Review Roundup: Abbott, Baylis, Belfoure, Griffiths, Indridason, Jordan, Lagercrantz, Lang, Lironi, MacLeod, Pembrey, Spencer, Thomas

Here are thirteen reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website today, all have appeared on the blog since last time.

You can keep up to date with Euro Crime by following the blog and/or liking the Euro Crime Facebook page and follow on Twitter, @eurocrime.

New Reviews

Terry Halligan reviews Stranger Child by Rachel Abbott;


Lynn Harvey reviews M H Baylis's Black Day at the Bosphorus Cafe;

Amanda Gillies reviews The Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure;

Michelle Peckham reviews The Ghost Fields by Elly Griffiths, set in Norfolk;

Michelle also reviews Arnaldur Indridason's Oblivion tr. Victoria Cribb;


Amanda also reviews Black List by Will Jordan;

Laura Root reviews David Lagercrantz's Fall of Man in Wilmslow tr. George Goulding;


Rich Westwood reviews J A Lang's Chef Maurice and a Spot of Truffle, set in the Cotswolds;

Amanda also reviews Oh Marina Girl by Graham Lironi;

Ewa Sherman reviews Murder in Malmo by Torquil MacLeod;

Ewa also reviews Daniel Pembrey's The Harbour Master (books 1 - 3), set in Amsterdam;

Terry also reviews Sally Spencer's Supping with the Devil

as well as Ugly Bus by Mike Thomas.


Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, along with releases by year.

Review: Oblivion by Arnaldur Indridason tr. Victoria Cribb

Oblivion by Arnaldur Indridason translated by Victoria Cribb, July 2015, 352 pages, Harvill Secker, ISBN: 1846559790

Reviewed by Michelle Peckham.
(Read more of Michelle's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

A woman, swimming in a lagoon for her psoriasis, stumbles across a body, starting off a new investigation for Erlendur and his boss Marion Briem. The pathologist confirms although the body seemed, on a first look, to have been severely beaten, in fact the pattern of broken bones suggested that he must have fallen from a great height probably onto a smooth hard surface. But where, and how?
The man was about thirty, no real identifying features, and no one seems to have reported him missing. His clothes all seem to have come from the USA – cowboy boots, jeans, and so on. Bought on a visit? Is he a genuine American? Or, is there some connection with the American military zone on Midnesheidi, where around five or six thousand Americans, including their families, live. A reference to the controversial military base, which was sited in Iceland between 1951 and 2005, after the government made a deal with the Americans concerning Military protection.

After about three days, the man’s sister eventually realizes that the body could be that of her brother’s and then she identifies him. Finally, the investigation can start properly, or can it? The problem is that Kristvin, the murdered man, was an air mechanic, who has some sort of connection with the naval air base at Keflavík. The Icelandair premises where he worked are located inside the military zone. In fact, shortly after he is identified, his car is discovered on the base, with its tyres slashed. Simple enough to perhaps think that he may have met his death there, but the police have no jurisdiction in the military zone, which is controlled by the US Navy. Complicated negotiations with the Americans are needed to allow the Icelandic police to follow up their investigations actually on the naval air base itself.

Meanwhile, Erlendur is pursuing his own investigation in the background, into the disappearance of an eighteen-year-old girl, Dagbjört, as she walked to school past the old barracks where Camp Knox used to be in the Second World War. An old investigation, where many who were around at the time are either dead, or old. And a disappearance that prey’s on Erlendur’s mind, as a man obsessed with the disappeared, many of whom have never been found.

A common theme on the uneasy relationship between the US military and the native Icelanders, clearly highly controversial at the time, wends its way throughout these two main threads of the story. Erlendur is still a junior detective as these latter novels from Indriḋason have returned to the earlier days in this detective’s career. However, he still displays the same knack of uncovering secrets, and seeing beyond the lies and half-truths that people choose to tell him, to get to the truth. And he doggedly obtains small parts of the jigsaw from different people, to piece together the secrets of (in this case) Kristvin’s life and how he met his death. Mixed in is an interesting relationship between Erlendur and Sergeant Caroline Murphy from the US military police, initially mistrustful, but then developing into something more complex as the two investigators decide to work together. Although I sometimes miss the more morose older version of Erlendur, I enjoy these books with the younger Erlendur, and this latest outing, with its insightful reflections on the US-Icelandic relationship is highly recommended.

