Category Archives: 4.5 Stars

Review: White Sky, Black Ice by Stan Jones

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In the first novel of what is, to date, a series of four books, State Trooper Nathan Active has been assigned to the (fictional) small town of Chukchi, in north-western Alaska. Although he was born in the town and is an Inupiat (Eskimo) himself he was raised in Anchorage by his white adoptive parents and as the book opens Active is counting the days until he can leave the small town again and head back to the comforts of the big city. He can only speak a few words of his native language, doesn’t hunt or engage in any of the other activities the Inupiat people traditionally love and is a bit sick of having all the single women in the vicinity foisted upon him. However when a young man is found dead and everyone else assumes it is just another in the long line of suicides of indigenous men Active is the one who thinks there might be something more sinister afoot. He observes a few discrepancies about the crime scene and starts looking into the man’s recent history, particularly his employment at the local copper mine. Even when a second death occurs Active has to fight his own organisation’s hierarchy and the entrenched beliefs of some of the indigenous people about their own futures to ensure a proper investigation is undertaken.

Given my only ‘knowledge’ of Alaskan culture comes from a love of early 90’s TV show Northern Exposure I can’t claim to know if this book has depicted its setting realistically but it certainly has a very credible feel to it.  The physical setting, including the beauty, isolation and potential danger of the location, all feel very authentic to me. And I can at least attest to the fact that the way cultural issues, particularly the tensions and complex relationships between the traditional Inupiat culture and that of the white man, ring true as they are similar to issues evident in contemporary Australia. One of the toughest issues explored in the damage inflicted by alcohol to the Inupiat people; it is partially blamed for the high number of suicides and generates such strong arguments for and against that there is a campaign to have the town become an alcohol free (or dry) town. What I really loved about the book was that it explored this and other cultural issues with sensitivity and intelligence without succumbing to the temptation for overt sentimentality or simplistic explanations for the state of affairs. Once again fiction proves far more adept at examining complex social issues than the bulk of what passes for media commentary these days.

As a balance to these issues there is also a lot of humour and warmth in the novel, some of which comes from Active’s status as not quite considered white or Inupiat. The locals like nothing more than to poke fun at Nathan for not knowing about some aspect of their beliefs or practices that he would have been well aware of if he’d grown up in the town but they’re not cruel about it. There’s also a lot of gentle humour in some of the depictions of the minor characters in the town, like the elderly bingo player who throws her grand daughter at Nathan (almost literally) because she thinks he needs a woman. She likes to be driven to bingo in Nathan’s trooper car with the lights flashing.

To top it all off there’s a cracker of a crime story here which doesn’t tread a predictable path at all. Nathan is quite a young man to be responsible for such a major investigation but Jones does a good job of contextualising this. And in many ways Active’s youth offers a refreshing perspective. He makes mistakes because he’s relatively inexperienced but he’s also tenacious and proves himself the kind of crime solver I will be happy to re-visit in future novels. The resolution to the mystery element of the book is both satisfying and in keeping with the rest of the novel which is an increasingly rare thing in this era of Hollywood-style endings.

White Sky, Black Ice wraps many of the things I really love about crime fiction into a tidy 201 pages. There’s a terrific sense of place and people, a thoughtful exploration of complicated issues which don’t always have an answer let alone an easy one, and a solidly entertaining whodunnit. What more could a reader want?

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Stan Jones has lived in Alaska on and off for most of his life and has participated in many of the activities depicted in the novel (such as being what we’d call a bush pilot here in Oz). As an investigative journalist he won awards for his coverage of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989. He modelled his fictional town of Chukchi on the town of Kotzebue where he lived for many years.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
My rating 4.5/5
Author website http://www.sjbooks.com/index.html
Publisher Soho [1999]
ISBN 1569473334
Length 201 pages
Format eBook (ePub)
Book Series #1 in Nathan Active series
Source I bought it

Review: Death on a Galician Shore by Domingo Villar

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In the Spanish village of Panxón locals think that fisherman Juan Castelo must have committed suicide by throwing himself overboard from his boat one stormy Sunday morning. But the pathologist convinces Inspector Leo Caldas of the Vigo police that, due to the way the man’s hands were tied, it must have been murder. And so Leo begins a slow and methodical round of interviews of the taciturn locals, becoming frustrated by their unwillingness to tell him anything which advances his investigation. The one glimmer of resolution that he spots early on is that Castelo was one of three men to have survived a tragedy some years before. Some believe that the man who did not survive that tragedy might have returned from the dead to exact his revenge.

