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| 1782062203
| 9781782062202
| 1782062203
| 4.04
| 10,933
| Dec 05, 2013
| Dec 26, 2013
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Book Review There was sunlight somewhere. It played in flickering moments of fancy through still air that hung heavy with dust suspended in sharply def Book Review There was sunlight somewhere. It played in flickering moments of fancy through still air that hung heavy with dust suspended in sharply defined shafts. But there was fog, too, obscuring the light. Rolling in from the sea like a summer haar to obscure all illumination. [image] The Crofters Twitter conversation between myself and the author: Me: Peter, if I enjoyed the Lewis Trilogy (a lot) what would you recommend as my next read of yours? Haven't read any of your other books.” Peter: "Entry Island then Runaway, Harry. And 'Coffin Road', out in January. Then the Enzo Files & China Thrillers!” Twitter has its perks. Why wonder if you can get it directly from the horse's mouth? Especially after I established The Lewis Trilogy as my criteria. So, Entry Island was next on my list. Should you be interested, you can read my reviews of The Lewis Trilogy here: The Blackhouse, The Lewis Man and The Chessmen. Peter May's Entry Island may well have been one of the more difficult books to write from an authorial perspective. To combine the historical, the romantic, the literary, the tragic and the mystery/detective genres into one novel while simultaneously suspending disbelief is a formidable task. Suspending disbelief is a constant struggle where the impossible is massaged by the author to the point where the reader a) admits it as possible, or b) allows disbelief because it's a great story, or c) puts the book down because it's a show stopper. Entry Island, for this reader, is a combination of a and b. ”They say that history is only written by the victors." He raises his head, drawing phlegm into his mouth, and spitting into the flow of water that tumbles dow the hill. "But I heard it from my father, who heard it from his. And now you're hearing it form me." The story starts with investigator Sime Mackenzie who investigates a murder that seems by all accounts to be a mere formality. He travels to the murder scene, a destination that lay in the Gulf of St. Lawrence - to Entry Island. The evidence appears to indicate a crime of passion, until Detective Mackenzie meets the alleged perpetrator. The minute he lays eyes on her he is enveloped by a profound knowledge that he knows her, in spite of the fact he has never met her. Riddled with insomnia, Sime’s intellect and reasoning is assaulted by haunting images of a time and place 3,000 miles away. A history he, to all intents and purposes, should know nothing about. And so we have Peter May's plunge into history and romance, weaving a tale of a crofter's son and a landlord's daughter across time. Entry Island, in this context, contains the story of the forced Scottish migration into Canada following the potato famine in 1846. Potato crops were blighted by a fungal disease and the crofters of the time were very dependent on it as food. Often working in appalling conditions, starved and severely weakened, the crofters were forcibly evicted by their landlords from the land on which they'd lived for generations. Fleets of ships were hired to migrate the Hebridean crofters to Canada to the point where today some 15% of Canada's population claims full or partial Scottish descent. Using third person for present day events and first person (brilliant) for historical events - brilliant in that the use of first person lends immediacy to a story that took place over a hundred years ago - the author lends context to the cyclical nature of history: the adage being that indeed, history repeats itself. And it seems to do so until we get it right. And if anything, Entry Island is all about getting it right. A warm sun slanted out of the autumn sky, transforming every tree into one of nature's stained-glass windows. The golds and yellows, oranges and reds of the fall leaves glowed vibrant and luminous, backlit by the angled rays of the sun, turning the forest into a cathedral of color. Sime had forgotten just how stunning these autumn colors could be, his senses dulled by years of gray city living." As was the case with The Lewis Trilogy Peter May has a talent for invoking a sense of place, of people, and time using a distinctly literary sense. The descriptive passages emulate the context in which the characters find themselves. There is no liberal and excessive use of literary passages as we often find in modern novels to hide the absence of a story. For example: in the above paragraph Sime, the main character, experiences an almost spiritual reaction to nature as he nears a resolution to both the crime he is investigating as well as a resolution to the psychological depression that has haunted him into permanent insomnia. It is experienced by the reader as a spiritual and glorious waterfall of colors in a seemingly innocuous descriptive paragraph. But make no mistake. Everything in a May novel fore-spells the events taking place. He felt, too, a strong sense of grief. He had lived through passionate moments in the skin of his ancestor. In his dream he had sacrificed everything to try to be with his Ciorstaidh. And here she lay, dead in the earth, as she had done for a very, very long time. He stood up quickly. Impossible, he knew, to tell tears from rain. History, in its clinical detachment, often harbors the utmost cruelty and overwhelming empathy and passion harbored within the humans who make up such a history. Peter May, in this book, captures that magnificent journey towards a final resolution in which man is tested against time, must make decisions about fate and his capacity for volition, and that such a man must come face to face with the struggle that makes his existence worth every second it is lived. ---------------------------------------------------- About the author [image] Peter May Peter May has a prolific career in writing, starting out at the age of 21 when he won the Scottish Journalist of the Year Award. But, Peter's childhood dream was to be a novelist and that dream was accomplished at the young age of 26. That novel was to become a major BBC television drama series and that temporarily changed the direction of his writing career as he became one of Scotland's most prolific and popular TV dramatists. With the approach of the new millennium May quit television and returned to his first love: novels. What is particularly interesting is the meticulous research May implements for his novels. For example, Peter spent 5 years on The Isle of Lewis, befriending its inhabitants and photographing the island and inhabitants as research for his novel The Blackhouse.He embarked on a series of thrillers which took him half-way across the world, to the land of China. There he made contacts and gained unprecedented access to the forensic science set ions of Beijing and Shanghai police forces and studied the work of Chinese detectives and pathologists. His efforts won him Elle Magazine's Best Crime Novel in 2005 and the Prix Polar International in 2008. His China thrillers feature Beijing detective Li Yan and a Forensic pathologist from Chicago, Margaret Campbell. China even made him an honorary member of their Chinese Crime Writer's Association. There's another MacLeod hero featured in his books. Enter Enzo MacLeod, a cold cases crime series set in France where the author lives. As a visitor myself to Second Life , I find it especially interesting that in researching his setting for the 2010 thriller Virtually DeadPeter May setup a virtual detective agency in Second Life, created his own avatar, Fick Faulds, and explored the metaverse: handling real Second Life investigations from paying clients (Second Life has its own denomination and yeah, it takes a credit card to convert dollars into their currency). Next came the Lewis trilogy. Interestingly enough, the British Isles were not impressed and all the major publishing houses (to their current dismay) rejected to publish his first in the series: The Balckhouse. It was France that hailed it as a masterpiece and it was in France that it was fist published which led to the Prix des Lecteurs and the world's biggest adjudicated readers' prizes, the Prix Cezam. Finally, an upstart publishing house in the UK (Quercus) published The Blackbook and the rest is history. The Lewis Series became an instant best-seller in the UK, France if not worldwide and finally landed on US shores to win the Barry Award for Best Mystery Novel in 2013. Recent novels have fixed Peter May's legacy as one of the finest mystery and historical writers of our time. This author is worth every second you spend reading him. ...more |
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not set
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Mar 03, 2016
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May 17, 2015
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Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 0857382209
| 9780857382207
| 0857382209
| 4.22
| 28,624
| 2011
| Jan 05, 2012
|
really liked it
|
Book Review Second in The Lewis Trilogy, Peter May once again invites his readers to explore the islands known as the Hebrides, off Scottland. The stor Book Review Second in The Lewis Trilogy, Peter May once again invites his readers to explore the islands known as the Hebrides, off Scottland. The story continues with Fin MacLeod's fascinating story. We got to know Fin in May's spectacular first in the trilogy: The Blackhouse as he once again returns to Lewis Island in search of his Gaelic roots. You can find my review of that novel here. I've become a huge fan of Peter May's work in this trilogy for several reasons. First: I find his study of the Hebrides islands to be an irresistible journey into ethnography written in a way so as to capture the attention of the reader. And, capture it in a way that a straight-forward ethnographic study will not. The reader is invested into learning more of the Gaelic culture as a means to understand the central character, Fin MacLeod, as well as the crime that has taken place. This is done in such an original and captivating manner that the reader does not even realize the amount of information he or she takes in as Fin attempts to solve the Lewis riddle. Moreover, the information is being passed onto the reader using exquisite descriptive passages that serve more than one purpose: yes, the passages are seen as descriptive but they are also deceptively laden with clues as to plot, character, and motivation. Second: I am always cognizant of what type of hero the author chooses for his main character. Does the author create a malevolent and torn hero (or anti-hero), or does he subscribe to a more Romantic Realism style, where the hero is a good guy that wins in the end? As an example of the first, we might think of the fabulous Harry Hole, the hero created by author Jo Nesbo whose flaws contribute as much to the story as anything else. As to the second, we can think of the 40 or more novels by author Dick Francis where we can relish in a true admiration for the hero. The Lewis Trilogy is an example of the latter. What I feel for Fin MacLeod is the same as what I would feel for, let's say Sid Halley, one of the recurring heroes in the Francis series (Dick Francis, by the way, is my favorite of all authors I've read within the genre). A Francis hero is personable, like able, full of integrity, rational, non-violent but delivers swift justice using his mind rather than physical force. Third: Plot, for me, is essential. Plot involves the causations and consequences of human choices made based on the values they hold. Choice, free will, is specifically a human characteristic and along with conceptualization contributes in large part as to what makes us human. To omit plot from a fictional novel that involves people is like severing the humanity of what is being expressed, let alone what I derive from reading it. Plot is the exposition of volition. I know meta-fiction enthusiasts will scoff at this preference of mine, but, as I said, it is my personal opinion and merely addresses what it is that I find pleasurable in my reading and in large part it is what moves me in the direction of crime novels where plot is tantamount. In this regard, Peter May is a master story teller. Woven into the fabric of its ethnography, the Hebrides islands, the peat and crofts that pervade the islands, its people and Gaelic culture, and within the fabric of the novel's descriptive passages is a delicate but strong plot line that moves the reader from chapter to chapter. Peter May understands values and what they mean to the choices people make, especially as that pertains to the crime: to end another human life for all the wrong reasons. What Fin encounters upon his return to Lewis Island is what some might call a cold case, at least fifty years old. A young man is found in the bogs, perfectly preserved by the acidity of the peat, pickled so to speak. Who is it? Why did he die? And who killed him? So, the first hurdle for the author Peter May might have been this: "Cold cases aren't normally very interesting. So, how do I make this story relevant to a current day Fin MacLeod?" And, he might have thought: "How do I tell this story in such a way that my readers become invested in the actors living 50 years ago?" Not only that, but May further decides to add another complication by making one of the main characters as a person suffering from dementia. And so he might have mused, “How to tell this story if one of my main characters can’t remember anything?” Through his brilliant use of First person vs. Third person, not only does the author create the effortless move between yesterday and today, but he also resolves the issue of a character’s dementia. Today, I started The Chessmen, third in the Lewis Trilogy. I’ll report back on that one when I’m done with it. I highly recommend this trilogy for any fan of Tartan crime. About the author [image] Peter May Peter May has a prolific career in writing, starting out at the age of 21 when he won the Scottish Journalist of the Year Award. But, Peter's childhood dream was to be a novelist and that dream was accomplished at the young age of 26. That novel was to become a major BBC television drama series and that temporarily changed the direction of his writing career as he became one of Scotland's most prolific and popular TV dramatists. With the approach of the new millennium May quit television and returned to his first love: novels. What is particularly interesting is the meticulous research May implements for his novels. For example, Peter spent 5 years on The Isle of Lewis, befriending its inhabitants and photographing the island and inhabitants as research for his novel The Blackhouse.He embarked on a series of thrillers which took him half-way across the world, to the land of China. There he made contacts and gained unprecedented access to the forensic science set ions of Beijing and Shanghai police forces and studied the work of Chinese detectives and pathologists. His efforts won him Elle Magazine's Best Crime Novel in 2005 and the Prix Polar International in 2008. His China thrillers feature Beijing detective Li Yan and a Forensic pathologist from Chicago, Margaret Campbell. China even made him an honorary member of their Chinese Crime Writer's Association. There's another MacLeod hero featured in his books. Enter Enzo MacLeod, a cold cases crime series set in France where the author lives. As a visitor myself to Second Life , I find it especially interesting that in researching his setting for the 2010 thriller Virtually Dead Peter May setup a virtual detective agency in Second Life, created his own avatar, Fick Faulds, and explored the metaverse: handling real Second Life investigations from paying clients (Second Life has its own denomination and yeah, it takes a credit card to convert dollars into their currency). Next came the Lewis trilogy. Interestingly enough, the British Isles were not impressed and all the major publishing houses (to their current dismay) rejected to publish his first in the series: The Blackhouse. It was France that hailed it as a masterpiece and it was in France that it was fist published which led to the Prix des Lecteurs and the world's biggest adjudicated readers' prizes, the Prix Cezam. Finally, an upstart publishing house in the UK (Quercus) published The Blackbook and the rest is history. The Lewis Series became an instant best-seller in the UK, France if not worldwide and finally landed on US shores to win the Barry Award for Best Mystery Novel in 2013. ...more |
Notes are private!
