Reading in Reykjavík

Note : This will be a general scattershot discussion about my thoughts on the book and the movie, and not a cohesive review. When movies are based on books I am interested in reading but haven't yet read, I generally wait to read the book until I have seen the movie, but when a movie is made based on a book I have already read, I try to abstain from rereading the book until I have seen the movie. The reason is simple: I am one of those people who can be reduced to near-incoherent rage when a movie severely alters the perfectly good story line of a beloved book, changes the ending beyond recognition or adds unnecessarily to the story ( The Hobbit , anyone?) without any apparent reason. I don't mind omissions of unnecessary parts so much (I did not, for example, become enraged to find Tom Bombadil missing from The Lord of the Rings ), because one expects that - movies based on books would be TV-series long if they tried to include everything, so the material must be pared down ...

I was already familiar with Emma Donoghue's writing through her thoroughly wicked, twisted and delightful take on fairy tales, Kissing the Witch . (As a matter of fact, I think I should reread it and write a review.) It was with some trepidation that I approached this book, k nowing Donoghue can write well, and write well about dark subject matter , and the concept of this book is nothing if not dark, and unlike the fantasy of fairy tales in Kissing the Witch, Room is grounded in realism, which I have always found much chillier and more frightening than any fantasy. I had heard it variously described as horrible, fascinating, harrowing but inspirational, and several reviewers called it exploitative of the suffering of real world victims of crimes such as the one that forms the background of the story. I knew, almost from the moment I heard of Room , that I would want to read it - not quite enough to go out and buy it, but if I came across it cheaply or for free I wo...

Year of publication: 1983 Series and no.: Ernest "Stick" Stickley, 2/2 Genre: Thriller, criminal story Setting & time: Florida, USA, 1980s Ex-convict Ernest “Stick” Stickley comes to Florida and ends up being nearly offered up as sacrifice when a major narcotics wholesaler and his supplier square up over a deal gone wrong. He isn’t too upset about his friend who got killed instead of him, but wants the money he was promised in exchange for delivering a deadly package, and a guarantee that the bad guys will stop trying to kill him. Can you say “Gary Stu”? I can, and his real name is Ernest Stickley, Stick to his friends. Stick is too perfect: extremely attractive to women (2 1/2 in one night...), cool under fire, always knows how to handle any situation, smart, and lucky when it comes to things like being in the right place at the right time. In fact, there seems to be no end to his abilities: near the end it wouldn’t have surprised me if he has suddenly exhibi...

Year of publication: 1970 Genre: Speculative fiction, sci-fi, thriller Type of investigator: Amateur, time traveller Setting & time: New York, USA; 1882 and 1969 Illustrator Simon Morley is recruited to take part in a top-secret project to travel back in time. Once he is back in the 19th century, he is only supposed to observe and not meddle in anything, but when he discovers that a young woman he meets in the past and cares for has become entangled with a dangerous man, he knows he has to do something. That something leads them to become involved in a horrific event that puts them both in mortal danger. I suppose that technically Time and Again is science fiction, although giving it that classification might give readers the idea that it’s full of science, aliens and strange technology. Nothing could be further from the truth. There is, for example, no time machine, the time travel being achieved by self-hypnosis, although only after extensive training that includes ac...

(The challenge really should be called the best crime a books challenge, since the American list also features thrillers, but it’s too late to change it now). I loved thrillers when I was a teenager, and read everything I could get my hands on by the likes of Alistair MacLean, Desmond Bagley and Ken Follett. Since then, the thrillers I have read have mostly also been mysteries, caper stories or police procedurals, and it wouldn’t be stretching it too far to say that this one is a caper story – albeit a deadly serious one that deals with treason. Year of publication: 1984 Series and no.: Jack Ryan, #1. Genre: Thriller, military. Type of hero: CIA man. Setting & time: USA, the Soviet Union and the Atlantic ocean, contemporary. A Soviet submarine captain and his officers steal the Red October, a nuclear submarine, and sail it towards the USA with the intention of defecting and handing the USSR's most advanced nuclear missile submarine to the Americans. CIA analyst Jack Ryan i...

