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The Litigators by John Grisham

Book review

Rating 4/5

Fictional law drama! No spoilers here!

This is an old Grisham novel which I somehow missed to read! I had an eBook but the original kindle was a measly 200INR! So I got it again! And it was totally worth it!

The story is mainly of David who even after being educated in Harvard and is in a high paying job in a law firm though who has never seen the inside of a court or seen real cases reaches a breaking point and just drowns himself in alcohol and by a twist of faith ends up drunk in a law firm which is a total upside down as the stranger things!

This law firm has two comical and tragical lawyers! One is Oscar who is so fed up of his life and wife and in spite of his age does not have any money or honey! While the other is Wally who after four divorces and multiple rehabs is just one push away from kicking the bucket! The only normal person in the firm is the Donna like secretary Rochelle who is the one glue keeping the messy firm from falling apart! In a dark comedy of sorts she was in fact a client who after some harassments and twists of fate made secretary of the firm! Then there is the adorable dog AC who is like the testament of the state of the firm! Old and fat and lazy!

The firm is basically a bunch of ambulance chasers who would do anything to get case or even bend law when they can and the storyline is like a cross between Suits and Better call Sam and it is a page turner!

So the crux of the story is when one of their clients who is fat and old dies and they stumble upon a drug which may have a link with the death! Wally smells a big tort case and he convinces the whole firm to dive into the case with full gusto! The even get a big law firm to partner with them  signing the deal in a private jet! Just when the lawyers and clients start counting their chickens before they hatch; they geta tsunami of sorts!

First Oscar who has not seen the inside of a court in years and then Wally and then finally David get to fight the case in a federal court with a seasoned opposition in classic David vs Goliath moment though with the amount of sleaze and dirt the lawyers have, you would not know which one is David! How this case ends is the semi climax with all hopes lost or is it?

In between this David gets another case of a toy causing lead poisoning and how that ends is the climax of the story!

You have the classic company lawyers with their high bills and swanky cars who would charge over three clients for lunch and actually grab a sandwich! Then you have those ambulance chasers who would go to the extent of dressing up as doctors to get a client! Then you have divorce lawyers who would turn a no contest divorce into a bill meter! Then you have the classic defense lawyer Nadine reminiscent of Scot of Suits with a team of lawyers and para legals! And finally you have those Tort lawyers with their own private jets of the latest models! From street to the sky, this novel has it all!

In the end there is hope and I am so happy that John did not end it abruptly and that was a big satisfaction for me since lately John has been doing a lot of open ending!

Loved reading this classic John and even though I am not a big fan of lawyers especially the situation it has reached in the US; I love reading John just cause!

A death in Tokyo by Kiego Higashino

Fictional murder mystery genre

Book review

E Book

Rating 4/5 for the whole book and 4.5/5 for the thrilling twist in the end!

No spoilers but this is Kiego Higashino! His novels are known to have to do more with how rather than who! Though even if I tell you the whole cast of the novel; you would never in a million years guess who the killer is!

The novel begins with two main characters and they both die within the first two or three chapters! The mystery of course is to find out who killed the middle aged person with a settled life and no obvious enemy! He was stabbed and he walked all the way to a famous bridge!

They would find the second person with the first person’s wallet and other possessions but before he could be questioned he would be run over by a vehicle! He would die eventually without uttering a word!

And then the murder investigation begins!

Why did he kill? Or did he kill!?

One twists after another is exposed and just when you thought that you have read everything, you get the greatest twist ever!

I still struggle with the Japanese names but since the character count is less, it is much easier!

If Galileo was like Hercule Poirot; Detective Kaga is like Sherlock! He is more mobile and works more physically and makes mistakes at first and is not all that perfect and he knows that!
But somehow he is at the right place at the right time! Too many coincidences happen around him and things which he notices!

One thing which I am distressed is at the lack of emotional connection shown throughout the novel. In his silent parade novel; he has shown strong family ties while in this he shows such an apparent lack of family ties.
Like the lack of emotions of the detective to attend his father’s anniversary, or the odd emotions shown by the wife and son towards the husband and father who is dead especially the son. Am sure I am over thinking but it may be a sign of times. People being more practical and having less emotions. The first thing thought by people when someone dies is how they will manage the finance now! It’s sad mainly because it’s true…

Having said that, the endearing ending gave full justices to my fear!

Rest assured that this is not Murakami so all your questions will be answered in the end! You will get closer of sorts.