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not set
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May 2015
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May 09, 2015
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Hardcover
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| 0316225932
| 9780316225939
| 0316225932
| 4.14
| 63,369
| Nov 03, 2014
| Nov 03, 2014
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really liked it
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None
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not set
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not set
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Jan 01, 2015
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Hardcover
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| 0307593495
| 9780307593498
| 0307593495
| 3.98
| 18,489
| Jan 01, 2009
| Mar 29, 2011
|
it was amazing
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Book Review: We all form connections and we break them. We build friendships. Some of us are on teams at work only to get displaced and join a differen Book Review: We all form connections and we break them. We build friendships. Some of us are on teams at work only to get displaced and join a different team. We travel to distant lands and leave such lands and the people in it. We have families and children, this sacred space we rarely leave until death. We marry and sometimes we divorce a beloved. We become fans of successful artists, perhaps a musician, a singer/songwriter or a Maxfield Parrish, or a Goya, only to feel our inner landscape has changed as do our tastes. We form connections with strangers using Twitter, Facebook, Instagram where the sheer volume of activity makes the absence of one such connection virtually unnoticeable. And then we form connections with characters on the television and in books because they reflect an essence that already exists in our own being. We are anxious to not have them end as they all must. Truth is we do not want to be left without our connections because they, more than anything else, form the fabric of our lives. It is through connections that we have a semblance of immortality. And still, we face the end of our existence alone no matter what connections were made or remain. I am reminded of Lee Child’s fictional character Jack Reacher where in the series review I mention: ”Jack seems to implicitly understand that he is a unique animal/human running around on this planet and that in spite of social conventions, cultural trappings, and whatever conventions and abstractions we allow into our mind in order to alleviate this core fact of our singularity (and solitude)...the truth of it is not something Mr. Reacher denies. Secretly, we only wish we could face life alone as Reacher does.” Humanity has devoted many religious institutions, dogma, if not philosophical thought to this problem of human existence and the end of it, more as a means to assuage our fear of it as opposed to providing an actual answer. And to have this fear extinguished, or not, the one consistent rope to which we cling to is our identity, our individual accomplishments. We are someone as opposed to someone else. Our character, our personality, our ID cannot be erased and is the only connection that remains. On our death bed, at least we are in the company of ourselves. Or is this not true? Can even this last connection be taken away from us? Henning Mankel, in this the last of the Kurt Wallander novels, gives us the unpleasant answer. And in a sense, perhaps The Troubled Man is the most terrifying of all the Kurt Wallander novels, especially if you’ve established a clear connection to this brooding, emphatic man. It is a sad and intriguing story in which the reader will experience a profound sense of rejection of what is proposed by the author. That to end this series, Kurt is not killed as a policeman. He is not shelved to a retired policeman’s life, as a father and grandfather with a family that surrounds him. No. Mankell has something far more devious in mind for Kurt’s retirement. Mankell kills Wallander and lets him live. I will miss him. ----------------------------------------------- Series Review Henning Mankell is an internationally known Swedish crime writer known mostly for this fictional character Kurt Wallander. He is married to Eva Bergman. [image] Henning Mankell - Author It might be said that the fall of communism and the consequent increase in Swedish immigration and asylum seekers has been the engine that drives much of Swedish crime fiction. Mankell's social conscience, his cool attitude towards nationalism and intolerance is largely a result of the writer's commitment to helping the disadvantaged (see his theater work in Africa). In this vein, readers might be interested in his stand-alone novel Kennedy's Brain a thriller set in Africa and inspired by the AIDS epidemic (Mankell often traveled to Africa to help third world populations); or read his The Eye of the Leopard, a haunting novel juxtaposing a man's coming of age in Sweden and his life in Zambia. Mankell's love of Africa, his theater work on that continent, and his exploits in helping the disadvantaged is not generally known by his American readers. In fact, an international news story that has largely gone unnoticed is that while the world watched as Israeli soldiers captured ships attempting to break the Gaza blockade, few people are aware that among the prisoners of the Israelis was one of the world's most successful and acclaimed writers: Henning Mankell. [image] It is no exaggeration when I say that Henning Mankell is by far one of the most successful writers in Scandinavia, especially in his own country of Sweden. The Nordic weather, cold to the bones, drives its populace indoors for much of the year where cuddling up to read the latest in crime fiction is a national pastime. For many GR readers who have been introduced to Kurt Wallander it is interesting to note that ultimately the success of bringing Mankell to English speaking audiences only came after bringing in the same production company responsible for Steig Larsson's Millennium trilogy for the wildly popular BBC version starring Kenneth Branagh. Viewers had no problem with an anglicized version of Mankell's work, an English speaking cast set down in a genuine Swedish countryside. Of course, to those fans thoroughly familiar with Mankell's work, it is the Swedish televised version that is found to be a more accurately portrayal of Mankell's novels...not the British, sensationalized version. And there's a reason for that. Henning's prose is straightforward, organized, written mostly in linear fashion, a straightforward contract with the reader. It is largely quantified as police procedural work. The work of men who are dogged and patient to a fault. Kurt Wallander, the hero in Mankell's novels, is the alter ego of his creator: a lonely man, a dogged policeman, a flawed hero, out of shape, suffering from headaches and diabetes, and possessing a scarred soul. Understandably so and if some of the GR reviews are an indication; like his famous father-in-law Ingmar Bergman, Mankell is from a country noted for its Nordic gloom. But before you make the assumption that this is yet another addition to the somberness and darkness that characterizes Nordic writing Mankell often confounds this cliche with guarded optimism and passages crammed with humanity (for Mankell, this is true both personally and professionally as a writer). As Americans we often think of Sweden as possessing an very open attitude towards sex and that this is in marked contrast (or perhaps reprieve) to the somber attitudes of its populace. But this is a view that often confounds Swedish people. The idea of Nordic carnality is notably absent in Mankell's work, as much a statement of its erroneous perception (Swedes do not see themselves as part of any sexual revolution at all) and in the case of Mankell ironic because the film director most responsible for advancing these explicit sexual parameters (for his time) was his own father-in-law the great Ingmar Bergman. In a world where Bergman moves in a universe where characters are dark, violent, extreme and aggressive - take note that the ultimate root of this bloody death and ennui lies in the Norse and Icelandic Viking sagas of Scandinavian history - that dark, somber view ascribed to both Mankell and Bergman's work was often a topic of intense jovial interest between these two artists. For any reader of Nordic crime fiction, Henning Mankell is an immensely popular and staple read. Enjoy! ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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not set
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not set
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Dec 31, 2014
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Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 1400095816
| 9781400095810
| 1400095816
| 3.85
| 13,685
| 2002
| Feb 14, 2006
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really liked it
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None
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not set
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not set
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Sep 05, 2014
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Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 1409124517
| 9781409124511
| 1409124517
| 4.15
| 14,690
| Sep 09, 2014
| Sep 11, 2014
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None
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1
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not set
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not set
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Sep 05, 2014
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Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 0385348401
| 9780385348409
| 0385348401
| 3.90
| 7,580
| Nov 07, 2013
| Jul 01, 2014
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it was amazing
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None
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Jul 09, 2014
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Jul 09, 2014
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Jul 09, 2014
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Hardcover
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| 1455517135
| 9781455517138
| 1455517135
| 4.00
| 16,080
| May 13, 2014
| May 13, 2014
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did not like it
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Book Review: I'll start by saying that I've read some very good books by Jefferey Deaver: and those books are part of this series. I've handed out a fe Book Review: I'll start by saying that I've read some very good books by Jefferey Deaver: and those books are part of this series. I've handed out a few 5 star reviews for them and you should read them. And I can immediately conclude that thought by saying Jeffery Deaver has also written some bad books. This is one of them. If you look at the chronology of his writing career you'll find that long ago he wrote novels that in my opinion are mediocre. Then something happened. Deaver came out with his Lincoln Rhyme series, an instant success, starting with the Bone Collector, a major motion picture, and concluding in this latest installment: The Skin Collector. And therein lies the rub. Could Deaver and his publishers not have come up with a more creative title for the book? Was it really necessary to steal it from his first? And that's just the beginning of my bitchin' session... After The Kill Room which also failed in regards to the rest of the series, I am thinking this series is now dead. All the steam has gone out of the Lincoln Rhyme series, almost as if in tandem with the passing of my favorite villain, the Watchmaker (Rhyme reflects morosely on his passing in this novel). Perhaps someone can tell me if his Kathryn Dance novels have suffered the same fate since Deaver took a holiday from Rhyme between 2010 and 2013 to begin that series. And this instant mediocrity literally happened between #9 and #10 in the Rhyme series. Perhaps it's just writers fatigue with a series. I've seen it happen before (Connely has to be careful too, in this regard). [image] Deaver, unfortunately kept on writing the Rhyme series. Like the pre-Rhyme novels, the characters are now flatly drawn - we saw this happen in The Kill Room and we see it in The Skin Collector - the plot is a hopeless mess where for over three-quarters of the novel Deaver takes us along a poorly inked timeline, only to suddenly drop the entire plot structure and introduce a brand new plot hastily put together to save face and force a badly concocted surprise on the readers. Characterization and the associated psychology of the characters make no sense at all and isn't believable (No one collects skin! And perhaps Deaver should read some of his Scandinavian colleagues' work for a better insight into the psychology of humans involved in crime - as a matter of lost inspiration). And as my friend Yelena points out: "[the] narrative had contrived and forced set-ups; page after page of exposition." Well, you get the picture. As a painter, I have had it happen that 3/4 of the way through a painting I can't make it work. It's a luminous moment for an artist, knowing he's gone down the wrong path for a work of art. I get a little pissed. And then scrape all the paint off the canvass and go sulk in a corner somewhere wondering if I have enough money left to buy new oil paints. I think I'm done with Jeffery Deaver. -------------------------------------------- Series Review: I'm going to take a slightly different tack with this series review for the Lincoln Rhyme series. It is best explained as a personal journey where I've had to wade through some bad stuff, and some good stuff. It was also a journey hindered by both the publishers and the author. [image] Jeffery Deaver It started with the film The Bone Collector. That's how I learned about Deaver and his Lincoln Rhyme series. And since I'd already seen the movie, I didn't bother with the first novel in the series because when you're talking thriller/mystery half the fun is gone if you know the outcome. In any case, it was a personal decision to skip it: I jumped immediately into The Coffin Dancer and I was intrigued. Jeffery Deaver is the one author with that uncanny ability to develop plot twists and very complex characters that leave you stunned to the end. If you've seen the movie, trust me, the books are far more ingenious and developed as compared to what we were presented with on the silver screen. Reading his novels I am reminded to never commit a crime. The science has gotten too good. After reading the exploits of one serial killer, I moved on to the next one: The Empty Chair. Love, betrayal, distrust, animosity, coupled with dedication, science and a vengeance for justice moved this one along quite nicely (it pits Sachs vs. Rhyme). Having assimilated two novels so far in this series (I'm pretty sure the Bone Collector is as good, though I didn't read it), I began to see Deaver as this master at creating interesting and very unique villains (a bone collector, an insect boy...really?) His writing was astute, it took its time developing the serial characters that appear from book to book, and Deaver displayed an uncanny ability as to plot. I moved onto the next one The Ghost, and the next one after that; the enigmatic conjurer in The Vanished Man. So far so good. I'm pretty much gobbling up the novels at this point. You know the drill, munching on snacks, late night hours in bed, early mornings with a cigarette and coffee, during short breaks at work, in the car while in stopped traffic. Most who know me, know me to be a serial reader. I like really, really long stories that span mutiple books. I like to hang out with the characters from book to book. They're like family. It didn' take me long to get to where I needed to be. That's when I met the Watchmaker, perhaps Deaver's finest villain yet (IMO). Did I say I was devouring these books at this point? Yah, there's a point to that which I'll make shortly. I'd read The Twelfth Card and came up for air before attempting The Cold Moon in which the Watchmaker is featured. I mean, folks, when I got into that book, I was rooting for the Watchmaker! (As devious as Rhymes, if not more so!). Then The Broken Window came out and I began showing up a little late at work. Folks, if you think data mining and information gathering is a benign business, then follow along with Deaver as he shows you what havoc is created when data mining falls into the wrong hands. Scary. Or, have you read the news about what might happen if our electrical power grid is hacked? I'm sure Deaver read the articles. Let the author take you there in The Burning Wire. And right about then, something happens in Deaver's life. Not sure what it is. Wait, I do, he goes off on a tangent with the Kathryn Dance series...but no further Rhyme novel appeared until 2013: his The Kill Room. You can read my take on that one here. In this period, I too decided to see if he'd published stand-alones. I mean, they had to be good if the Rhyme series were any indication, right? And certainly a few of them (The Devil's Teardrop was highly acclaimed) I'd heard were good. I read a few of them...can't name them because they were that forgettable. It was as if I was reading a different author all together. Flat characters, ok dialogue, I mean...a couple of them I had to put out of their misery. Sad, sad. I just couldn't understand it. So, with a little digging I found out these were pre-Rhyme much older novels that had been republished by the publishers (I'm sure they were counting on sales on the back of the Rhyme novels' success). Nice shiny new covers, new art work and sucking up to the Rhyme series and the publication dates seemed to indicate they were recently written. My bad. I stopped reading Deaver. Then The Kill Room came out. At the time, the latest in the series. I couldn't resist. I knew it'd be good. All the other Rhyme novels were great so why not this one? And again, Deaver threw me for a loop. It was as if that younger less-accomplished author had come back from the dead. I gave the book a 3 rating, but perhaps I was being generous. Gone was the dynamic tension and empathy I had for the main characters...my family. Flat characterization, a dubious plot, a hurried ending, and the villain was just..."off". I tried my luck one more time and you can read that reaction above, at the top of this review. To potential readers of this series, don't let my journey dissuade you from reading some really great mystery/thriller novels. This is a great series up to the point mentioned; but a series that has, unfortunately, now fizzled. ...more |
