Review: BLOODLAND, Alan Glynn

• Format: Kindle (Amazon)
• File Size: 639 KB
• Print Length: 382 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0312621280
• Publisher: Faber and Faber Crime (September 1, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B005GDZJ7U
• Source: I bought it

Synopsis (Amazon)

A tabloid star is killed in a helicopter crash and three years later a young journalist is warned off the story.

A private security contractor loses it in the Congo, with deadly consequences.

In Ireland an ex-prime minister struggles to contain a dark secret from his time in office.

A dramatic news story breaks in Paris just as a US senator begins his campaign to run for office.

With echoes of John Le Carre, 24 and James Ellroy, Alan Glynn's follow-up to Winterland is another crime novel of and for our times -- a ferocious, paranoid thriller that moves from Dublin to New York via Central Africa, and thrillingly explores the legacy of corruption in big business, the West's fear of China, the role of back room political players and the question of who controls what we know.

My take

When out of work journalist Jim Gilroy is approached to write a biography of dead model Susie Monaghan strange things begin to happen. Gilroy was caught up some time earlier by the downsizing of Ireland's press industry, lost his job, and this is his first chance to earn for some time. So when he is contacted by a former mentor and advised to drop the job, he can't help wondering why. 

Then a drunken former prime minister tells him that "it was never about Susie. She was just collateral damage." So, Gilroy asks himself, who is it "it" really about? And what exactly is "it"? Threads begin to converge as Gilroy persists.

This was a very tight read. The style is a little disconcerting as the narrative changes point-of-view rather abruptly and I found myself searching the text for clues to whose voice it was. There was a similar situation with settings as we bounce from Dublin to London to Paris, New York, Washington, and The Congo.

The blurb is right: this is about corruption in high places, and in big business, but it is also about the subtleties of economic multinationalism, and the webs that connect us all wherever we live.

My rating: 4.6

I have also reviewed WINTERLAND

Review: THE DONOR, Helen Fitzgerald

• Format: Kindle (Amazon)
• File Size: 410 KB
• Print Length: 323 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0571254373
• Publisher: Faber and Faber Fiction (July 21, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B005685ELQ
• Source: I bought it

 Synopsis (Amazon)

Will Marion has two perfect kidneys.

His daughters aren't so lucky. Question is: which one should he save?

Will's 47. His wife bailed out when the twins were in nappies and hasn't been seen since. He coped OK by himself at first, giving Georgie and Kay all the love he could, working in a boring admin job to support them. Just after the twins turn sixteen, Georgie suffers kidney failure and is placed on dialysis. Her type is rare, and Will immediately offers to donate an organ. Without a transplant, she would probably never see adulthood. So far so good. But then Kay gets sick. She's also sixteen. Just as precious. Her kidney type just as rare.

Time is critical, and he has to make a decision.

Should he buy a kidney - be an organ tourist?
Should he save one child? If so, which one?
Should he sacrifice himself?

Or is there a fourth solution - one so terrible it has never even crossed his mind?

 My Take

Helen Fitzgerald is one of those authors able to take the reader out of their own world to thinking through the options surrounding a particular issue. Twin teenage daughters both needing a kidney transplant forces Will to look for his wife Cynthia for the first time in 13 years. If it was just one daughter needing a kidney then he would willingly donate one of his. But two kidneys means two donors.

Will employs an agency to search for his wife and this story branches out into Preston's story too, for Preston is also a teenager. And then there is Cynthia's story. She originally ran away to live with Heath a childhood sweetheart who has spent most of his life in jail.

There is a lot of pathos in this story, missed chances, lives that haven't turned out right, but there's a lot of humor as well. I thought the characters were well drawn even down to Will's parents, apologetic because they are old and because their kidneys are not suitable for donation. 

How does it become crime fiction?  I think THE DONOR Is really only on the fringes of crime fiction although murders are committed. But they are not really the focus of the story. The central issue is how to resolve this problem of needing two kidneys.

A good read.

