JO NESBO ON VIDEO

Jo Nesbø - THE BAT MAN (Harry Hole #1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS0mVP1q2E8

Jo Nesbø - THE COCKROACHES (Harry Hole #2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5XbI2Q61xk

Jo Nesbø - THE REDBREAST (Harry Hole #3)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHuoFc-jlbE

Jo Nesbø - NEMESIS (Harry Hole #4)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmPmHBpeAZI

Jo Nesbø - THE DEVIL'S STAR (Harry Hole #5)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIZTCATsKgI

Jo Nesbø - THE REDEEMER (Harry Hole #6)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6j4hSYOQxQ

Jo Nesbø - THE SNOWMAN (Harry Hole #7)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxlTyTkqnBo

Jo Nesbø - THE LEOPARD (Harry Hole #8)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtC-y5rzqN0

Jo Nesbø – HEADHUNTERS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhPW_PsUZLQ

THE LEOPARD: JO NESBO

'My name is Kaja Solness. I have been tasked with finding you. By Gunnar Hagen.'

No reaction to the name of his Crime Squad boss. Had he gone?

Detective Harry Hole deeply traumatised by the events of The Snowman investigation is hiding out in the opium dens of Hong Kong. When the beautiful Kaja Solness tells Harry his father Olav is dying, he agrees to return to Oslo and investigate the murders of two women, found with twenty four inexplicable puncture wounds, both drowned in their own blood.

There are more murders and as the body count rises Harry, with the aid of the 'safely sectioned' Katrine Bratt's internet search skills, finds a connection between the victims. [Police colleague Katrine Bratt featured in The Snowman]

They all spent one night at the Havass mountain cabin, and so the story becomes an updated version of the old English country house mystery so popular in the Golden Age.

While trying to find the other occupants of the cabin, potential victims or perpetrators, Harry becomes involved in the political battle between Crime Squad, and Kripos lead by the charismatically handsome Mikael Bellman, a man with few scruples and boundless ambition.

'So if you can use this to outsmart the smart-arse and it leads to Bellman's plans for the evil empire being shelved, accept it with my blessing.'

This is a book about human relationships and what can develop from them; love, hate, vengeance, greed, ambition, humiliation, fear, and loneliness. The whole panoply of emotions felt from youth to old age and I should warn that is also a rather violent book, and contains just a few passages involving torture. The action takes place briefly in Hong Kong, mostly in Norway and then partly in the Congo, with a large cast of sharply drawn, but mostly unsympathetic characters.

The Leopard is a very long book [611 pages] that proved to be a very fast read because I was so completely engrossed in the characters, complexity of the plot and the various subplots. Definitely a page turner!

Jo Nesbo, aided by an excellent translation from Don Bartlett, teases the reader with plot twists and turns, providing a different solution to the crimes, and then taking the story back to change this again, and again, until the reader is left almost giddy. In what has become almost a trademark style he seemingly finishes the story, and then restarts it again to reach a slightly different ending.

Harry Hole, his character and his internal struggle, is the glue that holds this series together. Harry is tied up in a battle of intellects with both the perpetrator and with Bellman. The conflict is exacerbated because it seems Bellman has everything Harry lacks, position, power, wife, family, children, henchmen, and mistress. But Harry cares about people, Olav his father, Sis his sister with her 'little touch of Down's syndrome', his lost love Rakel and her son Oleg, his friend Oystein and his colleagues and this makes him vulnerable.

Will Harry find the perpetrator before Mikael Bellman, who seems to know the Crime Squad's moves before they happen? Why are the occupants of the Havass cabin being murdered one by one? What is the terrible connection with the Congo?

Right from the dismantling of colonialist governments in the sixties, they have used white people's feelings of guilt to acquire power, so that the real exploitation of the population could begin.

I can highly recommend The Leopard, despite the torture passages, and also the entire Harry Hole series as one of the best in modern crime fiction. Ignore the Next Stieg Larsson blurb Jo Nesbo is a unique talent, and Harry Hole one of my favourite detectives.

'You know me,' Harry said as Oystein stopped on red outside the Radisson SAS Hotel.

'I bloody do not,' Oystein said, sprinkling tobacco into his roll-up.

'How would I?'

'Well, we grew up together. Do you remember?'

'So? You were already a sodding enigma then, Harry.'