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1
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not set
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Jul 04, 2014
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May 03, 2014
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Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 1849163847
| 9781849163842
| 1849163847
| 4.09
| 42,596
| 2009
| Jan 01, 2011
|
really liked it
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Book Review Categorized as mystery novel, Peter May’s The Blackhouse (#1 in The Lewis Trilogy) could just as easily fall within a coming-of-age mystery Book Review Categorized as mystery novel, Peter May’s The Blackhouse (#1 in The Lewis Trilogy) could just as easily fall within a coming-of-age mystery novel, or fall within what I call the “ethno-mystery” genre. Take Krueger’s Ordinary Grace, a brilliant stand-alone novel about a story of the murder of a beautiful young woman in 1961 Minnesota. The seed that drives the entire novel is this crime but Kreuger, a master craftsman of the novel, invites us to scrutinize the consequences of being unjustly removed from this earth as that applies to a young boy and his family. It is a coming-of-age story fueled by a mystery. Or, take the ethno-mystery genre. We’ve all read tantalizing mysteries set in locations and cultures about which we’re not necessarily fully informed. A good example might be Ferraris’s Finding Nouf. At its core lies a mystery and it falls within that genre, but any reader who is lucky enough to read the book will immediately find themselves embroiled in an ethnographic study of the culture of Saudi Arabia, and specifically the plight of women in such a society. And a very good ethno-mystery novel will not loose sight of the genre in which it finds itself. A very good writer will use the ethnography to establish the motivation, psychology and consequences behind the crime on which the book rests. This, as compared to a not so good mystery writer attempting this feat: where the culture detracts and distracts the author as he’s writing the novel, to the point the mystery reader begins to yawn and wonder why the author didn’t just write an academic paper. It’s difficult enough to write a mystery, let alone a coming-of-age story, as it is difficult to successfully incorporate ethnography seamlessly into a mystery plot. Well, image then an author willing to tackle all three! Peter May’s The Blackhouse is a great example of this rare type of novel. [image] Set on the Isle of Lewis, at the North west corner of the group of Islands known as the Hebrides, off Scottland, The Blackhouse opens with a grizzly murder scene: a disemboweled man is found hanging from the rafters in a boat house on the beach. What follows is an extraordinary journey into an ancient Gaelic culture (the isle has been populated for over 8,000 years and today speaks both Gaelic and English); fastidious in its “Free church” religious beliefs; its peat covered abodes where men and women live alongside eagles and otters; and where the labor of peat cutting, fishing, and tweed continue on to this day. In many ways, I am reminded in this novel of Viktor Arnar Ingólfsson’s The Flatey Enigma, a somber and macabre tale of an Icelandic culture faced with a gruesome, ancient-style murder (unlike The Blackhouse, that book is an example where I as a reader found myself stifling a few yawns as to Ingólfsson’s ethnographic details that distracted instead of embellished the story). The prominent clan on the Hebrides is a name we’re all familiar with: The MacLeods. And it warrants the main character’s surname be just that: Fin MacLeod. In his position, Fin who lives and works in Edinburg as a detective is ordered to the Isle of Lewis in order to aid the police investigation, particularly as he speaks Gaelic, knows the area, as well as reported similarities between this murder and one Fin’s currently investigation in Edinburg. As with most small towns, young people dream of escaping their small, isolated home town. And just so, Fin returns with measured anxiety as he was one of the few that escaped the Isle of Lewis some twenty years ago and has never returned until now. Peter May chooses to use the landscape to inform the reader about Fin’s state of mind as he steps onto the Isle of Lewis: ”The beach was bordered on the landward side by low, crumbling cliffs no more than thirty feet high, and at the far end the sand gave way to rocky outcrops that reached tentatively into the water, as if testing it for temperature.” And while tentatively entering a pub and pulling down a pint, who has not felt what Fin feels being back again? ”Now he was learning again how easy it was to be lonely in a crowd.” The longer Fin stays on the Isle of Lewis, the stronger becomes the pull to his Gaelic roots. His profession drives him to ask probing questions, the answers to which sometimes illuminate and sometimes darken his knowledge further. But most of the time, Fin has as many questions as he has answers. In this scene, Fin and officer Gunn are driving down a lonely road as Fin finds himself between having more questions than he has answers. While listening to officer Gunn a thought begins to form in Fin’s mind: and rather than the author stating this explicitly, the weather informs: ”Sunlight unexpectedly split the gloom, wipers smearing light with rain across the windscreen, a rainbow springing up out of the moor away to their left.” And right now it’s perhaps appropriate to mention that this is not a police procedural. In fact, the police rarely enter into the story except for at the beginning and end of the story, a sort of politic frame if you will. The driving force that ultimately leads to the killer is captured in Fin’s return to the island: his reacquaintance with family, friends, lover and foes that have haunted him his entire life while away from the island. His dark knowledge of the Isle of Lewis, his personal knowledge of all its inhabitants, his history with them is what leads to the resolution, and though informed by his profession as a policeman, it is not necessarily police work that leads him to the killer. [image] An Sgeir Infused with a savage climate, a somber populace, surrounded by ancient myths, the Isle of Lewis greets Fin as an allegorical Phoenix, symbolizing hope, rebirth, and renewal as it greets him with a fear tantamount to the plague. Brilliantly constructed in terms of characterization and the psychology of a people, Peter May leads us inexorably to Fin's final confrontation on the most savage place nature could provide: a massive and angry rock formation jutting out from a wild sea in the midst of a storm, miles from land: An Sgeir. -------------------------------------------------------------------- About the author [image] Peter May Peter May has a prolific career in writing, starting out at the age of 21 when he won the Scottish Journalist of the Year Award. But, Peter’s childhood dream was to be a novelist and that dream was accomplished at the young age of 26. That novel was to become a major BBC television drama series and that temporarily changed the direction of his writing career as he became one of Scotland’s most prolific and popular TV dramatists. With the approach of the new millennium May quit television and returned to his first love: novels. What is particularly interesting is the meticulous research May implements for his novels. For example, Peter spent 5 years on The Isle of Lewis, befriending its inhabitants and photographing the island and inhabitants as research for his novel The Blackhouse.He embarked on a series of thrillers which took him half-way across the world, to the land of China. There he made contacts and gained unprecedented access to the forensic science sections of Beijing and Shanghai police forces and studied the work of Chinese detectives and pathologists. His efforts won him Elle Magazine’s Best Crime Novel in 2005 and the Prix Polar International in 2008. His China thrillers feature Beijing detective Li Yan and a Forensic pathologist from Chicago, Margaret Campbell. China even made him an honorary member of their Chinese Crime Writer’s Association. There’s another MacLeod hero featured in his books. Enter Enzo MacLeod, a cold cases crime series set in France where the author lives. As a visitor myself to Second Life , I find it especially interesting that in researching his setting for the 2010 thriller Virtually Dead Peter May setup a virtual detective agency in Second Life, created his own avatar, Fick Faulds, and explored the metaverse: handling real Second Life investigations from paying clients (Second Life has its own denomination and yeah, it takes a credit card to convert dollars into their currency). Next came the Lewis trilogy. Interestingly enough, the British Isles were not impressed and all the major publishing houses (to their current dismay) rejected to publish his first in the series: The Blackhouse. It was France that hailed it as a masterpiece and it was in France that it was fist published which led to the Prix des Lecteurs and the world’s biggest adjudicated readers’ prizes, the Prix Cezam. Finally, an upstart publishing house in the UK (Quercus) published The Blackbook and the rest is history. The Lewis Series became an instant best-seller in the UK, France if not worldwide and finally landed on US shores to win the Barry Award for Best Mystery Novel in 2013. ...more |
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| 9780679742234
| 0679742239
| 3.99
| 10,420
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| Dec 01, 1992
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it was amazing
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Book Review As is sometimes true: I read books with common threads, one after the other, without fully realizing it. It was only while reading the 4th Book Review As is sometimes true: I read books with common threads, one after the other, without fully realizing it. It was only while reading the 4th in a series by Henning Mankell that I noticed I was reading a crime novel whose title remarked on the facial expressions of joy and laughter (Mankell's The Man Who Smiled) much as this novel I'd just finished reading did (the 4th in the Martin Beck series: The Laughing policeman). Did I deliberately choose these books for their evocative titles? I did not. They just happend to be the next in two series of books I've been reading. This, the fourth book featuring Stockholm Police Commissioner Martin Beck is probably the best known here in America due to a loosely-based movie adaptation with Walther Matthau in the main role. Many Scandinavian writers consider Per and Maj's Martin Beck novels as the series that sparked all subsequent Scandinavian crime series to come. Certainly, Henning Mankell did as he often makes references to this writing duo. And we can't escape the suspicion that Mankell's 4th in his Wallander series is precisely that: an homage to Per and Maj. Both book titles reflect on laughter or joyful expressions, both are written in a strict, realism style prose. Both are written as extensive police procedurals. Both are anything but joyful and reveal what perhaps might be a typical Nordic abhorrance to laughter. [image] Charles Penrose Perhaps Per and Maj's own enmity is revealed as the book makes direct references to The Laughing Policeman: a music hall song by Charles Jolly, the pseudonym of Charles Penrose. In 1922, Penrose made the first recording of this song, (Columbia Records FB 1184). The music and melody are taken from The Laughing Song by George W. Johnson which was recorded in approximately 1901. The Laughing Policeman is remembered today as it was remembered by this duo of authors in the few years leading up to the publication of this book in 1977. In the following scene, Beck receives a vinyl recording from his daughter Ingrid for Christmas: Martin Beck knew very little about music, but he heard at once that the recording must have been made in the twenties or even earlier. Each verse was followed by long bursts of laughter, which were evidently infectuous, as Inga and rolf and Ingrid howled in mirth. Martic Beck was left utterly cold. He couldn't even manage a smile. So as not to disappoint the others too much he got up and turned his back, pretending to adjust the candles on the tree. Let's face it, Beck isn't the endearing father we'd like for him to be: nor is he a good husband. His family leaves him cold. Or perhaps in the back of his mind he was reminded of the first clue in the case in which an unidentified man was identified by his proclivity to laughter: "There is nothing else? About that guy, I mean?" Nordin considered. At last he said, "He laughed. Loud." The man's face brightened at once. "Ah, I think I know. He laughs like this." Dieke opened his mouth and emitted a bleating sound, shrill and harsh as the cry of a snipe. Martin Beck is policeman prone to depression. In every novel he manifests flu-like symptoms that never waver or vary. He despises his family, has trouble sleeping. Phlegmatic, taciturn, introverted, he leads a joyless life and so it is with some finality that the last page of the novel has Beck finally succumbing to the inevitable as the clue they'd sought for weeks now had been in plain sight all along. When informed of this: Martin Beck made no reply. He just sat there with the receiver in hand. Then he began to laugh. Other aspects of this 4th in the Martin Beck series make it stand out above others. In terms of reading this as a crime novel, Jonathan Franzen who writes the foreword to this Beck novel remarks: I was exclusively reading great literature (Shakespeare, Kafka, Goethe), and although I could fogive Ekström's [a college roommate] for not understanding what a serious person I'd become, I had zero interest in opening a book with such a lurid cover [The Laughing Policeman, gifted to Franzen by Ekström]. It wasn't until several years later, on a morning when I was sick in bed and too weak to face the likes of Faulkner or Henry James, that I happened to pick up the little paperback again. And how perfectly comforting The Laughing Policeman turned out to be! Franzen means to give kudos to Per and Maj's novel and much of what he writes in his foreword is appreciative. But, the above also contains a certain condescension towards the crime-genre as not being equal to great literature, a point many crime authors will vehemently protest. Ian Rankin rightly dismisses the supposed dichotomy between crime fiction and "literary" fiction as a red herring. I think crime fiction should be taken seriously. I don't think it's any longer about a little puzzle that you read on a train on the way to somewhere and when you're finished it's done and you've not gleaned anything except you've had a nice time solving a puzzle. Reading the reviews here on Goodreads it is plain to me that many readers do not distinguish between the sub-genres inherent in crime novels (especially in the Wallander series, which are inspired by Per and Maj). The Martin Beck series as with the Wallander series are a series of police procedurals. In a police procedural, it is not about who did it as this is often known near the beginning. It is about why the murder was committed. And how this reason is made clear to a police team. A police procedural focuses on tedious tasks, on beaurocracy, reveals social issues, and concentrates on systemic, rather than individual, dysfunction. In fact, though Martin Beck makes occasional entrances in this novel, the book is primarily about his colleagues Lennart Kollberg