All in all a typical Kiego page turner! Grab it with both hands! Ready steady KieGo!

Pale blue dot by Carl Sagan

Narrated by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan

Audiobook of Non fiction genre; Stand alone book but reading his earlier books like cosmos will make you prepared on what to expect!

Rating 3/5 overall but 4/5 just to listen to Carl!

Running is over 14 hours or so!

If you increase the speed to 1.2 or 1.3 it can become even 10 hours without any loss of diction or grammar and it actually makes the flow better!

In spite of this the book is long and there is so much of overlap between this book and his other books like cosmos which of course are frequently mentioned in passing and similar sections!

In fact this book took me four months to finish but in spite of that it is a great achievement since I listen to this book only when I go to my work which is a short walk of around 5 minutes! Just five to twenty minutes sometime and in
four months or so you finish this mammoth! That is a lesson in persistence!

Introduction first by his wife which was maybe the only emotional part of the book because when it comes to Carl, it is all science and scientific evidence and nothing else!

Then the best part of the book! To listen to Carl narrate in his own deep powerful voice! Of course it was recorded when audio books were not in fashion and it shows! But you can take this book just to listen to him!

An introduction on how humans or earth or sun or even our galaxy is neither unique nor special!
He talks of earth being such a small part of the cosmos! a pale blue dot! Just a spec of dust in a sunbeam!
This is a part from the narration which I just had to share; ‘Look again at that dot. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam!’

it is mentioned that the old Astronomer Galileo with the first telescope saw the rings of Saturn as ears! It was like that on both sides! Later on of course it was found out to be particles or masses floating in the space held there by the gravity of the huge planet! Then even other bigger planets such as Jupiter or Neptune must have rings in theory! Well apparently they do! They also have rings made of these flying masses of different sizes held by the force or pull of these large planets! Smaller planets like Earth have just enough pull for a single satellite. So many such facts are thrown around for good measure!

Of course the narration by Carl is only a short part of the book and then it changes to Ann who has done a commendable job but sometimes it sounds strained! Also mentally when she speaks in first person she is talking as ‘me’ which means Carl and when you are listening as an audio that gives you a couple of seconds of confusion!

There is a lot of mention of Mars and Mars mission and other missions such as Voyager and others. The debate between cost of sending a probe for outer space exploration or using it for some greater good for humanity is thrown around with justification as a scientist with support for science and technology.

He tells how Mars mission is prohibitively expensive and since it is a matter of the whole earth then multiple countries must collaborate for such missions. Since it was written some time back I am sure Carl would not know about how India sent a probe in a shoestring budget and how! I am sure he would have been the first to applaud this!

In parallels to SETI he talks about META which is a similar concept to find out life in other planet of universe. Of how we need to reach at least close to the speed of light (or some percentage of it) if we have to travel so far and how it is a difficult proposition.

He talks about how radio waves may not be ideal since the alien civilization may be either too backward or too well advanced to use radio waves as means of communication.

He ends with hope to find more civilization if it is out there concluding that for now in the billions of universes, Earth may be the only planet with life!

A good book for people who like cosmos and one you can read just to complete the series; I heard just to listen to Carl and it was worth it!

The silent Parade by Kiego Higashino

Ebook
Thriller murder mystery

Rating 4/5

No spoilers! But in Kiego it’s not who but why and how that’s important! Here though even who is a big twist!

First of all I want to vent out my irritation at the names! I am assuming this is a literal translation from Japanese so in an effort to keep the authenticity of the novel the author has kept the names! Here lies the problem. The names are so confusing! First of all it doesn’t matter, but you will not know whether the name refers to a guy or a girl! Then the most irritating aspect of the novel; the names are so similar! You have Yukawa, Yutaro and Yuna! All are not only different person but different times!
Then the author uses the surname in different places for the same names and uses the names in other places! That is so frustrating especially when there are so many characters in the novel and this is a murder mystery for gods sake!

In fact when it was revealed a person confessed to the murder; I was searching the novel beginning to remember who that person is!

Finally I downloaded the novel to my tab and kept the characters page open (with the Kindle app constantly asking for page sync!) and that solved the issue!

Finally coming to the novel as such; you have an accused who everyone knows has done the killing but stays silent and escapes conviction two times officially! And then he is found dead one fine day!

Who killed him is the mystery!

