Reading in Reykjavík

This is a "crimes of the past revisited" story, something Arnaldur has done before in several of his other books (e.g. Silence of the Grave , The Draining Lake and Strange Shores ). Told in chapters alternating between 1944 and the modern day, it tells the story of how the murder of an old man sets a retired police detective on the trail of another, unsolved, murder that happened during WW2 in Reykjavík. This is not a detective Erlendur story and does not feature either of his two closest collaborators on the police force but instead introduces a new character, a recently retired detective named Konráð. I don't know if the English title given for this book in the Wikipedia entry on Arnaldur and elsewhere on the web (except that literature.is gets it (almost) right), is the one that will be used for the eventual translation, but to me it looks suspiciously like a Google Translate blooper. Skuggasund actually means "Shadow Alley " and is the name of a stre...

This is the sixth and final challenge book, the type of house. The choice was limited - there were very few books in my TBR+1 pile that had any kind of abode in the title, let alone a type of house, so I ended up choosing the common, generic word. This literary novel, shortlisted for the Booker the year after it was published, is the story of two cousins, one French, the other half-English, half-French, who grow up in a big house in a small village in France in the 1950s. One of them returns to the house after 20 years in a convent and family secrets and lies are uncovered and events in the village explained as the story plunges back into their childhoods. This is a beautifully written little book, full of descriptions of everyday things loaded with symbolism and metaphor. The story it tells is that of a typical love-hate relationship between two cousins, one who is special and another who longs to be. The narrative is full of twists and hints about dark deeds and while some plot p...

Here is my first What‘s in a Name challenge book: item no. 2, the something you'd see in the sky , that thing of course being a raven . I have been making my way through the Brother Cadfael series in order of publication for the last several years, going rather slowly because I have been picking them up from second hand book shops, flea market stalls and BookMooch, knowing I would want to keep them after reading them. This is the 12th in the series out of 21, so I am a little over halfway there. Synopsis: The parish priest of Holy Cross, commonly called the Foregate because it lies just outside the walls of the abbey, dies and the Abbot of Saint Peter and Saint Paul brings back from a visit to his bishop a priest to replace him. But the priest clashes with his flock due to his inflexibility and lack of humility and kindness. When he is found drowned in the mill-pond on Christmas Day with a suspicious wound on the back of his head, foul play is suspected and Brother Cadfael ...

Synopsis: 6 years ago, Autumn Haven came to Las Vegas to have a good time. So did hockey player Sam LeClaire. They ended up married (by an Elvis impersonator, no less) and were divorced before their son was born nine month later. Autumn spent a lot of time hating Sam for walking out on her the day after they got married, but only now she has been able to stop hating him. When Sam suddenly starts paying more attention to their son she begins to hope that they can go on to be friends for Conner‘s sake, but Sam has other ideas. He has matured and changed since their first encounter and this time he isn‘t going to walk away. He just needs to convince her he‘s changed. Rachel Gibson was first recommended to me as a Jennifer Crusie readalike. I didn‘t really see the likeness when I read the two books from the Seattle Chinooks series that I have read, See Jane Score and this one, which take place in Seattle and remind me of nothing as much as Susan Elizabeth Phillip‘s Chicago Stars spor...

I consider myself lucky that my parents and my brother like giving presents that people actually want and not ones that will surprise but might not be wanted. Which is how I came to get this book for Christmas. I gave them two titles (the other one was Just Kids by Patti Smith) and my brother chose the one he knew I would want the most (he also got a copy for himself). But on with the review: Teaser: Samuel Vimes reluctantly goes out to Ramkin Hall, the family country residence, for a long-overdue holiday with his wife and son. Sam junior is six and very interested in poo, so the visit to the country is a prime opportunity for him to indulge his interests. In the meantime his father notices that something is not well in the area: a goblin girl has been brutally murdered and no-one seems to care, and the goblins are not receiving fair treatment. Before he knows it he is neck deep in an informal investigation and at the same time he is busy training the local police constable and te...

