Her Enemy by Leena Lehtolainen: Book Beginning

 

Her Enemy by Leena Lehtolainen, a Maria Kallio Mystery #2, May 2013, AmazonCrossing

Genre: crime fiction set in Finland

Source: Kindle Unlimited

Detective Maria Kallio becomes a legal counselor but finds herself solving a crime as if she were still with the police force. A relative of her new boyfriend is found murdered and Kallio is motivated to investigate high society in the town of Espoo, Finland.

Book beginning:

The cherry trees were the first thing I saw when I woke up. The spring had been warm and now the trees were blossoming with fluffy, fragrant bunches of flowers. Antti always wanted to sleep with the curtains open so we could see the curled branches against the night sky. It made it hard for me to sleep, but I had gradually gotten used to it.  

Page 56:  

"Everyone is certainly dressed to the nines," I stuttered to her, and then smiled at a transsexual dressed in the guise of a 1960s housewife who danced past. People had strange fantasies - there really were people who wanted that old fashioned life. 

Would you read on?

The Friday 56. Grab a book, turn to page 56 or 56% of your eReader. Find any sentence that grabs you. Post it, and add your URL post in Linky at Freda's Voice.
Also visit Book Beginning at Rose City Reader.

Sunday Post: Currently Reading

My current reads:

Malice by 4th in the Keigo Higashino
First published September 1996
Genre: crime fiction, police procedural, 4th in the Inspector K. Kaga series
Source: ebook, library

Written by the author of The Devotion of Suspect X and Salvation of a Saint, Malice has been translated and reprinted many times in English by different publishers in 2014.

Improvement by Joan Silber
Published November 14, 2017 by Counterpoint LLC
Genre: literary fiction, contemporary fiction
Source: library book

I am caught up in the intriguing, interlocking stories of differing characters whose lives intersect, if only on the periphery, moving from one situation into what is arguably some improvement.

What books will you be reading this week?
Memes:  
The Sunday Post  hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer,
It's Monday, What Are You Reading? by Book Date.

Sunday Salon: Mockingbird by Charles J. Shields

Welcome to the Sunday Salon where bloggers share their reading each week. Visit The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer.
Also visit Mailbox Monday and It's Monday, What Are You Reading? hosted by Book Date. 

They are still forecasting a bit of frost and a slow moving cold spell, in the middle of May! Guess that's why they don't recommend planting annuals till after Memorial Day, May 30. We have had to take out and bring in our potted plants at night, depending on the temps.

A lovely new book I am reading right now:

Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee: from Scout to Go Set a Watchman by Charles J. Shields, published April 26, 2016 by Henry Holt & Co. An extensively revised and updated edition of the bestselling biography of Harper Lee, reframed from the perspective of the recent publication of Go Set a Watchman. 

Thr first four British crime novels featuring Detective Helen Grace, by M. J.Arlidge that I'm eager to get into, starting with #1. Hope they are not too noir.  

A surprise win:

The Wangs vs the World by Jade Chang, to be released October 4, 2016 by HarperAvenue. 

What's on your reading desk this week? 

Book Beginning: Trail of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz

The Friday 56. Grab a book, turn to page 56 or 56% of your eReader. Find any sentence that grabs you. Post it, and add your URL post in Linky at Freda's Voice.
Also visit Book Beginning at Rose City Reader.

Trail of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz, published 2012 by Simon and Schuster 
The fifth installment in the bestselling series featuring the private investigator Izzy Spellman and her quirky family of sleuths. (publisher)

Brought up this book from the basement to read after finishing Lutz's other books, The Passenger, and How To Start a Fire. 

Book beginning, first chapter:

I do my job. I watch. I snap pictures and record video. I document subjects' activities through a filter of twenty years of disassociation. I don't judge. I don't manipulate the evidence. I simply report my findings to the client. The client can use the information however they see fit. That's the line I feed them. But the truth is always a murkier business.

The opening paragraph of this book intrigued me. It's a mantra for a PI and for other gatherers of info like journalists, the media. How much objectivity can/do they have, in reality? Eager to get into this crime novel, to see how the PI's objectivity holds out. 

Page 56:
  "How long are you going to play this game?" he asked.

