NekkidBlogger Bookblog » crime book

The Girl Who Played With Fire – youtube, movie teaser

Nekkidblogger — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 03:21:57 +0000

The movie is now playing in Scandinavia, and is a great success. See also review of The Girl Who Played With Fire, and a nice blog post about Stieg Larsson and that girl with the dragon tattoo.

The Silver Swan, by Benjamin Black

Nekkidblogger — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 22:24:07 +0000

This book is actually written by Booker Prize-winning author John Banville, writing as Benjamin Black. His first book using this pen name, Christine Falls, won a nomination from the Mystery Writers of America for the 2008 Edgar Award for Best Novel.He has also, recently, written a third book using this pen name, The Lemur: A Novel.

The Silver Swan features Quirke, a somewhat grumpy pathologist at the Hospital of the Holy Family in Dublin. It is a mystery book set in 1950s Dublin.

Quirke is an “incurably curious” guy. He often finds it necessary to go far beyond a pathologist’s normal duties, and in this second novel in the Quirke series (after Christine Falls), he is visited by Billy Hunt, a casual friend from college. Hunt asks him not to autopsy the body of his wife Deirdre, who was found drowned and naked. This, of course, is a somewhat curious request. However, Deirdre may have drowned herself, and the family wants to avoid conflict with the Catholic Church over her burial.

Quirke, being curious, conducts a secret autopsy, and Deirdre gets her church burial. However, when Quirke examines the body, he finds things that make him suspect she’s been murdered. Quirke, being Quirke, cannot help but to begin his private investigation into her death.

Black expertly balances Quirke’s investigation with chapters detailing Deidre’s past, from her marriage to Billy to her shady business deal with Leslie White, an enigmatic Englishman who knew Deidre as Laura Swan, the proprietress of their joint venture, a beauty salon called the Silver Swan. And as Quirke digs deeper and deeper, he discovers a web of lies and blackmail that threatens to envelop even his own estranged daughter, Phoebe.

Quirke is a brooding Irish soul with a very independent code of ethics. This makes him the kind of troubled hero the genre loves. In The Silver Swan, Black runs Quirke’s private investigation on a parallel track with the victim’s own story, told in intimate flashbacks. The result is a lyrical crime fiction book – beautifully and intelligently written, but not quite a mystery book. But Banville’s talents are on full display in the book, so it is not any less of a book for not falling neatly into the mystery category – perhaps rather the opposite! And the laconic, stubborn Quirke makes an appealing hero as the pieces of this unsettling crime come together in a shocking conclusion.

Black is a literary stylist who revels in long descriptive passages laced with elegant similes and metaphors. The characters are meticulously delineated. And the writing is elegant to the extreme. The book is a great pleasure to read.

The Fourth Man, by KO Dahl

Nekkidblogger — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 17:35:55 +0000

The Fourth Man is actually the fifth novel about inspectors Gunnarstranda and Frolich (Frølich) by K O Dahl. It is in some ways more similar to American crime novels than for instance those by Scandinavian authors like Karin Fossum, Karin Alvtegen, Jo Nesbo, Ake Edwardson or Henning Mankell. K O Dahl writes in a hard-boiled noir style that is at the same time lean, and reminds me more of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. There is, however, considerable psychological depth, and more so than what is explicit in Hammett and Chandler. This is one of KO Dahl’s best novels.

In the course of a routine police raid, Detective Inspector Frank Frolich of the Oslo Police saves the life of Elizabeth Faremo. She is a dark-haired beauty with mysterious eyes who was inadvertently caught in the crossfire. This is where The Fourth Man starts. Some weeks later, Frolich coincidentally runs into her again. He is attracted to her and they start an affair, even though his colleagues warn him about it.

By the time Frolich learns that Elisabeth is the sister of a known local gang-member, Johnny Faremo, it is already too late. And then Johnny is implicated in a crime, a security guard is attacked and killed. But Elisabeth gives her brother and his gang an alibi and Frolich’s name is mentioned. Then Elisabeth disappears. Now Frolich is plunged into both an emotional tempest as well as a complex investigation. He is forced to rethink their relationship. Were things as they seemed?

Frolich is asked to take some time off. And his boss Gunnarstranda is upset and believes Frank has been played from the very beginning. And as the body count increases, Frolich begins his own unofficial investigation.

Complex, dark and tragic, The Fourth Man is a tale of revenge and erotic obsession, where love lures a good cop to walk on the wild side. This is classical crime noir in a modern setting. It has it all: cynical strippers, tough-talking gangsters, corrupt businessmen, mixed identities and a bona fide femme fatale. Dahl’s language is, as one critic put it “spiced with small poetic observations … of remarkably high quality.” The author himself says that this is his project, to “combine the genre literature with a little poetry and literary storytelling.” The Fourth Man proves that Dahl is able to do this. I enjoyed this book very much, and recommend it. A great read for lovers of good, tough, noir crime fiction!