and Åke Stenström. It is Kollberg who does most of the work. It is Kollberg's Socialist politics, his disdain for guns, his sexual proclivities which are at the forefront of this novel. And, as readers of this series know well, Beck despises Kollberg. So, to enjoy crime novels but to dislike and complain about a crime novel such as this or Mankell's because it reveals who did it, or because it contains detailed explanations of investigative techniques, or reveals hours if not weeks of boredom, and that the book does not revolve around the main character, while simultaneously ignoring that what you're reading is a police procedural is only indicative of the fact that you don't like police procedurals and that you're a detective/mystery genre reader. It is a comparison between apples and oranges. In my opinion, this is one of the best police procedurals I've ever read (the best in this series so far) and it does represent great literature. As the Los Angeles Book Review states: Far from having "wedded the satisfying simplicities of genre fiction to the tragicomic spirit of great literature," as Franzen proposes, Sjöwall and Wahlöö are among those who show that, in the hands of visionary and capable writers, crime fiction can simply be great literature. The only transcendence required is the reader's. Here's a link to my review of Mankell's The Man Who Smiled. ------------------------------------------------- Series Review [image] Per Wahlöö and Maj Sjöwall Two writers from the left, without too much argument, started it all where it concerns crime fiction in Scandinavia (the books were written in the sixties). Jo Nesbo considers this team of writers the Godfathers of Scandinavia crime fiction. Henning Mankell perhaps the most famous Nordic writer of them all often makes references to Per and Maj as having influenced his work. In the words of Barry Forsaw whose Death in a Cold Climate: a Guide to Scandinavian Crime Fiction serves as the Bible for Nordic readers says of these authors: "Their continuing influence (since the death of Per Wahlöö) remains prodigious." Briefly: Wahlöö was born in Tölö parish, Kungsbacka Municipality, Halland. After his studies, from 1946 onwards he worked as a crime reporter. After long trips around the world he returned to Sweden and started working as a journalist again. He had a 13 year relationship with his colleague Maj Sjöwall but never married. Both were Marxists.He has been married to Inger Wahlöö, née Andersson. He was brother to Claes Wahlöö. He died of cancer at Malmö in 1975, aged 48. His work (independent of his collaboration with Maj on the Martin Beck series) primarily consists of his Dictatorship series and the two novels featuring Inspector Jensen. Maj Sjöwall is a Swedish author and translator. She is best known for the collaborative work with her partner Per Wahlöö on a series of ten novels about the exploits of Martin Beck, a police detective in Stockholm. In 1971, the fourth of these books, The Laughing Policeman (a translation of Den skrattande polisen, originally published in 1968) won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Novel.They also wrote novels separately. Until recently, it was considered a scandal that publishing houses offered no translations of these two highly influential authors. But as the Nordic crime wave hit British and American soil (beginning in the nineties), this egregious blot on the reputation of publishers was finally remedied...albeit late in the game. There were simply too many crime writers that cited Per and Maj as the fountain head of the socially committed crime novel. Yet one more example that everything starts at the grass roots level and then filters up into the corporate halls of publishing. Although not as prevelant as in the work of Per Wahlöö (see my review of Murder on the Thirty-first Floor), the left wing ideological views of the pair are common knowledge and can be viewed as interspersed throughout their famous Martin Beck series. I've often spoken in my reviews of Nordic fiction that aside from being excellent and compelling reads in the mystery genre, Nordic writers on the whole use this genre based platform to comment on sociopolitical issues of the day as that takes place in the Scandinavian countries. For their time, this pair of authors were considered the pioneers of this authorial attitude. Now before you decide to forego this excellent series based on the Marxist ideology of its authors, let me assure you that Per and Maj's views at no point interfere with your appreciation of a good mystery novel. It might be said that their edgy point of view may be considered less important than the telling of a good tale. This too, is a hallmark of Scandinavian crime fiction: sociopolitical commentary never overshadows the story itself (though I would argue that in Per's novels written alone, this might not be the case). For an understanding of the realism of their work within Scandinavian crime fiction as married to their political attitudes, I highly recommend a reading of these two authors, together, as well as (in the case of Per) his own novels. ...more |
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| 1565849930
| 9781565849938
| 1565849930
| 3.95
| 25,243
| 1994
| Sep 19, 2006
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it was amazing
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Book Review The second review of two crime novels whose titles hint at laughter and joy, Mankell's novel The Man Who Smiled is in my opinion the best t Book Review The second review of two crime novels whose titles hint at laughter and joy, Mankell's novel The Man Who Smiled is in my opinion the best to date in the Wallander series. In the first review, we discovered the significance of how morose Martin Beck finally came to emit a burst of laughter in the last paragraph of that novel: The Laughing Policeman. I find this significant. Let's face it: laughter, joy, humor, these are not exactly the words I would describe as pertinent to Nordic crime novels (with the possible exception of Jussi Adler-Olson's Department Q novels). Granted, some of the humor is lost in tranlation, as Jo Nesbo recently stated in an interview here on Goodreads. And as I mentioned in the Martin Beck novel of similar title, my reading these two novels in succession is entirely accidental. It just so happened that I found myself reading two scandinavian crime novels whose titles revolved around laughter even though the titles were not part of my selection process at all. I read series novels in succession, holding to the belief that authors who write series have a reason for doing so, and that one follows after the other especially in terms of ongoing character development and plot. To read them out of sequence is to miss key aspects of the ongoing story line. It's like arriving late to a meeting only to ask questions already discussed during one's absence. And it just so happened that #4 in both of these series were next in my queue. Do I think the similarity in titles between Per/Maj and Mankell's 4th in the respective series are coincidental? No, I do not. I believe this novel is Mankell's homage to the 4th in the Beck series and that the title is deliberate. Even though I've given this novel high ratings I do want to disclose something up front. Throughout the novel I was puzzled by the notion of a policeman so distraught about having to use his service revolver - one that ended up killing a criminal - that he left his police career and wandered a beach for weeks on end in obvious emotional pain. Clearly, any American policeman would frown at the notion. Here the police is trained to use their weapon, and though counseling is offered for any rightuous shooting, most policemen here would not leave their jobs as a result of having used their weapon. But, after some internal reflection I found that I, like our fictituous average American policeman, suffer from an ignorance of Scandinavia. [image] Cover of Singing Sands, a Tey novel...but what I imagine as Wallendar, walking across a lonely beach As we saw in my first review, we find that Kollberg in that Martin Beck novel is a hard-core socialist, does not believe in guns and as a result doesn't carry one in his position as a police detective. Perhaps back then, this was doable. And certainly as a crime novel this tendency served to only accentuate violent crime and the apprehension of perpetrators for the purposes of writing a crime novel. The Martin Beck novels were written some 50 years ago, when Scandinavia was relatively peaceful, non-violent, and the countries did not suffer from later infiltration of crime families and consequent crimes that include gun smuggling, drugs and human trafficking, if not the threat of terrorism itself. In his Wallander novels, Mankell clearly carries over some of these concepts from the Per and Maj novels, infusing into Wallander's character socialist tendencies (though to a lesser degree) even though these novels were written some 30 years later. In general, most Scandinavian countries today are still known as benign, social democratic wellfare states. Ystad, where most of the Wallander novels take place is still relatively peaceful, even though hints of organized crime that are already tangible in larger cities like Stockholm are beginning to filter down to smaller locales like Ystad. Service revolvers in Ystad are often found in desk drawers, rather than on the detective's person when out investigating crime. Second, Wallander's character is such that facts are easily digested by this policeman, whereas emotional consequences are not (unlike the Martin Beck series). I relegate the cause for this to the writers themselves. In the Martin Beck series, we have police procedurals written by Marxists. Emotion is downgraded, social issues upgraded, statist policies encouraged as they are applied to the masses instead of to individuals and all of it accompanied by economic vitriol of anything that smacks of capitalism: namely individual success and wealth are the result of greed. Henning Mankell is not like Beck's authors in this regard. Mankell is a humanitarian. Aside from his career as a writer, his personal life is heavily involved with his emotional ties to disenfranchised third world countries (Africa, mainly) and his view of their inhabitants is one of indivduals, not the masses. Henning Mankel is an emotional man...and consequently, so is Wallander. Firing his service pistol and killing another human being stands against everything both writer and protagonist represent. Come to think of it: high crimes, violence and a large portion of citizens incarcerated seems to be a peculiar American phenomenon and I'm not sure how well that speaks of us as a so-called free nation (another discussion). As I said: the coincidence in similar titles is no coincidence at all. Aside from the similar title Per and Maj gave The Laughing Policeman, Mankell here gives us a phenomonal police procedural (my first 5 star rating for a Wallander novel) that revolves around the idea of wiping the smile off the face of a suspected criminal. In the case of The Laughing Policeman laughter is a response to futility and exasperation. In the case of The Man Who Smiled laughter when expressed as contempt for the disenfranchised must be wiped out. Wallander is not a humerous man and he is not prone to laughter. Scandinavia frowns rather than laughs at life. Like Beck, he has trouble connecting to family. Like Beck he is morose, cannot sleep, is lonely, and is often ill at ease with his colleagues. Like the Beck novel we know who the perpetrator is early on. The Man Who Smiled also speaks to a systemic dysfunction on police teams. It speaks to the unenviable boredom and tediousness that incorporates a police team's daily work. Unlike Beck, however, Wallander is driven by emotion: by loyalty and compassion and outrage. ----------------------------------------------------- Series Review Henning Mankell is an internationally known Swedish crime writer known mostly for this fictional character Kurt Wallander. He is married to Eva Bergman. [image] Henning Mankell - Author It might be said that the fall of communism and the consequent increase in Swedish immigration and asylum seekers has been the engine that drives much of Swedish crime fiction. Mankell's social conscience, his cool attitude towards nationalism and intolerance is largely a result of the writer's commitment to helping the disadvantaged (see his theater work in Africa). In this vein, readers might be interested in his stand-alone novel Kennedy's Brain a thriller set in Africa and inspired by the AIDS epidemic (Mankell often traveled to Africa to help third world populations); or read his The Eye of the Leopard, a haunting novel juxtaposing a man's coming of age in Sweden and his life in Zambia. Mankell's love of Africa, his theater work on that continent, and his exploits in helping the disadvantaged is not generally known by his American readers. In fact, an international news story that has largely gone unnoticed is that while the world watched as Israeli soldiers captured ships attempting to break the Gaza blockade, few people are aware that among the prisoners of the Israelis was one of the world's most successful and acclaimed writers: Henning Mankell. [image] It is no exaggeration when I say that Henning Mankell is by far one of the most successful writers in Scandinavia, especially in his own country of Sweden. The Nordic weather, cold to the bones, drives its populace indoors for much of the year where cuddling up to read the latest in crime fiction is a national pastime. For many GR readers who have been introduced to Kurt Wallander it is interesting to note that ultimately the success of bringing Mankell to English speaking audiences only came after bringing in the same production company responsible for Steig Larsson's Millennium trilogy for the wildly popular BBC version starring Kenneth Branagh. Viewers had no problem with an anglicized version of Mankell's work, an English speaking cast set down in a genuine Swedish countryside. Of course, to those fans thoroughly familiar with Mankell's work, it is the Swedish televised version that is found to be a more accurately portrayal of Mankell's novels...not the British, sensationalized version. And there's a reason for that. Henning's prose is straightforward, organized, written mostly in linear fashion, a straightforward contract with the reader. It is largely quantified as police procedural work. The work of men who are dogged and patient to a fault. Kurt Wallander, the hero in Mankell's novels, is the alter ego of his creator: a lonely man, a dogged policeman, a flawed hero, out of shape, suffering from headaches and diabetes, and possessing a scarred soul. Understandably so and if some of the GR reviews are an indication; like his famous father-in-law Ingmar Bergman, Mankell is from a country noted for its Nordic gloom. But before you make the assumption that this is yet another addition to the somberness and darkness that characterizes Nordic writing Mankell often confounds this cliche with guarded optimism and passages crammed with humanity (for Mankell, this is true both personally and professionally as a writer). As Americans we often think of Sweden as possessing an very open attitude towards sex and that this is in marked contrast (or perhaps reprieve) to the somber attitudes of its populace. But this is a view that often confounds Swedish people. The idea of Nordic carnality is notably absent in Mankell's work, as much a statement of its erroneous perception (Swedes do not see themselves as part of any sexual revolution at all) and in the case of Mankell ironic because the film director most responsible for advancing these explicit sexual parameters (for his time) was his own father-in-law the great Ingmar Bergman. In a world where Bergman moves in a universe where characters are dark, violent, extreme and aggressive - take note that the ultimate root of this bloody death and ennui lies in the Norse and Icelandic Viking sagas of Scandinavian history - that dark, somber view ascribed to both Mankell and Bergman's work was often a topic of intense jovial interest between these two artists. For any reader of Nordic crime fiction, Henning Mankell is an immensely popular and staple read. Enjoy! ...more |
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Jan 11, 2014
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Jan 11, 2014
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Hardcover
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| 1611762391
| 9781611762396
| 1611762391
| 4.06
| 26,736
| Nov 10, 2010
| Dec 31, 2013
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it was amazing