Originally published in May and June 2004, in 3 parts. Book 19 in my first 52 books challenge. Entry 1: Author: Harry Harrison Published: 1966 (this edition: 1997) Where got: Bookstore, sale Genre: Science fiction, action I’ve wanted to read this book since I read and enjoyed Harry Harrison’s short story “The Golden Years of the Stainless Steel Rat” in the comic fantasy collection The Flying Sorcerers . This is classic science fiction, as can be seen from how long this book has been in print. First published in 1966, it is still being reprinted. Harry Harrison’s official website . Entry 2: Progress report: So far so good. This is not as funny as I had thought it would be after reading the short story, but maybe the stories get funnier in the later books (did I mention this is the first in a series?). The style is very straightforward and reminds me of classic macho tough guy detective stories. The story is plot driven and there has been action on nearly every page so far. The Stai...

I suddenly realised that I had not yet posted my review of Deighton’s trilogy, so here it is: While I listed these books separately on my TBR list, the trilogy is listed as one book in the CWA list, so I will be reviewing them all together. Each book gets a brief synopsis and a very short review, and then I will review the common points together. I will try not to drop serious spoilers in the synopses, so they will necessarily be rather telegraphic, but if you have not yet read these books you probably should avoid this review anyway. Published: 1983-5. Genre: Espionage thriller. Type of investigator: MI6 agent. Title: Berlin Game: Setting & time: London and Berlin, contemporary. Story: Agent Bernard Samson has been doing desk work for 5 years but his superiors in MI6 want him to go out back in the field to convince a frightened spy in East Germany to stay in place for a while longer. The man is convinced that Stasi or the KGB are about to discover his identity, and the only ...

Year of publication: 1903. Genre: Thriller, espionage novel. Type of mystery: Military secrets. Type of investigator: Amateur. Setting & time: (mostly) the Frisian Islands, Germany, around he turn of the 20th century. Story: The narrator, Carruthers, is invited by Davies, an old acquaintance, to join him on a yachting trip in the North Sea. When he arrives, Carruthers discovers that the “yacht” is in fact a small boat, with no crew, and that Davies is hiding something from him. As they make their way down to the Frisian islands, Davies eventually reveals that he has started an impromptu investigation of possible nefarious doings by a man he suspects of being a British defector working with the German military. To complicate matters, Davies has fallen in love with the man’s daughter. The book is in the public domain, and here is a link to an online edition: The Riddle of the Sands . Review: The Riddle of the Sands was one of the earliest spy novels, and has had immense influe...

Year published: 1997 Genre: Crime, thriller, comic Setting & time: (mostly) the Caribbean island of Saint Martin; 1990s. The Story: Between hits, laid-back professional assassin Henry lives an idyllic life on the Caribbean island of Saint Martin with his wife Frances, but things get complicated when an assignment goes wrong and one of the intended victims survives. The injured capo agrees to bear witness against his former Mafia associates and is moved to Saint Martin by the authorities to keep him out of harm's way. However, their idyll is about to be disturbed because the mafioso who ordered the hit has sent out people to track down the capo and Henry and kill them both. Technique and rating: This is a better put-together book than the previous thriller I read by Bourdain ( Bone in the Throat ) in that it focuses on fewer characters and there are no extraneous storylines here that interfere with the main story, making it more focused and streamlined. It is loosely connecte...

Year of publication: 1976 Genre: Thriller Type of investigator: Amateur Setting & time: London, England, and Rehovot, Israel; 1970s. ( Note: links will open in new windows) Story: The narrator, historian Igor Druyanov, is in London, peacefully editing some of Chaim Weizmann’s personal papers when scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot discover that Weizmann may have discovered how to use the ABE process (which Weizmann helped discover) on potatoes to produce a cheap high-octane fuel that can replace gasoline. Immediately it becomes apparent that someone is trying to get hold of Weizmann’s formula. Igor goes to great lengths to a) find the formula among Weizmann's papers, and b) prevent it from falling into the wrong hands, which, it is hinted at, are those of the big oil-producing countries or companies which would naturally not want the invention to become known to the world. Review: This interesting thriller is obviously inspired by the 1973 oil cr...

