Reading in Reykjavík

Well, here it is. My first review in several months (not counting reposts). I hadn’t planned to review this novel, but I suddenly felt the urge to do so. As it happens, this is one of the books in the Top Mysteries challenge I abandoned in 2011. I am no longer trying to read all the books on the lists, but it’s nice just the same to be able to cross one off now and then. Another novel I have been able to strike off the list was Hamlet, Revenge! by Michael Innes, an enjoyable old school murder mystery. Than leaves 65 to go, but I doubt I will ever read them all - there are just too many spy novels on it for my taste. Synopsis: Commander Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard arrives in Norfolk to spend some time going over his aunt’s personal effects following her death, and to decide what he is going to do with the holiday home - an old converted windmill - he has inherited from her. He is consulted by a former colleague who is now with the local police and is investigating the case of...

Genre: Murder mystery Year of publication: 1937 No. in series: 1 Type of investigator: Police Setting & time: London, UK; contemporary When the lead dancer in the ballet Petrushka is shot dead on cue for the final death scene, everyone thinks it’s a one-time event, but when a second dancer is shot while waiting to go on stage to dance the same role, the police begin to think there must be a madman on the loose who is fixated on this particular ballet and character. The police have to deal with a large number of witnesses and several potential killers, all of whom are so steeped in ballet that they can think of hardly anything else, and none of them seems to have told them the truth when first questioned. This is a wonderfully chaotic and funny mystery, full of eccentric characters and twists and turns. The humour is refreshingly politically incorrect but always affectionately so. The story is full of Russians with strange and funny names, the ballet terms confuse and b...

This is a triple challenge book for me: A Top Mystery, a TBR book and a What’s in a Name read. I can now strike out the “size” title in the last one. Genre: Hardboiled detective story Year of publication: 1939 Setting & time: The Los Angeles area, USA; contemporary Private detective Philip Marlowe is hired by elderly General Sternwood to look into a blackmail attempt, but more may be at stake. The General’s older daughter thinks he has been hired to find her husband, who has been missing for several weeks, and the younger daughter wants to have some fun with him and will not take ‘no’ for an answer. Before long, Marlowe has uncovered some criminal goings-on, including not only blackmail, but also gambling, illegal pornography and murder. Raymond Chandler was a master storyteller, and also had a way with words and poetic and startling turns of phrase pop up from time to time, usually when Marlowe is contemplating things. Characterisations are simple but just escape being...

Genre: Thriller Year of publication: 1991 Setting & time: Mostly Memphis, Tennessee, with brief stops and other places around the USA, and the Cayman Islands; contemporary Rookie tax lawyer Mitch McDeere accepts a lucrative job offer from a prestigious law firm, but finds out to his dismay that all is not what it seems within the firm. Caught between a rock and a hard place, he has to use his wits and find a way out of the hole he has dug himself into. Review: Many years ago I overdosed on John Grisham novels and swore I would never read another of his books again, but since I have committed myself to finish all the books easily available to me that are on the challenge list, I knew that sooner or later I would have to tackle The Firm . When I started reading it soon became apparent that distancing myself from Grisham had made me forget what it was in the first place that I had disliked about the books. The Firm is a hugely enjoyable thriller, even if the protagonist ...

Year of publication: 1931 Genre: Thriller Type of mystery: Murder Type of investigator: Amateur (gambler, sworn in as a (crooked) district attorney's special investigator) Setting & time: An unnamed American city, contemporary Story: Gambler Ned Beaumont is the right-hand man of crooked politician and crime boss Paul Madvig. The latter is supporting a senator for re-election and plans to marry his daughter. Then the senator’s son is murdered and people start getting mysterious letters that implicate Madvig in the murder, and Beaumont, who considers Madvig to be his friend, starts investigating the case as a gang war is brewing. Review: This is one excellent tour de force of a thriller. Red herrings, twists, crossings and double-crossings – this story has them all, even twists that are so twisted that some of them become double switchbacks. You never really get a complete grip on what is going on – the plot moves too fast and every character is too slippery and...

