Here is a NEW place to discuss mysteries and crime fiction in translation OR those mysteries which are set in non English-speaking countries.

Many terrific authors have been mentioned on our previous thread: HERE . A quick skim will introduce you to a wonderful selection of mysteries written by authors from or set in the non-English-speaking world.

So, what are you reading now? Where are they set? Is this book translated from another language? What is it you like about the book or series?

Just to add to your commentary about hard-boiled police procedurals: in the ones set in the U.S., Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch fits the profile of the investigators you've mentioned, such as Rebus. To a lesser extent, so does Dave Robicheaux (James Lee Burke), although Robicheaux is not quite so hard-boiled, as Burke portrays him as a recovering alcoholic.

I think the darkness/bleakness is more a part of the noir/hardboiled format than due to any specific country or setting.

Yes, That's what I was trying to say in response to avaland's remarks. It's not just Nordic.

Although lately I have been reading books set in Asia (I won't repeat my previous post) I have been waiting (im)patiently for the next English translation in Jo Nesbo's series set in Oslo. These have been released in a non-linear sequence which I found slightly bewildering at the time. But I rush to add that it never detracted from the enjoyment of what I was reading. That's possibly an incentive to go back and reread them in order. Terrific protagonist here, Harry Hole. Certainly on a par with those other great mavericks, Harry Bosch and John Rebus.

For a good fast paced ride- read Kjell Eriksson's The Cruel Stars of the Night. Eriksson's working class detectives- alive with all the quirks and foibles that all of us have- untwist a psychological case that becomes increasingly more sinister and sociopathic. I loved this book- think Eriksson jumped a level up with this second novel.

I recently read The Kiss Murder
by Mehmet Murat Somer, which is set in Turkey and written by a Turkish author. Below is my review for the 999 challenge...

When I saw a review calling the sleuth in The Kiss Murder "Istanbul's Miss Marple," I was intrigued. I like Turkish mysteries. I love Miss Marple. What could be better?

Well, I guess the nameless sleuth is, in some ways, like Miss Marple, having good insights into human nature and being a good listener. But...picture Miss Marple as a transvestite nightclub owner in Istanbul and you'll get a feel for The Kiss Murder.

Looking at my tags, I've read over 1,600 mysteries but I can honestly say I've never read a mystery like The Kiss Murder. The crime (murder/blackmail) elements were cozy, though parts of the rest of the book were not quite so cozy. Parts of The Kiss Murder were fun and parts were entertaining. Some parts, not so much.

I heard that there are 6 books in this series so far, though only 2 have been translated into English.

Even though I thought it was only okay to good, I think it has great potential (especially now that I've finally kept the secondary characters straight, I think) and I've already bought the next one in the Turkish Delights series, The Prophet Murders.

The Kiss Murders is probably not for everyone but it is entertaining in an odd sort of way.

The Prophet Murders is actually the first book in the series, and The kiss Murder is actually the second.

I am reading The Prophet Murders by Mehmet Murat Somer.

It is the first in the Turkish Delight series. Set in modern day Istanbul, Turkey. It is a mystery series following a group of transvestites. The main character runs a club where they work, and she has to investigate the murders, because the police don't care. Its translated into English, and so far seems pretty good.

Now that I am further into it, I don't really like the main character much. She is nasty to just about everyone, self-absorbed, and looks down on others. The mystery part is a bit shaky too. It is pick the killer and then find the proof, rather than find the evidence and work from that. Still it is interesting and the writing flows.

Thanks, FicusFan. When I bought The Kiss Murder, it was touted as the first book but now I've seen The Prophet Murders described that way.

Not sure why they didn't release an English translation of the first book to the U.S. first.

I had mixed feelings about The Kiss Murder but will read The Prophet Murders.

I wish the sleuth had a name.

I saw them both described that way too, but Prophet has an earlier pub date.

