Reviews
The Drop Michael Connelly
contributor: Michael Carlson
Harry Bosch against an acronym; the drop in this case referring to Deferred Retirement Option Plan. When Bosch was brought back onto LAPD and assigned to the Open-Unsolved Unit, he knew it would be for a limited time, but now he's hoping to get the maximum extra time allowed before being forced to retire. But as usual with Michael Connelly and with Bosch, there are ambiguities: the drop might also refer to the drops of blood from a long-unsolved rape-murder which provide a link with a convicted rapist—only he was only eight years old at the time...
A Book Of Horrors & The Mammoth Book Of Best New Horror Stephen Jones, Editor
contributor: Barry Forshaw
It is now something of a cliché to describe Stephen Jones as the most respected horror anthologist in the United Kingdom, but as these two intelligently edited volumes prove, he continues to hold that title with insouciant ease. The stories here are a typically choice batch, and both books (from different publishers) will ensure deliciously sleepless nights for many a reader...
Moriarty: The Hound Of The D'urbervilles Kim Newman
contributor: Barry Forshaw
'The notion of reinventing Moriarty and Moran as malign doppelgängers of Holmes and Watson may have been touched upon before, but not with the sheer firecracker exuberance that Newman brings to Moriarty: The Hound of the D'Urbervilles.' Kim Newman's highly entertaining novel was reviewed in The Independent by Barry Forshaw: here is the complete, unexpurgated version of that review....
Until Thy Wrath Be Past Asa Larsson
contributor: Michael Carlson
The thaw is a crucial part of life above the Arctic Circle, and it is a dangerous life, so when the body of a young woman surfaces in a river, it is going to be written off as an accident or suicide until prosecutor Rebecka Martinsson has a vision in a dream, and realises she is dealing with a case of murder.A sa Larsson's first two novels both won awards in Sweden, so it is interesting to see the chances she takes and different directions she pursues in her third...
Sherlock Holmes: The Breath Of God Guy Adams
contributor: Barry Forshaw
Many writers have (sometimes injudiciously) taken up the mantle of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to continue chronicling the adventures of the most famous inhabitant of 221b Baker Street, but Guy Adams is one of the cleverest and most assured, already gleaning praise from such writers as Christopher Fowler (no slouch himself). When a body is found crushed to death in the Metropolis, footprints in the snow surrounding it should (logically) offer a clue — except that there are none. It is up to the formidable Sherlock Holmes and his associate Dr Watson to illuminate the mystery...
Let The Right One In Anne Billson
contributor: Barry Forshaw
Genuinely stimulating writing on film is relatively rare these days, but the always insightful Anne Billson has been delivering such fare within the pages of the Guardian for some considerable time. Her sharp intellect is customarily combined with a taste for less respectable genres (such as the more gruesome horror film), and her judgments are delivered in lively fashion. This is a concise but penetrating volume on one of the most influential Swedish films in some considerable time; the intriguing analysis of Tomas Alfredson's Let The Right One may be delivered within only a hundred or so pages, but Billson still produces a remarkable number of aperçus on this highly influential adaptation of John Ajvide Lindqvist's remarkable novel.
Best Eaten Cold And Other Stories Martin Edwards, Ed,
contributor: Brian Ritterspak
This collection of criminous delights from the members of the crime writers' collective known as The Murder Squad is a piquant and shamelessly entertaining anthology, demonstrating the many ways in which the genre can be approached. Contributors include Margaret Murphy, Chaz Brenchley, and Ann Cleeves (and the range of subjects tackled is as wide as the entertainingly disparate approaches taken). A choice — and very entertaining – collection, edited by Martin Edwards.
Swedish Book Review 2011: 2 Sarah Death, Editor
contributor: Barry Forshaw
Once again, we are indebted to the indefatigable editor and translator Sarah Death for affording us an insight into the current Scandinavian literary scene. Swedish Book Review 2011: 2 offers a collection of insights and extracts showcasing some of the most intriguing writing from that country. Production values of SBR are customarily high (admirable enough in itself, as one imagines there are certain budgetary restraints), but it is the quality of the insightful text here that really impresses...
