smik's reviews from LibraryThing

SHADOW by Karin Alvtegen

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 23:03:50 -0400

smik's review: "Gerda Persson had lain dead for three days by the time the home help discovered her body. Her decision that at her death she would reveal to the person who most needed to know a secret she had been burdened with for 35 years sets in train a sequence of events that destroys lives. Thirty five years before a little boy had been left on the steps of the Skansen amusement park, apparently abandoned by his mother. For 35 years he has searched for his identity, and now he will find out. The structure of this book is like the orchestral composition where one by one the players are introduced, each playing a slightly different theme, in their own world. And then the players come together, the composition gathers tempo, rising to a heart stopping crescendo. I saw none of the resolutions of the various themes in SHADOW coming, and they left me nearly breathless. And then the final 3 pages, for me reminscent of that final line from T.S. Eliot's The Hollow Men, .."not with a bang, but with a whimper". I'm staggered by the power of this book."
Canongate Books Ltd (2009), Paperback, 320 pages

PERIL AT END HOUSE by Agatha Christie

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 02:41:00 -0400

smik's review: "Originally published in the US in 1932, and then in the UK later in the same year. I listened to an unabridged audio book read by Hugh Fraser. It features Hercule Poirot, Captain Hastings, and, towards the end, Inspector Japp. It is Poirot's 6th novel, and there's a couple of gentle references in the novel to his previous case THE MYSTERY OF THE BLUE TRAIN published in 1928. Hastings and Poirot are having a week's holiday at St. Loo in Cornwall. Hastings has recently returned from Argentina, seemingly having left his wife behind. Poirot has retired and turns down a request from the Home Secretary to go up to London to take on a most urgent case. However he reserves the right to take on a new case if it interests him. As always Poirot is attracted to a pretty young thing, Miss Nick Buckley, who appears to have recently been shot at. When he hears that she has had several near encounters with death just recently Poirot decides to make her protection his business. Nick Buckley is a young flapper living well beyond her means at End House. She is surrounded by a coterie of similar care-free young things who party a lot and experiment with drugs like cocaine. Any one of them could be a danger to Miss Nick, but why would any of them want to kill her? Despite his own confidence in his own abilities, PERIL AT END HOUSE clearly demonstrates that even the great Hercule Poirot is fallible. Poirot says that Hastings always leaps to the wrong conclusions, and so we have come to expect Hastings to be led astray by sentiment, but not Hercule Poirot who prides himself on his deductive methods and his use of "the little grey cells". Agatha Christie's behind-the-hand smirking at her own pompous creation is almost palpable. Without doubt, the beautiful narration of Hugh Fraser, who has appeared in a number of the TV episodes as Hastings, contributed to my enjoyment. But let's take nothing away from the cleverness of the plot, nor from the controversial ending in which, to Hastings' horror, Poirot allows the murderer to cheat the gallows."
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd (2004), Audio CD

THE REDEEMER by Jo Nesbo

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:03:30 -0400

smik's review: "The shooting of a Salvation Army officer at point blank range as Christmas shoppers stand listening to a street concert in Oslo is almost unthinkable. Many saw the assailant, the gun in his hand, but predictably, afterwards, they were almost of no help. If there is an irony, it is that the victim should not have been there, having changed his shift with his brother. At Police HQ Harry Hole is investigating another case, the death of a young heroin addict, found dead in a unit at the container terminal. Harry's boss Bjarne Moller is leaving. If it hadn't been for Moller's protective wing Harry would have been off the force years ago. Harry mistrusts his new boss, Gunnar Hagen, who threatens to make him toe the line. You can almost feel Nesbo building this book, layer on layer, investigating how events that took place over a decade before, can have consequences in present time. You certainly forget that it is translated, so natural is the English. We've already met Harry Hole, most recently in NEMESIS, and before that in THE REDBREAST and in THE DEVIL'S STAR. (see below for my mini-reviews). THE REDEEMER is a great read, a book whose ending may shock. Harry's personal life is also once again at the centre of this book."