The Harry Hole series [books one and two are yet to be translated into English]

Keeping Harry in order

The Redbreast

Nemesis

The Devil's Star

The Redeemer

The Snowman

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET: N IS FOR NEMESIS AND NESBO

My contribution this week to the Crime Fiction Alphabet meme hosted at Kerrie's Mysteries in Paradise is N for Nemesis and Nesbo.

The Norwegian writer Jo Nesbo is one of Europe's top crime writers and has an excellent website here.

The phenomenal success of Jo Nesbo's books is based on stunning plot twists, and the fascinating lead protagonist and anti-hero Harry Hole; someone you can't help liking even though he has more than his fair share of problems.

Four of the Harry Hole books have been brilliantly translated into English by Don Bartlett. Here I should issue a warning if you are ever getting Don to sign a book. Keep you wits about you, or you may be knocked off your feet by crowds of his female admirers.

Here is my review of Nemesis. number 4

Here is a full list of Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole books.

The seventh Harry Hole, The Snowman is published this year in English.

Since that post the eighth Harry Hole, The Leopard was published in Norway and jumped straight to number one in the best sellers.

The first two books in the series have not been translated into English.

Review of The Redbreast. number 3

Review of The Devil's Star. number 5

Review of The Redeemer. number 6

NESBO NEWS

The future looks bright for for fans of Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole books from the information in the first newsletter of 2010 sent out by the Salomonsson Agency.

Nemesis [Harry Hole no. 4] has been nominated for an Edgar award for Best Novel. The Edgar is arguably the most prestigious crime writing award in the world. It is presented by the Mystery Writers of America, which is "the premier organization for mystery and crime writers, professionals allied to the crime writing field, aspiring crime writers, and folks who just love to read crime fiction."

We are still waiting for The Snowman [Harry Hole no. 7] to be published in English, but the newsletter teases us by going on to say.

The Leopard [Harry Hole no.8] was published in Norway in 2009, outselling Dan Brown and Henning Mankell by far.

In the words of one Norwegian critic [ABC Nyheter]:

"This is not only Norway's best crime novel. It may be the world's best."

The Leopard will be out in Germany next month.

Here is a taster of The Leopard:

Two women are found murdered in Oslo-both of them have drowned in their own blood. What mystifies the police, is that the puncture wounds in the victim's faces have been caused from the the inside of their mouths. Kaja Solness from Oslo Homicide is sent to Hong Kong to track down a man that is the Oslo Police Department's only specialist on serial killings. The severely addicted detective has tried to disappear in the vast, anonymous city. He is on the run and haunted by his last case, the woman he loves, and creditors alike. His name is Harry Hole.

THE SNOWMAN: JO NESBO

The Snowman is the seventh book in the Harry Hole series by Jo Nesbo, and the fifth to be smoothly and superbly translated into English by Don Bartlett.

The book is based on a theme, mother and son return to their home, where the husband is making dinner in the kitchen. It is a happy family scene and while the snow is falling outside it is warm and cosy inside. The son thanks the father for making the snowman, but he knows nothing about it, and then they realise that the snowman is staring back into the house.

A woman goes missing and her pink scarf is left round the neck of a snowman looking back towards the bedroom windows.

'She would never have given her favourite scarf to the snowman.'

'Then it must have been your dad.'

'No, someone did it after he'd left. Last night. The person who took Mum.

Harry nodded slowly. 'Who made the snowman, Jonas?'

'I don't know.'

Harry looked through the window to the garden. This was the reason he had come. An ice-cold draught seemed to run through the wall and the room.

Then a second woman goes missing and when it is confirmed she is dead another snowman is involved......

Harry Hole believes there is a connection with a menacing letter he received some months earlier, and then he discovers after delving through the unsolved case files a number of wives and mothers have gone missing over the years. He believes there is a serial killer operating in Norway.

So while Kripos under Espen Lepsik are designated to do the routine and usually boringly unproductive police work he forms an elite squad of four to track down the Snowman. As well as himself the squad consists of forensic expert Bjorn Holm, the rather unpleasant Magnus Skarre, and the attractive policewoman Katrine Bratt, who has transferred from rainy Bergen.

Harry and Katrine follow an old trail that leads to rainy Bergen, and a case involving a renowned policeman who disappeared twelve years before. Back in Oslo, a very discreet plastic surgery clinic and a wealthy Oslo businessman may hold the solution.

