Sunday, January 18, 2009

New Reviews: Barclay, MacLean, Rickman, Sjowall & Wahloo

I was going to label this column as "three fat books and a thin one". I'd been going for a theme of 500+ page books but couldn't find a fourth. You can guess which one is the thin one, it's the one first published in the 1970s.

The following reviews have been added to the review archive over on the main Euro Crime website:
New Reviews:

Amanda Brown reviews Alex Barclay's Blood Runs Cold which appears to be the start of a new series which features female FBI agent, Ren Bryce;

Terry Halligan reviews Home Before Dark by Charles MacLean a creepy psychological thriller;

Laura Root reviews the newest Merrily Watkins from Phil Rickman: To Dream of the Dead

and Maxine Clarke reviews the seventh in the classic Martin Beck series by Sjowall and Wahloo: The Abominable Man.
Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found here.

The competition is back - go here to see how you can win a copy of The Paper Moon by Andrea Camilleri.

5 comments:

Martin Edwards said...

Karen, I'd be interested to know why, in your opinion, and that of others, crime novels have become so much fatter - and whether people think it is a good thing.

Anonymous said...

Good question, Martin! I was the reviewer of the thinnest book of this quartet, but I have to say that even this series gets fatter as it nears the end.
This is an excellent collection of reviews. I will have to direct a colleague, who refers to Richard Dawkins as "He who must not be named" to Laura's review of the Phil Rickman book. Incidentally, the Merrily Watkins books sound so eccentrically bizzarre - an exorcist with a pagan teenager - although I am not keen on supernatural I am increasingly tempted to try them. And I was looking at that Alex Barclay in Borders earlier today (it is on 3 for 2 there) - another author I have meant to read for a while. I have one of her earlier books somewhere. I think Norman should add her picture to his collection!

Anyway, Martin's question is a good one, and looking forward to your answer, Karen - Stieg Larsson is certainly one candidate for the accolade of "author of fat books".

Uriah Robinson said...

Declan Burke has published her picture a few times I think and he is more her age.
Larsson, Vargas, Nesbo and Mankell have all written very fat books so it is not just an Anglo-Saxon trend.
You have three of the best Sjowall and Wahloos to go I have not read 6 and 7 but have read 8,9,10.

Karen (Euro Crime) said...

I am a bit put off by big books. And yet some of my recent favourites have been the tomes from Nesbo and Larsson. If a book's over 300 pages I get a bit twitchy. Mainly because I'm a fairly slow reader and there's a lot of emphasis these days on how many books people read in a year, plus there's the reviewing aspect - you could read and review two thin books for the price of one thick one :).

Uriah Robinson said...

I think all this how many books I have read in a year is ridiculous. I too am a fairly slow reader and in fact the more I am enjoying a book sometimes the slower I get. I want to wallow in the atmosphere and think about what is going on rather than rush on to the end. Is that why I like Vargas, Nesbo and Larsson two?
I have now finished watching 3 Branagh Wallanders, 2 Swedish Wallanders, and 2 exquisite Montalbanos, so I can get back to reading again!