Daughters of Cain - Colin Dexter

Colin Dexter is a successful crime writer known for his series of novels based on the capabilities of a Detective Chief Inspector Morse. I had not read his books earlier so when a friend offered to lend a book, I was more than happy to try it out.

The Daughters of Cain is a whodunnit mystery where, an Oxford professor Felix McClure is found stabbed to death on a Sunday morning with no traces of the murder weapon nor any evidence of a murderer. Many suspects emerge over the course of the time, however, no evidence to pin it on.

The story is interesting and the writing egged me further on to find out what happens next however, somewhere half way through the novel, it was beginning to get tiresome. The length definitely needed editing. 

Another thing I noticed about the character development: it seemed like the author enjoyed fleshing out the characters and then suddenly lost interest. I would have loved to know more about Julia Stevens – one of the key characters in the story. There was also a tiny little love story that died before it had even formed well. Inspector Morse is an interesting character no doubt, but I felt he seemed to have given up on life (based on the story line, of course). Was this what the author intended? I don't know, it felt like I had reached the end of the series. I found out later it was the almost the end. (he wrote two more books after this novel in the Morse series)

I would have voted for this highly had the length been taken care of. Still, it isn’t a bad book at all. A light read that is needed especially when one is too tired to deal with serious stuff in life.

The Bridges at Toko-Ri by James Michener

A war novella, the Bridges at Toko-Ri is based on the US-North Korea war in the 1950s. It focuses on the US naval efforts to destroy the said Bridge Toko-Ri so as to debilitate the enemy forces. The central theme of the story deals with the many moods of the soldiers involved in the war as well as the civilians affected by it.

The story revolves around an American lawyer who has signed up with the US navy to fight against the North Koreans. He is reluctant, afraid and worried about his family and how the war will impact his choices. Yet, when faced with the do-or-die situation, he is brave and fights to win. There are many characters - war heroes - who are larger than life and stay that way and then there are people who make fighting a war a personal issue, justifying the means and the loss of lives.

Overall, it is a well-written story; certain portions did affect me emotionally. The writing is crisp in most places – many of the jargons though difficult to understand, do not really come in the way of understanding the story. The writer was a soldier himself with first experience of war during his tenure.

This is an old story (published during 1953 talking about the 1950 US war with N. Korea) but it also reminded me how far removed we are from such situations. We are indeed blessed to have that safety from the cruelties of war.