Harry's task is complicated by the death throws of his relationship with Rakel, who will soon marry her new boyfriend, but can't make a clean break with Harry because of her son Oleg's close friendship with the detective.

The Harry Hole books have always had strong plots and well drawn characters and Harry's new partner Katrine Bratt is no exception.

....this guy [Harry] seemed more like one of the dopeheads hanging round the streets than a policeman. And the girl [Katrine] behind him didn't look like a policewoman, either. True she had that hard look, the whore look, but the rest of her was lady, all lady. If she had got herself a pimp who didn't rob her, she could have earned five times her wage, at least.

Harry may well be arrogant, anti-authority, unstable and an alcoholic, but he is vulnerable and almost innocent in some situations. That is what makes him such an interesting character and makes readers care about him.

The Snowman has a narrative that drives the story forward relentlessly and you find yourself having read 400 plus pages in a very short period of time. The downside of this is the long wait for another Jo Nesbo to be translated and published in English. The Snowman is beautifully scary with the tinge of a horror story mixed in with the superb police procedural thriller.

Jo Nesbo has already created a fine body of work that must place him among the best crime writers of this and any age. His books, despite the modern references to DNA and mobile phones, are with their multiple suspects, red herrings, plot twists and turns, and subsequent dead ends are almost a tribute to the detective fiction of the past.

Summing up The Snowman is one of the most exciting, stimulating, brain teasing crime novels I have ever read with a great plot, fascinating characters and a brilliant climax.

A must must read! I did pick out the murderer [OK twice or three times], and even if you do guess the solution earlier in book than I did, the clever narrative will still make you doubt your chosen suspect, and not stop you enjoying the story.

She leaned back against the tree trunk and slowly slumped to the ground. Felt the tears come without attempting to stop them this time. Because now she knew. There would be no afterwards.

'Shall we begin?' the voice said softly.

This was my second book chosen for the Scandinavian Reading Challenge at The Black Sheep Dances.

My reviews of the rest of Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole series, that have been translated by Don Bartlett:

The Redbreast

Nemesis

The Devil's Star

The Redeemer

NEMESIS: IS JO NESBO EUROPE'S TOP CRIME WRITER?

CCTV footage shows a bank robbery in progress. A man dressed in black puts a gun to the cashier Stine Grette's head. She is told to count to twenty five while Klementsen the manager struggles with the keys to open the ATM and put the money in a black holdall.

He does not do it quickly enough and Stinne is executed. 

Harry Hole becomes part of the investigative team working under the self confident chief of the robbery squad PAS Rune Ivarsson.  

Meanwhile Harry's girlfriend Rakel is in Moscow with her son Oleg fighting a custody battle through the courts with Oleg's father, and Harry accepts an invitation to dinner from Anna, an old flame. Serious complications arise when  Anna is found shot dead in her bed and Harry who has a massive hangover cannot remember anything about  the past twelve hours. 

There is another bank robbery. Harry and his  gifted new partner Beate study the CCTV of the robberies while Harry begins one of his lone ranger investigations into Anna's death but then he starts to receive threatening e-mails. 

This is a superb crime thriller and once again Jo Nesbo weaves several  plot lines through a complex web of red herrings and false trails till almost everything is made clear at the end. I say almost and won't explain because I don't want to spoil things for those who have not read any of the Harry Hole series.

These were published in English and read by me in the incorrect order:

Firstly The Devil's Star number 5 reviewed here.

Secondly The Redbreast number 3 reviewed here.

and now Nemesis number 4.  

Actually reading them in this order was ideal for an impatient person like myself because if they had been published in the correct order I would have had to learn Norwegian or send really threatening e-mails to the publisher demanding a translation in order to find out what had happened in Harry's investigation into .......... No spoilers here, these are a must read series of books.

Jo Nesbo manages when seemingly a crime is solved to produce yet another twist in the tail. He teases us with explanations that seem to resolve matters but simply lead on to other more complicated or simpler solutions, and of course his characters are just so memorable. 

I am sure we have all  come across a few Rune Ivarssons.

'Furthermore Rune Ivarsson had the natural self-confidence that many misinterpret as a leadership quality. In his case, this confidence was based solely on being blessed with a total blindness to his own shortcomings......'

And even a few quasi-Tom Waalers.