The Stone Wife by Peter Lovesey

 First Chapter, First Paragraph is hosted by Bibliophile By the Sea. 

The Stone Wife

The Stone Wife (Peter Diamond #14) by Peter Lovesey
To be published September 16, 2014; Soho Crime
Genre: crime fiction, police procedural

First chapter, first paragraph:"Will somebody start me at five hundred?"
A card with a number was raised near the front.
Thank you. Five-fifty. Six hundred. Six-fifty. Seven. Seven-fifty at the back. Eight."
The bidding was keen by West Country standards. Morton's auction house in Bath was used to lots being knocked down almost at once. This had a sense of energy even though the faces were giving nothing away. (from an advance uncopyedited edition; final copy may differ)

Book description: At a Bath auction house, a large slab of carved stone is up for sale, but  three masked robbers shoot and kill the highest bidder, a professor who has recognized the female figure carved in the stone as Chaucer’s Wife of Bath. The masked would-be thieves flee, leaving the stone behind.  Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond and his team are assigned to investigate, and the stone is moved into Diamond’s office so he can research its origins. The carving causes such difficulties that he starts to think it has jinxed him. (publisher)

Based on the opening paragraph and the book description, would you keep reading? 

Book Review: Maxwell Street Blues by Marc Krulewitch

Maxwell Street Blues by Marc Krulewitch, published August 5, 2014; Alibi
Genre: crime fiction

Book description:
Who: Jules Landau, a college man turned private eye on the Windy City of Chicago's mean streets.

Chicago runs in Jules Landau’s veins. So does the blood of crooks. Now Jules is going legit as a private eye, stalking bail jumpers and cheating spouses—until he gets his first big case. Unfortunately, the client is his ex-con father, and the job is finding the killer of a man whom Jules loved like family.

What: Why did someone put two bullets in the head of gentle bookkeeper Charles Snook? Jules is determined to find out, even if the search takes him to perilous places he never wanted to go. Snooky, as he was affectionately known, had a knack for turning dirty dollars clean, with clients ranging from humble shop owners to sharp-dressed mobsters.

How: As Jules retraces Snooky’s last days, he crosses paths with a way-too-eager detective, a gorgeous and perplexing tattoo artist, a silver-haired university administrator with a kinky side, and a crusading journalist. Exposing one dirty secret after another, the PI is on a dangerous learning curve. And, at the top of that curve, a killer readies to strike again.

My comments: 
This is a hard-boiled detective/PI novel of the old school style. A new PI Jules tries to find out who killed his father's old friend Snooky, the bookkeeper for the mob, so to speak, and hides Snooky's sought after notebook while he investigates. The notebook would reveal names and corruption in all the usual places - in politics, on the streets, in the police force, and even among the university elite whose reputations should have been clean.

If you like hardboiled crime fiction and the mean streets of Chicago, this is a book to pick up. Not extraordinary in any sense, the author does however seems to be following in the footsteps of the classic writers of the genre and is a writer to keep an eye on.

Visit TLC Book Tours for more reviews.

About the author: Marc Krulewitch’s Jules Landau mysteries take place in Chicago, where he was born and where his family has lived for generations. He now resides in Colorado.

Thanks to TLC Book Tours and the publisher for a review e-copy of this book. 

COLD STORAGE ALASKA by John Straley

Friday 56 Rules:

 *Grab a book, any book. *Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader  *Find any sentence, (or few, just don't spoil it) that grabs you. *Post it. *Add your (url) post in Linky at Freda's Voice Also Book Beginnings by Rose City Reader.

Cold Storage Alaska

I have loved all of John Straley's crime books, his prose often like poetry, his characters unusual and memorable; and I have no reason to think Cold Storage Alaska is any different. The setting is Alaska, a land of starkness, in people and place.

page 56:
"I'm sorry," Jake Shoemaker simpered in an uncommonly polite voice. "I know this must be inconvenient for you." Oscar sat on the couch, his hands tied behind his back. "I mean it's more than just inconvenient; this is frightening, I'm sure."

Book beginning:
Anabelle had put the tea kettle on just moments ago. Now it was whistling, yet she didn't get up to attend to it. Recently the past had become a hallucination constantly intruding into the present moment, so she wasn't certain what really needed doing. 

