The CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award 2010
Filed under: About books, CWA Dagger Award, Fiction, Prize winning novel, recommendation
The Steel Dagger is awarded for the best thriller published in the UK. So what is a thriller? A thriller, according to my dictionary, is an exciting, suspenseful play or story, such as a mystery story. So even though award this is sponsored by Ian Fleming Publications Ltd, which most likely is an organization related to the author of the James Bond books, it is not limited to and does not even give preference to spy thrillers. This is strange, but of course something which the sponsor decides.
And, indeed, the definition used is very broad, according to CWA:
“include, but are not limited to, spy fiction and/or action/ adventure stories. Ian Fleming said there was one essential criterion for a good thriller – that ‘one simply has to turn the page’; this is one of the main characteristics that the judges were looking for.” — The CWA Dagger
To me it looks a little bit odd and untidy – almost like the Steel Dagger is a little brother award. In order to avoid that appearance, I think CWA needs to distinguish much more clearly (e.g. by genre) among its various awards. At least, I would like to suggest they look into this.
Be that as it may, here are the shortlists for the 2010 CWA Steel Dagger:
- 61 Hours
- A Loyal Spy
, Simon Conway
- Gone
, Mo Hayder
- Slow Horses
- The Dying Light
, Henry Porter
- Innocent
, Scott Turow
- The Gentlemen’s Hour, Don Winslow
My sentimental favorite is The Gentlemen’s Hour by Don Winslow – simply because it is such a wonderful read and such a neat, well-written and smart book. I like his surfer detective and the laid-back plegmatic style of his book.
(See also review of Gone by Mo Hayder.)
Sidetracked, by Henning Mankell
Filed under: bestseller, book review, crime book, Henning Mankell, Kurt Wallander, Main character, Prize winning novel, recommendation, Swedish writer
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
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.
, and 
.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)!
The Shopkeeper (Paperback)
Review
Steve Dancy is set on experiencing the West. At first glance, he is nothing more than a dilettante Easterner intent on writing a journal about his adventures on the frontier. He’s not running away from a hopeless life. To the contrary, he’s educated and seems to have enough money for his simple needs. Although anxious to avoid trouble, he can be pushed only so far, and when he chances upon some bad men doing unspeakable things to a woman, he feels he must take a hand. It isn’t long before he’s caught up in gunplay, which leads him into taking desperate measures, including buying a bank and a hotel, and influencing the upcoming gubernatorial elections. Dancy is a far different man than these Westerners think he is. Wealthy after selling off his Eastern businesses, maybe he should have told them what kind of goods he sold, because he’s sure not like any other shopkeepers they know. This is a fast paced tale with an interesting hero. In structure, with short chapt (more…)
Water for Elephants: A Novel (Paperback)
Filed under: book review, Fiction, International bestseller, Prize winning novel
Sura Gruen’s novel is among my absolute favorites. It is a beautiful story, well researched, full of compassion, and deeply touching. It make me cry, it made me laugh, and it made me want to read more of this amazing, highly talented storyteller. Fascinating! Glued me to the chair! And, also, it has, of course, been an international bestseller acros a number of countries ofr a long time. Deservedly so!
Amazon.com Review
Jacob Jankowski says: “I am ninety. Or ninety-three. One or the other.” At the beginning of Water for Elephants, he is living out his days in a nursing home, hating every second of it. His life wasn’t always like this, however, because Jacob ran away and joined the circus when he was twenty-one. It wasn’t a romantic, carefree decision, to be sure. His parents were killed in an auto accident one week before he was to sit for his veterinary medicine exams at Cornell. He buried his parents, learned that they left him nothing because they had mortgaged everything to pay his tuition, returned to school, went to the exams, and didn’t write a single word. He walked out without completing the test and wound up on a circus train. The circus he joins, in Depression-era America, is second-rate at best. With Ringling Brothers as the standard, Benzini Brothers is far down the scale and pale by comparison. Water for Elephants is the story of Jacob’s life (more…)
The Three Evangelists, by Fred Vargas
Filed under: book review, crime book, Fred Vargas, French writer, Prize winning novel
This is not a Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg mystery. The sleuths in The Three Evangelists are instead somewhat unusual – actually a trio of 30-something historians under the auspices of a retired policeman.
