Devils in Exile / by Chuck Hogan

Neal Maven returns home from Iraq to find that the country he risked his life defending can't offer him much in return. Hundreds of applications and inquiries can't even land him a full-time job and the work he does get scarcely makes ends meet. By chance when he's seen expertly disarming a would-be thief at his night job as a parking attendant, Neal's introduced to a friendly stranger, Royce, another veteran, and a new line of work where his still-amped-up soldiering skills can be put to good use. It's a highly dangerous but highly lucrative occupation in which Royce, Neal and three others, all professional soldiers, infiltrate high quantity drug deals while they're taking place, ripping off the cash and disposing of the dope in quick fashion. The planning part of the operation can be tedious, each heist meticulously planned, and none of the others quite know where or how Royce gets his intel, but the money tends to make the hassle and any troubling questions go by the wayside. It's not just the money but the lifestyle and the girls that come with it which help Neal temporarily forget about his own fears ("Trouble seems to have a way of finding me.") and worries until some subtle missteps coupled with a flawed maneuver help the Feds get wise to Neal and the "Sugar Bandits."

Crime writer Hogan has found success in recent years with his fast-paced thrillers highlighted by morally ambiguous characters caught up in their own self-escalating conflicts. Prince of Thieves, reviewed on this blog some months ago, was adapted into a major motion picture, The Town, and served up much of the same criteria: blue collar Boston underdogs are lured into lives of petty crime and struggle to find a way out. In this case, the situation conveys at least a more patriotic, if not a more moralistic angle. Neal's boss Royce manages to convince Neal and his fellow recruits, with remarkably little effort, that the people they're stealing from are the real evildoers and the product they're disposing of after each little engagement is helping to save lives in the long run. He does this after dishing to his new pupils on the unfair way returning vets are thrust back into civilian life lacking the skills, and more importantly the mindset, to live a normal, honest life. The government trained them to wage war on America's enemies and that's what they're doing, so to speak. If they make a disproportionately enormous profit in ripping off other criminals, then so be it. This aspect of the story might work OK depending on your moral code and even despite the sketchy, insincere way Royce comes across, Hogan's first-person narration through Neal renders him a believable enough character to buy the scenario. The problem has to do with the girlfriend. Royce's lady Danielle used to be the resident senior goddess at Neal's old high school when Neal was a freshman. She's still up there on the pedestal, at least in Neal's eyes, though it's difficult to tell why. She's cranky, crabby, manipulative and generally abusive to Neal who she singles out as a sort-of errand boy. It doesn't take much to get her upset or stressed, moods she remedies with cocaine and other illegal substances. This plot element isn't the only thing detracting credibility from the story, but it may be the most annoying. Otherwise the book is a fun read, exciting and action-packed with good descriptions and a relatable context. (FIC HOGAN)

Why Didn't You Come For Me? / by Diane Janes

It's been twelve years since her infant daughter Lauren's abduction and Jo Ashton continues to receive photographs of her baby in the mail, the words "I still have her" scribbled across the back. Even though she's remarried and moved with her new husband and stepson to an isolated part of the country, she still gets them. The police insist it's just a cruel joke, a creepy but harmless taunt by someone just wanting to stir things up. But Jo knows it's not just a prank. She knows that whoever sent them has monitored her every move and is at least sincere about letting her know it. And though she can't be sure of who or where the kidnapper is or even if they're telling the truth about Lauren, Jo has a gut feeling that her daughter's out there somewhere, still alive. There's another side to the story though, an even more sinister element reaching further back into Jo's past even before the birth of her daughter to a scarred, repressed childhood marked by horror, abuse and murder. As things in her life start to unravel, Jo's deepest hopes and darkest fears begin converging in ways she could never have foreseen.

