Thriller – SKR Web

Murders and ‘Eight Detectives’ meet their Mysteries!

July 13, 2022July 13, 2022
by Sameera Khan Rehmani

Eight Detectives fell in my lap after being underground for a month, It was then I realised I have ignored my small tight-knit group of readers long enough! Having spent these last 30 days or so digging deep into the theories and academic jargon for a research paper, I had my fill of serious reading and writing for a bit. So my eyes and hands were itching to read something light yet intriguing. Then came Saturday and off I went on my hunt for a juicy paperback! To satisfy my weekend craving for murder mysteries that for once did not end at Agatha Christie and Poirot in particular! My mind wanted more. It wanted another good, solid, foolproof mystery to tease me to alert mode. This tired brain was craving a good mystery. It was getting restless. It needed its regular dose of adrenaline rush!

this cover is taken from https://www.amazon.com/Eight-Detectives-Sunday-Times-Crime/dp/1405944978/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1E0O0M5UAC4JV&keywords=eight+detectives&qid=1657705278&sprefix=eight+detectives%2Caps%2C159&sr=8-1 — **Photo Credit:** **Amazon.com**

Continuing my promise to myself, I jumped the gun and picked up another book from the same small corner book shop. I felt proud that I was able to finish my first book of this year in less than the time limit I set for myself. I wandered across the small spaces between the overcrowded book shop and smiled at the warm quiet welcome that the hidden corners were about to offer me in my search for another bestseller. I found the one and my eyes were itching to read this one. The Poirot inside of me was raring to come out and give his verdict about the credibility and finesse of the mystery in my hand! I picked the book and clutched it to my chest as if it would run away if I held it any loose. I paid and smiled my winner’s smile at the old lady beside the counter. She gave me the knowing look and laughed softly, ‘I know that you just found your treasure for today madam. Happy reading!’ With this, she swiped the card and I rushed out towards the tube in urgency to reach home and splurge on my find of the day.

The moment I reached home I threw my clothes like they were burning and clad in my age-old night suit (even though it was just 7:30 and a weekend), I jumped on my bed and snuggled inside my cosy duvet. I wriggled for 5 minutes to find that particularly comfortable spot and position and boy was I ready for this journey into the mind of the mystery. I was ready to find the faults of the author because according to me no one can write a good mystery better than Agatha Cristy! On the contrary, I was wanting so badly to be proven wrong for once. I wanted someone fresh and new to pick and tickle my detective bones for once. I was so ready yet not. Now was the moment of truth. With mysterious juices ready to spill out of the hidden chambers in my brain I opened the first page!

As I dived into the stories one after the other, I realized that this Alex Pavesi’s ‘Eight Detectives’ is indeed an intriguing piece of work. Written as a Mediterranean crime thriller, the book overall revolves around 7 individual murder mysteries. However, they are tied to one elephant murder mystery that comes as a pleasant surprise for its readers. The story is spun in a way of explores human emotions and relations that creates their loopholes, strengthening the mystery of the book further. The author picks the readers’ brains including mine when he creates the character of Grant McAllister, a professor of mathematics who wrote a mystery book in the 1930s. 30 years later, he was while living a secluded life he met an ambitious and clever editor Julia Hart. She had searched him down to republish the book. Grant McAllister while conversing with Julia put forward his own set of rules that according to him all murder mysteries follow. This intrigues the editor and urges her to find those in the written stories. While revisiting these stories with the author, Julia found her disconnects and pondered over her doubts since she found him to be a man with a hidden past that has its mystery revolving around him. While she was determined to unveil it, she realized the ambiguity and disconnect within the stories. Getting sucked into solving these discrepancies, Julia found herself unveiling the biggest mysteries of all that tie all the stories together.

As I closed the book, I heaved a sigh of relief. After a long time, I found my peace in the heaven of mysteries. I was happy that my mind was satiated for now. When I looked at myself in the corner mirror, I realized I was smiling like a Cheshire cat! I felt it is one of the most creatively written mysteries I read recently. I wanted to clap in appreciation that it ended so away from my continuing thought flow. I was still marvelling at the constant shift of plots along with my attention with every page turn that I made. It was challenging for my inside detective to keep to its original deduction while trying to read emotions and thoughts between the written words. The thriller potion throughout was so intense that I marvel at the involvement of the author’s originality in the concept.

The potency of ‘Eight Detectives’ is high during the whole read. I was pleasantly surprised, originally intrigued, and happily satisfied with my accidental choice of random reading. Even though these stories may have their weaknesses in lack of relevant challenges for the central characters in them. Despite Pavesi himself breaking his own thumb rule of form by hiding a very integral part of the information till the end, the style, and his capability to involve the readers in his mysteries are commendable. His power as a writer to be able to suck the readers in and almost succeed in confusing them till they reach the final pages is a powerful tool that cannot be ignored. I will look at the brighter side of the whole reading process.

