Ratking

 

Ratking by Michael Dibdin  266 pp.

This is the first book in the Aurelio Zen mystery series. Zen whose police career has stalled after an unsuccessful kidnapping case and he's stuck in a dead-end office job within the Rome police. Zen is a dark and brooding character with a chip on his shoulder, trying to redeem himself with this investigation. When no one else is available, Zen is sent to Perugia in Umbria to investigate the kidnapping of a powerful industrialist named Ruggerio Miletti. The family has paid a ransom but the kidnappers want more. Zen's investigations reveal dysfunction and dissention within the Miletti family and he suspects this isn't a "typical" Italian kidnapping. The death of Ruggerio after he was released by the kidnappers turns the tale into a murder mystery. The family are suspect, but who fired the deadly bullet? 

This book was narrated by British actor, Michael Kitchen. While I am a fan of his work in Foyle's War and other television shows and movies, I found his very distinctive voice to be a distraction. I'm sure those not familiar with him will think it is fine.

Jar City

 

Jar City: A Reyjavik Thriller by Arnaldur Indridason 278 pp.

Inspector Erlandur Sveinsson and his team investigate the murder of a man in his home. The more they dig into the man's history in hope of a clue to the murderer, the more awful things they learn about the victim. The least of the awful things is his history as a rapist and the consequences of those rapes on his victims. In addition to the murder investigation, Erlandur is unofficially investigating a runaway bride who happens to be known by his daughter. There's a lot of sordid stuff in this well written mystery. I've read a couple others by this author and will seek out more.

Silence of the Grave

Silence of the Grave by Arnaldur Indriðason, translated from Icelandic by Bernard Scudder 293 pp.

This is the second book in the Inspector Erlendur Sveinsson mystery series. A skeleton is discovered at a construction site in a remote area outside Reykjavik, where there was once a WWII military base. Because nothing is known about the body it is being treated as both a crime scene and a possible archaeological find. As the body is slowly unearthed by the archaeology crew, Erlendur and his staff begin investigating the possible crime. The story flashes back to the past with the stories of an abused wife and the missing fiancé of a local resident. The investigation is hampered by the slowness of digging out the skeleton which prevents them from knowing if it is of a man or woman. Meanwhile Erlendur's once estranged, drug addicted daughter is in a coma after losing the baby she was carrying. He splits his time between the investigation and hours sitting at the hospital. This is one of those stories where you think you have solved it, then you don't, then you think you were right previously, but then you change your mind . . . . I've read one other in this series and plan to read more.

Dressed for Death

Dressed for Death/The Anonymous Venetian (Commissario Brunetti #3) by Donna Leon  287 pp.

Commissario Guido Brunetti hopes for a vacation are disrupted by the discovery of a dead man's body lying in a field in Marghera, on the mainland. The dead man is dressed in the clothing of a woman but  Brunetti suspects that was done after death. While questioning the local male prostitutes he finds his investigation stymied by an influential lawyer whose connection to the crime seems tenuous. In a side plot, Brunetti's boss is dealing with the breakup of his marriage when his wife leaves him for a porn movie producer. And just how the Lega della Moralita (League of Morality) and the Bank of Verona ties in with it all adds another layer to the investigation. This is my new favorite mystery series. That I blogged two books in a row with male prostitutes as a theme is purely serendipitous.

The Poet

The Poet by Michael Connelly  510 pp.

I have never read any of Connelly's books before and I'm not sure I will again. Connelly is the author of the Harry Bosch series. This was the first in a series featuring reporter Jack McEvoy. The premise and story are intriguing but the execution is long and drawn out. McEvoy's police detective twin brother commits suicide but McEvoy has a hard time believing it. His investigations turn up a series of other officer suicides all with connections to vicious murders being investigated by those officers. The suicide notes left by the officers all feature quotes from Edgar Allan Poe. McEvoy works with the FBI in finding the killer who has connections to a network of pedophiles. Of course, there is a love interest and an unexpected twist at the end. It just seemed as if the story would never end and I was ready for it to be done about 150 pages before it finally did. The audiobook was well narrated by Buck Schirner.

Death in a Strange Country

Death in a Strange Country (Commissario Guido Brunetti book 2) by Donna Leon  373 pp.

Commissario Guido Brunetti is awakened at 5 a.m. by a call about a body floating in one of the Venetian canals. The body is that of an American soldier stationed at the base in Vincenza. Once jurisdiction issues are worked out, Brunetti is in charge of the investigation. His boss wants the case closed quickly and keeps insisting it was just a mugging but Brunetti keeps finding more evidence pointing in a different direction. When an army doctor dies of a supposed overdose, Brunetti knows there are other forces at work that are being covered up by the military. A second crime, the art theft & assault at a wealthy industrialist's palazzo points to a repeat offender Brunetti send to prison in the past. In the end, Brunetti is angered by the miscarriage of justice perpetrated by his bosses and the military officials but vigilante justice from an unexpected source and some quiet assistance from his father-in-law, Count Falier, puts him in a much better mood. I am enjoying this series and plan to continue reading it.

