One of the things I do every year is travel to most of the capital cities for work to conduct workshops. Tomorrow morning I'm off to Perth bright and early and will be away for 3 nights.
It is always a good chance to get some reading done on the plane, and also at night, because being away from home you have so much less to do.
So first of all I'll finish my current read:
HARUM SCARUM by Felicity Young.
Then I'm taking a choice with me:
THE GIRL OF HIS DREAMS by Donna Leon
THUMBPRINT by Glauser
THE ARSENIC LABYRINTH by Martin Edwards
and WASH THIS BLOOD CLEAN FROM MY HAND by Fred Vargas.
I might even get to read them all :-)
I hate being without a good book, but I don't think that will happen this time.
Showing posts with label mystery fiction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mystery fiction. Show all posts
26 March 2008
6 March 2008
Over on oz_mystery_readers
oz_mystery_readers is a smallish online discussion group that's now been around for 5 years.
We share opinions and information about crime/mystery fiction available in Australia.
However we welcome members from all over the globe.
We hold at least one book discussion each month, so add the book to your reading schedule and join in!
Our current choices:
March
1-10, EXIT MUSIC by Ian Rankin (QM: Helen)
April: Awards Month
1-10, 2007 Ned Kelly Award Winner: Best Novel
CHAIN OF EVIDENCE by Garry Disher (QM: Lynne)
21-30, 2007 Duncan Lawrie International Dagger Award
WASH THIS BLOOD CLEAN FROM MY HAND by Fred Vargas (QM: Peter)
May
5-11, QUIZ AN AUTHOR: Chat to Felicity Young, author of A CERTAIN MALICE, AN EASEFUL DEATH, and HARUM SCARUM, published April 2008. (QL: Kerrie)
12-21, THE CORONER'S LUNCH by Colin Cotterill (QM: tba)
September
8-14, QUIZ AN AUTHOR: Chat to Michael Robotham, author of THE SUSPECT, LOST (THE DROWNING MAN), THE NIGHT FERRY and SHATTER, published April 2008. (QL: Andrea)
22 February 2008
Books to Look For
Every now and again I check Australian online sites for what they are listing in crime fiction and I've found a couple I haven't yet got hold of.
Over at Angus and Robertson Australia, they list the Top 5 Bestsellers for Crime Fiction. Not sure what the time frame for this list is, perhaps the last week ??
The books listed are
TRIPTYCH by Karin Slaughter. When I reviewed TRIPTYCH in 2006 I gave it 4.6
THE HARD WAY by Lee Child. My review of THE HARD WAY was also favourable with a rating of 4.7
BREAK NO BONES by Kathy Reichs. I wasn't as impressed with BREAK NO BONES, but perhaps I was feeling a bit over-Reiched. I gave it 4.3
END IN TEARS by Ruth Rendell
This one didn't make it to being a published review but here is what I said in my database:
In the early hours of the morning George Marshalson is waiting anxiously for his young daughter to come home. His discovery of her body at dawn not far from the house is the beginning of a new case for Reg Wexford and the Kingsmarkham CID team. Neither Reg nor his assistant Mike Burden are getting any younger and both are a bit old-fashioned in their attitudes and their policing methods. In this, the 20th book in the Wexford series that began in 1964, award winning author Ruth Rendell introduces the new face of policing in Britain in the persons of the latest additions to the team, Bal and Hannah. And again Rendell gives this book a contemporary setting by weaving into it a theme that has been of world-wide community concern. The Wexford family interest continues too when daughter Sylvia becomes pregnant by her ex-husband.
My rating: 4.8
THE POWER OF THE DOG by Don Winslow
I read a blurb about this one but it didn't grab me.
Over at Dymocks Australia, it is not so easy to find a similar list but the author of the month has been Alexander McCall-Smith with the book THE GOOD HUSBAND OF ZEBRA DRIVE listed.
I loved this one and gave it 5.0. My database entry:
#8 in the No. 1 LADIES DETECTIVE AGENCY series. After I read the previous title in this series, I thought perhaps it was coming to an end; that McCall Smith had no more to tell, could do no more with the material. How wrong I was! With THE GOOD HUSBAND OF ZEBRA DRIVE the series swings upward to another peak. Maters come to a point between that traditionally built lady Precious Ramotswe and her secretary Mma Makutsi when the latter takes the afternoon off to do some shopping when she is supposed to be minding the office. Mma Makutsi decides to resign and to look for a new job. Meanwhile, when Mma Makutsi was absent, Precious Ramotswe’s husband, Mr. J L. B. Matekoni interviewed a client, and he tells his wife he would like to follow that case through, carrying out the investigation himself. A cousin working in the administration of the public hospital in Mochudi comes to see Precious Ramotswe about some unexplained deaths at the hospital, so once again the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency has its hands full. There is something about reading these stories that is rather like meeting up with old friends. But don’t underestimate McCall Smith as a writer. The characters are gently but so graphically drawn, with touches of humour, and situations you can imagine witnessing. And McCall Smith makes use of an urban legend that I’m sure you’ll recognise. There’s no sex, no violence, rarely any blood and gore in these novels. And yet there is murder, mystery and crime, just enough to challenge the reader’s little grey cells.
Dymocks are highlighting THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO by Stieg Larsson which I have heard good things about but still haven't read. (and they've cut $6 off the price of the trade paperback too)
From their site:
Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared off the secluded island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger family. There was no corpse, no witnesses, no evidence. But her uncle, Henrik, is convinced that she was murdered by someone in her own family - the deeply dysfunctional Vanger clan. Disgraced journalist Mikael Blomqvist is hired to investigate, but when he links Harriet's disappearance to a string of gruesome murders from forty years ago, he needs a competent assistant and he gets one: computer hacker Lisbeth Salander - a tattooed, truculent, angry girl who rides a motorbike like a Hell's Angel and handles makeshift weapons with the skill born of remorseless rage.This unlikely pair form a fragile bond as they delve into the sinister past of this island-bound, tightly-knit family. But the Vangers are a secretive lot and Mikael and Lisbeth are about to find out just how far they're prepared to go to protect themselves and each other
Over at Angus and Robertson Australia, they list the Top 5 Bestsellers for Crime Fiction. Not sure what the time frame for this list is, perhaps the last week ??
The books listed are
TRIPTYCH by Karin Slaughter. When I reviewed TRIPTYCH in 2006 I gave it 4.6
THE HARD WAY by Lee Child. My review of THE HARD WAY was also favourable with a rating of 4.7
BREAK NO BONES by Kathy Reichs. I wasn't as impressed with BREAK NO BONES, but perhaps I was feeling a bit over-Reiched. I gave it 4.3
END IN TEARS by Ruth Rendell
This one didn't make it to being a published review but here is what I said in my database:
In the early hours of the morning George Marshalson is waiting anxiously for his young daughter to come home. His discovery of her body at dawn not far from the house is the beginning of a new case for Reg Wexford and the Kingsmarkham CID team. Neither Reg nor his assistant Mike Burden are getting any younger and both are a bit old-fashioned in their attitudes and their policing methods. In this, the 20th book in the Wexford series that began in 1964, award winning author Ruth Rendell introduces the new face of policing in Britain in the persons of the latest additions to the team, Bal and Hannah. And again Rendell gives this book a contemporary setting by weaving into it a theme that has been of world-wide community concern. The Wexford family interest continues too when daughter Sylvia becomes pregnant by her ex-husband.
My rating: 4.8
THE POWER OF THE DOG by Don Winslow
I read a blurb about this one but it didn't grab me.
Over at Dymocks Australia, it is not so easy to find a similar list but the author of the month has been Alexander McCall-Smith with the book THE GOOD HUSBAND OF ZEBRA DRIVE listed.
I loved this one and gave it 5.0. My database entry:
#8 in the No. 1 LADIES DETECTIVE AGENCY series. After I read the previous title in this series, I thought perhaps it was coming to an end; that McCall Smith had no more to tell, could do no more with the material. How wrong I was! With THE GOOD HUSBAND OF ZEBRA DRIVE the series swings upward to another peak. Maters come to a point between that traditionally built lady Precious Ramotswe and her secretary Mma Makutsi when the latter takes the afternoon off to do some shopping when she is supposed to be minding the office. Mma Makutsi decides to resign and to look for a new job. Meanwhile, when Mma Makutsi was absent, Precious Ramotswe’s husband, Mr. J L. B. Matekoni interviewed a client, and he tells his wife he would like to follow that case through, carrying out the investigation himself. A cousin working in the administration of the public hospital in Mochudi comes to see Precious Ramotswe about some unexplained deaths at the hospital, so once again the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency has its hands full. There is something about reading these stories that is rather like meeting up with old friends. But don’t underestimate McCall Smith as a writer. The characters are gently but so graphically drawn, with touches of humour, and situations you can imagine witnessing. And McCall Smith makes use of an urban legend that I’m sure you’ll recognise. There’s no sex, no violence, rarely any blood and gore in these novels. And yet there is murder, mystery and crime, just enough to challenge the reader’s little grey cells.
Dymocks are highlighting THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO by Stieg Larsson which I have heard good things about but still haven't read. (and they've cut $6 off the price of the trade paperback too)
From their site:
Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared off the secluded island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger family. There was no corpse, no witnesses, no evidence. But her uncle, Henrik, is convinced that she was murdered by someone in her own family - the deeply dysfunctional Vanger clan. Disgraced journalist Mikael Blomqvist is hired to investigate, but when he links Harriet's disappearance to a string of gruesome murders from forty years ago, he needs a competent assistant and he gets one: computer hacker Lisbeth Salander - a tattooed, truculent, angry girl who rides a motorbike like a Hell's Angel and handles makeshift weapons with the skill born of remorseless rage.This unlikely pair form a fragile bond as they delve into the sinister past of this island-bound, tightly-knit family. But the Vangers are a secretive lot and Mikael and Lisbeth are about to find out just how far they're prepared to go to protect themselves and each other
20 February 2008
WICKER, Kevin Guilfoile - Progress Report
I'd hoped by now that I'd be able to write one of my brief reviews of this book, but I am only about half way through its nearly 600 pages.
The central character is Dr. Davis Moore who works at a cloning clinic.
His teenage daughter is raped and murdered and he uses the semen left in her body to become the genetic basis of a cloned baby. He hopes that when the baby grows up he will somehow be able to use him to identify his daughter's murderer.
Not only a really creepy idea but the story raises some big issues about cloning - is the cloned baby the absolute identical twin of the person whose DNA it was cloned on? For example, will the murderer whose DNA was used also have the distinctive birthmark the baby has? Conversely, does genetic make up determine how you think, what you become in life? Will the baby grow up to be a murderer?
My friend who lent me the book says there are even more surprises in store for me. Something about virtual worlds too.
I've read a crime novel related to DNA before.
