Review: The Night Flowers, by Sara Herchenroether

 

The Night Flowers, by Sara Herchenroether. Fiction, Crime Fiction. Tin House, 2023.

Tin House is one of my favorite small presses; I almost always love anything of theirs I read. They are one of my go-tos for thoughtful, interesting fiction and The Night Flowers did not disappoint.

Laura MacDonald is a breast cancer survivor and librarian who is also an amateur genealogist; she uses her skills to help her patrons, and to further her own interest in true crime.  As the book opens she's just endured a grueling surgery and health crisis. She's also come upon a murder based in New Mexico; a young woman found dead with two children. In New Mexico, Detective Jean Martinez is working the cold case desk and trying to find the identity of the three dead people after more than twenty years. Laura travels to New Mexico and approaches Jean with what she's found. After a period of hesitation, the two women work together to identify the killer and bring him to justice.

As volume-ones in crime series go, The Night Flowers is a fun, interesting, well-structured read. It's character driven, which makes sense, because we're just getting to know these people- it's like their origin story, or the origin story of their partnership. The setting of New Mexico is vivid and immediate; I could feel the hot sand in my hair. Herchenroether also develops the victims' personalities through intermittent chapters that deepen the suspense and give them a voice. In other words crime fiction is littered with dead women, and while this book is no exception to that trope, it's nice that the author gives them some depth.

The book sort of reminded me of A Bad Day for Sorry, a crime novel I read a long time ago about women seeking justice for other women. I liked how Herchenroether mixed Laura's cancer story, Jean's marriage dynamic, the DNA pieces, and the backstory of the community where all this takes place alongside the victim's detailed story. I found the chapters in the victim's voice to be an interesting break from the traditional narrative. And I hope to see more books with Jean and Laura solving cold cases in the desert.

FTC Disclosure: I received an advance copy from Tin House though no review was promised.

Review: The Silence of the White City, by Eva García Sáenz

 

The Silence of the White City, by Eva García Sáenz. Published 2020 by Vintage Crime/Black Lizard. Translated from the Spanish by Nick Caistor.

So this is a fun one for crime readers. Years ago there was a series of bizarre murders in the Basque region of Spain; someone was killing pairs of people, boys and girls the same age, and leaving their bodies in strange poses. The MO was suffocation by bee sting. A man was convicted, one of a pair of twins born to a wealthy and domineering man. Just before he's released, the murders recommence. Who did it? Who's doing it? His twin brother, or someone else?

The Silence of the White City definitely gripped and held my attention right from the beginning. The investigating officer, who goes by the nickname Kraken, is flawed, smart and believable; the narrative goes back and forth between the present and the past, and the story of the twins' mother and father. More bodies pile up; the murders move closer and closer to Kraken himself, until he almost suffocating, too.

It's a longer book than you sometimes see with a procedural but both stories moved at a good clip and when they come together and the killer is finally uncovered, it's devastating. It's also the first of a trilogy and while I'm not usually a series person, I might have to go hunting around for the next two. If you like dark and gritty crime I strongly recommend The Silence of the White City. It's fairly gruesome and there is some graphic sexual content. And it's a great mystery you'll like, if you like that kind of thing.

FTC Disclosure: I did not receive a complimentary copy of this book.

Review: A Killing in Costumes, by Zac Bissonnette

Releasing today,  A Killing in Costumes is the latest book by and the first novel by author Zac Bissonnette, whom longtime readers of my blog will remember from his fantastic book The Great Beanie Baby Bubble. (Off-topic, but there is going to be a movie adaptation of that book coming in 2023!!)  A Killing in Costumes is a cozy mystery set in present-day Los Angeles, about two collectibles dealers suspected of the murder of a third.

Cindy Cooper and Jay Allan are ex-spouses and co-owners of the struggling store Hooray for Hollywood Movie Memorabilia, a shop they opened together as a shared dream and to honor the memory of Cindy's late beloved Esther. Both Cindy and Jay came out as gay and while their marriage ended they continued as best friends and business partners. One day, aging starlet Yana Tosh contacts them about consigning her collection of costumes but the couple has competition in the form of a high end dealer, who winds up dead, with Cindy and Jay as prime suspects.

As Cindy and Jay begin investigating the murder alongside handsome detective Simon Fletcher, they become enmeshed with a panoply of shady characters- Yana's son Warren, the dead dealer's assistant Eydie among them. The book is peppered with allusions to movies and television, music and theater, and comes to a satisfying conclusion by the end.

I thoroughly enjoyed A Killing in Costumes. Longtime readers of this blog might also recall my taste for grim, depressing and bloody crime novels; this is definitely out of my comfort zone but I have to say it was a really good time. I read it on my recent cruise and sitting in a deck chair facing the ocean or curled up in my stateroom was the right way to read this delightful book. Bissonnette does a great job creating momentum and creating well-drawn, believable characters I grew to care about. The setting is also beautifully rendered; I could feel the California sunshine in my hair and the LA streets under my feet. I also really enjoyed Bissonnette's depiction of the world of collectible and memorabilia. I get the feeling that he might not have to come to this subject for the first time.

