Brida, by Paulo Coelho
Filed under: bestseller, book review, Fiction, International bestseller, New York Times bestseller, Paulo Coelho, recommendation
Paulo Coelho is one of the most gifted and beloved story tellers of our time. As well, he has a mind where, seemingly, fantasy is allowed to roam free of constraints. Thus 
The relatively short and delightful tale of Brida O’Fem is definitely such a book – a well crafted mind stretcher! Young, cute Brida is an Irish lass wishing to become a witch. Her tale, set in Ireland during the mid-80s, is fantastic, compelling and vividly told. In its own right, it’s an epic.
Like the main characters in other Coelho books, she goes searching for the wisdom and crafts she will need. But is it magic she wants? Or love? Or wisdom? Does she really know? She meets people of great wisdom. She is taught about the other, spiritual world. She is taught to see and listen. She learns to overcome fears. She learns to hear the music of the world, and to dance to it. She learns to pray to the moon. She encounters the concept of the soul mate.
But where in the multitude of options in the many planed universe lies her destiny? And what is it? How and where is fulfillment to be found – in love, passion, mystery, witchcraft? And what is it she is learning on her strange journey – more, I think, self-discovery and self-acceptance than anything else.
Brida is a book which transforms the reading experience into a journey of its own. A travel alongside Brida into the depths of the readers’ minds. Beautifully worded, marvelously told, stirring the senses and raising a desire to reach that which must be there, at the end of the journey. A mind-teaser of a book!
Review of The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
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.
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)!
Mr Midshipman Fury, by G. S. Beard
Filed under: book review, G. S. Beard, historical fiction, naval fiction, recommendation
The year is 1792. We are at the start of the French Revolutionary Wars. John Thomas Fury he embarks on his first voyage as midshipman aboard the 32-gun frigate Amazon. His 
As Amazon heads to India, young midshipman Fury is involved in a dreadful shipboard accident, and he must work doubly hard to prove that he isn’t cursed just like his father. However, redemption is around the corner. On a mission from the Governor of India, the crew battle against a much stronger foe. Somewhere in the Indian Ocean a very powerful privateer is at work. Amazon must find and destroy her.
So, perhaps too soon Fury finds himself in charge of the gun deck in furious fighting. This is the spot where the leaders of men are forged. And Fury shows exceptional courage and coolness. And gradually the shadows of the past are banished and Fury’s naval career begins in glory as he becomes a leader of men.
Praise for Midshipman Fury:
“Here is a rollicking adventure…which will stir the sluggish blood of even the most pacific of readers.”
- – Daily Express“A lively page-turner. Beard shows that he can write about nautical action fluently, and there is always something going on as adventures fairly fall over each other once the ship sails into Indian waters”
–Historical Novels Review
See more G.S. Beard reviews.
Ramage & the Freebooters, by Dudley Pope
Filed under: book review, Dudley Pope, historical fiction, Lord Ramage, Main character, naval fiction, recommendation
(This book was published as The Triton Brig in USA) The first line of the book reads: “As Ramage’s carriage rattled along Whitehall he was surprised to see the long and wide street was almost deserted.” 
If he gets away from Spithead, Ramage is to deliver three sealed dispatches to admirals off Brest and Cadiz, and in the Caribbean. If he fails, he will become a very convenient scapegoat.
This is how the third novel in the Ramage series starts. As the two previous ones, it is an extraordinarily exciting story which captures all the romance, mystery and adventure of the Caribbean in Nelson’s day.
Having arrived in the Caribbean, he is instructed to stop the mysterious loss of ships sailing from Grenada to Barbados after two frigate captains had previously failed to do so. A new puzzle, and again he is set up as a scapegoat. He has no choice, but must gamble that he will be successful. And, as it turns out, logical analysis and a keen understanding of the economics of piracy soon leads Lord Ramage in the direction of the freebooters.
