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A snowstorm halts the luxurious Orient Express in its tracks in the middle of nowhere. Trapped on board is an interesting assortment of passengers – along with a murderer. An American tycoon has been found dead in his compartment, stabbed a dozen times and it is up to the Belgian detective to find the killer before he or she escapes or, worse, strikes again.
The Big Four
(ISBN: 978-0007250653)
One day Poirot finds an uninvited guest standing at the doorway of his bedroom. The man, gaunt and dishevelled, stares at him ... then falls unconscious. Who is he? And why does he have the number 4 scribbled on a sheet of paper over and over again. In his quest for the truth, Poirot finds himself in the middle of an international intrigue, his life at risk.
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A cruise on the river Nile in Egypt is rudely disrupted by the discovery of Linnet Ridgeway’s body. The beautiful young girl has been shot through the head – and, intriguingly, Poirot had earlier overheard, though not seen, a fellow passenger say the damning words, “I’d like to put my dear little pistol against her head and just press the trigger”...
By John Dodd
Publisher: Monsoon Books, 336 pages
ISBN: 978-9810575694
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IT’S such a shame that A Company of Planters failed to plant any sentiment in this reviewer. I’ve recently embarked on a new writing project, and having enjoyed memoirs such as Tales From The South China Seas by Charles Allen and Michael Mason, I was expecting a rollicking good read about young and old English planters who worked and settled in pre-independence Malaya.
John Dodd was a young, and eager planter who came to Malaya in 1950s. His adventures and musings were captured in his diary, and letters to family and from friends provide the reader a picture of an engaging past.
Dodd, like his other planter friends, sought more than just increasing rubber output; there was time to drink, chase women and observe the local culture. Being a planter then was not all one romantic adventure, though – they had to cope with Communists living in the jungles, strikes, riots, etc.
All in all, the book promised the reviewer a glimpse of her nation when it was a mere “baby”, but somehow failed to enrapture her.
Writing a memoir is not easy. There’s the argument that perhaps one’s nostalgia and memory of a time long gone isn’t that precious to a reader and historian.
Like fiction, memoirs need to tell a story. True, memoirs are about facts, or rather the writer’s version of the truth, but at the end of the day, to get a reader to be hooked on a writer’s history, there must be a story.
Perhaps it is because the book is written in diary form and published letters. If the initial intention is to grab the reader into the writer’s world, somehow the format of Planters disengages the reader.
What makes a great memoir? Allow me to quote fellow writer and editor, Eric Forbes, “A successful memoir brings about an intimacy or affinity between two perfect strangers: the reader and the memoirist.” Planters did not have that intimacy.
For sure, the tales about getting drunk, local “comfort women” and Dodd’s eye on local and expatriate culture were interesting. They were funny, intriguing and sharp. But after a while, everything seemed repetitive.
A superb diarist or memoirist would be Anais Nin. Her infamous diaries may seem self-indulgent and rather obsessed with self-analysis and psychiatric analyses, but they truly pinned down the essence of 1940s Paris and America.
She was a writer who saw herself as a subject that needed to be deconstructed and understood, and in between segments of her trying to understand her relationships with the men around her, she would also write about discourses about war, politics, culture, sex, nothing was taboo.
The reader wants to be there with her, and experience it all. Likewise with Charles Allen’s Tales From The South China Seas.
A grand social history in print, Allen takes the reader back into an exotic and dangerous time of British Governors and expatriates, living in the region. There are laugh-out loud moments with surprised tigers in jungles and romantic romps in sweltering heat. It is a book the reader will read again and again.
Mind you, Dodd’s book is not a total write-off. He has a keen eye, and isn’t a condescending writer. His memoir would have benefited greatly from the energy of an editor who would have turned the book into a must-read.
Book Review
Tuk-Tuk to the Road
Authors: A. Bolingbroke-Kent and Joanna Huxster
Publisher: The Friday Project Limited, 288 pages
TWO British girls travel in a tuk-tuk (Bangkok’s infamous three-wheeled taxi) from the Thai capital to ... Brighton, England! Best friends Jo Huxter and Ants Bolingbroke-Kent embarked on their adventure to raise funds for Mind, the mental health charity.
The pair crossed two continents and 12 countries, and braved earthquakes, traffic jams, curious locals and overly-friendly policemen, proving that with a little bit of determination and lots of good humour, everything and anything is possible.