Now for the love of gods I don’t believe in Vigilantism but this old alcoholic filth of a man has surely killed and buried and burnt at least two women and he escaped conviction only by being sly and he is found dead! That’s poetic Justice right there! Why do you have to make a team and waste so much time in finding out who killed that pig of a man when I am sure bigger crimes and criminals are roaming around! In fact if the cops did the same due diligence when he was charged with murder then he would not have escaped the noose twice!

Kiego is a big Agatha Christie fan which is evident from quotes and references to Poirot so you can expect a big reveal in the end! He does one better! The person who is revealed is someone you can’t imagine in a million years! That was a big shock to me and that twist is one of the best twists I have read in recent times!

Here like Poirot you have detective Galileo who is a physicist by profession but somehow has a knack of showing up and knowing things!

His assumption and deductions solve the case in steps and if it were not for him it would have been unsolved!

Read it just for the twist in the end and also keep a print of the characters with you so that you don’t feel like pulling out your hair!

The three act Tragedy by Agatha Christie’s starring John Moffat as Poirot

Dramatized by BBC with a whole cast playing different members of the cast so in affect this is not a pure audiobook but an audio play which helps since this is a murder mystery.

Listening length around 2 hours but it seems much less since the Audiobook is a part of a bigger collection of selected stories by Agatha Christie and all these stories feel like short stories which they are actually not!
In fact if you get to read this audio book in isolation then it is close to three hours or more!

Of course the book can be told as a summary in much less!

The fact of the matter remains in that this is a typical Poirot Mystery of murder and he of course takes in charge of his little grey cells to solve the crime!

There is a whole team to help him in this one but no Hastings and that’s a sour pickle!

Now the first act is a sudden death of a clergyman who just drops dead after a drink and then no one bats an eyelid since he was old. But then a second act of tragedy happens when a similar group of people meet and another person dies in a similar fashion!

Naturally the eye of suspicion falls on those who were present in both the parties and those who were missing (or supposedly missing!) were exempt from the suspicion of the three investigators who set out to solve the mystery!

In between you have an innocent love story or is it?

In Between you have some Butler missing and gone into the wind or is it something more!?

Of the two murder who was the intended target and more importantly who did it!?

If you have not read this one before I can personally guarantee you that even if you know this person in the whole novel, even for a minute you can never guess who is the killer! And even by a rare stroke of luck you did then you could never guess the motive!

The best line of the novel is the last one which also does not give any spoiler!
A modified non spoiler version is this, “In the aftermath, one witness remarks how terrible it was that anyone, himself included, could have drunk the poisoned cocktail to which Poirot remarks there was an even more terrible possibility: “It might have been me.”!!

With Wit and suspense this one will keep you guessing and wanting for more!

Peril at End House by Agatha Christie’s starring John Moffat as Poirot

Dramatized by BBC with a whole cast playing different members of the cast so in affect this is not a pure audiobook but an audio play which helps since this is a murder mystery.

Listening length around 2 hours 12 minutes but it seems much less since the Audiobook is a part of a bigger collection of selected stories by Agatha Christie and all these stories feel like short stories which they are actually not!

The previous book was Poirot’s first book as Poirot while this starts as being the last! The same was also mentioned as the last in the novel The murder of Roger Ackroyd where it was mentioned that Poirot was retired and living in peace!

Here also Poirot and Captain Hastings are enjoying a quiet retired life when they see a lady who Poirot thinks is in trouble! And he employs a big show to meet and get involved with her affairs! She is the victim of several accidents or near accidents which she brushes off as mere coincidences but Poirot feels otherwise! Do not worry! The whole section was not a spoiler!

The whole twist lies in the end and it is something which you cannot guess in your wildest dreams unless you have read the same before!
In the series Breath season 2; they show that the person who kidnaps a girl from a family is actually the father itself! Only in that case the reason is that he is a victim of multiple personality!

Again do not worry, that is not a spoiler but it was to think of the scenarios of a murder! When a crime is committed, it is usually the spouse in case of husband or wife who is the prime suspect or the other prime suspect is the one who draws the least suspicion in the novel or narration!
Another twist can be the investigating officer or the cop being the culprit which also has been done and dusted by many!
Another twist can be the detective involved in the case being the culprit! That was the case in a novel called Curtain; Poirot’s last case!
all of the above are pretty awesome twist and just when you thought you cannot have another one then comes this novel!

Yes, this novel gives you the biggest twist of them all!