'Given Waaler's view on skin colour, it was a paradox for Harry that his colleague spent so much time in the solarium, but perhaps it was true what one wag had said: Waaler wasn't actually a racist. He was just as happy beating up neo-Nazis as blacks.'

And through the character of the mysterious and enigmatic Raskol Baxhet, Jo Nesbo gives us a social commentary and history on the treatment of the gypsy people.

'We have been persecuted by every single regime in Europe. There is no difference between fascists, communists and democrats; the fascists were just a little bit more efficient.'

'In Moravia they cut the left ear off gypsy women, in Bohemia the right.'

But these novels of course lean heavily on the character of Harry who is not just another alcoholic detective, but a much more complex character. He is considered a nuisance by his employers but he is a good cop whose sense of justice leads him in the right direction. His love for Sis, his older sister who has Down's syndrome, Rakel and Oleg, Rakel's son means that at times all seems to come together for Harry until his old friend Jim Beam reappears on the scene.

I don't usually like very long books but Jo Nesbo is an exception and I enjoyed every page and every nuance in the plot because even the minor characters are drawn with such clarity. This was a story I wanted to get to the end [I read it in three days] but did not want it to finish, if you know what I mean. 

There is a lot of information about the author, the books and a very good interview with the author at the official Jo Nesbo website here.

The good news is that there are more untranslated Harry Holes for our future enjoyment. 

Interestingly the first book in the series The Bat Man which was originally published in Norway in 1997 re-entered the Norwegian best seller lists earlier this year. The Bat Man won the Riverton Prize for Best Norwegian crime novel, and the Glass Key for the Best Nordic crime novel of the year. 

The Harry Hole series books still to be translated into English are:

The Bat Man: number 1

The Cockroaches: number 2

The Redeemer: number 6

The Snowman: number 7

In my opinion Jo Nesbo has moved into the top spot in the hierarchy of European crime fiction writers because the three books that are available in English are all wonderful reads with fine translations from Don Bartlett. Let us hope he has the energy to translate the others for us.

NOTES FROM NESBO

It is beautiful sunshine outside and I am sitting in the sun reading about one of my favourite detectives. 

Maxine at Petrona has a list of crime fiction cliches to avoid here. I agree many of these have had their day but I do love the clash of an insubordinate detective dealing with a slow witted superior when it is done well. Andrea Camilleri, Donna Leon and now Jo Nesbo have mastered the skill of producing dialogue for the detective that teeters on the brink of rudeness.

In The Redeemer Jo Nesbo's latest novel to be translated into English Harry Hole has lost his protector Bjarne Moller and his replacement Gunnar Hagen is clearly not Harry's sort of policeman.

"But there is a third quality I prize even higher, Hole. Can you guess what it is?"

"No," Harry said in an even monotone.

"Discipline. Di-sci-pline."

Hagen goes on to lecture Harry about the Japanese conquest of Burma in 1942 based on their superior discipline, and mentions the Japanese shot soldiers who drank water outside drinking times.

"Not out of sadism, but because discipline is about excising the tumours at the outset. Am I making myself clear, Hole?"

Harry is dismissed but remains seated and Hagen asks.

"Anything else, Hole?"

"Mm, I was wondering. Didn't the Japanese lose the war?"  

THE REDEEMER: JO NESBO'S TOP QUALITY CRIME THRILLER

Update:

This blog is now dormant and you can read all the old posts plus lots of new material at Crime Scraps Review.

http://crimescraps2.wordpress.com

It is 1991 a young girl is raped at a Salvation Army summer camp, and then in Oslo one freezing night twelve years later, just before Christmas, a Salvation Army officer Robert Karlsen is shot in the head at a street concert. But before the Croatian assassin can leave the country he realises he has killed the wrong man, and must try again to complete his mission.

Harry Hole, struggling once again with his own problems, has to track down the murderer with very little evidence and no motive to go on. Jo Nesbo takes us on a roller coaster ride as we investigate the personal lives of the young people in the Salvation Army, the history of the assassin known as the mali spasitelj [little redeemer], the business ethics of a wealthy family, and Harry's own relationships with friends and colleagues.

One of the best reviewers around Glenn Harper of International Noir Fiction states "The Redeemer is Jo Nesbo's best novel so far" and I certainly would not argue with that. I finished reading The Redeemer early this morning and using well worn cliches it is a gripping read, with a narrative drive that makes it impossible to put down, even though it is quite a heavy paperback. I did not think Nesbo could surpass The Devil's Star or Nemesis but I think he has by a hair's breadth with The Redeemer.

