Author: Agatha Christie

Publisher: Collins Crime Club

Age Range: 14+

Summary:

World-famous detective, Hercule Poirot, boards the Orient Express to London at night only for a passenger to be found dead the next morning. The train is stuck in a snowdrift at night and in the morning Samuel Ratchett, an American businessman, is found dead in his compartment. 12 stab wounds, a handkerchief with the initial H, a pipe cleaner, an open window, a flat match and a charred piece of paper with “member little Daisy Armstrong” written on it. And the murderer is still on board.

Review:

Agatha Christie definitely knows how to write a solid murder mystery. The ending of the book was so unexpected, it took me a while to actually process everything. Being the most famous novel by Agatha Christie, it has even been adapted into a film. 

It must be crazy to be a detective. You can encounter a case almost anywhere, even while you are on a journey of just 2-3 days. That's exactly what happens with Hercule Poirot while traveling on the Orient Express. 

There are a total of 15 passengers in the coach including Hercule himself. He boards the train at night and at dinner one of the passengers, Samuel Ratchett asks him for help because he was receiving death threats. Poirot declines. The next morning Ratchett is found dead in his compartment. Bouc, director of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagon-Lits and a friend of Poirot, informs him that the murderer is still aboard the train since there is no way to escape in the snow. The police cant arrive and Poirot is in charge.

After doing some digging into Ratchett's compartment, Poirot reaches the conclusion that Ratchett was actually Casseti, a criminal who had kidnapped and killed a toddler named Daisy Armstrong. He had escaped corruption and fled the country. But the question still remains — who murdered Ratchett? The passengers' alibi first come into question but later even their identities become an issue.

"They knew I had no immediate means of finding out the truth, and they did not believe that I should go into the matter unless my suspicions were aroused against one particular person"

~Avani Endait

Author: Agatha Christie

Publisher: Collins Crime Club

Age Range: 14+

Summary: 

Imagine a situation where you are a detective and a bunch of leading scientists from the world are disappearing all of a sudden. There is one person who holds the key to the mystery about the disappearances and that one person, lets call her B, is dying due to injuries in the plane crash. And now a replacement is needed. Someone who can take the place of person B in order to gather information about the missing scientists.

Review:

This has to be Agatha Christie's best thriller book. I personally think it is extremely underrated and deserves just as much hype as The Murder on the Orient Express. Agatha Christie really made it feel as though I was a part of the whole crazy thrilling experience.

Olive Betterton is the wife of one of the missing scientists, Thomas Betterton. She was supposed to meet her husband at this “secret hideout” where he was living along with a lot of other scientists who were “missing” in the public’s eye. But the plane she was on crashed. The injuries were fatal and it was clear that she wouldn't live for more than a few days.

Author: Sarah Pearse

Publisher: Penguin Books

Age Range: 14+

Summary: 

An engagement party taking place at an abandoned sanatorium converted to a hotel in the Swiss Alps. What can possibly go wrong? But there is so much that is unknown — the truth behind the sanatorium, the missing architect of the hotel, the disappearance and death of the guests as well as staff, the enmity between the hotel’s manager and the architect and verity behind an old incident that took place in the protagonist’s life.

Review: 

Sarah Pearse’s debut novel,The Sanatorium has to be one of the best thriller books of all time. 

It is about a detective from the UK, Elin Warner, who arrives at an isolated hotel in Switzerland for the engagement party of her brother, Isaac. However things take a turn when Laure, Isaac’s fiance, goes missing. Following the disappearance, the hotel is evacuated due to the threat of an upcoming storm. However some staff members, the hotel owner, the manager and some guests, including Elin, are stuck inside the hotel due to an avalanche that blocks the road. 

As if things couldnt get any worse, they find Adele, one of the staff members — at the bottom of a pool, dead. Elin is in charge of the crime scene and things just keep getting creepier as more people are found dead. One thing is clear: The killer is in the hotel. Everyone is in danger and anyone could be next

"You wont want to leave...until you cant"

~Avani Endait

Author: Sudha Murty

Publisher: Penguin Books

Age Range: 13+

Short Summary:

Another one of Sudha Murty’s book about her personal experiences as a social activist. It shows both sides of human nature, the beauty and the ugliness. All sorts of people and their nature is told in the book and most of them are eye openers. The book itself can be described as something that really shows the struggles of people in India. One of my personal favorite sub-stories from the book is: A Day in Infosys Foundation

This is a glimpse into Sudha Murty’s life as the chairperson of a foundation. It really shows how people underestimate Sudha Murty’s job and make assumptions about how it must be really easy. If the quote “Don't judge someone until you’ve walked in their shoes” was a story, this would be it. 

Responding to hundreds of emails and phone calls, most of which make requests that cannot be fulfilled, attending meetings, making sure the budget is properly managed, dealing with rude people and so many more things along with the good outcomes of the work, students getting admissions in good colleges thanks to the scholarships, seeing people happy after receiving help from the foundation make the hard work worth. Sudha Murty expressed that money or fame is not the foundation’s goal, it is to see people benefit from the help. 

~Avani Endait 

Publisher: Penguin Books

Age Range: 9+

Short Summary:

Grandma’s Bag of stories is one of Sudha Murty’s most popular books to this day. And why wouldn't it be? I will admit I have read this book an unhealthy amount of times but it never gets any less interesting. The entire book is full of all sorts of stories, from enchanted scorpions to hungry bears. The book has sold over 200,000 copies all over the world. 

The language used is really easy to understand and it is a book that not only toddlers but even adults can enjoy. After all, who doesn't love a good story? I found the setting of the book really interesting and creative. It's not just a book where a bunch of good stories are compiled one after another. It's written in a way where the author, Sudha Murty, describes how some cousins spend their summer in a village with their grandparents. Although it's written in third-person point of view, it is possible that Sudha Murty is depicted as the grandma since other factors such as the village are the same as Sudha Murty’s actual hometown. 

Overall I would say the book is one of the best books Sudha Murty has written; the stories, the format, the setting and the way of writing is top tier. If you haven't read this book yet, you are missing out on some really good stories.

~Avani Endait

Publisher: Penguin Books

Age Range: 12+

Short Summary:

Wise and otherwise is a book based on Sudha Murty’s experience as a social activist. The book will take you through all sorts of realistic situations which took place in India. It is mostly based on people’s struggles and how they find their way out of it. Here is one of the sub-stories from the book: A man too clever by half

The incident is from the time when Infosys foundation was at its infancy. Sudha Murty writes about the library project which was about establishing libraries in villages. Now, since the Foundation was in its early stages the office was not really fancy. On a hot afternoon there is a visitor at the Foundation office. He talks to Sudha Murty about selling some books to the Foundation for their library project.

However, the careless visitor doesn't know that the person he is talking to is the Foundation’s trustee, that is Sudha Murty. He wanted to sell those books under any circumstances and so he claims that he knows Sudha Murty and her husband really well, going as far as to say that he was the one who mediated their marriage. Now that didnt sit right Sudha Murty; This man was claiming to be her long time friend when she was 100% sure she had never even met him before. She played along for a while but to find out how she burst the visitor’s bubble, you should read the book Wise and Otherwise

~Avani Endait