Janes was nominated for a CWA (Crime Writer's Association) and Dagger award for her novel Pull of the Moon, a story of long hidden secrets in which a deathbed confession leads the protagonist down a path of intrigue and betrayal. It was a book critically acclaimed by both readers and critics for its psychological suspense and marked Janes as a noteworthy new author in the genre. Why Didn't You Come For Me? is another solid story concept with Janes effortlessly erecting a lurid, creepy tale. The demented premise of a woman being taunted by her child's kidnapper, a sordid past of the protagonist and a wonderfully situated setting all contribute to the book's appeal. The story is so good that the character of Jo doesn't quite measure up to the gravity of her situation. There are times where she seems as much a fish out of water as a heady protagonist and in certain instances, she's largely outweighed by the magnitude of the conflict. (MYS JANES)

The Outfit: A Parker Novel / by Richard Stark

Even for an author as well-published as he was, Donald E. Westlake (1933-2008) had a lot of pseudonymns. Though to be fair, many of them were implemented during his early career when his offhand authorship of some pulpish, soft-porn titles discretely bore different pen names out of necessity. The Brooklyn native began writing stories as soon as he could spell and was publishing stories by his late teens. By the early sixties, his stories were being published in several minor serial publications using pen names like Alan Marshall, Ben Christopher or John Decker and it wasn't long before his taught, underworld style novels caught on. It was his Richard Stark novels featuring the gritty, amoral anti-hero Parker that quickly established the author as one to watch out for. With a restless, drifter-like persona and always a score to settle, Parker is the sympathetic criminal living in a world where crime and treachery is a given but survival isn't. Over 20 of the nearly 30 novels Westlake wrote as Richard Stark feature Parker as the protagonist and several have been adaptede or remorphed onto the big screen (different names and places) in movies like Point Blank with Lee Marvin or Mel Gibson's Payback. Elmore Leonard as well as Jim Thompson have said they owe much of their style and characterizations to Westlake and Parker. The Outfit has Parker trying to get back at the syndicate after it tries to kill him.

Some may say that crime doesn't pay. But for Parker, it's all he knows. The veteran thief and underworld player would've liked to think that his former employer, an influential crime syndicate referred to as the Outfit, would prefer to lay off him a while. After all, the ruthless way he'd cut ties with them had him thinking they'd leave him alone. But a late-night visit from an amateur hit man with a silenced .25 proved it hadn't. The guy was just a lackey and had had the unfortunate pleasure of breaking in on Parker in Miami during one of his business liasons. With little effort, Parker turns the tables on his would-be assassin and gets the guy to tell all he knows. An hour later and Parker's busting up a backroom poker game where a few former employees sit surprised that he's not dead. After shooting the man that framed him, Parker escapes and forms a plan of his own. Soon with the aid of few fellow rogues, Parker begins ripping off certain racetracks, casinos and 'establishments' owned by the outfit to settle the score.

When is the bad guy a good guy? Usually when all of the other characters are worse than he is. In this case it's more that he just lives by his own code. It's not that Parker is necessarily on a vendetta or out to get someone, it's more just that this is the only way he can achieve some balance in the world system he lives with. As in The Hunter, Parker's actions are usually provoked. His hand is forced by those who've double-crossed or harmed him in some way and the only real way to set things right is to enact swift, brutal revenge toward his enemies. There's an honorable bent to his actions even when he's heedlessly shooting a few bullets into someone in cold blood. There's also a callousness which denies any soulful type of real compassion. Parker doesn't really want a just or an honorable world, he just wants his piece of the pie. (MYS STARK)

The Hypnotist / by Lars Kepler

In a bedroom community outside of Stockholm, a couple has been discovered brutally murdered in their home. The only survivor, their teenage son, found with multiple knife wounds all over his body, is still nearly catatonic with shock. A homicide squad headed by detective Joona Linna at the helm begins an investigation with very little to go on--despite the horrific crime scene, the killer left no clues. Linna persuades Dr. Erik Maria Bark, a noted psychiatrist, to help extract information from the young victim and though the veteran trauma specialist is initially averse to employing the tactics of hypnosis, a method he used many years earlier but has now given up, Dr. Bark eventually relents and is able to get just enough from the young boy for Linna to hit on a suspect. And just in time too. It turns out that the youth has an older sister who lives away from home and may now be in danger from a very cold-blooded figure indeed, a man who is every bit as menacing as Linna had feared and who most certainly will try to kill again.