The book is published in the UK, though it is available in the US. I had my B&N order it for me. I picked up Kiss and when I went on-line I found there was another book, so I ordered it.

The next one to be published in the US is The Gigolo Murder by Penguin on 9/29/09.

I just finished reading The Stone Council by Jean-Christophe Grangé. It's translated from French. It's mainly set in Paris, but the end of the book takes us to Moscow and Mongolia. It's a fascinating read, I thoroughly enjoyed the writing, the characters, the scenes, and the way the story develops.

Really liked The Inner Circle by Mari Jungstedt and Missing by Karin Alvtegen. Currnently reading Buried Strangers by Leighton Gage which takes place in Brazil. Leighton lives in Brazil, The Netherlands, as well as the U.S. so not sure if that counts but it's very interesting read.

Mensagem editada pelo autor, Abr 17, 2009, 1:39pm.

Out: a novel by natsuo kirino She is an award winning author and this is her firt book translated to english. Very good.

Mensagem editada pelo autor, Abr 16, 2009, 5:05pm.

I finished The Prophet Murders by Mehmet Murat Somer.

It was good, interesting, and edgy. Also not for the faint of heart. The translation was good even if the story was a bit uneven. There was lots of information about the transvestites in Istanbul. Didn't really like the main character, but that may just be me. It was a worthwhile read, and I will read the next one in the series.

#13 ERice: At his book signing Leighton Gage said Out: a novel was an excellent and had high praise for Natsuo Kirino. I just got the book today and want to finish 2 others before starting on it but am looking forward to it.

I just signed on, so these authors are probably wel known to you.
"Pilip Kerr" and his Bernie Gunther-series(Berlin) , "Frank Tallis"and his Max Liebermann - series(Vienna),"Boris Akunin " and his Erast Fandorin- and Sister Pelagia-series(Tsarist Russia). Reverte and Montalban in Spain, Camilleri and Carofiglio in Italy, the Scandinavian school now with the sensational Millenium-trilogy of the too soon deceased Stieg Larsson.
As a mysteru-buff for more than 50 years, started on the likes of Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Ellery Queen, John Dickson Carr etc., I rejoice in the globalisation of the good crime story. A pity that so many remain unknown because of lack of translation (for instance the Carpentier-series of "P.Teigeler", Antwerp written in Dutch).

Reading the posts of this group introduced me to Henning Mankell and I have now read most of them. I just started The Man Who Smiled today. Thank you all who posted about him, he is a wonderful author.

Nemesis, the latest Jo Nesbø book featuring Oslo detective Harry Hole, came in to my local library recently, and I just finished reading it yesterday. It's
the best of the three by him I've read so far. As with the others in the series, the plot twists may be a bit (or more) over the top, but Nesbø helps makes you willing to suspend disbelief.

Some may prefer the rural Norwegian settings of Karin Fossum, but for me Nesbø's urban setting is much more appealing, and I find him the best of the Norwegian writers I have read. See
http://www.mysteryplaces.net/countries/n...

I am starting the 2nd book in the Yashim Togalu series set in Istanbul, Turkey at the end of the Ottoman Empire, The Snake Stone by Jason Goodwin. Yashim is an investigator and a eunuch. It is set in 1838, 2 years after the first book.

>>>>>5 & 18. Ohhhh. This is good news. I picked up Nesbo's The Redbreast from a clearance shelf without knowing anything about it. Now I'm eager to read it!

I read Lie in the Dark by Dan Fesperman which has gotten great reviews on LT. Takes place in Sarajevo during the Bosnian War. Excellent mystery, and a very well done depiction of a city and people besieged. I see Fesperman has a second book out about the detective, Vlado Petric, The Small Boat of Great Sorrows. Anybody read it?

it's even better.

I see that Henning Mankell is mentioned above.

For those of you in the US, Masterpiece Theatre is showing three episodes of the Kenneth Branagh version of Wallander this month. (For missed episodes - including the already aired episode 1 - check here for online replay).

