Messenger of Athens by Anne Zouroudi (44/81)

Category: Crime and Detectives with a global theme
Country: Greece

A mysterious detective arrives on a small Greek island to investigate the death of a woman that police have dismissed as suicide. The book moved between the present and the last weeks of the woman's life.

Central to the story were the traditional Greek attitudes towards marriage, family and honour. and it showed a community dominated by superstitions, pride and shame. These aspects added an interesting dimension to the murder investigation, along with speculation about the identity of the detective.

It was a very engaging story, and the local colour, despite the negative aspects, made me yearn for a holiday in Greece!

Right as Rain by George Pelecanos (39/81)

Category: Crime & Detectives (with a global theme)
Country: USA

The first in the series of books featuring the characters Strange and Quinn. Strange is a black private investigator, hired to investigate the killing of a black policeman. Quinn is the white former police officer who did the shooting and is coming to terms with his mistake and life outside of the police. Despite his connection with the case, Quinn ends up helping Strange to get to the bottom of things, which unsurprisingly involves police corruption and drugs.

It was typical Pelecanos fayre - the mean streets of Washington DC, awash with popular culture references, multi-racial characters and a big showdown at the end. It is a gritty portrayal of Washington, which is central to all of his books, and can't be doing much for the tourist industry.

It was a good read, not the most intellectually challenging, but you know what you are getting and it is easy to lose yourself in the plot for a few hours. However, I am beginning to find the plots a bit formulaic, especially that big risky showdown where the main characters take the law into their own hands, which is how all of his books I’ve read so far have ended.

Ice Moon by Jan Costin Wagner (23/81)

Category: Crime & Detectives (with global theme)
Country: Finland

At the start of Ice Moon a policeman, Kimmo Joentaa sees his young wife dies prematurely. Still in a state of grief, he returns to work where the latest case involves a woman murdered in her bed. Then a man is killed in a hostel, in a seemingly unconnected murder, but Joentaa feels they are the work of serial killer and that his recent loss has given him a special connection with the killer.

Although it is a crime novel, there was not a huge mystery here as we were also shown things from the perspective of the killer. So you sort of know who the killer is, but it is a case of seeing how exactly he fits in with the victims. This is an interesting angle and along with the moving portrayal of Joentaa’s grief, it raises Ice Moon above the standard crime novel.

As for the setting of Finland, it was not as large a part of the book as the settings have been in some other crime novels I’ve read, but it felt similar to other Nordic stories in its tone.

Real World by Natsuo Kirino (14/81)

Category: Crime and Detectives (with a global theme)
Country: Japan

This book was described as Japanese Feminist Noir, which I imagine is fairly small genre. I’m not too sure about the feminist angle although there were four major female characters, but it was certainly dark enough to qualify as noir.

There was a murder central to the story, but this was not a whodunit as we find this very early in the book. A teenage boy, given the nickname of “The Worm” by the girl who lives next door, kills his mother. The girl next door sees him minutes later and because of this the fate of her and three of her friends becomes entangled with his.

The book moves perspective with each chapter so we see the story parts of the story from each of the four girls and the teenage murderer. Each of the girls has a distinctive personality and their monologues discuss not only the events unfolding, but their personalities and relationships with each other. The parts from the point of view of “The Worm” (a name he bizarrely adopts for himself) are less convincing, perhaps unsurprisingly from a female author.

The overall picture is one of alienated youth, detached not only from older generations but also unable to fully connect with each other. It may be intentional then that I never felt emotionally engaged with any of the characters. I was interested in finding out what happened next, but I never really cared about any of them.

Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow by Peter Høeg (7/81)

Category: Crime and Detectives (with a global theme)
Country: Denmark and Greenland


To make my Crime and Detectives category a bit more challenging this year, I decided to give it a global theme, so rather than reading several books in a series by the same author, each book in this category will have a different setting. The first book actually has two setting, Copenhagen in Denmark and Greenland.

A young boy falls from the roof of his apartment building and his death is ruled accidental, but his neighbour, Smilla doesn’t believe it and sets about investigating. Although solving this mystery is very much Smilla’s goal, just as important to the book is the uncomfortable position of Greenlanders in Danish society and the conflict between Inuit and European cultures.

The first part of the book, set in Copenhagen, moves at a slow pace, but is well-written and allows us to get to know the difficult character of Smilla, as well as giving much fascinating information on Greenland. For all its slowness, I really enjoyed this part of the novel, but unfortunately after around 260 pages the tone changes completely. Smilla ends up on board a ship bound for Greenland and the book becomes more of a traditional thriller. Unfortunately, I didn’t find it particularly thrilling, it seemed implausible and it lost the charm of the first part of the book.

So I’m left with mixed feelings about this book. I loved the first part and was decidedly unimpressed with the second part. I'm glad I read it but was pleased when it was finished.