Sara Blaedel - Only One Life

SARA  BLAEDEL – Only One Life

I suppose the only reason we have been crept up on by Nordic Noir is the barrier created by our refusal to accept that people speak and write in languages other than English. Why else should we be surprised at the breadth and depth of literature from other countries.

It wouldn’t surprise me if the majority of UK readers think of Dumas, or even Tolstoy as English. We, or some of us have embraced sub titled versions classic Nordic Noir crime stories, even with sub-titles the “foreign” version of Wallander was closer to the book, assuming the translation was accurate than the somewhat anodyne UK rendition.

So it was with eager anticipation that I opened Sara Blaedel . Louise Rick does not have the same psychological problems that most Nordic detectives are usually portrayed with, but the book does tackle the racial prejudices of Denmark, that seem no different from the UK. It did seem that just like in UK soaps, the Police in fiction don’t really need any proper evidence to make arrests.

I suppose it is a matter of taste whether you would like this or not, it’s not really a thriller or a detective novel, rather a bit of both, it took a bit to get going, but I did enjoy it. I am always disappointed when the crime is solved in an Agatha Christie sort of way, in other words a new fact is introduced to solve the crime surreptitiously rather than with Holmes like deduction, but that’s my preference.    

Peter May - Cast Iron

PETER MAY - CAST IRON

Enzo Macleod, the scot in France, I made a mistake in reading this, yes I enjoyed it, Peter May has yet to disappoint, but this is the end of a series and I have two previous ones yet to read.

Not only does he describe the characters well he describes the setting well, I don't know if he describes the setting accurately as I have not been to most of the scenes but it is convincing. But on the top of that you add a good mystery and a good thriller.

I always feel I enjoy a book more if I identify which protagonists I like and which I dislike, May does not have many neutral characters in his books. The only slight criticism I have of this book is that he doesn't have much in about the downfall of the villains, he doesn't gloat enough in their comeuppance. This must be to do with me being a fan of Monti Cristo, the ultimate "revenge" story.

However so far I have enjoyed every one of his books I have read, the Lewis trilogy, the foray into Canada and the "Chinese" detective, in China that is not a Foo Man Choo pastiche. Though I have not read anything else about modern day China I did feel convinced.

Spenborough Cripples' League - A Brief Record 1911 to 1948

Spenborough Cripples' League - A Brief Record 1911 to 1948

Not the usual review, a little 16 page pamphlet recording the activities of local volunteers before the advent of the NHS. I don't know how many of these booklets survive or if this history is recorded anywhere else. The story needs telling.

I did wonder about using the word Cripple, but this is History and the story is about the "Cripples League"

The story started in 1911 in the year of the coronation of King George. During the celebrations and merrymaking arranged for the young and old, rich and poor it was realised that there was nothing for the many cripples in the district. A gift of 5/- was made to each of them as a memento of the occasion.

From this beginning the League was formed and continued right up to the formation of the NHS in 1948.

The booklet records many landmarks such as the opening of a clinic in 1924, some of the entries are listed below.

1915 Work carried out quietly during the war and 20 more patients added to the list.

1920 The committee asked Spenborough Council for a grant but were turned down.

1926 Second Sun-ray apparatus installed.

1933 Committee appointed third Masseuse to cope with extra work.

1938 A record number of plaster casts made for the correction of deformities.

1941 Praised for the remedy of "rickets"

1947 The Ministry of Health definitely informs us that we shall be taken over by them on July 5th 1948, and the Regional Hospital Board will then be in control.

Much of the booklet records fund raising events and the work of the volunteers.

Bernard Cornwell - The Last Kingdom Series

THE LAST KINGDOM

I have just re-read Warriors in the Storm, just to jog my memory before reading The Flame Bearer. Like the Sharpe series the descriptions of life and particularly fighting are very believable, with Sharpe there are sources to describe what it was like as a starting point, but Uhtred has had to be imagined without the same sources. However he has constructed the world that is very believable , much more so that the rather silly TV Viking series, his description of fighting in a shield wall conveys how frightening it must have been.
The notes at the end where he tells us what he has made up puts the "History" into perspective, but I feel however he has conjured up the descriptions, they bring what is already a great story even more interest. I particularly like the arguments between the Pagan and Christian ways, and the ghosts of Rome that permeate the landscape.
A series just as enjoyable as Sharpe, and if my memory serves me well, Hornblower. I do like these sagas that use History as a backdrop to a "cracking yarn".

Peter Robinson - Abattoir Blues

Peter Robinson
Abattoir Blues

The fact that I realised I had already read it in the first five pages and it must have been in the last two years, and the fact that I read it again and enjoyed it, tells how much I like this author.

This is despite the fact that I hate the TV rendition of DCI Banks. This is a case when I had already formed my own image of Banks before the TV series, I liked the book version of Banks, but hate the TV version, which may have something to do with the fact that I think the actor always looks like he's about to start crying, whatever role he is in.

The book though has believable characters, a captivating plot along with the added interest of trying to decide which part of the countryside is real and which is invented, especially as it is a part of the world we ride in regularly. I can't judge accuracy of Police Procedures but I do question the transportation of a £100,000 tractor in the back of a furniture van, along with a motorbike, and if he drove the van to the murder site, how did his motorbike get there?

As I said though a good read, ignore the TV.

Stephen Booth - Secrets of Death

STEPHEN BOOTH

SECRETS OF DEATH

 

I had to ponder over this one, I read it quickly because it was drawing me on, I didn't have to ponder because I didn't know if I enjoyed it, I did. What sent me into a pensive mood was; how much enjoyment I got through the development of the characters through the whole series (which I have read and enjoyed), how much I got through familiarity with Derbyshire (as a visitor), or from the development of the plot.

 

All I can say is I advise the reading of the series in order, I think this is the sixteenth. All have been enjoyable. As I said earlier the series breeds familiarity with the central characters, I always do wonder though, not just with Stephen Booth but with many other crime novels, are all superior Police Officers as bad as portrayed? 

Ann Cleeves - Red Bones

ANN CLEEVES

RED BONES

Ann Cleeves has so far not disappointed me, and this is not an exception. She paints the characters so well that you can't help either wanting them to get their come-upance  or rooting for it to turn out well for them. I don't know how accurate her picture is of Shetland life, but it is convincing.

Fortunately this book is not spoiled by the TV series, Douglas Henshall is a convincing "Perez", (though his hair should have been darker). The story line has the usual dead ends and twists, but I think for me the attraction is the bigger picture of peoples lives and the Islands History.

Not a blood and gore crime story, or not even a locked room mystery, I either didn't spot, or it wasn't there, the moment of Agathenian insight that told Perez the answer, but I don't feel cheated, I enjoyed this book.