As with the first book in this series that is fast becoming a favourite of mine two elements really stand out as memorable. The first of these is the characters who are subtly drawn but entirely engaging. Leo is a very self-contained person, spending much of his time alone though it’s not always clear if this is a deliberate choice. His relationship with his father is a complex and uneasy one though the genuine love between the two is evident even if they often show it by getting cross with each other’s foibles. There is humour too though such as when Leo’s father is visiting his sick brother in hospital and is reminded of his Book of Idiots that has fallen into disuse. After adding the name of his brother’s doctor the Book and its new entries becomes a running joke between the men and it provided a lot of warmth to the story (not to mention an inspiration for me to start my own book as it sounded like a satisfying and healthy way to deal with the idiots one encounters in life). The other key relationship Leo has in this book is with his assistant Rafael (Rafa) Estévez who has calmed down a little since the events depicted in the first book though he is still perplexed by the Galician weather and frustrated by the locals’ inability to answer a question directly. There is some friction between the pair and you never get the sense they will be firm friends but stranger things have happened and I am anxious to see what progress is made in future books (hoping of course that there are more to come).

The setting is the other element of the novel that I simply cannot forget. I love the way Villar paints a picture of this part of Spain, incorporating descriptions of both landscape and people in such a vibrant way that I fell like I have strolled along the shore, watched the fishermen bringing in their early morning hauls, wandered over to the market and, inevitably, found a café at which to eat fresh seafood and sip a glass of wine. In addition to making me wistful for a holiday this is a big part of what makes the book so credible. The lives and environment of the key players are depicted in such a way that their murderous ways seem perfectly believable, even sensible in the circumstances.

I did think this book a bit slower than its predecessor (it’s quite a bit longer) and especially in the first half a little repetitive in the way that Leo and Rafa kept re-interviewing the same people for not much gain. But this did help to generate a sense of the frustration that Leo was experiencing (and police must often experience in real life) and I was more than happy to relax a little and soak up the ambience. The pace and complexity of the investigation kicks up a notch in the second half and I enjoyed the neat but still surprising way the resolution fell into place. Without any of the violence or junk-science common to so many procedurals and brimming with warm characters and an inviting atmosphere this book has a great story and, if only fleetingly, makes you feel like you’ve had a holiday in Spain. Delicious reading.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Death on a Galician Shore has been reviewed at Crime Scraps, Euro Crime (By Maxine) and The Game’s Afoot

I reviewed Water Blue-Eyes, the first book in this series, last month.

This is one of seven books nominated for this year’s International Dagger award for translated crime fiction which will be announced this Friday (22 July). I managed to read 6 of the 7 which are Anders Roslund & Borge Hellstrom’s Three Seconds, Ernesto Mallo’s Needle in a Haystack, Fred Vargas’ An Uncertain Place, River of Shadows by Valerio Varesi and Andrea Camilleri’s Wings of the Sphinx. I’m afraid time (and a slight lack of inclination) has prevented my from reading Jean-Francois Parot’s The Saint-Florentin Murders. 

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
My rating 4.5/5
Translator Sonia Soto
Publisher Hachette Digital [2011]
ISBN 9780748120055
Length 346 pages
Format eBook (ePub)
Book Series #2 in the Leo Caldas series
Source I bought it

Review: Priest by Ken Bruen

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Priest opens with its anti-hero, Jack Taylor, having been virtually catatonic in an asylum for five months, following the event that occurred at the very end of The Dramatist. If you have read the earlier novel you will not think that unreasonable at all (and if you haven’t Jack does explain early on what led him to his current low point). But a chance encounter pulls him out of his fugue state in time to leave the institution and be called upon by his old nemesis, Father Malachy to investigate the beheading of a local priest.

That synopsis makes the book sound more like a traditional crime novel than it really is, when really the crimes are a device for Bruen to explore the changes he has observed in Irish society. The most significant of these is the impact of the exposure of widespread paedophilia by Catholic priests and the sustained cover-up by the Church. The impact on individuals, as Jack tracks down two men who were abused by the recently murdered priest, is beautifully depicted, though, of course, extremely sad. And through the first-person telling of the story by Jack we also see the impact on the wider society which was once, in various ways, held together by the Church and its representatives (the priests) and is now adrift somewhat without the familiar anchor. Having been raised Catholic (now lapsed) I have read and watched whatever I can get my hands on about this theme, both fiction and non-fiction, and I cannot recall having read anything which depicts the far-reaching impacts of this series of events as thoughtfully, intelligently and accurately as has been done here. Bruen has teased out what the media coverage, with its sensational headlines and moving on to the next story after 5 minutes, always misses: the lasting impact on victims, their families and all the connected people who’ve had their beliefs shattered.

