My Degree of Obsession with Patterson's Degree of Guilt

Somehow, this was a rather satisfying courtroom drama read after ages. I have no idea why but I feel it can be remade as a very nice Japanese dorama.

I’ve cut my teeth on Perry Mason - our family had loads of those. And libraries all around had all we didn’t. But I doubt anyone can have read all of them these days let alone all Erle Stanley Gardner's output.

And, of course, years later, John Grisham took over that spot on the bookshelf.

After that the genre did not throw itself my way until I found Degree of Guilt by Richard North Patterson in a relative’s house. I needed something to read and I read it.

It was just one of those books I couldn’t really put down and was very handy as it came at a time when I was home alone and I don’t sleep well at all at such times, especially on a hot summer's night. So bad reading light and all, I sped through the book in a couple of days and nights.

I liked it from a couple of points of view, and one of those is the whodunnit part. Perhaps it’s because at two points I guessed the ‘who’. Not that it was easy but I liked the way it was crafted.

It’s fairly pacy, racy in a minor way and has all the huge drama of a TV Nordic Noir drama.

Apparently there’s a TV movie of this book too! I’d want to watch that. Though someone says it’s a mashup of two of his books.

Basically, the protagonist is a male lawyer. He has a son. The mother of the boy is a major mystery figure. She has a nice figure too, one figures out from Page One on.

The lawyer has a sidekick - a she. She’s smart. And go figure! Maybe not hour glass but good enough to warrant a scene where the abovementioned two ladies subliminally sniff each other out warily and with veiled hostility.

The book opens with a corpse. A dead man with his pants around his ankles.

The man is a writer. With a mother complex. And a perverted degree of fandom for a certain actress.

The actress had committed suicide sometime before the book begins.

And then there’s a psychiatrist, also dead a priori.

And he has a daughter and he left tapes of his sessions with clients.

Go figure! And a lady judge.

Yes. All that makes for a good slavering read! Don’t save it for a rainy day - this summer read:

My Obsession with Adhitya Iyer's Untold Story

Goodreads Giveaways has always been a mixed bag but mostly very good. Of course, in the first place, it depends on you - you’re the one who chooses the books.

I have, thus, received, so far, a few thrillers, and some non-fiction. While I read through most of the thrillers among those, it is in the nonfiction category that I’ve hit on some real winners.

And, lately, I’ve hit the jackpot. Mr. R K Mohapatra’s book that I got is actually very useful and I’m eagerly awaiting the release of the reprint of his first book.

Shortly after, I got another book. One with a very cheery blue cover.

Youthful cover art apart, the book has an exciting story behind it and the story, in a sense, is the book.

In India, quite a few who pass through the educational system aspire to become engineers. When I was a teenager, I met my granny whom I loved after simply years and, under a beautiful full moon, she solemnly held my hand and blessed me: May you become a chief engineer. She pronounced it 'cheap'.

All that sounds wonderful. Yet, the educational system the world over and in India in particular is not designed to bring bliss or brains to humanity.

This young man's book, filled with graphic art, photos and more, engages you on the journey taken by young people in India when they decide to try for the glorious IIT - The Indian Institute of Technology.

He peppers his narrative with trivia historical and otherwise and, with peppy pace, leads you through a serious analysis of the state of things.

This book would make an excellent present to any young person in India. Buy it today! And, if you're not Indian, but want to know about our obsession with engineering, then again, this book is your bible.