Michelle Peckham, November 2015

Nordic Noir Night at Foyles

Last night at Foyles we were lucky to have Barry Forshaw interviewing Arnaldur Indridason and Hakan Nesser.

Here's a brief report based on my handwritten notes.

BF asks AI, what gender is Marion Briem?
AI: No idea. If I knew I wouldn't tell you! Difficult to write a genderless character and causes difficulty in French and German - translators must want to kill him. You are not supposed to know. Comes from a time when people were counting how many male characters, how many female characters in a book. Decided to have one you couldn't count.

BF asks HN where is the city of Mardam (where the Van Veeteren series is set).
HN: it is a fictitious country. It was intended to be a series. He didn't want to write about Stockholm as everyone did, so made the place up. HN came to Foyles in 1966 but couldn't afford to buy anything then. But later, through a relationship with an employee, was given a book from Foyles - Lady Chatterley's Lover (hint?). His girlfriend was not paid well so would liberate a couple of books a week. HN was going to return the book but it has been "stolen" again, from his bookcase.

AI wouldn't be tempted to live in the UK.
HN lived in London for 4 years and also lived in Winsford (see his latest book: The Living and the Dead in Winsford) for six months. A small cottage and rain for six months, it would be hard not to write a book in that time.

AI: Erlendur is 33 in Oblivion (his latest book in English, a prequel to the existing 11 book older Erlendur series), he hadn't intended to write prequels when he wrote the first Erlendur books.

HN: read Anne Holt's first book starring Hanne Wilhelmsen - a lesbian detective who rides a pink Harley-Davidson - couldn't top that so went with traditional detective. HN feels his work is mostly done in terms of books published and now the translations need to catch up.
[There are 5 Barbarotti books still to be translated but his long-standing translator Laurie Thompson died recently. Hope to get a new translator and get one into English soon.]

HN: Can't avoid the influence of Sjowall and Wahloo but you do need your historical glasses on when you read them.

AI: likes to include social realism like in the S & W's Martin Beck books. Ed McBain 87th Precinct books are slow - there's a murder but they carry on, could be bus drivers - still fascinating though.

HN: think we like reading Nordic Noir so we can see Sweden going the drain [compared to the perceived model society of before]. Quote: if you're not a socialist at 25 then you have no heart; if you are a socialist at 50 then you have no brain.

HN: readers from Germany and Sweden now go to visit Winsford. Pleased with the Van Veeteren tv series especially the first three which were 180 minutes long. The later ones were only 90.

AI: very happy with film, Jar City. AI has no idea where title Jar City came from. (was renamed Tainted Blood in pb edition).

Discussion about titles: much more important than you think eg HN had a book, working title Herman Goring, and had just 24 hours to come up with the finished title before it went to press. Couldn't sleep, finally came up with a title: the swallow, the cat, the rose and death, based on the rhythm of an Edgar Allan Poe poem. Also, UK title Hour of the Wolf, in Swedish is Carambole, a type of pool (table) game which was very appropriate.

HN: God has to prove he exits to Barbarotti over 5 books (was intended to be a quartet...)

In response to a question from Sarah Ward re the length of a series, AI said Sjowall & Wahloo made the rule of ten which is a good number though of course it can be broken eg McBain, who they also translated.

Swedish readers like the Winsford book - which is a recent book in Swedish too.
AI said that he wouldn't move Erlendur outside of Iceland - he can't imagine him on a plane.

HN writes in chronological order ie chapter 1, 2 etc.

Neither author reads much crime.

The first Icelandic thriller (?) was Desmond Bagley's Running Blind.

----

Do also see the tweets from Mrs Peabody.