Jack is more ‘together’ than he thinks he has a right to be here, though ‘together’ is a relative term. He acquires a home (several at one point), and a trainee and does his job with a little more dedication than in the previous novel though he is, at heart, one of life’s losers which is soon borne out. Though he is a loser with the soul of a poet and his ode to Ireland, and its people, which is partly what this book felt like to me, is quite haunting. As is his depiction of both alcoholism and depression and their effects upon the sufferer, which makes more sense and has more clarity than most of the non-fiction you’ll read on either subject.

The rest of the characters are somewhat minor players who surround Jack for the most part but even if their appearance is fleeting they’re all brilliantly drawn. One who stood out for me was a nun who looked after Father Joyce (prior to his beheading). I might have grown up half a world away from Ireland but I know nuns exactly like her: sharing both behaviour and fears. Bruen has captured perfectly the impact the Church’s hierarchy enforced social deprivations has on such a person.

There’s no getting away from the fact that Jack Taylor and his exploits make for melancholy reading but Bruen manages, through a combination of humour and wonderfully crisp writing that doesn’t enable the reader to wallow in despair, to make it an enjoyable experience. I’m being a bit harsh in not giving the book a full 5 stars but the ending was a smidgen less brilliant than the ending of its predecessor so I thought it only fair to knock off a half a star.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Priest has been reviewed at Kittling Books,  Yet Another Crime Fiction Blog

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
My rating 4.5/5
Author website http://www.kenbruen.com/
Publisher Corgi Books [2010]
ISBN 9781409085461
Length 183 pages
Format eBook (ePub)
Book Series #5 in the Jack Taylor series
Source I bought it

Review: Caleb’s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks

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Little is known about Caleb Cheeshahteuamauk other than that he was the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College in 1665. In order to tell us his story Brooks has crafted a fictional one that plausibly and compellingly fills in the gaps between the few known facts of his life.

It begins on the island now known as Martha’s Vineyard off the Massachusetts coastline where we meet Berthia Mayfield, the 12 year-old daughter of the Island’s Calvinist minister. Although she has a deep faith and attempts to fulfill the role that her religion and her family demand of her, she also yearns to read and be taught like her brothers. And despite the fact he is a good man, more Christian in practice than many who claim that title, her father does not accede to her wishes. On one occasion when he catches her proving that she has learned some lesson her older brother can’t quite grasp

“Berthia, why do you strive so hard to quit the place in which God has set you?” His voice was gentle, not angry. “Your path is not your brother’s, it cannot be. Women are not made like men. You risk addling your brain by thinking on scholarly matters that need not concern you. I care only for your present health and your future happiness. It is not seemly for a wife to know more than her husband…”

Berthia continues to absorb information though, eavesdropping on her father’s teachings as she works by her mother’s side and re-reading the handful of books in the family home. And when she meets a young Indian boy she befriends him, knowing that it would not be approved of if her family were to find out but feeling that she might have an opportunity to convert him to the Christian teachings, just as her father tries to do with the island’s adult Wampanoag population. For several years the two learn each other’s language and engage in discussions of spirituality, herbalism and other weighty matters until it is time for Caleb to temporarily leave his community and undertake the ritual that will allow him to become a man. Eventually Caleb and Berthia meet up again as Berthia’s father takes in Caleb and another Indian boy to get them ready for attending preparatory school and, hopefully, Harvard College.

As she has done successfully before, particularly with Year of Wonders, Brooks has again taken a small, little-known event and used it to explore big themes alongside her engaging storytelling. The conflict between two cultures – with different language, beliefs, societal structures – is captured well. We see a range of attitudes and behaviours on both ‘sides’ of the fence and these undoubtedly reflect the range of opinions of the day and are probably similar to every such instance the world has seen. Another theme common to Brooks’ work, the roles of religion and faith in community and personal life, is again thoughtfully explored. I like her sensitivity to this topic about which it would be easy to either be overly cynical or gushing depending on one’s own beliefs but Brooks merely describes its role in the lives of her characters as realistically as she can and allows readers to judge, should they wish to.

Although she has tackled the issue of women’s issues before, especially in times and cultures like this where a woman’s true virtue is to be silent and invisible, it does no harm to do so again, especially when done so thoughtfully as it is here. Berthia is no unrealistic-for-her-time radical feminist and she is conflicted between knowing what is expected of her and wanting more. She doesn’t want to be seen to look down on her mother’s life, which had no education or other ‘unseemly’ activity, but she can’t help how she feels. She really is a beautifully drawn character who I think most readers would engage with.