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Book Review: "I'm good enough!" Carl nodded to himself. He was in no doubt she had been. Once. And so ends the story of Nete, a woman we see upon open Book Review: "I'm good enough!" Carl nodded to himself. He was in no doubt she had been. Once. And so ends the story of Nete, a woman we see upon opening the book as holding a cool delicate champagne glass in her delicate fingers, who relished the hum of voices, gazed fondly upon the palette of colorful evening gowns and proud figures and the light hand of her husband at her waist. A woman for whom the laughter of such people has since long gone. Without a doubt, Jussi Adler-Olson has stepped into the rarefied circle of top Scandinavian writers with this latest addition to his Department Q novels. This is a story that will shock you in profound ways. It is also a book that with a stroke of genius delivers the very antithesis of shock: it will have you tear up with unavoidable laughter. [image] Nete's story, a cold case delivered onto Carl MØrck's desk, will haunt readers for a long time following the reading of this novel. I still think of her in spite of the fact that I'm well into my current novel by another author. I think about how on earth it was possible for human beings to treat others as Nete was treated by the Danish mental healthcare system: a place for women who were not good enough. Careful not to editorialize, Adler-Olson scrutinizes his country's touchy affiliation with Nazi tactics (ergo, Scandinavia's moral and political implications following their so-called neutrality during and after the war), particularly where it concerns genetics and the extermination of unwanted offspring by doctors providing abortions on unwilling female patients. In The Purity of Vengeance we find the echoes of Sweden's Alva Myrdal who following her Novel Peace Prize for her work on nuclear disarmament was tarnished (rightly or wrongly) by revelations that her views on population control and social engineering were not so different from war time Germany. Adler-Olson makes all this painfully concrete through his haunting presentation of Nete's life. Having said the above, Adler-Olson is certainly not without a sense of humor (unusual for Nordic writers). This is the fourth in his Department Q series and the ongoing saga of detective superintendent Carl MØrck and his two assistants Assad and Rose will have you peeling away in laughter: particularly in this fourth book. The mystery behind Assad's life continues to be explored by both Rose and MØrck. Allegiances between this threesome continually shift as in turn, MØrck and Assad walk on pins and needles wondering if Rose's alter ego will make her appearance (see previous novels in this series). I cannot overemphasize the stroke of genius with which Adler-Olson provides his treatment of these characters. In the world of police procedurals, Adler-Olson is second to none in terms of presenting his characterization of a police department continually at odds with itself, and do it in the most delightful manner. I do not recommend reading this series out of order as the characterization builds from one novel to the other. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Series Review: [image] Jussi Adler-Olson Jussi Adler-Olsen was born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1950. Known for his 3 stand-alones (The alphabet House, The Company Basher, and Washington Decree and the famous Department Q novels his popularity in Denmark has finally migrated over to the U.S. All Department Q novels are set in Denmark and reveal the writings of an author intensely interested in criticizing politics while simultaenously being agnostic to parties in general. Not that this is any great revelation as for the most part politics is the mainstay of most European dinner table conversations. On this topic of politics, the author says: "If you with that ask me whether I'm critical of the political system, then yes. If you ask me whether I have a tendency to defend party-political opinions, then no. My agenda political wise is firstly to criticize regardless of what is to criticize, and no matter what the basis of view is, and secondly to appeal to the politicians in power that they should understand that they are our servants and not our masters, and that they first and foremost on their fields of activity should learn to acknowledge mistakes and to evaluate their own actions." Through his protagonist Carl MØrck, a lone detective absconded to the basement of police headquarters, heading a cold case department of one, and for all the world a detective ostracized for his unsociable and arrogant manner we bump head-on into the political machinations of Denmark's finest if not the corruption of a government beyond. Not that corruption threatens to take over the story. The author is careful about that: It's all about having and keeping empathy. If you have this ability in your writings, it will never be the corruption in itself that is the story's starting point, but the people and the relations that the corruption affects. It is as simple as that! If you want to be a writer, you have to learn to turn everything upside down. Born a son to a father with a psychiatric degree and living on the premises of such mental institutions a good portion of his life, Jussi Adler-Olsen has developed a keen insight into a human's boundlessness, self-centeredness if not the degree to which human beings can succumb to a lack of affection. If it wasn't for these issues, there wouldn't be any thriller novels in the world. And the consequences of these character flaws give me a lot to work with. Revenge, strive for justice, and insanity. As with most Nordic thrillers (Jo Nesbo, Henning Mankell, Larson, etc), there's a certain ennui that pervades the populace. Perhaps that is due to the unique form of Scandinavian democracy that today seems to be under siege by more globalistic tendencies, a slight leaning to the right that highly values the individual instead of the public society so prominent in Scandinavian countries. As with these other thriller writers, we view a somber if not morose society...practical, but not affluent in that affection mentioned by the author. We have had a very negative and sad period, but the right to criticize and reject bad ideas in their unblemished form still holds. And there is no other place on earth, in my opinion, that uses this right as frequently and thoughtfully, which I'm proud of. But what is it about novels that is captivating readers across the globe? I can only speak for myself. As always, translations must be kept in mind and my hat's off to those who attempt to translate a foreign language into English. It is an art in and of itself. Especially when one considers that it is possible to have thoughts in one language that are not possible in another. Being bilingual myself, I still wrestle with certain idioms not available to me when communicating in English. In this sense, Lisa Hartford does an excellent job in her translation from Danish to English. Indeed, in terms of immediate and enduring attention grabbing, Adler-Olsen is in the Chandler class. As with most European and Scandinavian mystery/crime novels, the causation behind the crime is usually a simple event rationalized by an unhealthy mind. I love this about Nordic thrillers...how we are brought to fully understand motivation as part of the unravelling of a mystery. You could say that this is exactly what is wrong with Hollywood where everything is sensationalized, instead of sprung forth out of ordinary life. Junior Detective Superintendent Carl MØrck has a brilliant mind and as is usually the case, brilliance inspires envy, and envy destroys achievements. The way Jussi Adler-Olsen portrays this within the Danish police force cannot be dismissed. Ever critical, he has created a character both perfectly ordinary as well as constantly critical of everything set before him. There is a quiet humor behind the man who has no qualms about doing nothing but placing his feet on his desk and complain that he is too busy...until of course he becomes interested at which point he becomes a Danish bloodhound. The plots are exquisite, driven not by the unveiling of a carefully kept ending held close to the chest by the author (I've read reviews where some partially dismiss this author for guessing the who-dun-it half way through) but rather by the unveiling of the true motivation behind the crime which gives the reader an entirely different satisfaction. Cold cases are tough and most of them are not solved. But, as Adler-Olson says: It's all about having and keeping empathy. Enjoy! ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jan 2014
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Jan 07, 2014
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Jan 01, 2014
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Audio CD
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| 0670015784
| 9780670015788
| 0670015784
| 4.28
| 9,638
| Oct 17, 2013
| Oct 17, 2013
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it was amazing
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Book Review: Sidled up and in between the major Walt Longmire novels, Johnson frequently publishes novellas and short stories featuring the steadfast h Book Review: Sidled up and in between the major Walt Longmire novels, Johnson frequently publishes novellas and short stories featuring the steadfast hero Walt Longmire: sheriff of Wyoming's fictional Absaroka County. Spirit of Steamboat, numerically sequenced as #9.1 is the latest in this series of novellas. Aside from the Dick Francis's novels I don't know of any other author writing in this genre who portrays a hero as bound by rational thought, steadfast ethics, and likability as does Craig Johnson. This is the kind of adventure story that I'd imagine myself reading to listeners by a fireplace where every word inspires heroism, goodness, and a profound anxiety on the part of the listener (or reader) to have Walt survive the experience. This is a story of a woman who wishes to express gratitude and of how one accepts that gratitude when dished out, or not. This novella features the former sheriff of Absaroka County and Walt, the current sheriff. It is a gripping tale where the reader hangs on every passage, following the deadly flight of Steamboat, an old and deemed a not-safe-to-fly B-52 airplane on a rescue mission through a horrifying snow blizzard, in effect risking a handful of lives in an effort to save one life. [image] Telling great stories is what Craig Johnson does best. Those who have read my reviews and taken me up on reading this series will no doubt agree: reading a Johnson novel, novella, or short story is a great reading experience second to none. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Series Review [image] Craig Johnson Craig Johnson has written nine novels in his Walt Longmire series. Formerly a police officer; he has also worked as a educator, cowboy and longshoreman. Awards include Tony Hillerman Award, Wyoming Historical Society Award, Wyoming Councl for the Arts Award, as well as numerous starred awards. Johnson was also a board member of the Mystery Writers' of America. Craig Johnson as an artist, as a man who paints with words ascribes to the essential characteristic of what makes art different from anything else: only it can portray the world as the artist thinks it ought to be as opposed to how it is. "Now a days, it's really hard to distinguish the good guys from the bad guys..." he says in an interview. "But Walt's a pretty good guy...the kinda guy if my car slithered off the road on I-80 in a blizzard, he's the guy I'd want to help me out." Johnson admits to portraying Walt Longmire, the hero in this award-winning series, as "The kinda guy my wife says I want to be in about 10 years." Starting from his choice of book title all the way to the final period at the end of the book Johnson's prose fills the reader's soul with a longing for the good. And where else is one to find it but in the fictional county of Absaroka, Wyoming and it's Sheriff Walt Longmire. As with the work of William Kent Krueger Johnson introduces readers to the Western concept of cowboys and indians. Growing up in the Netherlands, I read till late in the night the wildly popular series Winnetou and Old Shatterhand (not available in the States). When playing outside 6000 miles away from American soil, it wasn't cops and robbers we played, it was cowboys and indians. It was this image of America I held in my mind as a 12 year old boy standing on the deck of the U.S.S. Rotterdam as we sailed into New York Harbor and waited in the lines of Ellis Island to be granted access to my boyhood dreams. Unlike older western novels, however, Johnson brings this cultural diversity into the 20th century and without delving into multi-culturalism brings us to that mystical nether region between the two where native american and white man meet each other half-way. Johnson's aim is at portraying a fictional world as it should be and this includes diversity. Henry, a native american is Walt's best friend. The indian community stands ready to aid the law, helps the white man bring justice regardless of race, color or creed. Walt Longmire, in a hallucinatory fit, dances with the Cheyenne spirits who guide him to safety in the midst of a devastating blizzard even though the unconscious man slung over his shoulders is a perpatrator against a Native American woman. Walt does not question his sanity afterwards. Craig Johnson's world is one we might all long for...and isn't that the purpose of art? Too often I read book reviews where the reviewers seem to place verisimilitude above fiction. In my opinion, if you want reality, if you want to read about the way things are, then view a documentary, read a biography, check out reality TV. This is fiction, and if an author changes reality to suit his notion for the book, so be it... For some, the first in the series moves along a bit slowly...but to them I would say: give this writer time to paint his world as he sees fit. Books that concentrate on rural settings often have the advantage of highlighting the human condition in startling clarity. Distractions such as are found in urban settings removed, we see good and evil and compassion in a more profound way. Wyoming's Absaroka County gives us this magnifying glass. I found the plot intriguing and the ending second-to-none. Truly, the titles are well chosen in these novels. There's a huge fan base for Johnson's work out there. A fan base that is after values, the good kind. I'm reminded of my daughter's fascination with Taylor Swift, whose millions of fans adulate her for precisely the same reason: her vision of 'the good'. There is a Renaissance occurring in a real world that at best can be portrayed as lost in the grey fog of compromised values; a Renaissance that has caught the attention of not only our youth, but all ages. And they are telling us what they want. There's a reason A&E's Longmire series has been approved for Season #2. The first season sported A&E's #1 original-series premier of all time with 4.1 million total viewers. I plan to read this entire series and after that, I plan to view the A&E series (hopefully on Netflix where it is not yet available for down-streaming). Johnson, remarking on the television series agrees that he is 100% on board as the televised version is keeping very close to the books. Unless there is a drastic divergence in subsequent Longmire novels, this review will be the same for all the Walt Longmire books. Enjoy! ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Oct 27, 2013
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Oct 29, 2013
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Oct 27, 2013
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Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 0679745971
| 9780679745976
| 0679745971
| 3.83
| 9,373
| 1966
| Jun 29, 1993
|
really liked it
