Reviews: Chambers, Hauxwell, Perry, Ramsay, Robinson, Simenon, Sundstol, Wagner

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

Susan White reviews Kimberley Chambers's The Victim which she recommends for readers of Martina Cole and Lynda La Plante;


Amanda Gillies reviews Annie Hauxwell's A Morbid Habit the third book to feature PI Catherine Berlin;

Terry Halligan reviews the latest in the William Monk series by Anne Perry, Blood on the Water which is now out in paperback;


Terry also reviews Caro Ramsay's The Blood of Crows the fourth in her Anderson and Costello series;

Michelle Peckham reviews Caro Ramsay's fifth and most recent Anderson and Costello book, The Night Hunter;


Michelle also reviews Ray Robinson's Jawbone Lake;

Lynn Harvey reviews Georges Simenon's Pietr the Latvian freshly translated by David Bellos as part of Penguin's project to republish and re-translate all the Maigret novels; this being the first in the series;

Laura Root reviews Vidar Sundstol's Only the Dead translated by Tiinna Nunnally and is the middle part of the Minnesota trilogy

and Lynn also reviews the Petrona Award shortlist-listed Light in a Dark House by Jan Costin Wagner, translated by Anthea Bell which is 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. NB. Forthcoming releases by category for 2015 are now available.

New Reviews: Downing, FitzGerald, French, Giambanco, Jordan, McIlvanney, Matthews, Nesbo, Wagner

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 :).

Jut a reminder: I've now set up a Euro Crime page on Facebook which you can like.

Terry Halligan reviews David Downing's Jack of Spies, set just before World War One;


Susan White reviews Helen FitzGerald's The Cry;

Michelle Peckham reviews Nicci French's Waiting for Wednesday, the third in the Frieda Klein series;

Lynn Harvey reviews V M Giambanco's debut, The Gift of Darkness, set in Seattle;

Amanda Gillies reviews Will Jordan's Sacrifice, the second in his Ryan Drake series;

Geoff Jones reviews Liam McIlvanney's Where the Dead Men Go, set in Glasgow;

Terry also reviews Jeanne Matthews's fourth Dinah Pelerin mystery, Her Boyfriend's Bones, this time set on the Greek island of Samos;

I review Jo Nesbo's Police tr. Don Bartlett, "the new Harry Hole thriller" according to the cover...


and I also review Jan Costin Wagner's Light in a Dark House, tr. Anthea Bell the fourth in the haunting Kimmo Joentaa series set in Finland.


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: Light in a Dark House by Jan Costin Wagner

Light in a Dark House by Jan Costin Wagner translated by Anthea Bell, July 2013, 336 pages, Harvill Secker, ISBN: 1846556538

LIGHT IN A DARK HOUSE is the fourth in the Detective Kimmo Joentaa series set in Finland. Kimmo is a widower of a few years now and still coming to terms with his wife's death. In the previous book, THE WINTER OF THE LIONS, a young woman takes up residence in his house - and she is still there. They have a relationship of sorts even though he does not know her real name. “Larissa” is a part-time kiosk attendant as well as a prostitute and in the other-worldly feel to this series, Kimmo's strange set-up doesn't seems remarkable.

Kimmo and his colleagues are called to the hospital (the one where Kimmo's wife died) to investigate the death of a woman in a coma. The woman's identity is unknown despite appeals, however someone cried tears over her as they turned the life-support off. In addition to this investigation Kimmo has to cope with the disappearance of Larissa.

A murder in the capital sees the return of Helsinki detective Westerberg from THE WINTER OF THE LIONS along with his young sidekick Seppo who provide some humorous exchanges.

Eventually the two investigation threads collide and Kimmo joins Westerberg and Seppo in rooting out the cause of the recent deaths which stems from events some decades ago.

During the course of the book, Kimmo waits for the return of Larissa. She occasionally responds to his emails with useful tips for the case – though it is never made clear how she has this information or whether its intuition. There are also extracts from a diary which reveal what happened those many years ago and provides a motive for the current day's events.

A new book from Jan Costin Wagner is always to be welcomed and I enjoyed this one very much. Part cold-case enquiry, part police-procedural this entry is perhaps a more traditional crime novel than the earlier books, but still with that unreal quality about it; the plot keeps the reader interested and at times wrong-footed. Kimmo is starting to look outside his own grief – shown by his concern for Larissa and for that of a gambling-addict colleague – and I look forward to the next book to see how he's getting on.

Read another review of LIGHT IN A DARK HOUSE.

Cited on The Winter of the Lions

The paperback release of Jan Costin Wagner's The Winter of the Lions, translated by Anthea Bell, has just been published and my local library was very swift to get it. There is a quote from Maxine's review of the trade paperback edition on the back:

You can read her full review here.