It has really no links with WICKER but I thought I'd tell you about it anyway :-)
DIRTY LITTLE LIES by John Macken
Reuben Maitland is a respected British forensic pathologist with an invention that, in the right hands, should revolutionise crime detection and crime prevention. His invention uses DNA to predict the physical appearance of perpetrators. But Reuben goes too far when in an unauthorised trial he links these computer generated images with CCTV surveillance cameras on the streets of London. Subsequently dismissal from his position as the head of the prestigious GeneCrime lab means that Reuben has to find other sources to fund his research. He seems less than fussy where the money comes from. Just after his dismissal members of his former GeneCrime team begin to die, murdered after extensive torture. The DNA evidence seems to point to Reuben who is an unlovely character whose marriage has collapsed. He has doubts about the paternity of his own son, rubs amphetamine into his gums, and demonstrates a very blurred set of ethics.
My rating 4.0
The other DNA related novel that occurs to me is JAR CITY (aka TAINTED BLOOD) by Arnaldur Indridason. My rating was 4.9
A man is found murdered in his Reykjavik flat, a cryptic note left on his body. Erlendur, Detective Inspector with the Reykjavik police investigates. The investigation of the dead man's past reveals 40 year old accusations of rape and the murder begins to reach out like an octopus into Iceland's past and its present. We learn much about Icelandic society, and about how police investigations are carried out. There are some interesting side plots such as Erlendur's relationship with his drug-addicted daughter Eva Lind, his son Sindri Snaer, and his retired colleague Marion Briem. The investigation moves at a good pace and raises some interesting ethical questions. The jars are Iceland's DNA records.
The central character is Dr. Davis Moore who works at a cloning clinic.
His teenage daughter is raped and murdered and he uses the semen left in her body to become the genetic basis of a cloned baby. He hopes that when the baby grows up he will somehow be able to use him to identify his daughter's murderer.
Not only a really creepy idea but the story raises some big issues about cloning - is the cloned baby the absolute identical twin of the person whose DNA it was cloned on? For example, will the murderer whose DNA was used also have the distinctive birthmark the baby has? Conversely, does genetic make up determine how you think, what you become in life? Will the baby grow up to be a murderer?
My friend who lent me the book says there are even more surprises in store for me. Something about virtual worlds too.
I've read a crime novel related to DNA before.
It has really no links with WICKER but I thought I'd tell you about it anyway :-)
DIRTY LITTLE LIES by John Macken
Reuben Maitland is a respected British forensic pathologist with an invention that, in the right hands, should revolutionise crime detection and crime prevention. His invention uses DNA to predict the physical appearance of perpetrators. But Reuben goes too far when in an unauthorised trial he links these computer generated images with CCTV surveillance cameras on the streets of London. Subsequently dismissal from his position as the head of the prestigious GeneCrime lab means that Reuben has to find other sources to fund his research. He seems less than fussy where the money comes from. Just after his dismissal members of his former GeneCrime team begin to die, murdered after extensive torture. The DNA evidence seems to point to Reuben who is an unlovely character whose marriage has collapsed. He has doubts about the paternity of his own son, rubs amphetamine into his gums, and demonstrates a very blurred set of ethics.
My rating 4.0
The other DNA related novel that occurs to me is JAR CITY (aka TAINTED BLOOD) by Arnaldur Indridason. My rating was 4.9
A man is found murdered in his Reykjavik flat, a cryptic note left on his body. Erlendur, Detective Inspector with the Reykjavik police investigates. The investigation of the dead man's past reveals 40 year old accusations of rape and the murder begins to reach out like an octopus into Iceland's past and its present. We learn much about Icelandic society, and about how police investigations are carried out. There are some interesting side plots such as Erlendur's relationship with his drug-addicted daughter Eva Lind, his son Sindri Snaer, and his retired colleague Marion Briem. The investigation moves at a good pace and raises some interesting ethical questions. The jars are Iceland's DNA records.
19 February 2008
Favourite Authors- #4 Simon Brett
Simon Brett emerged as a published author in 1975 with dipsomaniac, often unemployed actor Charles Paris in the first of what was to be a 17 book series, CAST IN ORDER OF DISAPPEARANCE. He was already known as a writer with the BBC. Charles Paris was an interesting character, at one time married to a disapproving girls school headmistress.
I read a number of those, pretty well light and enjoyable reads. 17 titles appeared 1975-1997.
While he was still writing the Charles Paris series, Brett branched out with a new protagonist in the Mrs Pargeter series. A NICE CLASS OF CORPSE was published in 1985 and there followed another 5 books, finishing with MRS PARGETER'S POINT OF HONOUR. Melita Pargeter is a rich and vivacious widow, but I must confess she never struck a chord with me.
Between 1985 and 2006 Simon wrote 11 stand-alone novels, 5 plays, 4 collections, and published 6 Charles Paris omnibuses.
But where he has hit the chord with me is the Fethering series.
Public servant Carole Seddon takes early retirement and goes to live in the small seaside town where one could expect life to be quiet. And it is for a while, until she teams up with neighbour "Jude" and they become involved in all sorts of investigations, sometimes at great personal danger.
These are true cozies, 8 already available and a new one due out in March.
I love the alliterative titles too. I've put my ratings next to the ones that are recorded in my database but I have read them all except the last.
1. The Body on the Beach (2000)
2. Death On the Downs (2001)
3. The Torso In The Town (2002)
4. Murder in the Museum (2003), 4.5
5. The Hanging in the Hotel (2004), 5.0
6. The Witness at the Wedding (2005), 4.7
7. The Stabbing in the Stables (2006), 4.3
8. Death Under the Dryer (2007), 4.3
9. Blood At the Bookies (2008)
If you ever find an audio book with Simon Brett reading one of these, listen to it. He is an excellent reader.
Check out all the titles at Fantastic Fiction.
I read a number of those, pretty well light and enjoyable reads. 17 titles appeared 1975-1997.
While he was still writing the Charles Paris series, Brett branched out with a new protagonist in the Mrs Pargeter series. A NICE CLASS OF CORPSE was published in 1985 and there followed another 5 books, finishing with MRS PARGETER'S POINT OF HONOUR. Melita Pargeter is a rich and vivacious widow, but I must confess she never struck a chord with me.
Between 1985 and 2006 Simon wrote 11 stand-alone novels, 5 plays, 4 collections, and published 6 Charles Paris omnibuses.
But where he has hit the chord with me is the Fethering series.
Public servant Carole Seddon takes early retirement and goes to live in the small seaside town where one could expect life to be quiet. And it is for a while, until she teams up with neighbour "Jude" and they become involved in all sorts of investigations, sometimes at great personal danger.
These are true cozies, 8 already available and a new one due out in March.
I love the alliterative titles too. I've put my ratings next to the ones that are recorded in my database but I have read them all except the last.
1. The Body on the Beach (2000)
2. Death On the Downs (2001)
3. The Torso In The Town (2002)
4. Murder in the Museum (2003), 4.5
5. The Hanging in the Hotel (2004), 5.0
6. The Witness at the Wedding (2005), 4.7
7. The Stabbing in the Stables (2006), 4.3
8. Death Under the Dryer (2007), 4.3
9. Blood At the Bookies (2008)
If you ever find an audio book with Simon Brett reading one of these, listen to it. He is an excellent reader.
Check out all the titles at Fantastic Fiction.
18 February 2008
Favourite Authors - #3 Donna Leon
Imagine this scene. Standing in an airport bookshop looking for a murder mystery to read on the next flight. There are a number of authors who suit me in this situation and Donna Leon is one of them.
In my database I have records for 7 of her titles but I know that over the years I have read many more. I have given an average rating of 4.7.
According to Fantastic Fiction THE GIRL OF HIS DREAMS, #17 in her very successful Brunetti series, will be out in April this year. Guido Brunetti and his wife Paola feel so normal, and the novels are populated with such believable characters. As Wikipedia says, domestic warmth of the Brunetti family contrasts with corruption and cruelty that Brunetti encounters at work.
It's an impressive record really. #1 DEATH AT LA FENICE was published in 1992, when Donna Leon was already turning 50. Since then there has been more or less a book a year.
FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES won the UK Crime Writers' Association Silver Dagger in 2000.
I love the way Leon can weave the real issues that are facing Venice such as rising waters, pollution of the lagoon, destruction of the glass industry by flooding of the market with cheap imports, the demographic changes being caused by refugee immigration, corruption in high places, into her stories. In many ways she is not just telling us a story, but also giving us a running social commentary. And she has moved with the times. Brunetti's office assistant, Signora Elettra is a wizz on the internet.
Some sites you might check:
Tours of Guido Brunetti's Venice
Places to visit
Her UK Random House site
Italian Mysteries site
My mini-reviews (in publication order)
THE ANONYMOUS VENETIAN (1994)
A male tranvestite suspected of being a prostitute has been found dead out near an abattoirs at Marghera and the Mestre district is short-staffed. Though he is due to go on holidays in the mountains in a few days, Guido Brunetti has been assigned to take charge of the investigation. It gets him away from Vice Questore Patta and out from his supervision, and already I feel Brunetti enjoying this new freedom, being given a status you don't usually feel he has. Signora Elettra makes her first appearance in this book. US Title was DRESSED FOR DEATH.
My rating: 4.6
A VENETIAN RECKONING (1995)
A lorry crashes on one of the treacherous bends in the Italian Dolomites, spilling a terrible cargo . . .
A prominent international lawyer is found dead in the carriage of an Intercity train at Santa Lucia . . .
Can the two tragedies possibly be connected?
Commissario Guido Brunetti digs deep into the secret lives of the once great and good for the answer. For in a seedy Venetian bar lies the clue to an evil crime network reaching far beyond the laguna. But it will take another violent death in Venice before the forces of justice can even begin to proceed . . .
This is Donna Leon's fourth novel to feature Guido Brunetti.
My rating: 4.6
FATAL REMEDIES (1999)
University lecturer Paola, Commissario Brunetti's wife, is a person of strong convictions. When she throws a rock through the front window of a Venetian travel agency in the middle of the night, not once but twice, because it arranges sex tours to Thailand, she gets not only herself into trouble but Brunetti as well. The owner of the travel agency's premises, who is also the owner of a pharmaceutical company, seems inordinately interested in having the matter hushed up, at the same time as making Paola pay damages. Brunetti's boss Vice-Questore Patta sends Brunetti home on "administrative leave" until the matters are resolved. And then the owner, Mitri, is discovered murdered, garrotted, and Brunetti is summoned back to work. Once again Leon has chosen, in this #8 in her 17 Brunetti titles, to not only provide the reader with a series of puzzles, but to highlight an issue of international concern, placing Venice on an international stage. Brunetti and Paola are wonderful characters as is Signora Elettra, Patta's secretary and computer sleuth.
My rating: 4.6
DOCTORED EVIDENCE (2004)
Commissario Guido Brunetti once again finds himself pursuing a puzzling case his fellow policemen would rather
leave closed. After a wealthy elderly woman is found brutally murdered in her apartment, the authorities suspect her maid. But when the maid meets an untimely end trying to escape from border police, and it appears that the money she carried may not have been stolen, Commissario Guido Brunetti decides—unofficially—to take the case on himself.
My rating: 4.8
BLOOD FROM A STONE (2005)
On a cold Venetian night shortly before Christmas, a street vendor is killed in a scuffle in Campo Santo Stefano. The closest witnesses to the event are the American tourists who had been browsing the man's wares—fake designer handbags—before his death. The dead man had been working as a vu cumpra, one of the many African immigrants peddling goods outside normal shop hours and trading without work permits.
