Review Roundup: Carson, Dahl, Jonasson, Kestin, Millar, Siger

Here are six 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

Amanda Gillies reviews Clare Carson's debut, Orkney Twilight;

Lynn Harvey reviews Arne Dahl's To the Top of the Mountain tr. Alice Menzies;

I review Ragnar Jonasson's Snowblind tr. Quentin Bates the first in his Dark Iceland series;

Michelle Peckham reviews The Lie by Hesh Kestin;

Amanda also reviews Louise Millar's City of Strangers

and Terry Halligan reviews Jeffrey Siger's Devil of Delphi.



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

Review: To the Top of the Mountain by Arne Dahl tr. Alice Menzies

To the Top of the Mountain by Arne Dahl, tr. Alice Menzies (June 2015, Vintage, ISBN: 0099587572)

Reviewed by Lynn Harvey.
(Read more of Lynn's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

“Should we check, then?” asked Paul Hjelm. “If all this is just a figment of our imagination, two frustrated CID officers who aren't happy with it being just a pub brawl?”

Stockholm, Midsummer – Paul Hjelm and Kerstin Holm of the city's Violent Crimes Division are interviewing witnesses about the killing of a football fan during a bar-fight between rival supporters. Their young witness is quiet to the point of being uncooperative, claims to have had his back to the fight and to have been reading a book the whole time. All right, he had turned round now and then and he had heard the crack and had seen the blood streaming from the guy's head. When there had been a rush for the exit, before the doormen blocked it, the killer had been one of the first to get out, alongside the other Hammarby fans. Most of a group by the door got out as well.
Kerstin and Paul have only recently been reunited as work colleagues after the beak up of their old unit. Its members had been dispersed to various squads and their boss Hultin “retired”. After Kerstin takes the witness off to the police artist in an attempt to get a picture of the guy who slammed a beer glass onto another's head, the pair catch up on news before resuming their meticulous interviews of a bar-load of witnesses.

A man is released from Kumla prison on a fine summer morning and walks towards a waiting van. He checks his wallet and a small device that looks like a calculator. Glancing between the prison and the van, he presses a button on the device and smiles as he climbs into the van which speeds away before the sound of the explosion can reach it. Ex-A-Unit colleagues Arto Södersteft and Viggo Norlander, currently on loan to Kumla's regional CID, are called in to investigate the prison blast. The explosion has spread most of Lordon Vukotic's body around the walls of his cell. He had been a member of drug dealer Rajko Nedic's circle but lately Vukotic had become a model prisoner, training to be a business lawyer, perhaps Rajko's business lawyer. Norlander, a new father with baby-sick on his shoulder, is half asleep. It surprises the waiting investigating team to see him suddenly take efficient and energetic command. But Norlander is determined to get the case cracked. It's almost Midsummer's Eve and he means to celebrate it with his new daughter.

Just one or two old colleagues to reunite. The giant, one-time “Mr Sweden”, Gunnar Nyberg, is now part of the National CID's “Paedophile Hunters” team. He spends his days in front of a computer screen watching some of the most dreadful things he has ever seen – but just now he is bumping into ex-colleague Paul Hjelm at a café near headquarters.
With an explosion and gun fight on an industrial estate claiming the lives of several drug dealers and far-right extremists, Jorge Chavez, another ex-A-Unit man enters the picture. Investigative threads from all of these cases start to intersect. It seems as though the original A-Unit is about to be reassembled…

Arne Dahl's TO THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN presents a sprawling spider of crime. Murder, drugs, neo-Nazi terrorism and paedophile rings intersect to reunite the old Intercrime Unit. Even boss Hultin is dragged out of retirement to head the team again. The exciting, involving plot builds suspense to the end: an examination of love and hate through crime fiction, all facets, both ends of the scale – lovers and ex-lovers, family and children, colleagues and teams, nationalism, racism and a lot of things in between. I enjoyed the previous book BAD BLOOD. This one has a different translator in Alice Menzies and there seems to be a slightly more disjointed feel to the narrative – but this may be true to Dahl’s writing. Although TO THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN became part of Series One of the Swedish Arne Dahl television series, don't be deterred from reading the book if you watched the series. Dahl's writing is a wry, richly charactered experience and well worth exploring in its own right.

Lynn Harvey, England
December 2015

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: Aspe, Beckett, Dahl, Hancock, Nesbo, Spencer

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

The favourite overall reads of 2013 as voted by the Euro Crime review team were revealed last Monday.