Lest You Suffer Nightmares: A Biography Of Herbert Van Thal Johnny Mains
contributor: Barry Forshaw
The real surprise is that this hasn't been done before. The long-running (and much-loved) Pan Book of Horror Stories series had an indelible effect on many British readers – including this writer — from its first appearance in December 1959, but few of the avid readers of the series knew anything about its famous (but obscure) editor Herbert Van Thal. In this fascinating (if slim) volume, Johnny Mains answers many questions about the difficult but inspirational character whose books have left a pleasurable scar on many an aficionado of the horror tale...
Headhunters Jo Nesbo
contributor: Barry Forshaw
If you don't like the idea of being manipulated by a novelist, then perhaps you should avoid the latest Jo Nesbo. Alfred Hitchcock relished the idea of playing a cinema audience like an orchestra, forcing us to feel sympathy for an unsympathetic character. That's the kind of legerdemain that Norway's most successful author pulls off here... Barry Forshaw in The Independent
The Killer Is Dying James Sallis
contributor: Woody Haut
It's a good time for James Sallis. Drive, adapted from his novel, has hit the screens, and his new book, The Killer Is Dying has arrived in bookshops. I haven't seen Drive (I'll wait until the hype turns into a pleasant buzz), but The Killer... is exactly what one would expect but more so from this always excellent novelist. Tersely hard-boiled, literary, soulful and filled with surprises. it's, for me, a step up from his last couple outings in which Sallis was, I thought, marking time, no matter that the time he was marking was still as original as it was interesting...
The Bloody Meadow William Ryan
contributor: Barry Forshaw
LIFE is not easy for an honest policeman in Thirties Soviet Russia. After surviving encounters with corrupt officials in William Ryan's much-acclaimed debut novel The Holy Thief, the intuitive Captain Alexei Korolev finds that rather than being dead or imprisoned he wins the day and is acclaimed a shining example for the Soviet people. He is even decorated.
Alexei is however all too well aware that nothing good in the communist Soviet Union is to be trusted and the dangerous information he has gathered in his activities has left him in a perilous position... Barry Forshaw in The Express
The Devil's Disciple Shiro Hamao (translated By J. Keith Vincent)
contributor: Bob Cornwell
A ground-breaking volume from Hesperus, 'independent publishers of neglected and translated classics'. Following on from brief works by such as Sigmund Freud, Marcel Proust and Rabindranath Tagore, this slim but well-produced book features two of the sixteen or seventeen novellas (the jacket contradicts the book's introduction) and three novels by Hamao in his brief (six-year) career. Along with Edogawa Rampo, Hamao is described by Sari Kawana (in her Murder Most Modern: Detective Fiction and Japanese Culture, University of Minnesota Press, 2008) as one of 'the two titans' of early Japanese mystery fiction...
Temporary Perfections Gianrico Carofiglio (translated By Anthony Shugaar)
contributor: Giles Morgan
Characters that combine sharp legal savvy with a love of the songs of Leonard Cohen are not frequently found in crime fiction and that makes Gianrico Carofiglio's creation all the more welcome. Atmospheric and evocative in his descriptions of the sun-baked city and landscapes that his character inhabits in the Puglia region, Carofiglio paints an intriguing picture of a lesser known part of Italy. Gianrico Carofiglio was an anti-mafia prosecutor in Bari and is now a member of the Italian senate
The Whispering Gallery Mark Sanderson
contributor: Barry Forshaw
As in its predecessor, the atmospheric Snow Hill, Mark Sanderson once again proves adept at evoking the London of an earlier era. It is 1937, and on a hot July afternoon, Sanderson's reporter protagonist John Steadman is steeling himself to propose to his girlfriend. But the chosen venue — St Paul's Cathedral — turns out to be a fateful choice, as it is to be the site of a grisly incident...
A Deniable Death Gerald Seymour
contributor: Barry Forshaw
Nothing can be more bitter (said Lytton Strachey) than to be doomed to a life of literature. Strachey was wrong - it is far worse to find oneself encountering a slew of bad thrillers. Which is why picking up a novel by Gerald Seymour is like taking a deep breath of fresh air after spending a month in a cellar. Why is it that this veteran writer has so comfortably maintained his reputation as the best in the business for so many years?