The Man in the Window, by K O Dahl

Nekkidblogger — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 00:48:33 +0000

The Man in The Window is the third book (in the original Norwegian sequence) in K O Dahl‘s series about Frolich and Gunnarstranda.

Seventy-nine-year-old Reidar Folke Jespersen, who sells antiques in Oslo, is one day sitting in a restaurant, looking at his wife entering an apartment on the other side of the street, where her lover lives. He leaves the restaurant to meet his brothers. Next morning he is found murdered, sitting naked in a chair in the window of his antique shop.

The case is assigned to detective Gunnarstranda and his assistant, Frank Frolich. The clues are few and difficult to interpret. A red string is tied around his neck, and three crosses and a number – 195 – has been written across his chest. Some items from WWII are missing. Also, clearly, several people are quite pleased that Jespersen is dead.

The Man In The Window is an intricate and thrilling detective story about love, loyalty, guilt, desire for revenge and shadows from the past. These questions consume the investigation, just as they fill the private lives of the investigators. What they uncover is a country where victims, perpetrators and even police officers are haunted by the past, and are still trying to cope with the dark memories of the Nazi occupation of the country.

K O Dahl has a sharp eye for dialogues, he elaborates detailed portraits, he creates surprising relationships and he is excellent at creating tension and atmosphere. This book is one of his best, and highly recommended.

Jo Nesbo about The Snowman – YouTube video

Nekkidblogger — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 23:59:30 +0000

Jo Nesbo talks about his most recent crime fiction book, The Snowman (see review).

Prime Time, by Liza Marklund

Nekkidblogger — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 03:15:16 +0000

This is the fourth book written in Liza Marklund’s series about the Swedish journalist Annika Bengtzon. The action in the book, however, takes place between the two previously published books Paradise and The Bomber.

In Prime Time, well translated by Ingrid Eng-Rundlow, Annika gets involved in the investigation of a Swedish media personality, perhaps the brightest star of them all, TV presenter Michelle Carlsson. Carlsson has been on a Midsummer Eve party with 12 other people, in a beautiful and remote manor house in Sweden, and is found shot to death in a mobile control room. Michelle Carlsson was shot after a late night of drinking, quarreling and sex.

It is quickly established that more or less all of the other twelve people present both had opportunity and motives for wanting Carlsson dead. Liza Marklund takes us into the world behind the cameras, into a world where very few people like one another, where there is lot of envy and backstabbing, where the competition for the top spot is extremely intense and everybody is involved in a more or less continuous fight for power, money and fame.

With the murder, things get more complicated for Annika Bengtzon. One of the suspects is a close friend. And the relationship to her partner Thomas gets worse – he accuses her of letting the family down. And, on top of all of that, her boss also involves her in a power struggle in the newspaper. So Annika is often angry, complaining and difficult in this book. Meanwhile there’s a killer on the loose – and a tense drama about to unfold in the public eye. And in the center of it all is Annika, who in the end is the one who actually solves the mystery.

Prime Time is an interesting and good book, and times quite suspenseful. Even so, in my opinion it is the weakest of the books in the Annika Bengtzon series. However, it is still well worth reading, and you should, if possible, read the series in chronological sequence – that is, read Prime Time after Paradise and before The Bomber.

Lars Kepler – the pseudonym that aspires to be the next Stieg Larsson

Nekkidblogger — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 20:08:31 +0000

The Hypnotist (Hypnotisören) is the latest huge crime novel in Sweden. The first novel by a new and unknown author, Lars Kepler. Big hype, huge expectations about a new series of novels featuring a new interesting heroine, Detective Inspector Joona Linna. The book was an instant best seller in Sweden. The rights to the book has been sold internationally to more than 30 countries worldwide, including the U.S.

The plot is interesting. A father, wife and daughter are all brutally murdered as part of an attempt to wipe out an entire family. The police have to race against time to find the one surviving daughter before the killer does. The only way they can achieve this, is to convince a doctor, against his better judgment, to hypnotize the son who barely survived the killer’s attack.

Then it was revealed by the media that there is no Lars Kepler. Lars Kepler does not exist. Huge sensation. Lars Kepler turned out to be a pseudonym for two literary authors, husband-and-wife Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril and Alexander Ahndoril, now writing under the pseudonym Lars Kepler. They have so far barely been able to sustain themselves economically by their writing. Now they wanted to make money. And in Sweden, crime fiction writers make big money. And, of course, when in Sweden, do as the Swedes. So they decided to write crime fiction, using a cool name.

