• THE DISAPPEARANCE OF SALLY SEQUEIRA (Hachette, Rs 350) by Bhaskar Chattopadhyay sees the return of detective, Janardan Maity, and his sidekick-cum-friend, Prakash Ray. This book, just like the ones featuring the previous outings of Maity, begins with an epigraph. The author claims that this is an Easter egg; his way of toying with the reader's mind - a difficult task given how staid the mystery turns out to be. The climax arrives too soon and too abruptly. There are no breadcrumbs for the reader to follow or draw conclusions from. Chattopadhyay, however, must be given credit for weaving a pacy narrative that does not plummet at any point before the climax.
Two mysteries later, Maity and Ray are still too busy trying to fit into the moulds created by great writers like Arthur Conan Doyle and Satyajit Ray to be their own people. This is unfortunate because, as the characters that populate this novel show, Chattopadhyay is deft at drawing well-rounded characters. If only he could differentiate between influence and imitation.
• ELEMENTAL: HOW THE PERIODIC TABLE CAN NOW EXPLAIN (NEARLY) EVERYTHING (Robinson, Rs 499) by Tim James has the right balance of information and quirk. The great researcher, Oliver Sacks, once said, "The periodic table was incredibly beautiful, the most beautiful thing I had ever seen." (Sacks even put together a poignant literal periodic table, picture.) James is no Sacks when it comes to the quality of prose but he seems to be as passionate about the elements as the celebrated scientist. Nowhere is James's writing burdened by jargons. The text is crisp and intriguing, even for laypersons. James uses the periodic table as a key to unlock mysteries of existence - not all of them equally serious but each of them worthy of the reader's attention.
