Hypothermia, by Arnaldur Indridason

Harvill Secker/Random House

ISBN: 9781846552625

There's a subtle elegance to this particular story, considering it's a novel of crime fiction. There are no raging maniacs with axes hanging about, no serial killers, and no serious threats to the people of Reykjavik. In fact, there seems to be a lull in crime as this story opens, and Erlendur has some time to go back to some very cold cases. While pondering the ones that got away unanswered, he becomes involved with a new case, that of a woman who was found hanging in her vacation home. There are no signs to indicate anything other than suicide, but her friend Karen isn't so sure. Karen brings Erlendur a cassette tape of the dead woman's previous session with a medium and gets his attention. Working on his own, with no official police involvement, Erlendur works to find out why this woman took her own life. In a brief phone chat with Sigurdur Oli, when Erlendur notes that he wants to know "why she committed suicide,"  Erlendur explains why:

[Sigurdur Oli asks] " 'What's it to you?'

'Nothing,' Erlendur said. 'Absolutely nothing.'

'I thought you were only interested in missing-person cases.'

'Suicide is a missing-person case too,' Erlendur said and hung up on him."

Given Erlendur's background with the brother who was lost in a blinding snowstorm, his interest in the lost is no surprise.  And it's no surprise that he identifies with the ones left behind, for example, the grieving father who has checked in with Erlendur every year since his son vanished. For this man, time is running out because he's dying, and Erlendur wants him to go with answers. There's another missing persons case Erlendur goes back to as well -- that of a young woman who vanished one day, car and all. But it's the suicide that takes most of his time, as he gets into the head of the dead woman, just trying to figure out why.

Hypothermia is an excellent novel, and will give you pause to consider the nature of grieving and loss as you follow Erlendur throughout. Probably more than any of the previous novels in the series, place is itself a character, especially the cold and  lonely lakes of Iceland.  I loved this book and cannot recommend it highly enough.

Arctic Chill, by Arnaldur Indridason

ISBN: 9780099542322
Vintage UK

Here we are at book five of six featuring Inspector Erlendur Sveinsson, and I couldn't stand the suspense of waiting for #6 in the Reykjavik Murder Mystery series (Hypothermia) to come out in the US so I bought it from the UK. But then I wonder how long I'm going to have to wait for the next one. Oh well. This series is worth it completely.

As usual, Indridason delivers another good story here...not just a good mystery, but his insights into Iceland as a place and into its problems add to the entire series as a whole.

Just a brief synopsis first: During a very cold Icelandic winter, a young boy, the son of a Thai immigrant and her Icelandic husband, is found dead in front of his apartment building, with his body stuck to its own pool of blood. To make matters worse, it seems that his older brother is missing. As Erlendur and his team (Sigurdur Oli & Elinborg) start to work on the case, several theories present themselves -- was it a crime based on racism? Or was it the work of a pedophile known to be back in the area? Or, even worse, did the missing brother have anything to do with the young boy's death? While all of this is going on, Erlendur is also battling with the case of a woman who disappeared -- and both cases are bringing back his memories of his lost brother.

As anyone who reads Scandinavian crime fiction knows, these authors incorporate their own commentary (via plotline) about current social issues & problems in their respective countries. One of the themes prevalent in this novel is that of the problems of immigration in Iceland, which Indridason handles very skillfully.  It's not just a question of how native Icelanders feel about immigration, but he also reveals the problems faced by immigrants who go there - for example lack of language skills that hinder their ability to fully become members of Icelandic society, and the fact that families bring older children into the country who tend to have problems fitting in with the rest of their peer groups because they feel out of place. Indridason shows the feelings on both sides of the issue, treating the subject with a great deal of fairness toward each.

As always, Indridason's writing, his sense of place, his character development and his ability to create well-constructed plots are all in top form here. However, while  I understand that Erlendur's missing brother is one of those dark parts of his life that make him tick and make him who he is, and explains why he's fascinated with missing persons cases, and that this case of the two brothers reminds him of his own sad past, I feel I must point out that regular readers of this series already know all of this. Is the author maybe throwing this in for people who haven't yet read these books?

