“A single man can change the course of history. At the heart of the harshest of its winters, at the heart of the bloodiest war in its history, Finland saw the birth of a legend. The legend of Simo Häyhä, the White Death.”
Three months after the beginning of WWII, in November 1939, the Soviet Union invaded their tiny and relatively defenceless neighbour Finland. So began what is known as the Winter War. Against overwhelming odds the makeshift Finnish army not only resisted the Red Army, they forced it to offer terms for peace.
Olivier Norek’s breathtaking novel is the story of one company at the heart of the defence of its country in the face of a horrific invasion. The Russians so far outnumbered their enemy that but for the almost unimaginable folly of their commanders and but for the heroism of the Finnish Army their neighbours would have been overrun. Nor had they taken into account the spirit of the defenders.
There are countless stories of courage and some of unmatched heroism – among them the record of Simo Häyhä, who became known as the White Death and whose skill as a sniper will perhaps never be matched.
In November 1944, in the worst winter ever known in Bologna, less than a year since the founding of the Republic of Salò, the bomb-scarred streets are filled with starving refugees who have fled the advancing Allies. The Fascist Black Brigades, the officers of the S.S. and the partisans of the Italian Resistance compete for control in bloody warfare.
Comandante De Luca, once “the most brilliant investigative officer in Bologna” and now working for the Political Police in a building that doubles as a torture facility, finds himself in over his head when three murders land on his desk: a professor shot through the eye, an engineer beaten to death, and a German corporal left to be gnawed on by rats in a flooded cellar.
Losing sleep and his peace of mind, De Luca must close all three cases with ten lives on the line: the Italian hostages who will face a Nazi firing squad if the corporal’s killing is not solved to their satisfaction. As he threads his way through a web of personal and political motivations, risking his life with every step, De Luca will uncover to his own cost the secrets awaiting him in the frozen heart of Bologna.
Carlo Lucarelli was born in Parma in 1960. While researching for his thesis on the history of Italian law enforcement, he became intrigued by the Italian police force’s role in the political upheavals of the 1940s during and after the Second World War. From this seed sprouted his De Luca trilogy, later to grow into an oeuvre of more than twenty crime novels focusing on various characters. Lucarelli hosted the popular late-night Italian television programme Blu notte misteri d’Italia, on unsolved crimes and mysteries, and he is the founder of the Italian crime-writing collective Gruppo 13. He is also a journalist and has worked for multiple Italian newspapers.
My thoughts: I found this very interesting, I don’t know much about Italy in WW2 apart from the fact that they eventually gave the fascists the boot and joined the Allies, so learning a bit about the history and specifically about Bologna, which had its own complicated situation in the 40s, was good.
I also liked De Luca, he doesn’t exactly relish certain aspects of his job at the political police, he doesn’t participate in torture and would probably prefer to just stay a detective, solving murders, much as he does here. He’s trying to solve several different crimes at once, one written off as a crime of passion, another of a rat chewed German soldier found in the water, a third of a man supposedly with connections to the partisans waging their own war on the occupying force.
There’s wheels within wheels, a spy in the department, a woman who may or may not be a killer, the lives of ten prisoners on the line, lies, half truths and the ever present threat of being arrested himself, just because.
He forms an odd sort of partnership with another officer from the passport office, who might be a member of the resistance, as well as a German lieutenant who wants to find out what the dead soldier did with a load of stolen goods, themselves taken from the people of the city.
There are refugees everywhere, living in strange places amongst the bombed out buildings, a whole community sheltering in a theatre, based on what really happened at the time.
The research that has gone into this book is fascinating, it really brings the past vividly to life, I could picture the streets and the soldiers, the air of menace and fear, the scurrying people trying to avoid notice.
De Luca is a brilliant detective, he slowly builds his cases, contending all the while with the complex and delicate political situation, with the genuine risks to his own life if someone isn’t happy with his answers.
If you like historic crime fiction, or any combination of those genres, this is definitely worth reading.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Snowblind – 10th Anniversary edition, including NEW Dark Iceland series prequel, Fadeout.
