It is one of the hardest things to settle on a crime thriller of your choice, because there are many authors of this genre, spanning over quite a few decades. You are bombarded with crime stories all the time; and it is not otherwise even when you read a newspaper. It is, therefore, difficult to come up with anything original. Still, there are a few books that thrill you. One such fiction is Jeffry Archer’s ‘Only Time Will Tell. The epic tale of Harry Clifton’s life begins in 1920 with the words, “I was told that my father was killed in the war.” Harry, a dock worker in Bristol, does not know who his father was.
He learns from his uncle – who expects Harry to join him at the shipyard after completing his school – about the dock workers. But then, everything in Harry’s life changes, as he gets a scholarship. Harry finally learns how his father died. A few questions, like is he the son of Arthur Clifton, stevedore who spent his whole life on the docks? Is he the firstborn son of a scion of West Country society? It consists of colourful characters and takes you through the ravages of the Second World War.
This was the time when Harry had to decide whether to join Oxford or to opt for the navy and go to war with Hitler’s Germany. The Only Time Will Tell takes us from the docs of working-class England to the streets of New York City of the 1940s. Each page is a breath-taking portrait of the happenings. The other page-turners that may drive you crazy are Fredrick Forsyth’s Icon, The Day of The Jackal, and The Odessa File. Icon opens with the condition Russia was passing through in 1999.
Tome & Plume: Diction Adds Tinge To Your Writings
Forsyth writes: “It was the summer when the price of a small loaf of bread topped a million roubles.” As famine, crime, corruption, and inflation ravage the nation, a president sits in Moscow. A horde of the jobless stray the streets. Amidst utter chaos that Russia was in, Igor Komarov, one-time army sergeant, rose to leadership of the right-wing UPF. A document, consisting of secret missions of UPF or Black Manifesto, is stolen frm his office and smuggled to Washington and London.
Black Manifesto is akin to Mein Kampf. Once you start, you may like to finish it at one go. The world of detective stories remains incomplete unless one speaks about Sherlock Holmes. Holmes and the Case of Sabina Hall is the book, in which Holmes and Watson agree to take the Baker Street Suite together.
The book begins with a cold note – the condition of Sabina Hall – which Holmes and Watson travel to. From the first page, the book gives off a whiff of mystery. The thistle of Scotland, a rare jewel, becomes the pivot around which the mystery moves and the fate of the Mowbray family – especially the daughter, Lady Caroline Mowbray. Thistle disappears in the presence of the guests at the wedding breakfast following Lady Caroline’s marriage to fortune-hunter Dolph Stanely. Only Holmes could solve the mystery. Does he really do it? This is the gripping tale hidden in the cold Sabina Hall. Talking about the world of crime, one can hardly forget The Godfather by Mario Puzo.
It is one of the few novels that have forced themselves into the imagination of their readers as subtly as Puzo’s ‘The Godfather’ has done. The book raises questions about the legitimacy of power achieved through violence. The main character of the novel is Don Vito Corleone. It has been sketched on a real-life Mafia boss, Sicilian-born Joseph Bonanno. Nevertheless, your final recommendation, which dates from the golden era of mystery writing, the 1930s, is yet to come.
It is And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. Had she been alive today, she would have had a major problem, as today’s Poirot could not muster six or seven people in a room and quiz them after giving them a lecture. What the criminals would have told such a detective as Poirot was to talk to their lawyers. But 50 years ago it was not unjust. The other difficulty Christie would have faced is DNA testing which came into existence in 1986, opening a new door to the world of investigators. So, Christie might have missed it today.