Overall, another good one by Indridason, whose entire Erlendur series is highly intelligent, making him one of those authors whose works I just can't wait to get my hands on. My advice: read them in order because these characters are not static and unchanging, but rather they are dynamic and becoming more human with every installment. Recommended to people who like Scandinavian crime fiction as well as mystery readers who want intelligence in their crime.

*The Ghost, by Robert Harris

Simon and Schuster, 2007
1416551816

I recently saw a trailer for a movie that I thought looked really interesting, filled with political intrigue and action. The name of that film was The Ghostwriter, and it was made by Roman Polanski. -- As a sidebar, Polanski is an awesome director, and I loved his "A Pure Formality." -- Imagine my surprise when "The Ghostwriter" turned out to be based on The Ghost, by Robert Harris,  which I've had sitting on my shelf ever since it came out. I figured perhaps this would be a great time to read it, since I want to see the film. 


To leak much about this novel would be to spoil it, so I won't go into any detail here.   The main character of this novel (whose name we never learn) is by profession a ghostwriter. His biggest project was the memoirs of a has-been '70s rock star, and it is this work that gets him a very lucrative contract to ghostwrite the highly-anticipated memoirs of Britain's most current ex-Prime Minister, Adam Lang. Lang and entourage have stationed themselves at the home of a wealthy friend in Martha's Vineyard. The ghostwriter accepts, and it's off to mingle with the ex PM and get down to work sorting out and cleaning up a very poorly-written, mediocre memoir written by the ghostwriter's predecessor, who mysteriously ended up dead. The new writer's job is to turn it into the multi-million dollar blockbuster the publishers are waiting for.  But just when the narrator/ghostwriter gets to Martha's Vineyard, all hell breaks loose as his subject finds himself on the verge of being the focus of an investigation by the War Crimes Court. I will say no more.

Harris takes his time setting up the story, so it begins slowly, but picks up speed as it goes on and gets more into political suspense-thriller mode.  And if you are even the least bit familiar with post 9/11 politics, you'll notice that quite a few of the characters bear a remarkable resemblance to some of the real-life players, adding a layer of interest that keeps you reading. Sadly, my devious mind figured out a part of the end early on so that was a bit disappointing and there were a couple of plot holes that bothered me, but all in all it was a pretty decent read,  and I liked it. This one I finished in one sitting -- that should say something about the suspense quotient. Now it's off to the movies.


note: If you decide to stick this one on your tbr pile, you might be interested in this "story behind the story" so to speak here, in a 2007 interview with Robert Harris just after this book was first published.

--listed at paperback swap, but if you want this book before it gets taken, first emailer takes it!

NEXT UP:  The African Queen, by C.S. Forester

*Fox Evil, by Minette Walters

Fox Evil is the ninth book by this author, and it won the CWA Gold Dagger award in 2003.


At the root of this mystery is the question of who killed Ailsa Lockyer-Fox. Set in the small village of Shenstead in Dorset, Fox Evil attempts to sort it all out.  Ailsa was found by her husband James outside their home in the freezing cold weather, wearing only a nightgown. Obviously, she hadn't intended on staying outside for any length of time. To add to the mystery, bloodstains were also found, but Ailsa had no visible wounds which would have caused them. To further whet the reader's appetite for clues, the door going back into the house was locked, and her husband James, seemingly slept on while the murder and mayhem were occurring. The coroner's report cleared James of any wrongdoing. So who killed Ailsa?

Fox Evil is rather cluttered, suffering from too much going on all at the same time. First, James gets his solicitor to track down his long-lost and grown-up granddaughter, Lizzie's daughter from a fling she had some time back, having been adopted when she was a baby. Then there's a matter of a vicious campaign of anonymous callers, accusing James of horrible things. Not to mention the band of travellers who decide to make a certain stretch of woodland their home and their leader, who goes by the name of Fox.  Add into that a mix of neighbors with their own petty problems,  and pretty soon you need a scorecard to keep track of it all.