We sometimes forget [until reading Dorte of DJS Krimiblog] that Charles Dickens books were originally published in weekly episodes in the magazines of the day. I am reminded of the Saturday morning picture clubs I went to in the early 1950s, before we had television, when at the end of each episode our hero [The Lone Ranger, Tonto or Hopalong Cassidy] was left in an impossible position and we had to wait until the next episode to find out if he escaped. Of course he always did and these films were similar in this to the popular "macho" crime fiction I read at the time featuring Richard Hannay and Bulldog Drummond, as well as the adventure novels starring Biggles.

In The Redeemer Jo Nesbo has written the book in a way that produces cliffhanger after cliffhanger, and just as we want to know what happens next he moves us swiftly on to another thread told from a different perspective and leaves the reader gasping for more. He tricks the reader and intrigues us as we wonder how all the threads will come together, and because it is all done with such skill we don't mind being fooled. Nesbo is also a master at creating interesting characters, I could read about Harry Hole even without the wonderfully convoluted plots, and in Gunnar Hagen, Harry's new boss, who is an expert on the Japanese Army in Burma, we have yet another complex character to follow.

The Redeemer is absolutely superb crime fiction and if you have not read any Jo Nesbo do get all of the four published in English and read them in the correct order. [The Redbreast, Nemesis, The Devil's Star, The Redeemer]

By the time you reach the end of The Redeemer I feel sure you will be nuts about Nesbo.

You can read a good review of The Redeemer here.

The telephone creaked. He breathed in ready to answer and looked into the twelve thousand kroner rococo mirror. At that moment Tore realised three things. The creaking had not come from the telephone. You don't get top-quality mail-order handcuffs in a beginner's pack for 599 kroner. And in all probability he had celebrated his last Christmas.

NORWEGIAN PUZZLE

I really don't understand the publishing industry. Perhaps someone could explain to a simple amateur blogger the treatment dished out to Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole series.

I read The Devils Star earlier in the year and my review is at:

http://www.eurocrime.co.uk/reviews/The_Devils_Star_2.html

This was number 5 in the series; I am now reading The Redbreast [review on Eurocrime shortly] which apparently is number 3 in the series.

In March next year The House of Pain is to be published in English and this seems to be number 4 in the series.

If the other books were below par and The Devils Star was outstanding I might understand the order, but The Redbreast was voted the best ever Norwegian crime novel. On top of this the winner of The Glass Key Award for the best Nordic Crime novel in 1998 was Flaggermusmannen, the first Harry Hole.

I just don't get it, why not translate them in the correct order?

THE WORLD HAS COME TO OSLO:THE NESBO INTERVIEW

Thanks are due to Karen at Euro Crime for the link to a fascinating interview with Norwegian author Jo Nesbo, creator of the gripping Harry Hole series. A series so good that they can publish it out of order and it still gets rave reviews.

See Karen's post here:

http://eurocrime.blogspot.com/2008/02/what-can-we-expect-from-jo-nesbo.html

Having just read Massimo Carlotto's short story Death of An Informer on the theme of the "foreigner" in Crimini I was struck by this passage in the Nesbo interview.

The picture postcard idyll of the nice cobbled streets, the City Hall, Holmenkollen and the Kontiki museum are still there, but now have company. Foreign beggars sitting in the slush on street corners and Baltic prostitutes shivering in the cold in Skippergata. The world has come to Oslo.

"Yes, Oslo is a cosy little capital town, but it is also what you have seen. It has the highest number of fatalities from drug overdoses in Europe.

Last year the number of rapes reported per inhabitant was three times what it is in New York.

There is organised crime, hardcore prostitution, trafficking, drugs from the Balkans and the Russian Mafia......It is still asafe very beautiful town in one of the richest countries of the world, a safe town, but there is all the rest,......."

The full interview is available at:

http://www.salomonssonagency.com/jonesbo/CopyAuthor/norwegian_evil.pdf

It is an incredibly honest interview that does not pull any punches especially about the Norwegian participation in the Second World War.

I am certainly looking forward to the rest of the Harry Hole series being published in English.

KEEPING HARRY IN ORDER

By special request Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole novels in order.