Some Mini Scandi Reviews

Over the last few months I've read several Scandi books that I haven't had time to review. So to give myself a tabula rasa here are my brief thoughts on them:

Camilla Lackberg's last two books, THE LOST BOY and BURIED ANGELS (both tr.
Tiina Nunnally) have both revolved around an island. I always enjoy Lackberg's books to a certain extent, which varies on the amount of soap-opera activities of the main characters Erica (novelist) and Patrick (police officer) and their expanding family, and the antics of Patrick's fellow police officers. Whilst THE LOST BOY was an ok read, I did guess one of the twists; the better of the two books I think, is BURIED ANGELS with its cold case locked-island mystery involving the disappearance of all but one member of a family.

I hope Jorn Lier Horst will forgive me not doing his books justice will full reviews.
In my defence I am one of the team who put CLOSED FOR WINTER and THE HUNTING DOGS (both tr. Anne Bruce) on the Petrona Award shortlists for 2014 and 2015 respectively. The Petrona Award recognises the best Scandinavian crime fiction in translation. CLOSED FOR WINTER revolves around a murder in a holiday cottage and it takes its main character Chief Inspector Wisting to Lithuania, and THE HUNTING DOGS sees Wisting suspended and suspected of falsifying evidence. Wisting is a likeable, empathetic character who has an awkward relationship with his daughter Line a journalist. Line often ends up, though in a naturalistic way, running a parallel investigation into Wisting's cases from a “news” point of view.

Kati Hiekkapelto's striking debut, THE HUMMINGBIRD (tr. David Hackston), which introduces Anna Fekete, an immigrant to Finland from the Baltic states, catapulted its way on to this year's Petrona Award shortlist. Anna has to put up with extreme prejudice from her new police colleague as they try and catch a serial killer.

The gang's all here in Arne Dahl's TO THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN (tr. Alice
Menzies), well after a bit. The Intercrime group, having no serious crime to deal with have been disbanded and their leader retired off. Slowly however the team finds that the investigations they're involved in separately, have a connection. I enjoyed the previous two books in the series greatly but I struggled with this one and I lost interest in the second half. I wouldn't recommend starting the series with this one but I would recommend the series overall.

Having enjoyed Anne Holt's DEATH OF A DEMON I went straight on to THE LION'S MOUTH (both tr. Anne Bruce). Regular lead, Inspector Hanne Wilhelmsen, is more of a bystander in this one as she's out of the country initially. However the murder of the Prime Minister in her office - a closed room mystery - brings Hanne home to provide unofficial support to her colleague Billy T. I love books set in the world of politics so I lapped this one up. My only reservation was the ending but I cannot expand on that!

Another 2015 Petrona Award shortlistee is REYKJAVIK NIGHTS by Arnaldur Indridason (tr. Victoria Cribb) which is a prequel to his established series and introduces the young Erlendur in his first few years at the police. He is on traffic duty and on the night shift. He investigates the death of a tramp and in addition we get to see how he meets his future wife. It should appeal to existing and new fans alike.

As with Jorn Lier Horst, I've been party to both of Yrsa Sigurdardottir's previous
two books being shortlisted for the Petrona Award: SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME (tr. Philip Roughton) for 2014 and THE SILENCE OF THE SEA (tr. Victoria Cribb) for this year. In SOMEONE series character, lawyer Thora takes on the case of a young man with Down's syndrome who is accused of burning down a care home and killing five people and it is set against the backdrop of the financial crash. SILENCE has a slightly different structure  with Thora not being in the book as much as usual. A yacht returns to Reykjavik with no-one on board though a family and a crew were on it when it left Portugal. Thora is hired by the grand-parents of the surviving child who did not go on the ill-fated trip to prove that the parents are dead. The narrative is split between Thora's investigations and a recounting of what happened aboard the yacht and is an extremely tense and compulsive read.

Kristina Ohlsson's THE DISAPPEARED (tr. Marlaine Delargy) the latest book in the Alex Recht/Fredrika Bergman series continues to mix the personal with the professional in a similar way to Camilla Lackberg. All the main characters go through personal trauma whilst looking into the cold case of a missing student whose body has just been found. I enjoyed this very much.

