Archives For June

“Good bank robbers are neither famous or quotable. You’ve never heard of them because they’ve never been caught. Because they are not direct or simple. The one you’re looking for is one of them.”

Nemesis is the book that got me started on Jo Nesbø two years ago. The series is set in Oslo and follows Inspector Harry Hole. I remember when I read this book I thought the writing was brilliant. I’d read nothing like it at the time (still true today). The protagonist might be cliche-ridden but the writing is awesome (!) The reason for my short excerpt above is that the story opens with a bank robbery. Cloaked in a balaclava, the armed suspect grabs the teller and demands the bank manager open the safe within 25 seconds or else. All hell breaks loose and under the nose of the police the suspect gets away.

An investigative team is quickly assembled in a conference room nicknamed The House of Pain. The team consists of several police officers but I’ll introduce the main ones in the story. First is Beate Lønn. She’s a cop whose expertise involves viewing endless hours of videotape and recognizing faces. She’s able to remember every face she’s ever seen in her life. She has this skill because of the abnormality in the part of the brain that is responsible for face and body recognition: the fusiform gyrus. She’s partnered with Inspector Harry Hole, who’s recently rejoined Crime Squad. He was working on an unrelated case (see The Redbreast). Continue Reading…

Update: Seems I needed to preface this post with a comment of sorts: I did this list to inform readers of the great mystery writers out there. I got this idea from another reader. I do not mean to assume that you haven’t read any of these writers and if you do GREAT! Wonderful! If you haven’t then you really should. That is all. It is understood that this is my opinion and you have every right to agree or disagree. Thanks.

1. Colin Cotterill. You should have guessed he’d be first if you follow this blog at all. He’s a British writer residing in Southeast Asia. He writes a series of books set in 1970′s communist Laos that features Dr. Siri Paiboun who is the national coroner (and the only coroner for the country). He’s in his seventies and considers himself a disenchanted party member and a cynic. The first book is The Coroner’s Lunch and there are presently 7 books available as I write this with another title, Slash & Burn, due out this fall in the US / UK. I enjoy this series because they are brilliantly written, solidly plotted and feature quirky, cynical, well-developed characters and have plots that are full of political intrigue, suspense and satire with the added touch of the supernatural.

2. Johan Theorin – this author hails from Sweden and sets his books in and around the island of Öland, off the coast of The Baltic Sea. The first book in the planned quartet is Echoes From the Dead. I fell in love with his writing with The Darkest Room, a very atmospheric story with the hints of supernatural elements. The books are loosely connected but can stand alone. The third book, The Quarry, just released in the UK only at the time of this writing. My copy is on the way.

3. Christa Faust - loved Money Shot, which features an ex-porn star who runs her own adult modeling agency. In Money Shot, she gets wrung through hell that leaves her life a mess and she goes on the rampage for revenge. Many of us are anxiously waiting for the sequel, Choke Hold that is due out this fall. If you like strong characters – especially in a female role then check out this author. The porn industry serves as the backdrop and the story itself is a fast paced adrenaline rush to the end.

4. Ken Bruen – Irish writer with a devoted following (and I’m one of them). Mysteries are set in Galway and speak of social strife, the bad economy, the scandal of the church and religious zealotry among others. His endings are usually cliffhangers and are quite shocking. The series I’m reading follow Jack Taylor, an ex Guard with a drinking problem and the usual hang-ups that come with that: solitary lifestyle with few friends and days of binges and black-outs. The first book is The Guards. A quick word about his writing: it’s spare and poetic in style and prose. He loves to quote other writers and I’ve gotten most of my recommendations from him (like Ed McBain and James Sallis).

5. Indridason, Arnaldur – mysteries are set in Iceland and features the divorced, chain-smoking Reykjavi­k detective Erlendur. What makes this series great? Erlendur. Just Erlendur. He’s the main draw for me next to the writing of course. He has baggage and those are my favorite kind of characters. The first book in the series is Jar City (or Tainted Blood wherever you’re at).

Also, on my side-bar are writers who I think are exceptional that I left off this list. I’ve linked to their websites . Asa Larsson’s website is not in English and as far as I know she doesn’t have a US version of her website available. Looks like she needs to work on that though. I will admit to not liking Colin Cotterill’s website as it doesn’t seem to reflect the serious side of his writing which I must admit is very satirical of the communist government but it is very rather politically dense and informative.

