[Book Review] Ghazals: A Collection of Ghazals in English by Shankar N Kashyap

Image source: Amazon India

Genre: Poetry

Length: 90 pages

Publisher: Indus Publishing

Publication date: 27 August, 2021

Goodreads:

Kindle version: https://www.amazon.in/Ghazals-Collection-English-Shankar-Kashyap-ebook/dp/B09DVZ3NBT

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Blurb

The word Ghazal conjures up images of swirling dervishes and incense and deep trans states. Ghazals were spread across the land by the Sufi mystics. This is an attempt to construct Ghazals in a format as close to traditional Persian verses as possible, within the constraints of the English language. The poems essentially love poems with a few in a melancholic tone. The poems are based on the love, pain, and pathos of life. The structure of the Ghazal format has been painstakingly reconstructed as much as possible within the constraints of the English language.

This is a book not only for the connoisseurs of Ghazals but also for anyone who loves to read poetry.

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My Review

Reading Mehfil-e-Ghazal is an experience in itself. You feel the full force of the author’s emotions–love, compassion, and friendship–and cannot help but be swept away in the gushing waves. 

For those unfamiliar with the concept of the ghazal, the author has painstakingly provided a fascinating history of the poetic form. He calls it a “brief” history but I feel it is complete in that it enables the reader to appreciate the ghazal collection all the more. I did not know so much thought and effort went into composing a ghazal. 

Did you know ghazals are composed in English as well apart from the traditional languages of Persian, Urdu, and Arabic? Yes, historically ghazals have been composed in English as well although I feel they do not hold a candle to the Urdu creations because of the restraints of the language. 

Illustrated with reproductions of oil paintings and hand-drawn sketches, the collection is a worthy companion for the reader who wants to take a few quiet moments for themselves and reflect within.  

I loved the evocative pieces “It was not meant to be,” “Circle of love,” “Art of Stealing,” “Stony Path of Life,” and “Forgotten Dreams.” Each ghazal speaks directly to your heart and you become one with the author’s narrative.

Mehfil-e-Ghazal is for those who want to nourish their finer feelings and take a dip into a whirlwind of sensory delight. 

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About Shankar N Kashyap

Source: Amazon India

Shankar N Kashyap is a consultant Orthopedic Surgeon working in Gateshead, UK. Some of his colleagues jealous of his popularity, success, and talent, decided to cook up spurious charges against him and reported to the regulatory body, the GMC. He faced a three-year ordeal of trial by incompetent individuals who were not only corrupt but completely devoid of any knowledge of the work he did in the hospital. He has written his experiences in his book “A Kangaroo Court” on Createspace. The book is an invaluable guide to all doctors not only in the UK but across the world.

He is extensively read with a wide knowledge of the history of the near east and middle east. He is presently writing a series of books based on the Indus Valley and Mesopotamia around the third millennium BCE. First book Harappa: The Lure of Soma has been released through Palimpsest India and is available on Amazon as well as on the Alibris websites. It was released in Delhi in October 2013 and has excellent reviews by renowned authors such as Graham Hancock and David Frawley. The second book of the series – Harappa: The fall of Shuruppak deals with the links and maritime trade between Harappan and Mesopotamian civilizations. The third book of the series – The Battle of Ten Kings: Dasharajna – was released in 2017 and deals with one of the great battles portrayed in Rigveda. It is considered the third epic of India by many experts.

Since then he has gone to publish a crime thriller based on true events – The Retribution and a collection of love poetry – Lady in Red. The books have received raving reviews across the globe. His next venture, Musings of a Romantic is due for release soon – a mini compendium of Poetry. This book will be essential reading for anyone interested in writing poetry.

[Book Review] The Arboretum After Midnight by W.T. O’ Brien

Front cover

Book Information

• Purchase link: http://mybook.to/Amazon_ArboretumAM
• Genre:  Detective fiction, murder mystery
• Print length: 308
• Age range: This is an adult novel but suitable for mature teens age 16+
• Trigger warnings: Homicide
• Amazon Rating: This is a new book, not yet rated.

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About The Arboretum After Midnight

Whitney Colliers is an astonishingly beautiful woman. Moving amongst creative people, and fronting a well-known design studio, she has plenty of admirers and almost as many lovers. A tease to everyone, she delivers on her advertising.

Beautiful, admired, but not well-loved. There are plenty of people with a grudge against Whitney. After creating her usual friction at a party, she takes a ride to a local park to give her dog a run.

It’s just after midnight.

The next morning a jogger comes upon her body, tangled in her dog’s lead and sprawled in a rockery. It looks like a tragic accident, but rookie detective Roscoe Romar quickly concludes that it’s murder.