So I definitely recommend the book for mystery readers, cozy readers, and anyone looking for a book to help them relax and get lost for a little while. I'm going to be giving the cozy shelf a longer look the next time I'm shopping for books thanks to A Killing in Costumes.

Pick up a copy from Bookshop.org. I receive a small commission on sales.

I received an advance copy for review from the author.

Review: SEE WHAT I HAVE DONE, by Sarah Schmidt

See What I Have Done, by Sarah Schmidt. Published 2017 by Atlantic Monthly Press. Literary Fiction. Crime Fiction.

In 1892 Andrew Borden and his wife, Abby Durfee Gray Borden, were murdered in their Fall River home. Andrew's daughter Lizzie was tried and acquitted, but there was never really another serious suspect, and Lizzie was ostracized from her community following the trial. The Borden family was wealthy and both Lizzie and her sister Emma were able to live comfortably for the rest of their life.

Sarah Schmidt has written an absorbing and truly creepy book about the murders, oscillating in time and in point of view; we see the day of the murder, the build-up, the aftermath and the Borden family life from the point of view of Lizzie, Emma, their maid Bridget and an additional, fictional character, a professional killer named Benjamin with an agenda all his own. What emerges doesn't really shed any new light on the murders or offer any alternative theory of the crime, but it will make you want to keep the lights on just a little longer at night.

Schmidt brings the three women to life; Emma, the older sister, is devoted to the high-maintenance Lizzie but this devotion has come at a high cost to Emma and as the years wear on, she finds herself resentful and yearning for freedom. Bridget hates the Borden family more and more and also longs to escape. She has saved some money and hopes to leave as soon as she can arrange it. Then Abby Borden discovers her secret and her plans may come to naught. But the real star is Lizzie- of course- and Schmidt's Lizzie is a dazzling, hypnotic monster, a needy succubus who drains the life out of those around her, while herself locked in half lucidity, half madness. It is cliche to say Schmidt takes us inside the mind of a killer but this she does; Lizzie's chapters are manic chaos. She is a menace and a destroyer.

See What I Have Done is haunting and scary, a book to keep you up at night. You don't have to know a lot about the case to enjoy it but I would recommend perusing the timeline at the end of the book, or having a Wikipedia-level knowledge of it anyway. A great book for the beach bag, I have a feeling I'll be revisiting it at Halloween too.

Rating: BEACH

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for review.

Review: BEAUTIFUL ANIMALS, by Lawrence Osborne

Beautiful Animals, by Lawrence Osborne. Published 2017 by Hogarth/Crown/Random House. Literary Fiction. Crime Fiction.

Beautiful Animals lives in that yummy space between literary fiction and the crime novel. Set on the Greek island of Hydra and among the fashionable rich, author Lawrence Osborne tells the story of Naomi Codrington, a young woman retreating to her parents' world of privilege after a humiliating professional setback, and Faoud, a Syrian refugee who washes up on Naomi's playground.

The reader feels right away that there is something toxic in Naomi's idle boredom, which preys on her and leads her to temptation. Crucial to this alchemy is Naomi's burgeoning friendship with Sam, an altogether ordinary young woman spending time with her parents. The women form a bond that just teeters on sexual but never quite loses its balance; both become infatuated with Faoud, a handsome young man whose origins are murky but seems to come from a privileged background himself.

In Beautiful Animals, Osborne treads familiar ground- what happens when the ultrarich mix with the poor and desperate. Faoud is a man of Naomi's own creation; she creates a narrative for him in which she herself will figure prominently, and soon Naomi writes the chapter she thinks will make for him a happy ending. Naomi lives with her wealthy father and stepmother, whom she disdains, and she concocts a plan to help Faoud at what she is sure will be little cost. Of course these things never go as planned, and soon the costs climb higher than anyone could have imagined.

I would love to see a movie made of this book. Osborne's writing is so atmospheric and evocative; you can feel the heat of the sun, the salt of the water and stain of blood as you read. Later on Osborne introduces a kind of detective character and the book wakes from its delicious paresse and takes on a crime-novel pace, then settles in for a low-key, dark finish. Beautiful Animals would be a wonderful choice for the literary reader's beach bag, a great follow up for fans of Katie Kitamura's A Separation or similar. Lawrence Osborne never disappoints.

Rating: BUY

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for review.

Review: THE GUN, by Fuminori Nakamura

The Gun, by Fuminori Nakamura. Published 2016 by Soho Crime. Translated from the Japanese by Allison Markin Powell.

The Gun is definitely not your usual crime novel. It's not a whodunit; it's barely a procedural, and the murder doesn't occur until the book is almost over. It reads more like an after-the-fact confession; the narrator, who is not named, recounts the slow burn of circumstance that leads to the killing. Out for a walk one night he finds a gun next to a body; he takes the gun and becomes obsessed with it. He's a student and when we meet him he's juggling two women, but nothing else in his life compares to the feelings he has for his new best friend.