Hans Olav Lahlum's THE HUMAN FLIES (tr. Kari Dickson), also shortlisted for the 2015 Petrona Award, introduces the nice but dim Norwegian policeman K2 and his brilliant civilian sidekick Patricia who is confined to a wheelchair and rarely leaves her home. Set in Oslo in 1968, they have a locked room mystery to solve where the murderer must surely be one of the apartment block's residents, all of whom seem to have a connection to the legendary war hero victim... FLIES melds an intriguing mystery with a look into recent Norwegian history.

Finally, staying in Norway, ages ago I read COLD HEARTS by Gunnar Staalesen (tr. Don Bartlett). I do enjoy this series, set in Bergen, so I can't wait for the next three books in the series which are due from Orenda Press and will also be translated by Don Bartlett.

New Reviews: Chisholm, Cleeves, Collett, Indridason, Jacobsen, Kitchin, Marklund, Nickson, Webster

Here are nine reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website today, one has appeared on the blog since last time, and eight are completely new.

NB. You can keep up to date with Euro Crime by following the blog and/or liking the Euro Crime Facebook page.

New Reviews

Terry Halligan reviews the sixth in P F Chisholm's Elizabethan Robert Carey series, An Air of Treason, in which is tasked to discover who killed Amy Dudley;

Susan White reviews the latest in Ann Cleeves's Shetland series, Thin Air;

Terry also reviews Chris Collett's Dead of Night, the seventh book to feature one of the few fictional Birmingham coppers, Tom Mariner;


Lynn Harvey reviews the latest (and possibly last) in the 'Older' Erlendur series, Strange Shores by Arnaldur Indridason tr. Victoria Cribb. (NB. The recent Reykjavik Nights features a younger Erlendur.)

Susan also reviews Trophy by Steffen Jacobsen tr. Charlotte Barslund, which she "thoroughly recommends";


Rich Westwood reviews Rob Kitchin's Stumped, a "slightly blacker comedy set in Dublin, Manchester and the West of Ireland";

Michelle Peckham reviews Liza Marklund's Borderline tr. Neil Smith, which see reporter Annika Bengtzon on the other side of the media fence when her husband gets kidnapped;


Michelle also reviews Gods of Gold by Chris Nickson, set in 1890's Leeds

and if you weren't already convinced by Lynn's review earlier in the year then Laura Root's review should ensure that you give Jason Webster's Blood Med a go.


Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here along with releases by year. NB. Forthcoming releases by category for 2015 are now available.

New Reviews: Brightwell, Gerhardsen, Indridason, Miller, Nickson, O'Brien

Here are six new reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website today.

Check back tomorrow to see what is the favourite overall Euro Crime read of 2013, plus who are the team's favourite authors and translators of 2013.

NB. Keep up to date with Euro Crime by following the blog and/or liking the Euro Crime Facebook page.

New Reviews

I review Emily Brightwell's The Inspector and Mrs Jeffries which has recently had a (very belated) UK release;

Rich Westwood reviews The Gingerbread House by Carin Gerhardsen tr. Paul Norlen, the first in the Hammarby (Stockholm) series;

Michelle Peckham reviews Arnaldur Indridason's Strange Shores tr. Victoria Cribb;

Amanda Gillies reviews Norwegian by Night by Derek B Miller;

Terry Halligan reviews Chris Nickson's The Crooked Spire, set in fourteenth-century Chesterfield

and Lynn Harvey reviews the latest in Martin O'Brien's south of France set, Daniel Jacquot series, The Dying Minutes.


Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here along with releases by year.

New Reviews: Blake, Booth, Granger, Hayder, Indridason, Miller, Peterson, Robertson, Zeh

I'm back after a few days in the Lake District. It was very wet!

Here is a new set of 9 reviews:

(NB. Don't forget to vote in the International Dagger Polls.)