If this novel can engage the reader till the end and bend or twist its own rules or even rules made by others, then for me it is a success on its own. After all the author is the one who went through his pregnancy period to birth it out for the world to experience a new life! Intelligent, inventive, fun read that has the strength of cleverness on its side. Hope you all give it a try and find your favourite mystery ahead! I can’t wait to read many more new and different detective works. My brain is game for however many may come, be six, seven or eight detectives or even one!

Little Bottle of our Demons

February 1, 2022February 1, 2022
by Sameera Khan Rehmani

While I was watching Alfred Hitchcock’s version of ‘Rebecca‘, this Saturday night, I recalled the novel by Daphne du Maurier that I read when I was 12. That was heavy writing for my 12-year-old mind and to this day I can’t seem to synthesize the number of emotions that I went through while reading it and long after it was over. It made my then novice state of thoughts twist and tumble in my sweet creative vision that had just started to imagine everything will get a happy ending. It made a young reader like me believe that romanticism is the justification for every wrong occurrence in life. Moving toward the movie, realised that my young mind was so deeply impressed with the thoughts implanted at the age that while watching the movie at 40 even could not start with my romantic inclination of the thriller. Even today I was justifying to myself that the wrong that happened in the movie (i.e. murder of ‘Rebecca by the hero Maxim) is superseded by the human and romantic side of the characters. My idea of a happy ending has not loosened in strength even today as I was snuggled under my blanket in the wintery night. Despite knowing the story, I was somehow praying myself hard to let the hero free and be with the young heroine in their happy ending. However, my rational 40-year-old was constantly opposing the idea. She was trying to tell that the protagonist has done something wrong and needs to be punished. The end is not somehow justified in that he goes free and leads a happy life with his new wife while having the murder of his first wife (however negative she may be) on his hands.

Let me rewind! Let us turn back the wheels and maybe you can all peek with me into what ‘Rebecca’ was all about. So, this 1938 novel was written with a young woman whose name is not known, in mind. The story starts with her being married to a rich widower (classically powerful, charming, and intimidating). The young woman however realises that he and his household, both are haunted by ‘Rebecca’, his first wife who died. The whole novel revolves around the young woman’s journey to compete with a ghost and the truth behind her death.

Besides the intrigue in the movie, my thoughts shift towards the concept of justification of our demons. While watching the movie I realised what if we as individuals are faced with situations where our integrity is compromised, however, the cause for which we take drastic measures is noble. Does it justify our actions? Do we consider the consequence to be justified and put in the bracket of good deeds? Does our action justify our means? It is a concept that must answer to human illusions. The movie like any other of Hitchcock’s captivating geniuses was a masterpiece. It created a haunting scenario throughout with its captivating suspense and gothic thrills but in no way is it a horror movie. The suspense and successful creation of a strange eerie atmosphere are commendable.

This eeriness continues to creep within me when I look back at the time when it was more of a romantic novel for my young self, and I am astonished to recall how could I not absorb the mystery of human actions and emotions. Perhaps my young mind could only fathom so much and for me, it was more of romance that was created and exaggerated by the chaotic feelings it left with me after I was done reading. When the hero of the film, ‘Maxim de Winter’ explained to young Mrs De Winter why he hated Rebecca so much by saying, “I was carried away by her, enchanted by her, as everyone was. And when I was married, I was told that I was the luckiest man in the world. She was so lovely, so accomplished, so amusing.” His quote resonated so well with my thoughts at 12 where I was carried away by the novel, enchanted by it! I was sure everyone who read it thought the same since everything about it was so “accomplished”! Lying on my thinking couch the idea seemed to be so trivial but back at the age of 12, to a girl with her heart in her eyes and her mind in chaos because of the weird notions of romantic justice, his actions more than justified his thoughts. Even today while watching the film after such a gap I feel restless that my rationality overpowers my emotions. My heart still wants to justify the end, but my practicality says otherwise.

https://www.pexels.com/photo/depressed-young-man-with-blurred-head-in-dark-room-3833370/

Photo Credit: pexels.com

My question here is do our emotions have enough power to cloud our judgements? Does the idea of perfection manage to lure us out of our rationality? Should there be a divide between our sense of judgement and taking of particular action out of our emotional turmoil? Is it right to bottle our demons up or is there a great need to talk and discuss this bottle of demons that stay rolling in our minds? We talk about the forbidden but at the same time we shun the discussions regarding ‘who or what shall not be named’. It is revealing to see how the concept or the actions can be a part of the discussion and not the doer of those actions. We tend to attach so many emotions and relations with the perpetrator that many times the wrong that is done end up becoming a mere figment of imagination. It takes the shape of a fantasy that is only discussed as a fabled myth of the romantic illusion of human psychology. When you and me or more like us, feel only the superficial emotiveness running through our veins, we forget that there is a harsh reality behind the façade. The so-called physical beauty and soft emotions like love and romanticism take over the harsh rationality of our minds. We then bottle these demons and leave them dangling around our neck as a magical locket that when gets broken lets that demon out with full gusto but by that time it is too late for us to pick up the pieces and bring them that bottle back into the original shape.

Tag: <span>Thriller</span>

Murders and ‘Eight Detectives’ meet their Mysteries!

Little Bottle of our Demons