The Bookkeeper

There’s a hippie on the highway- James Hadley Chase

2011-03-10T07:58:00.000-08:00

Harry Mitchell, after serving his three years in Vietnam, visits Paradise City for a vacation before taking up a job in New York.

En route to Paradise City, Harry saves Randy (also a traveler) from a bunch of hippies. Randy feels greatful and promises to get Harry a job as a life guard in a sea side restaurant. While travelling together, they fall into a trap where they’re planted with a corpse of an old guy. But Harry and Randy find a safe place and ingeniously dispose the body. They reach their destinations and life seems normal for a few days. But soon, Paradise City Police Force suspect something’s wrong and start digging.

In the end, when the adventure is over, Harry is overwhelmed by the amount of violence he’s faced and wonders how his future would turn out to be.

A Can Of Worms –James Hadley Chase

2011-03-10T07:50:00.000-08:00

In this book, the protagonist, Bart Anderson is a creep, a reckless spender and an operator in ‘The Parnell Detective Agency’ in Paradise City. His problem is that he has a money sucking girlfriend and he can never get enough money to spend on her, which leaves him always borrowing from friends.

And that’s when the agency lands him with the job of tailing the rich author, Russ Hamel’s wife to check if she’s having an illicit affair. But he finds out that there’s something more than just an affair, or worse, a terrorist link up. But Bart is so stuck up and his girlfriend keeps badgering him to make more money that he turns blackmailer.

What happens later is what the story is all about. But finally, the author makes you see that blackmailing does no good.

AMANDA by- Kay Hooper

2010-01-14T10:34:00.000-08:00

This book is a certain page turner. Kay Hooper, with her amazing imagination and immaculate English has created a plot which comes from a rare genre.

The story starts with Amanda Daulton, a little girl of nine and heiress of a multimillion dollar fortune of Daulton family being hastily taken away from her house by her mother on a stormy night.

Twenty years later, a beautiful, self assured woman comes to Daulton family claiming she's Amanda Daulton and says she needs to discover why her mother took her away from the house when she was a kid.

Amanda drifts lightly.. and the mystery element is always there..! Once u finish the book, You'll want to hold on to it for a long time... . or that's what i did. :)

Tell me your dreams- Sidney Sheldon

2009-12-04T11:58:00.000-08:00

An interesting plot. Keeps you reading till the end.

Ashley Patterson, aged 28, working for global computers in Cupertino is a workaholic and she gets this feeling that she's being constantly stalked and followed.

Tony Prescott, 22, also working for global computers is a vivacious, i-dare-to-do-anything kind of a girl. She has a great voice and an awesome singing talent. She frequents night clubs and sings when the singers take a break.

Alette peters,20, works for global computers too. She's sensitive, calm and quiet. She is a talented artist and volunteers at church to teach painting to kids.

A series of murders takes place and the victims are all men. They are all stabbed and castrated.
The evidence (finger prints and DNA tests) shows that Ashley Patterson has committed the murders. But it turns out that Ashley Patterson, Toni Prescott and Alette peters are all the same person; and Ashley suffers from MPD (multiple personality disorder) - a medical condition in which different personalities occupy the same body!

Toni Prescott, the dominant alter ego is the one who is responsible for committing the murders and Ashley is not even aware of it. So Ashley is released from the murder charge and sent to a mental asylum where she gets treated. It then comes out to light that she has had a terrible childhood. The alters had been born when she was six and her father molested her and she couldn't cope with the emotional trauma. Moreover, Ashley's mother had hated her when she was a child, and that had added to the reasons for the alter-personalities getting created.
However, finally, when Ashley gets cured and comes out of the asylum, she sings Toni's (her alter's) favorite song which leaves us in a quandary whether she has been really cured or whether Toni still resides in her..

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I personally liked the book. But Tamilians who've watched ANNIYAN, a film which derives it's plot from the inspiration drawn from this book will agree that half the thrill is lost as we're already familiar with the plot.
However, Anniyan is a complete commercial film made for the Indian audience, and it was quite a hit!

I would advise people to not read the book in the nights. It gives creeps. But it makes us all agree that Sidney Sheldon is truly a mastermind and that he manages to make all his books compelling reads.

MESSAGE IN BOTTLE - by Nicholas Sparks

2009-11-21T09:25:00.000-08:00

Nicholas Sparks knows how to stir our emotions and make us cry.

This message in the bottle makes us feel and yearn for such a kind of love that he portrays in the book.

Theressa Osborne, a single mother, finds a bottle washed up on the shore. When she picks it up, she notices a letter inside it, which she starts reading.

The letter is written by Garret and addressed to Catherine, telling her how much he misses her. The soulful letter makes Theressa search for the man who wrote the letter. Thus, starts this beautiful story, touching our hearts as it moves and making us want to love and be loved like that...

By the time we finish the book, we are left in a daze..

CADE - By James Hadley Chase

2009-10-26T10:07:00.000-07:00

When a man's career is at it's peak, and when a woman's interference in his life leads to his downfall (and ultimately, his end), it makes us think- Is there a woman behind man's failure too? And that's exactly what James Hadley Chase wants us all to think, and he succeeds!

