29th June, 2008

Crazy Fool Kills Five by Gwen Freeman

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This would be a good mystery book to read on a lazy Saturday or Sunday afternoon. Murder, a plane crash, court cases, kidnapping, spying……these are what you can expect from this mystery story. You’ll also follow the heroine, Fifi Cutter and her unemployed, good-looking half-brother, Bosco, who assists her with her investigations.

There are a lot of details in it and it’s quite hard to follow thoroughly, actually. Therefore, my lazy Saturday afternoon wasn’t that lazy after all, as I was figuring out what I was reading. You can also expect twists and turns, so you had better not be sleepy while reading this book, if you want to keep up with the pace.

Anyway, let’s look at the title. Who’s the crazy fool? He was Jim Farnswell, ex-employee of Skyblu Charter Jet Service. What did he do? Well, he apparently hijacked a private plane where there were two Chinese businessmen on it, killed the two pilots, and then crashed the plane. Unfortunately, when it crashed, it also killed an Earl Rayburn, a retiree who was just sitting in his home, relaxing.

Now, the matter has been brought to court. Reginald Wong of Wong, Wu & Chu is representing the families of the dead passengers and VJ Smith, Fifi’s close friend, is representing Earl Rayburn’s widow who’s seeking justice for her husband who did not do anything wrong but only happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. On the defendants’ side, Dan Boatwright represents Skyblu and Janet Porter is for Grund Aviation Technologies who was blamed ‘for not putting a locking door from the cabin into the cockpit’, which may have prevented Farnswell from shooting the pilots.

Let’s go back to Fifi now. In the first chapter, she was hired to tail Steven Burton, an ex-employee of Wong, Wu & Chu. He claimed to have a back injury due to helping out at the office last Christmas and was claiming compensation for it. However, Reg Wong does not believe him entirely. That’s why he sent Fifi to follow him around secretly and get evidence to prove that he does not seem to suffer from back injury. Well, it wouldn’t be exciting if Fifi didn’t land herself in some trouble while on the job, right? Right.

Later, Fifi gets involved in the Skyblu case when she’s hired as a document clerk, Steven Burton’s old job. Her job may seem boring but boring was not in her vocabulary. Someone is out to get her or get something from her. In the meantime, she and Bosco try to figure out the puzzles that appear in this Skyblu case. She also begins an unlikely friendship/romance with the ‘enemy’, Dan Boatwright who’s the opponent, much to VJ’s chagrin.

I mistook ‘Crazy Fool Kills Five’ as a kid’s book because of its bright, attractive cover. But then, the title and the picture on it are certainly not kid-friendly. Nevertheless, I thought the book was just okay and there wasn’t much suspense in it. Fifi didn’t really stand out as a strong character even though she’s the main one. It was a fun read though. You’ll enjoy the conversations/arguments between Bosco and Fifi.

I’d also like to thank Gwen Freeman for sending me an ARC of this book. :)

Other Bloggers’ Reviews: Lisa, Kris, Maryann

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Posted in Adventure, Authors F, Mystery/Thriller, Titles C at 2:03 pm | Comments (10)



27th April, 2008

Down To A Sunless Sea by Mathias B. Freese

In my honest opinion, I found this book quite a difficult read. There are 15 short stories in here and I could not understand all of them. I had to read some of them a couple of times to understand them better. In a way, the stories make you think and form your own opinions about the characters and the endings. Some stories don’t have a clear ending, hence making you guess it.

Mathias B. Freese brings you into the minds of troubled individuals. For example, in ‘I’ll Make It, I Think’, the narrator describes himself as normal-looking at some parts of his body while some aren’t so normal. He says that girls wouldn’t date him because they wouldn’t hold a deformed hand like his. So even though he’s different from the rest, he is still human and has normal human feelings.

In the story ‘Herbie’, Herbie aspires to start a kind of shoeshine business with his friend. His father also polishes shoes for a living and Herbie wants to follow in his footsteps. Unfortunately, despite his son looking up to him, Herbie’s father is not very happy of his son’s idea.

I like the story ‘Alabaster’. It is about an encounter of a 9-year-old boy with an old Polish woman who had survived the Holocaust. She showed him her numbered hand but it’s not clear if the boy understood what it all meant. It’s a simple story but a truly poignant one about a small boy spending time with a lonely old lady by listening to her talk.

All the same, ‘Little Errands’ is exceptionally interesting. The person telling the story is kind of restless. He has mailed his letters but he kept worrying whether he had remembered to put stamps on them or whether the mailman collected them or not. Sometimes, I am like that too. It may just be a little chore but it’s so simple that we feel like we did not do it right. Like something went wrong somewhere and we are not sure about it, that’s why we worry and keep thinking about it!

Have you ever answered back at your teacher probably because you don’t like her or feel that she’s not teaching the right thing? That’s what Nicholas did in ‘Nicholas’. This short story was probably written by the character Nicholas himself since there are spelling and punctuation errors. It seems that he’s not good in English and he receives neither respect nor attention unlike another kid from Iran whose English isn’t that good either.

Most of the short stories are about children and young adults and about how they feel towards themselves as well as their surroundings. Like what I had mentioned earlier, this book gets you thinking and asking questions. That’s how it is with me. What about you?

Also, I’d like to thank Mr. Freese for sending me a copy of this book.

Other Bloggers’ Reviews: gautami tripathy, Melody, KittyCat

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Posted in Authors F, Short Stories, Titles D at 2:49 pm | Comments (7)



13th January, 2007

Harriet The Spy by Louise Fitzhugh

I really like this book especially the ending, which was very touching. Harriet M. Welsch thinks she is a spy and she acts like one too. It’s quite funny the way she peeps into people’s houses to see what they are doing and what is going on. She is 11 years old and keeps a notebook. It is like a diary to her. She writes notes in her notebook frequently and feels utterly lost without her precious notebook.

She has a nurse and she is affectionately known as Ole Golly. Harriet is very close to her and she will give Harriet useful advice. Usually quotes from poems. Only Ole Golly understands Harriet’s need to always write in her notebook.

Harriet has 2 best friends, Sport and Janie. Sport likes to cook (he has to cook anyway because his father is a writer and he’s in charge of the cooking) while Janie dreams of being a scientist. Her main goal is to create a chemical that will blow up the whole world. Yeah, really eccentric.

One day, Harriet accidentally lost her notebook. Unfortunately, the notebook fell into the hands of her classmates. She wrote some nasty things about them and they sure did not like it. They grouped together and went against Harriet. They refuse to talk or acknowledge her or be her friend. She became even lonelier when Ole Golly resigned from her job as her nurse. The term nurse here is not your hospital nurse. A nurse is something like a nanny or governess.

Then, Harriet’s parents thought she has some psychology problem and sent her to see a shrink. Well, things soon got better after that. This is a thoughtful book and is a great read for everyone.

Other Bloggers’ Reviews: Grace

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Posted in Authors F, Modern Classics, Titles H at 9:02 am | Comments (2)


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