Bait in the Box # 10 & Competition

[The charming old suitcase is my own, and a very suitable ´box´ for this week´s competition]

You may have read this English novel without thinking of it as a crime novel. Nevertheless there is a crime which is solved in it, but there is also so much else.

"The girl pulled the hood of a cloak she wore, over her head and over her face, and, looking backward so that the front folds of this hood were turned down the river, kept the boat in that direction going before the tide. Until now, the boat had barely held her own, and had hovered about one spot; but now, the banks changed swiftly, and the deepening shadows and the kindling lights of London Bridge were passed, and the tiers of shipping lay on either hand.

It was not until now that the upper half of the man came back into the boat. His arms were wet and dirty, and he washed them over the side. In his right hand he held something, and he washed that in the river too. It was money. He chinked it once, and he blew upon it once, and he spat upon it once, - ´for luck,´ he hoarsely said - before he put it in his pocket."

If you should choose not to participate in the competition, I am sure the other participants are not against your leaving little, discrete hints of the usual kind.

Rules of the competition: If you are able to guess the author and title of this book, please send a mail to do.hu.ja@mail.tele.dk called ´competition´ with the answers plus your full name and postal address. The competition ends Sunday by midnight (Danish time), and on Monday I will ask a family member to draw the lucky winner.

Prize: a used paperback edition of Sophie Hannah´s great thriller Little Face (a book in very good condition, read twice) - sent all over the world.

Gæt en bog – og vind.
[Den charmerende gamle kuffert er min egen, en meget passende emballage til ugens bog]

Det er meget muligt, at du har læst denne engelske roman uden at tænke på den som en krimi. Der forekommer imidlertid en forbrydelse som bliver løst i den, men den indeholder også rigtig meget andet.

Jeg har valgt ikke at forsøge at oversætte afsnittet til dansk, dels fordi det snarere ville blive knudret og forvirrende end til nogen egentlig hjælp, og dels fordi en læser som ikke kan forstå citatet, nok ikke har noget at bruge en engelsk krimi til alligevel. Men bogen er skam oversat, og hvis du kender dine klassikere, kender du sikkert også denne her.

Hvis du af en eller anden grund ikke ønsker at deltage i konkurrencen, er jeg sikker på de andre deltagere ikke har noget imod, at du lægger små, diskrete vink af den sædvanlige slags.

Regler for konkurrencen: Hvis du kan gætte forfatteren og titlen på bogen, så send venligst en mail til do.hu.ja@mail.tele.dk med overskriften ´konkurrence´ med svarene, samt dit fulde navn og postadresse. Konkurrencen er slut søndag aften ved midnat, og på mandag vil jeg bede et familiemedlem om at trække den lykkelige vinder.

Gevinst: en brugt paperback-udgave af Sophie Hannahs thriller ”Little Face”. Bogen er i god stand, kun læst to gange – på engelsk, men efter min mening ikke frygteligt svær at læse.

NB: jeg lover at udlove en dansk bog i min næste konkurrence.