Dudley Pope delivers excellent adventure yarn with delightful, well thought out plots. Few among the writers of naval historical fiction from the romantic Era of Sail knows (or knew) more about the times, the Navy and life in it than Dudley Pope. Pope has also written several non-fiction historical books of great value. He also has a cunning ability to convey how the best of the best handle emergency situations, and – as well – portrays these situations with realism and authenticity. Ramage and the Freebooters is very exciting. It is at least the equal of the first two books in this series. A great trill to read!
The Piano Teacher, by Janice Y K Lee
Filed under: book review, Fiction, International bestseller, Janice Lee, recommendation
The Piano Teacher tells a complicated, convoluted story of adaptation, love, betrayal and responses to changing circumstances. The story is set in war-torn Hong Kong,
A focal point in the novel is Will Truesdale, an Englishman who arrived in Hong Kong in 1942. In most ways he is an ordinary, self doubting man. However, having arrived, he more or less immediately falls headlong into a passionate relationship with the extremely attractive, intriguing and beautiful Eurasian socialite Trudy Liang.
As the war in Asia spreads, Hong Kong too is captured. Will, being English, is forced into an internment camp. Trudy, on the other hand, is Eurasian and is able to remain outside. And while they struggle to retain their affair even after they have been separated, it soon becomes apparent that their opportunities and outlooks develop in quite different directions.
Will tries his best to contribute to the collective of the prison camp, and is increasingly shaped by the events, obligations and bonds there. Trudy, on the other hand, seeks to preserve her high society lifestyle, and involves herself with the Japanese. She soon gets involved in affairs far beyond her control. Her desperate attempts to locate a priceless collection of Chinese art on behalf of her Japanese lover leads to a chain of terrible betrayals, involving several pillars of society.
Ten years later, Claire Pendleton comes to Hong Kong and is hired by the wealthy Chen family as their daughter’s piano teacher. She meets Will, is attracted to him, and becomes his mistress. Again, a love affair of Will’s takes on an importance much larger than the affair itself. And as Claire begins to understand the intricacies and multiple conflicts of the world she has entered, long-buried secrets are brought to the fore. And now Claire’s whole life changes as a consequences of the revelations that are unleashed.
Janice Y. K. Lee’s first novel, The Piano Teacher, is beautiful and written in a spare and understated form, where only the tips of huge icebergs of events are visible up to the very end. None of her characters are particularly endearing, but they are complex, interesting, often disagreeable, and very authentic. The whole book is full of intrigue. And even though the novel raises many more questions than it answers, the answers that are provided are very satisfactory. I strongly recommend it!
Praise:
“Evocative, poignant and skillfully crafted, The Piano Teacher is more than an epic tale of war and a tangled, tortured love story. It is the kind of novel one consumes in great, greedy gulps, pausing (grudgingly) only when absolutely necessary.” — Chicago Tribune
Rules of Deception, by Christopher Reich
Filed under: book review, Christopher Reich, recommendation, Thriller
Sometimes even I get lucky. I was when I stumbled across this book. Even 
Then I picked it up and started reading the same evening. And it just sucked me right in. The prologue and the first chapter are masterful, and more or less make it impossible to stop reading beyond that point. I have to admit I was late getting to be the next morning. But the book really did live up to the expectations it initially created.
The prologue is extremely ominous: There is a butterfly flying around above a high-security compound surrounded by a barbed wire in an unknown location. Then it turns out the butterfly a mechanical device carrying a mini-microwave transmitter. Then a guard says: “They have found us.”
Rules of Deception tells the story of a smart, resourceful and courageous doctor named Jonathan Ransom. Dr. Ransom is a surgeon who works for Doctors Without. He is a happily married man with a beautiful English wife, Emma, whom he loves. Life is good. Then Emma dies in an accident.
A few days later, some baggage claim tickets are delivered to his hotel room. They were for his wife. Not knowing what they are for, Ransom goes to claim them. The content of bags makes it clear that his wife was not at all the person he believed her to be. Suddenly Jonathan finds that his has known very little about his wife, and that his life has not at all been what it seems. As a matter of fact, his life is seemingly a big pile of lies. And now he finds himself right in the middle of the pile, trying to make sense and fighting to stay alive. In fact, it seems Jonathan’s only chance at survival lies in uncovering the devastating truth behind his wife’s secret life.
