2013 top 5 books

Here we are (already!) late December and for the first time of my blog (that is only a few months...) I'm going to present you five books published in 2013 that I really loved. Insofar as I read mainly paperback books, it's rare that I read the releases of the year but since I can read ARC... I can finally make this list! Here are the 5 best books I've read:

The Big Reap by Chris F. Holm

I am a big fan of his trilogy. I've never been disappointed by his books and this last book is so good, it can only be in the best books I've read. In this last one, Chris plays with the greatest horror movies and is tough to Sam (the collector). We discover a new side of Sam while learning who was his first collect. Lili is also more present in this book, her history is revealed which allows us to understand her reactions. There's a lot of actions in this book as Sam engages in a hunt for rebels. All with, as always, this great black humor that can be found throughout the book. A big must read!

Letters from a Murderer by John Mathews 

A New York cop must team up with a British pathologist to find Jack the Ripper, newly arrived in the United States. The atmosphere of the book, the historical background, the characters, everything is excellent. Even the secondary characters are well drawn in this book, while some authors are struggling to make their main character appealing! The two become friend but sometimes one doubt the other. For those familiar with the series, this book is a nice mix of Ripper Street and Copper, with a sprig of Gang of New York... a great mix to discover!

Out of Exile by Luke Preston

I was not bored for a second reading this book. This is dynamite, many (including your dedicated here present) compared this book to Die Hard as Out of Exile is so captivating. Stunts, explosions and chases follow on. But this book is not just a sequence of actions, it's also a police investigation, a track back into the heart of the police, to the top of the hierarchy. It's a race against the clock for Tom Bishop who must rescue a woman and her daughter from the clutches of gangsters before being overtaken by these thugs and thrown back in jail. Dear reader, you will end this book breathless!

The King's Hounds by Martin Jensen  

A Danish author who teaches you about England history, that's already quite something but when it involves vikings, what more can one ask! I really liked to learn more about the life at that time, I also loved Halfdane and Winston duo... without forgetting Atheling the donkey. In a burst of generosity, I'll give you another reason to read this book: the characters excellently written, the comical scenes, Halfdane's humor, the intrigue well done... And here is the magic of boxing day Christmas time, that's four more reasons instead of one!

Between Two Thorns by Emma Newman 

A bit of fantasy in this top 5 with a fairy story. The author has created a world of her own that we soon learn to know well and take for granted. I enjoyed the many facets of this novel that affects many aspects of society, the gargoyle that comes to life, the very Downtown Abbey side of the Fae world and the three characters Cathy, Max and Sam. But Between Two Thorns is not just a fairy tale: an important figure disappeared and the trio must find him. To do this, they will unveil a plot in a resounding end...

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And then, as I read too many good books this year and making a choice was not easy, here are some more books published before 2013 (as I said I read in paperback so I'm rarely aware of the latest releases anyway... )

The Ghost Riders of Ordebec by Fred Vargas. Because I love Adamsberg's wacky style, the lightness in Fred Vargas's novels, the way she leds us around by the nose to show us the guilty one we couldn't find so caught we are in the myths and legends lurking on the investigation.

The Sadness of the Samurai by Victor Del Arbol. A beautiful discovery. This author handles Spanish history as well as police procedures in a hard novel, nervous, rich, wise and philosophical... not bad for a single book, right?

The Torment of Others by Val McDermid. It is not for the faint hearted but that's so good! Watch out for the suspense that continues unabated: sleepness night ahead... The author can make us feel the emotions of her characters, we're concern for them, we empathise, we know them. And if you need another reason, Tony, one of the characters has his own TV series, that's how good it is!

Alex by Pierre Lemaître. A hard-hitting book. An incredibly writing as much literary as slangy. A writer who plays with our feelings and makes us to love and hate the victim, an end well done. Alex knows a well-deserved success, a must read!

Le requiem des abysses by Maxime Chattam. I admit, I 'm a bit lot sold to Chattam's books but I love the way he plays with my nerves! His blend of suspense and horror keeps me awake, it's probably his biggest flaw (yes, because I 'm still supposed to work on day!)

The Leopard by Jo Nesbo. One of the best books I've read this year. The book which has made me delve into Harry Hole's life, for better and often for worse! Because Harry gets hit on a regular basis but he always succeeds. Another sleepless nights author...

Voices

by Arnaldur Indridason

368 pages - 19.95 $

Vintage Books (11 janvier 2010)

I thought I got a good deal by buying this book in a bookstore ... and indeed it was the case: I have not really enjoyed this book but the price was downright cheap!

The blurb

The third novel in the award-winning Reykjavik Murder Mysteries.

The Christmas rush is under way in a big Reykjavik hotel when the police are called to the scene of a murder. The hotel doorman (and long-time resident of its basement) has been stabbed to death. With the hotel fully booked, the manager is desperate to keep the murder under wraps and his reputation intact.