• 1997 – Flaggermusmannen; English translation: The Bat Man
• 1998 – Kakerlakkene; English translation: The Cockroaches
• 2000 – Rødstrupe; English translation: The Redbreast (2006)
• 2002 – Sorgenfri; English translation: Nemesis (2008)
• 2003 – Marekors; English translation: The Devil's Star (2005)
• 2005 – Frelseren; English translation: The Redeemer (2009)
• 2007 – Snømannen; English translation: The Snowman
• All the English translations are by Don Bartlett

FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS: CRIME FEST 2009

The first Crime Fest panel I attended was the multi award winning translators panel comprising Tiina Nunnally [aka Felicity David], Steven Murray [aka Reg Keeland], Ros Schwartz, and Don Bartlett.

The moderator was the author of the Shetland Quartet Ann Cleeves, who once again brought out the best in her charges with some excellent questions.

The high quality discussion ranged from what books they would avoid translating, for instance those dealing with crimes against children, to whether they read the book  right through in the original language before translating. 

Tiina who started the Scandinavian crime fiction popularity ball rolling with her translation of Peter Hoeg's Smilla's Sense of Snow admitted to being puzzled by the ending.

Ros was concerned about the poor pay and conditions for some translators In Europe who were forced to work very fast to provide a living wage. 

Steven mentioned that he had translated all three of Stieg Larsson's Millenium trilogy in less than a year, and that he would really like to work on number four!

Don spoke about how he loved Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole and kept a file with all his details so that no mistakes crept in to the translations. This was essential because of the out of order publication of much Scandinavian crime fiction especially the Hole books. There the publishers had thought that The Devil's Star would be a really big entry novel into the English speaking market for Jo Nesbo, but ignored the fact that they were ruining a major sub plot by publishing the books in the order 5,3,4.

All the translators regarded their primary loyalty to the authors and themselves as musicians, interpreting the composer's work.

The panel are all meticulous practitioners of their craft and we are very lucky that they have given us the chance to experience all those superb Scandinavian and French authors. 

This was an informative and educational panel that was a real treat for the readers of translated crime fiction. Well done to Adrian and Myles for arranging it and hopefully we will have something as good for next year.

Don Bartlett was kind enough to sign an extra paperback copy of The Devil's Star for me  and inscribe it with a sentence that I did not read till later.  

[to be continued]

THE HOLE SERIES CONTINUES

This is another great mystery featuring the Oslo maverick detective Harry Hole. You can read my review at:

http://www.eurocrime.co.uk/reviews/The_Redbreast_2.html

My constant praise for these Nordic crime writers is getting a bit repetitive.

THE URIAH QUARTETS:TRAVEL

The four play meme has become one the most popular on the web and features on several crime fiction sites such as The Rap Sheet, Reactions to Reading, Detectives Beyond Borders, Big Beat from Badsville and Mysteries in Paradise. Apologies if I have left anyone out.

If you type "four play meme" into google the "numero uno" position is occupied by Crimeficreader.

I have decided to dip in to this meme but as is my usual habit alter it slightly to reflect more emphasis on crime fiction. So here is my variation of a meme:

1] FOUR places I have visited in Europe partially inspired by reading crime fiction:

Perugia, Italy- Michael Dibdin's Aurelio Zen book Ratking

Stockholm, Sweden- Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo: The Martin Beck series

Amsterdam, Netherlands- Nicholas Freeling's Van Der Valk series

Paris, France- Georges Simenon's Maigret series

2] FOUR places I have visited in the USA partially inspired by reading crime fiction:

Canyon du Chelly, Window Rock, Arizona and Acoma Pueblo, and Gallup, New Mexico- Tony Hillerman's Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn Navajo Mysteries [this visit was totally inspired by the Hillerman books]

Boston, Massachusetts- Robert Parker, the Spenser books

Fredericksburg, Virginia- the early Patricia Cornwell books

San Francisco- The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett

3] FOUR places I want to visit before I die.

Sicily- In view of the fact that I have lauded Andrea Camilleri's Montalbano book so many times I am ashamed to admit I have never been to Sicily. The furthest south in Italy I have been is Paestum, south of Salerno.

Venice- Donna Leon's Brunetti

Oslo-Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole

Bruges- The film In Bruges

4] FOUR of the beautiful places I have visited:

The Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, Harrodsburg Kentucky

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Siena, Italy

Florence, Italy

That is "four by four" so all for now but I will come back to this meme in the future.