Commissario Brunetti's response is that of everybody involved: Why would anyone kill an illegal immigrant? Because these workers have few social connections and little money, infighting seems to be the answer. And yet the killings have all the markings of a professional operation. Once Brunetti begins to investigate this unfamiliar Venetian underworld, he discovers that matters of great value are at stake within the secretive society.
While his wife, Paola, struggles to come to terms with their young daughter's prejudices about the immigrants, Brunetti finds that his own police force shares many of the same biases. Warned by Patta, his superior, to desist from further involvement in the case, Brunetti only becomes more determined to unearth the truth. How far will Brunetti be able to penetrate the murky subculture of Venice's illegal community? And how high does the corruption reach into the upper echelons of Brunetti's own world and the world at large?
My rating: 4.8
THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY (2006)
#15 in the Brunetti series, set in Venice, with the action mainly centred on Murano, the famous Venetian glass making island. Donna Leon's very human Commissario Guido Brunetti, influenced by the onset of spring, begins an unofficial investigation for a colleague. A friend has been arrested while protesting against the chemical pollution of the Venetian lagoon by the factories of Marghera. The investigation reveals threats by a glass factory owner against his own son-in-law, a father who believes his young daughter's intellectual disability has been caused by chemicals, mystery, a murder, and serious questions about the future of Venice. Donna Leon has lived in Venice for a number of years and her love of the city, knowledge of its history, and concern for its future come through very strongly. If you've ever been to Venice, or even if you haven't, you'll wonder why you haven't read any of this series before. And if you are already a Donna Leon friend, then here is another that will not disappoint.
My rating: 4.8
SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN (2007)
Just on the edge of sleep, in the middle of the night, Commissario Guido Brunetti gets an urgent phone call from Inspector Vianello. Three policemen who broke into the home of a local paediatrician have assaulted him and snatched his eighteen month old son. Even in his sleep-befuddled state Brunetti can hear the urgency in Vianello’s voice. The doctor has possible brain damage, and, in Vianello’s words “We’ve got a mess”.
On his arrival at the hospital Brunetti learns from the Carabinieri captain who led the raid that the invasion of Doctor Pedrolli’s home is part of a nation wide investigation into baby trafficking. The charge against Doctor Pedrolli is the illegal adoption of his son Alfredo even though his birth registration shows Pedrolli as the father.
As always with Donna Leon’s Brunetti series, this story is set mainly in Venice, but this time there is less focus on Venice and more on an issue that has become prominent in the Western world. SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN is a story set against themes of baby trafficking and surrogacy that have emerged recently in books by other authors. Declining fertility in the Western world is contrasted with the apparent fecundity of refugees and immigrants; and the desire of women for children is set against the apparent willingness of some to sell the only thing they can produce – their child. Brunetti’s investigation takes him out of his comfort zone. His own love for his wife and children is a subtle motivator for him to get to the truth.
My rating: 4.8
In my database I have records for 7 of her titles but I know that over the years I have read many more. I have given an average rating of 4.7.
According to Fantastic Fiction THE GIRL OF HIS DREAMS, #17 in her very successful Brunetti series, will be out in April this year. Guido Brunetti and his wife Paola feel so normal, and the novels are populated with such believable characters. As Wikipedia says, domestic warmth of the Brunetti family contrasts with corruption and cruelty that Brunetti encounters at work.
It's an impressive record really. #1 DEATH AT LA FENICE was published in 1992, when Donna Leon was already turning 50. Since then there has been more or less a book a year.
FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES won the UK Crime Writers' Association Silver Dagger in 2000.
I love the way Leon can weave the real issues that are facing Venice such as rising waters, pollution of the lagoon, destruction of the glass industry by flooding of the market with cheap imports, the demographic changes being caused by refugee immigration, corruption in high places, into her stories. In many ways she is not just telling us a story, but also giving us a running social commentary. And she has moved with the times. Brunetti's office assistant, Signora Elettra is a wizz on the internet.
Some sites you might check:
Tours of Guido Brunetti's Venice
Places to visit
Her UK Random House site
Italian Mysteries site
My mini-reviews (in publication order)
THE ANONYMOUS VENETIAN (1994)
A male tranvestite suspected of being a prostitute has been found dead out near an abattoirs at Marghera and the Mestre district is short-staffed. Though he is due to go on holidays in the mountains in a few days, Guido Brunetti has been assigned to take charge of the investigation. It gets him away from Vice Questore Patta and out from his supervision, and already I feel Brunetti enjoying this new freedom, being given a status you don't usually feel he has. Signora Elettra makes her first appearance in this book. US Title was DRESSED FOR DEATH.
My rating: 4.6
A VENETIAN RECKONING (1995)
A lorry crashes on one of the treacherous bends in the Italian Dolomites, spilling a terrible cargo . . .
A prominent international lawyer is found dead in the carriage of an Intercity train at Santa Lucia . . .
Can the two tragedies possibly be connected?
Commissario Guido Brunetti digs deep into the secret lives of the once great and good for the answer. For in a seedy Venetian bar lies the clue to an evil crime network reaching far beyond the laguna. But it will take another violent death in Venice before the forces of justice can even begin to proceed . . .
This is Donna Leon's fourth novel to feature Guido Brunetti.
My rating: 4.6
FATAL REMEDIES (1999)
University lecturer Paola, Commissario Brunetti's wife, is a person of strong convictions. When she throws a rock through the front window of a Venetian travel agency in the middle of the night, not once but twice, because it arranges sex tours to Thailand, she gets not only herself into trouble but Brunetti as well. The owner of the travel agency's premises, who is also the owner of a pharmaceutical company, seems inordinately interested in having the matter hushed up, at the same time as making Paola pay damages. Brunetti's boss Vice-Questore Patta sends Brunetti home on "administrative leave" until the matters are resolved. And then the owner, Mitri, is discovered murdered, garrotted, and Brunetti is summoned back to work. Once again Leon has chosen, in this #8 in her 17 Brunetti titles, to not only provide the reader with a series of puzzles, but to highlight an issue of international concern, placing Venice on an international stage. Brunetti and Paola are wonderful characters as is Signora Elettra, Patta's secretary and computer sleuth.
My rating: 4.6
DOCTORED EVIDENCE (2004)
Commissario Guido Brunetti once again finds himself pursuing a puzzling case his fellow policemen would rather
leave closed. After a wealthy elderly woman is found brutally murdered in her apartment, the authorities suspect her maid. But when the maid meets an untimely end trying to escape from border police, and it appears that the money she carried may not have been stolen, Commissario Guido Brunetti decides—unofficially—to take the case on himself.
My rating: 4.8
BLOOD FROM A STONE (2005)
On a cold Venetian night shortly before Christmas, a street vendor is killed in a scuffle in Campo Santo Stefano. The closest witnesses to the event are the American tourists who had been browsing the man's wares—fake designer handbags—before his death. The dead man had been working as a vu cumpra, one of the many African immigrants peddling goods outside normal shop hours and trading without work permits.
Commissario Brunetti's response is that of everybody involved: Why would anyone kill an illegal immigrant? Because these workers have few social connections and little money, infighting seems to be the answer. And yet the killings have all the markings of a professional operation. Once Brunetti begins to investigate this unfamiliar Venetian underworld, he discovers that matters of great value are at stake within the secretive society.
While his wife, Paola, struggles to come to terms with their young daughter's prejudices about the immigrants, Brunetti finds that his own police force shares many of the same biases. Warned by Patta, his superior, to desist from further involvement in the case, Brunetti only becomes more determined to unearth the truth. How far will Brunetti be able to penetrate the murky subculture of Venice's illegal community? And how high does the corruption reach into the upper echelons of Brunetti's own world and the world at large?
My rating: 4.8
THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY (2006)
#15 in the Brunetti series, set in Venice, with the action mainly centred on Murano, the famous Venetian glass making island. Donna Leon's very human Commissario Guido Brunetti, influenced by the onset of spring, begins an unofficial investigation for a colleague. A friend has been arrested while protesting against the chemical pollution of the Venetian lagoon by the factories of Marghera. The investigation reveals threats by a glass factory owner against his own son-in-law, a father who believes his young daughter's intellectual disability has been caused by chemicals, mystery, a murder, and serious questions about the future of Venice. Donna Leon has lived in Venice for a number of years and her love of the city, knowledge of its history, and concern for its future come through very strongly. If you've ever been to Venice, or even if you haven't, you'll wonder why you haven't read any of this series before. And if you are already a Donna Leon friend, then here is another that will not disappoint.
My rating: 4.8
SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN (2007)
Just on the edge of sleep, in the middle of the night, Commissario Guido Brunetti gets an urgent phone call from Inspector Vianello. Three policemen who broke into the home of a local paediatrician have assaulted him and snatched his eighteen month old son. Even in his sleep-befuddled state Brunetti can hear the urgency in Vianello’s voice. The doctor has possible brain damage, and, in Vianello’s words “We’ve got a mess”.
On his arrival at the hospital Brunetti learns from the Carabinieri captain who led the raid that the invasion of Doctor Pedrolli’s home is part of a nation wide investigation into baby trafficking. The charge against Doctor Pedrolli is the illegal adoption of his son Alfredo even though his birth registration shows Pedrolli as the father.
As always with Donna Leon’s Brunetti series, this story is set mainly in Venice, but this time there is less focus on Venice and more on an issue that has become prominent in the Western world. SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN is a story set against themes of baby trafficking and surrogacy that have emerged recently in books by other authors. Declining fertility in the Western world is contrasted with the apparent fecundity of refugees and immigrants; and the desire of women for children is set against the apparent willingness of some to sell the only thing they can produce – their child. Brunetti’s investigation takes him out of his comfort zone. His own love for his wife and children is a subtle motivator for him to get to the truth.
My rating: 4.8
4 February 2008
First Tuesday Book Club
Australian readers will be aware of the ABC's First Tuesday book Club
www.abc.net.au/firsttuesday
A newsletter arrived today with this information
Live Studio Recording!
If you're in Sydney on Friday the 8th of February we would love for you to join us for the live discussion of The Memory Room and Naked live at club headquarters. The filming will take place at the ABC studios 700 Harris Street Ultimo from 1.45 until 3pm and individuals and groups are most welcome.
This episode will screen at 10pm on Tuesday March 4th and again at 4.30 on Sunday 9th.
Special Episode.
Don't miss Jennifer Byrne Presents: Crime on the 11th of March at 10pm. Jennifer is joined by an all star panel, Dorothy Porter, Justice Ian Callinan, Shane Maloney and Graham Blundell who all get up to their elbows on all the sinister secrets of the crime writing genre.
Other 2008 Recordings are scheduled for:
March 5 – from the Adelaide Writers’ Festival
March 20 – Double Record – regular episode and Jennifer Byrne Presents: Animal Stories.
April 9 – One episode recorded in Sydney
May 9 – Double Record – regular episode and Jennifer Byrne Presents: Sex and Romance.
These events are free to attend, just call or email if you’d like to reserve seats.
Enter the Five Word Review Competition!