My rating: 4.5

I have also reviewed DEAD LOVELY

Review: THE DYING BEACH, Angela Savage

• MFormat: Kindle (Amazon)
  
• File Size: 417 KB
• Print Length: 236 pages
• Publisher: Text Publishing (June 26, 2013)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00CGKQR3G

Synopsis (Amazon)

A new case for expat private investigator Jayne Keeney.

As Jayne and Rajiv holiday in Krabi, Jayne can't stop her mind straying to thoughts of the future: a successful business, perhaps even a honeymoon. Who would have thought she could be so content?
But then their tour guide's body is found floating in the shallows and no one can explain the marks around her neck.

Jayne and Rajiv are pulled into a case that the police have already decided isn't one: a case that will pull at the seams of their fledgling relationships and lead Jayne into grave danger.

Angela Savage is a Melbourne-based crime writer, who has lived and travelled extensively in Asia. Her first novel, Behind the Night Bazaar, won the 2004 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an unpublished manuscript. She is a winner of the Scarlett Stiletto Award and has twice been shortlisted for Ned Kelly awards.

My Take

Jayne and Rajiv's newly formed partnership of Keeney and Patel, private investigators, is severely tested when they agree to investigate the suspicious death of their tour guide. Jayne is really too used to making decisions without reference to others. Rajiv on the other hand believes Jayne is far too impulsive and doesn't take into account the costs of the time she spends investigating. Jayne is only too willing to admit that she has made almost no profit as a private investigator so far.

The novel is set against economic and social issues besetting modern Thailand, particularly foreign and Thai businessmen trying to make quick profits without due consideration of the environmental impacts of their schemes. Villagers too are losing traditional rights when incomers seize on land that appears to belong to no-one. Others are worried by Thai locals becoming so heavily reliant on tourist income, and by the almost automatic degradation of the local way of life.

I was impressed in this novel by the author's empathetic depiction of village life and of Thai customs, of the responsibility felt by village elders, as well as the detailed explanation of the social and economic issues surrounding the murders. Angela Savage takes us a little away from the beaten track, out of Bangkok, to areas that have tourist potential, but where change/modernisation will come at a price.

I've included this novel in my list for the 2014 Global Reading Challenge in Asia (Thailand).

My rating: 4.5

I also reviewed  4.5, THE HALF-CHILD

Review: DETECTIVE KUBU INVESTIGATES, Michael Stanley

• format Kindle (Amazon)
  
• File Size: 323 KB
• Print Length: 78 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00BNWKS9M

Synopsis (Amazon)

"Kubu" Bengu is a detective in the Botswana Criminal Investigation Department. A large man with big appetites - his nickname Kubu means hippo in the Setswana language. He is happily married and lives in the capital, Gaborone.

Twenty-first century Botswana is a country with real issues and real murders. In this collection of stories - one never previously published - Kubu investigates three mysterious deaths. A man is stabbed outside a bar. Is it just a jealous fight or is there something much more sinister behind it? A man suffers a gruesome death in a country town. Is it the result of witchcraft, or could there be another cause? A policeman is shot dead at close range in his own home. Is it the colleagues of a man he killed who was resisting arrest? And what of his wife's alibi?

In the last story of the collection, The Haunting, a very unusual detective in South Africa solves a strange disappearance and fraud in a most unconventional way.

Finally, author Michael Stanley interviews Detective Kubu himself in Gaborone until Kubu amusingly turns the tables!

This entertaining collection of Kubu's shorter adventures is not to be missed by his many fans. And if you haven't met Kubu yet, then a treat is in store for you.

Michael Stanley is the pen name of two South Africans - Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip - who write fiction together. Their novels - all featuring Detective Kubu - are A CARRION DEATH, THE SECOND DEATH OF GOODLUCK TINUBU (A DEADY TRADE in the UK), DEATH OF THE MANTIS, and DEADLY HARVEST. The books have been shortlisted for a variety of awards, and DEATH OF THE MANTIS won the BARRY AWARD for best paperback original in 2012.