Conversely the character of Caleb, ostensibly the central one of the story, is not quite so well-rounded. He is absent for large chunks of the story and it is only in the first portion of the story, where he is a largely untroubled teenager roaming his home island with Berthia, that we get much sense of all the different aspects of his personality that make him a human being. After he decides to focus on obtaining English education, which Brooks ascribes to a yearning to be able to help his troubled people, we only see a very occasional glimpse of him as anything other than the always studious young man. I wondered whether or not Brooks didn’t feel as free to use her creativity with Caleb’s character because he was based on a real person, whereas Berthia began and ended life in her imagination.

The stories of Berthia and Caleb, both wanting something different than their society wanted them to have, were equally compelling. As their stories unfolded via a very natural-feeling use of contemporary language with its own cadence, I was at different points happy, angry and sad for them both but in the end very satisfied, if somewhat melancholic, to have found this beautiful book.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
My rating 4.5/5
Author website
Publisher Fourth Estate [2011]
ISBN 9780732289225
Length 369 pages
Format trade paperback
Book Series standalone
Source I bought it

Review: Relics of the Dead by Ariana Franklin

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Relics of the Dead (also published as Grave Goods in the US) is the second selection for my face to face book club this month (we meet on Sunday) and I’m also counting it as my third book towards the Historical Fiction Challenge. I’ve actually read more than 3 historical books this year but I’ve used those for other challenges.

The book opens in 1154 as an earthquake engulfs Glastonbury Abbey and a dying monk sees people lowering a coffin into a fissure created in the earth. Did the coffin contain the body of the legendary King Arthur, long-thought to be merely sleeping in the nearby hills until his people need him again? Twenty-two years later the monk’s nephew, who was present as his uncle died, shares the information with King Henry II who has just quashed one Welsh rebellion and is desperate to rid himself of the legend of Arthur lying in wait to rise again. There has been a fire at Glastonbury Abbey and Henry orders the coffin to be dug up. He then commands the one person in his kingdom who has the skills to authenticate the bones as Arthur’s. Adelia Aguilar, the doctor who can ‘read bones’, reluctantly agrees to attempt to determine the age of the bones. With her daughter and faithful attendants she travels to Glastonbury, travelling part of the way with Lady Emma Wolvercote and her party who are on their way to lay claim to Lady Emma’s estate. Later, Adelia discovers she did not make it to her destination. Or did she?

As with the previous two books in this series, Relics of the Dead is first and foremost a good old-fashioned adventure full of brave Knights performing feats of derring-do while less noble souls engage in more prosaic acts. The legend of Arthur and Guinevere is woven artfully into the story unfolding around Adelia in the present day and there’s barely a moment for the reader to catch her breath with several action-packed threads playing out at once.

All of this is accompanied by engrossing information about the historical period, so you feel like you’re learning something while being thoroughly entertained. Under her real name (Diana Norman) Franklin has researched and written extensively about Henry II and her affection for the man is evident in this book. His faults are talked about, but Franklin generally tends to highlight his foresight and modern thinking by introducing such things as trial-by-jury and other innovations. Having read three of these books now, I’m beginning to develop my own crush on Henry Plantagenet.

Although some people argue that Adelia is an unbelievable character for her time, Franklin makes a a good case that women in her situation would have had more scope to fend for themselves than the true upper class women that Adelia sometimes mixes with. And even if she is not entirely credible for her time, she’s wonderful: strong, loving, loyal and smart. Her loyal attendants from the previous books, Mansur and Gyltha, are again excellent in their supporting roles and of course the Bishop of St Albans, the father of Adelia’s child, makes another trouble-filled appearance. There are some unforgettable new characters in this tale too, not least of which is the old woman who runs the Pilgrim’s Inn at which Adelia and her party stay while in Glastonbury. Franklin is a dab hand at developing very strong, memorable characters quite quickly.

Sadly Diana Norman passed away earlier this year and I have not heard of any unpublished manuscripts lying about so I only have one last book in this series to read, which I think I shall save for some time. I thoroughly recommend this installment of the series to anyone who loves getting absorbed in well-written adventures full of memorable characters.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Relics of the Dead has been reviewed at Euro Crime and Mysteries in Paradise

I have reviewed the first two books in this series Mistress of the Art of Death and The Serpent’s Tale

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
My rating 4.5/5
Author website http://www.arianafranklin.com/
Publisher Bantam Press [2009]
ISBN 9781409084334
Length 251 pages
Format eBook (ePub)
Book Series #3 in the Adelia Aguilar/Mistress of the Art of Death series
Source I bought it

Review: Red Wolf by Liza Marklund

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My sixth book for this year’s Nordic challenge is the third Liza Marklund book I’ve read so far this year. I have become quite transfixed by the insight the books offer into the Swedish political and social history as well as the character of Annika Bengtzon, whom I don’t always like but do find compelling.

