The Complete Adventures of Feluda - Volume 1 by Satyajit Ray

Summary Of The Book 
This first volume of  omnibus collection of the renowned Feluda stories presents 16 tales of murder, mystery, and a whole lot of adventure.
For anyone who has been a fan of the Feluda-Topshe-Jatayu trio, this intriguing corpus of detective tales becomes an ideal book to own.
Satyajit Ray, the literary genius, conceived the idea of a Bengali version of Sherlock Holmes somewhere around the 1960s.
 Between 1965 and 1992, he wrote more than 30 detective stories.
The main character was Pradosh C. Mitra, better known as Feluda, an Indian version of Sherlock Holmes. 
The author also introduces readers to the Indian version of Watson or Topshe, Feluda’s 14 year old cousin, and a flamboyant and bumbling writer, Jatayu, who accompanies the other two. 
Feluda is a genius and Topshe is a dedicated admirer.
Feluda is also very picky and only chooses cases that promise a lot of intrigue and mystery.

In these plots of intrigue and sobriety, Jatayu is the ray of sunshine amidst the dreary clouds. 
He is quite a character with his English, which is often misspelled, his average writing, and his affinity towards free-verse poetry, not to mention his deductions, which are seldom right.
 He offers comic relief in these tales and has often been compared to Agatha Christie’s Ariadne Oliver.

Feluda, too, is quite an interesting character. 
He goes to sleep late but rises early, and he is a great lover of food. 
He only ever smokes Charminar cigarettes, drinks lots of tea, and never misses a session of yogasana.

In this collection, perfectly compiled, the stories are chronologically arranged so as to enable the readers to be able to trace his development from an amateur to an expert detective, well versed in his art.

With minimum violence, perfect plots, and riveting twists, this collection of short stories is an absolute treat for kids and adults alike.
 
Satyajit Ray’s writing in these stories is racy, intriguing and delightfully humorous. 

He manages to intertwine the suspense and drama of a detective story with the humour of class apart characters.

For anyone who is a fan of quality detective fiction, this book is a must read.

[Summary Source: www.flipkart.com]

 My Comments: 
I read the Volume 2 of this compilation almost five years back. See my review of the same in this blog.
Was happy to read the Volume 1 and enjoyed every bit of it.
I highly recommend anybody interested in detective stories in classic mold of Sherlock Holmes's cases to read this book



Goodreads Rating - 4.43 out of 5 (1691 ratings)