Several of Nicholas Blake's Nigel Strangeways titles have just been reissued by Vintage and we'll be reviewing them, starting with The Beast Must Die reviewed here by Amanda Gillies;

Susan White reviews Stephen Booth's twelfth Cooper & Fry novel, Dead and Buried set in Derbyshire;

Rich Westwood reviews the fourth in Ann Granger's Victorian series: A Particular Eye for Villainy;

Sarah Hilary reviews Mo Hayder's standalone Hanging Hill which is now out in paperback;

Maxine Clarke reviews Arnaldur Indridason's Black Skies, tr. Victoria Cribb in which Sigurdur Oli takes the lead role;

Terry Halligan reviews Danny Miller's follow-up to Kiss Me Quick, The Gilded Edge set in 1965 London;

Lizzie Hayes reviews Mark Peterson's debut Flesh and Blood set in Brighton and introducing DS Minter;

Please welcome Waterstones bookseller and reviewer JF to the Euro Crime review team. Here she reviews Craig Robertson's Cold Grave, the third in his Glasgow-set series

and Lynn Harvey reviews Juli Zeh's intriguing The Method, tr. Sally-Ann Spencer which is not a crime novel as such but "a "what-if" novel".

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here along with releases by year.

New Reviews: Enger, Fossum, Holt, Indridason, Kepler, Lackberg, Ridpath, Wagner

Here are this week's reviews - can you spot the theme?:

I review the debut novel from Norwegian author Thomas Enger, Burned, tr. Charlotte Barslund, which introduces an intriguing new lead in the shape of damaged reporter Henning Juul;

Michelle Peckham reviews one of Karin Fossum's earlier Sejer books, The Water's Edge, tr. Charlotte Barslund which she thoroughly recommends;

Maxine Clarke reviews Anne Holt's latest Vik/Stubo which she says is the best so far: Fear Not, tr. Marlaine Delargy;

New reviewer Rich Westwood opens his account with a review of the paperback edition of Arnaldur Indridason's Operation Napoleon, tr. Victoria Cribb which, unfortunately, isn't a patch on his Erlendur series;

A second opinion on Lars Kepler's The Hypnotist, tr. Ann Long is provided by Maxine Clarke;

I reviewed on the blog last week, the audio book version of Camilla Lackberg's The Gallows Bird, tr. Steven T Murray;

Lizzie Hayes recommends Michael Ridpath's 66 Degrees North, the second in his Iceland series

and Mark Bailey reviews Jan Costin Wagner's follow-up to Ice Moon, Silence, tr. Anthea Bell which is now out in paperback.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found by author or date, here.

New Reviews: Easter, Fitzgerald, Indridason, Lawton, Rayne, Robertson, Website Updates & New Competition

A new competition for July: Win a set of 3 books by Armand Cabasson (UK only)

Here are this week's reviews:

Pat Austin reviews The Watermen by Patrick Easter an atmospheric new series set at the end of the eighteenth century;

Laura Root reviews the second in the Alec Blume series from Conor Fitzgerald, The Fatal Touch, set in Rome;

Maxine Clarke reviews the Erlendur-lite Outrage by Arnaldur Indridason, tr. Anna Yates in which Elinborg comes to the fore;

Amanda Gillies reviews John Lawton's newest book in the Frederick Troy series, A Lily of the Field;

Lizzie Hayes reviews Sarah Rayne's the most recent stand-alone novel, What Lies Beneath

and Terry Halligan reviews the third in the Westerman-Crowther series from Imogen Robertson, Island of Bones, also set in the eighteenth century.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found by author or date, here.

Website Update

State of play at 10.7.11:

The Author Websites page now lists 898 sites.

The New & Upcoming Releases pages have been updated.

In Bibliographies there are now bibliographies for 1672 authors (8606 titles with links to 2031 reviews):

I've added new bibliographies for: Adam Baker, Parker Bilal, Adam Blake, Horst Bosetzky, Constance Briscoe, Kevin Brooks, Will Carver, Jason Dean, Stephen Done,James Douglas, Matthew Dunn, Mark Ellis, Monika Fagerholm, Friis, Agnete & Kaaberbol, Lene, Sergios Gakas, Tim Griggs, Jorn Lier Horst, Mons Kallentoft, Maxine Kenneth, Hans Koppel, Charlotte Link, M L Longworth, Bernard Minier, Laurence O'Bryan, Kristina Ohlsson, Andrea Penrose, Emlyn Rees, A D Scott, Johan Smits, Elizabeth Speller, Linda Stratmann, Stefan Tegenfalk, David Thomas, Antti Tuomainen, S J Watson.