Barry Forshaw in The Independent
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy John Le Carré
contributor: Barry Forshaw
To tie in with the new Daniel Alfredson film starring Gary Oldman as George Smiley, here's a welcome paperback reissue for one of the greatest novels by the author who is the pre-eminent writer in the espionage field – a position he has long maintained. It was the groundbreaking George Smiley sequence (beginning with Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy in 1974) that enriched and deepened his achievement – and changed the genre for ever.
Temporary Perfections Gianrico Carofiglio (translated By Anthony Shugaar)
contributor: Russell James
For the first time in the Guido Guerrieri series, the Italian Defence Counsel acts as a detective rather than legal eagle, trying where the police have failed to discover what happened to a missing student. Was she kidnapped, is she dead, or has she merely disappeared? Where most fictional detectives find their path blocked by half the characters they meet, Guerrieri finds his apparently clear, with help offered both by the police and by the missing girl's friends – but unfortunately, that path appears to lead nowhere. Or does it?
Our Hero Superman On Earth Tom De Haven
contributor: Barry Forshaw
This is an absolutely fascinating and delightful book, whether you are a student of popular culture or a long-term admirer in one of the most durable characters in the popular arts, The Last of Krypton, Superman. De Haven examines the continuing appeal of the first superhero since his creation in the 1930s by Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster (and the story of how the two original creators were exploited by their unsympathetic bosses remains as poignant as ever, however often it is told).
Spartan Matthew Dunn
contributor: Vic Buckner
Matthew Dunn's background in British intelligence includes deep-cover deployments, agent running military unarmed combat, surveillance and a host of other dangerous activities, so it is hardly surprising that he his utilisation of such things in this debut novel has the ring of verisimilitude. It is also unsurprising that the novel comes emblazoned with an encomium from no less than Lee Child, as this is the kind of the no-nonsense pulse-raising fare that the older British writer trades in...
The Further Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes: The Peerless Peer & The Star Of India Philip José Farmer & Carole Buggé
contributor: Barry Forshaw
For years, Sherlock Holmes aficionados who wanted to track down the non-canonical adventures of the Great Detective by other hands than those of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had a difficult task, as so many different publishers and authors were involved in the continuation of Holmes' exploits. So this continuing reissue series by Titan books is much to be applauded, particularly as these latest entries are among the quirkiest and most inventive...
The Phantom Carriage/lord Arne's Silver/the Löwensköld Ring Selma Lagerlöf
contributor: Barry Forshaw
The Norvic Press has been doing sterling service in making available once again some of the most prestigious (if undervalued — in this country at least) glories in the field of Scandinavian literature, but the three novels here (The Phantom Carriage, Lord Arne's Silver and The Löwensköld Ring) are among the most welcome literary excavations from the past...
House Of The Hanged Mark Mills
contributor: Barry Forshaw
The setting is France in the summer of 1935. Le Rayol may not be the most prestigious part of the Riviera, but it still offers a retreat from the pending war. A motley community of refugees, expats and underachieving artistic types lulls itself into a false sense of security. The group includes Tom Nash, keen to erase a troubled past in the secret services. But as anyone who has ever read a novel featuring an ex-spook protagonist will be well aware, the chances of leaving behind a clandestine past are remote – and so it proves with Tom... Barry Forshaw in The Independent
The Whispers Of Nemesis Anne Zouroudi
contributor: Giles Morgan
When a group of villagers in Northern Greece re-open a grave they discover a terrible secret. It is in fact the custom within the Greek Orthodox church to exhume the dead after around four years of burial and then to wash and clean the bones and place them in an ossuary. However, when the body of the poet Santos Volakis undergoes the ritual of exhumation it becomes clear that they have been replaced with those of a pig. In the small village of Vrisi the news spreads like wildfire and superstitious locals claim it is the work of the devil...
Stieg And Me Eva Gabrielsson, Translated By Marie-francoise Colombani
contributor: Brian Ritterspak
After much preliminary speculation over its contents, Eva Gabrielsson's fascinating and quirky memoir about her life with the most successful Scandinavian crime writer of all time turns out to be a truly fascinating read. Gabrielsson rules out no areas for discussion (including the now-famous feud with her late partner's family)...