Book description:

"An offbeat, often hilarious crime novel set in the sleepy Alaskan town of Cold Storage from the Shamus Award winning author of the Cecil Younger series. 
Cold Storage, Alaska, is a remote fishing outpost where salmonberries sparkle in the morning frost and where you just might catch a King Salmon if you’re zen enough to wait for it. Settled in 1935 by Norse fishermen who liked to skinny dip in its natural hot springs, the town enjoyed prosperity at the height of the frozen fish boom. But now the cold storage plant is all but abandoned and the town is withering.

Clive “The Milkman” McCahon returns to his tiny Alaska hometown after a seven-year jail stint for dealing coke. He has a lot to make up to his younger brother, Miles, who has dutifully been taking care of their ailing mother. But Clive doesn’t realize the trouble he’s bringing home. His vengeful old business partner is hot on his heels, a stick-in-the-mud State Trooper is dying to bust Clive for narcotics, and, to complicate everything, Clive might be going insane—lately, he’s been hearing animals talking to him. Will his arrival in Cold Storage be a breath of fresh air for the sleepy, depopulated town? Or will Clive’s arrival turn the whole place upside down." (goodreads)

 What do you think? Is this a book you'd keep reading?
Thanks to Soho Crime for a review/feature copy of this book.

Book Review: The Bracelet by Roberta Gately

Title: The Bracelet: A Novel by Roberta Gately
Publication date: November 6, 2012; Gallery Books paperback
Genre: fiction set in Pakistan

In Geneva, Switzerland, Abby Monroe is being prepped for her work with the UN in Peshawar, Pakistan as a nurse. During an early morning run, she sees a woman fall to her death from a hotel balcony, and doesn't know if she has witnessed a murder, a suicide, or an accident. She notices an unusual and elaborate bracelet made of precious stones on the dead woman's wrist. When a man shouts at her from the balcony and rushes down to confront her, Abby fearfully hides from him and hurries away.

In Peshawar, Abby once again sees the unusual bracelet. Abby is puzzled by this and feels she is being observed and followed. She tries to see if she can recognize the man from the balcony.

During her work as a UN nurse, Abby also meets New York Times reporter Nick Sinclair, and they both try to discover who is behind a far reaching human trafficking ring that preys on women and girls from the villages. This provides further drama and explosive action in the novel.

My comments: I enjoyed the suspenseful plot surrounding the unusual bracelet. It was a good story and an excellent vehicle for the novel to describe human trafficking of women and girls taken or lured from their villages and then forced to work under demeaning conditions. The descriptions of women shelters and camps are realistic, even more convincing when I learned the author was a nurse and humanitarian aid worker in several war zones, from Afghanistan to Africa.
I recommend this novel on several levels.

Roberta Gately is also the author of Lipstick in Afghanistan.

Thanks to Gallery Books for an ARC of this book.

Book Review: The Thief by Fuminori Nakamura

Title: The Thief by Fuminori Nakamura, translated from the Japanese by Satoko Izumo and Stephen Coates
Published March 20, 2012; Soho Crime
Source: library

I was pleasantly surprised by this award winning novel by the young Japanese writer Fuminori Nakamura. He won Japan's largest prize, the 2009 Oe Prize, for this book and I can see why.

Not nearly as noir as I was expecting, the book shows the flaws and the humanity of this young man, a Tokyo pickpocket so skilled that he can unbutton a man's coat, take a wallet from the inside pocket, and rebutton the coat without being noticed or caught. Working in tandem with two others, he can even remove the cash and return the wallet to the unsuspecting victim's pocket in the flash of an eye.

The Thief targets only wealthy, well dressed Tokyo businessmen, as they walk along the street or ride on the subway. This is until he gets involved in more serious pickpocketing for gang members who have a political agenda. The noir ending I was expecting didn't happen, and there is hope for the Thief who risks his life to protect a young boy, a budding pickpocket, and put him on a path different from his own.

This was an easy read, only 211 pages. The dialogue and plot lines are both excellent.

Nakamura's first book, The Gun, has also won an award.

Visit Saturday Review of Books for a weekly collection of book reviews.