The plot in Rules of Deception is intricate and has multiple layers and the chapters are short and to the point. And the action is fast and often surprising. I found it a great thriller, full of excitement. Most certainly a writer I will read more of and watch out for!
, amazon UK
, and amazon CAN
(see especially his Numbered Account)Unspoken: A Mystery, by Mari Jungstedt
Filed under: Anders Knutas, book review, crime book, Main character, Mari Jungstedt, recommendation, Swedish writer
Unspoken is the second in Mari Jungstedt’s series of crime and detective novels set in Gotland, Sweden. The first is Unseen (see review) The main characters, in this book too, are Inspector Anders Knutas and investigative journalist Johan Berg.
Then, well into the investigation of the first murder, 14-year old Fanny Jansson, a volunteer at the local stables, vanishes. Initially Knutas and Jacobsson view them as separate cases. One is a violent murder, the other the disappearance of child.
Painstakingly, they work the clues, assisted by ambitious StockholmTV reporter Johan Berg, who tries to keep his bosses interested in Dahlström’s murder so he can take trips to Gotland to visit his married lover, Emma Winarve. And eventually they uncover a tenuous link between Henry and the missing fourteen year old Fanny Jansson. Before his murder Henry won a lot of money at the racetrack while Fanny cared for the horses at a local stable.However, matters become further complicated when sexually explicit photos of murdered 14-year-old Fanny Jansson are found in Dahlstrom’s darkroom.
The official investigation in Unspoken is cleverly designed by Mari Jungstedt to keep the audience’s attention. It is a great police procedural. And the cast is fully developed and interesting – in this book we also learn more about Knutas’ family and the very complicated love affair between Johan Berg and Emma Winarve.
Unspoken is a book with crisp prose, steady suspense, and flesh-and-blood characters, as well as powerful descriptions of the dark Swedish winter. The narrative is engaging and twisty, and will fool even the most attentive reader.
See more reviews of Swedish crime fiction at ScandinavianBooks.com!
Links to Mari Jungstedt’s books: Mari Jungstedt at amazon US
Have Mercy on Us All, by Fred Vargas
Filed under: book review, crime book, Fred Vargas, French writer, Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg, Main character, recommendation
This is the third book in the series about the eccentric and very special Detective Commisaire Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg. And it is a fantastic book. At least, to me it 
is. 
In this book the eccentric, enigmatic and intuitive detective – in an eccentric plot – has been made commisaire principal, head of a new section in the Paris police force. His style of leadership, of course, is as interesting as the commisaire himself!
At the center of this book is the threat of plague – the Black death, no less in Paris. A murderer, or several, creates a panic in Paris while they systematically kill people. But why? How are the victims and murderers related? Why do the use the plague as a guise? And, of course, who are the killers? There are many and complicated questions and very few clues. Even Adamsberg, so famous for his intuition and photographic memory of images, as well as for his unclear, convoluted, sometimes quite muddled thinking, loses track of it all, somewhere in the great sea of his unfinished thoughts.
We meet a number of very interesting characters. There is Adamsberg’s assistant, Danglard, trying to bring an element of order into the chaos of Adamsberg’s thinking. And the town crier Joss Le Guern, in the 14th arrondissement of Paris, who is used as a medium of communication for the murderers. There is also the mystical Decambrais, the lovely Camille with whom Adamsberg has a complicated romantic involvement, as well as several other very interesting persons. An engaging cast of very strange yet real characters, often amusing, and usually recognizable as bearing a resemblance to folks we have known. Together they make this a rich work of fiction alongside the wonderful crime novel.
Have Mercy On Us All is a strange, twisted, gothic thriller. It is impossible to categorize. It is also well planned, very thoughtfully written, excellently observed, very human and totally absorbing. It will make you laugh as well as excite you. It is, simply, a fascinating read!