I've updated the bibliographies (ie added new titles) for: Jussi Adler-Olsen, Ray Alan, Lin Anderson, Maureen Ash, Tom Bale, Jo Bannister, Robert Barnard, Colin Bateman, Veronyca Bates, Quentin Bates, Belinda Bauer, Carrie A Bebris, Mark Billingham, Mikkel Birkegaard, Benjamin Black, Cara Black, Sam Bourne, Alan Bradley, John Brady, Simon Brett, P J Brooke, Christopher Brookmyre, Alison Bruce, Fiona Buckley, Tom Cain, Kenneth Cameron, Andrea Camilleri, Rebecca Cantrell, Gianrico Carofiglio, Carol K Carr, Maureen Carter, Jane Casey, Joyce Cato, Camilla Ceder, Joanna Challis, Kimberley Chambers, Charlie Charters, Maxim/Maxime Chattam, Lee Child, Ann Cleeves, Barbara Cleverly, Martina Cole, Simon Conway, Lesley Cookman, Gary Corby, Colin Cotterill, Deborah Crombie, Donna Fletcher Crow, Charles Cumming, Elizabeth Darrell, Carol Anne Davis, John Dean, David Dickinson, Nick Drake, Alex Dryden, Jeremy Duns, Marjorie Eccles, Kate Ellis, Kjell Eriksson, Charles Finch, Jane Finnis, James Forrester, Christopher Fowler, Dick Francis, Guy Fraser, Tana French, Nicci French, Elizabeth George, Michele Giuttari, Philip Gooden, Susanna Gregory, J M Gregson, Tarquin Hall, Sophie Hannah, Tom Harper, Cora Harrison, Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, Tim Heald, Mandasue Heller, Peg Herring, Matt Hilton, Anne Holt, Anthony Horowitz, Graham Hurley, Graham Ison, Claude Izner, Maxim Jakubowski, Bill James, Quintin Jardine, Doug Johnstone, Mari Jungstedt, Jessie Keane, Lars Kepler, Simon Kernick, Philip Kerr, Bill Kitson, Bernard Knight, Lynda La Plante, Camilla Lackberg, Deryn Lake, Stephen Leather, Simon Lelic, Frances Lloyd, Stuart/Stuart B MacBride, Shona Maclean, Adrian Magson, G M Malliet, Scott Mariani, Howard Marks, Michael Marshall, Edward/A E Marston, Priscilla Masters, Ava McCarthy, Val/VL McDermid, Adrian McKinty, Andy McNab, The Medieval Murderers, G J Moffat, Theresa Murphy, Amy Myers, Barbara Nadel, Jo Nesbo, Stuart Neville, Chris Nickson, Hilary Norman, Margie Orford, S J Parris, Ben Pastor, Caro Peacock, Mark Pearson, Stef Penney, Anne Perry, Leif GW Persson, Malcolm Pryce, Ann Purser, Sheila Quigley, Ian Rankin, Deanna Raybourn, Linda Regan, John F Rice, Roslund-Hellstrom, Priscilla Royal, Fay Sampson, Alex Scarrow, Stav Sherez, Alexander McCall Smith, Dan Smith, Sally Spedding, Cath Staincliffe, Mel/Melvin R Starr, Sara Stockbridge, The Mulgray Twins, Rhys Thomas, Brian Thompson, Peter Tickler, Peter Tremayne, Helene Tursten, L C Tyler, Valerio Varesi, Marco Vichi, Martin Walker, Jeri Westerson, Stella Whitelaw, Patrick Woodhead, Anne Zouroudi.

If you spot any errors or omissions do let me know.

New Reviews: Arnold, Blake, Indridason, McCrery, Siger

Two competitions for January, both close 31st January:
1.Win Assassins of Athens by Jeffrey Siger UK only
2.Win A Noble Killing by Barbara Nadel (International)

The Euro Crime Reviewers have spoken. Here are their favourite reads for 2010 in detail and summarised by most mentioned title, author and translator.