I saw Sidetracked on Sunday and was very impressed by the production quality and Kenneth Branagh is a great Wallander. I haven't read Sidetracked yet but the movie certainly captured the mood and feel of the books I have read. 5 stars!

I got the ER edition of Wife of the Gods. It's set in modern Ghana. I really enjoyed it. I've seen some comparisons to the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books, but they are so different. They are both set in Africa, but the Quartey book has a police detective with some pretty serious baggage as the main character. It is not a cozy. It's not hardboiled either, exactly, but it is really excellent.

#126: That's good news. I've received an ER copy as well, and am about 20 pages or so into it. So far, I like it. And no, it bears no resemblance whatsoever to ladies Detective Agency except for the continent.

Thank you, christiguc (msg. 24) for the link to Sidetracked on Masterpiece Theatre!!
I was so glad for the immersion.
The color and landscape represent a complete character of their own, competing with the human actors.
I was amazed that they tried to tackle an entire Mankell book in one episode.
Brave try!
(Should have bitten off a bit less, but brave try!)
I liked David Warner as Wallandar's father- really liked his take on the irascible and unpredicatble patriarch.
Completely different than how I had imagined him (in my mind, he is more conservative), but very good none the less.
Kenneth Branagh has matured physically, and is more suited for the Wallandar character, but........doesn't quite capture him.
Needs more food stains on his shirt.
Looking forward to seeing more development of the Anne-Britt Hoglund character and also that of the coroner.
I'm pretty critical of films from books, often won't even see them.
And although this one doesn't pass muster 100%, I think I was just so happy to have something that reminded me of a dearly beloved series- one I miss very much, now that I've read them all.

#28--lil_ghostcrab: I agree with your analysis. If I hadn't read the book I would have found some parts of the story quite cryptic. But I really liked Warner & Branagh. Some friends & I have wondered why it is Swedish detectives seem not to bathe much, or change their clothes. Is this for realism or a symbol of dedication?

Mensagem editada pelo autor, Maio 16, 2009, 2:22pm.

OMG, (as they say), jmyers24-
this is a dangerous area to tread.
But!
I know what you mean, and do know at least a dozen excentric, intellectectual types from the Nordic countries who FIT THE BILL exactly!
They are all male, of a "certain" age (and from a certain era of youthful revolution), and are writers, artists, musicians, architects.....
Society there sees them as wonderful, often prickly additions to regular life.
They are treasured and ...tolerated.
(Truly hope I haven't offended anyone)
I was sort of digging around at this Nordic detective profile in some earlier posts in the previous thread avaland had put together.
I think that they are clearly more rooted in the inner world of cogitating than the outer world of....."where did I put that sock yesterday?"
Thank goodness for that.
Clearly more crimes solved as a result!

Mensagem editada pelo autor, Maio 16, 2009, 4:01pm.

I'm about half-way through Åke Edwardson's Himlen är en plats på jorden (2001, literally "Heaven is a place on earth"), and hoping to finish it sometime before the end of the month. It's slow going but still enjoyable with a few trips needed to Swedish-English dictionary every page or two.

It's one of his that is also translated into English (Frozen Tracks) and available on Kindle as well as in print. It's one of the Erik Winter series, set in Gothenburg. Winter is a lot more likable a character than Mankell's Wallander, in my opinion, while the series shares the same mood of the reflective police procedural. The writing is also good. In my subjective personal rating, Edwardson would be third among Swedish mystery novelists after Mankell and Stieg Larsson.

http://www.mysteryplaces.net/countries/s...

Mensagem editada pelo autor, Maio 17, 2009, 1:04pm.

Here's a blog devoted to non-American crime fiction. He's recently been talking about Irish and Scandinavian detective stories, but other countries are included. His linklist has a lot of other international mystery bloggers on it. A lot of Irish mystery writers comment there, too.