Book Teaser: Vengeance by Benjamin Black

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB; choose sentences at random from your current read. Identify the author and title for readers.

Title: Vengeance by Benjamin Black
Hardcover published August 7, 2012; Henry Holt
Audio CD: August 7, 2012, Macmillan Audio
Genre: crime novel
Source: publisher

Your father died of a gunshot wound," Hackett said. "It seems he fired the shot himself."
Jonas pulled a dismissive face. "I don't believe it," he said. (ch. 3)

About the book: A bizarre suicide leads to a scandal and then still more blood, as crime novelist Benjamin Black reveals a world where money and sex trump everything. The mysterious death of a successful Irish businessman engages the attention of Detective Inspector Hackett, who calls upon the services of his sometime partner Quirke, consultant pathologist at the Hospital of the Holy Family.

To listen to an audio clip of the Audiobook Vengeance, click HERE.

Best Crime Fiction Reads in 2011

This is a meme created by Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise, who is collecting your list of the best crime novels read in 2011.

I read cozies and thrillers and all the genres in between and am partial to some types of crime fiction as you can see by the books I've included in this list.

Here are some of the books (not including eBooks) I enjoyed reading in 2011. I liked all the ones that I reviewed and feel terrible about leaving some books off this list, but for the sake of having a shorter list, here goes... CLICK ON BOOK TITLES TO SEE MY REVIEWS.

The Perfect Suspect by Margaret Coel
Cat Sitter Among the Pigeons by Blaize Clement
Ink Flamingos by Karen E. Olsen
Tahoe Hijack by Todd Borg
The Dog Who Knew Too Much by Spencer Quinn
Betrayal of Trust; and The Most Dangerous Thing by J.A. Jance and Laura Lippman
Thick as Thieves by Peter Spiegelman
Endangered by Pamela Beason
Murder in Passy by Cara Black
The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson
Red Jade by Henry Chang
A Vine in the Blood by Leighton Gage
Spycatcher by Matthew Dunn
The Summoner by Layton Green
Mercy by Jussi Adler-Olsen (this is the European title of the book, which was printed under another name in the U.S.)

There are more, as evidenced by the fact that I keep adding to this list...

Book Review: Mercy by Jussi Adler-Olsen

Title: Mercy (The Keeper of Lost Causes)
Author: Jussi Adler-Olsen, translated by Lisa Hartford
Paperback: 512 pages
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd.
Genre: detective, crime fiction
Source: review copy from publisher
Objective rating: 5/5

About the book: Deputy detective superintendent Carl Morck of the Copenhagen Police, a detective with a good reputation, was nevertheless described by his coworkers as indolent, surly, and morose, a man who wanted to do things his own way and in his own time. Instead of demoting him, they decided to promote him and make head of his own section, Department Q, where he would be working on his own, with only an assistant for help.

Department Q was formed to handle cold cases, those deemed unsolvable yet important. Carl was given a new assistant, Assad, who seems to have no prior police experience. He turns out to be a gem in disguise, however, and helps Carl to get out of his chair and begin delving into the case of a former member of Parliament, Merete Lynggaard, missing for five years and presumed dead.  Merete is not dead, however, but imprisoned for five years in a box-like cell by unknown people, who leave her sometimes in perpetual darkness or perpetual light, without change of clothing, living for years in the most primitive conditions. She doesn't know who or what is behind her imprisonment or how long she will be allowed to live.

Carl begins to investigate with the help of Assad and his former contacts in government and the police.

My comments: A great police procedural with an unusual detective and an even more unusual side-kick in the resourceful and energetic Assad, who provides food, advice, information, and some comic relief to the serious situations Carl finds himself in. The plot was original, the main characters complex and realistic. There is pathos, humor, suspense mixed in this excellent thriller, which I enjoyed reading, almost all in one sitting. In other words, I didn't want to put it down.

About the author: Danish writer Jussi Adler-Olsen worked as a magazine editor and publisher before starting to write fiction. Mercy is the first of four novels in the Department of Q series. He was awarded the Glass Key Award for a crime novel by a Scandinavian author and has received several other awards in 2011.

