A Death in Vienna, by Daniel Silva
Filed under: book review, Daniel Silva, espionage, Fiction, Gabriel Allon, International bestseller, Main character, Thriller
A Death in Vienna deals with issues surrounding the Holocaust. 
The starting point in A Death in Vienna is the bombing of the “Wartime Claims and Inquires” offices in Vienna. This is where Gabriel Allon’s friend, Eli Lavon, works. Lavon is seriously injured in the blast, and Allon is sent to find the perpetrators of this crime. The Austrian government declares the bombing to be the work of an Islamist terrorist group. However, Mossad and Allon do not buy this explanation. Allon believes it may instead have been engineered by Nazi criminals hoping to prevent Lavon from discovering their whereabouts.
The action in A Death in Vienna takes Allon from Vienna to Israel, Italy, Argentina, the US, and back to Vienna. He gradually realizes that there are complex political, financial, and national security issues that affect a number of countries, and that the story he unfolds has its beginnings back in World War II. Erich Radek, a former Nazi with links to Auschwitz and Treblinka, who is still alive and active in Vienna, plays a prominent part in this, as does Konrad Becker, a Zurich banker who has a client with over two billion dollars in assets. Also involved, it seems, is the Vatican and the American CIA who together protected selected war criminals after the war.
The case becomes personal when Allon, who reads his mother’s account of her time in the camps “I will not tell all the things I saw. I cannot. I owe this much to the dead”, discovers that not only was Radek a sadistic monster, his mother was very nearly murdered by him.
The story told by Silva in this book is a chilling tale indeed. A Death in Vienna is, like all of Daniel Silva’s books, fast-paced, compelling, and filled with intriguing twists and turns. It is well-researched and thought-provoking. Also, of course, it is exciting and entertaining. It is also, however, a serious book telling a serious story – there are important lessons still to be learned and vital history still to be remembered in A Death in Vienna.
More reviews of books by Daniel Silva!
, Coq Rouge, by Jan Guillou
Filed under: book review, Carn Hamilton Coq Rouge, Fiction, Jan Guillou, Main character, Swedish writer, Thriller
Jan (Oscar Sverre Lucien Henri) Guillou is one of Sweden’s most famous current authors. His Coq Rouge-novels, a series of books about the Swedish secret agent Carl Gustaf Gilbert Hamilton, the Scandinavian James Bond, have been translated into some 15 languages. This is the first book in the series about Hamilton.
Carl Hamilton has been given special training by FBI and US Navy, even though he comes from neutral Sweden. He comes from the Swedish aristocracy, but he is also a former leftist, opposed the Vietnam war in the 1960s, and was a member of the Maoist Clarté group. Almost like Jan Guillou himself?
Carl Hamilton, who has officially studied political science in California, but has in reality been trained as a Navy Seal, and a spy, is assigned the case. His is assigned the code name Coq Rouge. This is his first big case, with a trail that goes to Oslo, Beirut, Lillehammer, Israel, and Iran.
Coq Rouge is a great read, with an interesting and international plot, and it is a wonderful start on the fabulous series of books about Count Hamilton. This is one of the best international spy series in modern time, in the same class as LeCarrè and Daniel Silva, but considerably more action packed. All of the books, and this one as well, are extremely exciting, with lots of action and rapidly unfolding plots. Carl Hamilton is a likeable and skilled operator, and a great character. Coq Rogue is a wonderful read.
For some or other reason, the books in this series are hard to find in English, and a number of them are currently selling for USD 100 or more from private sellers on various internet sites.
Also by Jan Guillou: The Knight Templar (Crusades Trilogy)
Order from amazon UK: Coq Rouge.
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, by David Wroblewski
Filed under: book review, David Wroblewski, Edgar Sawtelle, Fiction, Main character, New York Times bestseller, recommendation
Every day there is a great book published. And every once in a rare while, extraordinary books appear, books that have something, often hard to define, which set them apart from other great books. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski to me is such a book. So be aware, 
There are numerous parallels in The Story of Edgar Sawtelle to Shakespeare’s Hamlet. However, as there are many reviews out there that deal at length with this aspect of the book, written by people who know Hamlet much better than I do, I will not dwell on that (but see Janet Maslin’s review in New York Times, Sarah Laurence (blog) for excellent discussions of this aspect of the book).
