The Second Deadly Sin by Åsa Larsson - out 12th of August 2014

Quercus Books (US) - MacLehose Press

352 pages - 26.99 $

Another Scandinavian author (Swedish to be precise). This is definitely trendy, but I did not want to stay on an aftertaste of disappointment with my reading of The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler. So here I am, trying agin a new Swedish author whose name appears regularly on networks.

The blurb

Oprah.com raved that Åsa Larsson’s Rebecka Martinsson is a crime fighter who has all the needed gut insticts," and listed the series as "Mysteries Every Thinking Woman Should Read." In The Second Deadly Sin, dawn breaks in a forest in northern Sweden. Villagers gather to dispatch a rampaging bear. When the beast is brought to ground they are horrified to find the remains of a human hand inside its stomach. In nearby Kiruna, a woman is found murdered in her bed, her body a patchwork of vicious wounds, the word WHORE scrawled across the wall. Her grandson Marcus, already an orphan, is nowhere to be seen. Grasping for clues, Rebecka Martinsson begins to delve into the victim’s tragic family history. But with doubts over her mental health still lingering, she is ousted from the case by an arrogant and ambitious young prosecutor. Before long a chance lead draws Martinsson back into the thick of the action and her legendary courage is put to the test once more. 

What's about that book

Larsson knows how to make us feel what experience her characters... including the dog. And just for that, it blew me away. I think especially of a scene where the Brat, Martinsson's puppy runs around the house in all directions until he can go out, it's a scene you may find useless because it adds nothing to the plot, but it brings a lot to the atmosphere! There is also how Maja portrays von Post, a moment of pure happiness (well, in your teeth von Post!) Or, the day spent with Martisson in her house, drinking moonshine and doing trips to the sauna, while investigating, along with Pohjanen (and we learn a bit more about Swedish culture). It thus makes us feel good in the presence of Martisson, wanting to get to know her. That create a sense of familiarity with the characters and it's very nice. 

The plot follows two stories that, as so often, join in the end, one explaining the other. This has already been done, of course, but when it's well done, as is the case here, it's nice. A story unfolds in the early twentieth century, while the other is in the present. Ultimately, it is the story of a family that we can judge cursed as misfortune rained down on her, a family cursed by greed. 

Aside from the very human and endearing characters, the two-story plot, Larsson sprinkles her story of political shenanigans, low blows and cowardice. Martinsson's success doesn't please everyone and Von Post, the detestable prosecutor, will do anything to counter her. There are few references to the past, especially with regard to Martinsson's psychological past which uses von Post, but not having read the other books did not prevent to understand how this man is a shabby. 

In a nutshell

A clever writing, very endearing characters, a plot well done, a dark atmosphere, cold and sad, but hopeful at the same time. This is a 4.5 / 5 for me.

Disclaimer: An e-galley of this title was provided to me by the publisher. No review was promised and the above is an unbiased review of the novel.

The Black House by Peter May - out the 5th of august 2014

Quercus (Dec 3 2013) - Sortie US en 2014

432 pages - 9.99 $ Kindle édition

Another one of those times when the cover attracted my eye... and it's not that bad since the publisher did not provide any description on the NetGalley site. It was not until I try to find what it was that I trully was happy to have chosen it. And I discovered that this was in Scotland, on an island and it talks of Edinburgh of which I have an indelible memory after a week scouring its pubs, its castle, its streets... in short, a city that I love.

The blurb

The Isle of Lewis is the most remote, harshly beautiful place in Scotland, where the difficulty of existence seems outweighed only by people's fear of God. But older, pagan values lurk beneath the veneer of faith, the primal yearning for blood and revenge. When a brutal murder on the island bears the hallmarks of a similar slaying in Edinburgh, police detective Fin Macleod is dispatched north to investigate. But since he himself was raised on Lewis, the investigation also represents a journey home and into his past. Each year the island's men perform the hunting of the gugas, a savage custom no longer necessary for survival, but which they cling to even more fiercely in the face of the demands of modern morality. For Fin the hunt recalls a horrific tragedy, which after all this time may have begun to demand another sacrifice. The Blackhouse is a crime novel of rare power and vision. Peter May has crafted a page-turning murder mystery that explores the darkness in our souls, and just how difficult it is to escape the past.

What's good about it

Scotland! But not just Scotland, of course. 