This book moves really fast, as swift as Stieg Larsson's Millenium trilogy and with almost as many plot-boilers. The character of Detective Linna isn't so particularly distinctive--he's as much like many another clever, daring, relentless and often rogue homicide detective--and there's no Lisbeth Salander character to endear the reader, but the story still catches on fairly quickly and its pace keeps the attachment. Lars Kepler is actually a pseudonym for the husband and wife writing team of Alexander and Alexandra Coehlo Ahndori, and much like another author couple from a generation earlier, they've managed a great deal of success with their debut book and it's sequel (yet to be released stateside). At times the stories of both Dr. Bark and Detective Loona can be a bit hard to juggle. It's very back-and-forth. But seasoned Scandinavian crime fiction readers will soon get the hang of it. As with many other similar Nordic Noir thrillers, this book is not for the faint of heart. There is plenty of blood and mayhem, guts and violence on the pages and 'Kepler' spares no one, even the most innocent, from their destiny. (MYS KEPLER)

Serial Menace: Newer Mystery and Crime Fiction Novels on Serial Killers

Whisper in the Dark / by Robert Gregory Browne
When Detective Frank Blackburn discovers an unidentified young woman dead and with a pair of scissors in her left hand, he has a tentative hunch that the murder may be the work of Vincent Van Gogh, a notorious serial killer with an artistic bent. In need of a profiler who can provide some insight in the mind of the madman, Blackburn contacts psychiatrist Dr. Michael Tolan, a man with his own persona experience with Van Gogh—his wife was one of his victims. (FIC BROWNE)

Abomination / by Colleen Coble

Recently divorced detective Nick Andreakos is after a serial murderer whose been targeting young girls and women, When certain clues lead him to believe that his ex-wife Eve could be the killer’s next target, the case takes on another dimension. Eve has already had one close call with the murderer and seems to know that it won’t be the last time she sees the man known as Gideon. (FIC COBLE)

BoneMan’s Daughters / by Ted Dekker
In Texas, a malicious serial killer known as “Bone Man” has been stalking and murdering young girls. Meanwhile in Iraq, a high-ranking military officer has been captured and is being held captive by the enemy. In an effort to extort information, they’ve blackmailed their prisoner using the life and well-being of his wife and daughter back home in Texas—and there seems to be link between the captors and the Bone Man. (Also see The Bride Collector by Ted Dekker) (FIC DEKKER)

Born To Die / by Lisa Jackson
When two women who look remarkably similar to herself suddenly die of seemingly natural causes, Dr. Kacey Lambert chalks it up as a coincidence. But when it’s discovered that one of the dead bodies contained traces of poison, it becomes a murder case headed by Detectives Selena Alvarez and her partner Regan Pescoli. As more women, all resembling Dr. Lambert, are murdered under ever more brutal circumstances, both the detectives and the now targeted Lambert become more than a little anxious. (FIC JACKSON)

Still Missing / by Chevy Stevens

Real estate agent Annie Moresby never knew what she was getting into when she agreed to show a house to a mysterious stranger. The stranger turned out to be a psychopath who forcefully held Annie captive in a remote mountain cabin for over a year before she managed an escape. Only now her former captor, a serial killer, is still on the loose and he may be after Annie one last time. (FIC STEVENS)
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Bloodline / by Mark Billingham

A madman is on the loose in London. A very clever and very malevolent serial killer has been murdering the children of the victims of Raymond Garvey, a notorious serial murderer from the city’s past. Murder Squad Detective Tom Thorne is on the case and thinks he’s caught a lead when a pregnant woman is found murdered. But what he finds instead is an even more complicated puzzle than he’d previously been working on. (MYS BILLINGHAM)

Mister X / by John Lutz
Five years ago a madman brutally murdered six women, having mutilated their bodies and carving an X into their flesh. Then the murders suddenly stopped and ex-homicide detective Frank Quinn still can’t figure out why. That is, until a sister of one of the victims convinces Frank to reopen the now cold case. Now with the case renewed, the murders have started again. (MYS LUTZ)

The Snowman / by Jo Nesbo; trans. from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett
With the first snowfall of the season in Oslo comes the disappearance of a local woman from her home. In her yard has been constructed the figure of a distorted, sinister looking snowman. It doesn’t take Detective Harry Hole long to realize that this is only one in a string of multiple disappearances—disappearances which are almost certainly the work of a serial killer. (MYS NESBO)