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Book Review With an introduction by VaL McDermid (she of the famous Tony Hill and Carol Jordan series). And if you haven't ever seen the BBC America te Book Review With an introduction by VaL McDermid (she of the famous Tony Hill and Carol Jordan series). And if you haven't ever seen the BBC America televised series Wire In The Blood (available on Netflix as well) and if you like psycholigical serial killer dramas, than this an absolute must-see. The show is excellent! McDermid writes: So many of the elements that have become integral to the point of cliche in the police procedural subgenre started life in these ten novels. [...] The books of Per Wahlöö and Maj Sjöwall are different. Although they are generally referred to as the Martin Beck novels, they're not really about an individual. They're ensemble pieces. (with a equally important supporting cast). Beck's not a genius, not a solo artist (as up to then police procedurals tended to cast), not glamorous, nor does he solve crimes by simply lifting an eyebrow. He's none of these things, McDermid writes. He's a driven, middle aged dyspeptic whose marriage slowly disintegrates during the series. [...]He's also something of an idealist whose job forces him to confront the gulf between what should exist in an ideal world and what exists in actuality. [...] But more than this, he is part of a team, each member of which is a fully realized character.[...] And there is their interest in the philosophical aspects of crime. [image] It might be interesting to note that at the time (1960s) Per Wahlöö and Maj Sjöwall, in turn, were heavily influenced, by several other writers, most notably by the American writer Ed McBain. And speaking of influences, it is well known that this pair of authors were the primary influence for Henning Mankell's work a few decades later (Mankell writes the introduction for the first in the Martin Beck series). In The Man Who Went Up In Smoke we can see close similarities between Mankell's novel Dogs of Riga, and this much earlier novel. Both detectives (Wallander and Beck) are driven, both find themselves outside of their element (and their team at home), both take place in eastern bloc countries, both feature detectives whose personal lives are going to hell, both comment philosophically on the sociopolitical environment they encounter: in the case of Mankell, it is Riga, Latvia. In the case of Beck, it is Budapest. Of the two novels, this and Mankell's, I consider The Man Who Went Up In Smoke to be the superior one. First of all, Beck definitely has a hand in solving the crime whereas in The Dogs of Riga Wallander sort of stumbles onto it. Second, Per Wahlöö and Maj Sjöwall are edgier especially as to their leftist musings. Not that this is apparent to the average American reader. You have to be alert to find the Marxist crumbs sprinkled here and there. For example, in the below passage, Beck is doing a bit of research on the plane to Budapest,as he reads several pamphlets: The leaflet was published by the German journalist's union and dealt with the Springer concern, one of the most powerful newspaper and magazine publishers in West Germany, and its chief, Axel Springer. It gave examples of the company's menacing fascist politics and quoted several of its more prominent contributors. For Marxists like Per Wahlöö and Maj Sjöwall any conservative, right wing publication (and the Springer publishing house was right wing), is by its nature fascist (although given it's West Germany post Nazism, there may be some truth to the statement). Now, if you really want to read novels that espouse Marxist idealogy (the Beck series are tame by comparison), read Per Wahlöö's novels written by himself. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and the decalogue of Martin Beck novels should be required reading for anyone who enjoys police procedurals. The plots are exquisite, the writing near perfection. Enjoy! For a previous review on the first in this series: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/... -------------------------------------------------------------- Series Review [image] Per Wahlöö and Maj Sjöwall Two writers from the left, without too much argument, started it all where it concerns crime fiction in Scandinavia (the books were written in the sixties). Jo Nesbo considers this team of writers the Godfathers of Scandinavia crime fiction. Henning Mankell perhaps the most famous Nordic writer of them all often makes references to Per and Maj as having influenced his work. In the words of Barry Forsaw whose Death in a Cold Climate: a Guide to Scandinavian Crime Fiction serves as the Bible for Nordic readers says of these authors: "Their continuing influence (since the death of Per Wahlöö) remains prodigious." Briefly: Wahlöö was born in Tölö parish, Kungsbacka Municipality, Halland. After his studies, from 1946 onwards he worked as a crime reporter. After long trips around the world he returned to Sweden and started working as a journalist again. He had a 13 year relationship with his colleague Maj Sjöwall but never married. Both were Marxists.He has been married to Inger Wahlöö, née Andersson. He was brother to Claes Wahlöö. He died of cancer at Malmö in 1975, aged 48. His work (independent of his collaboration with Maj on the Martin Beck series) primarily consists of his Dictatorship series and the two novels featuring Inspector Jensen. Maj Sjöwall is a Swedish author and translator. She is best known for the collaborative work with her partner Per Wahlöö on a series of ten novels about the exploits of Martin Beck, a police detective in Stockholm. In 1971, the fourth of these books, The Laughing Policeman (a translation of Den skrattande polisen, originally published in 1968) won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Novel.They also wrote novels separately. Until recently, it was considered a scandal that publishing houses offered no translations of these two highly influential authors. But as the Nordic crime wave hit British and American soil (beginning in the nineties), this egregious blot on the reputation of publishers was finally remedied...albeit late in the game. There were simply too many crime writers that cited Per and Maj as the fountain head of the socially committed crime novel. Yet one more example that everything starts at the grass roots level and then filters up into the corporate halls of publishing. Although not as prevelant as in the work of Per Wahlöö (see my review of Murder on the Thirty-first Floor), the left wing ideological views of the pair are common knowledge and can be viewed as interspersed throughout their famous Martin Beck series. I've often spoken in my reviews of Nordic fiction that aside from being excellent and compelling reads in the mystery genre, Nordic writers on the whole use this genre based platform to comment on sociopolitical issues of the day as that takes place in the Scandinavian countries. For their time, this pair of authors were considered the pioneers of this authorial attitude. Now before you decide to forego this excellent series based on the Marxist ideology of its authors, let me assure you that Per and Maj's views at no point interfere with your appreciation of a good mystery novel. It might be said that their edgy point of view may be considered less important than the telling of a good tale. This too, is a hallmark of Scandinavian crime fiction: sociopolitical commentary never overshadows the story itself (though I would argue that in Per's novels written alone, this might not be the case). For an understanding of the realism of their work within Scandinavian crime fiction as married to their political attitudes, I highly recommend a reading of these two authors, together, as well as (in the case of Per) his own work. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Aug 21, 2013
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Aug 25, 2013
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Aug 21, 2013
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Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 0679772936
| 9780679772934
| 0679772936
| 3.85
| 1,102
| 1996
| Nov 1997
|
really liked it
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Book Review This novel is actually a reversal of what we've come to expect of the Burke novels. We know he's a hunter of pedophiles, sadists and abuser Book Review This novel is actually a reversal of what we've come to expect of the Burke novels. We know he's a hunter of pedophiles, sadists and abusers of women and children and starting with Flood (Burke #1), Burke's first client (Vachss often entitles his books after the lead female character that captures Burke's heart in one way or another), we have been served up with brutal paths that lead towards Burke's kind of justice: revenge. [image] The personal Star Chamber In this, we find Burke on the other side of the table: working with a lawyer to dispute false allegations of sexual abuse made by children and adults with sexual abuse in their history. Also, unlike the previous novels where the storyline is maintained with sociopolitical commentary kept to a minimum, for the first time we catch Vachss's work in action as a lawyer. Though fascinating in that we are educated as to the psycholigical testing that need be applied for the courts, I do think that in this one it slightly detracted from the storyline. Having said that: the before mentioned exposition does set one up for an unexpected and cautorizing turn towards the end of the story. As always (and certainly for me) I love the anti PC dialogue...for example we find a citizen wandering into one of Burke's favorite hang-outs, a boot leg music store: "Do you have a No Smoking section?" a guy in a denim shirt asked, frowning at the Prof lighting up. "Yeah," Boot told him. "It's right out front. Under the lamppost." One of the things I love about Vachss's writing style is the constant bombardment of witty if not raw metaphors. Here Burke sits next to a kid on the subway: "I found a seat next to a white kid with the sides of his head shaved but center-parted long hair flopping down each side of his narrow face. He had a pair of headphones tight on his head but I could still hear the bass line pounding through. He was nodding to himself, playing Russian roulette with his eardrums." Get ready for some devastating condemnations, especially towards the field of psychiatry, social workers, case workers, judges, and lawyers...as in this novel we gain some fascinating insights into societal edicts to deal with sexual abuse. In Vachss's words: "For the child, for the putatively abused child, every single caseworker is a personal Star Chamber." --------------------------------------------------------- Series Review Before becoming a lawyer, Vachss has held many front-line positions in child protection. He was a federal investigator in sexually transmitted diseases, and a New York City social-services caseworker. He worked in Biafra, entering the war zone just before the fall of the country. There he worked to find a land route to bring donated food and medical supplies across the border after the seaports were blocked and Red Cross airlifts banned by the Nigerian government; however, all attempts ultimately failed, resulting in rampant starvation. After he returned and recovered from his injuries, including malaria and malnutrition, Vachss studied community organizing in 1970 under Saul Alinsky. He worked as a labor organizer and ran a self-help center for urban migrants in Chicago. He then managed a re-entry program for ex-convicts in Massachusetts, and finally directed a maximum-security prison for violent juvenile offenders. [image] Children of the Secret Vachss, as an attorney, represents exclusively children and adolescents. In addition to his private practice, he serves as a law guardian in New York state. In every child abuse or neglect case, state law requires the appointment of a law guardian, a lawyer who represents the child's interests during the legal proceedings. Vachss coined the phrase "Children of the Secret", which refers to abused children, of whatever age, who were victimized without ever xperiencing justice, much less love and protection. In the Burke novels, some of these Children of the Secret have banded together as adults into what Vachss calls a "family of choice". Their connection is not biological, and their bond goes well beyond mere loyalty. Most are career criminals; none allows the law to come before the duty to family. [image] Another important theme that pervades Vachss' work is his love of dogs, particularly breeds considered "dangerous," such as Neapolitan Mastiffs, Doberman Pinschers, Rottweilers, and especially Pit Bulls. Throughout his writings, Vachss asserts that with dogs, just as with humans, "you get what you raise". This series features the unlicensed investigator Burke, an ex-con, career criminal, and deeply conflicted character. I consider Burke Vachss's opportunity at blowing off some steam. And well deserved, I might say, given Vachss's focused approach to anything and everything that concerns the abuse of children and women. About his protagonist, Vachss says: If you look at Burke closely, you'll see the prototypical abused child: hypervigilant, distrustful. He's so committed to his family of choice—not his DNA-biological family, which tortured him, or the state which raised him, but the family that he chose—that homicide is a natural consequence of injuring any of that family. He's not a hit man. But he shares the same religion I do, which is revenge. Another important theme found in Vachss's work: his love of automobiles. [image] l969 Plymouth two-door post that had gone through half a dozen life changes since it rolled off the assembly line as Burke's Roadrunner Perhaps the baddest car in detective fiction belongs to Andrew Vachss' outlaw protagonist, Burke. Burke drives a 1969 Plymouth Roadrunner that has been "breathed upon" by a legendary car tuner who specializes in street racers. No trailer queen, Burke's Roadrunner is all business, all the time: "The beast's undercarriage was a combination of an independent rear suspension unit pirated from a Viper, and subframe connectors with heavy gussets to stiffen the unibody." In my readings of Scandinavian crime fiction I have often remarked that what distinguishes American crime-fiction from its Scandinavian counterpart is that Nordic authors tend to use the genre for sociopolitical commentary, often more so than Scandinavia's traditional non-fiction and journalistic mediums. But, that's not a blanket statement. There are exceptions with American writers and certainly Vachss is one of those. Often scathing in its commentary, the Burke novels are a devasting condemnation of how society fails women and children. For the most part, Vachss like his Nordic counterparts keeps the commentary well integrated into the storyline so that it doesn't overwhelm it. But there are instances where his passion gets the best of him, such as what we find in Burke #9 False Allegations. Here we are, interestingly exposed to long discourses on psychiatry and psychological testing as applied to victims of abuse. As a final word on the series, I have a warning: this stuff's not for the faint of heart, or for those who have a finely tuned PC attenna. It is raw, dark stuff, a story about those whom society has discarded and those who because of that live outside of it. For me, I find the series distinctly unique, an excellent crime fiction read, bar none. Enjoy! ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Aug 27, 2013
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Aug 30, 2013
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Jul 31, 2013
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Trade Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 0517174421
| 9780517174425
| 0517174421
| 3.95
| 1,084
| 1995
| Apr 12, 1997
|
liked it
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Book Review For those readers not familiar with this series: please pick up a copy of Flood and begin there. But before you do and if you've been readi Book Review For those readers not familiar with this series: please pick up a copy of Flood and begin there. But before you do and if you've been reading literature or any of the other genres where you feel the plight of heroines, represented as ladies, or characterized with depression, or struggling with love, or narcissism, or treated as outcasts due to theology, and especially if you are a reader sensitive to feminine rights...well, you can throw all that stuff out the door when you read this stuff. [image] Vachss is here to tell you that you've been living in a dream. He wants you to know that beneath your civilized society lies a quadrant that is positively depraved. In this quadrant your civilized sensibilities would be laughed at...not by men, but by the women who live in it. Please meet Michelle, a transsexual hooker who has saved enough money for a sex change operation. She is also Burke's...hmmm, let's say, secretary. I would be remiss if I did not mention Mamma, a Chinese restaurant owner who is best described as Burke's business manager. Now, up to this point, the titles of the novels are the names of the women who are featured in the story: Flood, Strega, Blue Belle, Hard Candy, Blossom and Sacrifice. These are women you have never met but who live in the same so-called civilized city as you do. Burke, our PI and narrator is fiercely loyal to these women who are part of his family and/or fall victim to their story. And then there's Burke's male cast of characters, also part of his family. His weapon of choice: a deaf martial arts instructor named Max the Silent. Let's just say that once let loose, you don't stand a chance. There's the Mole, an electronics expert who lives beneath a junkyard. And then, of course, there's the Prof, a moniker that can stand for The Prophet, or the Professor, all depending on the situation. Vachss will turn your world upside down and make Jim Thompson, or Mickey Spllane's novels look like bed time stories you'd read to your kids. We often measure our satisfaction or dissatisfaction between two antithesis. For citizens who become aware of the true nature of the society they live in, reading one of these novels will make you feel quite satisfied at living in the world you know...despite your objections to its many facets (what suddently feels like irrelevant quibbles) . That's what happens when you move one apex much further left, into a much darker abyss. Although not titled to reflect the featured femme fatal, Footsteps of the Hawk is all about Belinda, a hardened and seductive cop who turns to Burke's dark quadrant to get her man, an accused serial rapist and killer, out of jail. She maintains he is innocent, but is he? Burke walks a fine line in this novel as he is placed directly between Belinda and Morales, a rock-hard cop whose sole aim is to destroy Burke for crimes he did commit and crimes he didn't. I'm giving