Not five pages, five paragraphs or even five sentences… Use five words exactly to critique the read of your choice and be in the running for a selection of books from the First Tuesday library. You can enter by post or on the Discussion Board.
First Tuesday Production Crew
Email: bookclub@your.abc.net.au
Phone: (02) 8333 3644
Write to: First Tuesday Book Club GPO Box 9994 Sydney NSW 2001
On the website I also found a review of NO TIME FOR GOODBYE by Linwood Barclay, which I have bought but am yet to read.
There is also a good page about Ruth Rendell with particular reference to NOT IN THE FLESH which was a featured book in December 2007.
You can also tell them what your favourite book for 2007 was.
By the way currently I'm reading Carol O'Connell's SHARK MUSIC. The alternative US title was FIND ME. The book's imagery is having quite a surreal effect on me, but more of that after I've finished.
www.abc.net.au/firsttuesday
A newsletter arrived today with this information
Live Studio Recording!
If you're in Sydney on Friday the 8th of February we would love for you to join us for the live discussion of The Memory Room and Naked live at club headquarters. The filming will take place at the ABC studios 700 Harris Street Ultimo from 1.45 until 3pm and individuals and groups are most welcome.
This episode will screen at 10pm on Tuesday March 4th and again at 4.30 on Sunday 9th.
Special Episode.
Don't miss Jennifer Byrne Presents: Crime on the 11th of March at 10pm. Jennifer is joined by an all star panel, Dorothy Porter, Justice Ian Callinan, Shane Maloney and Graham Blundell who all get up to their elbows on all the sinister secrets of the crime writing genre.
Other 2008 Recordings are scheduled for:
March 5 – from the Adelaide Writers’ Festival
March 20 – Double Record – regular episode and Jennifer Byrne Presents: Animal Stories.
April 9 – One episode recorded in Sydney
May 9 – Double Record – regular episode and Jennifer Byrne Presents: Sex and Romance.
These events are free to attend, just call or email if you’d like to reserve seats.
Enter the Five Word Review Competition!
Not five pages, five paragraphs or even five sentences… Use five words exactly to critique the read of your choice and be in the running for a selection of books from the First Tuesday library. You can enter by post or on the Discussion Board.
First Tuesday Production Crew
Email: bookclub@your.abc.net.au
Phone: (02) 8333 3644
Write to: First Tuesday Book Club GPO Box 9994 Sydney NSW 2001
On the website I also found a review of NO TIME FOR GOODBYE by Linwood Barclay, which I have bought but am yet to read.
There is also a good page about Ruth Rendell with particular reference to NOT IN THE FLESH which was a featured book in December 2007.
You can also tell them what your favourite book for 2007 was.
By the way currently I'm reading Carol O'Connell's SHARK MUSIC. The alternative US title was FIND ME. The book's imagery is having quite a surreal effect on me, but more of that after I've finished.
3 February 2008
THE RISK OF DARKNESS, Susan Hill
THE RISK OF DARKNESS is #3 in Susan Hill's Simon Serrailler series, and in many ways a continuation of THE PURE IN HEART. That fact causes problems in writing even a short review, because I don't want to spoil THE PURE IN HEART for those who have still to read it.
THE RISK OF DARKNESS could certainly be read on its own, but I have seen comments where people say it has sent them scurrying back to find the two preceding novels.
One concept that I thought Hill explored really well in this novel was that of the impact on victims of crime - the impact on those whose loved one has been killed or has disappeared, and the impact on relatives of the person who committed the crime.
What also comes over really well is that no detective works in a social vacuum - they too have family, ambitions, and emotional quagmires.
As she did in the two earlier novels, Hill leaves threads and questions, un-resolved, that will probably carry over into the next. New characters come onto the scene, and Hill, seemingly without a qualm, ditches others who have been with us throughout.
The one constant in all novels is Detective Chief Inspector Simon Serrailler, at times a frustratingly flawed character, sometimes blind-sided by his own emotional needs, and often insensitive to how others might feel, but always concerned with active detection.
Simon Serrailler series in order:
THE VARIOUS HAUNTS OF MEN (2004), my rating: 4.6
THE PURE IN HEART (2005), my rating: 4.7
THE RISK OF DARKNESS (2006), my rating: 4.7
To be published in 2008
THE GOING DOWN OF THE SUN
VOWS OF SILENCE
Susan Hill's website: http://www.susan-hill.com/
Her blog: http://blog.susan-hill.com/blog/index.xml
THE RISK OF DARKNESS could certainly be read on its own, but I have seen comments where people say it has sent them scurrying back to find the two preceding novels.
One concept that I thought Hill explored really well in this novel was that of the impact on victims of crime - the impact on those whose loved one has been killed or has disappeared, and the impact on relatives of the person who committed the crime.
What also comes over really well is that no detective works in a social vacuum - they too have family, ambitions, and emotional quagmires.
As she did in the two earlier novels, Hill leaves threads and questions, un-resolved, that will probably carry over into the next. New characters come onto the scene, and Hill, seemingly without a qualm, ditches others who have been with us throughout.
The one constant in all novels is Detective Chief Inspector Simon Serrailler, at times a frustratingly flawed character, sometimes blind-sided by his own emotional needs, and often insensitive to how others might feel, but always concerned with active detection.
Simon Serrailler series in order:
THE VARIOUS HAUNTS OF MEN (2004), my rating: 4.6
THE PURE IN HEART (2005), my rating: 4.7
THE RISK OF DARKNESS (2006), my rating: 4.7
To be published in 2008
THE GOING DOWN OF THE SUN
VOWS OF SILENCE
Susan Hill's website: http://www.susan-hill.com/
Her blog: http://blog.susan-hill.com/blog/index.xml
1 February 2008
Skulls
I thought I'd find more references to skulls in my reading record summaries, but I found only 3, one of which I listed when I talked about bones.
But you can see from my ratings that I enjoyed them all.
Once again a couple of highly recommendable authors in Stephen Booth and Jane Goodall. Jane is an Australian author, so do try to get her books- and read them in order (THE WALKER, THE VISITOR, THE CALLING)
THE DEAD PLACE by Stephen Booth
Soon there will be a killing. Close your eyes and breathe the aroma. I can smell it right now, can't you? So powerful, so sweet. So irresistible. It's the scent of death… The anonymous caller who taunts the Derbyshire Police with talk of an imminent killing seems to be just another hoaxer. But Detective Sergeant Diane Fry begins to take him seriously when a woman is snatched from a multi-storey car park. This was no opportunist attack but a carefully planned abduction - and it's possible the chilling voice is telling the truth when it hints at earlier murders and bodies waiting to be found in 'the Dead Place'. Detective Constable Ben Cooper, meanwhile, has succeeded in finding a body - or rather, a collection of bones. This comes as a shock to the deceased's family, for Audrey Steele should have left no bones. Eighteen months ago, after dying from natural causes, Audrey was cremated and her ashes scattered in Edendale's memorial gardens. Their investigations lead DS Fry and DC Cooper into the world of those whose lives revolve around death. And finally, in a boarded-up ancestral home that has long been the stuff of legend in the White Park, a crypt full of skulls yields it dark secrets.
My rating: 4.6
THE VISITOR by Jane R. Goodall
Following the phenomenal success of Jane R Goodall’s 2004 debut novel THE WALKER comes the second Briony Williams thriller. Twin boys run away from their au pair on a trip to the Oxford countryside. They race into some woods where they see a man chopping. At first they think he is chopping wood, but what he is holding in his hand is not an axe, and the shape on the ground is not a tree. Their au pair, Sylvie, sets off to look for them... Briony Williams has moved to Oxford. The story begins as she speeds across the city to the murder site, where Sylvie Bec has been found dead—killed by a single blow that crushed her skull. The forensic pathologist says he has never seen anything like it.
With a fascination for all things terrifying, Jane Goodall takes readers into the dark, drug-filled world of 1970s Oxford, where we witness serial killings and a murderer with a fascination for ancient artefacts. Not even Detective Williams is safe.
My rating: 4.7
THE BONE GARDEN by Tess Gerritsen
Maura Isles, Boston medical examiner, tells Julia Hamill that the skeleton she has dug up in her back garden is old, much older than the house that she has recently purchased. The skeleton is that of a female under 35 years, buried perhaps more than 150 ago, and murdered. Julia is recently divorced and had been labouring to convert the barren back yard into a garden when her shovel struck a skull. Now her backyard is an excavation site for the medical examiner’s office.
For most of the book, which jumps, sometimes a little jarringly, backwards and forwards between the 1830s and the present day, we are following an ancestor of the last owner of the house, the person's whose estate Julia bought the house from. We do this both through reading about events as they happen, and through papers and letters hoarded by the previous occupant Hilda Chamblet
My rating: 4.6
But you can see from my ratings that I enjoyed them all.
Once again a couple of highly recommendable authors in Stephen Booth and Jane Goodall. Jane is an Australian author, so do try to get her books- and read them in order (THE WALKER, THE VISITOR, THE CALLING)
THE DEAD PLACE by Stephen Booth
Soon there will be a killing. Close your eyes and breathe the aroma. I can smell it right now, can't you? So powerful, so sweet. So irresistible. It's the scent of death… The anonymous caller who taunts the Derbyshire Police with talk of an imminent killing seems to be just another hoaxer. But Detective Sergeant Diane Fry begins to take him seriously when a woman is snatched from a multi-storey car park. This was no opportunist attack but a carefully planned abduction - and it's possible the chilling voice is telling the truth when it hints at earlier murders and bodies waiting to be found in 'the Dead Place'. Detective Constable Ben Cooper, meanwhile, has succeeded in finding a body - or rather, a collection of bones. This comes as a shock to the deceased's family, for Audrey Steele should have left no bones. Eighteen months ago, after dying from natural causes, Audrey was cremated and her ashes scattered in Edendale's memorial gardens. Their investigations lead DS Fry and DC Cooper into the world of those whose lives revolve around death. And finally, in a boarded-up ancestral home that has long been the stuff of legend in the White Park, a crypt full of skulls yields it dark secrets.
My rating: 4.6
THE VISITOR by Jane R. Goodall
Following the phenomenal success of Jane R Goodall’s 2004 debut novel THE WALKER comes the second Briony Williams thriller. Twin boys run away from their au pair on a trip to the Oxford countryside. They race into some woods where they see a man chopping. At first they think he is chopping wood, but what he is holding in his hand is not an axe, and the shape on the ground is not a tree. Their au pair, Sylvie, sets off to look for them... Briony Williams has moved to Oxford. The story begins as she speeds across the city to the murder site, where Sylvie Bec has been found dead—killed by a single blow that crushed her skull. The forensic pathologist says he has never seen anything like it.
With a fascination for all things terrifying, Jane Goodall takes readers into the dark, drug-filled world of 1970s Oxford, where we witness serial killings and a murderer with a fascination for ancient artefacts. Not even Detective Williams is safe.
My rating: 4.7
THE BONE GARDEN by Tess Gerritsen
Maura Isles, Boston medical examiner, tells Julia Hamill that the skeleton she has dug up in her back garden is old, much older than the house that she has recently purchased. The skeleton is that of a female under 35 years, buried perhaps more than 150 ago, and murdered. Julia is recently divorced and had been labouring to convert the barren back yard into a garden when her shovel struck a skull. Now her backyard is an excavation site for the medical examiner’s office.