Year of publication: 1915 Series and no.: Richard Hannay # 1/5 Genre: Thriller Setting & time: England and Scotland, contemporary Richard Hannay, having grown up in Rhodesia and now living in London, is bored to distraction by his life in England and seriously considering going back to Africa when his neighbour seeks his help. The man, it turns out, is a spy or an associate of spies, and has important information that will be of no use until a certain date. Until then he must stay alive. This he fails to do and Hannay finds him murdered in his apartment and has to go on the run, under suspicion for the murder and chased by the police and spy gang who killed his neighbour. This is one of the early espionage thrillers in the modern mold, and as such, one can recognise many of the traits of the modern spy thriller in it. A review or discussion I read of this novel said that in modern retrospect Hannay comes across as somewhat of a cliché, so I took care to read the book ...

Year of publication: 1983 Series and no.: Ernest "Stick" Stickley, 2/2 Genre: Thriller, criminal story Setting & time: Florida, USA, 1980s Ex-convict Ernest “Stick” Stickley comes to Florida and ends up being nearly offered up as sacrifice when a major narcotics wholesaler and his supplier square up over a deal gone wrong. He isn’t too upset about his friend who got killed instead of him, but wants the money he was promised in exchange for delivering a deadly package, and a guarantee that the bad guys will stop trying to kill him. Can you say “Gary Stu”? I can, and his real name is Ernest Stickley, Stick to his friends. Stick is too perfect: extremely attractive to women (2 1/2 in one night...), cool under fire, always knows how to handle any situation, smart, and lucky when it comes to things like being in the right place at the right time. In fact, there seems to be no end to his abilities: near the end it wouldn’t have surprised me if he has suddenly exhibi...

Year of publication: 1952 Series and no.: Albert Campion # 14 Genre: Mystery/thriller Type of mystery: Murder, hidden treasure Type of investigator: Police and amateur Setting & time: London, contemporary Story: A young woman begins to receive photographs in the mail that appear to be of her husband, who went missing and was presumed dead during World War II. A lot is at stake in finding out the truth, as she is about to remarry. Then an escaped convict starts killing people, and it turns out that the two cases are connected, and Albert Campion and his friend, inspector Charles Luke, have a difficult case on their hands. Review: This is an intricate and tightly woven thriller plot, featuring Allingham’s series detective more in an advisory capacity than as an actual solver of the mystery, giving the police a more active role in the solving of the case. The criminal is a terrifyingly realistic piece of work, a psychopath who will let nothing and no-one stand in ...

Genre: Mystery Year of publication: 1934 No. in series: 10 Series detective: Lord Peter Wimsey Type of mystery: Murder, theft Type of investigator: Amateur Setting & time: The Fens, England; contemporary An accident strands Wimsey and Bunter for several days in a small Fenland village on New Year’s Eve. Several months later, when an unidentified body is found in a grave originally dug just after the new year, the parson asks Wimsey to come and investigate, which he does with his usual insight and tenacity. This is another excellent mystery by Sayers, a well-written and dense puzzle plot. The plot features something that can be either a plus or a minus point, namely a gimmick few people know much about, in this case change-ringing . The (thankfully short) passages on change-ringing read like Chinese to me, and probably to most people, but other than this is an easy read, too easy perhaps, because I figured out just about the whole plot development way ahead of Wims...