Originally published in July 2005, on my original 52 Books blog. This is the final review repost. In 1886, Edgar Drake, a specialist in tuning Erard pianos, is sent by the British War Office to the wilds of Burma to tune an Erard for Surgeon-Major Carroll, a man who has managed to become perhaps the most important British officer in the whole of Burma by making himself indispensable for the peace negotiations between the British and the Burmese. The piano plays some mysterious part in all this, but has unfortunately reacted badly to the extremes of the climate and is out of tune. Drake, shy, thoughtful and eccentric, finds in himself an unexpected adventurousness as he sets off from England to tune the piano. Once he gets to Carroll’s stronghold in Mae Lwin, he is enchanted by the place, charmed by Carroll, and seduced (not in the physical sense) by a mysterious local woman. All of these unite in holding him there, and he loses all sense of time and sinks into a kind of dream. When r...

Originally published in June 2005, on my original 52 Books blog. Third of four books about former private eye, now actor, Michael Spraggue, scion of one of Boston’s moneyed families, who prefers to live on his own rather than at the family mansion and to earn his own living instead of spending the family riches. The city of Boston is just as much a characters in this book as the people are, which is cool, because so often places are just used as interchangeable backgrounds for stories that could happen anywhere. This book was published in 1984 and appears to be out of print. Best place to find it would probably be a library or second-hand book store (or abebooks.com). The story: Collatos, a former cop, now a bodyguard, and a friend of Spraggue’s, asks him to help him find the writer of anonymous threatening letters that his boss, a US senator, has been receiving. When the senator and bodyguard take part in the Boston marathon and are poisoned by a “woman” who gives them water laced...

Originally published in July 2005, on my original 52 Books blog. When wealthy Lord Rule offers for the hand of the eldest Winwood sister, she knows she must accept, even if she loves another man. Her brother has sunk the family into debt and the only way of extricating them is for one of the sisters to marry a rich man, and Elizabeth is by far the prettiest. However, the youngest sister, 17 year old Horatia, is determined that her sister shall marry her beloved Edward, and so goes to Lord Rule to explain and offers herself in her sister’s place. To the family’s surprise, he accepts. It appears to Horatia that Rule does not love her (he has a mistress), and that bothers her, especially as she begins to fall in love with him. This leads to several misadventures, especially when Horatia becomes determined to conquer the heart of Lord Lethbridge, an old enemy of Rule’s, and thus make her husband jealous. The plan misfires and Horatia finds herself in deep trouble. Lord Rule, however, has...

Originally published in July 2005, on my original 52 Books blog. Such a gorgeous cover! When a conniving and secretive young housemaid at the Maxie mansion is murdered, the local constable immediately calls in the Scotland Yard. The Yard’s representative is Chief Inspector Adam Dalgliesh, who goes about his job of investigating and interviewing suspects and witnesses, in a thorough, calm and apparently unemotional manner. He uncovers seething emotions, hatred and passions that bubble just under the surface, and finds that most of the people who were at the mansion the night of the murder had good reason to dislike or even hate the murdered woman. This, the first of P.D. James’ popular Chief Inspector Dalgliesh books, is a rather Christiesque story. Dalgliesh uses Hercule Poirot’s preferred method of gathering together the suspects to unveil the killer, and the story is a country manor mystery in the Golden Age style, as so many of Agatha Christie’s books were. The characters of t...

Originally published in June 2005, on my original 52 Books blog. Margaret Parsons, a dowdy housewife, disappears from her Kingsmarkham home, and is found murdered the next day. During the investigation, suspicion fall on several people, including her husband, a former boyfriend, two former school friends, and their husbands. Finally, when Wexford and Burden discover a cache of inscribed books from “Doon” to “Minna”, they begin to piece together a story of obsession and desire, going back more than a decade, and make a startling discovery as to the identity of “Doon”. This is the first book in the Chief Inspector Wexford series. Like many other readers, I first became aware of Wexford as the leading character in a series of very good TV films based on the books, starring George Baker as Wexford. For some time I wasn’t even aware they were based on books, and even when I did realise it, I still was not very interested in reading them. Then I started becoming interested in crime myster...