Book Review: Dead Light District by Jill Edmondson

Title: Dead Light District: A Sasha Jackson Mystery
 by Jill Edmondson

Paperback, 224 pages
Published December 20th 2010 by Dundurn
Genre: mystery
Source: review copy provided by author

Comments: This mystery doesn't hesitate to show the underside of the great city of Toronto - the seedy side of this hugely cosmopolitan city. Private investigator Sasha Jackson is asked to find a missing woman, an illegal immigrant who works for a local madam. Sasha solves the mystery but not before encountering two murders and a good look at the convoluted workings of the underground.

More than a few times, I wanted to give Sasha and many of the characters in the book a good mouth washing with harsh soap. The language they use makes the book more realistic and fitting for the environment and circumstances, but the f--- words do fly! For this reason, I'd suggest the novel for adults only.

Goodreads book description: "As open-minded as she is, private investigator Sasha Jackson feels out of place when her latest case plunges her into the world of commercial sex. A classy madam has hired Sasha to find a missing Mexican hooker, which seems easy enough at first. However, everything becomes complicated when a nasty pimp turns up dead in the wrong hotel. Things get even worse when a spaced-out call girl, an arthritic old lady, and a Rastafarian pawnbroker enter the scene.

Sasha figures out why the hooker ran away but not where to. How fast can anyone run in stiletto heels? When the next body turns up, Sasha has her moral compass tested as she tries to understand the sex trade and how those enmeshed in it will do anything to survive - even if it means murder." (Goodreads)

I would recommend the book for mystery lovers who like an interesting plot but who don't mind stark language.

Objective rating: 3.75/5

Challenges: Immigrant Stories Challenge 2011, Mystery and Suspense Reading Challenge 2011

Reading Challenge: Mystery & Suspense 2011

Reading 12 mystery or suspense novels for 2011 shouldn't be too hard as I read over 50 each year. Sign up for the challenge HERE.

My reads this year:

1. Crashed (The Junior Bender Series) by Timothy Hallinan, a new eBook.
2. 9 Gold Bullets (Vincent Calvino Crime Novel) by Christopher G. Moore, eBook.
3. Delirious by Daniel Palmer
4. A Heartbeat Away by Michael Palmer
5. Dead Light District by Jill Edmondson
6. Red Jade by Henry Chang
7. A Red Herring without Mustard by Alan Bradley
8. Cat Sitter among the Pigeons by Blaize Clement
9. The Thieves of Darkness by Richard Doetsch
10.Beaglemania by Linda O. Johnston
11.Murder in Passy by Cara Black
12. Death of a Chimney Sweep by M.C. Beaton
13. The Headhunter's Daughter by Tamar Myers
14. Scones and Bones by Laura Childs
12.The Beloved Dead by Tony Hays
13. The Shepherd by Ethan Cross

Thanks to Book Chick City for another year of this challenge.

Book Review: A King of Infinite Space by Tyler Dilts

A King of Infinite Space by Tyler Dilts
Paperback: 308 pages
Publisher: AmazonEncore (June 29, 2010)
Source: ARC provided by publisher
Genre: Crime fiction, thriller


Book Description: Long Beach, California, homicide detective Danny Beckett investigates when Elizabeth Williams, a high school teacher, is brutally killed in her classroom. What could this young woman have done to make her the target of such a violent attack? And what is the significance of the victim’s left hand, taken by the killer as a grisly trophy? Beckett's hunt for the murderer soon morphs into a personal quest for atonement as he struggles to come to terms with the loss of his wife and family. A riveting crime novel introduces Danny Beckett to the ranks of fiction’s favorite hardened detectives. (adapted from amazon).

Comments: A page turner for sure, but like detective Danny Beckett, my stomach turned at the details of the murder. A bit too violent for my tastes, especially as the victim is a school teacher in her classroom at night, a vulnerable victim that makes the crime even more horrific. The novel fits the category of hardboiled crime fiction for those who enjoy the genre. Danny is a likeable guy and I'd love to see him in action again in other detective fiction.

About the author: Tyler Dilts teaches in the MFA program at California State University, Long Beach.

Objective rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: Assassins of Athens by Jeffrey Siger

"Ostracize is from the Greek word ostrakizein, meaning ' to banish by voting with ostrakon.' Each vote was cast by writing the name of the one who should be banished on an ostrakon - a piece earthenware, a potsherd." (from Assassins of Athens)

Jeffrey Siger based his crime novel, Assassins of Athens, on this ancient Athenian  custom of banishment of an individual by vote.  The banished person had to leave the country immediately or face death.