This odd group lives together 
The first little mystery in the book is sudden appearance of a beech tree in the garden of Madame Siméonidis. The tree – planted under cover of darkness – worries her, and she doesn’t know who planted it or why, so she asks the historians to dig it up and investigate. Nothing suspicious is found under the beech.
Then Madame Siméonidis disappears, and a few days later her body is found in a burned out car. Now the Evangelists launch a full-scale investigation, aided by Marc’s godfather Vandoosler, the former policeman. There are plenty of possible suspects, but there is little evidence to go by.
This book, with a plot that twists and turns, was awarded the Duncan Lawrie International Dagger in 2006. Even so, The Three Evangelists is a strange crime novel, with eccentric, lovable characters. As usual in Vargas’ books, there are lots of interesting and odd conversations, and the book is intelligently and humorously written. Reading it is a complete delight if you like intelligent, well written mystery novels. If you are looking for fast paced action, on the other hand, this is probably not the book for you.
Praise for the works of Fred Vargas:
“A Vargas novel is as good as a trip to Paris.”
–Daily Express
“Fred Vargas is a wonderful writer. Much of the joy of reading this book lies in Vargas’s wonderful use of language, her subtle characterizations and her superb sense of place.”
–Margaret Cannon, The Globe and Mail
“Joyous, enchanting, amazing, fantastic, unclassifiable, beyond-brilliant. Readers will not hold back praise for Fred Vargas.”
–Elle (France)
“Vargas is clearly an author who will rank alongside Henning Mankell. .. Creepy, sophisticated and wonderfully off-beat.”
–Scotland on Sunday
, Katherine (Paperback)
Review
“Seton breathes life into this little-documented historical fact
a glorious example of romance in its most classic literary sense.” — The Austin Chronicle
Product Description
This classic romance novel tells the true story of the love affair that changed history-that of Katherine Swynford and John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the ancestors of most of the British royal family. Set in the vibrant 14th century of Chaucer and the Black Death, the story features knights fighting in battle, serfs struggling in poverty, and the magnificent Plantagenets-Edward III, the Black Prince, and Richard II-who ruled despotically over a court rotten with intrigue. Within this era of danger and romance, John of Gaunt, the king’s son, falls passionately in love with the already married Katherine. Their well-documented affair and love persist through decades of war, adultery, murder, loneliness, and redemption. This epic novel of conflict, cruelty, and untamable love has become (more…)
The Road (Movie Tie-in Edition) (Mass Market Paperback)
Amazon.com Review
Best known for his Border Trilogy, hailed in the San Francisco Chronicle as “an American classic to stand with the finest literary achievements of the century,” Cormac McCarthy has written ten rich and often brutal novels, including the bestselling No Country for Old Men, and The Road. Profoundly dark, told in spare, searing prose, The Road is a post-apocalyptic masterpiece, one of the best books we’ve read this year, but in case you need a second (and expert) opinion, we asked Dennis Lehane, author of equally rich, occasionally bleak and brutal novels, to read it and give us his take. Read his glowing review below. –Daphne Durham Guest Reviewer: Dennis LehaneDennis Lehane, master of the hard-boiled thriller, generated a cult following with his series about private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro, wowed readers with the intense and gut-wrenching Mystic River, blew fans all away with the mind-bending Shutter Island, and switches gears w (more…)
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
The Devil’s Star, by Jo Nesbo
Filed under: book review, Harry Hole, Jo Nesbo, Norwegian writer, Prize winning novel, recommendation
Jo Nesbo (Norwegian name Nesbø), author of the best-selling series featuring Detective Harry Hole, has won many prizes for his novels, including the Glass Key, 
The key character in Nesbo’s books, introduced in The Devil’s Star, is detective Harry Hole. Harry Hole is an angry, hard-drinking, near alcholic, and off-the-rails detective who wants to play the game by his own rules. He is not very likable, but still charming in his own way.
It’s a sweltering summer in Oslo when a young woman is found murdered in her flat. One finger has been cut off, and beneath her eyelid is a tiny red diamond in the shape of a five pointed star. Otherwise, clues are few and far between.
Detective Harry Hole is assigned to the case with Tom Waaler – a colleague the somewhat paranoid Harry suspects of running an arms smuggling gang and of having murdered his partner – and initially Harry Hole refuses to become involved. But he is already on notice to quit the force and is left with no choice but to drag himself out of his alcoholic stupor and go to work.