NAME TO A FACE by Robert Goddard

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:19:22 -0400

smik's review: "In 1707, the HMS Association was lost off the Isles of Scilly with no survivors. Thirty years later, an admiralty clerk is tasked with a secret mission. And 200 years after that in 1996, a dive on the wreck results in a fatal accident. Ten years later Tim Harding agrees to return to Cornwall, to go to an auction, to bid on a low value lot, as a favour for his employer and friend Barney Tozer. Seemingly disconnected events come together to form a trail of deceit, murder and greed, activated when the auction lot is stolen. The plot of NAME TO A FACE comes close to stretching the bounds of credibility. I usually enjoy Robert Goddard's books, and I really did enjoy this one, but there felt as if there was at least one plot element too many. It almost felt as if Goddard had painted himself into a corner, and had to pull another rabbit out of the hat in order to bind the plot together coherently. Part of the problem was the multiple time frames already described in the synopsis. But then Goddard introduced another, a legend from the 12th century, and I really felt he was clutching at straws. What I normally enjoy in Goddard novels, the juxtaposition of the past with the present, just felt overdone. It took a long time to finally tie everything off, and even then a murderer goes free, and another escapes retribution. I was ready for it finish well before it did. NAME TO A FACE is Robert Goddard's 19th novel, in a career that began in 1986."
Delta (2009), Paperback, 352 pages

THE MYSTERIOUS MR.QUIN by AGATHA CHRISTIE

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 06:49:00 -0400

smik's review: "THE MYSTERIOUS MR QUIN is a short story collection written by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by William Collins & Sons 1930 and in the US later in the same year. It contains 12 short stories and introduces Mr Satterthwaite and the rather shadowy prsence of Mr Harley Quin. The titles are 1. The Coming of Mr. Quin 2. The Shadow on the Glass 3. At the "Bells and Motley" 4. The Sign in the Sky 5. The Soul of the Croupier 6. The Man from the Sea 7. The Voice in the Dark 8. The Face of Helen 9. The Dead Harlequin 10. The Bird with the Broken Wing 11. The World's End 12. Harlequin's Lane Mr Quin first appears in the first story at a New Year's Eve party being attended by Mr Satterthwaite. He is described as "a little bent, dried-up man, with a peering face oddly elflike, and an intense and inordinate interest in other people's lives." It is after midnight and the conversation swings around to the former owner of the house who shot himself. There are three loud knocks on the front door and the door is opened to reveal a tall thin dark man dressed in motoring clothes. At first, to Mr Satterthwaite he momentairly appears to be dressed in every colour of the rainbow. The stranger's car has broken down and he introduces himself as Harley Quin. He says that he knew the former owner of the house, and joins in the conversation, assisting Mr Satterthwaite and the others in understanding his death. These 12 stories are lovely vignettes, deceptively short, the sort that make you read elements of them a second or a third time. Mr Quin makes an appearance in each one, at first to Mr Satterthwaite's surprise, and then he begins to look for him. Mr Quin often helps the observant Mr Satterthwaite see things in a totally different light. There is an element of the paranormal in the stories, and often a little romance, and yet at the same time they are believable, carefully crafted tales. The stories are generally set in the mid 1920s. I really enjoyed them. Mr Satterthwaite and Mr Quin also appear in two stories in the collection PROBLEM AT POLLENSA BAY published in 1991. One apparently was written even before THE MYSTERIOUS MR QUIN was published, but the other not until 1991."
HARPERCOLLINS (1996), Edition: New Ed, Paperback, 256 pages