Last year I read Last Rituals: An Icelandic Novel by Yrsa Sigurdardottir. Has anyone read the second in the series, My Soul to Take?

I just came across a list of Finnish crime/noir writers. Are any of you mystery readers familiar with thier work? Are any translated to English?
I am hungry for more mystery in dark places.
Matti Joensuu
Leena Lehtolainen
Sirpa Tabet
Harri Nykänen
Tapani Bagge

>35
Tapani Bagge has a few short stories and a novel translated - http://tapanibagge.com/eng_stories.htm

Leena Lehtolainen is translated into German but not in English I believe

Matti Joensuu has at least 2 books translated into English - http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/j/matt... for example.

I kinda like Joensuu and Bagge. Never heard of the other 2 I am afraid.

I just finished The Knowledge of Water set in Paris in 1910. I was about ready to give up on it at 120 pages, but then it got interesting. However, it's not a typical mystery, tho there is a murder and the main characters are stalked by a madman, but that only figures in less than a fifth of the novel. You do get an interesting picture of some of the Parisian art world, some thought provoking ideas on art forgery, and a great look at the flood of 1910, the most unexpected, devastating and highest flood since the mid 15th century.

These three are top notch:
The Draining Lake: A Thriller by Arnaldur Indridason is an Icelandic thriller with brains.

The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterill is set in Laos in the 1970's.

The Day of the Owl by Leonardo Sciascia is set in Italy and Sicily.

Declan Burke is about to publish a new blog collecting "essays, articles, interviews and short stories by Irish crime writers on Irish crime writing."

More here.

I read The Flower Master which is set in Japan. Wonderful depiction of many aspects of Japanese society I had no idea about. I'm normally not a big fan of amateur sleuths, but in this case the character alerts the police and as much as possible waits for them to handle dangerous elements, and doesn't act stupid by putting herself in danger.

Also read Murder at Government House, by Elspeth Huxley. It takes place in colonial East Africa (copyright 1937). I really liked this book.

I am reading Empire of the Wolves by Jean-Christophe Grange. I forgot to post here. I am reading the English translation, but it was originally written in French. It is set in modern day Paris and concerns Turkish immigrants.

We haven't seen the Brannagh version of Wallander here in Australia but the Swedish series has been on over the last year or so. Wallander is played by Krister Henriksson, seems perfect to me. You will find a good explanation of the various film versions on Wiki if you search for Kurt Wallander with lots of links. My fondness for Henriksson makes Brannagh hard to contemplate in the role however much I admire his ability. Hearing the characters speak in Swedish and seeing the Swedish locations is another advantage. Has anyone seen the Italian series of the Montalbano books? Very good indeed especially being filmed on Sicily - stunning locations. But the books are funnier.
Read this month : The Preacher by Camilla Lackberg - Swedish, excellent.
The Abominable Man by Maj Sjowall & Per Wahloo- Harper Perennial reprint, first pub.1971, Swedish, highly regarded series. I've read three others - The Laughing Policeman, The Fire Engine That Disappeared and The Locked Room.
The Dragon Man by Garry Disher - first of series featuring Insp. Challis, set on coast south of Melbourne, Australia, very good.
Blood Moon by Garry Disher - the latest (2009) in the Challis series, excellent.
Unseen by Mari Jungstedt, Swedish, excellent.

Have recently read Arnuldar Indridason's fifth book (available in English, that is) in his Reykjavik police procedurals, Arctic Chill. I'm not sure I'd rate it as good as some of the other but I still found it a satisfying read. There's one loose thread that I'm sure will end up in the next book. I got this copy through TheBookDepository.com in the UK. I think the 6th, Hypothermia, is due out in paper in the UK in October.

hmm, touchstones don't see to be sticking...

Mensagem editada pelo autor, Jun 26, 2009, 8:01am.

I finished The Empire of the Wolves by Jean-Christophe Grange. It was a translation and was OK. There was overkill with the French place and agency names - sometimes whole paragraphs with very little else.