My preference in mystery novels is for a book in which there are enough suspects who all have really good motives to kill someone, a few really good red herrings that might lead me down the wrong path, and a wowser of a revelation at the end. And although I generally like Minette Walters' writing (The Ice House, The Scold's Bridle and The Breaker  were absolute gems), there was just way too much happening here.  Of course, this book got many 5-star reviews, so it might just be me. I'd recommend it to people who have already read books by this author, but it's definitely not one of my personal favorites.

Woman With Birthmark, by Hakan Nesser

Hakan Nesser is another one of my all-time favorite writers of Scandinavian crime fiction. Woman With Birthmark is #4 in this series featuring Inspector Van Veeteren, a veteran detective in Maardam, whose location remains a mystery in itself. These books you can read as stand-alone novels, but there's always a plus to reading a series in order. 

A solitary mourner at a funeral is at the heart of a baffling series of crimes. A young woman made a death-bed promise to her mother and has cleared the way to begin her plan of revenge. Her first victim is a businessman who has recently been receiving some very odd phone calls. There is no voice, just a song that plays over and over again.  Shortly after a little fender-bender, his wife goes out one night leaving him home alone, and comes back to find him shot to death. Enter the police and Inspector Van Veeteren, who after their investigation, come up with very little to make a case, never mind an arrest. When another murder occurs in the same fashion, the members of the Inspector's team know that they must find some sort of a connection between the two dead men. Not only are they worried about a possible serial killer, but the press doesn't understand why the police are not doing their job and makes no bones about publishing how they feel. But the two victims lived very different lives, so the team has to begin the tedious and difficult task of linking each victim's pasts together, not only to identify the killer and the why, but to possibly warn anyone else connected with these two men.  


It's not a mystery, per se; the reader knows the who (sort of) from the very start.  What drives the killer is what slowly unravels throughout the story, teased out a little at a time. As in all of his Van Veeteren books, Nesser's writing, his plotting genius and his characterizations all speak for themselves in this story. He doesn't pad the writing with a lot of great detail and gets right to the crime and the search for a solution.  Van Veeteren doesn't seem to suffer from the angst that many other Scandinavian detectives are full of and he has this very dry wit and sarcastic sense of humor.  I've seen this book reviewed as being too slow with little punch, but trust me -- this is far from the case. If you want bang-bang shoot 'em up, look elsewhere. This one is much more subdued and cerebral.


I have followed this author's works in order of translation and have NEVER been disappointed. I can definitely recommend this book to readers of Scandinavian crime fiction, and for those who want quality and intelligence in their crime.

The Devil's Star, by Jo Nesbø

First of the cruise reads, The Devil's Star is a definite winner. Jo Nesbø is one of the best writers of Scandinavian crime fiction out there today.


summary, no spoilers:
Set in Oslo, Devil's Star features Detective Harry Hole, whose life started zooming out of control when his friend and fellow detective, Ellen Gjelten was murdered while working a case. Harry has spent much of the time since in an alcoholic stupor, neglecting his work to try to catch Ellen's killer, and putting his personal life in the trash. He knows who murdered Ellen, but proving it is a whole different story. Suffice it to say that you must read (in order) Redbreast, and then Nemesis to understand this part of Harry's life. In this book, he is assigned to work on the case of a dead woman who is found with a) a finger cut off and b) a diamond cut in the shape of a star under her eyelid. As the investigation gets rolling, and there are more deaths, Harry begins to uncover a pattern, but with time winding down on his own career, he has to come to grips with his past, present and future as well.

Nesbø's writing, his ability to craft a clever and engrossing series of plotlines that weave together effortlessly, and his excellent characterizations are consistent throughout the entire series. Harry Hole is one of my favorite crime fiction characters, but Nesbø doesn't stop with him. Each one of the supporting characters has a distinct reality of his or her own.