Siglufjörður: an idyllically quiet fishing village in Northern Iceland, where no one locks their doors – accessible only via a small mountain tunnel. Ari Thór Arason: a rookie policeman on his first posting, far from his girlfriend in Reykjavik – with a past that he’s unable to leave behind. When a young woman is found lying half-naked in the snow, bleeding and unconscious, and a highly esteemed, elderly writer falls to his death in the local theatre, Ari is dragged straight into the heart of a community where he can trust no one, and secrets and lies are a way of life.
An avalanche and unremitting snowstorms close the mountain pass, and the 24-hour darkness threatens to push Ari over the edge, as curtains begin to twitch, and his investigation becomes increasingly complex, chilling and personal. Past plays tag with the present and the claustrophobic tension mounts, while Ari is thrust ever deeper into his own darkness – blinded by snow, and with a killer on the loose.
Taut and terrifying, Snowblind is a startling debut from an extraordinary new talent, taking Nordic Noir to soaring new heights.
You may remember I reviewed the hardback version of this book a while ago, and now I am sharing the gorgeous paperback cover. Look at it! Isn’t it gorgeous. Order a copy at the link below.
The only sin is betrayal…
It is the year 1715, and Thomas True has arrived on old London Bridge with a dangerous secret. One night, lost amongst the squalor of London’s hidden back streets, he finds himself drawn into the outrageous underworld of the molly houses. Meanwhile, carpenter Gabriel Griffin struggles to hide his double life as Lotty, the molly’s stoic guard. When a young man is found murdered, he realises there is a rat amongst them, betraying their secrets to a pair of murderous Justices. Can Gabriel unmask the traitor before they hang? Can he save hapless Thomas from peril, and their own forbidden love? Set amidst the buried streets of Georgian London, The Betrayal of Thomas True is a brutal and devastating thriller, where love must overcome evil, and the only true sin is betrayal…
Imagine you knew exactly when you were going to die…
Robin Edmund Blake is halfway through his life. Born in 1986, when Halley’s Comet crossed the sky, he is destined to go out with it, when it returns in 2061. Until that day, he can’t die. He has proof. With his future mapped out in minute detail, a lucrative but increasingly dull job in the City of London, and Gemma to share his life with, Robin has a plan to be remembered forever.
But when Robin’s sick father has one accident too many, the plan starts to unravel. Robin must return home to the tiny seaside town of Eastgate, learn to care for the man who never really cared for him, and face the childhood ghosts he fled decades ago.
Desperate to get his life back on schedule, he connects with fellow outsider Astrid. Brutally direct, sharp-witted and a professor at a nearby university, she’s unlike anyone he’s ever met. But Astrid is hiding something and someone from Robin and he’s hiding even more from her.
Katie Allen was a journalist and columnist at Guardian and Observer, starting her career as a Reuters correspondent in Berlin and London. Her warmly funny, immensely moving literary debut novel, Everything Happens for a Reason, was based on her own devastating experience of stillbirth and was a number-one digital bestseller, with wide critical acclaim. Katie grew up in Warwickshire and now lives in South London with her family.
My thoughts: I am the same age as Robin, we’re both 1986 babies, but the comet didn’t cross the sky on my birthday. Robin believes he is destined to live until Halley’s Comet returns in 2061. It’s very specific, and Mark Twain-ish. He’s got spreadsheets and everything.
But then his plans are knocked off course by his father requiring more care than the local council can provide, and he returns home to the small town he couldn’t wait to leave. His best friend Danny is still there, and as the two men reconnect, Robin has a lot to think about.
He also meets Astrid, who teaches German literature at the university, and who he forms a connection with, from rude garden gnomes to Kafka. She’s got a few secrets and doesn’t believe in pre-destination. So it’s not all smooth sailing.
Robin starts asking people what they’d do if they knew exactly when they were going to die. The answers range from the obvious – holiday of a lifetime, splurge, quit my job, to the more insightful. As he explores ideas around death and living, Robin stops keeping his spreadsheets and perhaps finally starts living in the moment.