It is about a woman who is unable to remember her husband's face and she discovers that she has had total reconstructive plastic surgery on her face. So who is she ...

There are torture-mutilation-murders happening in the Turkish immigrant quarter of Paris and no one will talk to the police.

Eventually the 2 threads come together, but I really didn't care about the characters or events. Meh.

#43 Am having trouble finding Arctic Chill at a USA library - have submitted 2 ILL requests, and both have been cancelled. Any idea when it will be published in US? I may have to purchase this one from someplace else.

Edit for touchstone..

Mensagem editada pelo autor, Jun 27, 2009, 4:55pm.

#45 -- My library (San Diego) managed to get a copy from a library in Alaska -- but I did have to pay for it. Worth it though!

#46 That's a good idea - I'll ask them if paying for shipping will make it easier to get a copy sent here. You make me even more determined to get ahold of it!

#42, Picola43: I have all four seasons and loved every one of the first 3. The first two of the last season left me a little bleh, since I thought that Zingaretti was over the top, even for an Italian film. The last two films were terrific.

Probably the books overall are better, but the casting in these films has been absolutely brilliant. Montalbano, Fazio, Mimi, are played so well that I now cannot read a Montalbano book without seeing the actors as the characters in the books. The one-timers and even bit players are all superb.

Mensagem editada pelo autor, Jul 4, 2009, 5:12pm.

I just raced through The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, it was stunning! I can hardly wait for The Girl who Played with Fire

For the fans of the Scandinavian crime fiction - http://homepages.gac.edu/~fister/scandcr... and its companion blog http://scandinaviancrimefiction.wordpres... are quite a good place for finding something new to read :)

And http://www.eurocrime.co.uk/ has a lot more information on European authors

Mensagem editada pelo autor, Jul 8, 2009, 7:40am.

Article in Slate today about why there are so many Scandinavian crime novels out there these days.

A new group group blog has just been established. It's called International Crime Authors Reality Check (I have no idea what the context of the last two words is), and its authors are Barbara Nadel, Christopher G. Moore, Colin Cotterill, and Matt Beynon Rees.

Deon Meyer writes in Afrikaans. All his books are translated in English except the newest one. Very good South African crime fiction.

I keep adding more books to my TBR list.

Has anyone read any of the Héctor Belascoarán Shayne, P.I. series by Mexican author Paco Ignacio Taibo?

Mensagem editada pelo autor, Jul 28, 2009, 4:32pm.

I am in Botswana with A Carrion Death by Michael Stanley. A good read so far.

reply to 55:

Yes, I've read several of Taibo's. They are excellent but sometimes a bit (or more than a bit) hard to follow. I've been meaning to try one in Spanish, but it is complicated enough with specific Mexican references in English.

A recent one with a very unusual twist is "The Uncomfortable Dead," written in alternate chapters by Taibo and Zapatista leader Subcommandante Marcos.

I think the first in the series was "An Easy Thing" (translation of Dias de Combate).

Mensagem editada pelo autor, Ago 2, 2009, 4:33pm.

I haven't been to this site for a while, but see there has been at least one mention of Stieg Larsson's The Girl Who Played With Fire, the second in his Millennium trilogy. I've now finished all three, and definitely think the series is one of the best I've read in years.

I wonder why so slow to translate all three into English. The third is only coming out in October apparently, but it is available in quite a few other languages. Larsson's crisp style makes his books fast reads, and therefore good for those of us who are not fully proficient in a language, but like to try for the fun ot it. I have some more comments on my mysteryplaces.net website at
http://www.mysteryplaces.net/books/2009-...
and the Stieg Larsson website (in English) has a
lot of background on the writer & his non-fiction journalistic work as well.

New crush! (sorry, Karin Fossum- but I have a new love!) Colin Cotterill's The Coroner's Lunch.