The first book in this Swedish series, The Ice Princess , was published in English earlier this year, and according to Amazon.co.uk, this one will be published (in hardcover) in February 2009, under the title The Preacher . Icelandic title: Prédikarinn Original Swedish title: Predikanten Series detective: Patrik Hedström (assisted by his colleagues and his girlfriend, writer Erica Falck) No. in series: 2 Year of publication: 2003 Type of mystery: Murder Type of investigator: Police Setting & time: Fjällbacka, Sweden, contemporary Story: The corpse of a young woman is found in a ravine in the small Swedish town of Fjällbacka and beneath the body lie two skeletons of young women who had disappeared more than 2 decades earlier. All three had been tortured in similar ways before dying of strangulation, so everything points to the same killer. Patrik Hedström of the local police heads the investigation while his heavily pregnant girlfriend deals with invasions of visitors seeki...

Title: One Fearful Yellow Eye Series detective: Travis McGee No. in series: 8 (of 21) Year of publication: 1966 Type of mystery: Blackmail and other nefarious business Type of investigator: Private detective Setting & time: Chicago, Illinois, and Florida, USA; 1960s Story: Travis McGee responds to a call for help from his former lover, Glory Doyle Geis, and flies up to Chicago to meet her. Her brain surgeon husband had died a long, slow death and while he was dying he had managed to turn most of his assets into money which then disappeared. His grown children by his first wife are deeply suspicious of Glory, who wants to find out what happened for her own peace of mind and to prove her innocence in the matter. Travis immediately suspects blackmail, and when he starts digging he uncovers a sordid trail of blackmail and violence. Review: When I picked up this book to read it I knew I was about to meet one of America’s most famous fictional PIs, but I didn’t know I was in for a...

Margaret Truman, who died in January of this year, wrote a number of non-fiction books, mostly dealing with the White House and her parents, U.S. President Harry S. Truman and his wife, Bess. She also wrote a series of mysteries that take place at various landmarks in Washington D.C. In the Wikipedia article on her it is said that it has been claimed that the books were ghost-written, I suppose because someone decided it was beneath her to write mysteries. The books in the Capital Crime series can be divided into two sub-series: those that feature Annabel Reed and/or Mackenzie Smith as the detectives, and those that don’t. I read one of each, not out of any particular choice, but because those were the ones I owned. Title: Murder at the Library of Congress Detective: Annabel Reed-Smith No. in series: # 16 in the Capital Crimes series; # 8 in the sub-series featuring Annabel Read (-Smith) and Mackenzie Smith Year of publication: 1999 Type of mystery: Murder, stalking Type of inves...

Year of publication: 2000 Genre: Romantic thriller (with brief and mild descriptions of sex; some paranormal elements) Setting & time: USA (mostly), S-America, Taiwan Story: Rich and powerful John Logan forces dog trainer Sarah and her trusty search dog Monty to help him find a missing person. Unlike a previous book where the person was dead, this one is alive and has been kidnapped by Logan's arch-enemy, his former brother in law who could never forgive Logan for taking his sister away from him. There is also the small matter of having been sent to prison in a Thailand hell-hole for 15 years by Logan. (If you think this is a spoiler, think again – this all comes out early on in the story). The man is wreaking systematic revenge on Logan by destroying people and places he cares for, and once he discovers that Sarah is helping Logan, he incorporates her into his plans for total revenge. Here is where the SPOILERS start. Review: Reading this book feels like reading a story ...