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

New Reviews

Geoff Jones reviews The Midas Murders by Pieter Aspe, tr. Brian Doyle which is the second in the Assistant Commissioner Pieter Van In series and is set in Bruges;

Michelle Peckham reviews Simon Beckett's standalone novel, Stone Bruises which is set in France;

Lynn Harvey reviews Arne Dahl's Bad Blood tr. Rachel Willson-Broyles - "Dahl's writing has a pay-off as rewarding as the book's dark and exciting plot";

Susan White reviews The Darkening Hour by Penny Hancock, whom she compares favourably to Barbara Vine and Sophie Hannah;

Laura Root completes the Euro Crime set of reviews for Jo Nesbo's (currently) ten book Harry Hole series with her review of Cockroaches tr. Don Bartlett, the second in the series

and Terry Halligan reviews Sally Spencer's Death's Dark Shadow the latest in the DCI Monika Paniatowski series.



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: Bannister, Dahl, Davies, Hill, James, Kent, Macbain, Ryan, Savage

This week's set of reviews, added to Euro Crime today, is a mixture of new reviews and a catch-up of those posted directly on the blog in the last two weeks, so you may have read some of them before if you're a regular :).

Terry Halligan reviews Jo Bannister's new book, Deadly Virtues which is available as an ebook in the UK and a hardback in the US;

I review Arne Dahl's follow-up to The Blinded Man/Misterioso, Bad Blood, tr. Rachel Willson-Broyles;

Terry also reviews David Stuart Davies A Taste for Blood, the sixth in the 1940s-set Johnny One Eye series;

Laura Root reviews Antonio Hill's The Good Suicides tr. Laura McGoughlin (the sequel to one of my favourite books of last year: The Summer of Dead Toys);

Mark Bailey reviews the latest in the Roy Grace series from Peter James, Dead Man's Time;

Lynn Harvey reviews A Darkness Descending by Christobel Kent, the fourth in this Florence based series featuring ex-cop turned PI Sandro Cellini;

Susan White reviews Bruce Macbain's Roman Games, the first in the Pliny series, now out in paperback;

Amanda Gillies reviews William Ryan's The Twelfth Department which has been short-listed for the 2013 CWA Ellis Peters Historical Dagger;

I also review Angela Savage's Behind the Night Bazaar the first in her Jayne Keeney PI series set in Thailand

and I've also reviewed the DVD of Swedish thriller (with English sub-titles), False Trail, starring Rolf Lassgard.


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.

Review: Bad Blood by Arne Dahl

Bad Blood by Arne Dahl translated by Rachel Willson-Broyles, June 2013, 352 pages, Harvill Secker, ISBN: 1846556767

BAD BLOOD is the second in the 'Intercrime' series by Arne Dahl, the series which has recently been shown on BBC Four as Arne Dahl.

We meet the disparate group of members of the A-Unit, a small task-force of police officers from different backgrounds, almost a year after the Power Murders which took place in THE BLINDED MAN (apa MISTERIOSO). Fortunately for Sweden but unfortunately for the team, very little has come their way in terms of new cases and it's only a matter of time before the team will be reassigned.

What they needed was a robust serial killer, of a robust, international character, thought Paul Hjelm

Be careful for what you wish for, as four pages later, Hjelm's boss reports that a Swedish literary critic has been tortured and murdered at Newark Airport and that the killer is a killer of several decades standing and is on his way from New York to Sweden.

An operation to catch the so-called Kentucky Killer fails and Sweden has a serial killer to catch. The investigation doesn't go well. There are few leads to go on and the team is reduced to leg-work, checking on US citizens, until bodies begin to show up. Hjelm and Kerstin Holm are sent to New York to liaise with the FBI (where they become Yalm and Halm perhaps giving us English speakers an idea of the correct pronunciation). The FBI man who actually saw the Kentucky Killer die in a car crash, or so he thought, welcomes their input and as this is a Swedish crime novel it's no surprise that a Swedish brain-wave from Hjelm moves the investigation along.

The remainder of the A-Unit back in Sweden have also made their own discoveries and together the Kentucky Killer could be within their grasp but there is much more going on than even the Swedish authorities realise.

BAD BLOOD is an entertaining thriller which continues the tradition of social/political commentary in Swedish crime fiction. Leavened by humour and with a group of interesting characters, of whom we get to know more with Hjelm still getting slightly more of the focus, this is a story which remains current despite its original Swedish release date of 1998. BAD BLOOD covers a lot of ground in its modest 350 pages and leaves readers eager for the next instalment.