I've read three in the series now, and am moved by the sweetness of the main characters- the elderly doctor pushed into his role of state coroner by the tattered and disfunctional Communist government in Laos, his earnest feminist nurse and his wonderfully resourceful assistant with Downs Syndrome.

It's detective work in a new light- working around the system, using terribly limited resources very creatively, having the spirit world pop in and out as advisors.

I hope this link takes you right to the interview with Cotterill on NPR- seems his life experience wasn't that far from his characters.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story...

But better yet- go read the series.

Read The Chalk Circle Man by Fred Vargas and enjoyed it, tho it wasn't near as good as Have Mercy on Us All. But then it was the first in the series, since the U.S. publication of her books are out of sequence.

One question for those who have read Have Mercy, I don't know if my recall is wrong, but I had the sense that Adamsburg was described as a relatively tall man, whereas in Chalk Circle he's described as rather short. I could swear Have Mercy has a scene where he's looking over a crowd in a city square who are listening to the town crier. If you are short you do not look over a crowd to try and identify people who are there, unless you stand on something, and that would make you conspicious, and he was trying to be unobtrusive.

So did the author change him, or is my memory in error?

I've read several books and my mental picture is short rather than tall. Perhaps he was looking over in the sense of of scanning the crowd rather than looking over the top of it.

I will be starting Have Mercy on Us All today and will watch for a description of him and report back.

Mensagem editada pelo autor, Ago 22, 2009, 1:35pm.

I finished A Corpse in the Koryo by James Church. It is the first book in the Inspector O series. It is set in modern day North Korea. I am not sure how I feel about it.

The setting intrigued me, and the writing wasn't bad. But the characterization and story were not so good. I think he was trying to emulate the strangeness of living/working in a rigid dictatorship. The corpse of the title didn't turn up until page 136, and his identity and murder were not even important. There was a lot of wandering around and cryptic comments. Will read the 2nd book and hope it will be better.

>62 Since I wrote this I went to a bookstore to pick up one book and came away with ten. They had remainders (hurt books) on sale. Now I don't know what to read, so I think I will watch some tennis and think about what it!

Sweden is quite well-known for their mystery/crime/thriller writer circle. I believe in Germany they've even made up a word to refer to it (but of course can't remember that word now) :P

Here are a few fantastic ones to get you started:

- Karin Alvtegen
- Stieg Larsson (you can see more info here: http://www.infloox.com/person?id=83bfe89...)
- Maj Sjöwall
- Håkan Nesser

I loved The Girl Who Played with Fire- Lisbeth Salander is one of the most powerful and odd female characters I have ever read. The translation, although rumored to have been done and then mostly re-done by someone else, is excellent. So....am I the only one who thought the first book The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was misogynous? I felt it was filled with gratuitous and terrible sadistic violence towards Salander-the second book has similar themes but somehow it flows better, has reason instead of sensationalism.
Regardless- The Girl Who Played with Fire is fantastic. And it doesnt hurt to have the Dead Rockstar Author syndrome. I am very sorry he's gone, but the fact that he is makes the books fly off the bookstore shelves.

Mensagem editada pelo autor, Set 26, 2009, 6:22pm.

I just read Let the right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist, which was a Sweedish translation. It was very well written and translated. It has horror, gore, mystery, love, and a great cast of intereasting characters.

I also recommend Entering Hades: The Double life of a serial killer, by John Leake. It is a great true-crime book.

I just found Donna Leon's Guido Brunetti series. He's a fairly senior cop in Venice (Italy, not Ca.). The first book is Death at la Fenice; there are 12 or 13 more. I've now read four and am really enjoying them; the city is well-described and the oddities of detection in such a damp place are interesting. I should say that the canals are not a big part of the stories I've read so far, but simple movement around town is.

#62 pmarshall -- Did you finish Have Mercy on Us All? I'm still wondering if Adamsburg was described as relatively short or tall?