Nesbø is one of the reasons I continue to be fascinated with Scandinavian crime fiction. He is a talented writer, so much so that he is my favorite author within this genre. His books are dark and often broody, but well worth every second of reading time. My advice: read Redbreast and Nemesis prior to this one because prior knowledge of what's happening will raise the suspense level for you. Very highly recommended.

not actually in the reading plan, but oh well: A Great Deliverance, by Elizabeth George

Well, I hadn't actually intended to read anything not in the plan for this month, but this one literally "jumped out" at me. I was futzing around with my books in the British Reading Room, and this book fell to the floor. I picked it up and walked off with it, and I couldn't help myself. I've actually read this one before, but had totally spaced what went on here.


In London, Scotland Yard is searching desperately for a killer known as The Ripper, who seeks and takes victims at railway stations.   But in York, a crime of a different sort has occurred: a young girl, overweight and unattractive, has been found in the barn next to her house with a dead dog and her father’s decapitated body.   The girl, Roberta, has as much as admitted that she did it, but the local priest isn’t sure and contacts Scotland Yard.  Enter Inspector Lynley and his newly-appointed partner, Barbara Havers, and off to York they go.  The investigation isn’t easy: the only eyewitness, Roberta, is in a mental institution where she refuses to talk.  Havers and Lynley must piece together what might have happened — but it’s not going to be an easy task.

So much for the summary.  Now here’s what I think. The author did a good job with the crime per se, and the core mystery is good, handled well under the circumstances (which I cannot mention because it would wreck it for others).  Aside from that, though, there’s way too much personal angst among the main characters, so much so that you wonder how this mystery ever got solved.  Lynley is an aristocrat who started with the police to give something back to the community, was in love with another one of the characters, Deborah, who ultimately married his friend Simon.   So on top of solving this rather brutal crime, he has to stop and sort out his feelings for Deborah.  A bit out of place, but whatever.  Then there’s Havers. She is described as being from working-class stock, rather dumpy with a poor sense of how to dress, and she has it in for Lynley and his friends because they’re from the upper crust of society.    Her anger and resentment strikes at odd places in this story, which is a bit distracting.  Lady Helen, one of Lynley's friends,  I could actually take or leave.

Having said all of this, you’d probably think I didn’t care for the book, but I did. I like a well-crafted and well-plotted mystery novel, and aside from the main characters having to sort through their spontaneous crises at times, it was a good story.  My experience with first novels in mystery series is that they are probably not the best that the author has to give.  I would recommend this book, certainly, for people who enjoy UK crime fiction.  Not a cozy at all, but rather dark and broody, it’s a good mystery read.

The Beast, by Anders Roslund and Borge Hellstrom

This may be one of the most graphic crime novels I've ever read, and one of the most unsettling books as well. I read a lot, and this one really got me.

From the outset the reader is sucked directly into the mind of a psychopathic sex offender, Bernt Lund, a very sick pedophile who preys on young girls. And it's not pretty, not at all.  After he kidnaps and kills two girls he is caught & put into a sex offender unit in prison after being diagnosed with a "minor mental disorder", but manages to escape, even though chained, while in transit to the hospital. Ewert Grens and his partner are assigned to the case, and Grens knows, after having spent a lot of time studying Lund, that he's likely to do it again and soon.  But even after elaborate preparations and police watches on nursery schools, the police don't make it in time to prevent another kidnapping.  The father of this particular victim has a breakdown and decides that he doesn't want it to happen again -- and proceeds to take the law in his own hands, with some horrible consequences. There is also a simultaneous storyline taking place in the prison from which Lund escaped, and both stories eventually weave together in a most gut-wrenching way. 