Death at La Fenice

Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon  270 pp.

This is the first book in the Commissario Guido Brunetti series by Leon. Brunetti is a Venetian police detective and the story has a distinct Italian flavor. A famous conductor is found dead in his dressing room between acts of the opera "La Traviata", poisoned by cyanide in his coffee. There is a diverse list of suspects including the soprano singing the lead, the opera director, the conductors wife, and a creepy old woman who was once an opera singer, among others. Because of the high profile of the case, Brunetti's superior is keeping a close (and annoying) eye on the progress of the investigation. After many dead ends, Brunetti discovers the truth and the case is solved in a not particularly satisfying way. However, I enjoyed the interplay of the characters and am likely to read more in the series. I downloaded the ebook from Overdrive. 

Still Life

Still Life by Louise Penny  312 pp.

This is the first of the Inspector Gamache mysteries. In a small Quebec town, a retired schoolteacher dies in the woods of an arrow wound. Gamache of the Surêté de Québec and his team are called in to investigate. Most belief the death was a hunting accident as it is bow season for deer. As more and more details are uncovered it seems that someone had planned a cunning murder made to look like an accident. Meanwhile Gamache also has to contend with a troublesome new addition to his team of investigators. It is a well written, with interesting characters, and a story that is not blood & guts gory. All in all a nice light read.

Nemesis

Nemesis by Jo Nesbø  474 pp.

This was my first attempt at a book by this popular author and I had hopes that I might find a new series in the police procedural/thriller genre. Unfortunately I was disappointed by this book. Detective Harry Hole is a stereotypical police detective with a drinking problem. A young artist is found dead of an apparent suicide the day after Hole had a date with her - a date that he doesn't remember the end of due to a drunken blackout. Hole doesn't believe it was suicide and begins unofficially investigating while also officially working on a bank robbery and murder. Maybe I've just read too many of this type of story, but this one seemed predictable and I debated even finishing it.

The Secret Place

The Secret Place by Tana French, 452 pages.
Tana French is such a good writer. Often I will find myself not wanting to read another book by an author because I loved one book so much and I don't want to be disappointed. I think that this is mostly With French and some other authors it has been a bit different; the first book seems pretty good, and each subsequent book is better. This one has an interesting story; a boy died last year at an exclusive girl's school. His body was found on the grounds, but the case was never solved. A student at St. Kilda's, Holly Mackey, who is also the daughter of the Murder Squad's  boss, finds a note that claims that someone knows who killed the young man. When she turns the note in to Stephen Moran, an officer she admires / trusts, he is able to use this to get assigned to the case along with Antoinette Conway. Conway, a very good detective, has been having a difficult time gaining the trust of or trusting her fellow detectives. It is these two detectives, these two well-drawn characters who make the story even more interesting. Narrated by Stephen Hagan and Lara Hutchinson.

Rain Dogs

Rain Dogs by Adrian McKinty

The fourth of the Detective Sean Duffy novels begins with a fictional account of Muhammad Ali’s visit to Belfast. And while this did not actually happen (there’s an explanation in the afterword), this book, like the others in the series, is firmly grounded in 1980s Belfast. What starts with the missing wallet of a member of a Swedish trade mission and moves on to the mysterious suicide of a financial reporter ends up with the beginnings uncovering of a ring of pedophiles that rocked Ireland and Great Britain. Sean tries to balance the awful discoveries he makes with the chaos of his private life. Well-written and engaging, maybe not the best of the Duffy novels, but still a lot better than most crime fiction.

Knots and Crosses

Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin  256 pp.

Inspector John Rebus of the Edinburgh Police suffers from what we now call PTSD from his time in Britain's elite SAS. He has never talked of his experiences to anyone. Now the policeman is receiving mysterious crank letters that he is ignoring. He is also part of the investigation into a series of murders of young girls. He soon discovers that the next target is his own daughter, Samantha. Eventually a connection between a horrific episode in his SAS career and the serial killings is made and he must race the clock to find his daughter before she too is killed. There is a side plot involving Rebus' stage hypnotist brother and a relentless new reporter who wants to bring down the Rebus brothers. This is a police procedural with interesting twists and a satisfying mystery.

Police at the station and they don't look friendly

Police at the station and they don't look friendly / Adrian McKinty, 319 pgs. Read by Gerard Doyle

Sean Duffy is one of those cops who will do what is "right," rules be damned!  The kind of cop I love to read about.  When a drug dealer ends up dead, he is investigating even though there is evidence that the crime is IRA related and thus will probably not ever be solved.  But Sean isn't going to let that stop him.  He starts putting together a theory and the more he digs, the more he sees this case is something bigger.  Throw in a couple of assassination attempts, a  blackmail scheme and some heavy drinking and you have the making of a perfect cop story.  This is part of a series and normally I hate not starting at the beginning, but I will certainly go back and fix this soon.  Narrator Gerard Doyle is an award winner and I can see why, he does a wonderful job and the pacing makes you want to feed one cd after the other.