On the personal side, I’m still reading Echoes From the Dead and that’s because I’ve been busy and this is a long ass book.

Summer. A boy, Gusto, is lying on the floor of an Oslo apartment. He is bleeding and will soon die. He is trying to make sense of what has happened. In order to place his life and death in some kind of context he begins to tell his story. Outside, the church bells chime.

Autumn. Former Police Detective Harry Hole returns to Oslo after three years abroad. He seeks out his former boss at Police Headquarters to request permission to investigate a homicide. But the case is already closed: a young junkie, Gusto, was in all likelihood shot dead by a fellow addict in a squabble over drugs. Yet, Harry is granted permission to visit the boy’s alleged killer in jail. There, he meets himself and his own history. What follows is the solitary investigation of what appears to be the first impossible case in Harry Hole’s career. And while Harry is searching, Gusto continues his story.

A man walks the dark streets of nighttime Oslo. The streets are his and he has always been there. He is a phantom.

This is the ninth installment in the Harry Hole series. This title will be translated and released in the UK January 2012 (Facebook page). U.S. date undetermined. This book is getting rave reviews. For impatient fans like me, I always get his books from the U.K.

Source: Salomonsson Agency

Title: Anya’s Ghost
Author: Vera Brosgol
Year Published: 2011
Length: 221 pages
Format: Paperback
Book source: Bought
Grade Range: 7 and up, Age Range: 12 and up

Premise: Anya’s Ghost is author/artist Vera Brosgol’s first book and there are sample pages for you to preview. It tells the story about immigrant teens trying to fit in at school. Annushka Borzakovskaya is Russian. Her family moved to the US when she was five and since then she’s worked really hard to lose her accent. She doesn’t want to be labeled as the weird kid at her third-rate (her words) private school. She tries to keep up with her fellow teens by wearing the right clothes and socializing with the right people even though they are rich and snobby. She’s embarrassed by her family being immigrants by lying about her last name and she’s self-conscious about her weight by refusing to eat her mom’s fattening meals. At school, she smokes and skips classes with her one and only friend, Siobhan. To make matters even more complicated, she has a crush on “Sean from the basketball team.” Continue Reading…

Using the advanced search form at Amazon.com for digital books only, I found several titles by NYT bestselling mystery writers selling for $2.99 or less mainly by two publishers: HarperCollins and Minotaur Books. I’ve noted what titles are the start of a series and what titles are stand alone novels.

Disclaimer: prices and availability may vary depending on where you live and I have no idea how long these deals are in place. These are all unaffiliated links. Jane of Dear Author did a list like this for romance titles so I thought it’d be fun to do one for mystery and suspense. It’s not as voluminous but still this is more than I had anticipated and I had fun doing it. Update: Some of these titles & prices may be available for Sony, Kobo or B&N Nook readers. Continue Reading…

I’m Reading…

June 21, 2011 — 8 Comments

I’ve stopped and started several books over the weekend. Then I realized I hadn’t read Johan Theorin’s first book in his quartet, Echoes From the Dead so I started that late Saturday night and am firmly hooked. I’m glad that I save books like this for days like that. Plus, I just got notice from Amazon UK (no U.S. date yet) that my copy of The Quarry has shipped so I’m a happy camper. Aside from that, I know some readers have issues with the pacing of these novels. I’m here to tell you that it is purposeful. The books unfold slowly without sacrificing the story. For me, I enjoy every word, every scene the author creates because they are vivid and in such detail. Hope you all are reading something equally as good.