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My Review

The Arboretum After Midnight is a detailed police procedural drama that does a thorough job of investigating every angle of the murder of Whitney Colliers. Junior officer Roscoe and Alec McNee seemed to be the characters driving the story forward with their go-getter attitude.

Through the interviews of the long list of suspects, Whitney appears to take on a life of her own. She’s described differently by each person, yet everybody agrees that she was an unforgettable woman. I was particularly fascinated to learn about her past and the way this information was pieced together.

The plot is quite intricate and cognitively demanding because there are so many threads that branch out from Whitney that deal with her past and her present. Also, the author often expands on the side stories of some characters with minor details — something I felt could have been done away with because it tends to interrupt the steady pace of the story. But it’s astonishing to see how he brings all of these disparate stories together to a believable conclusion.

Except for the fact that the writing could have been tighter, I enjoyed this police-driven murder mystery and never spotted the killer even though I was paying attention. I also enjoyed the themes of homophobia, racism, and gender bias that the author discusses using several characters as his mouthpieces.

(I received an e-copy from Blackthorn Book Tours with a request for an honest review.)

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About the Author

W.T. O’Brien is a lifelong resident of the Pacific Northwest. He attended school in Seattle and after high school enrolled at the University of Washington, majoring in billiards and games of chance. After graduating cum laude without a degree, he began a series of menial jobs and failed schemes, which did little to enhance him financially, but added a great deal of spice to his experience. During this time, he considered his occupation to be as a professional pool player, an oxymoron, even though he almost never performed in that pursuit. Eventually, he managed to land a real job, working in the Health Sciences department back at the University of Washington. After twenty-five enjoyable years, he retired. He considered that his modest retirement party, attended entirely by college professors, was a tribute to a successful career as a research consultant.

Over the years, Mr. O’Brien has written short stories, poetry, and screenplays.

The Arboretum After Midnight is his third novel. It is a murder mystery centered around the interior design community in 1990’s Seattle.

[Book Review] Poison at the Village Show by Catherine Coles

Blurb

With the war finally over the residents of Westleham village are trying to reclaim a sense of normality and the upcoming village show is proving to be a popular event!

Newcomer, Martha Miller, has high hopes for the village show. Since her husband Stan left for work one day and never returned, some of the villagers have treated Martha with suspicion – why would a good man like Stan simply up and leave? Was it something Martha did?

All Martha knows is that she’s hoping that she can win people over and hopefully they’ll but her delicious homemade plum gin, too and she’ll be able to make ends meet.

But as glasses of Martha’s gin are passed around, disaster strikes. Alice Warren, Chairwoman of the village show slumps to the ground after taking a sip. It’s clear she’s been poisoned!

Martha is shocked, but not surprised, when fingers of suspicion once again point her way. Determined to prove her innocence, Martha sets about trying to find the real culprit. But who would kill Alice and why?

Ably helped by the new vicar, Luke Walker, Martha quickly tries to get to the bottom of this mystery. But with the villagers closing ranks it quickly becomes apparent that the only person with a motive is Martha herself….

Will Luke and Martha discover who is behind the poisoning before it’s too late?

My Review

Poison at the Village Show is just the sort of delightful, gentle cozy mystery set in a sleepy English village that you want to read during a lazy afternoon.

The inhabitants of Westleham village are too inquisitive for their own good. The British stiff upper lip rarely quivers. The village show is the highlight of the year. And a hot cup of sweet tea is the answer to all problems. A handsome, young, and single vicar arrives at the village, making many hearts flutter. When a murder is dropped into the mix, the sleepy village is shaken up and the gossiping ladies go on overdrive.

Told from the point of view of Martha Miller, a 33-year-old woman whose husband has been missing for a year, we see how the events help bring a change in her. From a mousy, quiet woman she develops some courage to stand up for herself. She develops a fuller relationship with her younger sister, Ruby, who lives with her and helps her pay her bills.

Along with the vicar, Martha sets out to solve the murder that has made her quiet village front-page news. After many rounds of tea drinking, exchanges of gossip, and a few hair-raising incidents, she arrives at the answer. I loved the subtle wit and humour that runs throughout the story. I loved the little confusion that the author threw in at the end. I suspect she will follow up on it in the next book.

An exciting cozy murder mystery for people who want the thrill without the blood and gore!

(I received an e-copy from Rachel’s Random Resources with a request for an honest review.)

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Purchase Link – https://amzn.to/3freNRj 

Author Bio –

The daughter of a military father, Catherine was born in Germany and lived most of the first 14 years of her life abroad. She spent her school years devouring everything her school library had to offer! Catherine writes cosy mysteries that take place in the English countryside. Her extremely popular Tommy & Evelyn Christie mysteries are set in 1920s North Yorkshire. Catherine lives in northeast England with her two spoiled dogs who have no idea they are not human!