RITUAL by Mo Hayder

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 03:29:12 -0400

smik's review: "When police diver Sergeant Flea Marley locates a human hand on the bottom of Bristol's harbour, she tries to picture how the body would be. She is surprised then, when she gives the hand an experimental tug, that it comes free, no weight behind it. The hand had initially been seen disappearing beneath the black water by a passerby, no body, no head, just a disappearing hand. DI Jack Caffery is Deputy SIO, newly seconded to the Major Crime Investigation Unit in Bristol. He first of all assumes that they must be dealing with a suicide, someone who has jumped off a bridge, but Flea persuades him the hand is "fresh", recently detached while the person was alive. And so it becomes a possible murder investigation. The second hand is discovered within a day, but in a strange location, actually under a restaurant that overlooks the harbour. The subsequent investigation ventures into an under-world controlled by drug dependencies, and those who can make money out of the macabre. There are many other threads that develop in parallel: Flea Marley's search for understanding of diving accident that took her parents' lives; Jack Caffery's need to avenge the death of his own brother decades before; and then the story of the hands, how they came to be in the harbour. The novel has a fascinating structure using jig-sawed time frames, and keeps the reader constantly on his/her toes constructing the scenarios. A rather black novel, RITUAL was short-listed for the 2008 Ian Fleming (CWA) Steel Dagger, and is currently in the voting for the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. For me the tension that developed in the last 100 or so pages was masterfully done, so good that I wanted release. While Flea Marley is a new creation, Jack Caffery first appeared in 2001 in BIRDMAN, and then in 2002 in THE TREATMENT, subsequently a winner of a 2002 WH Smith Thumping Good Read Award. RITUAL is described as the first novel in the "Walking Man" series, and the second, SKIN, was published in March 2009. In an "after-word" in RITUAL Hayder says Jack Caffery is her "poster-boy". See this article: 'The Problem with Caffery' The article explains where The Walking Man came from, as well as the inspiration for Flea Marley."
Atlantic Monthly Press (2008), Hardcover, 416 pages

RETIREMENT HOMES ARE MURDER by Mike Befeler

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 23:12:54 -0400

smik's review: "Waking up every morning with a clean slate may appeal to some but for Paul Jacobsen it is "crapola". Every time he sleeps Paul Jacobsen's short term memory re-sets itself, so it is a real incentive not to nap during the day. While he is awake he has a photographic memory of what has happened since he last slept. And he's been living with this for 5 years! Paul's son Denny has helped him to move into a retirement home on Big Island, Hawaii, and he wakes the next morning with no memory of how he got there or where important things like the dining room are. That morning he discovers the body in the laundry chute. Mike Befeler's debut novel is humorous, quirky, and a bit of a romp in more ways than one. RETIREMENT HOMES ARE MURDER is simultaneously a murder mystery with the usual red herrings, and a realistic exploration of the problems that be-set the elderly with advancing age."
Thomson Gale

SILENT IN THE GRAVE by Deanna Raybourn

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 02:22:50 -0400

smik's review: "In the tradition of the Grey family, Sir Edward Grey did not make old bones, but his collapse at the age of 34 on the floor of his music room in front of guests was totally unexpected, and at the time his wife Lady Julia accused him of playing a prank. It was one of the guests, Nicholas Brisbane, who pointed out that Edward was convulsing. The year is 1886, the setting Victorian London. Julia Grey is the ninth child of Lord March, married over five years before to her childhood sweetheart. In compliance with conventions made popular by Queen Victoria herself, the clocks are stopped at the moment of Sir Edward's death, everything is swathed and wreathed in black crepe, and Julia begins a year of mourning, wearing unrelenting black and avoiding "entertainments". Edward had become increasingly unwell during the final year of their marriage, but even so Julia is unprepared for what Nicholas Brisbane comes to tell her a few weeks after the funeral: that her husband had feared for his life and had hired Brisbane to protect him, and that he thinks Edward was murdered. Julia discounts Brisbane's advice until just a year after Edward's death when she makes a startling discovery. It was this book that I had in mind the other day in my post The Dangers of Genre Mixing, for this novel mixes history, mystery, and even more elements including the paranormal, and accepted social mores. In addition SILENT IN THE GRAVE was Raybourn's debut novel, and I think she struggled to get the right mix of history and mystery. There is a lot of "setting of the scene" in the first year of the story, and the mystery element doesn't really get a chance for the first 80 pages until Lady Julia makes a discovery that leads her to taking Brisbane up on his earlier suggestion. For me the first half of the novel was frustratingly slow going: it took me well over a week to read. I had meant to have it read in time for an online discussion at oz_mystery_readers and have had to play a sort of catch-up with the discussion. Even so the revelations of the last 100 pages or so caught me by surprise, and the finally revealed identity of Sir Edward's murderer was a character whom I had earlier discounted. Lady Julia is at times rather self-centred, impulsive and vacuous, while Nicholas Brisbane is brooding control-freak in an almost Heathcliff fashion. They make an unlikely investigative team. But this partnership continues in two more novels. 1. Silent in the Grave (2006) 2. Silent in the Sanctuary (2008) 3. Silent on the Moor (2009) At a hefty 500+ pages, SILENT IN THE GRAVE is a "solid" read in more than one way. The physical structure of the book actually contributes to its length: there are forty one chapters, and a dividing page between each chapter. Each chapter page has a classical quotation, the significance of which at times escaped me, while at other times they seemed particularly apt. SILENT IN THE GRAVE was shortlisted for an Agatha Award for Best First Novel in 2007"
Mira (2007), Mass Market Paperback, 544 pages