NESBO'S GALSNYCKELN

When one looks at a list of the winners of the Glasnyckeln here, the Nordic Glass Key award for the Best Nordic Crime Fiction book of the year, the rather capricious choice by publishers of which books and in which order to translate some authors becomes apparent. 

Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole crime thrillers were translated into English in the order:

The Devil's Star:  5

The Redbreast:    3

Nemesis:                4

The Redeemer:    6

Quite ridiculous when there was a major sub plot running through books 3-5. Why not start with book one especially when that Flaggermusmannen, The Bat Man, won the Galsnyckeln in 1998? 

At least Stieg Larsson's Millenium series [translated by Crime Fest Bristol 2009 panelist Reg Keeland] is being published in order and both The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest [due out in September 2009] won Glass Key Awards in 2006 and 2008. 

You can read my previous posts about Jo Nesbo here.

And a selection of posts about the Stieg Larsson phenomenon here.

NESBO UNTANGLED

Karen of Euro Crime explains the future publication plans of Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole books at:

http://eurocrime.blogspot.com/2008/02/what-can-we-expect-from-jo-nesbo.html

I read The Devil's Star number 5 before I read The Redbreast number 3, and even that only very slightly spoilt my enjoyment of these great crime fiction books.

Jo Nesbø is the recipient of many prestigious awards including:

The Riverton Prize (Rivertonprisen) 1997,

The Glass Key (Glasnyckeln) 1998,

The Booksellers' Prize (Bokhandlerprisen) 2000,

The Finnish Academy of Crime Writers' Special Commendation for Excellence in Foreign Crime Writing 2007

and The Booksellers' Prize (Bokhandlerprisen) 2007

as well as the special award Best Norwegian Crime Novel of All Time (Tidenes Beste Norske Krimroman) awarded by NRK and the Norwegian bookclubs. In addition, Nesbø has been shortlisted for Duncan Lawrie International Dagger.

LIBRARY FINES

A large part of the enjoyment of reading Detective Inspector Huss is in the relationships between the various members of the  squad. In this matter Helene Tursten's book is similar in construction if not sheer quirkiness to the work of Fred Vargas, and  the classic Martin Beck series. There is a quite different feel to it from those books with just two investigators.

The tradition of Holmes and Watson has meant that the almost all the best known of British police procedurals seem to have just the two main investigators e.g. Dalziel and Pascoe, Wexford and Burden, Banks and Cabbot, Morse and Lewis.

There is a much greater variation in the Nordic novels ranging from Jo Nesbo's almost  solitary Harry Hole, Karin Fossum's twosome Sejer and Skarre, K.O.Dahl's Gunnarstranda and Frolich, Arnaldur Indridason's threesome Erlendur, Elinborg and Sigurdur Oli, up to the larger teams of Helene Tursten, Sjowall and Wahloo and Henning Mankell. 

"An extra job that pays more than her regular job. Guess what her day job is."

Birgitta looked around among her colleague, who were following her report with interest. "Stripper," "day-care worker," "nurse" were some of the suggestions.

Birgitta laughed and shook her head.

"Wrong, wrong! Librarian!"

Everyone round the table looked disappointed. None of them had imagined such a genuinely musty occupation. 

Jonny Blom whispered to Fredrik Stridh, "Ha, the driest bushes burn the best!"

I would certainly not subscribe to the opinion that librarians or libraries are musty or dull. I find both absolutely fascinating and exciting. 

Is a close team working together in relative harmony a more accurate portrayal of police work than the eccentric insubordinate lone wolf ? 

THINKING ABOUT POLICE PROCEDURALS

This winter weather may look beautiful but for those who are traveling it is a nightmare, and it looks as if most people round here are staying indoors. This is certainly the heaviest snowfall I have seen in Devon since 1987 and if it is this heavy down here it must be Nordic in depth up on Dartmoor and Exmoor.

Last year I suggested altering a fairly generic list of crime fiction categories into the Modified Dartmoor Dozen. These would be twelve books that you would recommend reading to someone snowed in on Dartmoor, and new to crime fiction. The concept caught on like wildfire with numerous bloggers listing their own choices, and I was lucky enough to metaphorically grab delicious Donna Moore as a guest blogger to list her choices here, and here.

Donna now has her own superb blog Big Beat from Badsville here.

It seemed appropriate on a day when it would be impossible to even get up onto Dartmoor to be 'snowed in' to consider one of the categories in more detail.

