IT'S A CRIME! (OR A MYSTERY...)

Books for Christmas - David Isaak

David Isaak, author of the thriller Shock and Awe from Macmillan New Writing, which questions just who is waging the war on terror, heads east to a snowy St Petersburg with his festive pick:

"It’s been a great year for crime fiction—alas!  Picking a single new crime novel to hand out to friends is a wrenching assignment, but after much grinding of teeth, I have to settle on A Gentle Axe by RN Morris. The novel features Porfiry Petrovich, the calmly relentless investigator from Crime and Punishment, teasing apart a bizarre crime in 1860s St. Petersburg. Borrowing a memorable character from Dostoevsky is an audacious act, but Morris does it with unhesitating skill. Details of the workings of the Russian justice system are slipped in without smelling of research, and the atmosphere of 19^th-century St. Petersburg is rendered vividly yet easily, providing as neat a time machine as any reader could demand.

Despite the risks in treading hallowed literary ground, lovers of Dostoevsky (including myself) have generally responded to Morris’ novel with pleasure rather than outrage. A Gentle Axe is a perfect gift because it works equally well on three different levels—as a detective story, as an historical novel, and as an affectionate literary homage. Any reader is bound to succumb to at least one of those charms, and most will enjoy all three."

A death that is such a loss....

I thank everyone for their comments; in hope and in willing.  I appreciate every thought.

Alas, my beloved mother died on 26/11, very suddenly.

I will write more later, but for now I need peace in all its forms to come to terms with my loss.

Best to all,

Rhian

Books for Christmas - Zoë Sharp

Zoe Sharp, author of the Charlie Fox series, whose latest novel Second Shot is out now, could not settle for less than five to stuff that stocking...

"The best books I've read this year have been, in no particular order:

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Bad Luck and Trouble - Lee Child

Cross - Ken Bruen

All Mortal Flesh - Julia Spencer-Fleming

The Sleeping Doll - Jeffrey Deaver

Now & Then - Robert B Parker

All these writers have tremendous voices, distinct and individual. It's that, as much as the plots and characters, that keep me coming back to their work, time and again."

Books for Christmas - Pauline Rowson

Fresh from her longlisting at World Book Day - Spread the Word for her marine mystery thriller In Cold Daylight, Pauline Rowson makes a return to the classics with her selection:

"As anyone who reads my blog knows I am a great fan of the Golden Age of Crime novels so I thought I’d choose for Christmas one that I only discovered this year. First published in 1931 this Penguin Red Classic was reissued in 2006 and despite the progress of the years Simenon still weaves his magic, for me at least.  He has that unique ability to make my spine tingle from the opening sentence and by the end of the first paragraph I’m hooked.   He sets a scene so effortlessly that the reader is immediately transported to the location. Simenon’s sentences are razor sharp, he makes every word count and his descriptions are so moulded into the narrative that you don’t notice them you feel them.  In The Yellow Dog, a local wine merchant is found dead in the coastal town of Concarneau.   Maigret is sent to investigate.  One by one prominent citizens are attacked. The media create fear, panic and suspicion.  But what links the victims?  And why is there a strange yellow dog lurking everywhere Maigret turns? At only 130 pages long, this atmospheric puzzle is an entertaining and appropriate antidote to dumbed down TV, fractious kids and warring families. It will help you to escape to another world not just at Christmas, but at any time throughout the year."

You can read more about In Cold Daylight at World Book Day here.

Books for Christmas - Martin Edwards

Established UK crime author Martin Edwards has recently started an interesting blog entitled "Do you write under your own name?" and is the subject of a recent buzz surrounding his novel The Cipher Garden.  Here's his Christmas pick for 2007:

"In 2007 I caught up with a few hard-to-find older books, notably THE PRISONER and WHO WAS CLAIRE JALLU?, both by the French duo Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac, as well as an extraordinary, and very enjoyable, new literary novel, THE AMNESIAC by Sam Taylor, who plays games with the detective genre and gets away with it through sheer exuberance. For those with a taste for Florida noir, CRUEL POETRY by Vicky Hendricks is a fast-paced erotic thriller, while in a very different vein, EVEN MURDERERS TAKE HOLIDAYS, a posthumous collection from Michael Gilbert, would appeal to any lover of the traditional, well-crafted short story. But the book which, for me, surpassed all others in sheer entertainment value was THE SECRET HANGMAN by Peter Lovesey. This is the latest novel featuring his Bath-based detective Peter Diamond, and I'm surprised it hasn't attracted more attention. It is a serial murder story which boasts the most cleverly conceived - and concealed - murder motive I've come across in years. Lovesey is never less than highly readable, and here he is on the very top of his form. When a detective series has been running for more than a decade, it's easy to fall into the trap of formula. But Lovesey, at the age of 70, is writing with as much freshness and verve as ever, and although he made his name with historical mysteries, nobody can now doubt his equal mastery of the contemporary crime novel. As a relaxing Christmas-time read, this book would be hard to beat."