UNSEEN by Mari Jungstedt

Sat, 30 May 2009 02:11:45 -0400

smik's review: "Gotland is an island off the coast of Sweden that blooms with summer visitors. It is a sought-after holiday destination with cabins, holiday shacks, and a few permanent residents. Visitors come by ferry from Stockholm for weekend getaways and short holidays. It is the sort of place the young generally leave to find work. Summer is just beginning when Helena, Per and their friends gather in the limestone cottage for a Whitsun weekend holiday. Helena has brought together people they haven't seen for a while, but unfortunately Per's jealousy destroys the evening. Within a matter of hours Helena is dead, killed in the nearby sand dunes by an axe wielding murderer. At first Per is the obvious suspect, but there are a couple of other possibilities among the guests. Within days there is a second murder, a woman of similar age, same "calling card." The investigation is handled by Inspector Anders Knutas and his team fromVisby, while an investigative journalist, Johan Berg, from Stockholm conducts a parallel inquiry, which seems at times more successful than the police one. Knutas is a methodical investigator, but there are tensions in his team, and he is under pressure to find the murderer before it impacts on Gotland's fragile tourist industry. On the other hand, Berg's mind is not always on the job as he falls in love with a woman linked to the case, but he seems to be able to get people to open up to him in a way that the police can't. It is Emma, Helena's best friend, one of the guests at the Whitsun weekend, who eventually realises what connects the murders, by then numbering 3, and then the tension really builds. This was an excellent read. Apart from the murder mystery aspect, it is really a story about relationships on a number of levels, and a tale that points out how our actions from our days of innocence can reach out into the present."
Corgi Adult (2008), Paperback, 368 pages

SEARCH THE DARK by Charles Todd

Thu, 28 May 2009 08:01:33 -0400

smik's review: "This is the third in the Ian Rutledge series, and the second I have listened to. It is a "village mystery", with quite a confined setting. A returned soldier travelling south by train to find work looks out of the window as the train passes through a small village and sees a woman and two children on the platform with a man. The soldier, Mowbray, believes his wife and children were killed in the bombing of London in 1915, and yet there they are on the platform. He frantically tries to get off the train, but is not put off until the next stop. By the time he gets back to the station, the woman and children have gone. Distraught he searches the town, threatening his wife harm when he finds her. The next day a woman's body is found, face battered, some miles away in the countryside and the local police inspector assumes it is Mowbray's wife. But there is no sign of the children. Ian Rutledge from Scotland Yard is brought in to find the children, but there are too many things that don't add up, and he is not convinced it is Mrs Mowbray. When another young woman is discovered to be missing, it seems Rutledge may be right. However the local policeman is not so easily convinced. What I found as I listened is that I really cared about what happened to these characters. Rutledge is a bit pedantic about getting things right, and more than once I found myself saying " get on with it man!" but then I find he has thought of something that didn't even cross my horizon. And just when you think you've got it all worked out, the plot takes another turn, another body is found, or whatever, and off we go again. The war is a recent memory and Rutledge is not the only one damaged by it. Several of the characters in the book, including the unfortunate Mowbray, have been deeply affected by the war. Rutledge himself is constantly reminded of the war by the ever present voice of Hamish MacLeod. For me this time, the voice of "Hamish in his head" is much stronger in this early novel, the conversations Rutledge has with Hamish are more like dialogue between the detective and his offsider. I commented on this in my Sleuths and Foils post. By A PALE HORSE, which is #10 in the series, and set a year or two later than SEARCH THE DARK, Rutledge is learning how to control Hamish to an extent, and to respond less automatically to his voice. I am "hooked" on these stories, but next time I really must read a book, not listen to one."
Audible Books

