Death in Breslau - Cover Opinions

This week's selection for "cover opinions" is the US and UK covers for Marek Krajewski's Death in Breslau, tr. Danusia Stok which has just had its US release by Melville House (the UK's by Quercus was in 2008).

So what are your thoughts on the US (LHS) and UK (RHS) covers? Which (of these striking covers) would entice you to pick the book up if you were not familiar with the books of Marek Krajewski?

If you have read it, how well do the covers match the story?

Read the Euro Crime reviews by me and Norman of Death in Breslau.

New Reviews: Becker, Carter, Ellis, Fantoni, Jansson, Krajewski, Mogford, Nadel, Upson

Here are 9 new reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website, and they include two related to the 2012 Olympics plus the settings include Gibraltar, Poland, Sweden, USA (twice) as well as London and Devon:

The first of the Olympics related books is James Becker's Echo of the Reich reviewed here by Amanda Gillies;

JF reviews Chris Carter's The Death Sculptor the fourth in the Detective Robert Hunter series set in LA;

Terry Halligan reviews Kate Ellis's The Cadaver Game, the latest in the Wesley Peterson series which is now out in paperback;

Lynn Harvey reviews Barry Fantoni's Harry Lipkin P.I. starring "the world's oldest detective" (set in Florida);

Guest reviewer Bernadette Bean reviews Anna Jansson's Killer Island tr. Enar Henning Koch set on Gotland;

Norman Price reviews Marek Krajewski's The Minotaur's Head, tr. Danusia Stok, the fourth in the Eberhard Mock series;

Maxine Clarke reviews Thomas Mogford's debut, Shadow of the Rock a thriller set in Gibraltar and Tangier;

Susan White reviews the second of the Olympics related books, the first in Barbara Nadel's new series: A Private Business

and I review the audio book release of Nicola Upson's Two For Sorrow the third in the "Josephine Tey" 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: Black, Campbell, Krajewski, Neville, Sjowall & Wahloo, Thomas

Here are this week's new reviews:

Mark Bailey reviews Truth Lies Bleeding the first in a new series by Scottish author, Tony Black;

Staying in Scotland, Amanda Gillies reviews Karen Campbell's Shadowplay and summarises her many words of praises in the phrase: "it rocks!";

Marek Krajewski's Mock series is a bit like Marmite, several of the Euro Crime review team have enjoyed it a lot, but Michelle Peckham had the opposite response when she read the latest, Phantoms of Breslau, tr. Danusia Stok, now out in paperback with a new look (though the older cover style may give the potential reader a better idea of the content! eg The End of the World in Breslau);

Lynn Harvey reviews Stuart Neville's Collusion now out in paperback and is the sequel to 'The Twelve';

Maxine Clarke reviews the tenth and final entry in the Martin Beck series by Sjowall and Wahloo The Terrorists, tr. Joan Tate which is as fresh as it was 36 years ago

and Terry Halligan reviews David Thomas's (aka Tom Cain) Blood Relative.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here and new titles by Benjamin Black, Susanna Jones, M J McGrath, Hakan Nesser and Felix Palma have been added to these pages this week.

New Reviews: Adler-Olsen, Kepler, Krajewski, Lackberg, Lewis, Marks

New competition for May:
Win a copy of Stagestruck by Peter Lovesey UK & Europe only

I've added a few more reviews of those titles eligible for the 2011 CWA International Dagger, a topic which I'll be revisiting on the blog before the announcement of the shortlist on Friday, so do check back.

(I'll be at CrimeFest next weekend so there won't be any new reviews next Sunday.)

Here are this week's reviews:

Maxine Clarke reviews Mercy by Jussi Adler-Olsen, tr. Lisa Hartford, the first in the Department Q series;

Lizzie Hayes reviews Lars Kepler's debut The Hypnotist, tr. Ann Long;

I review Marek Krajewski's somewhat seedy but compulsive Phantoms of Breslau, tr. Danusia Stok which though it is the third in the series is set before the previous two;

Maxine also reviews the fourth in the Erica Falck/Patrik Hedstrom series, The Gallows Bird by Camilla Lackberg, tr. Steven T Murray;

Susan White reviews Jonathan Lewis's debut, Into the Darkness

and Geoff Jones reviews Howard Marks's Sympathy for the Devil.

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

New Reviews: Camilleri, Krajewski, Mankell, Nesbo & Sjowall & Wahloo

This month's competition:

Win a copy of Daisychain by G J Moffat (UK only)

This week's reviews are all of translated crime fiction:

Maxine Clarke reviews the US edition of Andrea Camilleri's The Wings of the Sphinx, tr. Stephen Sartarelli (the UK edition is out in June);

Laura Root reviews the paperback edition of Marek Krajewski's The End of the World in Breslau, tr. Danusia Stok;

Double Henning Mankell reviews this week, as reviewers Terry Halligan and Michelle Peckham contrast the books of Faceless Killers and The Fifth Woman, both translated by Steven T Murray, with their BBC TV counterparts;

Maxine also reviews Jo Nesbo's The Snowman, tr. Don Bartlett which she says is the best yet

and Terry Halligan enjoyed The Locked Room by Sjowall and Wahloo.

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

New Reviews: Davis, Hughes, Joss, Krajewski & New Competition

There's a brand new competition for April, which is open to all. Win a copy of The Black Monastery by Stav Sherez.