Genre: The stated genre is Travel, but Film and Social History could just as well apply Year published: 2003 A glimpse of the Hindi movie industry’s newest heartthrob, Hrithik Roshan, sent Justine Hardy on a year-long exploration of the whole Hindi movie phenomenon. She interviewed people in the movie industry, including a film journalist, a small-time director, actors and actresses and a former movie choreographer, to gain insight into the industry, but it is her interviews and conversations with the ordinary people, the fans, that are the most interesting and illuminating. Always at the centre of the narrative is Roshan and Hardy’s ever more comical attempts to get an interview with him (it took a loooong time). In the end we don’t get a very deep insight into Bollywood, just a look at the surface glamour and glitter, with the occasional deeper glimpses of the dangers involved (organised crime both extorts money from the film-makers and backs their projects) and the dark side ...

Genre: Romance, contemporary Series: The Bride Quartet Year of publication: 2009 No. in series: 2 Setting & time: Greenwich, Connecticut, USA; contemporary Level of sensuality: Several breathless sex scenes and cute moments with kissing Emma, friend and business partner to Mac, heroine of the first book in the Bride Quartet, is the highly-skilled florist of Vows, the all-exclusive wedding-planning business they run together. She has long harboured a secret crush on Jack, an architect who is among her best friends. He is also interested in her, but hasn’t acted on it because of his close friendship with Parker’s brother who considers Emma, Mac and Laurel as his honorary sisters and is highly protective of them. After he helps her when her car breaks down late at night it becomes clear to them both that the attraction is mutual and after some initial hesitation they plunge into a passionate love affair. But their friendship, combined with Emma’s desire for the "ha...

Originally published in June 2005, on my original 52 Books blog. These are the first two books in a long-running series about burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr. Bernie is a cool character, perfectly immoral when it comes to other people’s property, daring, professional and charming. The books are a light-hearted blending of the traditional cozy mystery and the rogue genre, because the sleuth is a criminal. Being a criminal, he has obvious problems. The only cop likely to take him seriously is bent and needs to be bribed before he will do anything for him, and in both these books Bernie is a suspect in the murders, so has to go not only undercover to solve the murders, but on the lam as well to avoid being arrested for them. I have read a fair number of rogue stories (e.g. Raffles, Arsene Lupin) but Bernie is the first of the rogue heroes I have really liked. I hated the Raffles stories - Raffles is mean and Bunny such a wimp that it’s a wonder anyone likes them at all, plus the stories ar...

Originally published in June 2005, on my original 52 Books blog. A clever killer sends taunting letters to Hercule Poirot, telling him dates and the names of towns where he intends to strike. The towns and the victims are alphabetical, A in Andover, and so on. Poirot agrees with the police that they are dealing with a psychopath, but he can not but feel that there is something wrong about the letters, something that doesn’t fit the profile of the killer they have deduced from his methods and choice of victims. So begins a cat and mouse game, but who is which? Regular Christie fans will be in no doubt as to who is the cat and who is the mouse, but may be surprised at a deviation from the Christie formula. Whether it is real or a red herring, I leave up to the reader to find out. I admit to not being a Poirot fan - he annoys me too much, and I need to take breaks between the books about him, but this is quite a good Christie story. It is perhaps unfortunate that I have read so many of...

Continuing on from yesterday: Blood and Prejudice by Susan Krinard Sub-genre: Contemporary Setting & time: USA, east coast, and England; modern times Level of sensuality: Kissing. There is no need to mention which Austen novel this story is based on, as the title speaks for itself. I also think it’s pretty clear that vampires are involved. Like in Northanger Castle , the plot is patterned after the plot of the original. The characters, those of them that are used (Charlotte Lucas, for one, is missing) are the same people as in Pride and Prejudice , with the same names and certain modifications appropriate to the modern setting. For one thing, Elizabeth is more active in trying to discover the truth about Darcy than she is in P&P, which is believable because, spirited and forward as she might have seemed to a contemporary of Austen’s in the original, she would seem rather docile and reserved showing the same behaviors in a modern setting, so that is all for the good....