My Take

I enjoyed this collection of short stories. They involved Kubu to varying extents. For example in Death of a Policeman Kubu is home on sick leave, having developed pneumonia, and he basically solves the puzzle from his bed although he does sneak out to confront the wife.

In An Issue of Women and Money and also Neighbours he is called in only at end.

It is a nice collection of short stories, very readable, and informative about Kubu's character.

My rating: 4.5

I've already reviewed
5.0, A CARRION DEATH
5.0, DEATH OF THE MANTIS
5.0, DEADLY HARVEST
THE SECOND DEATH OF GOODLUCK TINUBU 

Postings may be intermittent

Today I have begun a one month cruise from Los Angeles to Adelaide, and while the reading will probably continue unabated, I am not sure about how often I will have internet connection.

What I read in January 2014

I have made good use of my Kindle and also some vintage publications from Wakefield Crime Classics.
14 books in all, reflecting the fact that some are short, I have been travelling and also that I do tend to read faster on my Kindle.

• 4.3, THE NURSING HOME MURDER, Ngaio Marsh
• 4.3, THE LATE MONSIEUR GALLET, Georges Simenon
• 4.5, INSPECTOR SINGH INVESTIGATES: THE SINGAPORE SCHOOL OF VILLAINY, Shamini Flint
• 4.6, THE FUNERAL OWL, Jim Kelly 
• 4.8, LIFE AFTER LIFE, Kate Atkinson
• 4.3, HOTEL BOSPHORUS, Esmahan Aykol
• 4.4, DEATH OF A SWAGMAN, Arthur Upfield
• 3.9, A  HANK OF HAIR, Charlotte Jay
• 4.5, ARMS FOR ADONIS, Charlotte Jay
• 4.4, THE GOLDEN CALF, Helene Tursten
• 4.4, WITNESS THE NIGHT, Kishwar Desai
• 4.8, THE SECOND DEATH OF GOODLUCK TINUBU, Michael Stanley
• 4.4, THIRD GIRL, Agatha Christie
• 4.6, BLOOD FROM STONE, Frances Fyfield

My Pick of the Month is
4.8, THE SECOND DEATH OF GOODLUCK TINUBU, Michael Stanley

Goodluck Tinubu, an ex-Zimbabwean who has taught in Botswana for many years, is viciously murdered in his tent at the Jackalberry bush camp, situated on an isolated peninsula in northern Botswana. Peter Sithole, allegedly a tourist from South Africa and a second guest at the camp, is found bludgeoned to death a few hours later. Detective “Kubu” Bengu is sent from Botswana’s capital, Gaborone, to assist the local Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in solving the crime.

Another guest at the camp – Ishmael Zondo - departed unexpectedly at dawn the morning after the murders. Now Zondo has completely disappeared, and the Zimbabwe police are unable – or unwilling – to trace him. Reports surface that he is wanted as a dissident in Zimbabwe. And, as a final enigma, matching fingerprint records reveal that Goodluck Tinubu was killed in the Rhodesian civil war thirty years earlier

Crime Fiction Pick of the Month January 2014

Crime Fiction Pick of the Month 2014

Many crime fiction bloggers write a summary post at the end of each month listing what they've read, and some, like me, even go as far as naming their pick of the month.

This meme is an attempt to aggregate those summary posts.
It is an invitation to you to write your own summary post for January 2014, identify your crime fiction best read of the month, and add your post's URL to the Mr Linky below.
If Mr Linky does not appear for you, leave the URL in a comment and I will add it myself.

You can list all the books you've read in the past month on your post, even if some of them are not crime fiction, but I'd like you to nominate your crime fiction pick of the month.

That will be what you will list in Mr Linky too -
e.g.
ROSEANNA, Maj Sjowall & Per Wahloo - MiP (or Kerrie)

You are welcome to use the image on your post and it would be great if you could link your post back to this post on MYSTERIES in PARADISE.

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