Books for Christmas - R. N. (Roger) Morris

Now it's time for R. N. (Roger) Morris, author of Porfiry Petrovich's next adventure in A Gentle Axe to select his Christmas pick and here it is:

"Like many others, I was impressed by Peter Temple’s The Broken Shore. The voice is both brutal and lyrical and he writes with a terse precision that at times almost incapacitated me with envy. I also liked the poodles and the distinctly Australian swearin.

But ideally a great Christmas book would be a great read that also happens to be set at Christmas. Brian McGilloway’s Borderlands fulfils both criteria splendidly. There’s an extra dimension of seasonal pleasure that comes from realising that however bad your own yuletide mishaps – fairy-lights not working, turkey a bit burnt on one side – they don’t come close to the unstoppable hell on wheels that is Garda Inspector Benedict Devlin’s Christmas.

It doesn’t surprise me that McGilloway is a fan of James Lee Burke (whose Pegasus Descending provided another highlight of my crime-reading year). McGilloway’s Devlin, like Burke’s Robicheaux, is given a convincing home life, which far from detracting from the twists and excitement of the murder case, adds a thematic counterpoint, as well as a psychological and moral point. In McGilloway’s concern for the domestic we understand what drives Devlin to pit himself against the forces of chaos beyond his front door."

[The link relates to the HB, but the book picture relates to the PB that is due out in April 2008.  As this is a Christmas Books post, I suggest you might prefer to follow the HB link, and a rather delightful production from Macmillan New Writing it is too...]

Books for Christmas - L C Tyler

To keep everyone laughing this Christmas, including the elves as they pack, here's the selection of L C Tyler, author of The Herring Seller's Apprentice:

'My taste is for the unusual and quirky rather than straight detective fiction, and my crime reading list for the year included Colin Watson's Bump in the Night (sadly not that easy to find), Kate Atkinson's Case Histories and Andrea Camilleri's Excursion to Tindari. Honourable mention must also go to Brian McGilloway's Borderlands - a brilliant debut in the best tradition of crime fiction.

But the winner is (roll of drums) Malcolm Pryce's Aberystwyth Mon Amour. Against a background of an absolutely fictitious Aberystwyth, Louie Knight investigates druid-inspired murder and mayhem. Its humour is dark. It is also one of the few detective stories with jokes in Welsh. On the subject of the phrase "chwarae teg" he comments: "It translated as 'fair play' and if you put one in your sentence there was nothing, no solecism, platitude or canyon-bridging leap of logic that you could not get away with". How very true. But, as usual for me, it is the understatements that I loved: "Two things struck me when I got back to the Office in Canticle Street: the light was flashing on the answerphone; and the office had been ransacked." Well, fair play, it made me laugh. Incidentally, he also wins the prize for the best author web-site.'

Current Posts

There may be a break in the "Books for Christmas" post series.  I hope not; but this may prove to be the case.  The reason is "family emergency".  If this happens, I apologise to all those who have interest in reading & commenting here. Ditto to those I've asked to contribute to the "Books for Christmas" series of posts.  The posts are currently prepared to run to 26/11 and if all goes well, I'll be pasting the others in this weekend, while at home, if I can.

My beloved mother is "critical" at the moment.  My definition & label, but I also appear to be ahead of the game when it comes to an NHS diagnosis, should they eventually manage to listen.

"To lose one parent, Mr Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness."

I am gunning to avoid the reality of this quote and I hope my mother is too; having lost my father in July of this year.  My mother has now found her old feisty self, so we both fight on.  All I hope for is that we come to a positive conclusion for all.

Books for Christmas 2007

Apologies to all who have contributed to this series; or are about to contribute to this series of posts; or are enjoying the reading of these posts.  I'm sorry, but I can't guarantee their continuation beyond this date.  I will try, but "try" is all I can muster at the moment.  My mother is seriously ill in hospital.  I hope that my mother will make it.  She is a fighter and is fighting, God bless her.  Thank you.

Books for Christmas - Chris Ewan

Providing an antidote to too much festive cheer from the relatives this Christmas, here we have the selection of Chris Ewan, author of The Good Thief's Guide to Amsterdam:

"I was delighted when Allan Guthrie's Two-Way Split won the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award this summer and even more pleased to be able to read about the further exploits of his troubled anti-hero Pearce in the excellent Hard Man.

Set once again in a brutally stark Edinburgh, Hard Man finds Pearce caught up in the twisted face-off between calculating sociopath Wallace and the Hicksville-esque Baxter family. Unwittingly coerced into protecting teenage mother-to-be May Baxter, and determined to avenge his dinky, three-legged pooch Hilda, Pearce embarks on a relentless, bloody quest into the very darkest of dark spaces.

Penning a crime novel with this much velocity and action is incredibly tough but Guthrie pulls it off with absolute assurance. Hard Man is a book of savage extremes – boisterous, violent, unflinching, and utterly brilliant.

Plus, if your relatives happen to be driving you nuts with too much festive cheer, you really couldn’t ask for a better antidote …"