Title: Alias (vol.1)
Year Published: 2009
Length: 360 pages
Series? Yes and completed
Format: paperback

Premise: Meet Jessica Jones. Once upon a time, she was a costumed super hero. But not a very good one. Her powers were unremarkable compared to the amazing abilities of the costumed icons that populate the Marvel Universe. In a city of Marvels, Jessica Jones never found her niche. Now a chain-smoking, self-destructive alcoholic with a mean inferiority complex, Jones is the owner and sole employee of Alias Investigations – a small, private-investigative firm specializing in superhuman cases. When she uncovers the potentially explosive secret of one hero’s true identity, Jessica’s life immediately becomes expendable. But her wit, charm, and intelligence just may help her survive through another day. Thrust into the midst of a conspiracy that reaches the highest levels, has Jessica burned too many bridges to turn to old friends for help? – from Amazon.com

Review: The series ran from 2002 to 2004 and is one of the first titles to be released under the Marvel Max imprint. This volume collects issues #1 to 9 in the series. Writer Brian Michael Bendis is the five-time recipient of the Eisner Award and after reading this I understand why. Continue Reading…

Misery Bay (Alex McKnight) CoverTitle: Misery Bay
Series? Yes and ongoing (#8)
Year Published: 2011
Length: 245 pages*
Format: print and digital

Premise: On a frozen January night, a young man loops one end of a long rope over the branch of a tree. The other end he ties around his neck. A snowmobiler will find him thirty-six hours later, his lifeless eyes staring out at the endless cold water of Lake Superior. It happens in a lonely corner of the Upper Peninsula, in a place they call Misery Bay.
Alex McKnight does not know this young man, and he won’t even hear about the suicide until another cold night, two months later and 250 miles away, when the door to the Glasgow Inn opens and the last person Alex would ever expect to see comes walking in to ask for his help.
What seems like a simple quest to find a few answers will turn into a nightmare of sudden violence and bloody revenge, and a race against time to catch a ruthless killer. McKnight knows all about evil, of course, having faced down a madman who killed his partner and left a bullet next to his heart. Mobsters, drug dealers, hit men—he’s seen them all, and they’ve taken away almost everything he’s ever loved. But none of them could have ever prepared him for the darkness he’s about to face. from Amazon.com

Thoughts: I must have jinxed myself or something because I am struggling with this novel. I was so looking forward to this book but so far the storyline that follows the suicide of a college student seems to be going nowhere fast. Alex McKnight is a semi-retired private investigator and an ex-cop from Detroit now living in Paradise, Michigan. He’s hired by the boy’s father and Chief Maven to investigate and unearth a motive as to why the boy killed himself. Continue Reading…

Who is this that comes from Edom, coming from Bozrah, his garments stained crimson? Who is this, in his glorious apparel, marching in the greatness of his strength? ‘It is I, who announce that right has won the day, it is I,’ says the Lord, ‘for I am mighty to save you.’- Isaiah 63:1

The powers that be at Random House (U.S.) decided to publish The Snowman (2011) over The Redeemer. American audiences were blown away and the book landed on the NYT bestseller list. The Snowman has a lot more action in it on a grand scale and it features a serial killer and we like serial killers over here or so I heard. Meanwhile, The Redeemer is coming out sometime next year I hear.

To me The Redeemer is the best of Jo Nesbø’s work. Why? I recall reading an interview where the author stated that creating the antagonist was one of the hardest parts of the writing process (among others) because this person has to come across as being credible for the reader. Well, he nailed that in this book. Continue Reading…

Mystery writer Barbara Fister shares her notes at her attendance at the Stieg Larsson and Scandinavian Crime Fiction Symposium at UCLA (May 20 -21). Here is a tidbit that snagged my attention (among others):

Next, Claus Elholm Andersen of UCLA (but about to move to Finland to teach at the University of Helsinki) gave a talk on “Myth, Mystery, and the Millennium Trilogy.” He looked at the way Larsson’s story has been told in competing narratives. The author’s father, who legally owns the rights to the books, promotes the books as commercial properties, but has also made some changes. The doctor character in The Girl Who Played with Fire was named after a physician friend, Anders Jakobsson, but when the namesake disagreed with the father over Eva Gabrielsson’s claim to the estate, the father instructed the publisher to change the character’s name to Jonasson.

Other nuggets include the significance of religion in Scandinavian crime fiction and guess what? The two sequels in the Millennium Trilogy were originally filmed for TV (that explains a lot of the complaints). The whole article is worth a read as it contains inside info on stuff so if you’re interested go and take a look and this is just day one of her notes. Very insightful and thank you Barbara for sharing. Update: Part Two of Barbara’s notes on the conference here.

007 Preference?

June 14, 2011 — Leave a comment