The Way Home: A Novel / by George Pelecanos

Washington, D.C. lifetime resident George Pelecanos worked as a dishwasher, a cook and a women's shoe salesman prior to publishing his first novel A Firing Offense in 1992. He has subsequently risen through the ranks to become one of the leading crime novelist today, setting many of his nitty-gritty dramas in his hometown at various times in the city's history. Since 2004, he has also been a staff writer for the award-winning HBO program "The Wire", which chronicles much of the same interconnecting urban characters and personalities set in nearby Baltimore. His 2009 standalone book The Way Home chronicles a group of young men who've remained close since their days in a juvenile detention center but whose lives become mutually imperiled after a strange discovery.

All Thomas Flynn ever wanted for his son and only child was for Chris to not make the same mistakes which had befallen his own life, namely dropping out of high school, neglecting a college education and being doomed to a blue collar job for life. For Thomas, it's not that his life is all that bad, actually it's quite good. He lives in his boyhood home in a well-to-do part of D.C. (his parents bequeathing it to him upon their deaths), he's married and still in love with his high school sweetheart, he owns his own flooring installation business, he can retire early if he wants to, etc. But Chris's life so far has been a disappointment, at least in Thomas eyes. A smart kid raised in the kind of atmosphere Thomas had hoped would nurture the boy into the type of white-collar realm he'd envisioned for him, Chris had turned bad well before he could even start applying for college.

It had started with smoking dope in middle school, had escalated to violence and vandalism by his freshman year of high school and had finally landed the boy in a juvenile detention center at the age of 16. Chris had gotten his diploma while inside and had even made some decent friends. But in the 6 or so years since his release, he hadn't even thought of going to college or doing anything other than helping his father with the family business. That and he still hung around with his pals from the inside, some of whom Thomas had thought enough of to hire on as workers but others who he knew were nothing but trouble. When an incident involving what seems to be a shoddy carpet job suddenly disrupts the normal routine, Thomas believes it's nothing but another disappointment from the boy he'd hoped so much for. It's not until the real truth comes out that Thomas reconsiders his convictions as all of their lives change forever.

It's easy to see why Pelecanos is so revered as a crime writer both in the literary and media circles. His well-developed characters, edgy but not over-the-top situations and honest dialogue help the reader understand what the genre of crime writing is all about--inevitable human fallibilities, personal motivations and a world of glaring inequality. Very keen on socio-economic circumstances, roots of society's problems as well as the volatile, often violent condition of the nation's capital, the author doesn't even need any type of formula to evoke a good story. His ground-level characters and their domestic lives create all of the drama the story needs and then some. The sort of multi-perspective bird's eye-view he imparts to the reader through nearly all of the primary characters, facilitating everyone with the same sympathetic yet honest treatment, is probably his greatest tool and, ironically, one of the facets which has distinguished "The Wire" as such a successful series. (FIC PELECANOS)

Gone Til' November: A Novel / by Wallace Stroby

New Jersey native Wallace Stroby's life shares much in common with that of notorious HBO villain Tony Soprano, or more accurately, that of the actor who plays him, James Gandolfini. It's one reason why many of his books cover themes associated with the infamous TV capo and those within the criminal element who are like him. Born in Long Branch, a town along the Jersey Shore, Stroby grew familiar with many of the archetype ruffians represented in his thrillers right up until he graduated from Rutgers (Gandolfini's alma mater). From there he worked as a reporter and editor for the Newark based Star-Ledger newspaper, a publication covering the greater part of New Jersey, until his novels broke it big in the mid-2000's. 2010's Gone Til' November is about a New Jersey contract killer who travels to Florida only to be confronted by sheriff's deputy Sara Cross, a cop and woman with her own problems.

Hopedale, FL sheriff's deputy Sara Cross' has a lot of problems. She's divorced to a deadbeat who won't pay his alimony, she gets migraines frequently, she's prone to bad relationships--she still has issues about her ex-boyfriend, also a sheriff's deputy on the same force--and her 6-year-old son's got leukemia. Still, Sara's never been one to back down from a confrontation, especially if it involves a questionable situation like the one her current case involves. Having stumbled onto the scene of a roadside shooting in an isolated, swampy portion of town, Sara immediately senses something's not quite right. She finds Billy Flynn (her former partner and ex) just after he's shot a twenty-two-year-old black man during a routine traffic stop. He claims it was self-defense, initiated when an altercation broke out after Billy asked to see inside the trunk which, upon examination, does contain a hefty assortment of illegal firearms. But Sara isn't so sure about Billy's story and her policing instincts instantly start to perk up as she begins investigating.