Gar and his wife, Trudy, have tried to have a child for a long time. After multiple miscarriages Edgar was finally born to them. He was a child surrounded by love and affection. Not only by his parents, also by his greatest fan and best companion, the family dog Almondine. They all live in a beautifully imagined world created by David Wroblewski, that is filled with intriguing people who deal and struggle with real issues.
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle is about this mute young boy, his family and their dog kennel. Gar and Trudy breed and train their own custom breed of dogs in rural Wisconsin. It is a breed of truly amazing dogs. Edgar is unable to speak, but he hears normally, and communicates with a half made up sign language to everyone, including the dogs.
Life at the kennel and in the family is idyllic and wonderfully portrayed by David Wroblewski. The book is full of intriguing and mesmerizing detail about dog breeding and dog training, as well as about how Edgar increasingly masters communication with the dogs without a voice. Edgar’s parents are like the horse whisperer with their dogs, and the story is equally fascinating. The family’s philosophy of dog breeding has been inherited from Edgar’s grandfather – whom we also meet, as the book slowly unfolds for us a family tradition created over generations.
A lot of research must have gone into this book – I am unable to say whether what Wroblewski describes regarding the breeding and training is possible or not, but to some extent that is far beyond the point: It is beautifully described in a subdued, rich, precise and poetic language that has holds a world of beauty. And told in a way that makes it all plausible enough, for me at least, that I could let myself be sucked into Edgar Sawtelle’s universe. And how I was! By a rich tale told without metaphors, but where every moment of reading has a special feeling of joy in multiple layers – of the tale, of the characters, of Almondine and the other dogs, of Edgar, and of the crisp, poetic style of writing.
In the story, we move to a new phase where relationships begin to change subtly when Edgar’s uncle Claude arrives, fresh from being “inside” for a spell. There is much about him neither we nor Edgar understand. And, when Gar dies, apparently of a heart attack, the idyllic life that once was can seemingly not be sustained and starts breaking apart. Conflict, deceit, and tragedy replace joy and harmony. Events start to accelerate out of control toward an unavoidable climax.
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle is a grand saga. It is very – extremely – readable. The language is poetic, the characterizations and descriptions are never just ordinary, mostly remarkable, and quite often exceptional. The plot is somewhat complicated but still easy to follow. I think it is a book of the kind you either don’t like or love intensely. The reason is that is requires you to make a leap of faith. But if you are willing to be seduced, this book really will! And you should – it is an exceptional and very, very rewarding and affecting book.
You can order David Wroblewski’s extraordinary The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
To Siberia, by Per Petterson
Filed under: book review, Norwegian writer, Per Petterson, Prize winning novel
To Siberia is a beautifully written book about the life of a sixty year old Danish woman and her family. Per Petterson lets this woman – we don’t even learn
She tells, or thinks, about childhood in a Danish port town on the Jutland peninsula, about her grandfather, a farmer who hangs himself in a cowshed, and of the rest of her family – her mother who is a devout Christian, and her father. But most of the book focuses on memories of her older brother Jesper, to whom she had a close and special relationship – their joint memories as well as her longing for him.
Sistermine and Jesper do not get much love or affection from their mother and often silent father. They grow up together, sharing late night adventures and experiences. They grow to learn that “the world was far bigger than the town I lived in,” and they look forward to “my own great journey.” Jesper yearns to move to the warm climate of Morocco while Sistermine has her sights set on Siberia.
However, the German occupation shatters the future they have drawn up for themselves. Jesper, who is politically interested and has a leftist orientation, gets involved in the German resistance movement in Denmark. Eventually he, as many other Danes and Norwegians during World War II, runs to Sweden. Sistermine watches him depart on a boat.
After the war is over, she moves around in Scandinavia, seemingly looking for meaning in her life, and constantly longing for her older brother, who has gone to Morocco after the war. Sistermine will never see him again, and never gets to see Siberia either.
Like Out Stealing Horses, To Siberia is a sparely, beautifully written and at times poetic book. The story is interesting and touching. However, in my opinion, To Siberia is not quite as good as Out Stealing Horses (which was remarkable).
