Two-Sentence Tuesday

- Two-Sentence Tuesday is hosted by Women of Mystery -

What am I reading this week? Well, yesterday I put down a Swedish crime novel after 48 pages. I have just about had enough of spoiled, Swedish sailors for some time.

Why can´t I remember which debuts were good and which ones were less than overwhelming? If I had remembered my own review of this writer´s debut, I´d hardly have dragged this one home from the library. I always remember the brilliant ones, though.

Instead I picked up Peter Lovesey´s Diamond Dust. My expectations to this one are not sky high either, but I want to read it for the What´s in a Name challenge. What´s wrong with Peter Lovesey, you may wonder. Nothing, as far as I know, it´s just that British Peters who write lots of books tend to blur for me (James, Robinson, Lovesey). But perhaps Lovesey´s books are lovely - I hope so.


And now for a glimpse of my latest fish... eh, flash  fiction:

A Summer Fling
 
Monday Mildred Kickinbottom put on a brand-new polyester blouse in a delicate lavender shade, but Arnold didn´t notice. He was focusing on identifying those tiny bones of his herring and spitting them out, quite loudly, to remind Mildred what he thought about her choice of dinner. 

Did not finish...

Once again, I have put down a book (or erased it, as it happens) without finishing it. I asked for an ARC of a book that sounded very promising, and I still think there was a lot of possibilities in the plot and the historical setting.

But I struggled for three days, and in the beginning I assumed I was just too tired to concentrate. Well, last night I figured out what it was that annoyed me. There was far too little police work. The inspector focused on one suspect almost from the beginning, and as far as I could see, his ´evidence´ was mainly hearsay and intution.

As I only read one third of the book, I have no idea whether the inspector was right or not, but that is just not the point. The story took place before these dna times, but even dear old Sherlock Holmes would have looked for footprints, witnesses and other kinds of solid evidence.

What makes you give up on a book? 

Are you willing to give it a chance later, e.g. if you see glowing reviews of it?
(I sometimes pick up a book again, but as I happened to remove this one completely from my Kindle, I´d better not regret my first judgement).
.

Scott Nicholson, The Red Church (2002)

This thriller-cum-ghost story is the American writer´s first novel, a stand-alone. It is set in a rural community in the Appalachian Mountains. 

Whenever thirteen-year-old Ronnie Day walks home from school, he does his best not to see the red church. His life is filled with trouble; his Baptist father has left their home because the mother has joined a weird cult, his younger brother Tim is too stupid to look after himself and then people begin to die mysteriously.

I bought the Kindle edition of this book myself out of sheer curiosity. Even though I liked the environment and the uncanny atmosphere, I gave up finishing the novel after the first handful of chapters. I don´t mind superstition, legends or haunted bell towers in an otherwise appealing story, but paranormal solutions to crime and spritual wars between Baptists and cult member are not really my thing.

Remember: this was just my opinion – if you like the paranormal, you may love this story.

July Reviews

- a bit belatedly, but we had a wonderful day yesterday with some old friends (I will show you some evidence the next many Thursdays).

Readingwise, July has been a poor month with only six reviews, and one book I gave up on.

The one I did not finish was Sarah Waters, Night Watch. Hardly her fault as the characters and language are really fine, and I am sure I would have found a great story about the past of the characters if I had persevered. After 100 pages I put it away, however, because I just found it more interesting to work on my own little mystery.

Writingwise, July has been fantastic. I have finished editing a Danish novel and planned a new novel, written down a two-page plot plus descriptions of all the main characters and the setting. Besides, I have written eighteen thousand words on my English project, “The Cosy Knave”.

Kate Mosse, Sepulchre (2009)

Jeg kan godt lide at læse en historisk krimi nu og da, og hvis forfatteren kan sit kram, gør det ikke noget, at den er på over 700 sider. Men efter ca 50 sider lagde jeg Sepulchre til side, uden egentlig at være nået så langt, at jeg er i stand til at vurdere plottet.

Sproget er simpelthen for romantisk og svulstigt for mig. Jeg har en fornemmelse af at bevæge mig rundt mellem bølgende barme, i det mindste metaforisk.

Her en beskrivelse af heltinden, Léonie:

”Men nu blussede hendes alabasterkinder. Tykke proptrækkerkrøller af kobberfarvet hår havde løsnet sig fra hendes kamme og vældede ned over de nøgne skuldre. Hendes blændende grønne øjne, der var indrammet af lange, kastanjebrune vipper, glødede af vrede og dristighed.”

Hm. Jeg går muligvis glip af en storslået historie, men blussende alabasterkinder? Nej, det er vist ikke mig, der er målgruppe for denne biblioteksbog.

Kate Mosse, Sepulchre (2007).
I do enjoy a historic crime novel once in a while, and if the author knows her stuff, I don´t mind at all ploughing my way through more than 700 pages. But after around fifty pages I put Sepulchre down without even getting so far that I am able to judge the plot.