For most of the book, which jumps, sometimes a little jarringly, backwards and forwards between the 1830s and the present day, we are following an ancestor of the last owner of the house, the person's whose estate Julia bought the house from. We do this both through reading about events as they happen, and through papers and letters hoarded by the previous occupant Hilda Chamblet
My rating: 4.6
30 January 2008
Lotsa Bones
Yesterday we had body parts. Today I've scoured my recent database entries for skeletons.
There are some treats among these books, and some of my favourite authors.
ENTOMBED by Linda Fairstein
Workers demolishing a nineteenth-century brownstone where Edgar Allan Poe once lived discover a human skeleton entombed -- standing -- behind a brick wall. When sex crimes prosecutor Alexandra Cooper hears about the case, it strikes her as a classic Poe scene...except that forensic evidence shows that this young woman died within the last twenty-five years. Meanwhile, Alex's old nemesis the Silk Stocking Rapist is once again terrorizing Manhattan's Upper East Side. The attacks soon escalate to murder, and the search leads Alex and detectives Mercer Wallace and Mike Chapman to the city's stunning Bronx Botanical Gardens. There, an enigmatic librarian presides over the Raven Society, a group devoted to the work of Poe.
This was an engrossing read. There's a lot of detail about Poe (and who knows if it is correct) but certainly we have all read some Poe at some time. I can believe too the claim made in the book that Poe was the originator of the detective novel. . There were parts of the novel which were very Poe-ish in their macabre-ness and suspense. At the same time it moves at a smart pace and there are lots of little weblike links binding it all together.
I didn't find this as dark as some of the earlier Fairstein's that I have read. There's some interesting comments too on how modern technology that can help track a culprit down - DNA of course, but Metro transport tickets??
My rating: 5.0
THE FUNERAL BOAT by Kate Ellis
The Tradmouth area of Devonshire is the location this Kate Ellis’ police procedural in which Wesley Peterson, a young black detective plays a prominent role. Wesley and his superior, Inspector Gerry Heffernan, had both chosen a rural setting in which to pursue their law enforcement careers, thinking criminal activity would be considerably less than in London. However, of late, things are anything but peaceful on their turf. A rash of burglaries targeting isolated farms in the district, the disappearance of a young Danish tourist, and the discovery of a skeleton who had met his death apparently violently are keeping Heffernan and his staff busy round the clock.
My rating: 4.5
BREAK NO BONES by Kathy Reichs
Dr Temperance Brennan is filling a vacancy as a supervisor of an archaeology dig for students from the University of North Carolina. The dig site on Dewees Island on contains sixteen prehistoric graves, a pre-Colombian burial ground. Dewees Island is largely a conservation easement, but the rest is ripe for development. On the penultimate day of the dig, just when they are well on the way to wrapping everything up on schedule, Tempe has a couple of visitors: local freelance journalist Homer Winborne, and Dickie Dupree, land developer and entrepreneur. As if on cue, an intrusive articulated skeleton is discovered in one of the graves. Tempe quickly realises that this body is not prehistoric.
My rating: 4.3
SPIDER TRAP by Barry Maitland
Spider Roach, his very name a combination of the insect pests that we all hate, is the perfect illustration of the adage that evil breeds evil. Back in the 1980s he controlled the hotbed of gangster land around Cockpit Lane. Now an old man, 20 years on he still controls it - his 3 sons are evil and always have been, and they seem to have married and begotten evil too. Brock had dealings with Roach back in the 1980s and he emerges from retirement in SPIDER TRAP to warn Brock off from his current investigation into the spider's web of evil he has built up over the decades. Two young girls have been found shot dead in Cockpit Lane, a boy is electrocuted as he tries to cross the electrified rail line to get to the nearby waste land where "brown bread" is rumoured to be hidden, and then the police begin to dig up 20 year old skeletons buried in the waste ground. #10 in the Brock and Kolla series
My rating: 4.7
MURDER IN THE MUSEUM - A Fethering Mystery by Simon Brett
Bracketts, once the home of poet Esmund Chadleigh, is an Elizabethan house, now a museum devoted to the remembrance of Chadleigh. Carole Seddon, retired public servant, becomes a trustee on the board of Bracketts, but board meetings are complicated by the discovery of a skeleton in the kitchen garden. Carole and her neighbour Jude become involved when there is a shooting in the house car park. Obviously Bracketts has secrets some one is keen to keep hidden. I am an addict of Simon Brett's writing.
My rating: 4.5
SILENCE OF THE GRAVE by Arnaldur Indridason
Building work on the outskirts of Reykajavik (Iceland) uncovers a body possibly buried alive during World War Two. Erlendur and his team are called in to investigate and try to uncover the truth while a team of archaeologists slowly and painstaking exhume the skeleton. Those who still live in the area tell of a young pregnant woman who disappeared in the war, but is it her? An elderly dying man talks of the green woman who was crooked. At the same time Erlendur is re-living his past - his daughter Eva Lind lies in a coma in the local hospital after a miscarriage and an old woman asks him why he is carrying a young boy around with him. The construction of this novel is intricate and it is almost impossible to solve the mysteries until the very end. Indridason draws into it a fascinating local legend about an orgy at the local gasworks on the night Halley's comet nearly struck the earth in 1910. Translated into English from Icelandic in 2005.
My rating: 5
THE DRAINING LAKE by Arnaldur Indridason
After an earth tremor, the water level in an Icelandic lake begins to drop as water drains out through fissures in the lakes bed. Eventually it drops low enough to reveal the skeleton of a murder victim, probably there for a number of years and anchored to a piece of Russian radio equipment. The search for the identity of this person is a fairly lengthy and tedious process but murders and missing persons are pretty rare in Iceland where everybody knows everybody. Woven into the murder investigation is the story of idealistic young Icelandic socialists, party members chosen to be educated at university in Leipzig in East Germany, and then also more about Erlendur's own family and his children who flit in and out of his life. Originally published in Icelandic in 2004, the 4th of Indridason's books to be translated into English.
My rating: 4.7
THE BONE GARDEN by Tess Gerritsen
Maura Isles, Boston medical examiner, tells Julia Hamill that the skeleton she has dug up in her back garden is old, much older than the house that she has recently purchased. The skeleton is that of a female under 35 years, buried perhaps more than 150 ago, and murdered. Julia is recently divorced and had been labouring to convert the barren back yard into a garden when her shovel struck a skull. Now her backyard is an excavation site for the medical examiner’s office.
For most of the book, which jumps, sometimes a little jarringly, backwards and forwards between the 1830s and the present day, we are following an ancestor of the last owner of the house, the person's whose estate Julia bought the house from. We do this both through reading about events as they happen, and through papers and letters hoarded by the previous occupant Hilda Chamblet
My rating: 4.6
There are some treats among these books, and some of my favourite authors.
ENTOMBED by Linda Fairstein
Workers demolishing a nineteenth-century brownstone where Edgar Allan Poe once lived discover a human skeleton entombed -- standing -- behind a brick wall. When sex crimes prosecutor Alexandra Cooper hears about the case, it strikes her as a classic Poe scene...except that forensic evidence shows that this young woman died within the last twenty-five years. Meanwhile, Alex's old nemesis the Silk Stocking Rapist is once again terrorizing Manhattan's Upper East Side. The attacks soon escalate to murder, and the search leads Alex and detectives Mercer Wallace and Mike Chapman to the city's stunning Bronx Botanical Gardens. There, an enigmatic librarian presides over the Raven Society, a group devoted to the work of Poe.
This was an engrossing read. There's a lot of detail about Poe (and who knows if it is correct) but certainly we have all read some Poe at some time. I can believe too the claim made in the book that Poe was the originator of the detective novel. . There were parts of the novel which were very Poe-ish in their macabre-ness and suspense. At the same time it moves at a smart pace and there are lots of little weblike links binding it all together.
I didn't find this as dark as some of the earlier Fairstein's that I have read. There's some interesting comments too on how modern technology that can help track a culprit down - DNA of course, but Metro transport tickets??
My rating: 5.0
THE FUNERAL BOAT by Kate Ellis
The Tradmouth area of Devonshire is the location this Kate Ellis’ police procedural in which Wesley Peterson, a young black detective plays a prominent role. Wesley and his superior, Inspector Gerry Heffernan, had both chosen a rural setting in which to pursue their law enforcement careers, thinking criminal activity would be considerably less than in London. However, of late, things are anything but peaceful on their turf. A rash of burglaries targeting isolated farms in the district, the disappearance of a young Danish tourist, and the discovery of a skeleton who had met his death apparently violently are keeping Heffernan and his staff busy round the clock.
My rating: 4.5
BREAK NO BONES by Kathy Reichs
Dr Temperance Brennan is filling a vacancy as a supervisor of an archaeology dig for students from the University of North Carolina. The dig site on Dewees Island on contains sixteen prehistoric graves, a pre-Colombian burial ground. Dewees Island is largely a conservation easement, but the rest is ripe for development. On the penultimate day of the dig, just when they are well on the way to wrapping everything up on schedule, Tempe has a couple of visitors: local freelance journalist Homer Winborne, and Dickie Dupree, land developer and entrepreneur. As if on cue, an intrusive articulated skeleton is discovered in one of the graves. Tempe quickly realises that this body is not prehistoric.
My rating: 4.3
SPIDER TRAP by Barry Maitland
Spider Roach, his very name a combination of the insect pests that we all hate, is the perfect illustration of the adage that evil breeds evil. Back in the 1980s he controlled the hotbed of gangster land around Cockpit Lane. Now an old man, 20 years on he still controls it - his 3 sons are evil and always have been, and they seem to have married and begotten evil too. Brock had dealings with Roach back in the 1980s and he emerges from retirement in SPIDER TRAP to warn Brock off from his current investigation into the spider's web of evil he has built up over the decades. Two young girls have been found shot dead in Cockpit Lane, a boy is electrocuted as he tries to cross the electrified rail line to get to the nearby waste land where "brown bread" is rumoured to be hidden, and then the police begin to dig up 20 year old skeletons buried in the waste ground. #10 in the Brock and Kolla series
My rating: 4.7
MURDER IN THE MUSEUM - A Fethering Mystery by Simon Brett
Bracketts, once the home of poet Esmund Chadleigh, is an Elizabethan house, now a museum devoted to the remembrance of Chadleigh. Carole Seddon, retired public servant, becomes a trustee on the board of Bracketts, but board meetings are complicated by the discovery of a skeleton in the kitchen garden. Carole and her neighbour Jude become involved when there is a shooting in the house car park. Obviously Bracketts has secrets some one is keen to keep hidden. I am an addict of Simon Brett's writing.