Newspaper journalist Annika Bengtzon has turned down a senior editor’s job so that she can continue investigative journalism. Having prepared a series of articles on terrorism she plans another on the anniversary of an attack during which a man died which happened in 1969 at an air force base in the far north of the country. No one has ever been convicted over the attack but local journalist Benny Ekland seems to have some new information so Annika flies to Luleå to meet with him. When she arrives she discovers he has died and she learns from speaking to an eye witness the police have not found that his death was the result of a deliberate hit and run. Through her connections at the highest levels of the police she also learns that their suspect for the ’69 attack was a local left-wing activist known as Ragnwald who, they believe, went on to become a ‘terrorist for hire’ in Spain and France. When Ekland is killed and other deaths follow everyone wonders if Ragnwald has returned and if so, why? It is Annika who joins the dots in this fast-paced story.

I have to admit that this book isn’t really the best work of crime fiction you’ll read, in that the crime does not always take centre stage. Marklund is at least equally, if not more, concerned with using the crime and its investigation as a backdrop for the exploration of a range of social and political issues. Fortunately for me I found these utterly fascinating and so did not mind terribly that the crime was dealt with in a more perfunctory way than I might normally look for.

One of Marklund’s ongoing themes, modern journalism and what’s happening to it, is explored in great depth here. As a news junkie who feels like her drug of choice has been almost eradicated these days I found myself nodding along with Annika when she lamented to her boss

Anne Nicole Smith on the front page three days in a row last week…A boy who masturbated on a reality show on Saturday. The Crown Princess kissing her boyfriend on Sunday…Can’t you see what you’ve done to this paper?”

And when he responds that there is investigative work still going on she continues

That doesn’t stop me from regretting the way journalism is going. Along with the other tabloids we’re writing about reality television as if it was the most important thing going on right now. Now that can’t be right, can it?

If it hurts me as a reader to see the drivel that a significant percentage of news media content has turned into, I can only imagine how deeply it must affect a journalist like Annika (and Marklund who is herself a journalist).

The other aspect of this novel that had me gripped was its insight into Swedish political history, a subject about which I am woefully ignorant (now maybe slightly less so). I had always known vaguely that Sweden’s political environment was a more left-leaning one than I am familiar with, but I had no idea just how this had played out over time. The use of an attack in the 60′s gives Marklund the chance to explore her country’s political environment at that time, something done deftly via the character of Berit who is Annika’s mentor at the newspaper. She has been involved with left-wing politics for much of her life so able to provide interesting background. Australia’s political scene is largely tame and centrist so I am always intrigued by societies that have a different kind of political history.

As always Annika Bengtzon is a troubled character and, as always, I spent a good portion of the book not liking her actions. I have never found her dull or unbelievable though, even when I’ve been disappointed in her behaviour. She is still dealing with the mental fallout from the events in the previous book in the series* which manifests itself in a variety of ways including anxiety attacks and the voices of kind angels in her head. Now there are rumblings from her boss that she may not be able to continue working on the kinds of stories she wants to do. On top of that she encounters yet more marital problems and it was her handling of this aspect of her life that I found objectionable, though I repeat it was entirely credible. The author’s note at the end of the copy of the book I read made particular mention of this in that Marklund was widely exploring the theme of people abusing their power and she wondered if Annika would also do so in the right circumstances. Would we all?

For me the best crime fiction does what Marklund has done here: combine a compelling plot with insight into some aspect of politics, history or society in general. While finding out ‘whodunnit’ is interesting, it is never as satisfying as finding out why. When this is played out against a backdrop of general social commentary it is the most satisfying of all.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Red Wolf has been reviewed all over the place including at Crime Scraps, Euro Crime (where Norman and Maxine both enjoyed the novel very much) and The Game’s Afoot (where Jose Ignacio was not so taken with the adventure).

