The Whimsy Bookworm: A Book Blog from India

 Hello, hello, It is that time of the year again! The one where we revisit the books we're read and loved and share a Top 10 genre-wise list of recommendations with you!  So, without any further ado, let's get into our Top 10 Crime Thriller/ Crime Fiction Books of 2022!  1. The Christie Affair by Nine de Gramont is a wonderful mystery-in-a-mystery about the 11 days in 1926 when Agatha Christie went missing without a trace. Full review can be read here . If you enjoy historical fiction and mysteries, then this is a book you'll love. 2. The Maid by Nita Prose is a story about a neurodivergent maid, Molly, who works in a 5-star hotel and is pulled into the murder of an infamous guest. The book follows her journey to clear her name, make friends and live her best life. A off-the-beaten-track type of murder mystery with great characters as well. Read our spoiler-free review here . 3. The Appeal by Janice Hallett is an epistolary-ish book where two law students get to the ...

  Book: The Ink Black Heart  Author: Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling)  Pages: 1024 Read on: Kindle  Read in: ~9 hours over 2 days  Plot Summary:  When frantic, dishevelled Edie Ledwell appears in the office begging to speak to her, private detective Robin Ellacott doesn't know quite what to make of the situation. The co-creator of a popular cartoon,  The Ink Black Heart , Edie is being persecuted by a mysterious online figure who goes by the pseudonym of Anomie. Edie is desperate to uncover Anomie's true identity. Robin decides that the agency can't help with this - and thinks nothing more of it until a few days later, when she reads the shocking news that Edie has been tasered and then murdered in Highgate Cemetery, the location of  The Ink Black Heart . Robin and her business partner Cormoran Strike become drawn into the quest to uncover Anomie's true identity. But with a complex web of online aliases, business interests and family conflicts to nav...

  Book: Troubled Blood (Cormoran Strike Book 5) Author: Robert Galbraith (aka JK Rowling) Pages: 888 Read on: Kindle  Read in: ~8-9 hours over two days  Plot Summary:  Private Detective Cormoran Strike is visiting his family in Cornwall when he is approached by a woman asking for help finding her mother, Margot Bamborough - who went missing in mysterious circumstances in 1974. Strike has never tackled a cold case before, let alone one forty years old. But despite the slim chance of success, he is intrigued and takes it on; adding to the long list of cases that he and his partner in the agency, Robin Ellacott, are currently working on. And Robin herself is also juggling a messy divorce and unwanted male attention, as well as battling her own feelings about Strike. As Strike and Robin investigate Margot's disappearance, they come up against a fiendishly complex case with leads that include tarot cards, a psychopathic serial killer and witnesses who cannot all be truste...

  Hello! Long time no book haul. I don't think I bought any books since...March? Or was it February? I have been buying occasional ebooks but I just didn't think it was a good idea to get any physical books. One, I didn't really NEED new books. I felt like the one good thing of this whole lockdown mess would mean reading books that had been sitting on my shelves for ages. Also, in the earliest days of the lockdown, books weren't being shipped, since they weren't considered essential items. Well, ok. Secondly, even once they were being shipped, the idea of having to sanitize yet another thing seemed like too much work.  So no books were bought.  But by July was I beginning to crack. I missed book mail and I missed the sight of new books in my life.  July is also Harry Potter's birthday and it is usually when I tend to re-read one or more of the Potter books.  Now, before I go on any further, I feel like I need to talk about JK Rowling and her very controversial a...

Hello August & Hello Reading only Indian Writers all month long.  August is one of my favourite months ever and my reading theme for the month has a lot to do with it.  :)  I hope August is good for you and me.  I know things are tough and with  no end in sight, but all we can do is power through.  I plan on getting my reading on and really keep my mind and eyes off the News and only focus on the good things for a change.  INDIAN BOOKS IN AUGUST: For the last 7 odd years August has meant reading only Indian books to celebrate all things India in the month of her Independence. I also pick up a few books from Pakistan and Bangladesh to honour how important this month it to our entire subcontinent.  This month I plan on perusing my bookshelves and keeping a pile of books I want to read this month.  I will share my TBR once I have made a comprehensive list.  To kickstart my month, I started with a favourite ...