This is the first book in a series by Roslund and Hellstrom, just prior to Box 21. Once you begin reading it, you'll discover that this book is not so much a mystery or crime novel, but that it is actually about the nature and meaning of justice.  Although it is very gritty and incredibly tough to read due to its subject matter, this is a book that will make you pause and think. It is not your average police procedural -- the authors have a definite message here. Although set in Sweden, trust me -- this could most definitely happen here.  I would definitely recommend it to readers of Scandinavian crime fiction. 

*A Conspiracy of Paper, by David Liss

 In 2001, this book won the Macavity and Barry Awards for best first novel.  It is also the opener in an historical mystery series featuring young Benjamin Weaver, followed by A Spectacle of Corruption in 2004, and the most current entry in the series, The Devil's Company in 2009.

Set in London in the early 1700s, Conspiracy of Paper begins when Weaver, who is Jewish and  left his family many years ago to be on his own, receives a visit from a young man who has a mystery for Weaver to solve. As it turns out, the man wants him to look into the death of his father, who supposedly committed suicide. But what piques Weaver's interest is that the visitor also suggests that the "accidental" death of Weaver's own father may have indeed been murder.  Weaver had been estranged from his father and family, but with the promise of needed cash, and some curiosity, Weaver agrees to take on the case, even though he realizes that he will have to return to his family at some point.  As he begins looking into both deaths, he becomes involved in a "conspiracy of paper," involving the stock market, the Bank of England and the South Seas Company. He has no idea who to trust in this murky world of deals and double dealing, coffeehouses, gaming clubs and back-alley pubs, and often finds himself at the wrong end of a knife as he realizes that it is not in anyone's interest for plots and conspiracies to be exposed.

The author has obviously done an immense amount of research both in terms of  1700s London and in the treacherous dealings of the early stock market. The book starts off a bit slow as the reader is introduced to the main character and the London environs, but soon picks up and moves very quickly. Liss does a fine job with characterizations but his real skill is in developing a plot which is like being in a labyrinth -- as Weaver starts down one path, assured that he's got it figured out, he comes to a point where he is either at a dead end or there's another branch to follow. Watching him work his way out of the maze of intrigue and murder is what makes this book. I do have to confess that I had part of it worked out early on, but the journey was fun.

I would recommend it to people who enjoy historical fiction or mysteries set in historical periods. Not a cozy by any stretch of the imagination, A Conspiracy of Paper is a book that requires your full attention, and rewards you for sticking with it.

Smilla's Sense of Snow, by Peter Høeg

Smilla's Sense of Snow is a book I read when it first came out, but having recently TiVo'd the movie (and stopping it before the end), I realized that I wanted to read it again.

The book starts with the death of a little boy, Isaiah, who lives in the same building as Smilla Jaspersen in Copenhagen with his alcoholic mother.  He had plunged from the roof of the building, leaving behind only footprints. Smilla, knowing that Isaiah had a fear of heights, and examining the footprints, realized that there's no way that Isaiah would be on the roof intentionally...so she begins to try to sort out the mystery of what happened. Her investigations take her into the dark and dangerous world of corporate secrets and conspiracies, but even with her freedom and life at stake, she has to get to the bottom of it all. But that's not all there is to this book. It's also an examination and critique of life in Greenland both before and after Denmark granted the Greenlanders home rule in 1979 as well as an attempt to understand environmental changes affecting Greenland.

While the mystery starts out strong (I enjoy a good conspiracy-type thriller to a point), what really carries this book is Smilla's character -- she's like an early Lisbeth Salander (from The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) who doesn't let anyone get in her way. Smilla is a misfit and has an affinity for other misfits, and like the later Lisbeth, has her own sense of morality and justice.  The thriller part of this book will keep you reading, but at some point it becomes kind of science-fiction-ish which for me was a bit of a problem. However, it's very readable and you won't want to give it up until it's over.

I'd recommend it mostly to fans of Scandinavian crime fiction. It's not your average thriller/suspense type of novel, and people who could care less about Greenland politics, culture and science may find it a little tough going. Otherwise, it's a good way to spend a few hours.