That was ancient Greece, but this is Athens in the 21st century. In this crime novel, some fabulously wealthy Greeks may be reviving the old custom to rid their country of equally wealthy but non-Greek families. Add in the anarchists, the revolutionary university students, and the criminal underworld of the city, all being used by an ambitious but revengeful young Greek, Demosthenes, and you have a mix of murder and secrecy that has Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis constantly on the move to find, thwart, and resolve.

Heady mix of politics, society, and distorted nationalism. A great plot, a bit of romance, and some very interesting characters. I liked the Inspector and his cohorts in the Athens police, and the description of the island of Mykonos, where some of the action takes place.

The author lives on Mykonos. He mixes in a bit of Greek customs, such as hand gestures and their meanings, and some Greek sayings. One saying  I had heard before is very direct but practical. It translates to something like this - "If you can't take the heat, leave."

The book was a great library find. It's published 2010 by Poisoned Pen Press. Looking forward to reading Siger's previous mystery, Murder in Mykonos.

Challenge: 100 + Reading Challenge,Support your Local Library Challenge, Thriller and Suspense Reading Challenge

Book Review: Snakes Can't Run by Ed Lin

Snakes Can't Run: A Mystery (Thomas Dunne Books) by Ed Lin

Snakes Can't Run by Ed Lin, March, 2010, Minotaur

Book description:

" It's a hot summer in New York's Chinatown in 1976 and Robert Chow, the Chinese American detective son of an illegal immigrant, takes on a new breed of ruthless human smuglers - snakeheads- when two bodies of smuggled Chinese are found dead under the Brooklyn Bridge underpass. But as Robert comes closer to finding some answers, he discovers a dark secret in his own family's past."

The book's title: I knew about the term "snakeheads," having read a mystery set in more recent times about illegal immigration from China. Snakeheads prey on people looking for a way to enter the U.S. at any cost, but the illegals or "snakes" usually face conditions worse than they ever imagined when they get here. I assume that's the meaning behind the title of the book, Snakes Can't Run.

Main character: Author Ed Lin uses dialogue between his characters to give the history of the Chinese immigrants to the U.S., both legal and illegal. Lin also uses the plot and circumstances to explain Chinese customs and culture. The book's main character, Robert Chow, a Chinese American cop with a Chinatown beat, is also a Vietnam vet who sometimes has nighrmares and flashbacks of his time during the war. He tries to help a fellow veteran in Chinatown, Don, who seems to have severe psychosis, insisting there are voices coming from behind the walls of his room. His partner in the police force, Van Dyke, a black cop and a supportive friend, also has family problems of his own and Robert tries to help him with this.

Robert also has to find out the identity of the key player, the top snakehead responsible for the killing of two young men in Chinatown who might have tried to defy the exploiting system of payback to make it on their own. He traces his own father's history as an illegal immigrant and comes up with some surprising finds.

Comments: I learned more about the tongs, what they are, and how they worked in Chinatown to protect and organize people who speak the same dialect or who are from the same villages in China.  I also learned how some of the tongs turned to criminal activity. A good plot, sympathetic main character, and a lot of information about the early Chinese in America. I recommend the book for mystery lovers as well as those interested in this part of American history.

Ed Lin won awards for his first and second mysteries, Waylaid and This Is a Bust. He lives in New York City.

Challenge: Thriller & Suspense Reading Challenge, 100+ Reading Challenge, Support your Local Library Challenge

 

Book Review: Arabesk by Barbara Nadel, a Turkish mystery

Arabesk by Barbara Nadel

Arabesk

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An excellent Turkish mystery set in Istanbul,  it describes a young Kurdish movie star torn between family and religious loyalties and his love for an older singer, Tansu. The novel shows some of the cultural differences between the Turks and the Kurdish minority and differences among the Kurds themselves.