THE BAD POLICEMAN by Helen Hodgman

Mon, 25 May 2009 06:51:55 -0400

smik's review: "THE BAD POLICEMAN begins with a day in the life of Australian Police Constable Marcus Blainey. In fact the book recounts many such days. Blainey tells us right from the beginning that he has "done bad things". He is only too conscious of what a contrast he is to his patrol car partner Steve, ever eager, always ambitious. In truth life has dealt Mark Blainey many blows. His marriage has collapsed - what policeman's hasn't? - and the job doesn't always allow him to dispense the sort of justice he would like to see. But then he often takes the easy way out. The poet in him is ever conscious of a burden of human misery and stupidity. Mark Blainey is disillusioned by the job, often ready to take advantage when it is on offer, but one thing really gets to him - young children caught up in the nightmare worlds of adult predators. I changed my mind a number of times while reading THE BAD POLICEMAN. It is not a novel in the conventional sense of the word, more a series of connected incidents occurring in Marcus Blainey's world. And yet there are story threads, in the way that things that happen to us in our everyday lives are often connected to other things that have happened to us. In the long run, I decided it was an interesting book, not because it is crime fiction in the usual sense of a murder mystery or a thriller, but there are crimes. The structure allows it to be almost stream of consciousness, with Marcus Blainey using the reader as a confessional, a way to vent his frustrations at his inability to right wrongs. I didn't like it quite as much as Sunnie, and a bit more than Sally. Despite the fact that it is relatively short, I didn't find it a particularly quick read. And it's not a cheerful book - you have been warned! At times the language may offend as well."
Allen & Unwin (2001), Paperback, 173 pages

PUBLISH OR PERISH by Margot Kinberg

Fri, 22 May 2009 23:04:59 -0400

smik's review: "For Nick Merrill, a third-year graduate student at Tilton University, it really looks as if the world is his oyster. He has two women on a string, teaches a class he enjoys, is participating in an effective teaching project he finds stimulating, has a piece of software about to be accepted for publication, and then he wins a fellowship he was sure would go to a colleague. But within a matter of days his world begins to fall apart. Not only does his girlfriend find out about his other relationship, his tutor steals his software, the colleague who did not win the fellowship is determined to have him disqualified for unethical behaviour, and there is a strong possibility his contract will be terminated. But, as the reader learns, this is not the worst that can happen. By a third of the way in, PUBLISH OR PERISH becomes a carefully crafted murder mystery. The murders are solved by a very likeable former police detective-turned-professor Joel Williams. Now there is a protagonist I would like to see more of. Although there are a couple of police detectives who have been assigned to the case, and they do the hack work, it is Williams' intuition and powers of observation that make the breakthrough. It was obvious to me, as one who doesn't know the American university system at all well, that Margot Kinberg knows her setting backwards. As far as debut novels go, this is a solid effort. I don't mean that in a derogatory sense. If I have one criticism it is that it took, for me, a little too long to draw the threads finally together. PUBLISH OR PERISH is an entertaining crime fiction read, and I'm certainly willing to read Margot Kinberg's next book."
Strategic Book Publishing (2008), Hardcover, 212 pages

