a post on this every 2-3 weeks (based on how many I get through!).

John Le Carré's latest - Our Kind of Spy

John Le Carré is one of my favourite authors, though I liked his earlier Smiley era books better than the books written in the last decade. In my view his recent books are rather heavy on the message and the story/narrative suffers in the bargain. Having said this, he is any day more readable than most authors one would care to name!

I am glad to report that his latest offering is more to his classic style, though the ending is typical Le Carré. The story of how an English professor gets drawn into a web of intrigue and the contrasting motivations for all the central characters is the highlight of the novel.

I also re-read Smiley's People and am currently reading The Perfect Spy, so am overdosing on Le Carré.

Peter Robinson's latest - Bad Boy - Alan Banks series

I have been following the Inspector Banks series of Peter Robinson for some time and I have usually enjoyed reading his books. Thus, when his latest, Bad Boy, was available, I made a bee-line for the bookstore (rather my fingers did the walking on Flipkart.com) and ordered it.

I am very disappointed by his latest, Bad Boy. Firstly, he has departed from the detective mystery genre and is stepping into thriller/action mode, which is a huge mistake. Secondly, Banks takes too long to become central to the story and thus the book suffers from a constantly shifting focus. There is also no suspense to speak of (no, I am not giving away the plot here), as there is no mystery, everything is known from the beginning. One of the characters, the "Farmer" is a poor country cousin of Ian Rankin's, Gerald ("Big Ger") Cafferty and some of the violence described seems a bit too gratuitous to me.

If anyone reads this book first, then the only thing I can say is that Peter Robinson has written better books.

Michael Connelly's latest – The Reversal (featuring both Mickey Haller and Harry Bosch)

Michael Connelly's latest is pretty much in the mould of his previous books, and is a satisfying read. The only grouse I have is that because there are two main characters, Mickey Haller and Harry Bosch, there is an alternating story-line as the plot follows one character and then the other. If this was a one-off book, then there would be no problem. Given that Harry Bosch has his own loyal followers, this book does grave injustice to them. True to his style, the book never lags, though the story-line about both teenage daughters does not always ring true.

Connelly's previous book, Nine Dragons, was also a little different, where most of the action happens in Hong Kong (and yes, it is a Harry Bosch story).

Coming up:

I also re-read some P G Wodehouse (his books need a post to themselves) and am also revisting Agatha Christie (the Poirot short stories) and also Conan Doyle (have recently bought the complete Sherlock Holmes in hard cover – quite a collector's item I think).

If you would like my views on any other books (based from whatever you know of my reading habits!), do let me know and I will try and post about it.

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