Social Media Links –  

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/CatherineColesAuthor

Twitter  https://twitter.com/catherinecoles

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/catherinecolesauthor/ 

Newsletter Sign Up: https://bit.ly/CatherineColesNews

Bookbub profile: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/catherine-coles?list=about

[Book Review] The Mystery of the Lost Husbands by Gina Cheyne

Front Cover

Genre: Crime

Publication date: 1 Dec, 2021

Length: 320 pages

Standalone first book in a series

Purchase Links

UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mystery-Husbands-SeeMS-Detective-Agency/dp/1915138019/

US – https://www.amazon.com/Mystery-Husbands-SeeMS-Detective-Agency/dp/1915138019/

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Blurb

Is murdering husbands an addiction or merely a bad habit?

This is the question facing Private Investigator Cat Harrington when rich builder, Tom Drayton, dies shortly after his wedding night. Suspicion falls on his widow, Anastasia Rodriguez, the survivor of three previous ‘lost’ husbands.

Two years later, Anastasia is engaged again, to Cat’s friend Angelo, an Italian snail collector.

Angelo’s sister, Gia, employs Cat and the SeeMs Detective Agency to discover if her brother’s financé is a killer.

The search for Anastasia’s lost husbands takes Cat and her team from Scotland to the South of Spain and on to Argentina.

They have just a few weeks before the wedding to discover if Anastasia is a murderer and save their friend from becoming victim number five.

For fans of Arsenic and Old Lace and The Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency

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My Review

I enjoyed the languorous pace of The Mystery of the Lost Husbands, but in seeking to squeeze in too many extraneous details into one book the momentum of the narrative is lost.

The story alternates between a young Anastasia’s point of view and the present as seen through the eyes of the trio – Cat, Miranda, and Stevie. (Anastasia is the supposed husband-killer and the trio of women are detectives of the SeeMS agency hired to investigate Anastasia’s past.) Both sets of characters meet in the same timeline and the mystery is unraveled in the present, decades after the murders were committed.

The author has taken great pains to research her story and present accurate details around oil rigs, deep-sea diving, flying, photography, winery, and biochemistry.

Flying enthusiasts will enjoy the details of Stevie’s adventures on her Tiger Moth and Clement’s daredevil helicopter rides, but ignorant readers like me will have to Google to understand those bits.

I found the contrast drawn between life in the 70s (without mobile phones and the Internet) and modern life fascinating. Stevie had to dig through information for times when all records were on paper and not necessarily stored properly or subsequently digitized. I could sense what a challenge it was. Whereas the ladies could easily find photographs of Anastasia’s fourth wedding on Instagram and deduce who had attended it.

The element of danger and/or thrill that keeps readers on edge was missing. It felt more like a saga rather than a crime fiction.

Since this is the first of a series of books, I felt the author could have left out some of the flashbacks into Cat, Miranda, and Stevie’s past. It could have been explored in subsequent books. Coupled with the alternate POV of Anastasia and the trio, these flashbacks added more characters, details, and confusion to the plot.

The Mystery of the Lost Husbands is quite compelling in parts because of the “did she or didn’t she” element and the excellent background details that give us a sense of Anastasia’s immigrant life and a jet-setting lifestyle.

(I received an e-copy from Rachel’s Random Resources with a request for an honest review.)

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Author Bio –

Gina has worked as a physiotherapist, a pilot, freelance writer and a dog breeder.

As a child, Gina’s parents hated travelling and never went further than Jersey. As a result she became travel-addicted and spent the year after university bumming around SE Asia, China and Australia, where she worked in a racing stables in Pinjarra, South of Perth. After getting stuck in black sand in the Ute one time too many (and getting a tractor and trailer caught in a tree) she was relegated to horse-riding work only. After her horse bolted down the sand, straining a fetlock and falling in the sea, she was further relegated to swimming the horses only in the pool. It was with some relief the racehorse stables posted her off on the train into eastern Australia to work in a vineyard… after all what could go wrong there?

In the north of Thailand, she took a boat into the Golden Triangle and got shot at by bandits. Her group escaped into the undergrowth and hid in a hill tribe whisky still where they shared the ‘bathroom’ with a group of pigs. Getting a lift on a motorbike they hurried back to Chiang Rai, where life seemed calmer.

After nearly being downed in a fiesta in Ko Pha Ngan, and cursed by a witch in Malaysia, she decided to go to Singapore and then to China where she only had to battle with the language and regulations.

Since marrying the first time, she has lived and worked in many countries including Spain and the USA.

For a few years Gina was a Wingwalking pilot, flying, amongst others, her 64-year-old mother standing on the wing to raise money for a cancer charity. She was also a helicopter instructor and examiner and took part in the World Helicopter Championships in Russia and the USA.

She became a writer because her first love was always telling a good yarn!