HELLO FEBRUARY!  Be Good.  Be Kind.  Be Gentle.  Be Fun!  My favourite month in the entire year is here!!!  Birthday Month!  Let's do this!  I am so excited for this month to be here. While I may no longer we madly excited for my birthday, I do like to do a little something special all month long.  So in bid to make February as wonderful as possible I plan on reading only my Favourite Authors and Books all month long. I think my birth month deserves no less. So I'll be reading.. Amitav Ghosh. Ruskin Bond.  JK Rowling.  Murakami. Agatha Christie.  John Steinbeck.  Jhumpa Lahiri.  Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni.  And others.  My TBR is currently under construction but this is the main gist of it.  Only the best for February.  To begin on the best bookish month, I've started with a forever favourite Harry Potter.  I bought only ...

Book: Lethal White (Cormoran Strike Book 4) Author: Robert Galbraith / JK Rowling  Pages: 656  Read on: Kindle  Read in: Over 2 days  Plot Summary:  'I seen a kid killed . . . He strangled it, up by the horse.' When Billy, a troubled young man, comes to private eye Cormoran Strike's office to ask for his help investigating a crime he thinks he witnessed as a child, Strike is left deeply unsettled. While Billy is obviously mentally distressed, and cannot remember many concrete details, there is something sincere about him and his story. But before Strike can question him further, Billy bolts from his office in a panic. Trying to get to the bottom of Billy's story, Strike and Robin Ellacott - once his assistant, now a partner in the agency - set off on a twisting trail that leads them through the backstreets of London, into a secretive inner sanctum within Parliament, and to a beautiful but sinister manor house deep in the countrysi...

Hello!  It's time to share yet another haul of books, this time for the books that I've added to my bookshelves in the month of October.  I will say, my book buying has become a whole lot tamer in 2017. It's not really been a conscious decision, just life taking it's own course. I guess after years and years of buying over 10 book minimum a month, I had a slow down coming.  I once bought over 30 books in one month way back in 2014..good times. Good times! But I just no longer feel the need to buy so many books in one go. My personal library is exactly how I need for it to be. A good mix of classics, modern classics and some contemporary books thrown in as well. Plus my Kindle is full of books I borrow from Kindle Unlimited and full of thrillers that I buy. Do you find your book buying change from one year to the next? 📚📚📚 Now coming to October!  I bought 3 books and 2 books were kindly sent to me by the folks over at Penguin India for re...

Hello!  October was a long and lovely month.  It was full of festivity and joy and good tidings.  You were super lovely October.  And I read 12 books! Not bad at all!  :)  Hope your October was good too.  Let's see some of my favourites from October. Oh..I completely skipped listing my faves from August and September on the blog. I guess it completely skipped my mind and I didn't have that many things I loved in those months.  But now on to October... 1. Durga Pujo/// Of course this is my No. 1 favourite in the month of October. A Bengali's biggest festival. This year I went to some 12 pandals. Ate delicious food and spent some quality time with my family.  2. Favourite Book/// This was my favourite book bought and read in October. It made me delightfully happy.  3. Diwali/// The Festival of Lights neatly wrapped up the end of the month. Sparklers. Sweets. Rangoli. The best part...

Book: Career of Evil Author: Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling) Pages: 497 Read on: Kindle Read in: 3-4 days Plot Summary:  When a mysterious package is delivered to Robin Ellacott, she is horrified to discover that it contains a woman's severed leg. Her boss, private detective Cormoran Strike, is less surprised but no less alarmed. There are four people from his past who he thinks could be responsible--and Strike knows that any one of them is capable of sustained and unspeakable brutality. With the police focusing on the one suspect Strike is increasingly sure is not the perpetrator, he and Robin take matters into their own hands, and delve into the dark and twisted worlds of the other three men. But as more horrendous acts occur, time is running out for the two of them... Career of Evil  is the third in the highly acclaimed series featuring private detective Cormoran Strike and his assistant Robin Ellacott. A fiendishly clever mystery with unexpected twists aroun...