Publishing News: More Arne Dahl books in translation

I've just received this press release regarding the purchase of two more books by Arne Dahl, which follows hot on the BBC4 showing of the first part of the tv version of The Blinded Man:

Harvill Secker buy two more books in the Swedish series set to become the new The Killing for the bbc

Alison Hennessey, Senior Crime Editor at Harvill Secker, has bought the next two books in Arne Dahl’s award winning crime series, adaptations of which the BBC will be broadcasting in the same Saturday night slot that turned The Killing, Borgen and The Bridge into household names. Hennessey bought UK & Commonwealth (ex. Canada) rights from Tor Jonasson at the Salomonsson Agency.

Alison Hennessey, Senior Editor at Harvill Secker says: ‘We knew when we acquired the first two books in Arne Dahl’s crime series that he would go on to become one of the leading lights of our crime fiction list, and I’m delighted to have signed up the next two installments in this gripping, intelligent series. Arne’s books are perfect for fans of Henning Mankell and upmarket, international crime so we couldn’t be more delighted that the BBC will be screening the Swedish tv series.’

To the Top of the Mountain, the book that won Arne the prestigious German Crime Prize, sees Detective Paul Hjelm and his team coming back together after the traumatic events at the end of Bad Blood to investigate a series of crimes – a man killed in a random attack in a restaurant, another blown up in high security prison, rumours of a forthcoming terrorist attack. In Europa Blues, winner of the Best International Thriller at the Dutch Book Awards, the team try and establish links between the execution of a man at Stockholm zoo, the abduction of 8 Eastern European women from a refugee centre and the horrifying murder of a professor at the Jewish cemetery in a case that will extend across Europe and back through time.

Arne Dahl is an award-winning Swedish crime novelist and literary critic whose books have been translated into over twenty languages. He will be attending Cuirt, Bloody Scotland and Edinburgh International Book festivals this year. The first book in the series, The Blinded Man, was published straight into Vintage paperback in July 2012 with Bad Blood coming from Harvill Secker this July.

TV News: Arne Dahl's Intercrime series on BBC4

The first five books in Swedish author Arne Dahl's 'Intercrime' series have been adapted for television, two episodes per book. The series begins on BBC4 on Saturday 6 April at 9pm with the first part of The Blinded Man (aka Misterioso).

The Blinded Man tr. Tiina Nunnally, is available in English and the sequel Bad Blood is out in July.


High-flying financiers are being murdered and it is beginning to appear like the work of a serial killer. CID inspector Jenny Hultin puts together a team of top detectives to crack the case swiftly before there are more deaths and a national panic. One of the team, Paul Hjelm, is saved from a disciplinary hearing for shooting a hostage taker when he said he was unarmed. Together with his new colleagues he finds himself working 24 hours a day in shifts to find the killer quickly. They are 'A Unit' and their pursuit of the Fat Cat Killer will expose tensions within the newly-formed group and put some of them in fear of their lives. And what do the financier killings have to do with the Estonian mafia and the discovery of a dead robber in an empty bank with a dart in his eye?


There's more about the tv series on Arne Dahl's website.

Here's the Swedish trailer:

New Reviews: Brodrick, Brooks, Ceder, Chatterton, Conway, Dahl, Kray, Meyer, Upson

Here are 9 new reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website today:

Terry Halligan reviews William Brodrick's The Day of the Lie, the fourth in the Father Anselm series;

Susan White reviews Kevin Brooks' Until the Darkness Comes the second in the John Craine, private detective, series;

Maxine Clarke reviews Camilla Ceder's follow-up to Frozen Moment, Babylon tr. Marlaine Delargy which sees the return of Gothenburg detective Christian Tell and co.;

Mark Bailey reviews Ed Chatterton's first foray into adult crime fiction, A Dark Place to Die set in Liverpool;

Lynn Harvey reviews and thoroughly recommends Rock Creek Park by Simon Conway;

Earlier this week I reviewed The Blinded Man by Arne Dahl, tr. Tiina Nunnally also published as Misterioso;

Lizzie Hayes reviews Roberta Kray's Nothing But Trouble which is now out in paperback;

Terry wishes all books he reviewed were as good as Deon Meyer's Heart of the Hunter tr. K L Seegers

and Susan also reviews Nicola Upson's Fear in the Sunlight the fourth in this series featuring Josephine Tey, now out in paperback

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.