I have reviewed two of Marklund’s earlier books, Studio 69 and Prime Time.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
My rating 4.5/5
Author website
Translator Neil Smith
Publisher Bantam Press [this translation 2010, original edition 2003]
ISBN 9780593065525
Length 508 pages
Format trade paperback
Book Series #1 in…
Source Borrowed from the library

*A book called The Bomber which has already been published in English in Australia and the UK (possibly also the US?) some years ago but which in my copy of Red Wolf is spruiked at the end as “The next Annika Bengtzon thriller”. Make of that whatever you like.

Review: Cold Justice by Katherine Howell

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My third book for this year’s Aussie Authors challenge is also Katherine Howell’s third novel, which I only realised recently I had somehow missed on its release in February last year. Of course I had to read it before embarking on her fourth book which has just been released.

Tim Pieters’ body was found hidden in bushes not far from his home 19 years ago. His killer was never found. Now his cousin is a Member of Parliament and has enough clout to arrange for the case to be re-opened. Detective Ella Marconi is assigned to the cold case as her first job back at work after being shot. Among the many investigative avenues she takes is the need to track down Georgie Daniels who was Tim’s school classmate and was the one to stumble over his body. She is now a paramedic who has recently undergone some workplace troubles and is being assessed for fitness to work.

This is one of the most cleverly plotted novels I have ever read. I had some issues with plotting in this book’s predecessor but here Howell has excelled at creating a complex, taut drama that is also easy to follow. The story is told mainly in two alternating threads from Georgie and Ella’s points of view but when necessary to fill in details no one else could know there are also chapters from other key players’ perspectives, including Tim’s cousin Callum who is responsible for the case being re-opened. The way these threads are woven together is outstanding and the result is a totally gripping novel full of suspense. This is one of those books that genuinely deserves the ‘unputdownable’ label as I read it over the course of a single day/night and only stopped when circumstances positively demanded I do so.

A feature of this series is that although the Detective is consistent across the books there is always another lead character who is a different paramedic each time. Howell is a former paramedic herself so brings an authenticity to her depictions of this high-stress workplace which are always fascinating and provide lots of drama. Using a different character each time keeps the series genuinely fresh by having someone other than the Detective lead us through some of the important action. It also gets rid of the credibility problem that can sometimes happen in long running series where awful things keep happening to the same poor sod. Importantly though the characters are always well-drawn, whether they are long-running ones or only to appear in a single book. Ella, who we have come to know over three books, has a near-obsession with work which impacts her personal life in various ways. The characters new to this book, including Georgie and the family of the murdered boy who have all struggled in various ways to come to terms with his death and the lack of closure on the case, are all sensitively described and people whose stories I felt quickly drawn into.

I loved the way this book approached the idea of people’s pasts and how they might feel differently about events they witnessed or took part in with the benefit of age and distance. There are multiple characters, major and minor, who Howell uses to explore some variation of this idea and it really does give some insight into how real world cold cases might be solved years after the event even if there isn’t new evidence.

In short the book is brilliantly plotted, full of compelling characters and can be just as easily read by people new to the series as it can by existing fans. It’s Howell’s best book to date and is highly recommended to all.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Cold Justice has been reviewed at Aust Crime Fiction

I read Howell’s first book, Frantic, in my pre-blog days but have reviewed the second book, The Darkest Hour.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
My rating 4.5/5
Author website http://www.katherinehowell.com/index.htm
Publisher Pan Macmillan [2010]
ISBN 97814055039277
Length 329 pages
Format trade paperback
Book Series #3 in the Ella Marconi series
Source I bought it

Review: Studio 69 by Liza Marklund

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I am normally a fan of reading series in order wherever possible but I have given up trying to work out the correct order for this series. The books do not follow each other chronologically and also seem to have been translated out of the order they were written. This one has also been published under several titles including Studio Sex and more recently Exposed, but whatever it’s called I’m counting it towards my Nordic book challenge.

When young journalist Annika Bengtzon answers her newspaper’s tip line and hears that a woman’s body has been found behind a gravestone at a nearby cemetery she fights for the opportunity to be able to report the story which will, hopefully, lead to a permanent job with the paper. Over what sounds more like the average Australian summer than a Swedish one in terms of temperature, Annika follows leads, becomes personally involved in some aspects of the case and uncovers a link to high-level political corruption in an effort to solve the murder of Josefin.

I doubt I’d have read this book based on its blurb which says Annika is a combination of Peter Hoeg’s Miss Smilla and Thomas Harris’ Clarice Starling. What the…? Fortunately I didn’t read any of that nonsense until I’d finished this remarkably good book. The plot manages to be complex but not hard to follow as we are introduced to various potential suspects including a sleazy boyfriend, a client at the seedy club where she worked and a Minister of the government. What I liked most was that even though Annika’s actions were driving most of the plot advancements there wasn’t a single point at which I thought “someone who isn’t with the police wouldn’t be able to do that or have access to that information” which can be a real problem with the ‘amateur’ sleuth in crime fiction. When we moved into the political arena I was absolutely enthralled with the tidbits I gleaned about the recent history of Swedish politics.