Over time he begins to feel that he must fire the gun. Then he starts to plan a murder.

The Gun is Nakamura's first novel and the latest to be translated into English; first to come stateside was The Thief, which Soho published in 2002. Nakamura has a won several prizes for his writing including the 2002 Shincho Prize for New Writers for The Gun and the 2012 David Goodis Award, an American crime writing prize.

I can see why. Nakamura keeps the tone so even and so low-key even as the narrator descends more and more into madness and obsession. Even as he commits his crime, which comes and goes by so quickly I had to re-read the passage.

You have to be up for something a little different to get into The Gun, but I strongly recommend it for crime readers up for an adventure. I'll be reading more Nakamura sooner rather than later. (In fact I just entered a galley giveaway for his latest, The Boy in the Earth. I hope to win!)

Rating: BACKLIST

FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review.

Review: DISTANT STAR, by Roberto Bolaño

Distant Star, by Roberto Bolaño. Published 2004 by New Directions. Literary Fiction. Crime fiction. Translated from the Spanish by Chris Andrews.

Blood all around. That's my primary memory and impression of Distant Star, which I read back in the early spring for a crime fiction reading group I belonged to. Roberto Bolaño's novel, really little more than a novella, is about a man who infiltrates a circle of artists and poets and makes his first big splash by murdering a pair of charismatic sisters. The narrator then follows the career of this man for years until finally there is a confrontation.

Set in the 1970s after the rise of Pinochet in Chile, Bolaño creates a truly chilling picture of life in a dictatorship and how art can be used to track and trap political dissidents.

Alberto-Ruiz Tangle is the young man, a Chilean air force officer also known as Carlos Wieder. The book is an expansion on Bolaño's Nazi Literature in the Americas but it's not just that. The narrator tries to keep track of Tangle/Wieder and document his crimes through zines, books, articles- anything he can get his hands on and at the same time the narrator and by extension the reader learns more and more about atrocities committed during Pinochet's regime.

Then the narrative moves to Europe and we also learn about the ex-patriate community there and the struggles of political refugees to carve out a new life and find community. And what happens when that community is infiltrated by one of the very people folks sought to escape.

When I saw this book on the reading list I wasn't too excited, because I tried to read Bolaño's 2666 when it came out (it was quite the hipster "it" book for a while) and found it unreadably language-driven with not nearly enough plot to keep me interested. This shorter book was a better fit for my plot-driven tastes. It kind of haunts me to this day.

Rating: BUY

FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review.

Review: RIPLEY UNDER GROUND, by Patricia Highsmith

Ripley Under Ground, by Patricia Highsmith. Published 2008 by Norton. Crime fiction. Literary fiction. Crime Fiction.

Settled in the French countryside with his new wife Heloise, Tom Ripley enjoys a quiet life of gardening, painting, and art forgery as he lives off the proceeds of his prior bad acts and commits some new ones in this enjoyable and well-structured sequel to The Talented Mr. Ripley.

In The Talented Mr. Ripley we met Tom, the American who finds his calling in crime when he's sent to retrieve shipping-company scion Dickie Greenleaf from his carefree life in Italy. Now Dickie's dead and Tom, having made himself Dickie's heir, lives quietly but comfortably. But things start to unravel when an American art aficionado suspects (correctly) that one of his pictures is a fake. The man, Mr, Murchison, goes to visit Tom thinking Tom is a fellow collector but when Tom realizes that Murchison's nosing is going to bring down the whole scheme, something has to be done. Luckily there is a blunt object handy, and we're off to the races.

The rest is cat-and-mouse with the police, Mr. Murchison's widow and an unstable painter named Bernard who tries to kill Tom not once but twice. What's going to happen? Is Tom going to come out on top or will he be caught? And what about those lingering suspicions around Dickie Greenleaf's death? When Dickie's cousin comes visiting, what could that imply for our antihero?

You'll have to read to find out. Ripley Under Ground is a fun follow-up but doesn't come close to the first book's genius. Tom is still in control, but maintaining that smooth facade is more difficult than he expects. There's no real doubt as to how it's going to end up (there are two or three more Ripley novels in Patricia Highsmith's canon so he's not going anywhere- yet) and the fun is seeing how he gets there. Tom has some real opponents in this book, and he eludes them again through cunning and luck. I don't think Under Ground is essential reading but it's fun and worth it if you want to follow Tom Ripley's further adventures.

Rating: BEACH

FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review.

Review: THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY by Patricia Highsmith

The Talented Mr. Ripley, by Patricia Highsmith. Originally published 1955. This edition 2008 by Norton. Literary Fiction. Crime Fiction. Required Reading.

An aimless young man heads to Europe to bring home a wealthy prodigal son from the Amalfi coast, only to find his true calling in murder and deception.

