Bell, Book, and Scandal

By Jill Churchill Copyright 2003

The main character in this mystery novel is amateur detective Jane Jeffry, a housewife who lives in America's Midwest. Her character is an aspiring writer who is trying to find a publisher for a historical mystery novel she is writing. So to further her goal, she attends a mystery writers conference along with her friend Shelley.

While at the conference, a bossy woman who is a publisher's agent becomes ill after eating a box of poisoned chocolates. Also, an obnoxious writer of book reviews is found knocked unconscious and in his hands is found a page torn from a book. Jane investigates these incidents and discovers they are related to a case of plagiarism. At the end of the book she discovers the culprit, but she doesn't report the culprit to the police, because the woman who was poisoned, and the man who was knocked out, were both unpleasant people whom she didn't like.

The mystery part of this story doesn't really begin until about half way through the book, and when it does begin, it is presented in a very dull and uninteresting manner. One of the problems is that the suspects are not very well developed characters, so their motivations for doing what they do isn't very apparent, so it leaves readers not really caring about the characters or what happens to them.

The first half of the book is taken up by Jane shopping for a new car and attending various seminars at the conference. In fact, after Jane buys a new car, the remainder of the book is mostly just an itinerary for a writers conference. And then added to the itinerary are notes from a participant of the various seminars and workshops attended.

So if you enjoy reading business conference itineraries and the personal notes of someone who attended various meetings and their discussion of who they met and what happened, you may enjoy this book. Perhaps readers who are intensely interested in the subject of publishing and the writing profession may find this book informative, but otherwise everyone else will probably find it a tremendous bore.

Another problem with the book is the main character of Jane Jeffry. She is a silly, petty-minded housewife who seems alternatively astonished and challenged by all of life's little daily trivialities. Every little household task she does, meal that is eaten, shopping trip taken, and drive down the street is profiled in detail and discussed by Jane and her equally silly friend Shelley.

A good writer can often weave the common daily activities of an interesting character into an interesting story, but Jill Churchill apparently isn't one of those writers, at least not in this book. She seems to just verbalize and transcribe many of her own activities. Readers will suspect she actually attended a writers conference while she wrote this book and she simply made bland notes about some of the things she did and saw. That may explain partly why the story lacks imagination, wit, and cleverness.

So needless to say, this book is a waste of time.

The Case of the Man Who Died Laughing

By Tarquin Hall Copyright 2010

It is rare nowadays to find a murder mystery story as clever, witty, and well-written as an old Agatha Christie mystery novel. So often books in the murder mystery genre are long, tedious, far-fetched tales written by narrow-minded, provincial authors who resort to vulgarity in a mistaken attempt to appear sophisticated and cosmopolitan. Fortunately, this book and it's author doesn't fall into any of those categories.   It is a rare find.

This book is the second in a series about a private detective, named Vish Puri, who lives in New Delhi, India. He owns a detective agency with several employees and operatives who help him with his investigations. Mr. Puri is wise and intelligent, as well as confident and proud, but at the same time very likable. He is also fat. He is married and has grown children. His family members are included in scenes and subplots in the book, and they are a significant part of the book.

The main plot of this story involves an atheist scientist who campaigns against religion and gurus. The scientist believes progress in India is being held back by religion and superstition. One day, a guru who uses magic tricks to attract devotees, threatens to kill the scientist. The scientist is then murdered, but in a mysterious and rather ironic way. He is killed while attending an outdoor meeting of a "laughing club." The image of a goddess suddenly appeared and stabbed the scientist to death in front of other members of the laughing club.

Mr. Puri, the most private detective, was acquainted with the scientist and also the founder of the laughing club. And although Mr. Puri is a religious Hindu, he respected both men. So when he is informally asked by a friend on the police force to help investigate the murder, he is happy to do it. Mr. Puri begins by interviewing the members of the laughing club who witnessed the crime. He also sends a woman operative to pose as a devotee of a guru suspected of being involved with the murder.

In addition to the main plot, there are several subplots. One of the subplots involve Mr. Puri's wife and mother. While they are attending a woman's club meeting, they are robbed by armed gunman. After police dismiss the crime as unimportant, they involve themselves in a rather comic investigation of the event.

One of the unique elements of this story that makes it enjoyable is its setting in India and the contrast between old India and the new modern developing India. For example, there is a scene where Mr. Puri and his operatives travel by car on a large modern highway that ends abruptly. The highway is incomplete because of politics and corruption. Also, the aspects of Indian culture that are a blend of Asian and English influences, including language and customs, are very interesting. The author does a good job conveying an understanding of life in India, without being pedantic.

If there was any criticism against this book, it may be that the series will eventually have too many recurring characters. Mr. Puri's family and his detective agency include many characters with backgrounds and relationships to other characters that will have to continually be re-explained in subsequent books in the series. It will make the subsequent books repetitive and boring. It's best when a story has just a few main characters and then each book in the series introduces unique characters that only appear in one book.

But other than that one criticism, this book represents high quality writing and storytelling and is very enjoyable reading.