The Man in the Brown Suit (published in 1924) written by Agatha Christie

This was another book of Agatha Christie that was written without her main characters of Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. The book was published in 1924, and is more like a thriller than a detective novel, following the adventure of a young orphan girl who gets into a mystery after encountering an accident on the London tube station where she encounters a man who fell onto the track, and a doctor then tends to the man. While leaving, the supposed doctor drops a note which the young girl (Anne Beddingfeld) picks up, and so starts her adventure. She could have been like other people, dropping the note into a trash can, and not thinking about it again; in which case there would have been no novel, and no story. However, she did pick it up, and so started a major mystery story that crosses several countries, thrilling escapades and encounters with diamond robbers, murderers and political intrigue. Mixed in is the tale of a former international criminal called the Colonel, who organizes terrorism and who is hanging up his boots; what happened to his former agents ? Nothing, since he decides to leave them as they are and they have to tend for themselves now.



The book starts with one of the former agents, Nadina, who acts like a Russian dancer, and also another agent called Count Sergius Paulovitch, both of them agents of the Colonel, who are pondering their future. The Colonel has decided to leave them as they are, without any financial support or protection against their enemies; and they have to take care of their own future now. There are multiple people involved in this adventure, besides Anne, and as would be expected from such a book, one can never be sure about who is on the right side and who is a villain. Some of the people involved in the book are:
- Sir Eustace Pedler, MP, who is also 'The Colonel', a criminal mastermind
- Guy Pagett, Sir Eustace Pedler's secretary
- Anita Grünberg, alias Nadina, alias Mrs de Castina – one-time agent of 'The Colonel'
- Arthur Minks, alias the Rev. Edward Chichester alias Miss Pettigrew, alias Count Sergius Paulovitch - an agent of 'The Colonel'
- Mr Flemming, solicitor, and his wife: Anne's landlords after her father's death
and many others.
This was a pretty interesting book, and well worth reading.

The Secret Adversary (published in 1922) - a detective novel by Agatha Christie

Agatha Cristie had started with her first book published in 1920 (The mysterious affair at Styles), and wrote a number of books during her career. 2 of her main characters were the detectives - Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, but she also had novels that did not have these 2 characters. One of these was an early book of hers, called 'The Secret Adversary', published in 1922. The book introduces the character of Tommy and Tuppence who also features in other novels of hers. The book met with praise from critics on its release, and was later turned into a movie released in 1929, and also into a TV drama. One small problem was the book that there were a lot of cliched characters in the book, with many characters being obvious villains. The book was set in 1919 in London and other locations in Britain. It depicts a young couple Tommy Beresford and Prudence "Tuppence" Cowley, who offer themselves out as adventurers, since they have no money and no work. And there starts the adventure.



They soon find themselves stuck in a political and spying game, when they use the name of 'Jane Finn' for Tuppence; using this name Tuppence is rejected for a job (and they had over-heard this name in a conversation earlier); a person named Whittington hears scraps of their conversation and believes that they are blackmailing, and pays them some money for them to stop using their information (information that they do not possess). However, when they realize that they can get more information from Whittington, they find that he has vanished. Knowing that the name of 'Jane Finn' seems to be causing this search, they put an ad in the paper with the same name, and get a response from a Mr. Carter, who tells them the background to what Jane Finn actually was, and the significance of the name to intelligence agencies. They are contacted by more people, including police officials (and they realize that they had also been contacted by a villain earlier). The rest of the story is about contact with these secret agencies, with bolshevik agents out to topple the British government, and so on.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles - The first book by Agatha Christie (introducing Hercule Poirot) (published in 1920)

In 1920, a phenomenon showed up in the literary world, by the name of Agatha Christie. She soon became a prolific creator of detective novels, and created 2 incredible characters in the shape of Hercule Poirot (the egoistical Belgian detective) and Miss Marple (the elderly spinster). It was in this novel (written in 1916 and published in 1920), "The Mysterious Affair at Styles", that Hercules Poirot was first introduced to the public, the start of what was to become a number of novels. The novel also introduced the other characters that seem to accompany Poirot in all his novels, in the shape of Inspector (later, Chief Inspector) Japp and Lieutenant Hastings (later, Captain), and the story is told by Hastings (who is on sick leave from the ongoing war). The book got good reviews and critical acclaim. Like many of her other novels, this one was also adopted as a TV drama and as a BBC radio adaption.



The novel was set in a typical Christie set, in an old manor, with many suspects, of whom many of them could have a motive for the murder. This novel was set in a manor at Essex. Mrs. Cavendish, a wealthy widow, had become wealthy after the death of her husband, with inhering an estate and also much wealth. She had recently remarried the younger Alfred Inglethorp, and she lived at Styles along with her step-children (the children of Mr. Cavendish from an earlier marriage), and in the event of her death, Styles would pass to Mr. John Cavendish, her eldest stepson. Lieutenant Hastings, is a guest over there when Mrs. Emily Inglethorp dies from strychnine poisoning; and Hastings calls his friend, Hercule Poirot. Alfred seems to be chief suspect, but was not present when Emily died. Most damning, he had to gain from his wife's death, and had also purchased strychnine in the village earlier. But Poirot clears him, and then John is arrested. But who did the murder ?

