Prime Time, by Liza Marklund

April 5, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Annika Bengtzon, book review, crime book, Liza Marklund, Swedish writer 

This is the fourth book written in Liza Marklund’s series Prime Time, by Liza Marklund 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.

Links to books by Liza Marklund at amazon US and
amazon UK: Liza Marklund (books and DVD’s). Links to books by James Patterson at amazon US and amazon UK.

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The Three Evangelists, by Fred Vargas

March 31, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
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 Three Evangelists, by Fred Vargasin an old, ugly house in Paris known as “the disgrace”. The evangelists are Medievalist Marc Vandoosler, Great War historian Lucien Devernois and prehistory specialist Matthias Delamarre, three down-on-their-luck historians. In this book, they join forces to solve the mysterious disappearance of their neighbor, former opera singer Sophia Siméonidis.

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

Links to Fred Vargas’ books at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

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