The Talented Mr. Ripley is a classic everyone should read. I don't know what took me so long, honestly. Never mind the stupid 1999 film adaptation starring Matt Damon (!) as Ripley; read the book, it will take you just as long because you won't be able to put it down.

It's the late 1950s in New York City, and Tom Ripley is a young man living from one day to the next on the fruits of labor both honest and dishonest when Herbert Greenleaf approaches him a bar and asks him to go to Italy to bring home his layabout son Dickie. Tom knows the Greenleafs slightly through the New York party circuit and he takes the job, figuring he can parlay it into other opportunities once his errand is complete. But he has no idea what lay ahead, either for himself or the Greenleafs.

Tom becomes obsessed with Dickie and Dickie's lifestyle and wants no less than to have it- all of it- for himself. And if can't have Dickie and Dickie's money, then... Tom is a mesmerizing character, not only because he's so evil but because we get to watch his transformation from front-row seats. The signs are there from the beginning if you look for them, the instability and the temper, but also the intelligence and cunning. The best part for me though was the fact that his greatest successes come from his greatest mistakes. His success depends on others' ignorance as much as his own smarts.

This is book is required reading for sure. So much of modern crime fiction depends on Tom Ripley. Even a character like Amy Dunne of Gone Girl is a child of Tom Ripley. By the way the only film adaptation worth bothering with is René Clement's 1960 adapation Purple Noon (Plein Soleil) starring the beautiful Alain Delon as Tom, although that movie wimps out at the end. But you have to read The Talented Mr. Ripley. You just have to.

This was part of the Read My Own Damn Books Challenge.

Rating: BUY

FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review.

Review: A MAN'S HEAD, by Georges Simenon

A Man's Head, by Georges Simenon. Published 2015 by Penguin. Originally published 1931. Crime fiction. Translated from the French by David Coward.

Georges Simenon's novel A Man's Head falls somewhere midway in his Inspector Maigret series, that moody and taciturn detective who haunts the streets of 1930s Paris. In this installment, he's helped a convicted murderer escape the gallows in the hopes that the man will lead Maigret to the real killer of a society lady found dead in her boudoir. The killer plays a game of cat and mouse with Maigret, leading the detective up and down and around again through high society and low, until it all ends where it began.

A Man's Head was my first Maigret and though it may not be my last, it will be for a while. I read the book in conjunction with a reading group I joined, an 8-week program at NYC's Center for Fiction focusing on classic crime fiction. I was kind of bored by the book, but the discussion we had was fascinating and I learned a lot about Simenon's craft and art with respect to the Maigret series. I have read Simenon before, his dark Tropic Moon, a stand-alone suspenser, but that novel was very different from this one and I get the feeling that the Maigret novels are a like a loaf of bread, a whole split up into slices.

The plot has some holes and the main appeal is the portrait of Paris and the different people inhabiting it. But this story takes place far from the glamour and instead is colored in grays, with a sense of doom and hopelessness pervading. Nobody is happy in Simenon's little world. And while justice is served at the end, there is no satisfaction to be had, no sense of relief or release, just the animal comfort of burning coals warming a solitary room, which may yet offer some kind of hope. My opinion of A Man's Head did not represent the majority but the discussion did leave me with an appreciation of Simenon and his creation if not exactly a love for the book itself. Maigret is probably required reading for crime aficionados and while A Man's Head is considered a classic, it wasn't quite the right book for me.

Rating: BORROW

FTC Disclosure: I did not receive a copy for review.

Review: Two by Marco Malvaldi

Game for Five and Three Card Monte, by Marco Malvaldi. Published 2014 by Europa Editions. Crime Fiction. Translated from the Italian.

In 2014 Europa Editions came out with the first two volumes in the Bar Lume mystery series, by Italian writer Marco Malvaldi. If you love light, funny crime fiction that isn't dark or gory, that fits right in your beach bag and can be read in the time it takes to eat an ice cream cone, these books are for you.

Game for Five and its follow-up, Three Card Monte, star bar owner turned amateur detective Massimo, who gets drawn into investigating crime in the first book when a young woman turns up dead near his bar. The crime becomes an instant and irresistable subject of gossip among his crowd of grey-haired regulars, a quartet of old guys who hang out all day chatting and playing cards. The police are clueless and incompetant (though not as overtly corrupt as they are sometimes portrayed by others), benign bumblers who can't put the pieces together. So Massimo, who doesn't want to play detective, who just wants to be left in peace to judge his customers by what kind of coffee they drink, ends up getting involved, much to his chagrin. The second book is about a Japanese scientist who turns up dead during a conference and shows us another side to Massimo- his mathematics background.

Both of these books are great fun for the crime reader. I would recommend them in particular to readers who don't want gritty or depressing books- these books are light as a feather and well-crafted and entertaining to boot. Massimo is a great character and his cast of hangers-on are ornery and funny and real. Malvaldi makes you feel like you're sitting under an Italian umbrella nursing an espresso of your own as you listen to their back-and-forth. Great stuff.

