Skip to main content

Book Review: The Mystery Crackers: Tattooed Music by Jinal Shailesh Doshi

The Mystery Crackers: Tattooed Music by Jinal Shailesh Doshi is a mystery thriller novella featuring twin brothers Prash and Nish. This is the second book in the series – the first one was ‘A Chest’s Tale’ – where these two boys solved a deadly mystery. Thereafter, they become quite famous in the town of Jhiljila.


The novella takes us to a hill-station called Jhiljila, which fills the backdrop of the book. Jhiljila is a cool and chirpy place – people enjoy and carry on with their businesses. Well, if you have read Ruskin Bond or R.K. Narayan, surely you know that most puzzled mysteries take place in placid places.

Through Mr. Soni, the richest jeweler in the town, boys come to know about a stranded pirate’s ship at the Saihaj Port, not so far from the Jhiljila town. According to the reports, the ship is found abound with skeletons, weapons, and explosives. People of the town have been instructed not to go near the ship. However, both boys get the chance to solve the mystery with the help of the senior inspector Rathod. At the same time, inspector Golu, who is always jealous of these boys, is also solving the same case.

As the boys begin searching for clues, they come across tangled human skeletons, silk clothing, flags, cigarette pipes, jewelry and so on. On red flags a picture of blue harmonica was printed. The pirate loved music, though he was a brutal plunderer. A close look at one of the portraits reveals that the pirate had a blue tattoo of The French Treble Clef on his left ear. Well, now the question is how this ship met its fate and what happened to the pirate. Is he alive, if so, then where he is now? And what brought this ship near the Jhiljila town.

While searching for clues from the garbage barrel, they chance upon a pair of battered leather shoes and a chit with Mr. Soni’s name written on it. It was Mr. Soni who informed the boys about this ship and later he also showed them prints of muddy shoes and a silk handkerchief on which the music tattoo was printed and Black Piper was written. Boys find out that the pirate had something to do with Mr. Soni and his name was Black Piper. Here onwards the novella gains momentum and the boys, inch by inch, gather proofs and interrogate a few persons. Soon, it becomes clear that the mystery has something to do with the diamond necklace Daulihaam which once belonged to Emperor Prithviraj Chauhan’s wife Sanyogita. The rest of the narration is about unraveling criminal plots and villains involved in the mystery.

It is a highly entertaining novella and the way the author has narrated tales of adventure, courage, and intelligence is worth praising and at the same time each scene triggers the imagination of the young readers and may make them enjoy every moment of reading. If you are looking for stories similar to Mark Twain’s work, then you will surely love this book. It is a well-fit for all sorts of readers.

Jinal’s selection of words, language usage, and narration – in fact everything was good. She can make a big name for herself if she decides to continue writing for children’s fiction. The only suggestion is that the author could have made the backdrop setting more scenic and refined. Overall, a gripping story with an excellent plot.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Poem Summary: Where The Mind Is Without Fear by Rabindranath Tagore

Poem by Rabindranath Tagore: Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. Short Summary: This poem is written by Rabindranath Tagore during pre-independence days, when India was a colony of the British. The underlying theme of the poem is absolute freedom; the poet wants the citizens of his country to be living in a free state. According to the poem, we see that the poet is expressing his views there should be a country, like where people live without any sort of fear and with pure dignity…they should
67 comments
Read more

Book Review: The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond

Among all Ruskin Bond books, The Blue Umbrella has, so far, gathered immense applaud from readers and critics alike.  This is a short novel, but the kind of moral lessons it teaches to us are simply overwhelming. This is a story of Binya, a poor little girl living with her mother and an elder brother, Bijju, in a small hilly village of Garhwal. One day while herding her two cows back home, she stumbles upon some city people enjoying the picnic in the valley. She is enthralled to see them well-groomed and rich. She craves to be one like them and among many other things of their, a blue frilly umbrella catches her attention. She begins craving for it. On the other hand, the city people get attracted by her innocent beauty and the pendant in her neck. The pendant consists of leopard’s claw – which is considered a mascot widely in the hills. Binya trades her pendant off with the blue umbrella. The blue umbrella is so much beautiful that soon it becomes a topic of conversation fo
63 comments
Read more

Poem Summary: Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Ozymandias is a short poem of fourteen lines written by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The concurrent theme of the poem is that nothing remains intact and same forever in this world. Even the brightest of metal, one day decays with passage of time. The throne name of Egyptian King Ramesses is Ozymandias. It was his dearest desire to preserve himself forever by building a huge statue that he thought would never tumble down. Stanza 1: I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; Summary: The poet narrates the poem through the eyes of a traveler who seems to have come back from a remote and far-away land, referring to Egypt. The traveler r
23 comments
Read more