Meanwhile, New Jersey crime boss Mikey-Mike has a major drug deal about to go through down in Florida and doesn't want anything funny to happen. So he sends his man Morgan, an over-the-hill contract killer looking for one last paycheck, to "seal the deal". But even though Morgan's been there and done that all before, his instincts aren't as sharp as they once were, he's not as sharp, especially when he crosses paths with a snakey Sheriff's deputy who might be on to him. Stroby is a first-rate crime writer and this is another quality novel. Without revealing too much and never selling the plot short, the author weaves the story around characters who know the score and the stakes but, like the reader, seldom know what's about to hit them. Sara and Morgan as the two protagonists are both characters with a keen sense of when their luck will run out and yet they can't help track down the truth, even to their ultimate peril. In fact, they seem almost a perfect match, their mutually flawed character made bare and their numerous weakness exposed during every encounter. At no time is their an issue with whether their personal lives affect their professional choices because, as Stroby so brilliantly portrays, they always do. (MYS STROBY)

Portobello: A Novel / by Ruth Rendell

Ruth Rendell could be considered a modern day Agatha Christie. She's that good. Her numerous mystery and crime fiction books, published since the mid-sixties, tally over 60 total novels to go along with several short story collections and novellas. The staggering amount of praise she's received has as much to do with her standalones as with her Inspector Wexford series which has been a TV broadcast since the 1980's. One of her career highlights came in 1998 when she received a life peer award and CBE (Commander of the British Empire) following which she became assumed a seat in the House of Lords for Britain's Labour Party. Portobello, one of her most recent standalones, chronicles the intersecting lives of several city dwellers in the Notting Hill section of London.
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50-year-old bachelor Eugene Wren is the sort of person who's lucked into the good life. An art dealer and owner of a shop in the antiques market of London's Portobello Road, Wren's made a series of favorable deals in which some wealthy collectors overpaid for several obscure pieces. Now he lives semi-retired in a posh section of Kensington where he casually monitors his shop's business and spends most of his time with his girlfriend and fiance Ella Cotswold. A doctor of general medicine, Ella's not only well-off financially but ten years his junior and quite a catch. There's a slight problem though: Eugene's an addictive personality type. Never fully free of a dependency, he's gone through life fighting alcohol, cigarettes, prescription drugs and food, essentially trading one addiction for another periodically. Currently he's hooked on a particular brand of sugar-free sweets which he takes great pains to hoard, purchasing the candy at different stores and concealing all traces from his soon-to-be wife who can't stand hidden habits.
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One day Eugene stumbles across an envelope overflowing with cash just lying in the street. In an attempt to partly offset the guilt over his addiction and balance the scales of his conscience a bit, Eugene tries to personally locate envelope's rightful owner, publishing a notice in the paper in hopes of getting his man. Of course multiple persons try and claim the money. One of the phantom claimants, Lance Platt, is a burglar and petty thief who constantly prowls around the neighborhood, lurking amid the upper-class homes seeking to potentially rob any of the less secure ones. This time though, Lance meets with Eugene not to check out his house, but because he actually needs the money: his girlfriend's got a busted jaw after he'd smashed it with his fist and she needs a thousand pounds for surgery. The other notably odd respondent is a peculiar invalid named Joel Rosemund, who may or may not have a mental illness (he hears voices) and who latches on to Ella as his personal physician. It's not long before the situation initialized by Eugene's little discovery spins out of control as the secrets and lies get knotted up into a sinister web of betrayal and intrigue.
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Portobello is a great 'neighborhood' novel and the borough of Notting Hill is as good a place as any to set a story. For anyone who doesn't know about Notting Hill or the Portobello Road Market, Bedknobs and Broomsticks is a good movie to rewatch. Thriving with culture, rich in tradition and full of colorful characers, it more than measures up as a backdrop for Rendell's exquisite prose. And the writing is just that. Smart, fluid, funny--it's everything even a non-mystery fan could want. The characterizations are especially charming. The author's portrayal of her characters is as comprehensive as it is fascinating, the narrative fleshing out each's finer points, their psychological makeup and chronic neurosis, personal convictions and internal inhibitions. The evocative depictions of Eugene, his psyche and motives; of Lance and his ever-deepening well of problems; and Joel, who may seem the most out of touch but has a knack for getting what he wants, are what combine to make Rendell one of the truly special contemporary mystery authors. (MYS RENDELL)

