Carl Deuker -- Books, Movies, TV

Teresa has her son (Patrick) raised by Nora, but only at the expense of a broken heart. Teresa enters cloistered convent.  Nora's children:  John, successful campaign advisors, but for REPUBLICANS. Unthinkable for Catholics.  Daughter Rachel (or is it Bridget) is gay and wants to bear a child. Brian, youngest, works at Patrick's bar.  Patrick gets the bar after having the great good fortune of having a container take off two of his toes at the docks.  Settlement is for $200,000, which he uses to buy the bar.  Charlie dies of cancer.  John's daughter is adopted from China, and as a teenager doesn't talk to either John or his wife. Good Irish family stuff--quick tempers, quick forgiveness. Talking over one another, finishing each other's stories, repeating stories at every family meeting, family tiffs and rivalries, Mom more impressed with Patrick's bar than John's success as campaign manager.

Listening on Audible. Hoping to get book from library. Nora and Teresa are headed from Ireland to the USA. Nora is to marry Charlie, whom she is somehow engaged to though she doesn't love. He's from her town and has gone ahead to get things ready. Teresa is the younger sister, the fair-haired child. Prettier, smarter, livelier. Nice start--Catholic Church looms in the background. Example.  Priest/teacher feels up the prettiest girl in school while the other girls are commanded to stare at their texts. Girls report to one another, but not to parents.  They are sure the parents would blame them, not the priest. St. Francis in 1960's. Brother Donald known to rub legs of kids in his class. Kids talked to one another. To my knowledge, no one ever reported him.

The resolution of the mystery is not strong.  In essence, Blake discovers that the bureaucrat he thought responsible was, instead, simply mistaken in his persecution of the thugges, not evil.  However, another bureaucrat was downright evil.  Really, as a reader, which bureaucrat is to blame isn't compelling.  Blake and Avery also agree to keep their discoveries and the facts around the murder of Mountstuart semi-hushed up . . . again, not dramatic. However . . . the creation of the feel of India was great.  Both Avery and Blake were well-rounded.  The afterward helps in understanding the historical context and the controversy over the "thugs."  Did they even exist.  An example of the subtlety:  Avery ends the book with the plan to marry his sweetheart.  Blake congratulates him, then says something to the effect of:  "But you know, my young friend, your eyes have been opened to the corruption at the core of the English domination of India.  Can you really be a good

More of an action thriller recently than a mystery.  Blake and Avery are captured, escape with Mountstuart through a series of caves, go into disguise as they trek with little food across India, are attacked and nearly killed, but kill the bad guys.  Mountstuart dies, and now they are trying to set things right. Should finish tomorrow.

from Wikipedia To take advantage of their victims, the Thugs would join travellers and  gain their confidence ; this would allow them to surprise and strangle the travellers with a handkerchief or noose. They would then rob and bury their victims. This led to the Thugs being called  Phansigar (English: "using a  noose "), a term more commonly used in southern India. [4]  During the 1830s, the Thugs were targeted for eradication by  Governor-General of India ,  William Bentinck  and his chief captain,  William Henry Sleeman . The Thuggee cult was apparently destroyed by this effort. [1] [5] Strangler Vine questions whether "Thugs" existed or were a creation of the English. Avery and Blake continue to have an interesting relationship. They have found Mountstuart (sp? I'm listening on audio) because they've been captured by the same brigands who captured Mountstuart. So now they need to escape. Very enjoyable.

Historical crime fiction. Avery, young and very English, teams up with Blake, nearly gone native. They spar, irritate one another, but slowly come to appreciate one another. Interesting look at India in 1840.  Thugges, bandits, poverty, colonial. Like the book.

I guess I just don't like wise books.

This is a "wise" book, with all the virtues and vices of the genre.  Simplicity, a good heart, live in the moment--all true, I suppose, but you have to wonder if anyone, ever, actually managed to live that way. Boy, Andalusian shepherd, is told by "seer" that his fortune is waiting for him at the pyramids. He sells his sheep and sets out.  Tea salesman in Tangiers, then on a caravan.  Oasis stopover . . .  he sees two hawks fighting and warns the warriors at the oasis that they are about to be attacked.  He meets the Alchemist, learns of the Philosopher's Stone.

Really good plot, but I found the ending to be too much exposition and not enough action. I'll read another, though, as much of this was extremely good.  Spoilers follow Hammer Man is Raj's father, Patel. Joey is Raj's (unknown to him) half-brother\ Joey's father is Mr. O'Toole Patel murdered Mr. O'Toole and family after learning of pregnancy of his wife.  (He stopped having sex with her during the time of her affair because she'd cut her hair short--she couldn't pass Joey off as their child." Mrs. Patel learns of Joey's death--shoots and kills her husband. Lydia is somewhat reconciled with her father but breaks with her boyfriend, David.  Headed toward Raj as new beau.

Two plots converge. Joey, the suicide, knew Lydia's father when Dad was a prison guard.  Dad shared photos of Lydia with Joey.  Joey also was seeking his biological parents. Lydia discovers that the lead detective in Hammer Man case believes her father is the murderer, and he has good reasons.  Lydia is contacted by dad. She feels a push pull. She wants info from Dad but she is repelled by him. Turns out David, Lydia's boyfriend, has known about Lydia's past for years and has been talking to Dad without Lydia's knowledge. Exciting!

So, Joey was cutting up one book and making windows to slide other books inside, and now Lydia is decoding all this and showing it to Lyle. The plot is pushing "the willing suspension of disbelief" aspect of reading to the limits, but I'm hanging in there. Raj has returned. Dad/Lydia estranged. Dad living in mountains after murders of Carol and her family during Lydia's sleepover. Some connection between murder of that family and Joey's suicide?

Lydia's terrifying sleep-over at Carol's house when she is 10. (Hammer Man; cabinet under the sink). Suicide in the book store leaves grown-up Lydia his books--they have cut-out windows and (the used books) have labels from her new book store.  Some sort of code?  Lydia's beau, David, thinks so and wants to work the code out. Raj, Lydia's childhood boyfriend of sorts, shows up.    Exciting.

I really liked this book.  I found all of the "history" of each of the characters very believable.  The section where Joe weeps while watching The Glass Menagerie was magnificent.  Not many thrillers match this one for story, plot, character and theme.  Terrific!