Read it just for the last five minutes of the novel in which you are presented with so many suspect and I am sure you would not guess the culprit

The Mysterious affair at Styles by Agatha Christie’s starring John Moffat as Poirot

Dramatized by BBC with a whole cast playing different members of the cast so in affect this is not a pure audiobook but an audio play which helps since this is a murder mystery.

Listening length around 2 hours but it seems much less since the Audiobook is a part of a bigger collection of selected stories by Agatha Christie and all these stories feel like short stories which they are actually not!
This is the first book starting Poirot and this I found out while researching for this review! The whole book was initially released as a section in some magazine with a chapter every issue and then made into a book.
This is also the first book with his sidekick of sorts, Colonel Hastings just like Dr Watson!
But this is where the similarity vanishes and Agatha has made a conscious effort to make Poirot and probably Hastings as different from Sherlock and Watson as possible!
In fact in one of the scenes Poirot says, “Sherlock has his violin while I have my balancing cards!”
Though after reading so many novels starring Poirot I do not remember a single novel which talks about his balancing the cards apart from this one!
Another thing is that you cannot read any Sherlock novel which does not have Watson in it which probably may be because he is the narrator but even then Watson is an essential part of Sherlock Holmes story! But most of the popular stories starring Poirot like Murder on the Orient express or Death on the Nile do not have Hastings!
Like I had mentioned before in another review, you can always change Holmes to be rustic or fast or athletic or plain mad (highly functional sociopath is what Benedict’s Sherlock would say!) but Poirot would always be depicted as a short stout man with Polished accent who is in no hurry to get anywhere!

Sherlock has been shown to be brilliant just as Poirot but he may not know the number of planets in the solar system while Poirot is just perfect in every sense at least as far as the brain is concerned!

So finally coming to the story which is the death of a rich widow who had recently married a young man! There is a saying in cop circle that in the case of murder of the wife; it is the husband who is the guilty party and only after you have cleared him is when you look for other suspect!

Here also the suspicion falls very early in the start of the novel without any spoiler on the husband and how Poirot proves or disproves it is the whole story!
A play of his little grey cells and much more!
Every single incident is important and you must keep your ears open and mind fresh to listen to the clue!
You have the weapon of murder as Poison as one of the characters in the story states; that is the weapon of choice of a lady!
You also have twists and turns and lots of surprises in the end!
The way the poison was supposed to be administered reminded me of Salivation of a saint by Kihei Higashino in some way.
The novel setting is where there are lots of rich people with a very rich and affluent person while many stand to gain from her death! This is a common theme in many such novels of those days!
The narration is good and keeps you engaged and the cast has done a stellar job!
Of course like every Poirot mystery you have a meet and greet in the end when Poirot in front of his audience makes his assessment and solves the murder and you will feel, “Oh! How did I not think of it!”
Must read!

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie’s starring John Moffat as Poirot

Dramatized by BBC with a whole cast playing different members of the cast so in affect this is not a pure audiobook but an audio play which helps since this is a murder mystery.

Listening length around 2 hours but it seems much less since the story is so well known!

I have read the original book when I was a teen and did not understand it that much! This was when my friend already told me the ending and how things get solved in the end!

Then I saw the BBC series and it felt better! Finally when I saw the two movies (at least the famous ones since there are too many versions!); I understood that this is an epic!

The latest movie made in 2017 has Kenneth Branagh playing Poirot with a host of characters and it starts with the famous Armstrong Baby kidnapping and cuts to the scene! Having seen most of the other versions I can safely say that this version is the best!
This audiobook is close to that in depiction of that fateful train journey!

The series and the other movies also has some minor variations in the beginning which can be attributed to creative Liberty!
Of course it all ends up with a dead man with 12 stabs with a knife in a train with so many strangers! And then the chase begins as Poirot finds out more and more about everyone and like how we are all related to one another by some connection a common connection presents itself!

Unless you have been living under a rock I am sure that you would have read or known about this book!

Don’t worry; the thrill is not in the spoil but in the chase and you will definitely enjoy the chase of the little grey cells of Poirot!

One single word in the beginning of the book actually spoils the book in case you are wondering! When Poirot is asked where else would you see such a mix of people of different countries and profession in the same place!

And then Poirot answers, “America!”

Of course that was true only in those times since this mix can now be seen in many parts of the world!

The thrill of the train journey with individual compartments and room service was really good though! In fact this is one of the rare instance when the movie is better than the book since you can feel the snow laden tracks and the train whistle and the constant sound of the train on the track! To be fair this audiobook gets you halfway there!