2666 / by Roberto Bolano; trans. from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer

The son of a truck driver, Roberto Bolano was born in Chile in 1953 but moved with his family to Mexico City when he was still a child. After dropping out of school in his teen years, Roberto became heavily involved with the ongoing revolutionary movements in Central and South America. In 1973 he even

traveled back to Chile to give his support to the Salvador Allende regime (ironically the uncle of the other renowned Chilean author Isabel Allende) only to eventually be taken prisoner and held captive for several months. Afterwards, Bolano lived the life of a semi-vagabond for a time, residing in Spain, El Salvador, Mexico and France among other places before trying his luck as a writer, primarily as poet in his early career before turning to fiction full time. His novel 2666, published just after his death in 2003 from Hepatitis C, has been described as "an exceptionally exciting literary labyrinth" and  "the first great book of the twenty-first century".

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In the border city of Santa Teresa, Mexico, there has been an ongoing series of serial murders of young women since 1993. The local law enforcement estimates that somewhere in the neighborhood of 300-400 homicides have occurred though local residents estimate the count significantly above that. "Los Feminicidios", as the victims have come to be called, are mostly poor, uneducated and nondescript females ranging in age from 15-36. Though a series of suspects and criminal trials have come and gone, few viable leads and hard evidence have come to light as the wave of brutal killings have continued unabated, the police seemingly as useless at preventing crime as they are at a loss for answers to solve them. Among the residents of the city, the murders are perpetually in the public conscious. Everyone is on edge, wary of their surroundings, going about their lives in grim, foreboding fashion under constant fear for themselves and their loved ones. Even outsiders new to Santa Teresa can't help but be engulfed in the distinct air of menace and fear which grip the streets.
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All the while amid the surroundings saturated with anxiety and unease, odd contradictions and unlikely connections permeate the scene. A sophisticated set of European literary critics has gathered in Santa Teresa to be near the obscure German poet Benno von Archimboldi, a man himself well-associated with violence and murder and of who it is said is in the city for some peculiar reason associated with the "Los Feminicidios". Coincidentally, the critics and Archimboldi are colleagues of one Oscar Amilfitano, a professor at the local university who fears for his own daughter's life, she being "of the age" for targeted victims. Within the same circle of these foreigners and fringe intellectual types is Oscar Fate, an American journalist representing an NYC-based lifestyle magazine, who's in town to cover a high profile boxing match even as he knows nothing about the sport. Instead of covering the fighters he's supposed to be interviewing, Fate becomes interested in the murders and promptly starts his own investigation into the case, targeting the high concentration of women murdered between the years of 1993 and 1997.
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Up front there are three things the reader should know about this book: Santa Teresa is a fictional equivalent of Cuidad Juarez, the murders are real and based on fact, and the title '2666' is relatively meaningless (the number itself is a vague allusion to the Biblical book of Exodus but never mentioned in the text). An epochal tale centering on the ongoing series of very brutal crimes, it's a novel not so much concerned with violence and death--no one would mistake it for crime or mystery fiction--as it is a diatribe subtly hinting at the sinister world in which we inhabit. There's something very secret and very horrible centered around the desert city of Santa Teresa and, conversely, Cuidad Juarez, a place perhaps as reminiscent of Sodom and Gomorrah as anywhere. Evil is as much a reality as eating and drinking. And not just a commonplace criminal element, but a distinct brand of extreme violence and vulgar bloodlust which define the setting and accommodate Bolano's savory, emanating style. Further enhancing the book's almost mystical resonance is the author's death in 2003 coinciding with the novel's publication that same year--the tome (and it is a 'tome', over 900 pages long) sort of his magnum opus and a labor of love which the publisher took great care to leave fully intact. But unlike the themes of death and mortality which so wrap themselves around the book and its author, there are no real resolutions established in the narrative of the story. No defining moments or revelations are reached as the mysteries remain unsolved and largely unapproachable in their complexity, vastness and overwhelming tragedy. The mood is almost sublimated to match the atmosphere as things remain strange and unpredictable, an element of Bolano's which compounds the surreal, provocative quality of this intensely superior work. (FIC BOLANO)