The following reviews have been added to the review archive over on the main Euro Crime website:

New Reviews:

Pat Austin is disappointed with the latest Falco novel from Lindsey Davis, Alexandria;

Michelle Peckham advises readers to pay close attention when tackling the multi-stranded All The Dead Voices by Declan Hughes;

Maxine Clarke reviews the CWA Silver Dagger Winner (2003) - Half Broken Things by Morag Joss which she compares favourably with Ruth Rendell's psychological novels

and Fiona Walker reviews Marek Krajewski's End of the World in Breslau which is her favourite translated crime novel of 2009 (so far).

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

Here's one cover I'll be covering up on the train...

The cover of Death in Breslau was fairly risqué but the cover of Marek Krajewski's follow-up, End of the World in Breslau is even more 'eye-catching':

From amazon.co.uk:The city of Breslau, which was the atmospheric heart of the first of Marek Krajewski's novels in English, "Death in Breslau", is as a Georg Grosz backcloth to the second of Criminal Counsellor Eberhard Mock's investigations into a series of seemingly unrelated murders in the late 1920s. While Mock searches for the key to the mystery which afflicts his department in records of crimes committed in the past, his young wife, neglected by his obsessive work, falls among perverse and shocking companions and into contact with a sect that preaches the imminent end of the world. Krajewski's novels are as original as they are disturbing.

Death in Breslau which is set later than End of the World in Breslau is reviewed here and here on Euro Crime.

End of the World in Breslau is due to be published in March 2009.

Crime Scraps Interviews Marek Krajewski

Norman over at Crime Scraps has a smashing interview with Marek Krajewski, author of Death in Breslau, which can be read here and here.

New Reviews: Mike Ripley's Crime File, Hill, Krajewski, MacBride, Mills and Tursten

Here are this week's new reviews and details of an extra competition:

Latest Reviews:

In Mike Ripley's latest crime file he reviews: The Death Maze (aka The Serpent's Tale) by Ariana Franklin, Inspector Ghote's First Case by H R F Keating, Spider by Michael Morley and Death on a Branch Line by Andrew Martin (to win the latter see the competitions below);

Maxine Clarke reviews the newest in the Simon Serrailler series by Susan Hill, The Vows of Silence - a book which put her through the wringer, but was worth it;

Norman Price reviews Marek Krajewski's Death in Breslau writing that Krajewski is "a master at recreating an atmosphere of fear, darkness, creepiness and foreboding";

Pat Austin reviews the new offering from Aberdeen's Stuart MacBride Flesh House which manages to be both gruesome and funny;

Karen Chisholm was hooked by Crow Stone by Jenni Mills which is set in Bath

and Maxine has the highest of praise for Helene Tursten's Detective Inspector Huss (which I'm pleased about as I recommended her via my review of The Torso) saying that "this book is as near to perfection as you can get in this genre".


Current Competitions:

Win a copy of Death on a Branch Line by Andrew Martin*

* no restrictions on entrants


NEW: Win a copy of Blood Lines by Grace Monroe**

** UK/Europe only

Marek Krajewski at the London Literature festival

The full programme for July's London Literature Festival is online at the Southbank Centre website. Crime writers aren't much in evidence. Marek Krajewski is appearing on the following panel:

Saturday 12 July 2008, 3.30pm

James Hopkin, Marek Krajewski and Joanna Pawluskiewicz discuss Poland as a setting for their fiction, and the cultural journeys that writers make between different countries. James Hopkins' Winter Under Water charts a cross-cultural love affair in an unfamiliar city. Marek Krajewski's Death in Breslau is the latest novel in his Eberhard Mock quartet. Joanna Pawluskiewicz is a hotly-tipped new voice whose fiction explores the Polish experience in the USA.

Read the Euro Crime review of Death in Breslau. Coming soon: an interview with Marek Krajewski at Crime Scraps plus his review of Death in Breslau for Euro Crime.

Also from the crime fiction world will be Julian Clary and Stella Duffy who will be in the Lavender Library session:

Tuesday 15 July 2008, 7.30pm

A special festival event celebrating queer literature. Julian Clary, Dave McAlmont, Andy Bell, Maureen Duffy, Stella Duffy, Paul Burston, Karen Mcleod and Rupert Smith champion their favourite books, and reveal how they've inspired their life and work.

Updated News page & Other links

I've updated the News page on the website with the usual links to new reviews and interviews. Death in Breslau and A Quiet Flame are getting a lot of review action.

You can read more about Marek Krajewski's Eberhard Mock (from Death in Breslau) series of four books which should all be published by Quercus/MacLehose Press.

A couple of must read links are:

K O Dahl, the author of The Fourth Man and the upcoming The Man in The Window is blogging at Moments in Crime, this week.

Detectives Beyond Borders has a two part interview with Mike Mitchell, the excellent translator of Friedrich Glauser's Sergeant Studer novels.

New Reviews

Here are this week's new reviews and a reminder of March's competition:

Latest Reviews:

Maxine Clarke reviews John Harvey's return to his Resnick character, in Cold in Hand, writing, "this is going to be one of the very best novels I read this year";

I review Death in Breslau by Marek Krajewski which introduces Criminal Inspector Eberhard Mock, a most unusual policeman;

Declan Burke reviews Sean Moncrieff's The History of Things calling it "a fascinating tale rooted in criminality";

Terry Halligan heaps praise on Deanna Raybourn's Silent in the Grave, the first in a Victorian series starring Lady Julia Grey and Nicholas Brisbane

and Maxine reviews a fictionalised Josephine Tey's first foray into detection in Nicola Upson's An Expert in Murder.

Current Competition (closing date 31 March):

Win a copy of A Carrion Death by Michael Stanley (UK & Europe only)

(geographical restrictions are in brackets)