Longshot - Authored by Dick Francis - Published in 1990

John Kendall ‘accepted a commission’ that four writers before him had declined. The travel agent-turned- adventure-guide writer is in dire straits, who is asked to vacate the attic apartment he lives in, and from these circumstances, you can make out that he is desperately in need of a source of income. The first book he wrote was accepted by a publishing house - he took the advance and chose to write a second one – Long Way Home. Not easy, as the creative juices run dry, and writer’s block looms like an ugly cloud over his head. The money is all gone, so when his agent Ronnie Curzon offers him the opportunity to ghost write the memoir of a former horse trainer Tremayne Vickers, he jumps at it, tempted by the prospect of having a roof over his head and food in his belly.

Although he has the limited experience of a survival guide writer (Return Safe From The Wilderness  - six hardcover guides to help the traveler through jungles, deserts, at sea, on ice, or on a safari) - he is determined to take up the project, even though Ronnie advises him otherwise, with a dire warning ‘Impulse will kill you one of these days’ - he looks forward to earning a better living.

On arrival at Shellerton, Berkshire, he is received by Mackie Vickers, Tremayne’s daughter-in-law. In the jeep, he meets the rest of the four connected to the estate - Bob Watson and his wife Ingrid, Fiona and Harry Goodhaven. The air in the vehicle is laden with silence, this changes when suddenly the jeep lands up in a ditch, after skidding. The four travelers were thrown into the freezing water, as Mackie sits at the wheel in a semi conscious state, dazed. The hero saves the hour by transporting all five people back safely to the Estate.



Kendall settles into his new life, cooking meals, hobnobbing with the kids, socializing with the guests-enjoying his stay and turn of fortune. He is introduced to Fiona’s cousin, a jockey with a strange, violent streak - Nolan, who has in the been in deep trouble for strangling a girl in the past year, takes a dislike to John, threatening and publicly attacking the writer. To make things murkier, local Inspector – Doone-  discovers the remains of a stable girl with a colorful past - Angela Brickell, who was strangled.

Soon, John Kendall is drawn into the web of intrigue and corrupt practices, there are attempts made to harm the family - and from the above example, him not being one to be found wanting when danger calls - Kendall wards off the evil eye by fighting to keep the Vickers from unforeseen harm. Why read Dick Francis? Is it for the horses, the stoic heroes who ride off into the sunset…alone or the villains who meet their just desserts? Maybe it is out of a sense of loyalty and admiration for the honest appeal of Francis’s own charm and quiet manner, or even for pretty phrases like still mornings "as rare as honest beggars"!

Knowing his connection with horses, it is somewhat difficult to envision a novel without the beloved equestrians. The narrative, though interesting, is long winded towards the end, and yes, the end is a little maudlin and sad.

Time Bomb (published in 1990) - Authored by Jonathan Kellerman

The nineties were still untouched by the then sad prospect of what the world has become today; what may have seemed like noirish fiction then, is reality now. School shoot-outs, random killings by teens are not matters of great surprise anymore. Kellerman’s own admission that this was his attempt to write a ‘quasi-political’ novel, and that he feels it unfortunate that most of what was part of his ‘warped imagination’- is now true.
Alex Delaware - maverick, genial, empathetic and insightful – a memorable Kellerman creation, receives a call on a rainy November morning from LAPD Detective Milo Sturgis, commanding him to turn on the TV (in true Alex D - style, he expects dead nuns and pets with ESP) - on doing so, he is rudely awakened to the sea of innocent children’s faces that flood the screen, all visibly shaken and understandably traumatized by the shooting. Nathan Hale Elementary School, in the west side community of Ocean Heights is the scene for what would have been a cold blooded killing spree, had not our protagonist - Holly Lyn Burden, been gunned down by the aide of a local politician.
Conspiracy theories abound, including one about an assassination attempt gone awry, fuelled by the presence of State Assemblyman Samuel Massengil and City Councilman Gordon Latch, who were participants – to-be in a televised debate. Milo then asks Alex to come over to the School, so that he can use his experience with children to help ease the stress and trauma they may face post the incident. He meets the leggy Linda, principal, and the two fall into comfortable steps with each other - discussing her apprehensions with regard to the safety of the kids and his concern about whether they are displaying signs of post-traumatic stress.