The Big Sleep / by Raymond Chandler

LA Private Eye Philip Marlowe has been around the block a few times and knows more than he'd like to about the city's seamy underbelly. When he's hired by a wealthy retired general to investigate an extortion case, Marlowe thinks the job to be a welcome break from the more sordid affairs he's grown used to. The case of General Sternwood chiefly involves his two daughters, Carmen and Vivian, both beauties and somewhat scandalous for their wild ways. Carmen is involved with a man named A.G. Geiger who's been blackmailing the old general for increasingly large sums of money and, as Marlowe abruptly finds out, may be mixed up with the older daughter Vivian's estranged husband Terence Regan.
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Things swiftly turn deadly when Marlowe hooks on to Geiger's trail only to discover him lying dead--murdered--at his home with Carmen Sternwood in the vicinity. When the next lead takes him to the location of one Joe Brody, a crony of Geiger's, Marlowe questions the man only until Brody himself is shot during the inquiry. With the case intensifying and the bodies piling up, Marlowe's asked by the DA as well as General Sternwood to back off; but to no avail. In too deep to back out now, Marlowe starts digging deeper into the case, re-evaluating the other Sternwood daughter, Vivian, and soon uncovering more corruption, more dirt and more violent confrontations right up until the very last secret . . . and the very last bullet.
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Nothing sets the tone of hardboiled crime fiction like Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe. Perhaps no other character, with the exception of Dashiell Hammet's Sam Spade, epitomizes the grim, sordid world of private investigating and its knack for cleverly revealing the darker elements of human behavior. Rated among the best novels of the twentieth century, 1939's The Big Sleep is a masterpiece of crime and mystery fiction, meshing the elements of private secrets, personal confrontations, grotesque evils and professional affairs which inevitably lead to very intimate encounters. Additionally it's the way Chandler writes dialogue, all the clever back-and-forths which make for exquisite reading and even more scintillating live action--Humphrey Bogart as Marlowe in several movie adaptations (and Robert Mitchum later on) in which the character quotes and conversations remained largely intact from the book. It's also a story highlighting the admirable gritty nature of the protagonist, a character as good as a man can be within a world where pretty much everyone is corrupt. (MYS CHANDLER)

Nordic Noir: Scandinavian Crime Fiction

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The Ice Princess / by Camilla Lackberg; trans. by Steven T. Murray
Erica Falck, a moderately successful Swedish author, returns to her recently deceased parents small coastal fishing village to deal with their estate issues only to discover that her best friend from childhood has committed suicide. Or has she? When Erica decides to seek out some answers, she discovers more than she bargained for concerning the true goings-on in her quaint childhood hometown. (MYS LACKBERG)

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Black Seconds / by Karin Fossum; trans. from the Norwegian by Charlotte BarslundIn

Oslo, grizzled Inspector Sejer must seek out answers behind the disappearance of a young girl. In this, Fossum’s seventh Inspector Sejer novel, familiar themes of vicious criminals lurking among the everyday world and psychological suspense are intriguingly brought to the forefront. (MYS FOSSUM)
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The Inner Circle / by Mari Jungstedt; trans. from the Swedish by Tiina Nunnally
On a small island off the coast of Sweden, several archaeology students are working at a site unearthing some ancient Viking relics when one of the group, a girl named Martina Flochland turns up dead, her body hung from a tree. Inspector Anders Knutas must now sift through the evidence, including some actual Viking warrior remains, to find the culprit. (MYS JUNGSTEDT)
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Mind’s Eye: An Inspector Van Veeteren Mystery / by Haykan Nesser; trans. from the Swedish by Laurie Thompson
A man named Janek Mitter falls asleep after a night of heavy binge drinking only to awake the next morning to find his wife dead in the bathtub--murdered. Then, only weeks after Mitter is swiftly convicted of the crime (despite only circumstantial evidence) and sentenced to a mental institution, he’s found brutally murdered in his own bed. It’s now up to Inspector Van Veeteren to see the real killer brought to justice. (MYS NESSER)

