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
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
The White Lioness, by Henning Mankell
Filed under: book review, crime book, Henning Mankell, International bestseller, Kurt Wallander, Swedish writer
The White Lioness may well be the best
There are many ingredients to the plot in The White Lioness. First, a happily married woman disappears in southern Sweden while going about her business as an estate agent. There is no explanation and no motive. Inspector Kurt Wallander and his team are called in to investigate this case of a missing person.
As readers, we know right from the beginning what is going on: she was at the wrong time at the wrong place. However, Wallander does not know this. Inspector Wallander has a gut feeling that the victim will never be found alive, but he has no idea how far he will have to go in a search of the killer and the origin of the crime.
The case turns out to be much more complicated that it appeared to be. The search for the truth behind the killing eventually uncovers an assassination plot, and Wallander finds himself in a tangle with both the secret police and a ruthless foreign agent.
It turns out that it all started in South Africa. A pro-apartheid conspirator has sent a gaunt, steel-eyed former KGB assassin and a black hit man to Sweden to train for a unnamed killing. When their hideout is destroyed in a fireball and the remains found in the ashes – a precision firearm, a sophisticated, high-powered radio, and a severed human thumb – the clues lead Wallander back to South Africa.
Combining compelling insights into the sinister side of modern life with a riveting tale of international intrigue, The White Lioness keeps you on the knife-edge of suspense. Some may find the book a little long-winded in the passages about South-African politics, but it is a wonderful book even so!
You can read more Henning Mankell reviews at ScandinavianBooks.
The White Lioness has been filmed as well. You can order the DVD from amazon (US): The White Lioness
Or, order from amazon UK: The White Lioness (book)
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
Hollywood station, by Joseph Wambaugh
Filed under: book review, crime book, Joseph Wambaugh
Wambaugh is a former LAPD detective sergeant, and a terrific and funny writer of crime novels:
Hollywood station is about the LAPD, and a 
They are: Budgie Polk, a 27-year-old firecracker whos begrudgingly teamed with Fausto Gamboa, the oldest, tetchiest patrol officer. Andi McCrea, a single mom who spends her days studying at the local community college. Wesley Drubb, a USC drop-out who joined the force to see some action. Flotsam and Jetsam, two aptly named surfer boys who pine after the petitebut intrepid Meg Takara. And Hank Driscoll, the one who never shuts up.
Together they spend their days and nights in the city’s underbelly, where a string of seemingly unrelated events lures the cops of Hollywood Station to their most startling case yet: Russians, diamonds, counterfeiting. Nothing is too horrific or twisted for Los Angeles. Here, its business as usual.
Hollywood Station is a wonderful, exciting and amusing read!
Other great books by Wambaugh at amazon US: Hollywood Crows: A Novel
When the Devil Holds the Candle, by Karin Fossum
Filed under: book review, crime book, Inspector Konrad Sejer, Karin Fossum, Main character, Norwegian writer, recommendation
When the Devil Holds the Candle, by the Norwegian author Karin Fossum, won the Gumshoe award for best European crime novel published in the US in 2007.
When called in to investigate the crime, Inspector Konrad Sejer and his colleague Jacob Skarre see no connection between the infant’s death and the reported disappearance of a local delinquent. And so, while the confusion in the world outside mounts, the chilling truth unfolds inside the old woman’s home.
Unflappable as ever, Sejer digs below the surface of small-town tranquility in an effort to understand how and why violence destroys everyday lives.
When the Devil Holds the Candle is another brilliantly observed, precisely rendered psychological mystery from the highly acclaimed Karin Fossum, where she creates intensity by problematizing the roles of murderer and victim. A wonderful story by Fossum!
, or her Black Seconds (Inspector Sejer Mysteries)
.
Or, if you prefer amazon UK, you can order Karin Fossums books When the Devil Holds the Candle (Inspector Sejer Mystery)
Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo on NYT’s bestseller list!
The fantastic The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (see review), written by the deceased Swedish crime writer Stieg Larsson has now, finally, entered the New York Times bestseller list. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo has been one of the best selling books ever in Sweden, and in the other Nordic countries as well.
Hardcover Fiction
| This Week | Last Week | Weeks on List | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | THE STORY OF EDGAR SAWTELLE, by David Wroblewski. A mute takes refuge with three dogs in the Wisconsin woods after his father’s death. | 1 | 16 |
| 2 | HEAT LIGHTNING, by John Sandford. Virgil Flowers investigates murder cases linked by a lemon in the mouth of each victim. | 1 | |
| 3 | THE GIVEN DAY, by Dennis Lehane. A policman, a fugitive and their families persevere in the turbulence of Boston at the end of World War I. | 1 | |
| 4 | HOT MAHOGANY, by Stuart Woods. A Stone Barrington mystery set amid the intrigues of the world of antiques and old and new money in New England. | 1 | |
| 5 | ONE FIFTH AVENUE, by Candace Bushnell. The worlds of gossip, theater and hedge funds have one address in common. | 1 | |
| 6 | THE OTHER QUEEN, by Philippa Gregory. The story of Mary, Queen of Scots, in captivity under Queen Elizabeth. | 2 | 2 |
| 7 | THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, by Stieg Larsson. A hacker and a journalist investigate the disappearance of an octogenarian’s niece 40 years ago. | 4 | 2 |
| 8 | TSAR, by Ted Bell. The Kremlin has a brutal killer working for it in America. | 1 | |
| 9 | THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. A journalist meets the island’s old Nazi resisters. | 5 | 9 |
| 10 | THE HOST, by Stephenie Meyer. Aliens have taken control of the minds and bodies of most humans, but one woman won’t surrender. | 7 | 21 |
| 11 | THE BOOK OF LIES, by Brad Meltzer. The murder of the father of Superman’s creator, Jerry Siegel, is linked to the biblical story of Cain and Abel. | 6 | 4 |
| 12 | AMERICAN WIFE, by Curtis Sittenfeld.A pretty librarian marries the alcoholic son of a wealthy political family who somehow becomes president. | 9 | 4 |
| 13 | FAEFEVER, by Karen Marie Moning. MacKayla is caught in the middle as the faes battle in Dublin. | 3 | 2 |
| 14 | INDIGNATION, by Philip Roth. A Newark, N.J., college student in the Korean War era breaks with his parents and goes to a school in the Midwest. | 10 | 2 |
| 15 | ANATHEM, by Neal Stephenson.An order of cloistered mathematicians and scientists must save their Earth-like planet when catastrophe threatens. | 8 | 3 |
| 16 | THE COMFORTS OF A MUDDY SATURDAY, by Alexander McCall Smith. Isabel Dalhousie investigates drug fraud charges. | 1 |
It is a wonderful crime novel. In my opinion, perhaps one of the best written after year 2000. I will be surprised if The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo does not end up on the top of the bestseller lists in the US!
You can read my review of Stieg Larsson’s high powered book The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo at ScandinavianBooks.com!
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