The language (the Danish translation) is simply too romantic and high-flown for me. I feel I am navigating among heaving bosoms, at least metaphorically speaking.

Here a quotation about the heroine, Léonie:

“Now, her alabaster cheeks were flushed. Thick ringlets of copper hair had come loose from her combs and tumbled down over bare shoulders. Her dazzling green eyes, framed by long auburn lashes, flashed with anger, and boldness.”

I may miss out on something, but flushing alabaster cheeks? Well, at least this quotation (from Amazon.com) has convinced me that the original language is not my taste either.

I borrowed it from the library.

Ævar Örn Josepsson, Uden synd (2008)

Dette er den islandske forfatters anden krimi, og den foregår i Reykjavik.

Jeg har virkelig givet Jósepssons bog en chance. Jeg har læst de første 100 sider, men nej, jeg tror stadig ikke på, at en halv-forsumpet alkoholiker får lov at sidde død i sin lejlighed i over et år. Manden har to voksne børn, en nabo som kigger ind af og til (for at nasse sig til sprut), og er aktiv som en slags frivillig elektriker i en kristen sekt. Nogen ville rent bogstaveligt have lugtet sig frem til liget efter nogle dage og uger. Desuden har hans fjernsyn kørt uafbrudt, og lyset har været tændt.

Hvem har betalt lys, varme og husleje? Hvem har hævet hans pension? Og så videre.

Men hvis personerne og plottet fængede, så havde jeg sikkert gladelig slugt den, selv om jeg aldrig har troet på denne præmis. Det gør de bare ikke. Medlemmerne af sekten er selvoptagne og vamle, politiet er vrantne, og mordet på den irriterende, drikkende, prækende Ólafur interesser mig ikke rigtigt. Det er bare for nemt at slå sådan en person ihjel, som ingen gør sig den ulejlighed at savne.

Som sidste udvej har jeg endda forsøgt at læse de sidste sider. Jeg skal nok lade være at røbe noget – lige bortset fra, at de var mere forvirrende end fængende.

Ævar Örn Jósepsson, Without Sin.
The works of this Icelandic author have not been translated into English. “Without Sin” is his second crime story.

I have really given this book a fair chance. I have read the first one hundred pages, but no, I still don´t believe that a half-seedy alcoholic could lie dead in his Reykjavik flat for more than a year. The victim has two adult children, a neighbour who visits him occasionally (to scrounge booze), and he does voluntary work for a Christian sect. Someone would certainly have ´smelled the rat´ after some days or weeks. Besides his TV and his light have been on all that time.

Who has paid for the light, heating, rent? Who has withdrawn his pension? Etc.

But if the characters and the plot were engaging, I would probably have read on, despite my incredibility. But they aren´t. The members of the sect are self-centred and repellent, the policemen are grumpy, and the murder of annoying, drinking, preaching Ólafur does not really interest me. It is too easy to kill someone off that no one is going to miss anyway.

As a last resort I even tried to read the last pages. I won´t spoil anything – apart from their leaving me more confused than thrilled.

To Read - or Not to Read?

I am sure all book bloggers know the dilemma: you are reading a book that doesn´t really catch your interest. Should you read on, blog about it – or just put it down and pick another one from the shelf?

The other day I noticed an interesting post: a new and fresh argument explaining why you shouldn´t waste your time. See “Do the Book Math”.

I read the post and decided that at least my life was too short for the Dutch writer Saskia Noort´s New Neighbours (not translated into English yet, but it probably will be).

The first pages seemed quite promising – a little boy found all alone in a cottage among several bodies - and I got to page one hundred, but the story just seems more and more unpleasant. Too nasty, too much spite and sex, too predictable … well, no need to waste more time on a non-review, is there.


At læse – eller ikke læse.
Alle bogbloggere kender garanteret dilemmaet: man er begyndt at læse en bog, som ikke rigtigt fænger. Skal man læse videre, anmelde den på bloggen – eller bare lægge den til side og snuppe en ny på hylden?

I går opdagede jeg et interessant blogindlæg: et nyt og friskt argument for ikke at spilde sin tid. Se ”Do the Book Math.”

Jeg læste indlægget og bestemte, at mit liv i hvert fald var for kort til hollænderen Saskia Noorts Nye naboer (2007).

De første sider virkede ellers lovende – en lille dreng, som blev fundet helt alene i en hytte sammen med tre-fire lig – og jeg nåede til side hundrede, men historien forekom mig bare mere og mere ubehagelig. For ulækker, for forudsigelig, for meget nag og sex, … nå ja, hvorfor spilde mere tid på en ikke-anmeldelse.

En dansk anmeldelse (ikke overvældende positiv) kan findes på Litteratursiden.