Review: The Blinded Man by Arne Dahl

The Blinded Man by Arne Dahl translated by Tiina Nunnally, July 2012, 437 pages, Vintage, ISBN: 009957568X

When Stockholm police officer Paul Hjelm shoots (and injures rather than kills) a hostage-taker he is hailed as a hero by the media but is not so popular with internal affairs who think his unofficial behaviour may encourage others. Instead of being sacked though, he is seconded to a new team, the A-Unit, a hand-picked team of detectives who are tasked with solving the murders of two top Swedish businessmen. They have more powers than the normal police and they can use the Swedish police to do their donkey work.

THE BLINDED MAN follows the team's efforts to track down the serial killer and involves routine police-work during which the team begin to bond and the different personalities are revealed.

Incidentally, SAPO, the security forces, are yet again (see Larsson, Tegenfalk) shown in a bad light as they jump to the conclusion that the deaths are the work of terrorist undermining Sweden's economy and go their own way.

Despite being over ten years old (first published in Swedish in 1999) the storyline involving bankers, a depressed economy and immigration policies is very contemporary.

THE BLINDED MAN is a solid police procedural with a group of unusual police officers, from different regions of Sweden and different cultural backgrounds. The plot is well thought out and unusual though I found the pace did slow a bit in the middle. This was an enjoyable read with plenty of humour and I look forward to the next book, BAD BLOOD, in 2013.

NB. THE BLINDED MAN was first published in English in the US under its original Swedish title MISTERIOSO.

Publishing Deal - Arne Dahl

In the "how did I miss this!" category, belated news of a UK publishing deal for Swedish author Arne Dahl. From The Bookseller:

Harvill Secker has acquired two books by Swedish crime writer Arne Dahl, with senior crime editor Alison Hennessey making her first signing in her new role.

Hennessey bought UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, in the titles, both from Dahl's Intercrime series. Harvill Secker plans to publish the first book, The Blinded Man, as a Vintage paperback in July 2012, and the second, Bad Blood, in summer 2013.

The Blinded Man kicks off the series which follows an elite team of detectives assembled to investigate international violent crime, with Bad Blood revolving around an American serial killer on the loose in Sweden.

Hennessey said: "I am delighted to be bringing Arne Dahl's critically acclaimed Intercrime series to Harvill Secker as my first acquisition; with clever plotting and brilliant characterisation that will appeal to readers of Henning Mankell and fans of 'The Wire' alike..."

Dahl is already published in the US, with Misterioso, translated by Tiina Nunnally published last July. I am assuming that either The Blinded Man or Bad Blood is the same book as Misterioso. My notes say that "Misterioso was the second published in Swedish, but chronologically the first, the one in which a team of misfit police officers are pulled together to form a new investigative unit" which makes me none the wiser, so if anyone can shed any light I'd appreciate it.

Arne Dahl is on twitter: @arne_dahl

Upcoming Swedish Crime Fiction

I've begun a new amazon list: Scandinavian Crime Fiction Published in 2011. One of the items on the list is Mysterioso by Arne Dahl, tr. Tiina Nunnally which I was reminded of by a commenter on Petrona. It's not yet got a UK release date but the US release date is 15 February 2011.

Synopsis

The first novel in the gripping Intercrime trilogy.

Following a complicated but successful dismantling of a hostage situation, Detective Paul Hjelm is facing the prospect of a potentially career-ending investigation by Internal Affairs. Instead, he finds himself dropped into a new elite team of officers selected from across the country, whose mission is to find an elusive killer who has been targeting Sweden’s business leaders. The killer’s modus operandi: two distinctive shots straight through the head, bullets carefully pulled from the wall—a nighttime ritual enacted with Thelo­nius Monk’s jazz classic Misterioso playing in the background.

As Hjelm, his young partner Jorge Chavez, and the rest of the team follow one lead after another in a frantic search for the killer—navigating the murky world of the Russian Mafia and the secret societies of Sweden’s wealthiest citizens—they must also face one of Sweden’s most persistent ills: a deep-rooted xeno­phobia that affects both police and perpetrator.

Written with great energy, penetrating candor, and dark wit, and populated with characters whose motivations are as nuanced as they are unexpected, Misterioso is an utterly absorbing novel—an arresting introduction to this acclaimed author.

You can read more about it on Arne Dahl's website.