Keys to Crime by John Creasy

Hello people,

Keys to Crime by John Creasy
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I came across 2 books last week. Both were crime investigation. ;). One of them was Keys to Crime by John Creasy.

I had no idea about this book or the author. I searched for any info online, though I dont like to get prejudiced before reading a book. But NO INFO is what prompted me to search and guess what! I got no info even after searching google for Keys to Crime by John Creasy , except for some info about the author and his other works.

Hmm.. Nevertheless I opened and found a not too simple a start. Howard Kenyon, an actor, though not revealed at the start, who wanted to take a break from stardom [LOL!] was at London his home, in a hotel suite, which was cancelled by a pianist named Towari. Well into his sleep he hears someone at the piano with an incomplete note! At midnight "helps" the pianist to complete the note after which the pianist gets shocked and goes into the details. Thus we have our heroine, named Lucy Hale, a budding singer and a protege of Towari,  and hero.

The PR man, Girtie of the Towri group sets up a story which makes Kenyon and Hale lovers and they set straight for a vacation trip to a distant village inspite of the group having a concert a week later. Meanwhile Towari and his secretary Matt are not yet in London and our PR agent does a coup again and says that Towari is suffering from memory loss. Well, anything for publicity?

Things take an interesting turn when the couple are attacked on their way back and Kenyon is almost kidnapped. But luckily some fans come to his rescue and he arrives safely with his new fiancee now, to the hotel. Towari is still missing and a chief inspector named Wingold gets hold of the attempted kidnapping case  as well as the Towari case. Things take an ugly turn as a fan who rescued Kenyon gets killed when he followed the kidnappers in a sports car.

One night a phone call claims Towari is indeed kidnapped and they want money in return. Matt should deliver the money or else no more Towari. Matt is supposed to arrive with instruction that night and instead of him arrives, a finger which everyone is sure is of being Towaris.

A full scale investigation starts with police suspecting everyone in the hotel! One more character dies after cheif inspector is found tied up inside a dressing room during the first night of the concert and Hale's real lover boy, James who had arrived earlier takes the dead woman's [Sarah] place. Towari is still missing and Girtie claims he made a deal with the kidnappers and has even transferred the money and is in procession of a slip which says Towari will be arriving next morning. The police traces out the owner of the finger which turns out to be a dead body. But as everyone else believed Towari didnt arrive as Girtie was fooled.

Finally police sets up a trap into which Lucy Hales lover boy James walks into and the reason of the crime was that he was rejected by Towari as a budding young singer! Sarah was as usual blackmailed to be a part of the kidnapping plan and all is well in the end!

I just struggled to finish all 200+ pages and needless to say what a lame plot! No wonder google returned zilch on searching this. My second novel turned out to be a bit more interesting.



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Water Like a Stone by Deborah Crombie

Hello people,



Water Like a Stone by Deborah Crombie
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The second one was "Water Like a Stone" by Deborah Crombie. This too was an unfamiliar author and I took the books as I just didnt want to waste time searching for a "good" book.

This atleast gave me search results and the author has infact published a series of investigation stories.






Scotland Yard officer, Duncan Kincaid takes his colleague and partner Gemma and her son Toby along with his son Kit to his parents in a country town. All of them have problems which Kincaid hopes this trip will solve. Gemma is nervous about her relationship with Kincaid and after the death of their child is doubtful, how his parents will take her in. Kit has nightmares about his mother dying but does not inform anyone. There are worries at the other side too. Kincaids sister Juliet is in a strained relation with her husband because of his partner and leaves their firm to do independent construction contract work which she loves. Her daughter Lally is into dangerous habits and far apart from this a woman named Annie Lebow or Constantine [because of yet another strained marriage!] is wandering on her boat through Londons beautiful canals, which are described in great detail.

Only ones with no worry are two kids Toby and Juliet's younger son Sam. To add to all this, Juliet finds a body of a child mortared in a wall at her site the night Kincaid arrives. A week after this, Annie Lebow is found dead less than a mile from this site outside of her boat! Lebow was a drop-out-from-a-rich-family social worker. She was unsettled as a kid whom she 'rescued' from his drug addict parents is killed by his foster parents. She then decides to live on a boat, ironically a luxurious one, and meets another family which she had to deal with in her professional life. She had rescued the family from the law as the parents where said to act saying their son had frequent fixes, for publicity.

But Annie Lebow, on her boat The lost Horizon finds that the mother is dying and she contacts a civil doctor she knows to help the family despite the resistance from the father fearing police digging up their past life. Meanwhile Juliet had begun to suspect that Piers, her husband Caspar's professional partner, with his high life style might be crooked. Piers, aware of her suspicions, has planted doubts in Casper’s mind about Juliet’s fidelity.

Kit sort of starts liking Lally and follows her around as she goes off to have a smoke with Piers' son. There is a background story of a young psychic boy going on which gets no where. Kincaid, Gemma learn that the family on the boat is responsible for the infant in the barn. But they also come to know of the cicumstances which forced them to do this.

Piers turns out to be a fraud and his son turns out to be Lebows killer [and assuming, he also is the psycho in the background].

The story is filled with emotion, sympathy, suspense and complicated relationship. The ending is also a happy one as in films. And I found thats the problems. This book feels like it was written for a film as is the case with most of modern fiction! I found it rather passive and recommend it only for those who really love crime fiction and for a description of Londons canals!

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Kim by Rudyard Kipling

Hello people,

Kim by Rudyard Kipling
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I have read Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book [ as I suppose almost everyone has] and hoped of something similar in this book. This book is also number 78 in the Modern Library listing of the 100 great English novels of the 20th century. Very well.


I started reading it and it seemed to be a simple story of a boy called Kimbal O'Hara or Kim. He was the son of an Irish soldier, but now an orphan living in Lahore. A Buddhist lama comes in search of enlightenment and meets Kim who becomes his 'chela' and they start their journey together. Kim also was in search of the 'Red Bull' of his dreams which would solve all of his problems.

Then as I thought this was going to be an adventure of their journey, 'The Great Game' comes in and confuses me much more. I think some one who is not aware of the history of India or India itself will get a lot confused at what is happening. I was not aware of the great game in detail apart from the fact that it was some sort of a battle between two colonialist powers Russia and Britain.

They continue their journey south east, north to the mountains and on trains by foot, on horse carts etc etc.
Kim meets his Red Bull which is the symbol on the flag of the Irish regiment and they take Kim in. The Lama continues his journey while paying for Kim's education.

Kim becomes a 'White man', a 'Babu' and a 'Chela' at once. All these terms are related to Indian history and you wont have a clue of what it means unless you know about India.
Kim plays his part in the Game and the lama realizes that the River he was in search of is in the plains and not in the mountains. He is told have found it in the end and Kim's fate is left for the reader to decide. Three possibilities I found were Kim becomes a proper 'Babu' playing the 'Game' or a 'Buddhist' or a combination of 'White Man', 'Babu' and 'Chela' depending on the situation.

It was a confusing story which, for me, never highlighted India as it truly was nor was a complete adventure story and neither was a simple childrens tale. may be it was too hard for me to digest!

You can buy the book at Flikpart.com, which is really easy and interesting! I will blogging about buying from Flipkart next time.

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