I won this book in a giveaway last year (thanks, Janet!) and have finally got round to reading it. The premise of this anthology is for four modern authors to play with characters, themes and stories from Jane Austen novels. There are two historical stories and two modern ones, each taking inspiration from a different novel. I decided to review each story separately as I finished it and then give an opinion on the book as a whole. Since the review seems set to become somewhat long, I will divide it into two parts. The other part will be posted tomorrow. Genre: Paranormal romance Year of publication: 2010 Almost Persuaded by Mary Balogh Sub-genre: Historical Setting & time: England, Regency era Level of sensuality: Kissing plus one very short (and very flowery) sex scene. Mary Balogh has written some pretty good historical romances set in England during the Regency and Georgian eras. This, however, is her first venture into paranormal territory. The story she chos...

Genre: Romance, contemporary, minor supernatural elements Theme(s): Second chances, coming home, sports, raising teenagers, divorce, death Year of publication: 2008 No. in series: 4 Setting & time: Small-town Texas; contemporary Sex? Yes (fairly explicit) Adele Harris is plagued with bad dates. One man after another she had dated for the last 3 years has turned out to be a creep or a jerk, and she is ready for a change - any change. This arrives in the form of her pregnant sister, whose husband has left her for his personal assistant. Together they return to their old home-town in Texas after an absence of 15 years, and Adele ends up looking after her 13 year-old niece while her sister is in the hospital with preeclampsia. Once there, she discovers that Zach Zeamaitis, the football player she had loved and briefly dated in college, is widowed and living there with his 13 year-old daughter. Neither thinks they have any particular interest in renewing the acquaintance, b...

Originally published in May 2005, on my original 52 Books blog. This is the third in a series of mysteries that combine cooking and crime, as amateur sleuth and professional caterer Goldy Bear serves up one delicious dish after another while sleuthing on the side. In this installation, Goldy has been hired to cater a series of events at an expensive prep school. The peace is disrupted by two murders (a third appears to be connected), and someone starts harassing her and her son. Through it all Goldy serves up one delectable dish after another (recipes included) and observes the graduating students and their parents battling it out over who deserves to go to which exclusive university. It’s a matter of touch and go whether Goldy will manage to solve the mystery in time to prevent a fourth murder. As in most amateur sleuthing series, the murders and the murderer’s methods are highly unlikely - especially how it is Goldy who finds two out of three bodies - but the characters are rounded...

Originally published in May 2005, on my original 52 Books blog. I read this funny romance over the weekend. When journalist Jane Alcott is asked to cover the ice hockey beat while the regular reporter is on sick leave, she jumps at the chance. Not only is it a better paying job than writing her monthly “sex and the city” type column, but it is a step up the journalism ladder for her. She is expected to cover all the Seattle Chinooks’ games, and it quickly becomes clear that her presence on the team plane and in the locker-room is not wanted. She meets with hazing that might discourage a less determined woman, and open hostility from sexy goalie Luc “Lucky” Martineau, whom Jane secretly fancies. After an incident where she is first fired for bringing the team bad luck, and then rehired for bringing them good luck (by barging into the locker room and giving them a goodbye speech) a ritual develops between Jane and the team that gets funnier and funnier as the story progresses. The incid...

Originally published in April 2005, on my original 52 Books blog. I read these two books by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone one after the other. The first, Used and Rare: Travels in the book world , is about why and how they started accumulating a library of used books, how they gradually began to understand the language of book collecting and recognise the value of books, and how their collecting escalated until they were buying expensive first editions, and how they finally came to their senses and decided it was more important to get good reading copies of many favourite books than to spend thousands of dollars on a few first editions. This is a charming book about the development of a hobby that the authors show can be both affordable and enjoyable, even for people of modest income, as long as they don’t get carried away with first edition fever. The second book, Slightly Chipped: Footnotes in booklore , which on the dust jacket is somewhat pretentiously called a “companion piece...