THE SITTAFORD MYSTERY by Agatha Christie

Mon, 18 May 2009 08:42:05 -0400

smik's review: "Christmas is approaching. Snow has fallen in England over the last four days and the landscape on the fringe of Dartmoor at Sittaford House is several feet deep in snow. To all intents and purposes the tiny village of Sittaford is almost completely cut off. The winter tenants of Sittaford House, Mrs Willett and her daughter Violet, are entertaining the residents of the nearby estate cottages to afternoon tea. To pass the time the group tries a spot of table turning. When the table spells out the message "Captain Trevelyan ... dead... murder", one of the party, Trevelyan's lifelong friend Major Burnaby decides to make the six mile trek into the village on foot, just to check his friend's welfare. Christie still appears to be searching for a protagonist, although by this time, her 11th novel, Hercule Poirot has appeared 5 times, Superintendent Battle twice, and Miss Marple made her debut in the previous novel THE MURDER AT THE VICARAGE. I don't think the new protagonist, Inspector Narracott is a success. In fact we never really get to know him. He is rather colourless, uninspiring, as well as secretive, and Christie only lets him loose once more, many years later in a play. Narracott shares the limelight of the investigation with Emily Trefusis, engaged to be married to young man accused of Captain Trevelyan's murder, and a journalist by the name of Charles Enderby. This couple are much more interesting and through them Christie brings in a romantic element, to add to the rather supernatural one of the table turning. All of the people who were in Sittaford House that afternoon have something to hide, and so the story is rather liberally sprinkled with red herrings, and with sub-plots, including a breakout from a nearby prison on Dartmoor which reminded me a bit of the plot from Dickens' GREAT EXPECTATIONS. There is a basic assumption that the murderer had either to be from Sittaford House itself or from one of the cottages. Christie plays a little with the reader through the dual investigations, and it means that we don't actually have all of the facts at our disposal."
Minotaur Books (2001), Mass Market Paperback, 288 pages

THE POISONING IN THE PUB by Simon Brett

Fri, 15 May 2009 21:51:37 -0400

smik's review: "The latest in the Fethering series, #10, proves that Simon Brett hasn't lost his touch. Some nasty things begin to happen at Ted Crisp's Crown & Anchor starting with a radical food poisoning at lunch one day when Jude and Carole are there. The pub is temporarily closed by the health authorities, and the story is leaked to the paper. Then a one-of comedy night intended to boost the pub's flagging reputation becomes a disaster when the comedian tells some off colour jokes about Ted and the food poisoning, a gang of bikies invade, and then one of Ted's helpers is killed. Jude and Carole become convinced that someone is trying to force Ted to sell up, and he confirms that this is just part of a stream of nasty incidents. Some books are just so easy to read, you wish there were more of them. The Fethering series is one of my favourites, and Simon Brett is still going strong. If you've not read any, then they are definitely worth reading in order. They feature Carole Seddon, retired public servant with all sorts of hang-ups, and her neighbour the mysterious Jude, an expert in massage and natural therapies. There is a lovely development of the relationship between the two, and reading Brett's annual contribution is another case of visiting with old friends."
Five Star (2009), Hardcover

THE WRITING CLASS by Jincy Willett

Tue, 12 May 2009 17:23:35 -0400

smik's review: "Amy Gallup teaches an adult writing class as a university extension. It is a fiction workshop and they will meet weekly for 9 weeks. From the start Amy has problems. She doesn't really enjoy starting off with a new group of people, and there are 15 names on her list, and 16 people in the room. Carla, the one person who has attended one of her classes before, is missing on the first night. When Amy gets home on the night of the first class, a heavy breather has left whispered fragments on her answering machine. By the third class it is obvious there is someone in the class who isn't quite what they seem. As the class continues, this person, identity still unknown, selects victims with cruel comments on their manuscripts, and practical jokes. And then one of the class dies. It is obvious that Jincy Willett has brought considerable experience in conducting writing classes to the writing of this book, with keen observations, and realistic scenarios. It reminded me quite a lot of classes I attended a couple of years ago, although Amy was much more demanding of her students than my teacher was. However for me, the book became a little long. I desperately wanted to get on and hunt down The Sniper, the perpetrator of all the nasty deeds, including by the end more than one murder. And from that standpoint the last hundred pages just didn't move fast enough. It felt like Jincy Willett had a lot of material she wanted to include, and we were going to get it whether we liked it or not. I became increasingly annoyed by the fact that I felt there weren't enough hints about who the villain was. Bernadette in Reactions to Reading says " I’m not sure this book is really crime fiction" and I am inclined to agree with her. I think the crime elements take a back seat to the other things that Willett is writing about. But Bernadette obviously enjoyed it."
Thomas Dunne Books (2008), Hardcover, 336 pages