Alternative title: The Mask of Dimitrios Genre: Thriller Year of publication: 1939 Type of mystery: Murder, fraud, espionage Type of investigator: Amateur Setting & time: Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, France, the years between the World Wars Story: By chance, mystery writer Charles Latimer comes across information about a master criminal, Dimitrios, and decides, out of curiosity, to trace the man’s career. Review: This is well-written and Dimitrios’s ‘career profile’ is realistic but it’s oh, so bloody boring and predictable that it took me 4 months to finish because I kept falling asleep reading it. I can only conclude that it made it onto these lists because it was undeniably ground-breaking in its time. Rating: 2 stars Books left in challenge: 78 Place on the list(s): CWA # 24; MWA # 17 Awards: Booker Prize, 1988

There is no going past that point. All the roads are barricaded and all the bridges are blown. The fields are mined and the artillery has every sector zeroed in. This is a good extended metaphor and an eloquent way of belabouring the point, which is then spoiled by a truce shortly afterwards. Can you guess what the metaphor refers to? Year of publication: 1974 Series and no. : Travis McGee # 16 Genre: Mystery/thriller Type of mystery: Murder Type of investigator: Amateur, crime magnet Setting & time: Florida, USA, contemporary Travis McGee gets a visit from Carrie, an old friend, who asks him to store nearly 100 thousand dollars (in cash) for her or, if she doesn’t return within a given time, get the money to her younger sister. Carrie is killed, seemingly in a traffic accident, but McGee senses foul play and he decides he owes it to her to investigate her death. This leads him and his friend Meyer into the company of all kinds of people, some suspicious and some n...

Year of publication: 1970 Genre: Speculative fiction, sci-fi, thriller Type of investigator: Amateur, time traveller Setting & time: New York, USA; 1882 and 1969 Illustrator Simon Morley is recruited to take part in a top-secret project to travel back in time. Once he is back in the 19th century, he is only supposed to observe and not meddle in anything, but when he discovers that a young woman he meets in the past and cares for has become entangled with a dangerous man, he knows he has to do something. That something leads them to become involved in a horrific event that puts them both in mortal danger. I suppose that technically Time and Again is science fiction, although giving it that classification might give readers the idea that it’s full of science, aliens and strange technology. Nothing could be further from the truth. There is, for example, no time machine, the time travel being achieved by self-hypnosis, although only after extensive training that includes ac...

Year of publication: 1942 Series and no.: Detective Inspector Mallett #4 Genre: Mystery Type of mystery: Threats, murder Type of investigator: Police Setting & time: England, 1939-1940 A slightly drunk High Court judge hits a man with his car and thus starts a series of events that end in murder. As a mystery this story should satisfy any reader who enjoys legal mysteries. It is full of twists and red herrings and it's a challenge to keep up with the detective. The character descriptions and development are skilful and the interactions between the characters are complex enough to satisfy anyone’s demands for realism. There is a subtle, slightly mocking tone running through the whole narrative, so that one is constantly on the alert for a punch-line to crop up, but it never does. The writing is polished and knowing that Hare was personally acquainted with the legal environment the story depicts, having been a barrister and worked as a judge's marshal on the circuit cou...

When reading up on Millar, it was a fun little discovery to find that she was Ross MacDonald’s wife, which, unless I am mistaken, makes them the only married couple on the MWA list. Year of publication: 1955 Genre: Psychological thriller Setting & time: Los Angeles, USA, contemporary A rich young woman who lives alone is startled by a threatening voice on the phone and turns for help to the only person she trusts, her stockbroker. He begins to investigate, but before the voice’s owner is caught, she has spread mayhem and death all around her. The writing style of this story is plain and straightforward, but the plotting is excellent and the way the characters are drawn is quite good, even if they do run somewhat to stereotypes. The story gives a believable description of a woman who is spiralling into madness, her obsessions and how they make her lose control. The plot twists are unpredictable and the ending a shocker, although in retrospective there were subtle clues hidden in ...

Year of publication: 1983 Series and no.: Dalziel and Pascoe, #7 Genre: Police procedural Type of mystery: Murder (maybe) Type of investigator: Police Setting & time: Yorkshire, northern England; contemporary When the managing director of a local company tells Dalziel that he suspects one of his underlings at the company of murder, he thinks there is little in it, but sets Pascoe on the case nonetheless before leaving for a seminar in London. Pascoe starts sniffing around and finds an unusual number of deaths that have come in very handy for the subject of the investigation. Meanwhile, a new addition to the police force is proving to have good policeman instincts, one of the detectives is having a personal crisis, Pascoe's wife has struck up a friendship with the suspect's wife, and Dalziel has renewed his acquaintance with the suspect's mother. Hill is very funny but never to the detriment of the narrative, and his style is very readable and rather literary. The ...