Series detective: Eve Dallas No. in series: 8 Year of publication: 1999 Type of mystery: Murder, whodunnit, police procedural, futuristic mystery thriller Type of investigator: Police Setting & time: New York, USA, 2059 This is the third book I finish for the From the Stacks challenge. Upcoming is a review of My Journey to Lhasa . When I first heard of the In Death series I thought it sounded like something I would enjoy. The review I read emphasised that in order to enjoy the books fully, it was important to read them in the order of publication, so I got the first book from the library, read it in one sitting and got hooked. After reading several books, I decided that while it was indeed best to read them in order, they could be read out of order, but only if one was reading them for the mystery plots and not for character development and relationship dynamics. I continued reading them until I finished book seven, and then I got reader's block. Conspiracy… had been o...

Also writes as: Anna Apostolou, C. L. Grace, Ann Dukthas, Michael Clynes, Paul Harding, P. C. Doherty, Paul C. Doherty, Vanessa Alexander. Some books have been published under two different names: one of the above, and later the name Paul Doherty, which I believe is his real name and under which he now writes all his books. Note: Much of what I want to say about the writing style and characterizations and plotting and so on is applicable to all three books, so I will put it in the author review. Title: The Nightingale Gallery, being the First of the Sorrowful Mysteries of Brother Athelstan Series detective(s): Brother Athelstan, a Dominican friar, and Sir John Cranston, coroner of London No. in series: 1 Year of publication: 1991, under the name of Paul Harding; reissued in 2002 under the name of Paul Doherty Type of mystery: Murder, locked-room Type of investigator: Amateur and professional Setting & time: London, England, 1377 Number of murders: 4 Some themes: Locked-r...

Year published: 2004 Genre: Thriller Sub-genre(s): Fantasy (not Fantasy fantasy, just unrealistic enough to be called one) The Story: Seven women with something to avenge have formed a Sisterhood of revenge, aided by a former MI6 operative. In this second book in the series, Dr. Julia Webster, the wife of a senator who is about to be announced as the running mate to the next Democrat presidential candidate, serves up her revenge cold. The philandering husband has infected her with HIV and isn't even aware he has it. She also wants to punish the owners of an HMO who have been avoiding paying their subscribers' claims, resulting in the deaths of many who would have lived had they got the proper treatment. The party where the candidate will announce his running mate is the perfect place to grab the bad guys and start the punishment. But there is one snag: the former boyfriend of one of the women thinks they were involved in the disappearance of a woman who murdered her daught...

No. in series: 2 Year of publication: 1999 Availability: In print Pages: 379 (hardcover) Settings and time: Montreal, Canada, Carolina, USA, winter of 1998. Type of mystery: Murder, thriller Type of investigator: Forensic anthropologist/amateur detective, police Some themes: Murder, religion, cults OK, I know said in a comment that I was going to wait a month, but I couldn’t resist this when I spotted it at the library. It’s the middle of winter and Tempe Brennan is called in to help identify the burnt remains of people found on the site of an arson. Soon, more bodies begin stacking up. Tempe returns to her hometown in Carolina where she is teaching physical anthropology at a university. While visiting an island nature “reserve” with her daughter she finds more bodies. Clues suggest that the deaths in both Canada and the USA may be connected to the same cult, and Tempe’s sister may be in danger. Review: I had been told that the Tempe Brennan books get better as the series conti...

Well, finally I have had time to sit down and write a book review, which is pretty good considering I have only been able to read a handful of books this month. Authors: Ian Caldwell & Justin Thomasson Year published: 2004 Two undergraduate students at Princeton University, Tom and Paul, get sucked into a mystery when another student who has been helping Paul with his thesis research is murdered, and it appears that his death has a link to the thesis, which is about an obscure and strange novel from the Renaissance period, the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (a real book, BTW). Prior to Paul’s taking on this assistant, Tom had been helping him solve the riddle of the book, which (in the novel) is one big cryptogram. Tom had become nearly as obsessed with it as his father, a Hypnerotomachia scholar, had been, but pulled out in time before his obsession could ruin his relationship with his girlfriend. What follows is an investigation into the dead man’s connection to the Hypnerotomachia...