These count as books 2 and 3 of the 2015 Europa Challenge.

Rating: BEACH

FTC Disclosure: I received these books for review from Europa Editions.

Review: BLOOD-DRENCHED BEARD, by Daniel Galera

Blood-Drenched Beard, by Daniel Galera. Published 2015 by Penguin. Literary Fiction, Thriller. Translated from the Portuguese.

If you're suffering from winter's cold, Blood-Drenched Beard might be just the thing to warm you up. A moody, slow-paced thriller set in modern-day Brazil, the book tells the story of a nameless young man who has moved to a resort town in search of the truth behind his grandfather's death. On his deathbed the man's father tells him a grisly story of small-town vigilante justice and an unmarked grave; when the man's father dies, the man takes his father's dog and goes in search of the truth.

The town is a tourist mecca quieting down at the end of the season, and our protagonist, an athlete with a brain disorder that prevents him from remembering faces, goes to work in a gym teaching swimming. He dates a local woman, starts a running club and befriends a B&B owner who lives nearby. Things seem to be going well. But some people react strangely to him, due, he finds out, to his uncanny resemblance to his grandfather, and nobody wants to talk about what happened.

Events unwind slowly but things do come to a head. For me this was a really great read, atmospheric and suspenseful, with more than enough forward motion to keep me going. It's not one of those white-hot twisty thrillers that will keep you up all night, but whenever I picked it up I was loathe to put it back down. It's a slow burn, with an explosion at the end. I would recommend it to lots of readers-literary readers and mystery readers alike. I think it would be great for the beach bag, although I hope you don't wait until summer to read it. Tinged with menace, Galera's writing is beautifully descriptive and the story is haunting and sad. It's a terrific read.

Rating: BUY

FTC Disclosure: I received a copy of Blood-Drenched Beard from the publisher.

Review: MY MOTHER-IN-LAW DRINKS, by Diego de Silva

My Mother-in-Law Drinks, by Diego de Silva. Published 2014 by Europa Editions. Literary Fiction, Crime. Translated from Italian.

My Mother-in-Law Drinks isn't really so much a crime novel- there's no particular mystery, or crime that's being solved- as it is one very dramatic day in the very dramatic life of one Vincenzo Malinconico, an Italian criminal defense lawyer whom readers may have met in Diego de Silva's wonderful 2012 book, I Hadn't Understood. Vince', as he's called, is a bit of a loser. His law practice is a joke, and while he's had lots of problems with women in the past, things seem to be looking up. As this second installment opens he's living with the very desirable Alessandra Persiano, won in the first book. He's getting along better with his kids now and he's sticking up for himself with his ex-wife Nives. And he's got a great relationship with Assunta, his mother-in-law, who's just found out she has cancer.

All this comes into play in the aftermath of a very difficult situation in which he finds himself one day at the grocery store. Armed with a gun, an otherwise unremarkable computer engineer has taken control of the store. He has become unhinged after his son was killed in a case of mistaken identity and his killer allowed to go free thanks to the Italian court system. He tracks down the man he believes is responsible, a mafioso on the run but hiding in plain sight. And he takes Vince', the mafioso and another supermarket employee hostage, intending to try the man with Vince' acting as defense attorney. The aftermath of the hostage situation makes Vince' a temporary celebrity and while it seems like things might be looking up, Vince' is falling apart.

The story is told through the normally fractured Vincenzo's even more manic than usual narration owing to the trauma he's suffered. A characteristic of this series is his tangents and stories that pepper the narrative; he can't just tell you what happened, he's got to relate analogies and anecdotes and examples, and if you like his voice it's immensely enjoyable. I love these books; I love the asides and parentheticals and all his talk and nonsense. It's fun. The story itself is pretty simple; man tries to put his life back together after a trauma, and succeeds more or less, even if he doesn't come away unscathed. De Silva leads one important thread dangling at the end of the book, and I really hope he picks it up in the next one. And I hope there is a next one!

This is my first read for the 2015 Europa Challenge. Come on over to the blog & check it out.

Rating: BEACH

FTC Disclosure: I received this book from Europa Editions for review.

Book Review: ELEVEN DAYS, by Stav Sherez

Eleven Days, by Stav Sherez. Published 2014 by Europa Editions. Crime Fiction/Mystery.

When it comes to series, I rarely read past volume one. It's not that I'm anti-series; I just usually don't get hooked enough to continue, and in the case of crime fiction, I'd rather sample lots of series than delve too deeply into one. It's a way for me to get to know a little about a lot of authors and stories, so that I can recommend books approrpriately to my customers and friends.

Eleven Days is book two of British writer Stav Sherez's Carrigan/Miller series, so you can tell right away I'm a fan. The first book in the series, A Dark Redemption, was a favorite of mine in 2013, one of the best books I read that year of any genre and Eleven Days is a worthy successor. After finishing the second installment, I'm confident this series has a bright, dark future.