THE SHACK by William P. Young

Sat, 09 May 2009 06:35:11 -0400

smik's review: "I attempted to listen to this as an Audible download. It was recorded by Oasis Audio and narrated by Roger Mueller. 8 hrs 30 mins. The book was published in mid 2008. Synopsis Mackenzie Allen Philips' youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack's world forever. You may have thought from the synopsis that THE SHACK is crime fiction. But around about a third of the way through it becomes undisguised Christian polemic, a discussion of difficult questions about the nature of God. So if you are a practising Christian it may be just your cup of tea, but for me whatever I thought it had going for it in the first quarter just evaporated in the middle and THE SHACK became my first DNF for 2009. In fact, I really feel duped, even angry, to have spent as long as I did (nearly 3 hours) listening to it. I wish I had read the synopsis more carefully, but really that wouldn't have helped much. Perhaps I should have done what I usually avoid - read some reviews with spoilers in them. I wish I had read what this review does for you - tells you that whatever this book is, it is NOT crime fiction. And one thing I know - I won't be looking for another book by this author."
Windblown Media (2008), Edition: 1st, Paperback, 256 pages

A PALE HORSE by Charles Todd

Mon, 04 May 2009 08:51:03 -0400

smik's review: "A small group of young lads discover the body of someone they believe to be the Devil in a hooded cloak and gas mask, in the ruins of Fountain Abbey during a clandestine visit during the night. The local school master becomes a prime suspect even though he can throw no light on who the man is. When the school master's wife appeals to her father for help, Inspector Ian Rutledge is sent to Yorkshire to find out the identity of the dead man, and why he died in such mysterious circumstances. The story is set in 1920 against the background of the chalk horse of the Apocalypse on the Wiltshire Downs. The war is a recent memory and Rutledge is not the only one damaged by it. He is haunted by childhood memories of the chalk horse, and constantly reminded of the war by the ever present voice of Hamish MacLeod. This really is an excellent book, full of complexities, good character development. A fascinating range of characters live in the small village of Tomlin cottages on the Downs near the chalk horse. There is a good mix of murder mystery and Rutledge's personal story too. I was impressed by what felt like authenticity in the historical details from 1920. As an audio book it works really well too, with excellent voice characterisation by Simon Prebble."
BBC Audiobooks America, unabridged,

BLACK OUT by Lisa Unger

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:59:15 -0400

smik's review: "BLACK OUT begins very provocatively: Today something interesting happened. I died. Annie Powers named her daughter Victory, a symbol of a past she thought she had conquered and left behind. In another life in a very dysfunctional family where her mother fell in love with a murderer and rapist on death row, Annie was part of traumatic events she has tried hard to forget. But now her past is catching up with her. A man she thought was dead, the father of her child, has come back for her, and Annie can no longer tell whether her memories are true or delusions. There can be no doubt to the reader that Annie Powers has a psychotic problem, a dissociative disorder. At times she sees her former persona as a separate person, someone she hates and has tried to destroy. By the time of her death mentioned in the opening lines, she is no longer sure of who she can trust. Lisa Unger explores Annie's vulnerability as she tries to leave her former life behind. She paints a disturbing picture of Annie's mind as those around her, even those she is closest to, try to persuade her that what she knows has happened hasn't. The reader may find Unger's technique of slotting in episodes from different time frames difficult to cope with. There are three major slices of time: the present, the recent past, and the deep past; and the book plunges from one to the other with little or no warning, and only contextual clues. This was an extraordinary book: very provocative in its exploration of how a person with a dissociative disorder may see the world. Looking at it as a thriller, I did find that some of the events stretched the bounds of credibility. You can read quite a considerable part of the book online, on the author's website: in fact the Prologue and the first 7 chapters, in my copy that is the first 42 pages. There is also a synopsis to read, and a trailer to watch. Lisa Unger has written 4 books: Beautiful Lies (2006) Sliver of Truth (2007) Black Out (2008) Die for You (2009)"
Bantam Books, Random House Australia