The Man from Beijing, by Henning Mankell

The opening scenes of this book are positively chilling, when at first a hungry wolf, away from its pack, is searching for food around the tiny village of Hesjövallen and chances upon a human leg. Then later, a researcher looking into the phenomenon of small towns and villages that are simply dying out stumbles upon the scene of a massacre -- with the exception of three people, everyone there has been gruesomely murdered. The only clue: a red ribbon that someone has left behind in the snow.  In charge of the investigation is one Vivian Sundberg.  Sundberg crosses paths with a judge named Birgitta Roslin, currently on sick leave for high blood pressure issues,  who reads about the slaughter in her local newspaper and realizes that the victims included her mother's foster parents. Birgitta wants to help the police, and as she goes to volunteer her information, she has unknowingly already started down a most dangerous path.

Now, if things had launched from that point in the usual Mankell style, I would have been reading with the usual high level of suspense tension that his works generally produce. However, Mankell seems to have some issues he wants to deal with, apart from just the decaying state of Swedish society. He takes the reader into a discussion of current philosophical divisiveness regarding  the future direction of the People's Republic of China, going from there into the plight of parts of post-colonial Africa, and although it all does tie into the story line, you sort of get the feeling that you're getting lectured to here at times.  And although eventually things do come full circle, the getting there just wasn't done in the usual Mankell style. The motivation of the bad guy didn't seem realistic, and neither did some of the actions of Birgitta, since she is supposedly someone who is meant to uphold the law. And there are a few too many coincidences at work in this novel.

Perhaps it's not fair  to judge this book based on others that the author has written, but you can't really help it in the long run. I love Mankell's work (and I've read a LOT of his books), but this one just didn't do it for me. But, since it's getting rave reviews at a lot of places, don't just take my word for it. I'm just one person swimming against the tide of popular opinion.

Box 21, by Anders Roslund and Borge Hellstrom

Having read somewhere that fans of Girl With the Dragon Tattoo would also like this book, I picked it up. It's nothing like Stieg Larsson's book at all.  In his novel, there's a mystery to be had as well as a strong heroine who lives by her own inner sense of morality and never wavers. Here, what you've got is a police procedural, a story of revenge and betrayal, and at its heart, an ethical and moral dilemma. That's not to say that this isn't a good book (it is), but it's a different animal altogether than Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. 


The main focus of this novel  centers around the sex-slave trade. Young girls Lydia Grajauskas and Alena Sljusareva lived in Lithuania until promises of good jobs in Sweden brought them there, only to realize the first night on the boat trip to their new home that they had been horribly misled. They find themselves locked in the rooms of a house, prisoners, kept there by a nasty piece of work named Dmitri, brutalized into submission and forced to perform twelve times a day for various regular clientele.  Their situation has lasted three years and comes to a head one day, bringing the police into the situation, beginning a story that will absolutely make you cringe and want to look away as you read it. But you can't.

Aside from Lydia and Alena, the main characters in the novel are policemen, especially  Ewert Grens, a detective who has been obsessively gunning for a criminal named Jochum Lang who years earlier, caused Grens' partner Anni to live in a permanent state of brain damage and to be confined to a wheelchair. Grens is a puzzle to his co-workers -- his crime-solving rate is high, and he's good at his job, but since Anni's accident, he's been a loner, spending his time as a chronic workaholic, finding some solace in the music of a pop singer from the 1960s. As Grens works the case involving Lydia and Alena, he comes into possession of some  information that leads him to a critical juncture both in his life and in his career. His partner, Sundqvist, can't figure out what's going on until an order from above sends him off to find out the truth.

This is a dark book all the way through to the last page, which actually made my blood run cold. There are no feel-good or warm fuzzy moments here, no happy endings, and you will definitely have food for thought after you've finished. It's well written, the plotlines hang together well and all in all it is a great read.
I'd recommend it to people who like Scandinavian crime fiction, or crime fiction in general on a somewhat more gritty level than the usual fare.