Set again in London and featuring his detectives Jack Carrigan and Geneva Miller, we start out with ten dead nuns and one other dead person in a London convent. Police find their charred bodies after fire tears through the building and little by little clues emerge.  The nuns have connections to bad guys in South America and Eastern Europe- lots of people who'd like to see them dead, for different reasons.  Several of the bodies bear the marks of torture. Financial records point towards work in South America and ties to the leftist liberation theology movement. The nuns also had run-ins with Albanian drug lords and sex traffickers next door. And the church itself is not being particularly cooperative with our investigators. We also see more developments in Carrigan and Miller's ongoing rapport and hints that there are serious problems in Miller's personal life as well as Carrigan's. We see them pursuing different tracks of the investigation and coming to conflict with each other over theories and execution, so to speak.

Just like A Dark Redemption, Eleven Days is a great page-turner. It's grisly and gory and delves into not one but two troubling aspects of modern geopolitics, as well as the more prosaic, and tragic,  story of a girl who thought she could make a difference in the world. There's enough here for three books, and Sherez weaves it all together into a cohesive and absorbing tale. I like that we got some hints about Miller's troubles, and I hope to read more about that lousy ex of hers in a future installment. I'm also glad that there doesn't seem to be any romance in the offing for Carrigan and Miller, at least in the short term. Romance plots are a distraction from the far more interesting questions of how to simply get along with other troubled human beings.

Anyway as you can tell I enjoyed Eleven Days quite a bit. I'm definitely hooked as far as following the rest of the books, however many Sherez has planned. I'm still kicking myself a little for waiting for the US release and not buying it when I was in London last year. Oh well. If he's got a new one when I go back, I won't wait!

Tomorrow come back from my interview with author Stav Sherez!

This is my 12th book for the 2014 Europa Challenge.

Rating: BUY

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for review from Europa Editions.

Review: WORLD OF TROUBLE, by Ben H. Winters

World of Trouble, by Ben H. Winters. Published 2014 by Quirk Books. Science Fiction. Crime Fiction.

So World of Trouble was for me one of the most hotly anticipated books of this year. It's the third in a series called The Last Policeman, about Detective Hank Palace of the Concord, New Hampshire police department, and some very unusual circumstances. The world is going to end- a comet called Maia will collide at a certain date and it's definitely going to happen. The first book, also called The Last Policeman, takes place about six months out; the second, Countdown City, 77 days before impact. This one starts merely two weeks from Maia's slated arrival. All three are fairly standard procedurals but what makes them different is the premise. Why solve a murder, or resolve a disappearance, if everyone is going to die in six months? Why do anything anymore, when nothing you do will matter?

The answer to these questions is one that Hank pursues along with his perps. Before the world ends though, it falls apart little by little. People go "bucket list," leaving jobs and relationships to chase last-minute dreams. All over the world anarchy is taking hold. The poor in parts of the world that will be affected most immediately by Maia flock to the United States and other richer countries in hope of salvation. People stockpile food, weapons, whatever. Currency becomes meaningless, and so does life, for a lot of people.

For Hank, hanging on to his sanity, and his humanity, means taking the time to care for Maia's first victims, these murders and disappearances that happen before the impact. So he insists on investigating an apparent suicide in the first book, at a time when suicides have become commonplace, and a man who disappears from his devoted wife in the second, when everyone and their neighbor is going "bucket list".

In this final volume Hank is chasing his sister, Nico, who has taken up with a group of survivalists who believe they can save the world. Hank is skeptical to say the least but his sister is all he has left and he's determined to find her and be with her when the impact happens. Because as much as he hopes, he doesn't doubt that it will. He leaves a communal home he's been sharing with other police officers to bike to Ohio to find her. What he finds changes everything and nothing.

From a whodunit perspective this book was right up there with The Last Policeman for providing satisfactory twists and turns although I did guess who did it at an opportune moment well before the big reveal. But this book is still a great page-turner filled with lots of colorful and surprising characters. The big question is, does the world end? I won't tell you but I will say the ending is beautiful, poetic and just- and this just might be one of the best reads of 2014.

Rating: BUY

FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review.

Europa Challenge Update

I've read a bunch of Europas over the past few weeks and rather than write four long reviews I decided to just do quick recaps.

The Cemetary of Swallows, by Mallock. All over the place in terms of tone and style but compelling nonetheless, it tells the story of a Frenchman who murders an elderly man in the Dominican Republic, for reasons that no one understands. Mallock is also the name of the detective in this case, a friend of the murderer's sister. He starts his investigation in the DR where he encounters corruption, a house of amber and more, with just hints of the horrors awaiting him to discover back in France. The story then takes a turn to World War 2 atrocities and reincarnation. Along the way you'll be treated to prose both purple and page-turning, until this hot mess bumps its way to a pretty conventional ending. 2014. Translated from the French.