ECHOES FROM THE DEAD by Johan Theorin

Sat, 25 Apr 2009 17:53:58 -0400

smik's review: "Julia Davidsson's life fell apart when her beautiful son Jens disappeared one foggy afternoon on the remote island of Oland in Sweden. Jen was just six years old, and Julia's relationship with his father had already collapsed. Her own mother had already begun her decline and never recovered, and Julia under-estimated the guilt her father felt afterwards. Now, twenty years on, Julia, haunted by the need for resolution, returns to Oland to visit her father, and to find out once and for all, what really happened to Jens. Did he fall into the sea and drown, as so many have tried to say, did someone take him, or, illogical as it sounds, is he still alive just waiting to be found? Julia's father has been sent a package containing what seems to be a sandal Jens was wearing on the day he disappeared. Gerlof Davidsson, coming to the end of his life, too needs resolution. He has always believed Jens was taken by someone, even though a thorough hunt and investigation at the time revealed nothing. He can't shake the thought that Jens's disappearance was somehow connected with the rumoured return of a notorious local killer, Nils Kant. When his friend Ernst is found dead at the stone quarry, Gerlof becomes even more convinced the killer is still at large. A child's disappearance is the worst nightmare for any parent, Johann Theorin has captured the nightmare that Jens's disappearance created for both Julia and Gerlof very well. The twists and turns their investigation takes as they question the residents of Oland are both believable and unpredictable. The final denouement caught me by surprise. I was reading something the other day about how we tend to use hackneyed cliches such as "page turner" far too often in book reviews. This is a book though that just keeps you reading. You want to help Julia and Gerlof to find some sort of closure, as well as reconciliation. I don't know how you talk about the quality of a translation if you can't read the original, but let me say I think this one is well done. My rating: 4.9 Johan Theorin is one of a number of new Scandinavian crime fiction authors who needs to be on your reading list. His second novel NIGHT BLIZZARD will be out later this year, and I'll certainly be waiting for it. Read the opening chapters of ECHOES FROM THE DEAD online. Other reviews to read * Maxine Clarke on EuroCrime * It's a Crime * Norman on EuroCrime * Bernadette at Reactions to Reading * International Noir Fiction * Scandinavian Crime Fiction I couldn't help but be reminded of other books that I've read that have the same core topic: * WHAT THE DEAD KNOW, Laura Lippman * LITTLE GIRL LOST, Susan Kelly * THE GIRL OF HIS DREAMS, Donna Leon * INNOCENT GRAVES, Peter Robinson (My rating: 4.6) * WHEN THE DEAD CRY OUT, Hillary Bonner (my rating:4.5) * RAVEN BLACK, Ann Cleeves (my rating 4.6) * NO TRACE, Barry Maitland (my rating 5.0) * THE WOODS by Harlan Coben (my rating 5.0) * IN THE WOODS, Tana French (my rating 5.0) * BLACK SECONDS, Karen Fossum (my rating 5.0)"
Delta (2008), Paperback, 400 pages

TEA TIME for the TRADITIONALLY BUILT by Alexander McCall Smith

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 08:26:57 -0400

smik's review: "An annual meet up with Precious Ramotswe, proprietor and founder of the No 1. Ladies Detective Agency in Gaborone, Botswana, is one of the pleasures of life. For me it is like renewing a friendship with an old friend. For TEA TIME for the TRADITIONALLY BUILT is #10 in the series, the first of which was published back in 1998. Mma Ramotswe and her assistant Mma Makutsi are called upon to investigate why a local football team has begun to lose on a regular basis. Mma Ramotswe's faithful little white van has a terminal illness, and Mma Makutsi's fiance Phuti Radiphuti does not recognise a Jezebel when he comes into contact with one. There is a more detailed synopsis in my earlier posting. If you are looking for a blood and guts read, then this is not the book for you. As always with all the books in the series, this is a gentle progress, characterised by investigations into the small problems that loom so large in ordinary lives. While I enjoyed the book, it is not the best in the series. I thought it felt a little padded out, with descriptions and philosophising as Mma Ramotswe ponders the meaning of life."