Author debut: Mania, by Craig Larsen

To make this whole thing perfectly fair, the author contacted me (via goodreads) and asked me if I'd like to read a copy of his book. I didn't turn him down.  I also told him that I'd review it here -- I don't believe a solicitation was made on his end.  As it turns out, this one I happened to like, and I am not just saying that because he sent me a copy. I'm a picky enough reader that  I'm out of the habit of accepting just any book from anyone.  Trust me. I have a pile of ARCs sitting on the floor of my closet that I started to read and put down because they were sooooo bad that I couldn't make it past the first chapter. But that's not the case here.

When I read a suspense/mystery novel, I know I'm into it and liking it when the author keeps me in a state of suspended tension throughout the book. Mania had me so wrapped up that I started it shortly after dinner and didn't stop reading it until I had finished.

Actually, I thought this book was quite a fun read, and consider that this isn't my usual fare, I think that says a lot.


The main character, Nick Wilder, is a photographer for the Seattle Telegraph, and is generally on hand to collect shots other papers can't get.  He was young when his parents died, and came to depend on his brother Sam, with whom he has always been very close. One night after he and Sam were together in downtown Seattle, Nick and Sam are attacked by a rough-looking homeless man. Nick comes out of it with a few injuries, but Sam is dead, Nick's a bit cloudy on what exactly happened, and as you go through the book, he continues to flash back on that episode, as well as others that haunt him. Nick's girlfriend Sara tries to ease his fears but he's still uneasy. There's much more to the novel, but it's hard to summarize without giving away the show.

The dark atmosphere of this novel is reflective of Nick's internal darkness throughout. The author's writing and the level of suspense he creates  will keep you reading. It was fun as a reader to try and piece together events playing out in Nick's mind while trying to figure out what's really going on. Don't let the flashbacks and returns to the present bother you -- they're necessary to the overall story and the author pulls it off  so you shouldn't be confused, although this issue of the flashbacks was what most reviewers tended to complain about. I see that a lot in books with flashbacks -- it's like for some people if the narrative isn't completely linear, they get easily confused.

Overall, a fun read that I can recommend to suspense & mystery readers.

I can highly recommend this novel. If you like to read suspense or mysteries,  this book is one you should not miss.

*The Red Dahlia, by Lynda LaPlante

The Red Dahlia is second in a series to feature DI Anna Travis, behind Above Suspicion, which I own but haven't yet read, although I don't think I missed anything.  This was an outstanding mystery novel...perfect pace, building suspense throughout, characters that seemed real, and a story that kept me reading until I finished the book.

While out delivering the last of his newspapers, a young boy makes a gruesome discovery.  The police arrive and discover the body of a young woman, severed in half, bloodless, and with grotesque cuts on either side of her mouth.  One of the local newspapers gets an anonymous letter that relates the case to the old unsolved case of the Black Dahlia in Los Angeles, and Anna Travis and her team realize that they have their work cut out for them. Anna's gov, Morgan, is hospitalized, and DCI James Langton, with whom Anna had worked before and with whom she had some history, takes the lead in investigating the case. A profiler brought in to help realizes that the killer is going to strike again if the police do not find him, but the police have their hands full just trying to find out about the victim. 

The novel is absolutely a mystery lover's novel. The first half of the book involves the team getting up to speed with the Black Dahlia case and trying to find out as much as they can about the victim, while the second half is all about locating the killer after an anonymous caller reluctantly leaves information about the murder.  The mystery is very tightly plotted and the writing is excellent.  LaPlante's characterizations are very well drawn, never being dragged down to the level of cardboard cutouts, the action never stops and the payoff is worth the 400+ pages of reading. I can most highly recommend this book -- it is probably one of my favorite mystery reads in a while.

The Thriller and Suspense Challenge at Book Chick City

Now here's an awesome challenge --to read thriller and suspense novels throughout the year. My favorite genre -- how can I possibly go wrong here?  This is absolutely going to be fun.  I have tons of these kinds of books, so let the challenge begin! Come on, play!