The Silence - DVD Release

The Silence, based on Jan Costin Wagner's book Silence, was released on DVD yesterday in the UK. I am very intrigued to watch this to compare it to the book. The action has been switched to Germany from Finland and from the reviews the crime that opens the book is shown in a more explicit manner.

Euro Crime reviews of the book are here (me) and here (Mark).

Official blurb: 2 missing girls. Same place. Same time. 23 years apart. History repeats itself in this knife-edged thriller, which has been described as the natural successor to The Killing.

An ageing detective comes out of retirement in the hope of solving a missing girl case, which is believed to be connected to an unsolved mystery that happened 23 years ago. Over the long hot summer days, tensions start to reach breaking point as our troubled detective closes in on the deeply methodical serial killer.

A striking debut, The Silence follows on from European crime thrillers such as The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and Wallander as it delves into the psyche of detectives and criminals to deliver a chilling story of murder and betrayal.

The Silence - Trailer

I was recently invited to an early showing of The Silence, based on Jan Costin Wagner's novel Silence. Unfortunately I couldn't attend but it is now on at a couple of cinemas in London: the Odeon in Panton Street and the Greenwich Picture House. I'm not sure if it's on anywhere else at the moment.

Silence is the second book in the Kimmo Joentaa series but for the film the setting has been moved from Finland to Germany.

It's quite a gruelling read, which you can see from the trailer:

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: Forsyth, Mankell, Robertson, Seeber, Tope, Wagner

New Competition for June:
Win four books by S J Bolton (UK & Ireland)

Do please vote in the International Dagger polls (top right of blog).

Here are this week's reviews:

Terry Halligan reviews the paperback release of Frederick Forsyth's The Cobra, and give his reasons why Forsyth stays ahead of the competition;

Susan White reviews Henning Mankell's The Man from Beijing, tr. Laurie Thompson, also out in paperback;

Amanda Gillies reviews Craig Robertson's follow-up to the well-received Random: Snapshot calling it "truly scrumptious";

Michelle Peckham reviews one of Claire Seeber's earlier books, Bad Friends which she found to be more chick-lit than crime;

Lizzie Hayes enjoyed Rebecca Tope's A Grave in the Cotswolds which brings two of her series together

and Maxine Clarke says it's worth reading Jan Costin Wagner's Ice Moon before The Winter of the Lions, tr. Anthea Bell to get the full impact of the events in the personal life of the lead character.

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

New Reviews: Armstrong, Cato, Charters, Sansom, Varesi, Wagner

One competition for September and it is open internationally closes 30st:
Win one of three copies of From the Dead by Mark Billingham (Worldwide)

Here are this week's reviews:

Starting off this week with a rare excursion into true-crime: Amanda Gillies reviews A Matter of Life and Death by Sue Armstrong (subtitled: inside the hidden world of the pathologist);

Laura Root reviews a cozy set in Devon: Birthdays Can Be Murder by Joyce Cato;

Terry Halligan reviews the debut from Charlie Charters - Bolt Action which he loved;

Similarly, Pat Austin didn't want C J Sansom's latest Shardlake, Heartstone to end;

Maxine Clarke reviews a new to English, Italian author: Valerio Varesi's River of Shadows, tr. Joseph Farrell

and I review Jan Costin Wagner's long awaited sequel to Ice Moon: Silence, tr. Anthea Bell.

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

Silence & Villain

Yesterday saw the publication of two books eligible for consideration for the International Dagger 2011: Silence by Jan Costin Wagner and Villain by Shuichi Yoshida. I've added the widget for Villain below from which you can read the first few pages:



The full list (so far) of eligibles can be found here.

The return of Jan Costin Wagner

I'm so excited about this one. Jan Costin Wagner wrote the haunting Ice Moon which was a big hit with the Euro Crime team a few years ago. At long last a sequel is being published in English in August, translated by Anthea Bell - Silence.

NB. Cover and blurb are taken from the Harvill Secker catalogue and may not represent the final product.

One ordinary summer’s day a young girl disappears while cycling to volleyball practice. Her abandoned bike is found in exactly the same place that another girl was assaulted and murdered thirty-three years previously. The perpetrator was never brought to justice so the authorities suspect the same killer has struck again. The eeriness of the crime unsettles not only the police and public, but also someone who has been carrying a burden of guilt for many years...

Detective Kimmo Joentaa calls upon the help of his older colleague Ketola, who worked on the original murder, in the hope that they can solve both cases. While they are following up leads, the ripples from the impact of the new disappearance spread and Kimmo discovers that the truth is not always what you expect.