Annika is a fascinating character. Her inexperience hampers her at times but she does good work too as is evidenced in the way she gains people’s confidence and trust during interviews and it is obvious that she really cares about the plight of Josefin, and perhaps even identifies with her a little too much. She faces various struggles in her workplace being both young and female so automatically not to be taken seriously by many. Actually the workplace issues were really credibly depicted with both the good and bad aspects of any office on display. There were petty squabbles and nasty back-stabbing but also genuine friendships and mentoring of our young protagonist to even things out. Annika’s personal life is not smooth-sailing either as she has a fairly poor relationship with her mother and a controlling boyfriend. However her grandmother loves her to bits and the feeling is mutual so all is not gloom and doom on that score.

Marklund has created a terrifically believable story here full of well drawn characters, many of whom are not as sympathetic as I found Annika to be but are still highly credible. The picture of Sweden on show is remarkably normal, and not any more dour or grim than any other part of the world which flies in the fact of accepted wisdom about Scandinavian crime fiction. Clearly Marklund had issues she wanted to explore such as the shenanigans of the Social Democrats, domestic violence and even the relatively recent phenomenon of the mass hysteria that wallowing in these kinds of events can sometimes generate, but all of this is done as part of the story not with lecturing or preaching for which I am profoundly grateful. I found the book so compelling I already have moved another in the series to my ‘read soon’ pile.

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Studio 69 has been reviewed at DJ’s Krimiblog, Nordic Bookblog and if you are at all interested in this author you should check out this excellent post about the books and the character of Annika

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My rating 4.5/5
Author website http://www.lizamarklund.com/
Translator Kajsa von Hofsten
Publisher Pocket Books [This translation 2002, original edition 1999]
ISBN N/A (downloaded from audible.com)
Length 431 pages
Format mass market paperback
Book Series Number 1 or 4 in the Annika Bengtzon series
Source I bought it second hand

Review: Blood of the Wicked by Leighton Gage

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I kicked off my 2011 Global Reading Challenge by visiting South America to meet Chief Inspector Mario Silva of the Brazilian Federal Police.

Bishop Dom Felipe Antunes arrives in the remote Brazilian town of Cascatas do Pontal to consecrate the newly built church of Nossa Senhora dos Milagres and is shot by a sniper the moment he steps from his helicopter. Mario Silva, Chief Inspector for Criminal Matters for the Federal Police is sent to the town to investigate the high-profile death. What he finds is a corrupt local police force with friends in very high places and near-war brewing between wealthy landowners and the farmers who are fighting for the law which says that uncultivated land can be appropriated for genuine farming to be enforced.

Immediately after the dramatic opening we jump to flashbacks of Silva’s early life which sets the tone for the kind of man, and policeman, he will become. We then return to the present where Silva and his nephew Hector Costa who is also a policeman, are behind the eight-ball in a town where people are scared of police (with very good reason). There are rumours that the Bishop was killed for enforcing the Catholic Church’s position not to support priests who espouse liberation theology (in short a radical approach to the redistribution of wealth) but there is little evidence available and no help from the local police.  When the adult son of one of the wealthiest men in the town disappears tensions are raised another notch. Silva is under pressure from constant phone calls from his Director to sort out the mess which is playing badly in the media and also from local activists who are desperate for genuine justice to be implemented in their town.

There is a real sense of the people and the place on display here: both of them vibrant and imperfect. We see a dark side of Brazil, where poverty and injustice prevail, that is not normally associated with the country. The characters meanwhile run the gamut from pure evil to near-saint, sometimes in a single person but all of them are very credible. Silva is a sympathetic protagonist, though not without his personal demons. It is in part through him that the author explores the nature of justice versus law and I can foresee this might be a theme that recurs in this series. And it is through Silva and the interplay between the members of his small team that we see the hints of humour necessary to relieve the tension that the bulk of the book is filled with.