My rating: 4.5
SILENCE OF THE GRAVE by Arnaldur Indridason
Building work on the outskirts of Reykajavik (Iceland) uncovers a body possibly buried alive during World War Two. Erlendur and his team are called in to investigate and try to uncover the truth while a team of archaeologists slowly and painstaking exhume the skeleton. Those who still live in the area tell of a young pregnant woman who disappeared in the war, but is it her? An elderly dying man talks of the green woman who was crooked. At the same time Erlendur is re-living his past - his daughter Eva Lind lies in a coma in the local hospital after a miscarriage and an old woman asks him why he is carrying a young boy around with him. The construction of this novel is intricate and it is almost impossible to solve the mysteries until the very end. Indridason draws into it a fascinating local legend about an orgy at the local gasworks on the night Halley's comet nearly struck the earth in 1910. Translated into English from Icelandic in 2005.
My rating: 5
THE DRAINING LAKE by Arnaldur Indridason
After an earth tremor, the water level in an Icelandic lake begins to drop as water drains out through fissures in the lakes bed. Eventually it drops low enough to reveal the skeleton of a murder victim, probably there for a number of years and anchored to a piece of Russian radio equipment. The search for the identity of this person is a fairly lengthy and tedious process but murders and missing persons are pretty rare in Iceland where everybody knows everybody. Woven into the murder investigation is the story of idealistic young Icelandic socialists, party members chosen to be educated at university in Leipzig in East Germany, and then also more about Erlendur's own family and his children who flit in and out of his life. Originally published in Icelandic in 2004, the 4th of Indridason's books to be translated into English.
My rating: 4.7
THE BONE GARDEN by Tess Gerritsen
Maura Isles, Boston medical examiner, tells Julia Hamill that the skeleton she has dug up in her back garden is old, much older than the house that she has recently purchased. The skeleton is that of a female under 35 years, buried perhaps more than 150 ago, and murdered. Julia is recently divorced and had been labouring to convert the barren back yard into a garden when her shovel struck a skull. Now her backyard is an excavation site for the medical examiner’s office.
For most of the book, which jumps, sometimes a little jarringly, backwards and forwards between the 1830s and the present day, we are following an ancestor of the last owner of the house, the person's whose estate Julia bought the house from. We do this both through reading about events as they happen, and through papers and letters hoarded by the previous occupant Hilda Chamblet
My rating: 4.6
29 January 2008
Body parts strewn around
The finding of body parts, hand, arm, foot, leg would be a gruesome enough discovery. In crime fiction it is often the beginning of a murder mystery.
This was true with Giles Blunt's THE DELICATE STORM, where the finding of a disconnected arm in the forest begins a search for other parts of the body.
Then it occurred to me that recently I have read other books where there is a similar plot. Here are a couple:
NOT IN THE FLESH by Ruth Rendell
Honey the dog is a wonderful hunter for truffles. But this time she unearths something even less savoury - a human hand. Another case for the inveterate duo Reg Wexford and Mike Burden. The body is male, and has been there for over 10 years, wrapped in a purple bed sheet. In this story Reg Wexford seems to be a little less clearly drawn and we learn more about the dynamics of the team he works with. The plot is a spider web of threads. It is all about degrees of separation, those threads that draw us together. And running through all the murder mysteries, missing persons and threads of deception, something else Rendell has on her mind - female circumcision, ritual genital mutilation of young immigrant children, providing a rich undercurrent, showing Rendell as aware of the issues of her times as ever.
My rating 4.8
BLIND SPOT by Terri Persons
FBI Agent Bernadette Saint Clare has many distinguishing features. At first sight she is a small person with a superficial resemblance to Mia Farrow. Then, if she discards her sunglasses, you notice she has devil’s eyes, each eye a different colour. Bernadette’s success as an FBI Agent however owes much to her “hidden” gift: an ability to see through the eyes of a criminal while holding an object the person has held.
A dog returning from an exploring trip to a nearby river brings his young master a rather gruesome trophy - a human hand. And so Bernadette Saint Clair begins her new posting with a new boss. Tony Garcia is a little different to her previous bosses – he wants to see where Bernadette’s “gift” will take them. When a male body is found in the locality without a hand, it is Bernadette who alerts them to the fact that the hand that the dog found is female.
My rating 4.1
THE TORSO by Helene Tursten
Translated from Swedish in 2006. The story begins with the gruesome discovery of part of a human torso in a black plastic bag on a shoreline near Goteborg. Detective Inspector Irene Huss, whose superintendent suspects is a magnet for killings, is one of the team called in to investigate. When they learn of a similar torso turning up 2 years earlier in Copenhagen, Irene is sent to liaise with the Copenhagen police. Her investigations reveal strong connections between communities in Sweden and Denmark. As people she visits seem to die shortly afterwards, it certainly appears her superintendent's joke has at least a grain of truth. Irene herself is targetted by someone who does not want the connections fully revealed. Some detailed descriptions will not suit the squeamish. Irene Huss is strong, level-headed, intuitive, highly principled, but sometimes fallible.
My rating 4.6
Skeletons tomorrow...
This was true with Giles Blunt's THE DELICATE STORM, where the finding of a disconnected arm in the forest begins a search for other parts of the body.
Then it occurred to me that recently I have read other books where there is a similar plot. Here are a couple:
NOT IN THE FLESH by Ruth Rendell
Honey the dog is a wonderful hunter for truffles. But this time she unearths something even less savoury - a human hand. Another case for the inveterate duo Reg Wexford and Mike Burden. The body is male, and has been there for over 10 years, wrapped in a purple bed sheet. In this story Reg Wexford seems to be a little less clearly drawn and we learn more about the dynamics of the team he works with. The plot is a spider web of threads. It is all about degrees of separation, those threads that draw us together. And running through all the murder mysteries, missing persons and threads of deception, something else Rendell has on her mind - female circumcision, ritual genital mutilation of young immigrant children, providing a rich undercurrent, showing Rendell as aware of the issues of her times as ever.
My rating 4.8
BLIND SPOT by Terri Persons
FBI Agent Bernadette Saint Clare has many distinguishing features. At first sight she is a small person with a superficial resemblance to Mia Farrow. Then, if she discards her sunglasses, you notice she has devil’s eyes, each eye a different colour. Bernadette’s success as an FBI Agent however owes much to her “hidden” gift: an ability to see through the eyes of a criminal while holding an object the person has held.
A dog returning from an exploring trip to a nearby river brings his young master a rather gruesome trophy - a human hand. And so Bernadette Saint Clair begins her new posting with a new boss. Tony Garcia is a little different to her previous bosses – he wants to see where Bernadette’s “gift” will take them. When a male body is found in the locality without a hand, it is Bernadette who alerts them to the fact that the hand that the dog found is female.
My rating 4.1
THE TORSO by Helene Tursten
Translated from Swedish in 2006. The story begins with the gruesome discovery of part of a human torso in a black plastic bag on a shoreline near Goteborg. Detective Inspector Irene Huss, whose superintendent suspects is a magnet for killings, is one of the team called in to investigate. When they learn of a similar torso turning up 2 years earlier in Copenhagen, Irene is sent to liaise with the Copenhagen police. Her investigations reveal strong connections between communities in Sweden and Denmark. As people she visits seem to die shortly afterwards, it certainly appears her superintendent's joke has at least a grain of truth. Irene herself is targetted by someone who does not want the connections fully revealed. Some detailed descriptions will not suit the squeamish. Irene Huss is strong, level-headed, intuitive, highly principled, but sometimes fallible.
My rating 4.6
Skeletons tomorrow...
28 January 2008
THE REAPER, Peter Lovesey
If the title in the context of crime fiction makes you think "grim reaper" then you are on the right track.
This is a macabre cosy if there is such a thing. A rompingly entertaining read, but not one of Lovesey's best.
Otis Joy, the rector of St. Bartholomew's in the Wiltshire village of Foxford, a young man in his late 20s, is a dynamic relative newcomer to the village. He seems everything a vicar needs to be, even if he is unmarried. Underneath though he is a very nasty bit of work indeed. Nobody believes lugubrious old Owen Cumberbatch when he says that the Rev. Joy's last parish is without its Sexton/bellringer because he crossed Otis Joy. Snooping old Skidmore simply disappeared.
But we do know from almost the first page of the story that Otis Joy is responsible for the death of the bishop, Marcus Glastonbury, who had found out that he had been embezzling funds at his previous parish (where the Sexton disappeared).
We learn also that he has come to an "arrangement" with his current Parish treasurer, Stanley Burrows, ex-headmaster, to have a private contingency fund which appears nowhere in the church's accounts. And then Stanley says he would like to hand the job over to a younger person, that he is getting too old, and the responsibility of the parish books is too great...
I think Peter Lovesey, one of my favourite authors, had great fun in writing this book. It is almost as if he decided to write a spoof on the village cosy. There are some really sardonic descriptions, almost cruel, of village personalities. One that comes to mind readily is Cynthia Haydenhall, Chair of the Women's Institute - my mental vision of her is of a dark haired strident Penelope Keith - who sees herself as the social hub of the village. And there are others..
This isn't going to exercise your little grey cells too much. But if you enjoy the occasional cosy, then hunt it down. In style it reminds me a bit of M.C. Beaton's Agatha Raisin series.
My rating was 4.1
I've been a Peter Lovesey fan since he published his first novel WOBBLE TO DEATH. You may be familiar with his Peter Diamond series. Fantastic Fiction lists his novels.
This is a macabre cosy if there is such a thing. A rompingly entertaining read, but not one of Lovesey's best.
Otis Joy, the rector of St. Bartholomew's in the Wiltshire village of Foxford, a young man in his late 20s, is a dynamic relative newcomer to the village. He seems everything a vicar needs to be, even if he is unmarried. Underneath though he is a very nasty bit of work indeed. Nobody believes lugubrious old Owen Cumberbatch when he says that the Rev. Joy's last parish is without its Sexton/bellringer because he crossed Otis Joy. Snooping old Skidmore simply disappeared.
But we do know from almost the first page of the story that Otis Joy is responsible for the death of the bishop, Marcus Glastonbury, who had found out that he had been embezzling funds at his previous parish (where the Sexton disappeared).
We learn also that he has come to an "arrangement" with his current Parish treasurer, Stanley Burrows, ex-headmaster, to have a private contingency fund which appears nowhere in the church's accounts. And then Stanley says he would like to hand the job over to a younger person, that he is getting too old, and the responsibility of the parish books is too great...
I think Peter Lovesey, one of my favourite authors, had great fun in writing this book. It is almost as if he decided to write a spoof on the village cosy. There are some really sardonic descriptions, almost cruel, of village personalities. One that comes to mind readily is Cynthia Haydenhall, Chair of the Women's Institute - my mental vision of her is of a dark haired strident Penelope Keith - who sees herself as the social hub of the village. And there are others..
This isn't going to exercise your little grey cells too much. But if you enjoy the occasional cosy, then hunt it down. In style it reminds me a bit of M.C. Beaton's Agatha Raisin series.
My rating was 4.1
I've been a Peter Lovesey fan since he published his first novel WOBBLE TO DEATH. You may be familiar with his Peter Diamond series. Fantastic Fiction lists his novels.