According to Jan Guillou, they have achieved their goal already: the book and rights have so far netted them 15-20 million SKR. Not bad. Or?

PS: The Hynotist by Lars Kepler is now finally available for preorder at amazon UK: The Hypnotist

Top 10 suspense books ever?

Nekkidblogger — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 16:49:27 +0000

It is hard to say exactly which books are the best in any given category or genre. With books, as with many other things, the beauty is in the eye (or the mind) of the beholder. However, the books below are generally regarded as top suspense books, they are all very famous and written by well known, world class authors. They are all wonderful. They are my candidates for the top ten suspense books ever.

1.	Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier (1938). The heroine, who remains nameless, lives in Europe with her husband,Maxim de Winter, traveling from hotel to hotel. She has memories of a beautiful home called Manderley, which has been destroyed by fire. The story begins with her memories of how she and Maxim first met, in Monte Carlo, years before.	Amazon US Amazon UK (links to order the books)
2.	Silence of the Lambs, by Thomas Harris (1988). This is the second novel by Thomas Harris to feature the sociopathic psychiatrist and cannibal Dr. Hannibal Lecter. In the novel, Clarice Starling, a young FBI trainee, is sent to see the imprisoned Lecter in order to ask his expert advice on catching a serial killer given the name Buffalo Bill, who is abducting women and skinning them. The book has been filmed.	Amazon US Amazon UK
3.	Red Dragon, by Thomas Harris (1993). This is the first book about Hannibal Lecter. “Red Dragon” is a wonderfully intense psychological thriller, with plenty of obscene violence and “typical” Thomas Harris plot twists. The story of the ex-FBI agent stalking the “Tooth Fairy” or “Red Dragon” is extremely interesting and detailed, right down to forensic and crime scene evidence. This book, too, has been filmed.	Amazon US Amazon UK
4.	Where Are the Children? by Mary Higgins Clark (1975) This book is very fascinating. The plot is about a woman named Nancy whose children were kidnapped and murdered on her birthday. Everyone pointed their fingers at Nancy, but she left the courtroom on a technicality.Seven years later, Nancy is remarried and has two more children. However, one morning Nancy goes outside where her children were supposed to be playing and finds them gone.. A must read!	Amazon US Amazon UK
5.	Laura, by Vera Caspary (Femmes Fatales: Women Write Pulp) (1942, filmed 1944). Laura Hunt was the ideal modern woman: beautiful, elegant, highly ambitious, and utterly mysterious. No man could resist her charms. As a tough cop probes the mystery of Laura’s death, he becomes obsessed with her strange power. Soon he realizes he’s been seduced by a dead woman.	Amazon US Amazon UK
6.	Beast in View, by Margareth Millar (1945). A chain of events starting with a crank call from an old school chum sets the lonely, aloof, financially comfortable Miss Helen Clarvoe on a path as predictable only as madness. Lured from her rooms in a second-rate residential Hollywood hotel, she finds herself stranded in the more perilous terrain of extortion, pornography, vengeance, and ultimately murder.	Amazon US Amazon UK
7.	A Judgement in Stone, by Ruth Rendell (1977). This novel is famous in the world of crime fiction for its opening line: “Eunice Parchman killed the Coverdale family because she could not read or write“. It has been acclaimed as a keen social examination of the differences between British classes in the 1970s, as well being remarkable in its levels of suspense, despite the reader knowing from the first line what is going to happen.	Amazon US Amazon UK
8.	Rosemary’s Baby, by Ira Levin (1967). The book centers on Rosemary Woodhouse, a young pregnant woman, who begins to suspect her elderly neighbors are not the kindly souls they appear to be. Gradually she discovers they are the leaders of a coven of witches. Her husband, a struggling actor, allowed the devil to impregnate her in exchange for a successful career, but she is unable to convince anyone to believe her.A movie based on the novel was filmed by Roman Polanski. Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes starred in the movie.	Amazon US Amazon UK
9.	The Big Clock, by Kenneth Fearing (New York Review Books Classics)(1946) . George Stroud is a hard-drinking, tough-talking writer for a New York media conglomerate. One day, before heading home to his wife, Stroud has a drink with Pauline, the girlfriend of his boss. Things happen. The next day Stroud escorts Pauline home. The day after that, Pauline is found murdered in her apartment.This novel was the basis for the feature films The Big Clock (1948) and No Way Out (1987).	Amazon US Amazon UK
10.	Brighton Rock, Graham Greene (Penguin Classic Deluxe Edition)(1938). Although this is an underworld thriller, the book is also a very powerful exploration of the nature of sin and the basis of morality (Pinkie and Rose, two of the main characters, are Roman Catholics, as was Greene, and their beliefs are contrasted with Ida’s strong but non-religious moral sensibility).This book was filmed in 1947.	Amazon US Amazon UK