I'm reading The Chalk Circle Man by Fred Vargas and although I'm only 50 pages in, I'm finding it utterly entrancing. It is the first Adamsberg book in the series and as such there are numerous descriptions of him and the other characters, but these descriptions are given to us through the eyes of the characters themselves so they vary accordingly. Each character singles out different aspects of Adamsberg which leaves the reader with a fairly complicated impression. For instance, a former colleague thought of him as a "wild child": "you have the body of a child of nature...you have a certain grace about you that is unique". His inspector, Adrien Danglard, who himself "dressed impeccably in order to compensate for his unprepossessing looks and pear-shaped figure" was attracted to Adamsberg's voice - "it calmed him", but was "disappointed by the unimpressive appearance of Adamsberg's small, thin, yet compact body and by the general casual manner of this person who...had evidently hastily knotted on a necktie over a shapeless shirt stuffed negligently into the waistband of his trousers." Mathilde, an eccentric woman who wanders into the police station, "saw a man with hooded eyes looking at her with uncommon gentleness...and she immediately understood that things would now improve." But she complicates the picture even more when she says to him, "your left profile is tough and your right profile is tender." I'm looking forward to seeing what other descriptions await me as I read further.

> 70 I got waylaid by some other books so I haven't read it yet. This week and I will let you know.

Seems since I was here last, I have blown through four Icelandic mysteries, Last Rituals and My Soul to Take by Yrsa Sidurdardóttir, and Arctic Chill and Hypothermia by Arnaldur Indridason. All were very good reads. I think I have left comments/reviews of each on the book page (though not positive).

I have also read two Barcelona mysteries — Dog Day and Prime Time Suspect by Spanish author Alicia Giminez-Bartlett. They have a bit of wit in them, and the dialog is more lively than the various Nordic mysteries I've been reading. I enjoyed them both. I have the third of the series around here somewhere. . .

I do have The Chalk Circle Man in the pile also!

> 70 - Description of Adamsberg

"The man was short and dark, and he looked like a pig's breakfast. His hair was all tousled and he'd rolled his jacket sleeves halfway up his unshirted forearms." (p. 33, Have Mercy On Us All, Fred Vargas

Sorry I took so long.

Mensagem editada pelo autor, Out 18, 2009, 3:17pm.

Thanks, pmarshall. Somehow I totally blocked that.

I just started The Pyramid by Henning Mankell. This is comprised of five short stories Mankell wrote when he completed the last book in the Wallander series and the stories pre-date the series. It is interesting to see the formation of Wallender.

Just finished The Chalk Circle Man by Fred Vargas.

A question for those of you who have read the above author's 'Adamsberg' series: In what era do you think these novels are set?

It's interesting to me that in some books the sense of a particular era is important; in some it's the sense of a particular place; in others neither era nor place seems to matter at all.

I've only read two of Vargas's 'Adamsberg' series so far: Chalk Circle Man and Have Mercy on Us All, and it seems to be the wonderful characterisation (above all) that makes her books so interesting (to me at least).

What do others think?

66 - I agree with just about everything you said! I also found it really harsh against women, but I loved the part where Lisbeth gets revenge! I'm glad to hear that the next book is good.

69 - I have Death at La Fenice on my 10-10-10 list for next year.

73 - I read My Soul to Take and enjoyed it too. That was my first in the series.

I have no new recommendations - I've been working more than reading. But I love hearing about new books on here!

77, Thrin - I read Have Mercy on Us All before reading The Chalk Circle Man. Both seemed to have a timeless quality about them. This disoriented me a bit on my first reading because I was trying to place it. That didn't bother me at all reading The Chalk Circle Man, however, because the characters really took centre stage. In some respects, it isn't timelessness - that they lack all our high-tech gadgets does seem to place them in a pre-1990's era. I'm looking forward to reading further in the series to see if this pattern continues. They feel like they are set just this side of Jasper Fforde's strange world.