Moving (there are some very sad bits), thought provoking, challenging but also very readable and enjoyable, this was an interesting and engaging book.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Living in exile in Venice, the disgraced Lord Byron revels in the freedoms of the city. But when he is associated with the deaths of local women, found with wounds to their throats, and then a novel called The Vampyre is published under his name, rumours begin to spread that Byron may be the murderer…
As events escalate and tensions rise – and his own life is endangered, as well as those he holds most dear – Byron is forced to play detective, to discover who is really behind these heinous crimes. Meanwhile, the scandals of his own infamous past come back to haunt him…
Rich in gothic atmosphere and drawing on real events and characters from Byron’s life, Dangerous is a riveting, dazzling historical thriller, as decadent, dark and seductive as the poet himself…
Essie Fox was born and raised in rural Herefordshire, which inspires much of her writing. After studying English Literature at Sheffield University, she moved to London where she worked for the Telegraph Sunday Magazine, and then book publishers George Allen & Unwin, before becoming self-employed in the world of art and design.
Essie now spends her time writing historical gothic novels. Her debut, The Somnambulist, was shortlisted for the National Book Awards, and featured on Channel 4’s TV Book Club. The Last Days of Leda Grey, set in the early years of silent film, was selected as The Times Historical Book of the Month. Essie’s Victorian gothic novel, The Fascination, debuted at number 10 on the Sunday Times bestseller list, and was widely acclaimed.
Essie is also the creator of the popular blog: The Virtual Victorian. She has lectured on this era at the V&A, and the National Gallery in London. She lives in Windsor.
My thoughts: Growing up in Harrow, I developed a soft spot for Lord George Gordon Byron – who spent some of his happiest years at the eponymous school up on the Hill. His daughter, Allegra is buried there and there is a memorial plaque to him on the lookout point. He would have been buried there too, except the vicar at the time refused.
Essie Fox’s book explores some of his time in exile in Venice. Allegra was sent by her mother (Claire Claremont, Mary Shelley’s step-sister) to live with him, his servants and his collection of cantankerous pets (monkeys do not belong in palazzos).
Byron is weary, jaded and working on Don Juan, which will only add to Lady Caroline Lamb’s (another former mistress) assessment of his as “mad, bad, and dangerous to know”.
Dr John Polidori, once Byron’s personal physician, has resurfaced, and a lot of people mistake him for the English poet, despite the lack of a limp (Byron’s club foot was pretty noticeable). His book The Vampyre, inspired by a scrap Byron wrote on the infamous Lake Geneva trip with the Shelleys, is also being touted as Byron’s. Which sends him into a fury. How can anyone compare the two?
Then a young woman is found murdered outside a salon Byron attended, there are claims that he is a vampire, that Polidori’s book is Byron’s autobiography in disguise. Especially after another young prostitute is killed, while Byron sleeps beside her, in a brothel.
Byron knows he is no killer, but someone is out to frame him. He is arrested, thrown in gaol, unable to prove his innocence. Thankfully his good friend Hobhouse has come to visit, and with Polidori’s help, he escapes and begins to investigate these claims against him. They seem to centre on two women – a Countess and a courtesan turned brothel keeper. With the help of those loyal to him, gondolier Tita, an orphan he has taken in, and even a former mistress, he resolves to expose his enemies, clear his name and rescue Allegra who has fallen into the clutches of his nemesis.
This is a very clever, very enjoyable book, making much of a short episode in Byron’s not very long, but very eventful life. It is only a few years before he will die in Greece, pursuing another adventure. He comes across much more sympathetically than he is often characterised. His biographers aren’t very fond of him, admittedly he was a terrible cad. But the Byron here is a loving father, a kind man, fond of children and animals, hopeless with women, loyal to his friends. It’s an interesting version of the infamous Lord.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Ruth is a law-abiding elder, working out her national service, but she has secrets. Her tireless research into the disease that killed her young daughter had an unexpected outcome: the discovery of a vaccine against old age. Just one jab a year reverses your biological clock, guaranteeing a long, healthy life.
But Ruth’s cure was hijacked by her colleague, Erik Grundleger, who hungers for immortality, and the SuperJuve – a premium upgrade – was created, driving human lifespan to a new high. The wealthy elite who take it are dubbed Supers, and the population begins to skyrocket. Then, a perilous side-effect of the SuperJuve emerges, with catastrophic consequences, and as the planet is threatened, the population rebels, and laws are passed to restore order: life ends at 120. Supers are tracked down by Omnicide investigators like Mara … and executed…
Mara has her own reasons for hunting Supers, and she forms an unlikely alliance with Ruth to find Grundleger. But Grundleger has been working on something even more radical and is one step ahead, with a deadly surprise in store for them both…
Eve Smith writes speculative thrillers, mainly about the things that scare her.