There are books that gently draw you into their orbit and reveal their secrets like the opening of a delicate flower. Blood of the Wicked isn’t one of them. It opens with high drama and keeps you gripped in its clutches with the literary equivalent of g-forces acting on a speedily accelerating object. The writing is dynamic and makes the reader feel like a part of the story. You’re in the helicopter with the Bishop who is deathly afraid of flying in the “great, stinking, steaming merda“, you’re in the room when a woman’s fingers are hacked off one-by-one until her lover tells her torturer what he wants to know and, sadly for this claustrophobic, you’re in the box in a hole in the ground hearing the dirt slowly bury you. Blood of the Wicked is not for the faint-hearted; it is violent and there is a noticeable dearth of happy endings. But it has heart and suspense and most importantly of all, its social commentary and exploration of complex themes superbly integrated into the story rather than preaching at readers as so many books do.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

I am late to the party discovering this excellent series. Blood of the Wicked has been reviewed at Crime Scraps, Mysteries in Paradise, The Game’s Afoot and The View from the Blue House.

Leighton Gage, who I shall lobby to make an honorary Australian as he lived here for a few years (and we do tend to appropriate talented people as our own), is one of the crime writers who posts weekly at the excellent blog Murder is Everywhere

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My rating 4.5/5
Author website http://www.leightongage.com/
Publisher Soho Crime [this edition 2010, original edition 2008]
ISBN this eBook edition did not appear to have one
Length 265 pages
Format eBook (ePub)
Book Series Number #1 in the Chief Inspector Mario Silva series
Source Provided free by the author

Review: Death Mask by Kathryn Fox

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The first book I will count towards this year’s Aussie Authors challenge is Kathryn Fox’s fifth novel which I was curious to read because it tackles a very topical and complex issue that has certainly had its share of media attention in recent years.

When Sydney-based forensic physician Anya Crichton is asked to consult a patient who has returned from her honeymoon with sexually transmitted infections she believes she’s being unnecessarily involved in a simple case of infidelity. Given the woman’s husband has tested negative for the infections, Anya assumes that Hannah Dengate is lying when she claims to have had no sexual partners other than her husband. However the case soon turns into something all together more unsavoury and leads Anya into a new field of research: the psychology of male team sports players and their attitudes to sexual assault. She is then asked to go to the US to discuss her research and provide information about what constitutes sexual assault to elite footballers but soon becomes embroiled in another case of possible sexual assault by a group of sports stars.

It’s not my place to tell writers how to do their jobs but I thought the first 50 pages of Death Mask was a bit like a long, slightly lecturing prologue. If instead the book had begun with Anna in the US and then introduced her previous experience with the relevant issues via flashbacks or some other mechanism I think the story would have held more suspense from the outset. However, once the book does get going it flows very smoothly and quickly and almost always manages to avoid being preachy. There were a couple of sections where this was not so but with such sensitive material it would have been difficult to avoid all together. The book not only explores the attitudes to women by some sports stars (and their fans) but also looks at the exploitation of the players themselves by team owners and others whose aims conflict with the best interests of the players’ health and wellbeing. This is one of those instances where fiction has examined complex social issues in more depth and with more acuity and balance than I’ve ever seen in the talk-radio fueled hype of mainstream media when similar events happen in the real world.

I have read all of the books featuring Anya Crichton but I must admit I have never particularly liked her as a character. Here though Fox seems to have toned down Crichton’s superwoman traits and made her more human and believable. Perhaps it is because for most of the book she is in the unfamiliar environment of New York dealing with participants of a game she knows nothing about and so can’t be quite so superior as she has been in previous novels. Her genuine empathy for all the victims she encounters, including those who are in turn perpetrators of violence gives the book a real warmth. The book is also populated by other very credible characters, including both victims of and perpetrators of sexual assault.

After its first 50 pages Death Mask has one of the most compelling and creative storylines I’ve encountered in ages. In many ways is a much broader book than pure crime fiction as it examines the psychology of team sports from all angles in a thought-provoking way that is far-removed from the way we normally the subject addressed in the media. It is balanced not only in the way it looks at these issues but also in the mixture of fiction and fact that are incorporated into the story. I’d recommend this novel to anyone, especially those with any kind of involvement in or fascination with professional team sports though, sadly, the people who most need to read something like this will probably never do so. A final point in the book’s favour is that it could easily be read independently of the previous novels in the series.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Death Mask has also been reviewed at Aust Crime Fiction

I have read all of Kathryn Fox’s previous novels but only 2 since starting this blog Skin and Bone (a standalone novel) and  Blood Born (the third to feature Dr Anya Crichton and predecessor to Death Mask)

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My rating 4.5/5
Author website http://www.kathrynfox.com/
Publisher Pan MacMillan Australia [2010]
ISBN 9781405039956
Length 352 pages
Format trade paperback
Book Series The 4th book featuring Dr Anya Crichton
Source I bought it