Sidetracked, by Henning Mankell

Nekkidblogger — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 19:05:18 +0000

Sidetracked starts off with two bangs. First, Kurt Wallander is called to a nearby rapeseed field where a teenage girl has been loitering all day long. He arrives just in time to watch her douse herself in gasoline and set herself aflame. Then, the next day he is called to a beach where Sweden’s former Minister of Justice has been axed to death and scalped. The murder has markings of a demented serial killer, and Wallander is frantic to find him before he strikes again.

Sidetracked is the fifth book in Mankell’s series about Inspector Kurt Wallander. It is a highly praised book, and has won The Macallan Gold Dagger for Fiction and Sweden’s 1997 Best Crime Novel of the Year awards.

“Before dawn he started his transformation. He had planned everything meticulously so that nothing could go wrong. It would take him all day, and he didn’t want to risk running out of time.” This is how Sidetracked begins. A hard, vicious award winning crime fiction novel. The translation of Sidetracked by Steven T. Murray is excellent.

In this book, Henning Mankell tells the story from the perspectives of both cop and criminal. So there are no surprises for us as readers – this is not a who-dunnit but a wonderful police procedural.

The action in Sidetracked is fast paced. Soon, three more people are found murdered and scalped, and signs suggest that the perpetrator is becoming increasingly agitated. Wallander and his crew follow standard procedure and try to link the four victims. However, their lives seem never to have intersected. Using American profiling methods as well as his own intuition, Wallander struggles to make headway in the case.

Kurt Wallander’s investigation is beset with obstacles – a police department distracted by the threat of impending cutbacks and the frivolity of World Cup soccer, as well as hiw own tenuous long-distance relationship with a murdered policeman’s widow.

Mankell’s meticulously detailed descriptions of Wallander’s investigation as well as his somewhat lyrical portrayal the Inspector’s attempts to rearrange his thought processes in Sidetracked are masterful. This, along with his treatment of the deeper phenomena involved in this crime, turns Sidetracked into something much more than an ordinary police procedural. This is another great Henning Mankell, with Kurt Wallander, the fumbling Ystad police detective with the big heart and the great intuition, at his very best.

Links to Henning Mankell’s books at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

Prise for Sidetracked:

“Connoisseurs of the police procedural will tear into this installment like the seven-course banquet it is.” Kirkus Reviews

“[A]bove all, the novel stands out for its nuanced evocation of even the peripheral characters. Winner of Sweden’s 1997 Best Crime Novel of the Year, this is another terrific offering from the talented Mankell.” Publishers Weekly

“It is Wallander’s anguished voice. . . that captures us….Mankell’s philosophical hero vows to make it up to the coming generation while he still can.” The New York Times Book Review

See more reviews of books by Henning Mankell at ScandinavianBooks.com (and other Scandinavian crime fiction writers as well)!

Lost Souls, by Lisa Jackson

Nekkidblogger — Sat, 30 May 2009 20:50:02 +0000

Four coeds have disappeared in less than two years at All Saints College. They were all considered “troubled” girls. So no one has asked too many questions about the missing students. But Lisa Jackson’s unlikely heroine Kristi Bentz thinks she’s onto a big story. And she finds out that the missing female students were all associated with a vampire cult that somehow seems to have a strong hold on the campus.

Twenty-seven-year-old Kristi Bentz, the stunningly beautiful, hot wanna-be-detective is lucky to be alive. Not many people her age have nearly died twice at the hands of a serial killer, and lived to tell about it. Her last encounter was with a sadistic monster in bestselling Jackson’s Absolute Evil. But somehow she is fascinated by the minds of serial killers, and she is ready for another go and wants to write about it.

Kristi by chance rents the apartment of one of the missing girls. She begins investigating the case, thinking it might make a great first book. However, Vlad, the mysterious serial killer, very soon sets his sights on Kristi. And the action starts.

There is a lot of action in this book, but I am not sure I like it much even so. Vampirism is not my thing. But it seems very fashionable for the moment. But Jackson is smart, and has written a book that probably will be attractive to a lot a people – some hot sex, some vampire-stuff, a lot of action, a real crime mystery, and some supernatural powers as well for good measure.

Lost Souls is entertaining. Even though I didn’t like it all that much, it was still somehow a little fun and a little exciting. So if you like pretty well written romantic suspense novels and the campus background, and some hot sex scenes, this may be it.

Links to books by Lisa Jackson at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.