Here are this week's reviews:

Terry Halligan reviews Traitor's Blood by Michael Arnold the first in an English Civil War set series (and listed in Terry's top reads of 2010);

Amanda Gillies reviews the third in Richard Blake's Roman series featuring Aelric: The Blood of Alexandria;

Maxine Clarke reviews Arnaldur Indridason's Operation Napoleon, tr. Victoria Cribb an entertaining standalone adventure-thriller;

Laura Root reviews the third in the Chief Inspector Lapslie series from Nigel McCrery: Scream

and Terry also reviews Murder in Mykonos by Jeffrey Siger.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found by author or date, here.

Hypothermia - Cover Opinions

US based fans of Arnaldur Indridason's Erlendur series will be pleased to know that Hypothermia will be out there on 14 September (also in Kindle edition). Hypothermia is on the short-list for the 2010 CWA International Dagger.

Read the Euro Crime review (by Maxine) of Hypothermia.

So what are you thoughts on the UK (LHS) and US (RHS) covers? Would either entice you to pick the book up if you were not familiar with Indridason?
(Incidentally at the time of writing, the blurb on amazon.com is actually for The Draining Lake!)

The Draining Lake audio book

My review of the audio-book version of The Draining Lake by Arnaldur Indridason, tr Bernard Scudder and narrated by Saul Reichlin is now online at Whole Story Audio Books.

My review is here.

There are also two reviews of the print book on the Euro Crime website - here and here.

New Reviews: Anderson, Bruen, Indridason, Navarro, Tighe, Xiaolong

The settings for this week's books include Scotland, Ireland, Iceland, Iraq, England and China:

Laura Root reviews the paperback release of Easy Kill by Lin Anderson;

Terry Halligan reviews Sanctuary by Ken Bruen the latest in the Jack Taylor series;

Maxine Clarke reviews Hypothermia by Arnaldur Indridason writing that "it is truly a mature, masterful and utterly fantastic book";

Amanda Gillies is equally enthusiastic about The Bible of Clay by Julia Navarro which is now out in paperback, beginning her review: "This is a cleverly written novel with a gripping storyline";

Geoff Jones reviews Druids Hill by Carl Tighe

and Michelle Peckham reviews The Mao Case by Qiu Xiaolong calling it a "a fascinating book".

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found here.

What I'm listening to...

My current audio book listen is Silence of the Grave by Arnaldur Indridason which is narrated by the peerless Saul Reichlin. My introduction to Indridason was Voices which focused mainly on Erlendur and less on his colleagues Sigurdur Oli and Elinborg. After all the praise for Indridason I was a bit let down by Voices and that's why it's taken me a while to try another title. I spotted that Silence of the Grave was available on audio (unlike Jar City, The Draining Lake and the latest, Arctic Chill) and I've whizzed along to CD3 of eight today on my journeys to and from work. The sidekicks are fleshed out as is the family situation which pays a large role in Voices. So far so very good though the descriptions of wife-beating are horrific to listen to.

Silence of the Grave on audio is produced by Whole Story Audio Books and on the product page you can listen to the opening of the book being read by Saul Reichlin.

Reviews of the 'Reykjavik Murder Mysteries' can be found via Arnaldur Indridason's bibliography page.

Jar City on DVD (R2)

It's finally here. The DVD of Jar City, based on Arnaldur Indridason's book of the same (translated English) name, was released yesterday. It's out of stock at amazon.co.uk but they have a good price of £10.98.

















DVD blurb: It looks like nothing ever happens in Iceland and when a seemingly innocuous old man is brutally killed, the news is in someway amplified. Detective Erlendur Sveisson, fifty and living a life plagued by various forms of addiction, is appointed the apparently incomprehensible case. During his investigations of the murder, Erlendur discovers that the victim was anything but an innocent pensioner, his past filled with rape and violence. These findings lead Erlendur to connect the assassination to other unsolved homicides, revealing an unsettling and gory picture that spreads virtually over the entire country. An austere yet powerful and gripping detective story, Jar City has been very well received by demanding American audiences. Perfectly crafted as a suspense-generating machine, what really makes Jar City a unique film in its genre is the effective balance between its vivid and somewhat physical images, and its cerebral, nearly philosophical narrative mood.

The Metro's review is here and the Crime Scraps review is here.

NB. Jar City became Tainted Blood when released in paperback.