Book Review: The Grand Oxford Mystery

 

The Grand Oxford Mystery 
by Manjiri Prabhu
312 pages, Comm Dot Media Publishing
Genre :  Destination Thriller


How did Oxford get its name? What is a letter locker? What is the Oxford Mystery and why does it have to be solved in Oxford right away if no one is to die? These questions and more are asked and answered by author Dr. Manjiri Prabhu in her destination thriller, "The Grand Oxford Mystery"

Emma is a tourist guide at Oxford. She works part time for Paul, an elderly novelist  who dictates chapters to her which she types and takes print outs. Something is strange about Paul. He has a pet dog which he refuses to feed. He  pays Emma not just to take down his dictation, give him printouts of  his novel but also Emma feed the dog which she does happily. Then one fine day, Emma arrives to find Paul had committed suicide but why? 

Re Parkar, an investigative journalist has a horrific vision of his sister in flames. So he arrives at Oxford, so his mother Maria can reassure him. There he gets to meet his mother's friend Professor Jeffery. Emma is the niece of professor Jeffrey. Re and Emma team up when Jeffrey receives a note stating that something horrible is going to happen at the Oxford award ceremony the next day. They have 28 hours and the note is from Paul who is dead.  The novella itself is the clue and the eight chapters are scattered across Oxford. Will they be able to solve the mystery on time and stop a catastrophe from happening?  

The author's admiration for Oxford University comes through as she takes you across Oxford with her descriptions as the protagonists look for clues.The writing flows well keeping the reader guessing. Some readers will try to solve the puzzle before the protagonists do. The pace is staccato in the beginning and becomes almost breakneck as it reaches the end. So be prepared for a roller coaster ride.  This is a mystery set inside a thriller. 

For writers and authors, each chapter will make you ponder about your own writing life. For others, this is a mind game  book with  each chapter set as a maze - what is Paul up to and why was his plan to threaten from the grave? Isn't it unusual ?  Have fun reading this book. 

You can buy it here Amazon

Book Review of Shattered Peace : A Century of Silence

 

Shattered Peace : A Century of Silence 
by Julie McDonald Zander
Genre: Historical Fiction
292 pages, St. Helens Press

"Let’s pray the tragedy that unfolded on the streets of Centralia in November 1919 are never forgotten ... and more importantly, never repeated." - Julie McDonald Zander


Colleen Holmes's grandma gifts her the family home in Centralia, Washington state. Colleen is a war veteran who lives with nightmares of the Iraqi war and struggles through it. While she accepts the gift and moves to Washington State from Colorado, she decides the two story house is too big and decides to redo the top floor. In the process, she finds the diary of her great great grandmother Bridget.

Zipping back to the first world war and its aftermath in America to the present day USA seamlessly,  the author zeroes in on what is a little known incident to the outside world and probably to many young  Americans themselves - the friction between Industrial Workers of the World ( IWW) who demanded better wages, working conditions and reasonable working hours for all American labourers. The IWW wanted to form a single union for all labourers. One of  IWW's most important contributions to the labor movement and broader push of social justice was that, when founded, it was the only American union to welcome all workers, including women, immigrants, African Americans and Asians, into the same organization. They had no beef with the American veterans from WW1. The friction was ignited by the IWW members questioning why young Americans need to be sent abroad to die in foreign countries while the American vets feel they are belittled on hearing this. The politics of this leads to a clash in Centralia, Washington which led to deaths. Who were the other players who benefited from this friction by calling members of the IWW as communists and radicals, I will leave the reader to find out.  How Colleen's story and her great-great grandfather's story are so similar is amazing. 

The writing is amazing, crisp and well paced. It makes the reader wonder why even after 100 years, young Americans are still being sent to fight foreign wars and those who return alive, live with PTSD in USA today and feel unappreciated is still going on.  This is an important book to read. 

Do buy it here -Amazon