Book description: Confined to his home on sick-leave (and prevented from sneaking his beloved brandy and cigars), Inspector Ikmen of the Istanbul police is forced to hand his latest case over to his protege, the newly promoted Suleyman. That's to bad, because the aristocratic Suleyman knows nothing about Arabesque, the throbbing, deeply sentimental music that is adored by Turkey's working classes, and the case is drenched in those mournful melodies. The latest musical sensation, a secret marriage, a murdered bride, an again mistress and a father driven mad with grief and guilt... it's all so melodramatic that Suleyman can barely keep his lip from curling. Ikmen is unashamed of his own plebeian tastes, but both cops eventually come to one conclusion: At the real heart of this operatic catastrophe are the conflicts inherent to the city itself.

Summary: The young Kurdish wife of popular film star Erol Urfa is found dead, poisoned by cyanide hidden in an almond pastry. The first suspect is the person who found her, a retarded man Cengiz Temiz, a neighbor of the dead woman. Inspector Ikmen and his colleagues at the Turkish police decide that Cengiz is mentally incapable of carrying out such a careful murder plan. They search for other suspects. One is Erol's lover, the famous singer Tansu. Tansu and Erol are from the north, and are Kurdish. This fact is a major part of the plot and feeds into a motive for the murder of Erol's wife, Ruya.

My comments: I found it was a clever plot. Though I guessed the culprit about three-quarters of the way through, I couldn't guess the motive. That's pretty good for a mystery, to not know until the end of the book! I learned more about the Kurds, that they have strong family and religious loyalties, and that some are considered more superstitious than other Arabs.

The only difficulty in reading Arabesk was keeping the many Turkish and Kurdish names straight. There is Cengiz, the suspect, and detectives Cetin, Coktin, Cohen. Inspector Ikmen and his protege Suleyman are easier to recognize, but keeping people separate from names of streets, building, and places got to be a challenge. However, that didn't prevent me from finishing and enjoying this unusual and entertaining novel.

Challenge: Thriller & Suspense Reading Challenge, 100+ Reading Challenge, Support your Local Library Challenge

 

The Edgar Awards for Mystery Writing: 2010

The Edgar Awards have been noticed by The Wall Street Journal, whose article yesterday, Mystery Rules at Edgar Awards  listed the nominees for this year's award for best mystery writing. The paper noted that women dominated the nominees for the Best First Novel by an American Author category. The Edgar Awards announced the winners:

Best Novel:

The Last Child by John Hart (Minotaur Books) was the winner. It tells the story of the abduction of a twelve year old girl and the attempts by her twin brother and a police detective to find the culprit, after a second child has been kidnapped. A lot of deadly secrets are uncovered in the town.

Other nominees:
The Missing (Vintage Contemporaries) by Tim Gautreaux
 The Odds by Kathleen George
The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death: A Novel by Charlie Huston Nemesis by Jo Nesbø, translated by Don Bartlett
A Beautiful Place to Die by Malla Nunn

Best First Novel By An American Author:

In the Shadow of Gotham by Stefanie Pintoff (Minotaur Books) won in this category. A former New York City policeman investigates the murder of a brilliant Columbia mathematics graduate student. A student of criminology tries to take over the investigation, saying he knows who the culprit is. The novel is set in the early 1900s.

Other nominees:
The Girl She Used to Be by David Cristofano
Starvation Lake by Bryan Gruley
The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf
A Bad Day for Sorry by Sophie Littlefield
Black Water Rising by Attica Locke

Best Paperback Original:


Body Blows: A Joe Grundy Mystery (Castle Street Mysteries) by Marc Strange (Dundurn Press - Castle Street Mysteries) is the winner.

Other nominees:
Bury Me Deep by Megan Abbott
Havana Lunar by Robert Arellano
The Lord God Bird by Russell Hill
The Herring-Seller's Apprentice by L.C. Tyler

Best Critical/Biographical:

The Lineup: The World's Greatest Crime Writers Tell the Inside Story of Their Greatest Detectives, edited by Otto Penzler (Little, Brown and Company) won in this category. 

Other nominees:

Talking About Detective Fiction by P.D. James
Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King by Lisa Rogak

The Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith by Joan Schenkar
The Stephen King Illustrated Companion by Bev Vincent

The Lineup: The World's Greatest Crime Writers Tell the Inside Story of Their Greatest Detectives is a book I'd love to read.