Most of his books have a male protagonist with a vulnerable heart who eventually falls for a beautiful,but vicious female who tries to manipulate him with her sex-appeal and satisfy her greed for money or power.

In this story too, there is Val Cade, a wealthy and talented photographer who meets beautiful Juana Roca, falls in love with her and marries her. But Juana, being the slut she is,wipes him out of all his money, ruins him and leaves him!
Cade becomes depressed and takes to drinking. He loses his courage, money and all the enthusiasm he once had to live life.

NO ORCHIDS FOR Miss.Blandish --- by James hadley chase

2009-03-28T10:58:00.000-07:00

This is supposed to be his first book.. and my favorite author's! So i kinda took it with a lot of expectations... but to describe this book in one word, it's DEPRESSING!

its a thoroughly depressing thriller or story or whatever.. involving only MOBS & COPS.
Beautiful Miss.Blandish is kidnapped for ransom and she undergoes terrible things in the hands of these vicious kidnappers.. especially slim grissom, one of the evil guys.

Dave Fenner the private investigator investigates the case and succeeds.... but finally, everyone dies!

the language is utterly low-brow & cheap! just like the bad mobs use...!
Miss.Blandish's fate is so overwhelming that we feel sorry for her at the end.

MY LAUGH COMES LAST - jamed hadley chase

2009-02-04T08:30:00.000-08:00

Chase is of course a mastermind! his books are small, yet awesome. And this is one of his books, one shouldn't miss!
MY LAUGH COMES LAST is fast paced, intriguing and its climaX just leaves us speechless.

Larry Lucas, the main character is an electronic engineer who helps build the world's safest bank for Mr.Farrel Brannigan, the president of national californian banks & also Larry's mentor.

he then meets beautiful Glenda and falls in luv with her after which, a vicious gang of four people pin up a murder on him & blackmail Larry to help them rob the bank. they gang kidnaps glenda and holds her fugitive. . and now Larry has no choice . .

but the uneXpected turn of events and revelation of each person's character and everything else contained in this little book makes it a gr8 reading eperience :)

STRANGERS IN THE MIRROR-- BY SIDNEY SHELDON

2008-11-10T10:52:00.000-08:00

Its a page turner ! of course, all sidney sheldon books r page turners . . . but this one's got a shocking narration. each character is depicted so intensely that i'm unable to decide what exactly i feel for each of them . .

Toby temple, the hero ..is a lovable character who struggles hard, and ultimately reaches his stardom ! its true that if we dont lose faith & keep trying with definite goals n ambitions, we'll definitely be a huge success ! and i must say, i really luvd this guy. . i mean this charater !

Josephine czinski/Jill castle also struggles very hard, but she's selfish & does some really bad deeds . she does not appreciate nor understand toby's luv for her . she uses him to avenge people who had unknowimgly taunted her in the past . she's malicious n cunning !
but then, we cant blame her fully . . coz she'd had a bad childhood n had been deprived of several things in life. . !
she loves david kenyon, the brother of her childhood friend . . and as true love always comes back, david does come back . . but ultimately, her bad deeds pay & she cant have the life she imagined. .

ANGELS & DEMONS - by Dan Brown

2008-11-09T11:14:00.000-08:00

It’s a stunning book, no doubt !
A friction wrapped up in a number of astounding hidden truths. . the characters are all well depicted .

And wat I feel abt them is that, each one. . (ie) each character has his own perceptions about who is god & what is divine . . . and each one thinks others dont make sense . . so automatically, all hell breaks loose !
whether u search god thru science, or whether u solely follow ur religion, or whether u have ur own views, it doesnt really matter. . coz god is the same . . and we r all der, searching him together . . though we might be taking different routes to reach him !

each character in the book has his own 'past', which is responsible for the way he/she thinks n acts in the future .

take Max Kohler for example, - at 11 years old, he became crippled for life due to the senseless faith of his parents.
though the doctors had told them that they could cure the boy, his parents refused to let them . . . as they did not believe in modern medicine. they prayed to god & expected some miracle to happen !
but, thats so ridiculous ! all i can say is that they just dint understand god !
he was der in front of dem in d form of ready medicines & d doctor. . . god had sent an alley !
what more can u expect? u cant be so naive to think god'll materialise from d portrait n save u ! he has his own way of helping n taking care of situations- and u must recogonise it !

and then the Camerlengo . . Carlo Ventresca, son of a nun & a future pope had a religious past
his intentions in bringing faith to people were fine. . but the cruelty with which he executed it, by killing the cardinals n d pope is something very bad !
Again, he's someone who has failed to recogonise god. god is 'love' & he failed to love his own fellow human beings.nobody ever has the right to take away lives deliberately . . and if itz for the sake of god, then der is nothing thats more absurd !

ok, so lets leave the religious implications . they differ from people to people.
but the book was great in the 'adventure' part !
finding clues. . tracing hidden meanings, the four altars of science . .
Robert Langdon has us getting awestruck & chasing for the clues along with him !
and Vittoria is a lovable character who wants to save people from her creation - the antimatter canister . . which is again a case of detailed study. .

Dan Brown rocks ! :-)