Three of my favourite Euro crime reads made it into my Top 5 of 2012 at Raven Crime Reads:
Damien Seaman's The Killing of Emma Gross was a brilliant imagining of a real life German serial killer Peter Kurten, with a wonderful attention to historical detail and a pithy wit.
John J Niven's Cold Hands was a visceral thriller combining the filmic genius of Tarantino with the earthy writing of Irvine Welsh and was a read best avoided by the faint-hearted!
Topping my list was Antonin Varenne's Bed of Nails tr. Sian Reynolds, a remarkable French literary thriller that had a lyrical beauty seldom observed in the crime thriller genre, in addition to its taut and utterly compelling plot.
In addition to these three, I would also single out Dan Smith's The Child Thief an intriguing mystery set in the Ukraine and perfect for readers of Tom Rob Smith and William Ryan and my final little gem of the year was Maxime Chattam's Carnage, tr. Isabel Reid and Emily Boyce, a lesson in how to write brilliant crime fiction in a very condensed form.
It's now time for me to combine everyone's lists and see which authors/titles/translators are mentioned the most.
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