this 3.5 stars because this particular novel seems not as well developed as all the others that come before...but still a really good read. --------------------------------------------------------- Series Review Before becoming a lawyer, Vachss has held many front-line positions in child protection. He was a federal investigator in sexually transmitted diseases, and a New York City social-services caseworker. He worked in Biafra, entering the war zone just before the fall of the country. There he worked to find a land route to bring donated food and medical supplies across the border after the seaports were blocked and Red Cross airlifts banned by the Nigerian government; however, all attempts ltimately failed, resulting in rampant starvation. After he returned and recovered from his njuries, including malaria and alnutrition, Vachss studied community organizing in 1970 under Saul Alinsky. He worked as a labor organizer and ran a self-help center for urban migrants in Chicago. He then managed a re-entry program for ex-convicts in Massachusetts, and finally directed a maximum-security prison for violent juvenile offenders. [image] Children of the Secret Vachss, as an attorney, represents exclusively children and adolescents. In addition to his private practice, he serves as a law guardian in New York state. In every child abuse or neglect case, state law requires the appointment of a law guardian, a lawyer who represents the child's interests during the legal proceedings. Vachss coined the phrase "Children of the Secret", which refers to abused children, of whatever age, who were victimized without ever xperiencing justice, much less love and protection. In the Burke novels, some of these Children of the Secret have banded together as adults into what Vachss calls a "family of choice". Their connection is not biological, and their bond goes well beyond mere loyalty. Most are career criminals; none allows the law to come before the duty to family. [image] Another important theme that pervades Vachss' work is his love of dogs, particularly breeds considered "dangerous," such as Neapolitan Mastiffs, Doberman Pinschers, Rottweilers, and especially Pit Bulls. Throughout his writings, Vachss asserts that with dogs, just as with humans, "you get what you raise". This series features the unlicensed investigator Burke, an ex-con, career criminal, and deeply conflicted character. I consider Burke, Vachss's opportunity at blowing off some steam from his day job. And well deserved, I might say, given Vachss's focused pproach to anything and everything that concerns the abuse of children and women. About his protagonist, Vachss says: If you look at Burke closely, you'll see the prototypical abused child: hypervigilant, distrustful. He's so committed to his family of choice—not is DNA-biological family, which tortured him, or the state which raised him, but the family that he chose—that homicide is a natural consequence of injuring any of that family. He's not a hit man. But he shares the same religion I do, which is revenge. Another important theme found in Vachss's work: his love of automobiles. [image] l969 Plymouth two-door post that had gone through half a dozen life changes since it rolled off the assembly line as Burke's Roadrunner Perhaps the baddest car in detective fiction belongs to Andrew Vachss' outlaw protagonist, Burke. Burke drives a 1969 Plymouth Roadrunner that has been "breathed upon" by a legendary car tuner who specializes in street racers. No trailer queen, Burke's Roadrunner is all business, all the time: "The beast's undercarriage was a combination of an independent rear suspension unit pirated from a Viper, and subframe connectors with heavy gussets to stiffen the unibody." In my readings of Scandinavian crime fiction I have often remarked that what distinguishes American crime-fiction from its Scandinavian counterpart is that Nordic authors tend to use the genre for sociopolitical commentary, often more so than Scandinavia's traditional non-fiction and journalistic mediums. But, that's not a blanket statement. There are exceptions with American writers and certainly Vachss is one of those. Often scathing in its commentary, the Burke novels are a devasting condemnation of how society fails women and children. For the most part, Vachss like his Nordic counterparts keeps the commentary well integrated into the storyline so that it doesn't overwhelm it. But there are instances where his passion gets the best of him, such as what we find in Burke #9 False Allegations. Here we are, interestingly exposed to long discourses on psychiatry and psychological testing as applied to victims of abuse. As a final word on the series, I have a warning: this stuff's not for the faint of heart, or for those who have a finely tuned PC attenna. It is raw, dark stuff, a story about those whom society has discarded and those who because of that live outside of it. For me, I find the series distinclty unique, an excellent crime fiction read, bar none. Enjoy! ...more |
Notes are private!
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Aug 25, 2013
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Sep 06, 2013
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Jul 31, 2013
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Hardcover
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| 1451654596
| 9781451654592
| 1451654596
| 3.54
| 2,733
| Jan 01, 2009
| Jul 10, 2012
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None
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Notes are private!
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1
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not set
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not set
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Jul 19, 2013
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Hardcover
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| 0312152477
| 9780312152475
| 0312152477
| 3.65
| 5,313
| 1993
| Dec 15, 1996
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really liked it
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Book Review There are [Swedish] writers who set their novels in the more rural and sparsely populated settings, lending a decidedly chill atmosphere to Book Review There are [Swedish] writers who set their novels in the more rural and sparsely populated settings, lending a decidedly chill atmosphere to the stories (the Swedish have an almost mystical attitude towards wooded areas and trees). The above I wrote in my review of and in response to Camille Ceder's Frozen Moment, the first example of a Swedish book I've read that alluded to a Swede's almost mystical attitude toward the woods. Blackwater is another prime exemplar of this type of book, and granted, to a much greater degree steeped in such mysticism. Publishers often compare Ekman's book to Peter Høeg's beautiful language in Smilla's Sense of Snow as well as the chill found in Renko's Gorky Park: though, in having read both of these, in the former the language is more lyrical and evocative and in the latter it is a more significant crime story than what is found in Blackwater. [image] Sweden's mid-north I often have to remind myself that modern Scandinavia has its roots in the Norse sagas that are replete with stories of viking gods, fantasy, brutality, and a resplendent mythical nature. These sagas revolve around stories of mythic proportions where we see the earth reappearing from the water; where an eagle over a waterfall hunting fish on a mountain is of special significance; where wooden slips were used for divination; where the savage butchery of human beings was a matter of conquest; where the sons of two brothers could widely inhabit the windy world; and where it was said "that they will consume the morning dew, and will produce generations of offspring"; and where the human internal rhythm is deeply affected by a jarring unnatural sequence of daylight that invades Nordic nights, and conversely where night snuffs out daylight for weeks on end. The Scandinavian people before the Christianisation of Scandinavia were deeply entrenched in the Norse sagas and to this day, particularly in the North, this pagan aspect in their gene pool remains an integral part of Sweden's national character - in particular where it concerns nature. As Americans, we might equate this to the Native Americans' spiritual views toward the land and the earth. However, unlike Native Americans and through the eyes of Ekman, the Swedes appear to see nature as malevolent as can be seen by one of this book's narrators who observes a hawk in a tree above.
Moments later, she is overcome by an icy and frightening chill that sends her running back to the village, through the forest and pastures, where she cowers behind a shed so that the children cannot see her trembling. The book is replete with this underlying chill that seems to inhabit this part of Sweden's landscape. Every description seems to contain a feeling of foreboding. Even the task of rowing a boat takes on a darker significance:
[image] Kerstin Ekman's Blackwater takes us to a remote place in the mid-north of Sweden where Midsummer's Eve, a time of the year when magic is at its strongest, is celebrated as the greatest festival of the year. Young people pick bouquets of seven or nine different flowers and put them under their pillow in the hope of dreaming about their future spouse (herbs picked at Midsummer were highly potent). Greenery placed over houses and barns are to bring good fortune and health to people and livestock. Flowers are picked for their fragrance, color,and traditional meaning. Near a small village and while the rest of the inhabitants enjoy their festivities, on that evening of the summer solstice, a Dutch woman and an unidentified man are brutally murdered in their tent while camping alongside the Lobber river. This is the crime that drives the book forward even while the crime itself remains unsolved for several decades. What then fills this gap between the crime and its resolution? Mounting tension, would be the short answer. Something's terribly wrong in Blackwater. Portrayed in the seventies and late eighties, one generation passes to another and as the new generation takes over the stigma of what happened at the river Lobber all those years ago the stigma too is carried forward, like hives that never leave the human body. It is the younger generation that reluctantly takes on the task of discovering the terrible truth. Perhaps I might add this to my collection of what I call "Ethno-mysteries" so detailed is the author's ethnography of this part of the world: its people, its landscapes, and its socio and psychological narratives woven in between the story line like strands on a vast and magic loom. Ekman explores an entire society: its eco system, its inhabitants, their psychological motivations, its sociological shortcomings, its place in nature, its attempts at building communes, its means of production, tourism, and the devastating if not jarring consequences as these inhabitants - legal and illegal - collide at a single point in time: Midsummer's Eve. As an aside, this might also serve as a warning to mystery readers in general: expect to be deviated from the story line in this book. This is not a who-dun-it...Scandinavian crime fiction rarely is. But, having said that and if we are to be deviated, then let it be as an invitation into Kerstin Ekman's mesmerizing and frightening world Beautiful and ominous written passages, particularly where it concerns the landscapes which often take on the appearance of a character in the book; natural paths, rivers, lakes, mountains, the snow, a biting cold, the flourishing of spring, summer, nights made of daylight, scented and flower infested interiors of Nordic huts; eco-activists who eschew civilization while practicing some dubious ethics - all surround a small group of inhabitants whose lives are to be forever changed by two horrendous events (yes, there are two crimes). Chilling overtones and superb characterization betray much of what could otherwise be inspirational: a measure of brutality in the inhabitants, psychological deviations, scorn, revenge, racism, love, betrayal, a profound dysfunctional attitude towards children and offspring, a novel approach to education quickly snuffed out, and a society seemingly living under a natural law all its own. Written from the point of view of several narrators and a complex weaving of first and third person we are invited inside the minds of the Lapps, Swedish, and Norwegians that populate Ekman's novel. And yet, Ekman kept my interest by never straying too long from the story line even while giving us a slow, mounting and throbbing tension that builds in volume to a point of true insight into brutality. It's difficult to place a finger on what exactly makes Ekman pull this off. From other books I've read, this is certainly not an easy task and speaks to Ekman's expertise as an author. I found the book scary and delightful, especially as it represents a category of Scandinavian crime fiction largely gone unnoticed in the world of translations: that being books written about the deviance in the North of Sweden. My only small beef with this novel is that often Ekman relies on pronouns at the beginning of chapters to render suspense, when in fact it is slightly disorienting while - given that we have several narrators - we wait to find out to whom "He" or "She" is actually referring to several paragraphs later. Enjoy! ------------------------------------------------------- About the author [image] Kerstin Ekman Kerstin Lillemor Ekman is a Swedish novelist born August 27, 1933. She began her career with a string of successful detective novels (among others De tre små mästarna ("The Three Little Masters") and Dödsklockan ("The Death Clock")) but later went on to persue psychological and social themes. Among her later works are Mörker och blåbärsris ("Darkness and Blueberries"), set in northern Sweden, and Händelser vid vatten (translated as Blackwater), in which she returned to the form of the detective novel. Ekman was elected a member of the Swedish Academy in 1978, but left the Academy in 1989, together with Lars Gyllensten and Werner Aspenström, due to the debate following death threats posed to Salman Rushdie. As someone once said: "No one leaves the academy of their own free will, except in a coffin." According to the rules of the Academy, however, she will remain a passive member for the entirety of her life. Chair number 15 in the Swedish Academy has remained empty since Kerstin Ekman walked out of the meeting room in protest. Most writers have their own literary midwives. Ekman’s was the Nobel laureate Eyvind Johnson. For her masterpiece Blackwater she received the Nordic Council Literature Prize in 1994. Few writers possess the ability to truly change the lives of their readers, even if we’d love to have it be so. But Ekman is perhaps one of the few to do so for her many fans. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Feb 12, 2014
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Feb 19, 2014
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Jul 16, 2013
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Paperback
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| B0DLT82KZD
| 4.06
| 952
| Jun 26, 2013
| Jun 26, 2013
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really liked it
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Book Review Another zany and hilarious and shocking ride with pulp hero Donovan Creed and his arsenal of assassins. With 20 books written in 3 years, a Book Review Another zany and hilarious and shocking ride with pulp hero Donovan Creed and his arsenal of assassins. With 20 books written in 3 years, a New York times best seller and given that Locke really doesn't follow any of the writing rules...it is all rather perplexing. And yet, I gobble up the books in one sitting. I really can't explain it folks. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Series Review Continuing with my pursuit of the lone Hero (see reviews for Joe Pike novels, John Rain novels, and Jack Reacher novels) Donovan Creed is probably the most unique character I came across. I'd never heard of John Locke until I received my Kindle DX in the mail. Locke made his fame and fortune self-publishing his books in the Kindle world. For the Kindle, his books are ridiculously inexpensive (around $0.99 to $1.99). I was surprised at what I read and hooked from the start. Unlike my other series books, however, there is a difference in the books in terms of ratings...so I have not given them the standard 4 or 5 star ratings across the entire series. First of all, the books are short but packing a powerful punch, a mixture of excellent humor (left me laughing at the insanity of what I was reading) and the grim reality of a hero who kills people. Lethal people introduces us to Creed, the business he is in, his side-kicks and his insane relationship within his own world and certainly the world most of us live in (let's just say Creed is not fit to live a normal life and does not understand it). Get ready for a roller coaster ride and, above all...enjoy! You will find that towards the end of each book you will be filled with disappointment that the ride is over...and almost certainly you will hunt down the next Donovan Creed thriller. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jul 07, 2013