26 January 2008
THE DELICATE STORM, Giles Blunt
Unusually warm weather in northern Canada just after New Year brings with it a dense fog that shrouds Algonquin Bay. The discovery of a human arm out in the forest sparks a search for other body parts, and eventually bits that appear to have been mauled by bears are discovered. John Cardinal and Lise Delorme become involved in investigating this and another case where a local holds up a bank, threatening the teller with a gun. The identity of the hold up man is easily solved, but the identification of the body bits leads Cardinal and Delorme into learning about separationist activities from the early 1970s when a hostage was killed, two separationists confessed to his murder, and one of the hostage takers vanished. Another strand is introduced when a young female doctor disappears.
THE DELICATE STORM received the 2004 Arthur Ellis Award from the Crime Writers of Canada, as well as being nominated for a swag of others including the Dashiell Hammett, the Macavity, and the Anthony.
So why didn't I enjoy it as much as I expected to?
For one thing, I think it moved from being murder mystery to crime thriller. A very large number of characters crowded its pages. There was a lot of background information, heavy use of acronyms where the meaning didn't readily stay with me, and some slow passages. These were mainly caused by descriptive bits that became pages of detail that the reader needed for some later event or piece of information to be significant. It meant that the book really was rather long, and there was always a danger you might miss something important. Sometimes you had to wonder whether crowding the reader's head with the detail was worth it for the one significant item.
However there were a number of issues raised which would have appealed particularly to Canadian readers: Canadian politics, separationist movements, male and female detectives working together, Canadian severe weather and its effect on daily life (including police investigations), dishonesty in police officers, tension between intelligence and investigation agencies both in Canada, and between Canada and the USA. But for me, the ending was unsatisfactory, but I won't tell you about that, because you will want to read it for yourself.
THE DELICATE STORM (and what is the significance of that title?) is the second in Blunt's Cardinal series. The first was FORTY WORDS FOR SORROW, and after THE DELICATE STORM comes BLACK FLY SEASON and THE FIELDS OF GRIEF (aka BY THE TIME YOU READ THIS)
My rating 4.3
THE DELICATE STORM received the 2004 Arthur Ellis Award from the Crime Writers of Canada, as well as being nominated for a swag of others including the Dashiell Hammett, the Macavity, and the Anthony.
So why didn't I enjoy it as much as I expected to?
For one thing, I think it moved from being murder mystery to crime thriller. A very large number of characters crowded its pages. There was a lot of background information, heavy use of acronyms where the meaning didn't readily stay with me, and some slow passages. These were mainly caused by descriptive bits that became pages of detail that the reader needed for some later event or piece of information to be significant. It meant that the book really was rather long, and there was always a danger you might miss something important. Sometimes you had to wonder whether crowding the reader's head with the detail was worth it for the one significant item.
However there were a number of issues raised which would have appealed particularly to Canadian readers: Canadian politics, separationist movements, male and female detectives working together, Canadian severe weather and its effect on daily life (including police investigations), dishonesty in police officers, tension between intelligence and investigation agencies both in Canada, and between Canada and the USA. But for me, the ending was unsatisfactory, but I won't tell you about that, because you will want to read it for yourself.
THE DELICATE STORM (and what is the significance of that title?) is the second in Blunt's Cardinal series. The first was FORTY WORDS FOR SORROW, and after THE DELICATE STORM comes BLACK FLY SEASON and THE FIELDS OF GRIEF (aka BY THE TIME YOU READ THIS)
My rating 4.3
Will you recognise someone 30 to 40 years on?
Have you ever had the experience of meeting someone you haven't seen for decades? Their first words "you haven't changed a bit". My mental reaction: "I hope I didn't look like this 30 years ago!"
So how does that work?
In Giles Blunt's THE DELICATE STORM, a forensic artist is a guru on "age progression". She says "the truth is, the proportions of your face don't change. That's why - say you haven't seen someone for say thirty, forty years - the moment you get up close and they begin to speak, you're looking in their eyes, you know it's them."
She went on to touch up an old photo and the result looked uncannily like someone Cardinal and Delorme had put on their suspects list.
What do you think of that?
So how does that work?
In Giles Blunt's THE DELICATE STORM, a forensic artist is a guru on "age progression". She says "the truth is, the proportions of your face don't change. That's why - say you haven't seen someone for say thirty, forty years - the moment you get up close and they begin to speak, you're looking in their eyes, you know it's them."
She went on to touch up an old photo and the result looked uncannily like someone Cardinal and Delorme had put on their suspects list.
What do you think of that?
Does nationality help?
What role is played by your "national interests" in reading/appreciating a book?
What role is played by your understanding of the country's history, knowledge of current affairs etc?
Does the book's setting make a difference?
These ideas occurred to me while I was trying to fathom why I didn't like THE DELICATE STORM as much as those who gave it the 2004 Arthur Ellis Award (from the Crime Writers of Canada) - but then is that award only for Canadian writers?
I've almost decided that the answer lies in the fact that the murder mystery was so deeply entangled with Canadian political history and other facts such as the relationship between law enforcement agencies in Canada itself, and between the USA and Canada.
You might think my questions have rather obvious answers, but I think they also have something to do with writing style, reading traditions and so on.
For example, my reading of choice is almost without doubt (how's that for hedging your bets?) British crime fiction. I think that has a lot to do with the fact that I was brought up on British literature, and that the crime fiction most readily available in Australia was British. I remember very clearly when the paperback became readily available in Australia and I began devouring Agatha Christie in particular. Mind you I also devoured Simenon, so perhaps my argument doesn't hold much water.
What role is played by your understanding of the country's history, knowledge of current affairs etc?
Does the book's setting make a difference?
These ideas occurred to me while I was trying to fathom why I didn't like THE DELICATE STORM as much as those who gave it the 2004 Arthur Ellis Award (from the Crime Writers of Canada) - but then is that award only for Canadian writers?
I've almost decided that the answer lies in the fact that the murder mystery was so deeply entangled with Canadian political history and other facts such as the relationship between law enforcement agencies in Canada itself, and between the USA and Canada.
You might think my questions have rather obvious answers, but I think they also have something to do with writing style, reading traditions and so on.
For example, my reading of choice is almost without doubt (how's that for hedging your bets?) British crime fiction. I think that has a lot to do with the fact that I was brought up on British literature, and that the crime fiction most readily available in Australia was British. I remember very clearly when the paperback became readily available in Australia and I began devouring Agatha Christie in particular. Mind you I also devoured Simenon, so perhaps my argument doesn't hold much water.
24 January 2008
Celebrating Australia Day
For those of you who don't live downunder, you may not be aware that January 26 is Australia Day.
It commemorates the date in 1788 that the British flag was hoisted at Botany Bay, roughly where Sydney grew to be.
If you need some Australian history, you can probably find what you want at http://www.australia.gov.au/Australian_History
For Australian "stories" try http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/stories/category.htm
If you want to see what your knowledge of Australia is like, try the self marking quizzes at one of my other places. There's an easy and a harder version with questions developed by a good friend.
Start at http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/kasmith/easy_oz_quiz.htm
But then if you want Book reviews etc. try http://www.austcrimefiction.org/node/31
Some blogs to follow:
Crime Down Under
Matilda There's a good list of other sites to visit in the right hand margin
Sally"s Musing DownUnder
Reading Adventures
And of course if you want to read and discuss Australian crime fiction there's oz_mystery_readers
While we discuss a range of books the members are mainly Australian, but don't let that put you off.
Do you need help with strine? See http://www.austcrimefiction.org/node/2603
Hear it spoken at http://www.convictcreations.com/culture/strine.htm
And even more words you can use: http://ozbird.com/oz/OzCulture/yarns/strine/default.htm
And what can you eat?
How about lamb chops or prawns on the barbie, vegemite, and pavlova?
Whatever you do, enjoy it!
It commemorates the date in 1788 that the British flag was hoisted at Botany Bay, roughly where Sydney grew to be.
If you need some Australian history, you can probably find what you want at http://www.australia.gov.au/Australian_History
For Australian "stories" try http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/stories/category.htm
If you want to see what your knowledge of Australia is like, try the self marking quizzes at one of my other places. There's an easy and a harder version with questions developed by a good friend.
Start at http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/kasmith/easy_oz_quiz.htm
But then if you want Book reviews etc. try http://www.austcrimefiction.org/node/31
Some blogs to follow:
Crime Down Under
Matilda There's a good list of other sites to visit in the right hand margin
Sally"s Musing DownUnder
Reading Adventures
And of course if you want to read and discuss Australian crime fiction there's oz_mystery_readers
While we discuss a range of books the members are mainly Australian, but don't let that put you off.
Do you need help with strine? See http://www.austcrimefiction.org/node/2603
Hear it spoken at http://www.convictcreations.com/culture/strine.htm
And even more words you can use: http://ozbird.com/oz/OzCulture/yarns/strine/default.htm
And what can you eat?
How about lamb chops or prawns on the barbie, vegemite, and pavlova?
Whatever you do, enjoy it!
22 January 2008
A NAIL THROUGH THE HEART, Timothy Hallinan
Poke Rafferty, an American, a farang, is the author of a number of very popular travel books in a series called "Looking for Trouble". Poke lives in Bangkok with Rose, a Thai woman, an ex-prostitute, whom he wants to marry, and a little girl called Miaow, rescued from the streets, whom he wants to adopt. Miaow has herself selected a street boy nicknamed Superman to rescue, but he appears to be a killer.
Able to speak Thai fluently, Poke is accepted in the local community where he lives. Poke's friend Arthit is a rare example of an honest Thai policeman. From time to time he and Poke do each other favours. Arthit tells Poke of an Australian woman who is trying to find her missing uncle Claus Ulrich, and Rafferty agrees to meet with Clarissa. The novel is set just after the tsunami of Boxing Day 2004. Many Bangkok people are in mourning, many have lost immediate family. Down on the coast in Phuket bodies are constantly turning up, but Poke doubts that elderly and overweight Claus would have been there.
There are some things that Poke hates: the exploitation of Thai women in brothels and bars, and the child sex industry from which he believes he has rescued Miaow. Following a lead which he hopes will locate the missing man's housemaid, Poke is offered a huge amount of money to track down a stolen item. Something is not quite right and suddenly he finds himself in more trouble than he had ever envisaged.
This was a book that grew on me. I like the way it is structured, the way the section headings relate to the title, its division into short chapters, and the careful choice of provocative chapter titles. I like Poke - there is something of the larrikin about him, from a quirky sense of humour, his willingness to take on the role of knight errant, to his tenderness for both Rose and Miaow, and his empathy for the suffering of the victims of sexual abuse. Hallinan's depiction of Bangkok rings true: where the new and old, wealthy and poor, live right next to each other, where farangs like Poke struggle to understand Thai culture but at the same time try to improve the lives of the homeless and vulnerable.
Not only does Poke Rafferty come alive, but so do other characters such as Rose and the ex-prostitutes she is trying to get employed as domestics, the children Miaow and Superman, Hank Morrison who works hard to get adoption approval for homeless Thai children, and even the reprehensible Madam Wing, the old woman offering a fortune for the retrieval of her stolen property.
A NAIL THROUGH THE HEART raises real questions of morality. Hallinan forces the reader to take these questions on board because not everything that Poke does is right. This is not a book every reader will enjoy. It describes a world in which most of us do not move, one in which sadists and the sexually depraved profit at the expense of women and children, where children are sold in a widespread South East Asian sex industry.