Five days later, a man reports his wife missing. When her severed finger is found wearing a ring mounted with the same star-shaped red diamond, it seems Oslo has a serial killer on its hands. The case in The Devil’s Star revolves around a riddle of fives: five points to the star, five fingers on the hand, and every fifth day a new victim to be counted. In his pursuit of the truth behind both mysteries, Harry Hole unwittingly finds himself on the run from the police and forced to make difficult decisions about his future as a detective.
The Devil’s Star is an exciting and entertaining book, a great crime novel by an exciting new author! The plot is superb, the action intriguing, inspector Harry Hole has plenty to deal with, and the story is told in a fascinating and appealing manner as well. This is the first book in a great series I suspect you will not want to miss out on!
You can read more about Jo Nesbo and his books at ScandinavianBooks.
Order Jo Nesbo’s The Devil’s Star
Don’t Look Back! – Karin Fossum
Filed under: crime book, Inspector Konrad Sejer, Karin Fossum, Norwegian writer, Prize winning novel
In a sleepy little village at the foot of a Norwegian mountain, a child — 6 year old Ragnhild — goes missing. It is a village where the children run in and out of one another’s 
houses and play unafraid in the streets. Yet the search for her reveals the naked body of the well-liked local schoolgirl. Why would anyone want to murder Annie Holland? The investigation of this question is in the hands of Inspector Konrad Sejer and his young colleague Jacob Skarre.
Karin Fossum is one of my favorite Norwegian crime writers. Karin Fossum was born November 6, 1954 in Sandefjord. She now lives in Oslo. Karin Fossum’s Inspector Sejer novels are masterfully constructed, psychologically convincing, and compulsively readable.
This is a wonderful book with great characters, and it is very carefully written. The dialogue is realistic. It is also a book that gives a strong sense of community and that makes you feel and know that, yeah, this is how is could really have happened in a small community in Norway. As well, the police work is interesting and well described. The book is highly recommended to anyone who likes police-procedural novels.
And, so that you know that this really is a high quality book, I should mention that Don’t Look Back! received The Riverton Prize and The Glass Key (for the best Nordic detective novel).
Read an excerpt of the book at the Hardcourt publishers’ site. We have more reviews of Karin Fossum’s books at ScandinavianBooks!
Aftenposten’s reviewer said the book “has hit the bull’s eye. It has scored a direct hit and is an exceptional top score! This is a dazzling writing in the crime genre”.
“Don’t Look Back! shows just how well Fossum deserves her continental fame.” — Sunday Times
You can order books by Karin Fossum
-
The World of Books- Bleachers, by John Grisham
- Resurrection Men, by Ian Rankin
- Damage, by Josephine Hart
- The Horizon, by Douglas Reeman
- Review: The Delta Solution, Patrick Robinson
- George R.R. Martin: A Dance with Dragons!
- Warbreaker, by Brandon Sanderson
- The Successor, by Stephen Frey
- Playful in Shades of Gray: John Banville
- Game of Thrones on HBO
- BookGazette
- Tripwire, by Lee Child
- Blacklands, by Belinda Bauer – book review
- Knockemstiff, by Donald Ray Pollock
- Agent of Rome: The Siege, by Nick Brown
- Re-write of Franz Kafka: The Meowmorphosis, F. Kafka and C. Coleridge
- Don’t Look Twice, by Andrew Gross
- The Snow Tiger, by Desmond Bagley
- Trust Fund, by Stephen W. Frey
- Top Fantasy: The Way of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson
- Five classic police procedurals – top crime fiction
- Nordic Bookblog
- Midwinter Sacrifice, by Mons Kallentoft
- The Boy in the Suitcase, by Lene Kaaberbol and Agnete Friis
- Fear Not, by Anne Holt
- The Dwarf, by Par Lagerkvist
- Frozen Assets, by Quentin Bates
- Dregs, by Jorn Lier Horst
- Headhunters, by Jo Nesbo
- Ice Cold: The Day is Dark, by Yrsa Sigurdardottir
- Until Thy Wrath be Past, by Asa Larsson
- Nothing But The Truth, by Jarkko Sipila
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