Under the name Georgina Hunter-Jones she has written illustrated children’s books such as The Twerple who had Too Many Brains, and Nola the Rhinoceros loves Mathematics.

She now lives in Sussex with her husband and dogs, one of who inspired the Biscuit and Pugwash Detective Series about naughty dogs who solve crimes.

The Mystery of the Lost Husbands is the first in the SeeMS Detective Agency series and Gina’s first crime novel for adults.

Social Media Links – 

Website: www.ginacheyne.com

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[Book Review] Unravelling by Helen Forbes

Front cover

Genre: Psychological thriller

Publication date: July 17, 2021

Length: 352 pages

Potential trigger warning: Mental illness

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Blurb

A forest of secrets 

Two bodies are found buried in a Highland forest, a place that haunts the dreams of Kate Sharp. Her mother, Ellen, died when Kate was a child. Does the forest hold the secret to her death? 

A secret journal 

Kate discovers her mother’s journal, and the tale of a tragic unravelling begins to unfold. Ellen’s story is one of fear and hope, love and loss, set against the imposing background of Craig Dunain, a psychiatric hospital where she should have been safe.  

Unravelling the truth 

Someone else from Ellen’s past is searching for answers, and he will stop at nothing to find them. Unaware of the danger stalking her, Kate continues her search. Will she find the answers? And can she save her own life?  

Beautifully written, cleverly plotted, and meticulously researched, Unravelling is a captivating tale of family secrets. 

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My Review

Unravelling is both frightening and saddening.

It’s frightening because the author has sketched characters who blur the line between sanity and madness. You’re never sure who is normal and who is not. You even begin to doubt what “normal” means anymore.

It’s saddening because it depicts the story of a woman who could have been so much, yet was reduced to fighting for survival because of the demons in her head and in her life. Sometimes, even the best of support is not enough. There are many heartbreaking moments in this grim and gritty story, and I had to take my time over certain incidents because they were overwhelming.

What jumped out at me was how the story put a spotlight on mental health problems and the changing attitude of society and the medical fraternity toward mental health patients.

Craig Dunain Hospital was previously called “Northern Counties District Lunatic Asylum,” a name that is indicative of the ignorant way patients were perceived. The story speaks of electrocution being used as a form of therapy to treat mental illnesses, of pinning unruly patients down and injecting them with medicine, and of isolating troublesome patients until they behave.

There are whispers, too, of hospital staff mistreating patients and getting away with it because nobody believes the patient. Outside the hospital, family members of the patients have to endure cruel taunts and jibes because mental illness is a shameful thing.

The story spans two generations – revolving around a mother and her daughter – and the people in their life. So we see the changing attitudes towards mental health over the decades.

As a psychological thriller, Unravelling will have your hair standing on end with its powerful depictions of insanity: the breakdown of the very core of a person whose mind has begun to unravel. Yet, the way the person desperately holds on to a few strands of sanity and hopes to live a normal life with her family will make you feel desolate. The murder angle puts a deadly twist on this sad tale and the combination of evil and psychological instability is potent.

To me, the murder(s) (?) were less important than the narrative around mental health. But the story is crackling with tension, making you feel that there’s danger around every bend. It’s deeply satisfying to follow Kate as she finds the truth about her mother and uncovers a few truths about herself as well.

(I received an e-copy from Rachel’s Random Resources with a request for an honest review.)

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Purchase Links

UK https://amzn.to/3hDz8EJ / US https://amzn.to/2XqDZlU

Author Bio –

Crime fiction was not what lawyer, Helen Forbes, expected to write.  As a single parent and mature law student, she used her limited spare time to write contemporary and historical fiction.  It was a chance remark at a writing club that led her to develop a short story into her debut crime novel, In the Shadow of the Hill, featuring DS Joe Galbraith. The novel is set in the Scottish Highlands and Islands, and it was described in one newspaper review as having ‘more twists and turns than the road to the isles, making it impossible to put down.’  The novel and characters proved popular with readers, leading to the publication of a second book in the DS Joe Galbraith series. Madness Lies is set in Inverness and North Uist.  Helen has now taken to crime with a passion, and has published two psychological thrillers. Unravelling is set in Inverness, against the background of a former psychiatric hospital. Deception is set in Edinburgh, and tackles the themes of domestic violence, prostitution and trafficking. Helen has also completed a further thriller set in Edinburgh, which she hopes to publish in 2022. Queen of Grime’s main character is a crime and trauma scene cleaner with a big secret. It is gritty and dark, but also funny and uplifting. Helen hopes to expand Queen of Grime into a series.

Social Media Links –

Facebook Author Page https://bit.ly/3mzghfD

Twitter https://twitter.com/foreva48

Website https://www.helenforbes.co.uk/