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Jul 07, 2013
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Jul 07, 2013
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ebook
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| 0307361012
| 9780307361011
| 0307361012
| 3.56
| 124,856
| 1997
| Oct 09, 2012
|
really liked it
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Book Review The first in the Harry Hole series comes to an American audience as the last published (what on earth is wrong with these publishing compan Book Review The first in the Harry Hole series comes to an American audience as the last published (what on earth is wrong with these publishing companies - so often, their disregard of readers who read series in the order written reeks of ignorance: the ignorance as to what compels readers to follow a series). My series review below starts with The Redbreast, the third in the series as forced upon us by the American publishers and that context should be kept in mind when reading it. As to this, the first in the series: We meet a more youthful, more naive Harry Hole. In the series review below I remark the following: "and finally he [Nesobo...] wrote (on an airplane to begin with) and he never stopped". That flight, if you're curious, was on its way to Australia with Nesbo on it. It marked the beginning of his writing career and the beginning of the Harry Hole series. And so, we have a Nordic Noir novel, the first, that never touches soil in Scandinavia but remains rooted in the Outback and the cosmopolitan city of Sydney. Next, I will tell you that I'm a huge fan of this series and of Jo Nesbo. I consider him to be one of the best authors for this genre out there, if not the best. Often, things are upside down (no pun intended for you Aussies out there). Harry admits it in a snippet of dialogue: Have you ever seen the comic strip by Larson where the cows are standing on two legs chatting in the meadow, and one of them warns: "Car!" [at which point they drop down onto their four legged stance]. This is what a Harry Hole novel is like. Nothing is what it seems...not so much in this novel, but especially as Nesbo matures and is to write the other novels in this series. We are reminded of the universitality of his novels: in this, the Aborigines plight is brought to the foreground: And according to the Terra Nullius principle the English could just issue property deeds to the new settlers without taking account of what the Aboriginal people might have to say. They hadn't laid claim to their own land." Laying claim to property has always been a decidedly Western Caucasian notion. And isn't this universal? Look at the American Native's plight. Isn't this exactly what happened to them when the white man settled this country? Or take a look at the Ferraris novels, where the Beduins, a nomadic people, experience the same by the rise of cities in the Empty Quarter? Harry identifies with these outsiders, those who consider themselves nomadic, and the wisdom that comes with leading a nomadic life. In fact and ingeniously so, The Bat is the Aboriginal fable of Walla, Moora and Bubbur made explicit in modern times. Even more important and as stated previously we gain insight into what caused Harry to become an alcoholic. In his last Hole novel to date, Harry states: "In the end, I am a policeman." That is a statement that may be considered the tip of an iceberg. Nesbo shows us what lies beneath the ice cold waters. The author, to me, is the only author I'm aware of - yes, I'm thinking about Robicheaux here in America - that has so exhaustively explored the concept of a flawed hero. "We get shot to pieces, we're obliterated and one day we jump into the sea, but in the meantime, in our endless stupidity, we believe someone needs us. And if one day you should still see through the illusion, it's already too late because we've become police officers, we're in trenches and there's no way back." or, driving at the core of alcoholism, and the origins of that in a policeman's life, the horrors he must somehow internalize on his own? "Was it not a tempting alternative to the lie he had to live, which in many ways was even more humiliating than accepting the guilt and shame?" As with other Nordic Noir writers, Nesbo explores secularism vs. religion. "But the common thread was that they believed humans, sooner or later, after all these stages [heaven, hell, karma, etc] died a proper, final, definitive death. And that was that. You became a pile of stones and were gone. For some reason I like the thought of that..." And isn't that just like Nesbo to end the novel with a hint as to what's to come? It speaks of a mind with a long range view already manifested in the writer's mind: "Two circling feelers of a cockroach poked through the crack in the doorway, checking to see if the coast was clear. Harry pulled the sheet over him and huddled up." Indeed, with proper protest to the order in which these are being published, I look forward to the publication of the second Harry Hole novel: Cockroaches. If you're not familiar with Nordic Noir, or Scandinavian Noir, I highly recommend a reading of this blog. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Series Review Here's the thing about the recent popularity of Scandinavian writers and if you're a Nordic Thriller aficionado you couldn't care less about the distinction: the novels are depressed, somber, filled with ennui, a lack of humor, with flawed characters if not suffused with a strong tendency towards determinism; in short, whether you're reading Stieg Larsson, Henning Mankell, or Jo Nesbo you are likely reading Literary Naturalism. If you live in Scandinavia you might consider this par for the course, ennui is imbued into the populace (as it is also reflected in the works of prominent Russian writers - Anna Karenina comes to mind). Just as we continue to struggle here in the States with our history of slavery and the resulting racial tensions, so do Europe and Scandinavia struggle in coming to terms with Nazism and the Bolshevik revolution (More than a few reviewers have expressed their dissatisfaction with the Nordic writers' pre-occupation with Nazism). And yet, the rise in popularity of these Nordic thrillers here in the States is puzzling given our strong tendency towards literary Romanticism. We like for the good guys to win, we like emotion, we like our heroes (as opposed to anti-heroes) we enjoy free will, and in general consider ourselves in control of our own lives. Having said that: there is excellence in Literary Naturalism. The above doesn't mean we can't enjoy a well written novel, an intriguing mystery, a flawed anti-hero, a well crafted story written in the style of literary Naturalism. It doesn't mean we can't enjoy the works of Jo Nesbo. I did. In Jo Nesbo's words: "I come from a family of readers and story tellers." With a librarian mother and a father who sat before the fire and told the kids stories they wanted to hear (each repetition bringing something new to the tale) Jo's foundation was carved in stone. Again, in his own life story we sense the determinism filtering into his life: he wanted to be a soccer star but an injury put a quick stop to this; with a dreadful feeling of fate guiding his life he entered the military in the hopes something would happen (what happened was "Self-Discipline"); thinking he might want to be an economist he entered the world of finance which he abandoned as well; someone told him he could play guitar (he only knew 3 chords) and he formed several bands, Di Derre being the most successful; and finally he wrote (on an airplane to begin with) and he never stopped. The Redbreast is Jo Nesbo's third Harry Hole (pronounced "Hooleh") novel (the other two not being translated for a US audience as of yet) and is Nesbo's claim to fame. So, this is where we start. Yes, the books should be read in order! For an American audience, Harry Hole can be likened to Harry Bosch; he defies authority, is an outcast within his own organization, is best left alone to do this job (his office is at the end of the hall), is more of an anti-hero than a hero, has trouble with his romantic life, lives alone, has a fierce propensity for justice (as opposed to the Law) and once let loose is like a pit bull with a bone fastened to his jaws. But perhaps the most compelling reason why Harry Hole has such a following is Nesbo's devastating characterization of what exactly comprises a flawed hero. Upon reflection, American hard-boiled writers don't come close to accomplishing the same. This is not too dissimilar to the way Nesbo sees himself. Bjarne Møller, my former boss, says people like me always choose the line of most resistance. It's in what he calls our 'accursed nature'. That's why we always end up on our own. I don't know. I like being alone. Perhaps I have grown to like my self-image of being a loner, too....I think you have to find something about yourself that you like in order to survive. Some people say being alone is unsociable and selfish. But you're independent and you don't drag others down with you, if that's the way you're heading. Many people are afraid of being alone. But it made me feel strong, free and invulnerable. And...ah, yes, there is the matter of plot! So how do we justify this decided streak of fate/determinism within the novels with Nesbo's apparent mastery of plot? The two seemingly ought to contradict each other. On the one hand, we have Nesbo's almost Shakespearean tendency to cast characters as marionette puppets on the strings of fate (the very opposite of plot), while on the other hand we are riveted by the very complex actions and reactions made by Harry Hole during his investigations (Nesbo is a master at not adding anything superfluous to his novels). Perhaps it is an unholy marriage between the two that transfixes us. His plots are intricate, very complex, the seemingly irrelevant details exposed throughout the novels become larger than life as the story closes, and they can weave through time, forward and backward, as the story unfolds. But, with a little alacrity, we can remember we are reading Naturalism and so it isn't always Harry Hole making events happen, but rather the reverse, it is the events that move Harry Hole. Again, it is a matter of preference but in Nesbo's case it is done with utter expertise as a writer. The exposition/setting is often Scandinavia: the weather is somber, the descriptions grey-like, the people absorbed with alcohol and withdrawn, if not bundled and sequestered. And yet, the dialogue and scenes are full of references to other millieus', continents, languages, and cleverly hidden philosophical references that speak to a widely cultured audience (as opposed to American writers of this genre who rarely venture beyond the borders of their land, if not their own State). And as with plot, there are no superfluous details. Everything in the novels matters and Nesbo does not forget even the tiniest detail to which he's made a seemingly furtive reference earlier on in the story. This is one of the biggest reasons why I love Jo Nesbo. I thoroughly enjoyed Jo Nesbo's The Redbreast and am currently reading the remaining Harry Hole novels. I remain intrigued by events left undone (such as the fate of our undiscovered villain in this and other stories). You'll just have to read the novels to find out more. Oh, yes, as with other series this review is likely to be repeated for all (unless there is a drastic divergence from what I have written here). So, if you've read this review, you've read 'em all. Enjoy! ...more |
Notes are private!
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Jul 04, 2013
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Jul 07, 2013
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Jun 29, 2013
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Paperback
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my rating |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| 4.04
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Mar 03, 2016
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May 17, 2015
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| 4.22
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really liked it
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May 2015
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May 09, 2015
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| 4.14
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really liked it
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not set
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Jan 01, 2015
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| 3.98
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it was amazing
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not set
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Dec 31, 2014
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| 3.85
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really liked it
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not set
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Sep 05, 2014
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| 4.15
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not set
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Sep 05, 2014
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| 3.90
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it was amazing
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Jul 09, 2014
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Jul 09, 2014
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| 4.00
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did not like it
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Jul 04, 2014
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May 03, 2014
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| 4.09
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really liked it
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Mar 20, 2015
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Mar 29, 2014
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| 3.99
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it was amazing
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Jan 25, 2014
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Jan 13, 2014
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| 3.95
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it was amazing
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Jan 25, 2014
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Jan 11, 2014
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| 4.06
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it was amazing
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Jan 07, 2014
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Jan 01, 2014
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| 4.28
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it was amazing
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Oct 29, 2013
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Oct 27, 2013
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| 3.83
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really liked it
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Aug 25, 2013
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Aug 21, 2013
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| 3.85
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really liked it
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Aug 30, 2013
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Jul 31, 2013
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|||||
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| 3.95
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liked it
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Sep 06, 2013
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Jul 31, 2013
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| 3.54
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not set
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Jul 19, 2013
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||||||
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| 3.65
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really liked it
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Feb 19, 2014
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Jul 16, 2013
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|||||
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| 4.06
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really liked it
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Jul 07, 2013
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Jul 07, 2013
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| 3.56
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really liked it
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Jul 07, 2013
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Jun 29, 2013
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