Jungle Lore - a book by Jim Corbett (published in 1953)

Jim Corbett was a famous man of the Jungle, who lived in the northern portion of India (the Kumaon and other Himalayan regions) in the first half of the 20th century, and was an expert in the Jungle. He could track animals like the best of them, and was much in demand, especially for killing those animals (tigers, leopards) who had started killing humans. This would happen if the animals were diseased, or badly injured enough that they could not catch their normal prey, or had realized that humans were easier prey, especially in the region that was hilly and very green. Jim Corbett would take up such assignments, tracking down these animals over the days required, and finally hunt them down. He had given up shooting for fun, and only killed when the need was for killing such man-eaters. In dedication to him, a famous tiger reserve called "Corbett Tiger Reserve" was named after him.



Nowadays, the message about the need to protect nature, to ensure that their is a correct balance between man and nature is maintained is very important, since the future of humans depends on maintaining this balance. However, many many decades before, Jim Corbett would write on the same subject, about the hills and the nature of the forests of Kumaon.
The book is about his life, his experiences, and what he learned as a result of his experiences. Corbett had a very strong respect for the animals of the jungle, and the overall beauty of the entire nature experience.

The Man-eating Leopard of Rudraprayag (By Jim Corbett) (published in 1948)

Jim Corbett was a famous hunter and conservationist, who was born and lived in the Terai region of the Himalayas. He knew the jungle inside out, and was an expert tracker. He was also much in demand for his hunting, but at some time in his life, he had made a vow to not kill for fun, but kill those animals who hunted humans. He is responsible for killing a number of leopards and tigers who had terrorised humans in the region (many of these animals had killed scores of humans). Jim Corbett is now immortalized with the naming of a famous Tiger Habitat, called the Jim Corbett Tiger National Park (having around 164 tigers) located in the same regions where he lived, and where animals are now protected. Corbett wrote a number of books based on the animals he killed, especially since he also wrote about the habitat, about the reasons as to why an animal turned into a man-eater (because it was unable to hunt its natural prey - old age, wounded in a fight, or injured by a bullet), and also about the society of that time.



This book about the chase of an animal famous as the man-eater of Rudraprayag in the year 1925-26, in which he was accompanied by Commissioner of Kumaon, Sir William Ibbotson. They were tracking an animal that had killed around 125 people, and was an elusive hunt, and was a pretty heavy task; compounded by the fact that the region in which the leopard roamed free was around 1300 square kilometers.
As usual Corbett describes the society around him, the superstitions and faiths of the villagers; something which varied drastically between daytime and night. At night, the terror of the leopard would ensure that people kept inside, scared of the leopard. You also realize the admiration with which Corbett held the nature and environment around him.

The Temple Tiger and More Man-Eaters of Kumaon (published in 1954)

Jim Corbett was a famous hunter and conservationist who lived in the region of Terai and Kumaon, in North India during the latter half of the 19th century, and through to the mid part of the 20th century. Being born in this region, he grew up with the forested and mountainous region and became very familiar with it. He loved the jungle, was very comfortable inside the forest, and could track down animals.
He became very famous as a hunter, but he was no there for the thrill of killing wild animals, instead killing those who became man-eaters. Some of the animals (typically tigers and leopards) that Jim Corbett killed were those who would terrorize villages, killing people as they moved around after dark. These animals had typically lost the ability to hunt their native prey, being either weak, or having suffered some wounds in battle, or having been shot and injured; in such a state, hunting humans was far easier than trying to kill their traditional prey. Villagers would call Jim Corbett to hunt down such animals, and he would track them down, sometimes alone (accompanied by his dog) and hunt them down.



These were the days before modern vehicles, so moving between places and through the forests would take a fair amount of time to do. This book is the last such book written by Corbett of his adventures, culminating in the last terrific tale of his quest to kill the Talla Des Man-Eater. The stories have vivid descriptions of the forest, as well as of the rural Indian societies of these remote villages and small towns.
Reading these books will almost give you the feel that you are along with him, and able to get inside the minds of the big killer cats, and you learn to appreciate these huge animals, as well as the reasons why they do need to be killed. You also get to read interesting tidbits such as the superstitions among the people inhabiting those areas.

Man-Eaters of Kumaon by Jim Corbett (published in 1944)

Jim Corbett was a famous hunter and conservationist born and brought up in India during the latter half of the 18th century, and lived up till the mid-1950's. He was also a colonel in the British Indian army, and also worked for the Railways. He is famous (immortalized to some extent) by the naming of one of the large Wildlife sanctuaries in Uttranchal (India), called Corbett National Park, the home of the Royal Bengal tiger (at current count, there are 164 tigers inside the Park).
Corbett was also much respected by the local population of the region, a mountainous and forested regions; since he was called upon by them to kill many of the man-eating tigers and leopards that roamed in the region. Typically, these were animals that were either old or had suffered injuries during fights or when they were shot, and were unable to kill their natural prey. As a result, they turned to hunting easier prey, such as humans and many of them killed tens or hundreds of humans. The terror cast by such cats was such that people would not move out of their homes during the night.



Corbett had become incredibly comfortable with the jungle, becoming a good tracker and lover of nature. This is when he vowed never to kill or hunt down animals for fun, instead only using his gun when required to kill man-eaters.
The book is an interesting collection of 10 such stories where Corbett tracked and shot down these man-eaters in the Kumaon and other regions. Many of these required much effort to track down these animals, including live baits to get them. As you read about these tracking efforts, you learn about how an animal turns to become a man-eater, and you also learn about the efforts involved in tracking down such a man-eater, especially since such a man-eater loses the natural shyness of humans and can easily attack the hunter. These are very interesting stories.