Some people will know Tim Hallinan as the author of the Simon Grist series including EVERYTHING BUT THE SQUEAL (1990), INCINERATOR (1992), THE MAN WITH NO TIME (1993), and THE BONE POLISHER (1995). But as his web site tells, Hallinan had to start again.
A NAIL THROUGH THE HEART is the first in a new series, centering on Poke Rafferty. The second novel in the Bangkok series, THE FOURTH WATCHER, will be released in June 2008, and Hallinan has been contracted for a third. For more details see http://www.timothyhallinan.com/
The website, by the way, contains Hallinan's advice to writers on how to get their book finished, things he's learnt in the process of writing his own.
My rating 4.7
Able to speak Thai fluently, Poke is accepted in the local community where he lives. Poke's friend Arthit is a rare example of an honest Thai policeman. From time to time he and Poke do each other favours. Arthit tells Poke of an Australian woman who is trying to find her missing uncle Claus Ulrich, and Rafferty agrees to meet with Clarissa. The novel is set just after the tsunami of Boxing Day 2004. Many Bangkok people are in mourning, many have lost immediate family. Down on the coast in Phuket bodies are constantly turning up, but Poke doubts that elderly and overweight Claus would have been there.
There are some things that Poke hates: the exploitation of Thai women in brothels and bars, and the child sex industry from which he believes he has rescued Miaow. Following a lead which he hopes will locate the missing man's housemaid, Poke is offered a huge amount of money to track down a stolen item. Something is not quite right and suddenly he finds himself in more trouble than he had ever envisaged.
This was a book that grew on me. I like the way it is structured, the way the section headings relate to the title, its division into short chapters, and the careful choice of provocative chapter titles. I like Poke - there is something of the larrikin about him, from a quirky sense of humour, his willingness to take on the role of knight errant, to his tenderness for both Rose and Miaow, and his empathy for the suffering of the victims of sexual abuse. Hallinan's depiction of Bangkok rings true: where the new and old, wealthy and poor, live right next to each other, where farangs like Poke struggle to understand Thai culture but at the same time try to improve the lives of the homeless and vulnerable.
Not only does Poke Rafferty come alive, but so do other characters such as Rose and the ex-prostitutes she is trying to get employed as domestics, the children Miaow and Superman, Hank Morrison who works hard to get adoption approval for homeless Thai children, and even the reprehensible Madam Wing, the old woman offering a fortune for the retrieval of her stolen property.
A NAIL THROUGH THE HEART raises real questions of morality. Hallinan forces the reader to take these questions on board because not everything that Poke does is right. This is not a book every reader will enjoy. It describes a world in which most of us do not move, one in which sadists and the sexually depraved profit at the expense of women and children, where children are sold in a widespread South East Asian sex industry.
Some people will know Tim Hallinan as the author of the Simon Grist series including EVERYTHING BUT THE SQUEAL (1990), INCINERATOR (1992), THE MAN WITH NO TIME (1993), and THE BONE POLISHER (1995). But as his web site tells, Hallinan had to start again.
A NAIL THROUGH THE HEART is the first in a new series, centering on Poke Rafferty. The second novel in the Bangkok series, THE FOURTH WATCHER, will be released in June 2008, and Hallinan has been contracted for a third. For more details see http://www.timothyhallinan.com/
The website, by the way, contains Hallinan's advice to writers on how to get their book finished, things he's learnt in the process of writing his own.
My rating 4.7
19 January 2008
Sue Grafton- 2008 Cartier Diamond Dagger
Once again how many of the authors listed among the Cartier Dagger winners have you read?
Many of my favourite authors are listed there.
Have you read all/most of Sue Grafton's alphabet series?
I think I may have missed one or two on the way, but next in line for me is S for SILENCE, already on my shelves.
There's a full list at http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/g/sue-grafton/
Her own pretty impressive site is at http://www.suegrafton.com/
Sue Grafton wins Cartier Diamond Dagger for 2008 (Crime Writers Association)
http://www.thecwa.co.uk/daggers/2008/cartier.html
The twenty-third Cartier Diamond Dagger for sustained excellence in the genre of crime writing, has been awarded to the best-selling American novelist, Sue Grafton. Her Kinsey Millhone alphabet series of PI mystery novels have won numerous awards in her native America. The latest number one best-seller, T is for Trespass, was published in the US in December 2007 and will be out in Macmillan hardback in the UK in April 2008.
The CWA committee selects writers nominated by the membership. Nominees have to meet two essential criteria: first, their careers must be marked by sustained excellence, and second, they must have made a significant contribution to crime fiction published in the English language, whether originally or in translation. The award is made purely on merit without reference to age, gender or nationality.
The first winner, in 1986, was Eric Ambler. Subsequent recipients have been P.D. James, John le Carré, Dick Francis, Julian Symons, Ruth Rendell, Leslie Charteris, Ellis Peters, Michael Gilbert, Reginald Hill, H.R.F. Keating, Colin Dexter, Ed McBain, Margaret Yorke, Peter Lovesey, Lionel Davidson, Sara Paretsky, Robert Barnard, Lawrence Block, Ian Rankin and Elmore Leonard.
Last year's winner was John Harvey.
Thanks to Petrona for the heads up on the award.
Many of my favourite authors are listed there.
Have you read all/most of Sue Grafton's alphabet series?
I think I may have missed one or two on the way, but next in line for me is S for SILENCE, already on my shelves.
There's a full list at http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/g/sue-grafton/
Her own pretty impressive site is at http://www.suegrafton.com/
Sue Grafton wins Cartier Diamond Dagger for 2008 (Crime Writers Association)
http://www.thecwa.co.uk/daggers/2008/cartier.html
The twenty-third Cartier Diamond Dagger for sustained excellence in the genre of crime writing, has been awarded to the best-selling American novelist, Sue Grafton. Her Kinsey Millhone alphabet series of PI mystery novels have won numerous awards in her native America. The latest number one best-seller, T is for Trespass, was published in the US in December 2007 and will be out in Macmillan hardback in the UK in April 2008.
The CWA committee selects writers nominated by the membership. Nominees have to meet two essential criteria: first, their careers must be marked by sustained excellence, and second, they must have made a significant contribution to crime fiction published in the English language, whether originally or in translation. The award is made purely on merit without reference to age, gender or nationality.
The first winner, in 1986, was Eric Ambler. Subsequent recipients have been P.D. James, John le Carré, Dick Francis, Julian Symons, Ruth Rendell, Leslie Charteris, Ellis Peters, Michael Gilbert, Reginald Hill, H.R.F. Keating, Colin Dexter, Ed McBain, Margaret Yorke, Peter Lovesey, Lionel Davidson, Sara Paretsky, Robert Barnard, Lawrence Block, Ian Rankin and Elmore Leonard.
Last year's winner was John Harvey.
Thanks to Petrona for the heads up on the award.
Edgar Nominees
I'm indebted to Declan Burke's Crime Always Pays for this nicely formatted short list.
The Edgars are awarded by the Mystery Writers of America and are actually the Edgar Poe Awards. This year celebrates the 199th anniversary of Poe's birth. Over on the Edgars site you get the full list with a lot of lovely cover pics as well. We have to wait until May 1 to find out the winners.
Who says that awards don't matter? I bet you look through this list to see what you've read! I know I did. The only one I've read is Tana French's IN THE WOODS - apparently in that category because she was born in Vermont, although she is always touted as an Irish writer. So more books to look out for.
BEST NOVEL
Christine Falls by Benjamin Black (Henry Holt and Company)
Priest by Ken Bruen (St. Martin’s Minotaur)
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon (HarperCollins)
Soul Patch by Reed Farrel Coleman (Bleak House Books)
Down River by John Hart (St. Martin’s Minotaur)
BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR
Missing Witness by Gordon Campbell (HarperCollins - William Morrow)
In the Woods by Tana French (Penguin Group - Viking)
Snitch Jacket by Christopher Goffard (The Rookery Press)
Head Games by Craig McDonald (Bleak House Books)
Pyres by Derek Nikitas (St. Martin's Minotaur)
BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL
Queenpin by Megan Abbott (Simon & Schuster)
Blood of Paradise by David Corbett (Random House - Mortalis)
Cruel Poetry by Vicki Hendricks (Serpent’s Tail)
Robbie’s Wife by Russell Hill (Hard Case Crime)
Who is Conrad Hirst? by Kevin Wignall (Simon & Schuster)
The Edgars are awarded by the Mystery Writers of America and are actually the Edgar Poe Awards. This year celebrates the 199th anniversary of Poe's birth. Over on the Edgars site you get the full list with a lot of lovely cover pics as well. We have to wait until May 1 to find out the winners.
Who says that awards don't matter? I bet you look through this list to see what you've read! I know I did. The only one I've read is Tana French's IN THE WOODS - apparently in that category because she was born in Vermont, although she is always touted as an Irish writer. So more books to look out for.
BEST NOVEL
Christine Falls by Benjamin Black (Henry Holt and Company)
Priest by Ken Bruen (St. Martin’s Minotaur)
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon (HarperCollins)
Soul Patch by Reed Farrel Coleman (Bleak House Books)
Down River by John Hart (St. Martin’s Minotaur)
BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR
Missing Witness by Gordon Campbell (HarperCollins - William Morrow)
In the Woods by Tana French (Penguin Group - Viking)
Snitch Jacket by Christopher Goffard (The Rookery Press)
Head Games by Craig McDonald (Bleak House Books)
Pyres by Derek Nikitas (St. Martin's Minotaur)
BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL
Queenpin by Megan Abbott (Simon & Schuster)
Blood of Paradise by David Corbett (Random House - Mortalis)
Cruel Poetry by Vicki Hendricks (Serpent’s Tail)
Robbie’s Wife by Russell Hill (Hard Case Crime)
Who is Conrad Hirst? by Kevin Wignall (Simon & Schuster)
18 January 2008
Challenges are all the rage!
Reading challenges seem to be what people are doing in 2008. I'm not really tempted myself, feels a bit too much like a reading curriculum, but I admire the organisational skills of those who do.
If you are, why do you do it?
Are there any specifically for crime/mystery fiction readers or do you just make up your own list?
Or perhaps you can try to convince me that I should join one or two!
- Kari over at Another Book on the Stack is undertaking no less than 8 challenges and has so far identified 48 books and is even organised enough to cross one off so far.
- I know Marg at Reading Adventures is into Challenges too. The ones that Marg is doing so far include the Chunkster Challenge, the Romance Reading, the PulitzerProject, the ManBooker, Pub08, and Sci- Fi experience, and I get the feeling she is still looking. Perhaps she'll tell me how many books that is.
- Friend Sally has listed the challenges she is undertaking at her Reading Challenges blog. Looks like she is doing 15 or so challenges. Her list of the challenges she completed in 2007 is impressive
- Book Awards
- Short Story
- A Novel Challenge - contains lots of lists to investigate
- Reading Dangerously
- Notable Books
- YA
- A-Z
- TBR
If you are, why do you do it?
Are there any specifically for crime/mystery fiction readers or do you just make up your own list?
Or perhaps you can try to convince me that I should join one or two!
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