The Police Procedural is one of the most popular sub-genres in crime fiction, but what type of book do you enjoy. The Kenneth Branagh Wallander on BBC seemed to represent the police detective operating virtually on his own in a manner more like a private eye.

While most police procedural books have a team, a duo or a trio of investigators working together. Even a maverick like Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole does not work in total isolation, and has relationships with colleagues.

Are there actually police detectives who work alone in crime fiction? Possibly Freeman Wills Croft's Inspector French?

Which type of criminal investigation do you most enjoy in a police procedural, the singleton, the team, the trio or the duo? What is your cop fiction choice?

And which books in each mini category would you recommend as your favourites?

MY FAVOURITE READS OF 2008

The books I read during 2008 were of a very high quality with only a few exceptions therefore it was a hard task to come up with only five outstanding reads. My favourite reads all had that extra special something  about them and all had memorable characters. 

They were:

A Quiet Flame by Philip Kerr

The fifth in the Bernie Gunther series was set in Peron's Argentina in 1950 but with a lengthy brilliantly evocative back story of Germany in 1932. An outstanding detective story as Bernie investigates a murder with similarities to a case in his past. But it is also a novel with a message and warning from history that is relevant to the present day.

This Night's Foul Work by Fred Vargas

Commisaire Adamsberg and his disparate team of detectives investigate murders in Paris and strange events in Normandy. Gallic quirkiness and individuality abound in this mixture of modern mystery and medieval history.

Nemesis by Jo Nesbo

Harry Hole investigates a bank robbery and then makes an unfortunate choice of female dinner companion in this book which is the sequel to The Redbreast and prequel to The Devil's Star. The opening of Nemesis is absolutely stunning and the narrative grips right through to the end.

Echoes From The Dead by Johan Theoren

This winner of the Best Swedish Debut Crime Novel has a brilliantly different investigator in the elderly Gerlof Davidson and is a master class in the use of a gripping decades long back story. But the main star of the book is the atmospheric setting on the beautiful bleak Baltic Island of Oland.  

The Fire Engine That Disappeared by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo

A sensational start to this novel is a prelude to a police procedural that is both humorous and intriguing. The ten books in the Martin Beck series written between 1965 and 1975 are all masterpieces and a pleasure to read. 

MY DARTMOOR DOZEN PART SEVEN

11] CRIME FICTION IN TRANSLATION

This is the category in which I would really like to cheat and say read anything by Fred Vargas, Andrea Camilleri, or Jo Nesbo, but I have to make a choice.

I have chosen Nemesis by Jo Nesbo which I think is slightly superior to The Redeemer because he doesn't hide as much from the reader, and it is more of a police procedural than a thriller. 

Harry Hole investigates a murder committed during the course of a bank robbery, and makes an unfortunate choice of female companion for dinner. Nesbo shows his trademark skill in handling the many complex strands of the story and bringing them together in a satisfactory conclusion, but it is the fantastic start of this novel with the bank robbery that marks it out as outstanding crime fiction.

The masked man whispered in Stine's ear as he turned the machine gun on Helge, who took two unsteady steps backwards.

Stine cleared her throat: "He says open the ATM and put the money in the black holdall."

In a daze, Helge stared at the gun pointing at him.

"You've got twenty-five seconds before he shoots. Not you. Me"

Helge's mouth opened and closed as though he wanted to say something.

"Now , Helge, "Stine said.

12] THE WILD CARD CATEGORY

I have chosen Excursion To Tindari by Andrea Camilleri because it is more multi dimensional than many of the Montalbano mysteries and also it contains some of Camilleri's best lines. 

He opened the fridge and let out a sheer whinny of delight.

And:

The eyes on these fish were bright and sparkly, as though they were still swimming in the water.

"Grill me four bass."

And: 

Did one simply write on a sheet of paper something like: 'I, the undersigned Salvo Montalbano, hereby declare myself to be in existence"...

Montalbano investigates the murder of a young Don Juan outside his apartment building and the apparently unrelated disappearance of an elderly couple on their excursion to Tindari. This was one of the televised episodes of Montalbano shown on BBC4 a few weeks ago which I enjoyed so much. 

I hope BBC4 show more of these excellent productions.

There I have made my dozen choices and all the books I think have as their main feature great characters, although if I started choosing again I would possibly choose twelve different books. ;o)