She shares with him how distressed she feels that the children (ninety percent of whom are Latino, the rest Asians,) who are already in the middle of racial discrimination and busing wars should be subject to violence at school, considering that most of them come from already troubled families and neighborhoods. She reminds Alex against using the phrase “melting pot”- citing a memo that suggests the use of ‘salad bowl’, “Every ingredient maintains its integrity, no matter how much you toss it around.”
Alex Delaware assures Principal Linda Overstreet that the best way to deal with the kids would be to tell them that the sniper was already dead (he does not know, as of now, that the gunned down body is that of a teenage girl), letting the children know that evil is destructible. As he helps the kids overcome the horrors of that morning, Alex D soon becomes involved with the over-sensitive yet devoted principal. Meanwhile, he receives a strange request from Mahlon Burden, the slain sniper’s father, to perform a ``psychological autopsy'' to clear his daughter's name.
Incidents of race - aggravated sabotage and violence increase in number at the school, Sturgis finds out that a black friend of Holly's was gunned down by the police followed political assassinations. Delaware himself is part of a conspiracy that involves a plan of killing him, since he unearths a revivalist plot of the German American Bund. The devious connivance has in tow Neo-Nazi and White Supremacists, and Anti-Semitic elements thrown in for good measure.
A racy read from the master of crime-Jonathan Kellerman. The incidents cited may have been isolated in the ’90s, but, for a reader today, they are more commonplace, and therefore, despite the book having been written over a decade ago, it rings true today , when race-induced violence is more commonplace, if not more disturbing.

Novel - Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (written by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman in 1990)

Apocalypse, Kal Yuga, Qayamat, Anti-Christ, well, I’m creeped plenty! Thankfully Good Omens: …. is anything but; it is typically “Gaimanesque” with Prachett’s wit thrown in for good measure. Most of Gaiman’s works are considered part of the genre of fantasy; but unlike many of his novels- this would appeal to young adolescents and adults. In an Age of Goblets of Fire and Fellowships of Rings, this would easily pass off as another magical fantasy-but it has religious connotations, unbeknownst to many young readers, so therefore, it is a good read for an older age group.
The End, by any other name would still mean Grim Reapers, avatars of raging gods, death, sorrow, war et al. When the Gates of Eden were shut tight to the world, the Angel Aziraphale (keeper of Eden, now the proprietor of a book shop) and the serpent, who personified Lucifer, now called Crowley (distortion-crawly, for the snake was cursed to crawl on its belly, but now happily ensconced in a 1926 Bentley) - are left on Earth, and loving this state, all play, no work. They are almost friendly, not the adversaries they set out to be over six millennia!
Suddenly, their peaceful coexistence is threatened by the birth of the Anti Christ. Very “The Omen” in its initial approach, including the nuns at the hospital who switch babies, this spoof of the original actually leaves you in splits (yeah sure, the end of the world is an obsession extraordinaire, but why not laugh about it once in a while instead of having mass-Wacko style prognostications and Heaven’s Gate’s arsenic-cyanide laced corpses paving the way to doomsday?). Over a drunken  lunch (post feeding the ducks) - the two share their apprehensions regarding Armageddon, how can they stop a good thing from coming to an end?
Adam Young, the character fashioned a lot like William, the bratty yet angelic boy from Richard Crompton’s book “Just William the Anti Christ”, is the guy they’re after, a refreshingly innocent eleven-year old, naïve towards his own unholy powers. And when he does use these powers- the race is on to find him, and the Four Horsemen (from the Book of Revelations) go a-hunting, relying on the prophecies of Agnes Nutter, 17C prophetess and witch, owned by Anathema Device her niece.