Link: Fred Vargas at amazon US
Prince of Fire, by Daniel Silva
Filed under: book review, Daniel Silva, espionage, Fiction, Gabriel Allon, recommendation, Thriller
Prince of Fire is Daniel Silva’s fifth novel in his Gabriel Allon series. Allon is an internationally renowned art restorer, assassin, and 
In Prince of Fire terrorists bomb the Israeli embassy in Rome and massacre the people working there. And so, once more, Gabriel Allon gets a visit from the spy master of the Israeli secret service, the legendary Ari Shamron. Ari Shamron, who once was the head of Israel’s secret service and is Gabriel’s mentor, is now special advisor to Israel’s prime minister.
When Shamron visits Gabriel in Italy, he informs him that Palestinian terrorists have uncovered Gabriel’s true identity and may be targeting him for assassination. He urges Gabriel to come out of retirement. Reluctantly, as always, he returns to Israel to head a team investigating the bombing. After some difficult work, the team finds traces leading to a Palestinian mastermind named Khaled al-Khalifa. He is, as well, believed to be the brain behind two earlier terrorist attacks. Allon is now assigned to find and execute him.
As in his other books, Silva weaves facts and fiction in a rough, hard reality which is grim and requires tough decisions, especially by those involved in the espionage business. The story in Prince of Fire is, if anything, even darker than most of the stories in this series. None of the actors involved – both individuals and the organizations – are able to walk away with clean hands in this story.
Khaled al-Khalifa turns out to be perhaps the most difficult opponent Gabriel Allon has encountered so far. Both have lots of resources to back them up, and both are extremely skilled and smart.
The complex and very well told story in Prince of Fire has a lot of twists and turns, as well as false identities, double-crosses and misleading information. And the action is fast and furious: assassinations, bombings and kidnappings.
Prince of Fire is a great addition to the Gabriel Allon series. It is an excellent, very exciting spy thriller.
The Unlikely Spy, by Daniel Silva
Filed under: book review, Daniel Silva, espionage, Fiction, recommendation, Thriller
Daniel Silva is a great writer of thrillers of espionage. His writings remind me of the early John Le Carré. In this book, The Unlikely Spy, his debut novel, he looks behind the curtain of 
In The Unlikely Spy Silva deals with the Allies’ effort to protect perhaps the greatest secrets of all during World War II – the location of the planned D-Day landings in France. Silva’s story has an innovative plot with roots both in Nazi-Germany’s spy machine ran by Admiral Canaris and a huge counter-intelligence effort, involving both the American and the British intelligence services, and having been cleared all the way up to Prime Minister Winston Churchill!
The stakes on both sides are extremely high: a successful invasion does not assure victory, but defeat on the beaches will prolong the war and, very possibly, lose it. Much hinges on what the enemy knows about the undertaking. “In wartime,” Winston Churchill wrote, “truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.”
The main story in The Unlikely Spy takes place in 1943, but with excursions to events at previous points in time leading up to the key events. In 1943, Britain’s counter-intelligence service MI5 has identified and captured virtually all of the German spies sent to the country so far. Some has been hanged; some has been turned and are used to feed back carefully crafted misinformation to their controllers in Germany.
But now the Germans awaken a sleeping agent to get more intelligence about the upcoming British invasion. And when the British learn about this, they realize that one piece of correct information may destroy the house of cards – based on endless lies – they have so carefully constructed. The sleeper-agent is Catherine Blake, a very beautiful and seductive agent who began her entry into Britain with the cold-blooded killing of a young female painter. As she comes closer and closer to penetrating the Allied operation, code-named Operation Mulberry, the action accelerates. Will the invasion plan succeed with this a brilliant agent at work? Can she be stopped in time?
Silva’s characters are strong. Along with a teeming cast of other characters, real and fictional, they bring the chase to a furious and satisfying climax. And the final plot twist is original, yet logical.
The Unlikely Spy is a strong and promising debut book.
Order Daniel Silva’s The Unlikely Spy
See more reviews of books by Daniel Silva at Leserglede.com!
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