A good wordsmith can give a description of what a person looks like with a few well chosen words. In the instance below one sentence was enough not just to make me see a specific physical type in my mind's eye, but also to make me laugh, not the least because who I saw in my head was basically a younger Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. She was a good-looking woman in that rather toothy English middle-class way which lasts while firm young flesh and rangily athletic movement divert the eye from the basic equininity of the total bone structure.

I must admit up front that I have a soft spot for Josephine Tey, so you may expect some prejudice in the review ;-) Year of publication: 1949 Genre: Mystery Type of mystery: Kidnapping Type of investigator: Lawyer Setting & time: England, contemporary A teenage girl accuses two women of having kidnapped her and held her against her will for a month. The case seems to be solid, but solicitor Robert Blair, retained by the accused to speak for them, is convinced of the innocence of his clients and sets out to prove it. This is the second Tey novel I read that effectively breaks one of S.S. Van Dine's detective story writing rules , and I admire her for making it so readable, because it is rule no. 7 that is broken: There shall be but one crime, and that crime is murder (my rephrasing). It is difficult to sustain reader interest in a mystery without a corpse for nearly 300 pages, but Tey not only pulls it off, she does it so well that I could hardly put the book down. It is w...

(The challenge really should be called the best crime a books challenge, since the American list also features thrillers, but it’s too late to change it now). I loved thrillers when I was a teenager, and read everything I could get my hands on by the likes of Alistair MacLean, Desmond Bagley and Ken Follett. Since then, the thrillers I have read have mostly also been mysteries, caper stories or police procedurals, and it wouldn’t be stretching it too far to say that this one is a caper story – albeit a deadly serious one that deals with treason. Year of publication: 1984 Series and no.: Jack Ryan, #1. Genre: Thriller, military. Type of hero: CIA man. Setting & time: USA, the Soviet Union and the Atlantic ocean, contemporary. A Soviet submarine captain and his officers steal the Red October, a nuclear submarine, and sail it towards the USA with the intention of defecting and handing the USSR's most advanced nuclear missile submarine to the Americans. CIA analyst Jack Ryan i...

In keeping with my India-oriented reading I chose a Top Mystery that takes place in that country, not long before the end of the Raj when Maharajahs still had some power (even if it was dependent on British support). Year of publication: 1980 Genre: Mystery, cozy Type of mystery: Murder Type of investigator: Police officer Setting & time: The fictitious state of Bhopore, India; 1930. Story: The immensely rich Maharajah of Bhopore is murdered and several people had the means, motive and opportunity (or at least two out of the three), to have done it. Due to an impending visit by the Viceroy of India, the Resident Adviser calls in District Superintendent of Police, Mr. Howard, and presses him to solve the case quickly, because if the murderer turns out later to be the heir to the throne, it isn’t good for the Viceroy to have met him. Howard sets out to methodically investigate the case, and in a reconstruction at the end makes some interesting and startling revelations. Review:...

I suddenly realised that I had not yet posted my review of Deighton’s trilogy, so here it is: While I listed these books separately on my TBR list, the trilogy is listed as one book in the CWA list, so I will be reviewing them all together. Each book gets a brief synopsis and a very short review, and then I will review the common points together. I will try not to drop serious spoilers in the synopses, so they will necessarily be rather telegraphic, but if you have not yet read these books you probably should avoid this review anyway. Published: 1983-5. Genre: Espionage thriller. Type of investigator: MI6 agent. Title: Berlin Game: Setting & time: London and Berlin, contemporary. Story: Agent Bernard Samson has been doing desk work for 5 years but his superiors in MI6 want him to go out back in the field to convince a frightened spy in East Germany to stay in place for a while longer. The man is convinced that Stasi or the KGB are about to discover his identity, and the only ...