A NEW SWEDE ON THE BLOCK OR HALF YEAR BEST BESTED
I had been thinking about my five favourite reads for the first six months of the year last week. There was a discussion thread on 4 Mystery Addicts entitled Mid Year tops and bottoms. It brought home to what a difficult task it was going to be to pick five best reads at the end of the year.
I finally decided on my five but had to leave out some formidable contenders. Here are my choices for books I finished before the end of June with links to the reviews on Euro Crime.
Ken Bruen- Cross
Andrea Camilleri- The Paper Moon
Philip Kerr- A Quiet Flame
Marek Krajewski- Death in Breslau with the author interviewed here and here.
Fred Vargas- This Night's Foul Work
I had with reluctance eliminated books by Massimo Carlotto, K.O.Dahl, R.N.Morris and Jean-Patrick Manchette from consideration and felt that anything in the second half of the year would have to be very good to break into that top group.
But the book I finished today Echoes From The Dead by Johan Theorin translated from the Swedish by Marlaine Delargy [who also translates Asa Larsson's novels] was a stunner. This book won Sweden's Best First Crime Novel award and I am not surprised, but as my review will appear on Euro Crime I won't say any more now.
posted by Uriah Robinson at 11:17 AM
4 Comments:
Thought you'd like it!
It is brilliant, I think. Absolutely fantastic.
Norm, have you read Helene Tursten? I think she is also superb - the "next generation" Sjowall and Wahloo. I am completely blown away.
Det Inspector Huss
The Torso
The Glass Devil
No but if she is anywhere near as good as Johan Theoren I will give her a try.
Sounds like a good one to look out for Norm. Thanks for the pointer
Kerrie, it usually takes me about a week to read a 300-400 page book. I read this in two and a bit days, it is a page turner and kept me away from the TV.
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