The First Four Sean Duffy Novels and then the Sixth

The Cold Cold Ground 320 pages
I Hear Sirens in the Street 256 pages
In the Morning I'll Be Gone 314 pages
Gun Street Girl 311 pages
Police at the Station and They Don't Look Friendly 319 pages
All by Adrian McKinty.
Detective Sean Duffy joined the Royal Ulster Constabulary shortly after Bloody Sunday. To a lot of people that seemed like an odd thing for a Roman Catholic to do, especially since he had first tried to join the IRA. But Duffy's not a man who is much moved by what other people think. This attitude repeatedly causes him trouble with his higher ups, and as the seriers progresses, with British intelligence, the FBI, random IRA kill-teams, UVF kill-teams and most of the women he dates, and maybe one young man he meets in a highway rest-stop bathroom. Duffy drinks too much (even for a Northern Irish Peeler), smokes too much weed, and cuts a lot of corners. When describing himself Duffy says he's plodding instead of brilliant, he's aware that other
Well-written, with great dialogue, a terrific (as far as I know) sense of Belfast and the surrounding area in the 1980's and tight, intricate plotting throughout. Strongly recommended to fans of noir, fans of Ed McBain or Elmore Leonard. Plus, you get McKinty's take (through Duffy's acerbic commentary) on popular music from the 1950s through the 1980s as well as classical music. I'm really glad I found these. I saw Nancy Pearl's recommendation after I was already hooked, so I have to credit Christa for this one. She had a copy of the book on CD and I had to drive for 11 hours. Of the five I have finished, I have listened to 3 of them. They are all read brilliantly by Gerard Doyle. Pretty much everything McKinty has written is available on Hoopla. Check it out.
Now I have to go and finish Rain Dogs.

Before the Frost

Before the Frost by Henning Mankell  384 pp.

In this installment of the Wallender mysteries, Kurt is joined in crime solving by his daughter Linda. Linda is newly graduated from the police academy and due to start working as an officer at the same police station her father works out of. Before she can officially start her job she gets involved in the disappearance of a friend. Linda is just as stubborn and single minded as her father and soon finds herself in over her head. Soon it is realized that Linda's friend, Anna is somehow connected to a religious extremist and a gruesome murder. Linda puts herself in harm's way more than once through her single-minded pursuit of her goals. In the mean time her father is trying hard to cope with the idea of his daughter being a police officer while also "being a dad" and trying to protect her. Because of their similar personalities there a plenty of verbal confrontations between father and daughter. This is far from the best of the series but still an interesting mystery.

The Man Who Smiled

The Man Who Smiled by Henning Mankell  336 pp.

This book is one of the earlier ones in the Kurt Wallender series. Wallender has been on a leave of absence from the Ystad Police Department after a shooting incident that left him shaken and questioning his abilities. He is planning to retire when a friend approaches him about investigating the mysterious death of his father and law partner and is also murdered Wallender abruptly changes his retirement plans to investigate. The pittance of evidence leads him to a millionaire industrialist with a "too clean" reputation. The challenge is to find concrete evidence to charge him. Wallender wades through the investigation and his personal demons with the assistance of a young policewoman who, though being "fresh from the academy" is dedicated and savvy. The ending is a bit lackluster and leaves some unanswered questions. I listened to the audio book version and the narration was not stellar. The recording edits were very obvious and occasionally there were extra noises like the narrator swallowing (!).

The Keeper of Lost Causes

The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen  400 pp.

This is the first of the "Department Q" series by a popular Danish author. Carl MØrck, one time homicide detective has been assigned to a new department handling cold cases. MØrck suffers from PTSD since he was shot in an incident that killed another officer and paralyzed his partner and good friend. Now he is stuck in a basement office with files of cold cases and a Syrian refugee assistant who is efficient at some things, drives insanely, and is quite good at investigation while being a bit of a pest. They settle on investigating the disappearance of a politician five years before while the rest of the police department seeks the murderer of a bicyclist. The politician's disabled brother is the only possible witness to her disappearance but he does not communicate. MØrck's investigation alternates with the story of a woman imprisoned in a hostage situation. There is an ending but it is not a completely happy one. The story has a few confusing spots but I blame that on the translation from Danish. All in all, it's a good mystery/thriller. I listened to the downloaded audio book from Overdrive.

A Possibility of Violence / D.A. Mishani 280 pp.

The second in a series following 2013's The Missing File and featuring Detective Avraham Avraham, or Avi.  This case concerns a fake suitcase bomb left outside a Tel Aviv daycare.  As in the first novel, much of the action concerns Avi coming to understand the psychology of the people involved in this case rather than frantic action, while in the background he deals with a new European girlfriend and difficulties with his police mentor and friend.  Still enjoyable and a nice birds-eye view of day-to-day Israeli life.