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To Siberia / by Per Petterson; trans. from the Norwegian by Anne Born

In the years leading up to World War II, two young Danish youths live a near-blissful existence in the Jutland countryside. But with the onset of the war, the German occupation and the plight of their nation, their idyllic childhood is cruelly brought to a close and their world changes tragically forever. (FIC PETTERSON)
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Echoes From the Dead / by Johan Theorin; trans. by Marlaine Delargy

Twenty years ago on the island of Oland off the eastern coast of Sweden, a young boy named Jens vanished without a trace. Now in the present day, a package suddenly appears in the mail of the boy’s grandfather bearing the lost youth’s sneaker worn the day he disappeared. (FIC THEORIN)

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The Quiet Girl / by Peter Hoeg; trans. by Nadia Christensen
Kaspar Krone is a well-known performer in a traveling circus. He’s a clown, well-known for his hearty, laugh-inducing performances. But his real face isn’t the only thing his makeup conceals; he’s also a gambling addict in debt for a very large sum of money to some pretty shady characters now out for blood. (FIC HOEG)

Stieg Larsson, illuminated

Just one week before the U.S. publication of the conclusion to Stieg Larsson's Millenium trilogy, (which began with The girl with the dragon tattoo) the NY Times Magazine has published a lengthy article on Stieg Larsson's legacy in Sweden and the fight between his father, brother and Stieg's long-time live-in, Eva Gabrielsson, over the rights to control his literary legacy. The story is fascinating and sad, and truly sounds like something that could appear as a plot point in one of Larsson's books. There are even some conspiracy theorists who speculate that Larsson didn't actually write the books or that he was really murdered instead of having a heart attack. Click here for a link to the article.

The NY Times also reports that Ms. Gabrielsson is in possession of about three-quarters of a 4th, unfinished book in the series -- so we may get more of Mikael Blomqvist and Lisbeth Salander after all. The girl who kicked the hornet's nest is scheduled to be released in the U.S. on May 25th. Careful, this series is addictive.

Southampton Row / by Anne Perry

Investigator Thomas Pitt may no longer be an ‘official’ police detective on staff at London’s Bow Street station, but he’s no less uninformed about goings on within his sector, having insider access to oft-concealed capital murder cases through his ties with Special Branch. Only slightly worse for wear after being relegated to remote investigative duties following some treacherous dealings in head office, Pitt and his razor-sharp wife, Charlotte, have kept busy trapsing after the city’s abundance of crooks, deviants and layed-low criminals, not to mention coming in contact with some bizarre society circles.

His penchant for intrigue withstanding, even Pitt is more than a little unsettled when he and Charlotte’s much-needed vacation is put off after a murder tied to the recent Parliament election falls into their hands. On the upside the case is no less a prestigious one, involving several inner circle politicians--most notably the pompous Charles Voisey--in the mysterious death of a well-known society spiritualist. Early leads turn out to be less than clairvoyant, however, as clients of the dead medium, Voisey’s opponent’s wife to be specific, are revealed as largely ambiguous—if not altogether unreliable—sources of information. With Charlotte sent north of the city to search for background details on the deceased, Thomas and his sister-in-law Emily must wade through the foggy streets of London’s Southampton Row (and an even foggier political climate) to try and pin down the real reason behind the “séance murder”.

For years Anne Perry has entertained mystery fans with her own interpretations of life, love and crime in one of history’s most fascinating periods and places—Victorian England. Her recent Thomas and Charlotte Pitt novels, depicting a husband and wife detective team trailing cases closely-linked to issues of the day have been her most well-received with the pair’s engaging—often perilous—investigations never failing to dazzle readers. Though a bit further along in the series this story’s not hard to follow as the context provides enough background info for anyone to pick up on preceding events. This book's police procedural aspects will attract readers who'll like how the case weaves its way through high-profile intrigue and entreaty, ultimately tagging the real culprit behind the glamorous medium's death. (MYS PERRY)