Detectives Erlendur and Sigurdur Oli discover that the dead man had had a childhood brush with fame and that two old 45s on which he had sung have become prized collectors’ items. Estranged from his family for decades, why had the man continued to pay secret visits to his boyhood home?

As Detective Elinborg investigates a separate case of child abuse, and Erlendur continues to struggle both with his troubled family relationships and the ghosts of his own youth, their parallel stories probe deeper into the riddle of this latest Reykjavik Murder Mystery.

What I think of it 

We meet back with Erlendur and his team, even if Sigurdur Oli and Elinborg only do a few quick appearances where they merely provide the latest news and invite Erlendur to spend Christmas with them, because they do not understand why he stays at the hotel. The Captain couldn't be more depressed as he recalls childhood memories about the disappearance of his brother. So, admittedly, it's interesting to know a little more about this episode in his life that still mark him but I confess that I don't appreciate too much rehash of a sad story on several books. To add to the gaiety of the book, his daughter regularly comes to see her father in the hotel and she's also more depressed than ever...

Some people think this novel is the quintessential noir... But noir fiction is characterized by a pessimistic and often violent vision of society, not a hero über depressed who spends part of the investigation lying on his bed in his unheated room rethinking an event that happened when he was 10 years old...

Apart from that, the atmosphere is as cold as wished for a Nordic polar, the tourists wearing big Icelandic sweaters are quite ridiculous and all the suspects tell lies. Speaking of lies, I often wondered why Erlendur let go some suspects without having questioned them further when he himself hesitated to do so... but it must be said that if he had do it, the investigation would have been solved at about half the book!

The other problem for me is that there are three parallel stories: an ongoing investigation, a trial for an old investigation and the disappearance of the brother of the Captain. These three stories overlap constantly as flashbacks and I often found it annoying because it added nothing to the ongoing investigation.

In a nutshell

It's not that the story is bad but reading the book, it feels like watching an episode of Derrick and I can't say I loved this series... I give it a 2/5.

Interview: Luke Preston, author of Out of Exile

On Luke's blog you'll find this: "Luke spent most of his twenties as a freelance writer, a private investigator and listening to rock ‘n roll. He drinks heavily on occasion, is a half decent musician and his idea of a good time involves a jukebox designed to bleed ears." 

It was enough for me to want to ask him a lot few questions after the release of his book Out of Exile (1st October 2013) which he kindly answered. Please give a warm welcome to Luke!

For those that don’t know you yet, can you tell us a bit about yourself? 

I’m a guy who likes to tell stories, play music loud. My work has been recognised by MTV, the ATOM Awards, the Fellowship of Australian Writers and the Inside Film Awards, winning Best Unproduced Screenplay for The Adventures of Abigail Storm. I don’t believe in writer’s block or in the magic bullet theory. 

Your hero is a good guy but he’s doing a lot of bad things to achieve his goals. Why do you think people root for him? 

As children, we’re told what is right, and what is wrong but the world is far more fucked up than that. As individuals, communities, countries and nations we try to do what is best and what we think is right, but right and wrong is subjective and it is within that small, grey gap that drama exists. A story should be a brutal fight between two ideologies. Some people believe in their heart that Tom Bishop breaks the legal and moral laws and should be punished; others believe he is a good character doing bad things for good reasons. And they’re both right, because the argument in Dark City Blue and Out of Exile is how far into violence and force should a person venture in the name of good? 

Do you plan other books with Tom Bishop? Will it be a series? 

Tom Bishop will be back. I’m already working on the third instalment where Tom Bishop heads to the big city to work at Vogue for an overpowering boss and along the way learns that it’s okay to be himself… I’m just kidding. The third novel will be bigger than Out of Exile and sees Bishop in unfamiliar territory. 

Do you write books like you write screenplays or screenplays like you write books? 

They’re both complementary. Writing screenplays has helped my novels move along economically and writing novels has helped the prose in my screenplays standout. Writers from both disciplines can learn a lot from their long form counterparts. 

Which subjects are most difficult to write about? 

Truth. People can kid themselves in their day to day life and get away with it and live happily ever after. But you can’t get away with it on the page. A writer must first be honest with themselves before they can be honest with the reader and it takes a lot of guts to lay their heart and soul out there for strangers. In many ways being a published author is a great invasion of privacy. But in many other ways it’s about taking standing behind your values and beliefs and picking a fight. 

As writer, do you want to convey a moral in your books or do you only want to tell a story? 

Not necessarily a moral, but for me, every story I write must to say something new about the world in which we live. It may be a fresh point of view on an old issue, or something I’ve discovered that I believe the world should know about or at least pay attention to. In many ways Tom Bishop is a rebellion to political correctness. Western society publically condones men of violent action but when the shit hits the fan, they are the first to be called on. 

If you could experience one book once again, which one will it be? 

Women, by Charles Bukowski. He laid it on the line, his heart and balls and didn’t give a shit what anyone thought. 

You’ve won the What if Award for a The Adventures of Abigail Storm (congrats!), is there any progress on that front ? 