The 50 shades of... grey atmosphere! But that is because of the weather, cold and wet, the rain, the austerity of the island, its people, hard-working, hard in their moral, hard in their faith. As much as it was nice being on an island, I was not able to warm up throughout the book! For those who have seen the series, a plunge into the atmosphere of the book will give you the impression of having fallen straight into the Hinterland series. 

The book follows Fin the detective and Fin the boy who grew up on the island. The passages of the past are written in the first person, whereas the present is written in the third. At the first paragraph of the young Fin, I found the transition to the first person pretty weird but ultimately, it is very well thought out, since it makes it easy to distinguish between the two periods. The return in the past are also very useful to better understand the issues, the discomfort and the more or less difficult relationships in the present. In the end, it gives two stories within one story with one that makes us understand the other. 

The relationships between the characters are typical of small villages - the unspoken secrets, the gossips - particularly under the yoke of the church. It is about bullies who make the law at school and that one continues to fear in adulthood. The village microcosm - and worse of an island - is a real breeding ground for bullies, drunks and sinners (I had a good pun with that one in French but it's lost in English... a shame!) and I must say that this book paints a rather dark portrait of human nature. There are still some good figures - I'm thinking of Gigs, gannets hunter or Gunn, the young cop - and Fin, a character that we see grow up and that we learn to appreciate. The Black House is the first book of a trilogy and Fin is a character I'll have pleasure to meet again. 

You can feel the love of the author for Scotland, for Lewis, for the tough persons of these countries, for hunting gannets. The descriptions are very too realistic but for all that, the defender of animal rights who struggles against the annual hunt is not a sympathetic character. Peter May has a real talent for describing - the landscapes are all described and it is perhaps the least pleasant side for me (as a reminder, this is really not my cup of tea!) I admit I jumped several descriptive passages because I think that sometimes too much details kills the detail! (or rather the story) 

In a nutshell 

A very good book, hard and tough, a human plot, characters we feel we know from childhood. It is a 4/5 for me.

Disclaimer: An e-galley of this title was provided to me by the publisher. No review was promised and the above is an unbiased review of the novel.

The Murder Farm

by Andrea Maria Schenkel

Quercus (June 3 2014)
208 pages - 12.85 $

The Times Literary Supplement said of The Murder Farm, “With only a limited number of ways in which violent death can be investigated, crime writers have to use considerable ingenuity to bring anything fresh to the genre. Andrea Maria Schenkel has done it in her first novel.” 

The first author to achieve a consecutive win of the German Crime Prize, Schenkel has won first place for both The Murder Farm and Ice Cold.

The Murder Farm begins with a shock: a whole family has been murdered with a pickaxe. They were old Danner the farmer, an overbearing patriarch; his put-upon devoutly religious wife; and their daughter Barbara Spangler, whose husband Vincenz left her after fathering her daughter little Marianne. She also had a son, two-year-old Josef, the result of her affair with local farmer Georg Hauer after his wife’s death from cancer. Hauer himself claimed paternity. Also murdered was the Danners’ maidservant, Marie. 

An unconventional detective story, The Murder Farm is an exciting blend of eyewitness account, third-person narrative, pious diatribes, and incomplete case file that will keep readers guessing. When we leave the narrator, not even he knows the truth, and only the reader is able to reach the shattering conclusion.

What's about that book?

This book is popular for the different way the author investigate the murder and, indeed, this is very different from the usual crime fiction. Here, no investigation, no police but a transcript of the villagers' testimony, who are more or less closed to the victims and more or less sorry for them. Between the testimonies, the story unfolds in  the point of view of different people. And between the testimonies and the course of history, sometimes lengthy prayers.

The strength of the author is to be able to convey the discomfort the old Danner family generates in the village, the unspoken turned into gossip and the murky atmosphere. Obviously, no one really appreciated this dysfunctional family and if people are horrified at the idea that a person could commit such a crime close to home, nobody really feel for the family, apart for the children.

Little warning because I know that these issues are not easy to read and put off some people, the book adresses the subjects of incest and rape. It's human darkness pushed to the maximum and the worst is that there are indeed families like that!

The downside of this story is that no character is brought out, so you can't have empathy for the Danner family or other characters. Without feeling invested in the story, I struggled to find the book gripping, stressful or really interesting. It was like reading a newspaper with a drama lived in a particularly surly village.

In a nutshell

A short novel, a well brought very dark and creepy atmosphere, the solving of the murder without investigation, all is well done but lacks depth. This is a 2.5 / 5 .

Warning: An e- galley of this title was provided to me by the publisher. No review has been promised and chronic above is an unbiased review of the novel.