With characters that are human (it’s just their names which aren’t!), the Book does take a funny look at a serious matter that has been the preoccupation of our race -  from the Mayans to  present day doomsday-prophets.
Does the world end? Are the good guys taken up in Rapture? Read the book- it’s the only way you’ll ever know! Although stopping the world from going up in smoke isn’t such a bad idea-after all, Earth has its share of innumerable ‘first grade’ musicians, hell only two and Crowley doesn’t want to hear them play on his way out! Neil Gaiman, originally from England (no doubt from where he got his influences of druids, witches and fairies), lives in the US. He has authored many books for children such as Stardust (a major motion picture starring the likes of Peter O’Toole and Michelle Pfeiffer), Frost Giants, and picture books like Blueberry Girl.
Terry Prachett, actually Sir Terence David John Prachett is a British novelist and creator of the Discworld –a series of forty books. The recipient of the coveted Carnegie Medal for his work The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents in 2001, he has a penchant for black fedoras! He lives in the UK.
Gaiman and Prachett met way back in 1985, and got together to write Good Omens… in 1988.According to Gaiman, “I felt like a journeyman working alongside a master-craftsman in some medieval guild.” Exploring their commonalities, the Book is a labor of friendship and a synergy of common talents.
The Book has been nominated twice in 1991 – for the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel and the Locus Award for the Best Fantasy Novel. It won the FantLab’s Book of the Year Award in 2012.

Evening news by Arthur Hailey (published in 1990) - journalists face the truth and go after terrorists

Arthur Hailey, a best selling author was born in Lutton, Bedford-shire, England. He emigrated to Canada after actively serving in the Royal Air force as a pilot in the World War II. He started his literary career with Flight Into Danger and later came up with amazing titles like Hotel, Wheels, Final Diagnosis etc. He moved to the Bahamas with his writer wife Sheila, and continued to churn out best sellers. He died in November, 2004.
Evening news is about the television industry which deals with the phenomenon of getting the news to the people before a competitor does. It tells us how news is packaged to get the maximum eyeballs from the viewers thus boosting the TRP's.
Crawford Sloane is the TV news anchor man who is the face of CBA TV. He has worked himself up from being a reporter covering the Vietnam war to being an anchor. Happily married to the beautiful Jessica, and blessed with a son Sloane's life has no twists and he delivers the news about plane crashes, murder and entertainment with out any sympathy. He has strong views on terrorism and is against swapping of hostages in-case of a terrorist related kidnapping.



Soon all the good things change in Sloane's life when his wife, son and his father-in-law is kidnapped by Sendero Luminaso or Shining Path - a Maoist terrorist group operating in the jungles of Peru. They kidnap them by placing them in coffins and take them to the jungles of Peru. Soon the FBI and CIA are involved and are clueless. The ransom demanded by this organization is that CBA air programmes extolling the virtues of this organization. So Sloane puts up a crack team of news reporters which include his old friend turned rival Harry Patridge. Harry loves Sloane's wife and is hell bent on saving her and this team marches in to the jungle to save the family.
The Shining path terrorist organization is part of the Medellin drug cartel and is a ruthless outfit. The reporters are armed with only a map and faces lot of challenges. Spurred by the love of Jessica Harry goes on the hunt even when the parent organization of CBA undermines his effort. The terrorist on the other hand kill Angus, Sloane's father in law and gruesomely cut off his sons fingers and send it to him. Harry rushes and ultimately saves the family. But he is killed in a violent manner and the terrorist organization is defeated. But they in their defeat are not killed but are forced to mull over their losses.
Sloane, Jessica and their son fly back to the States wondering about their love and Harry Patridge' s sacrifice. But many parts of this book does try the reasoning of the reader. The number one being the treatment of ace reporters being more capable than FBI detectives. They march in to the jungle with a map and do not suffer much. Apart from these discrepancies Hailey brings in to the novel a vivid account of the workings of a television news station.