None. It is going to take a special producer to take on a story about an ex-porn star who saves the world from Martians. I don’t know, maybe the world is not ready for it yet. Or maybe I should just turn it into a porno. 

What would be the best Award you could win for your book? 

Awards are lovely and flattery is always welcomed. Although, I’ve won awards before when I didn’t deserve to and also lost awards when I deserved to win. Satisfaction in writing should always come from the act itself, not the result of the act. 

Why so serious question: 

Who’s your favourite villain? 

John Lithgow in Footloose is my favourite villain of all time. Now before you laugh your ass off, hear me out. John Lithgow in Footloose isn’t bad for the sake of being bad; he isn’t driven by greed, by power or by any personal gain. He is driven by the desire to protect the teenagers of Footloose-ville. He believes that rock ‘n roll leads to danger, whereas Kevin Bacon believes rock ‘n roll is about expression and freedom. When the antagonist has a goal just as valid as the protagonist’s, there’s great drama. 

Which book would to take on a desert island? 

Webster’s Dictionary. I would use it to write the books. 

What are you reading now? 

The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright & The Comedy Writer by Peter Farrelly. 

Your most effective hair of the dog drink? 

A Red Eye 

1 oz (30 mL) vodka 

6 oz (180 mL) refrigerated tomato juice 

12 oz (350 mL) beer 

1 egg

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About Out of Exile

After three years of rotting in a cell, Bishop is busted out of prison in the dead of night and thrown into the middle of a police war where the stakes are high and personal. He must associate himself with dangerous guys to try and save the girl... and the day! 

Out of Exile is not a book you read, it's a effing action-packed film, a kind of Die Hard with a more virile McLane! It's explosive, relentless and incredibly funny. An action-packed book where the hero is not afraid to get his hands dirty

If you want to follow Luke Preston on his blog, on Twitter or Facebook.

And if you should want to buy his book it's here!

Between Two Thorns

by Emma Newman

Split Worlds series (book #1)

Urban Fantasy

Angry Robot - 26th February 2013

400 pages - 16.99 $

ISBN: 9780857663207

I must admit, this is once again the cover that first caught my attention. Then the story: a magical world and a mystery, what more should I want?


The blurb

Something is wrong in Aquae Sulis, Bath’s secret mirror city.

The new season is starting and the Master of Ceremonies is missing. Max, an Arbiter of the Split Worlds Treaty, is assigned with the task of finding him with no one to help but a dislocated soul and a mad sorcerer.

There is a witness but his memories have been bound by magical chains only the enemy can break. A rebellious woman trying to escape her family may prove to be the ally Max needs.

But can she be trusted? And why does she want to give up eternal youth and the life of privilege she’s been born into?

What I think of it

A very enchanting novel (in all senses). If at the beginning, I thought the idea of ​​a world parallel to ours strongly resembled Harry Potter, the author knows very quickly how to make us forget Hogwarts to transport us into a world of her own, much more mature and complex (it is no longer a duality of good / bad, but a conflict between different groups).

What are the Split Worlds? I admit it's the complex part of the book. It took me some time to be able to get a picture of this organization of a world so different from ours. The world is divided into two worlds, one is Exilium, " one of the finest prisons " where sorcerers have sent Fae to prevent them from interfering in the lives of Mundanes (humans) who live in the other world, in Mundanus (our reality). Between the two worlds is the Nether where live Fae-touched (humans affected by the Fae grace so to speak...)

So there are several groups in this book: the Fae-touched governed by Fae, Sorcerers who ensure that the Fae behave well, the Mundanus, we humans and finally Arbiters sent by Sorcerers, whose role is to defer any problems between Fae and humans.

The grand master of ceremonies disappeared from Nether and Cathy, a rebel fae-touched must find him, helped by Max an arbiters and Sam, a mundane. In parallel to this story, another mystery unfolds (which Max would prefer to investigate). So there is a small element of mystery, which always pleases me! There are also tensions between factions, problems of "ethnic" affiliations, a hint of struggle for women's rights (in the Nether! Do not worry, this is not a feminist novel!) This is thus a multifaceted  book that should touch different person.

What make this a good story? Mainly for the magic of these parallel worlds. The author has created a new reality and explains it without seeming to. Eventually, all become obvious and logical! Then the atmosphere. If Mundanus lies in our time, the Nether is stuck in the Victorian era it. The characters are dressed in the fashion of the time... and do not know electricity or modern amenities. Moreover, these differences are discovered with Cathy who had to return home after some years in our reality and who rebels against social norms and lack of modernism. This stilted atmosphere typical of the era adds a touch of Victorian novel that reinforces the magic of the book... as do the gargoyle serving as sidekick for Max. But the story is also excellent for the quality of writing, the boundless imagination of the author, the mystery that reveals itself progressively and ends resoundingly.

In a nutshell

A very good book, very pleasant and enjoyable, a magical world that carries you and endearing characters. I warmly recommend it and especially for lovers of fantasy... and Downtown Abbey !