Unlike Holmes, Poirot takes it slow, he is not athletic or in a hurry. He is slow, polite and stout! I guess it is a deliberate contrast made by Agatha to bring out the point that Poirot is not Holmes! In fact you have so many remixes of Holmes where he is shown sometimes as a reckless drug using goon! But Poirot is a class apart! He is decent and well mannered and moves around in posh circles! So much so that any depiction of Poirot would always depict like this only!

Of course the crux of the book and the murder mystery and investigation is on the point of questioning the suspects and re evaluating what they said or did not say or the things they try to hide! It is the way Poirot works, to listen and not just hear! And as a result solve the case! At voila!

Enjoy the nostalgia!

Artificial intelligence from Medieval Robots to Neural Networks by Clifford A Pickover

Narrated by Steve Menasche
Audiobook
Running length around 5 hours 44 minutes

This is a reference book which can be used as a entry level to advanced level book for beginners and professionals alike

Clifford Pickover has a series of such books in wide variety of topics like science technology mathematics! In fact he is a modern world blogger with over 50 published books in a whole amalgamation of topics!

Of course the books are researched from different places and this is like a collection of work from different sources

As they say, copy from one is plagiarism but when you take from many then it’s research!

The book starts from basic AI which even includes games like Tic tac and chess to advanced robots like Watson and deep impact

This is the only audio book of his large series and if you have read his books you will know how it works. The book is a basic chronological guide to the development of a particular topic which in this case is the AI

So every topic has a few lines and reference and cross reference and some basic to advanced facts. Some trivia and popular facts are thrown around for good measure!
Of course there will be lots of cross references and repeated topics in his different books like computer or mathematics or physics and even biology

I have seen the same topics like the Antikythera Mechanism or Boolean algebra or Darwin among the machines or Turing tests being repeated in many of his books which is like a revision!

Simple things like abacus to Moto man; if it has some tech or relation to computer or robotics you can find it in this ready reference!

Of course it is not a story to read but still you can listen to some of the topics like the Frankenstein or Texas poker or backgammon like a story!

Like a typical history book the text moves according to the year starting from BC dates to 2019! Am sure the next edition will have more entries!

Some topics also discuss popular science fiction movies like Terminator and blade runner and Spielberg which adds zing to the experience!

The narration is straightforward and uses simple words keeping the confusion to the minimum! Most topics are like introduction and then it is up to you to read and research and understand further.

My favourite topics were Asimov and his laws of robotics, Roomba the vacuum cleaning robot and connect four game!
Interesting ear catching titles like elephants can’t play chess, or cybernetic serendipity or AI on Mars thrill you and grab your attention!

The final entries are the latest advances in AI like the robotic surgery and Rubik’s cube solving robots to the final topic of AI death predictor!

Even each topic sometimes starts with it’s own history to the development to the final technological advancement in that field!

A must read book which is midway between a textbook and a novel which can cater to everyone who is interested in tech!

Agatha Christie’s the murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

Part of Part of BBC Dramatization with John Moffat as Poirot and a whole list of actors playing the different roles!
Running length around 2 hours

Fictional thriller genre

No spoilers but if you absolutely don’t want any clue then read the novel first and then read this review since even a small clue will spoil the suspense or surprise!

The twist ending had made this a very popular book!

Some of the best endings are the ones where the narrator or the chief investigator or the lead detective or the juror is actually the murderer!

These have been used in novels such as the silent patient or Curtain; Poirot’s last case and in one of the short stories by Jeffrey Archer in his book Quiver full of Arrows (one of his best books!)

Even in one of Byomkesh novels by Bandhopadhyay; there is a story when a person tries to narrate a story to Byomkesh of an unsolved murder mystery only to have realised that he was speaking to the ace sleuth! Even that was a surprise unexpected twist!

One of her other Novel; the lead police investigator is the killer!
Now in all the above I have not mentioned any specific details so there is no spoiling!

This novel is also a typical Poirot thriller where he uses ‘his little grey cells’ (in his own words!) to solve a mystery!

His typical reveal in the end to a group is left incomplete though and the end is open ended in that you are not told about the later events but the ending is a twist indeed!

If you have read the novel before; this is a great refresher indeed and if you haven’t then lucky you! You get to read the twist for the first time!

The Audio book narration is spot on but you must concentrate a little more since there are too many characters.

Enjoy!