Longlisted for the Not the Booker Prize and described by Waterstones as ‘an exciting new voice in crime fiction’, Eve’s debut novel, The Waiting Rooms, set in the aftermath of an antibiotic resistance crisis, was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize First Novel Award and was a Book of the Month in the Guardian, who compared her writing to Michael Crichton’s.
It was followed by Off-Target, about a world where genetic engineering of children is routine, and ONE, about survival in a world ravaged by climate change.
Eve’s previous job at an environmental charity took her to research projects across Asia, Africa and the Americas, and she has an ongoing passion for wild creatures, wild science and far-flung places. She lives in Oxfordshire with her family.
My thoughts: Eve Smith likes to write books that give you the creeps, and this one is no different. Scientists have discovered a “cure” to ageing, essentially to death, but of course there’s an evil scientist and his billionaire backers who want to live forever – even if it does send you psychotic and mean you have to be put down by law enforcement like a rabid raccoon.
Ruth was one of those scientists, but she was searching for a cure for a rare disease, one that killed her own daughter, not eternal youth. A colleague took her formula and now chaos. Those who can afford it extend their lives, while those who can’t continue to die at the same rate. There is hatred from the have-nots that spills over into violence as poverty sky rockets, resources are stretched to their utter limits. New rules are introduced to manage resources and keep the world turning, but the rogue scientists are still out there and more dangerous than ever.
Teaming up with an investigator, Mara, Ruth heads to Jamaica on the trail of her nemesis. He supposedly died with the rest of his team in an explosion, but they’ve recently learnt that’s not true, and a sighting of one of his associates, has them on the move.
They will learn the extreme lengths this dangerous man has gone to and fight for their lives, and the future of humanity.
And I will have nightmares. Because honestly, if this was a real thing, I can easily imagine certain individuals being very keen on this and wrecking utter havoc with it. More so than they already are.
It was a really good read, but not a particularly settling one. So be prepared.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Expert on body language and memory, and consultant to the Oslo BOOKS Police, psychologist Kari Voss sleepwalks through her days, and, by night, continues the devastating search for her young son, who disappeared on his birthday, seven years earlier.
Still grieving for her dead husband, and trying to pull together the pieces of her life, she is thrust into a shocking local investigation, when two teenage girls are violently murdered in a family summer home in the nearby village of Son. When a friend of the victims is charged with the barbaric killings, it seems the case is closed, but Kari is not convinced. Using her skills and working on instinct, she conducts her own enquiries, leading her to multiple suspects, including people who knew the dead girls well…
With the help of Chief Constable Ramona Norum, she discovers that no one – including the victims – are what they seem. And that there is a dark secret at the heart of Son village that could have implications not just for her own son’s disappearance, but Kari’s own life, too…
Known as the Queen of French Noir, Johana Gustawsson is one of France’s most highly regarded, award-winning authors, recipient of the prestigious Cultura Ligue de l`Imaginaire Award for her historical thriller Yule Island. Number-one bestselling books include Block 46, Keeper, Blood Song and The Bleeding. Johana lives in Sweden with her family.
A former journalist, Thomas Enger is the number-one bestselling author of the Henning Juul series and, with co-author Jørn Lier Horst, the international bestselling Blix & Ramm series. One of the biggest proponents of the Nordic Noir genre, his books have been translated into twenty-eight languages. He lives in Oslo.
My thoughts: I knew from the authors that this was going to be good, gripping and shocking. There are lots of different sons in this book, from Kari’s, missing for seven years, to the suspect, whose parents don’t seem remotely interested in him, as friends and other connected people.
The town where two teenage girls are brutally murdered is called Son, it’s quiet, not many full time residents, and they’re planning a Halloween party, but someone decides to stop them from ever having a good time. The police arrest an acquaintance of theirs, who admits to being in the house, having been invited to bring over some drugs, but says he’s innocent. The detectives don’t believe him. Kari does. She analyses his body language, those nonverbal clues that say a lot more than words.
