New Reviews: Brett, Dugdall, Jaquiery, Kavanagh, Miske, Thorne, Vallgren, Wilson

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

Plus, in case you missed them, here are a few recent links that might be of interest:

The winner of The Petrona Award & the announcement in pictures

Lee Child interviews Maj Sjowall

CrimeFest panel writeups: Euro Noir & Nordic Noir

The International Dagger 2015 shortlist

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

New Reviews

A collection of mini reviews (by me) of recent Scandi-crime novels;


Mark Bailey reviews Simon Brett's Mrs Pargeter's Principle, the eponymous lady returns after a 17 year gap;

Susan White reviews Ruth Dugdall's Humber Boy B;

Terry Halligan reviews Anna Jaquiery's Death in the Rainy Season, set in Cambodia;

Michelle Peckham reviews Emma Kavanagh's Hidden, which revolves around a shooting in a hospital;

Lynn Harvey reviews Karim Miske's Arab Jazz tr. Sam Gordon, which has been shortlisted for the International Dagger;

Amanda Gillies reviews Nothing Sacred by David Thorne, which is the second in the Essex-based Daniel Connell series;

I also review Carl-Johan Vallgren's The Boy in the Shadows tr. Rachel Willson-Broyles

and Terry also reviews the reissue of The Mystery of Tunnel 51 by Alexander  Wilson.

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

Review: The Boy in the Shadows by Carl-Johan Vallgren tr. Rachel Willson-Broyles

The Boy in the Shadows by Carl-Johan Vallgren, tr. Rachel Willson-Broyles (January 2015, Quercus, ISBN: 1784291293)

THE BOY IN THE SHADOWS is Swedish literary author Carl-Johan Vallgren's first crime novel and indeed looks to be the first part in a series.

The prologue set in 1970 describes the disappearance/kidnap of a seven-year-old boy at a crowded Stockholm train station when he is separated from his father and younger brother. The rest of the story is set forty years later.

Danny Katz is a former drug addict with a facility for languages and computer hacking which the military have put to good use. Now a civilian he is self-employed and receives some business help from his old military superior Julin. Katz is contacted by the beautiful Angela the wife of an old translator colleague, Joel, from the rich Klinsberg clan. Joel and Katz, though not friends, shared a dorm and Joel told his wife that Katz was the only person he could trust. When Joel goes missing, Angela contacts Katz and though he is not a PI he agrees to look into Joel's disappearance. Joel has recently received some clues that might uncover the mystery of his brother's kidnapping all those years ago...

Katz has some contacts and begins to trace Joel's last journey but it is not long before he finds himself having to disappear when he's suddenly framed for murder...

This first part of the book, about 100 pages, lured me into thinking we have a GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, cold case type mystery to solve however things strike off in much more of a thriller direction with Katz going underground and trying to turn the tables, on those framing him. In addition the narration switches between Katz and Eva, a friend from Katz's youth home days. They both had a rough start to life and have had some personal and professional successes but cannot shake off their inheritance. With its threads involving conspiracies, blackmail and voodoo it is a slightly fantastical tale but is none the less gripping for it and though it didn't go the way I perhaps wanted it to it was an involving read. The main characters are for me its strongest suit and I'm pleased that we may meet Katz and Eva again.

The (surprisingly) uncredited translation is by Rachel Willson-Broyles.