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Book Review Mother’s Ruin
Author: Nicola Barry
Publisher: Headline Review, 256 pages
NICOLA Barry’s mother, Monica, was a trained medic and the wife of a consultant anaesthetist. A beautiful, bright woman with three children, Monica led a secret life behind closed doors, drinking herself unconscious, transforming herself from a beauty to a wizened old lady.
Nicola suffered the most – forced to play nursemaid while her brothers were away at public school, she grew to both love and hate her mother. Deprived of care and love from Monica, who drank herself to death, Nicola also has her own struggle with alcohol. However, determined to avoid the same end as her mother, she manages to overcome her addiction and emerges a survivor.
Beyond Ugly
Author: Constance Briscoe
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton, 238 pages
IN Ugly, Constance Briscoe described a childhood spent being beaten, starved and verbally abused by her own mother. Beyond Ugly continues Briscoe’s story, in particular exploring how Briscoe was deeply affected by her mother’s constant derogatory comments about her looks.
Although Briscoe is a brilliant student and is resourceful enough to put herself through university, she is unable to accept that she is ugly and her part-time jobs also finance plastic surgery. Nevertheless, she earns her law degree and is offered a place in prestigious chambers. Unfortunately, she does not receive the support she craves there, and so her struggle to find love and acceptance continues.
Title: Singled Out
Author: Trisha Ashley
Publisher: Piatkus
With kooky religious despot parents who call her spawn of the devil and a jerk of a long-time (married) lover, she tugs at your heartstrings as she goes through life seeking to belong.
However, things seem to head in the right direction when long-time lover's wife Max finally kicks the bucket and Cassandra realises that she doesn't want anything to do with him.
Meanwhile, old friend Jason has developed a crush on her and the owner of a spooky mansion, Dante Chase, is pursuing her with all intentions of getting her.
Who Cassie chooses and how she finally gets around to overcoming her childhood trauma at the hands of her horrible parents makes for good reading. Cassie is likeable and you'll want to cheer her on.
Author: Chris Manby
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
DR Jennifer Neiderhauser becomes the head of the chimpanzee project at the impoverished Prowdes Animal Sanctuary.
She not only has to put up with the staff who hate her rigid style of working but the growing attraction towards head keeper Guy Gibson, who moonlights as a male stripper.
To make things even complicated, her ex-lover, the pompous Dr Timothy Lauder, is brought in by a TV production crew to do a story on Prowdes.
The book starts off well and you actually get rather fond of egghead Jennifer. The book has its funny moments and the best is saved towards the end.
REPTILIA
Story and art: Kazuo Umezu
Publisher: IDW Publishing; 320 pages
(ISBN: 978-1600100413)
For ages 16+
THE story begins innocently enough in a hospital where young Yumiko’s mother is recuperating from a head injury. And for some strange reason, Yumiko’s mother decides to scare her daughter with the tale of a “snake lady” that supposedly resides in a secret part of the hospital. After visiting her mother, Yumiko then decides to explore the hospital because she “won’t be coming to this hospital anymore”.
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She runs away, thinking that the mad woman is safely behind bars. Or is she?
The mangaka behind The Drifting Classroom (about a school transported to a nightmarish dimension) is also responsible for this ghoulish tale of a snake lady that terrorises, first, a hospital, and then a Japanese village.
The art is typical of the 1960s, and the monsters, unfortunately, appear more comical than scary. Still, the actual scare factor of Reptilia is how one ends up fearing the people you love; best friends, family members, mothers, and loyal servants end up betraying each other in Reptilia.
Like in many of Kazuo Umezu’s works, the manga’s characters are often panic-stricken and dissolve into hysterical fits – this could get on your nerves after a while, but my advice is to press on as Kazuo crafts the story in a surprising manner.
At first it appears as if Reptilia is made up of unrelated stories of a snake lady terrorising hapless young women. However, towards the middle of the manga, the stories begin to form a connection with each other. And when the manga ends, the story of the snake lady comes full circle ... and you really can’t help but feel sorry for the evil creature.
Although the art is dated, and the panicky heroines may be annoying, Reptilia has a few worthy scares up its sleeve. Another plus is that it ends on a very satisfying note.