Seven Lives and One Great Love, by Lena Divani, is a light bonbon about a cat and the woman he
loves. A pretty white cat named Zach is adopted by a woman he worships for no discernable reason; she's not a very good cat owner, that's for sure. Anyway he remains devoted and tries with some success to win her affection and attention. This would be fun one for the beach bag. 2014. Translated from the Greek.

Margherita Dolce Vita, by Stefano Benni, is an older title that tells a coming of age story mixed with an anti-materialism message. Margherita is a dreamy teen who lives with two brothers and her parents and everything is peachy until the Del Benes move in next door with their black cube of a house and shopping-mall lifestyle. Things take a dark turn and Margherita must figure out how to save her family from the changes she sees coming- if she can. I liked this book and I think it would appeal to readers who like a little quirky in their literary diets. 2006. Translated from the Italian.

Revolution Baby, by Joanna Gruda, was my favorite though. This is a
quasi-novel about a Jewish Polish boy who is hidden during World War 2 and the Holocaust, in various places around France. Julek has a peripatetic childhood even before war breaks out; his parents, hard-core Communists, don't want to raise him and have him to live with Polish comrades of theirs. His mother takes him to France but sends him to boarding school, then sends him all over the countryside in an effort to keep him safe. Told from his perspective and in simple language, his is a story of alienation and the constant struggle to find a place for himself, find a family, find a place to call his own. The adult narrator makes no effort to contexualize what happened to his child-self so we have to read between the lines to understand and I like it when a book makes me work a little like that. I really loved this book and want to recommend it to everyone. 2014.

These are books 5-8 of the 2014 Europa Challenge! You can join this ongoing challenge at EuropaChallenge.Blogspot.com.

Review: RANDOM VIOLENCE by Jassy Mackenzie

Random Violence, by Jassy Mackenzie. Published 2010 by Soho Crime. Crime fiction.

I have another great volume 1 for my crime peeps.

Random Violence is the first in a series of mysteries by South African writer Jassy Mackenzie, starring Jade de Jong, a private detective who's just moved back home after some years abroad following the death of her policeman father in a gruesome car accident. Jade gets involved in the investigation of the murder of Annette Botha, a seemingly random attempted carjacking. Botha was shot outside her home trying to open a locked gate, and at first the case seems like just another act of violence, just another attack in a country where crime is rampant and nobody feels safe.

Jade thinks that something else might be up, though, and works with police detective- and friend- David Patel to find the truth. The search will take them through South Africa's corrupt police system, its brutal military and its absolutely bloodthirsty (literally) real estate speculation industry. Mackenzie has created a truly chilling villain in Whiteboy, a sadist responsible for many crimes, including many that no one even knows about. Alongside all of this, Jade is out to get revenge on the man she believes to be her father's killer, a man about to get out of prison, and for this she needs to reach back into the underworld. She's also got some interpersonal stuff with David.

I have to say I really enjoyed this book and want to read more in the series. I liked Jade a lot. She's complicated and tough and real. She gets some things wrong, and she learns and tries again. I bet her adventures will be fun to follow. The book is deeply atmospheric and gives a real sense of the paranoia and danger that South Africans live with, something I've noticed in a lot of books about the country. If you've read Absolution by Patrick Flanery you'll have noticed it there too.

I picked it up because she has a newish book out in the series that got a good write-up on NPR and since I enjoy reading about South Africa and I enjoy crime, I thought this would be a great fit. And it was. It was very hard to put down once the plot got rolling and though the violence could be gruesome at times, the horror of why these things were happening was almost worse than the violence itself. It ends well but it is dark, dark, dark, so take that into consideration. But for you dark-crime readers, Random Violence would be a great choice.

Rating: BEACH

FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review.

Review: THE MIDNIGHT CHOIR, by Gene Kerrigan

The Midnight Choir, by Gene Kerrigan. Published 2007 by Europa Editions. Crime Fiction.

The Midnight Choir is a great crime novel and depicts a whole seedy world of Irish crime, but it is also one of the bleakest books I've read in a while. Basically, this book can be summed up thusly: Life sucks, then you die a horrible meaningless death and nothing changes.

At its heart is the story of Garda Inspector Harry Synnott, who a long time ago got involved in an IRA-related cop killing and ratted out some fellow officers for police brutality. The police still got their man, but they may not have gotten to the truth, and Synnott didn't exactly make friends. Years pass and Synnott, stuck in place career-wise, is offered a shiny sinecure out of the country, if only he can charm the politician making the appointment. On his plate is a rape case and a jewelry theft and things seem to be going well except that another old murder case is about to come back from the dead and ruin everything.

Tangled up in all this is Dixie Peyton, a desperate woman struggling to keep her head above water, and a gang lord named Lar Mackendrick, deranged with grief at the loss of his brother. Dixie needs money and a way out of her troubles; she tries to sell a tip to Synnott regarding the aforementioned Mackendrick but things don't exactly go her way. Things don't go anyone's way in this story, unless you're a bad guy or dead and nothing worse can happen to you.