You can order Per Petterson’s To Siberia: A Novel
Bones of the Dragon (Dragonships of Vindras), by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
Filed under: book review, Fantasy, International bestseller, Margaret Weis, Science Fiction, Tracy Hickman
Almost 25 years after their first Dragonlance book was published, Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman have started a new fantasy series entitled Dragonships of Vindras. Bones of the Dragon is the first of six volumes in the Dragonships of Vindras saga. Bones of the Dragon introduces a new creative world and a story full of with adventure, 
Fans of the fantasy genre know Weis and Hickman from their Dragonlance Chronicles, as well as other wonderful series such as The Deathgate Cycle, The Sovereign Stone Trilogy, and The Darksword Trilogy.
The hero of Bones of the Dragon is young Skylan Ivorson, a sea-raider of the Vindras, and a young warrior. Skylan is son to the Torgun chief—a small clan of the Vindras. He eventually, by means of the deceit of a cunning priestess, becomes the Chief of Chiefs of all the Vindras clans. This is an honor he truly feels he has deserved, by as we learn Skylan is a great fighter and courageous on the battle-field, but may not have all the other qualities desired of a great leader of the Vindras tribes.
The Vindras tribes, previously blessed by the gods, are going through a difficult period. They don’t exactly know why, but it seems their gods are no longer blessing them or answering their calls. And indeed, as it turns out, the gods are involved in a grand war themselves, that will influence and perhaps determine the fate of humanity. Skoval and the other ancient gods are under siege from a new generation of gods who are challenging them for the powers of creation. The only way to stop these brash interlopers seems to lie with the mysterious and hidden Five Bones of the Vektan Dragons.
To gather these bones is a task for the Vindras people, as the dragon-goddess’s champions. In order to have a fighting chance, they must recover all five dragon bones. However, the bones have been scattered throughout the land and their location is unknown. Yet they must be found. The fate both of the Gods and of humanity is at stake.
Weis and Hickman, who are real masters of the trade, do a wonderful job of painting a picture for the readers to understand this new world. However, since so much time is spent on world-building, it takes a while for Bones of the Dragon to build up to the adventures and developing an understanding for the story and what the series is about. The characters are multi-dimensional and interesting – some endearing, some you hate immediately, some mean, some mystical, and some many of these things. And the plot picked up considerably at the end. I found Bones of the Dragon to be an intriguing and highly entertaining book to read. And knowing Weis and Hickman, I am sure the other books in this new series will be stunning!
Order Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman’s Bones of the Dragon (Dragonships of Vindras)
Good Night, My Darling, by Inger Frimansson
Filed under: book review, Inger Frimansson, Swedish writer
Inger Frimansson is well established as a Swedish crime writer, and Good Night, My Darling is one of her best books. It has won the Swedish Academy of Mystery Authors Award for Best Swedish Crime Novel in 1998.
Good Night, My Darling is the first book in a
Inger Frimansson enables the reader to enter Justine’s child-thoughts of being an almost willing victim while she absorbs both the hurt and the methods of cruelty used to hurt her. We sympathize with Justine the child, but as she grows to maturity we become less sympathetic. Now the memories come back to haunt Justine, but she is prepared. It is time for Justine to take revenge on everyone who has done her wrong. Terrible things start to happen.
Inger Frimansson has the courage to experiment with the crime genre. Good night, my darling is not a whodunit crime book or a thriller. This book is a how-could-she-do-it. In her effort to understand this – to peer into the mind of a dark soul – Frimansson has written a deeply psychological crime novel which in several ways reminds me of the Norwegian author Karin Fossum.
Good Night, My Darling takes a while to really pick up speed, but when it does, the tension is almost unbearable. Putting it away does not feel as an option before the end is reached.
Praise for Good Night, My Darling:
“With this book, she stands out as one of the great authors of psychological suspense in contemporary Swedish literature.” – GT
”
.. whereas Mankell often tries to pinpoint the external factors which shape our lives, Frimansson concentrates on what we look like on the inside; what it feels like to be at someone’s mercy.” – Eskilstuna Kuriren
Order Good Night, My Darling by Inger Frimansson from Amazon UK: Good Night, My Darling
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