So she starts digging. Digging into the lives of the two victims, into the lives of their families and friends. She learns a lot of secrets – affairs, money troubles, blackmail. But are any of them bad enough to kill over? Or is it something she can’t even yet guess at?
This is a real page turner – each revelation and twist kept me hooked. Kari is an interesting character, she goes against her police colleagues, determined that the science proves she’s right and that somewhere in all the evidence she uncovers, will be the answer, the reason why two young women were brutally killed. And in helping the suspect, her lost son’s best friend, maybe she can find some peace too.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Struggling to separate her dreams from reality, a young woman investigates the disappearance of her sister ten years earlier … worried that she might be next. A breathtaking, twisty standalone thriller from the international bestselling author of the Forbidden Iceland series…
**WINNER of the Blood Drop Award for Iceland’s Best Crime Novel of the Year**
**SHORTLISTED for the Glass Key Award for Best Nordic Crime Novel**
November, 1967, Iceland. Fourteen-year-old Marsi has a secret penpal – a boy who lives on the other side of the country – but she has been writing to him in her older sister’s name. Now she is excited to meet him for the first time.
But when the date arrives, Marsi is prevented from going, and during the night her sister Stína goes missing – her bloodstained anorak later found at the place where Marsi and her penpal had agreed to meet.
November, 1977. Stína’s disappearance remains unsolved. Then an unexpected letter arrives for Marsi. It’s from her penpal, and he’s still out there…
Desperate for news of her missing sister, but terrified that he might coming after her next, Marsi returns to her hometown and embarks on an investigation of her own.
But Marsi has always had trouble distinguishing her vivid dreams from reality, and as insomnia threatens her sanity, it seems she can’t even trust her own memories … and her sister’s killer is still on the loose…
Twisty, dark and utterly chilling, Home Before Dark is a breathtakingly accomplished psychological thriller where nothing and no one are what they seem, and smouldering secrets from the past reach into a present where everything is at risk, including Marsi’s life……
When nineteen-year-old Iselin Hanssen disappears during a run in a popular hiking area in Bodø, Northern Norway, suspicion quickly falls on her boyfriend.
For investigator Jakob Weber, the case seems clear-cut, almost unexceptional, even though there is some suggestion that Iselin lived parts of her life beneath the radar of both family and friends.
But events take a dramatic turn when another woman disappears in similar circumstances – this time on the island of Røst, hundreds of miles off the Norwegian coast, in the wild ocean. Rumours that a killer is on the loose begin to spread, terrifying the local population and leading to wild conspiracies.
But then Jakob discovers that this isn’t the first time that young women have vanished without a trace in the region, and it becomes clear that someone is hiding something. And another murderous spree may have just begun…
Ørjan Karlsson (b. 1970) grew up in Bodø, in the far north of Norway. A sociologist by education, he received officer training in the army and has taken part in many missions overseas. He has worked at the Ministry of Defence and is now head of department in the Norwegian Directorate for Civil Protection. He has written a wide range of thrillers, sci-fi novels and crime fiction, and been shortlisted for or won numerous awards, with a number of his books currently in production for the screen. He lives in Nordland, where the Jakob Weber crime series is set, and Into Thin Air is the first book in his first detective/police procedural series.
My thoughts: This was a really good, tense crime thriller, with lots of twists and shocking moments, totally gripping.
Set in northern Norway, where the midnight sun makes detective Noora unable to sleep, a young woman goes missing while out on a run. As the police start to investigate her disappearance, questioning her friends and on/off boyfriend, another woman goes missing, but on a small island. Is this the same culprit?
The team step up their investigation, looking for both missing women, and find it has happened before, some years ago. Was it the island’s odd duck doctor or someone else, easily overlooked by the community?
It’s a race against time, the longer the women are gone, the more likely it is they’ll end up dead. When even lead detective Jakob’s dog Garm gets involved, because dogs make excellent investigators, and they’re beginning to lose hope, finally the clues start to stack up and the team have their suspects. Or do they?
An excellent and exciting new voice in translated crime fiction, I cannot wait to read more.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 