The Midnight Choir is set in contemporary Dublin, as the Celtic Tiger economic boom was fading but hadn't yet gone completely bust. Everyone's on the downswing, except the criminals. I have to say, Kerrigan draws a pretty convincing picture of all the ways life can go wrong. Poor Dixie. Just when she thinks she's going to skip the country with the payout cash from the corrupt cop and kidnap her kid from foster care- well, I won't spoil it, but, well, you know. It's not pretty. I felt for Dixie. Kerrigan really makes us sympathize with this very troubled and deeply messed up young woman. Synnott I didn't feel about one way or the other. But Dixie and her friend Shelly get my sympathy.

Anyway I'd recommend The Midnight Choir to noir fans and anyone else interested in contemporary Irish literature that isn't about shamrocks and sunshine. So if you're a Maeve Binchy reader this probably isn't for you. I admire Kerrigan's artistry and reportage but man was this a downer.

This is my 15th book for 2013's Europa Challenge. I may not make it to my goal of 24 but I'm back
on the wagon anyway.

Rating: BEACH

FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review.

Review: THE LAST POLICEMAN, by Ben H. Winters

The Last Policeman, by Ben H. Winters. Published 2013 by Quirk Books. Crime Fiction. Science Fiction.

The Last Policeman is the first of a trilogy and tells the story of Concord, New Hampshire detective Henry Palace, recently promoted after 15 months on the force. He's investigating the death of one Peter Zell,  an introverted accountant found hanged in a McDonald's bathroom. It looks like he killed himself. I mean, it really looks that way, and everyone thinks Palace's crazy to investigate, because these days everyone is killing himself. It's the end of the world, after all.

No, it really is. In the book, scientists have predicted that a mammoth asteroid is six months away from destroying life on Earth. Anarchy is settling in. People are pulling up stakes, going "bucket list" to do the things they always wanted to do. Cults are forming. Hopelessness abounds. And suicides are way, way up, so much so that no one even questions Zell's death. No one does, except for Palace.

The Last Policeman is more than just a mystery. It asks some searching questions about the choices that people make- would make, could make- when faced with the collective, inevitable, date-is-on-the-calendar end. It also asks us about our own lives, since each of us faces the inevitability of death with or without an asteroid. Society's steady dissolution is a major feature of the book; Palace struggles with the cynicism around him and inside him as he pursues Zell's killer. He almost gives up. Who could blame him? It looks just like a suicide; maybe it is.

I was totally glued to this book from page one. It was a staff pick of a fellow bookseller and I'm so glad she recommended it because I don't think I would have picked it up otherwise. I liked the combination of pre-apocalyptic science fiction and crime, and the setting of small-town New Hampshire was perfect. When the world ends, it won't just end in New York City; it'll end for all of us and Winters makes us consider the figurative impact of this asteroid through different levels of society and in places that don't normally come to mind when we think of catastrophe. And he wraps it up in a truly riveting mystery that will keep you guessing. Highly recommended!

P.S. Volume 2, Countdown City, is out now; there is no release date that I know of for #3 but I plan to read them together. I have to know how it all ends!

Rating: BUY

FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review.

Review: SUMMERTIME, ALL THE CATS ARE BORED, by Philippe Georget

Summertime, All the Cats Are Bored, by Philippe Georget. Published 2013 by Europa Editions.

Summertime, All the Cats Are Bored is the perfect mystery beach read with what might be the best title ever. It evokes sun, ennui and long days filled with both. (The original French title is L'été, tous les chats s'ennuient) Set in the Mediterranean resort town of Perpignan, the story concerns a series of murders and kidnappings in which the victims are mostly young Dutch women on vacation. First, a retiree finds a dead woman on the beach. Then, detectives Gilles Sebag and Jacques Molina are brought in to investigate the disappearance of a Spanish cab driver which quickly becomes tied to the kidnapping of a second woman, and then we're off to the races.

I have to say, I loved this book. I did not want to put it down. Unburdened by anything resembling important social issues, it's just a good old fashioned thriller with a delicious sense of place and setting. Sebag is a happily married man with kids, an anomaly among detective-novel detectives, and his thing is he loves his coffee, so we are treated to some very descriptive scenes of him enjoying (or not) his java.  And the whole thing just feels sun-drenched and beautiful despite the horror beneath. I could see All the Cats being made into a really great art-house whodunit on the big screen. Even though I know who did it, I would totally go see it.

So this one gets a big thumbs-up from me for crime fans. It's satisfying, enjoyable and riveting; Georget alternates the perspectives so we hear from the detectives, the kidnapping victim, and the kidnapper in turn, and he builds some wrenching suspense along the way. The case makes Sebag a little crazy; he starts imagining that his beautiful wife is unfaithful, and this plot adds some urgency and creepiness that I thought worked well. All in all I think this is a great fun book!

This is my 13th book of 2013 for this year's Europa Challenge.

Rating: BEACH

FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review.