Sophie Hannah, Hurting Distance (2007)

This thriller is the Scottish poet and writer´s seventh novel.

Though Naomi Jenkins only gets three hours a week together with her lover, she feels happy and expectant, certain Robert will leave his wife soon and begin a new life together with her. One night he does not turn up for their meeting, and of course the police do not take her concern very seriously. Naomi persuades them to ask his wife, but as Juliet tells them he is on a holiday with some friends, Naomi must do something to make it important for them to find him.

The strong points of the story: a well-wrought, exciting plot. I also liked the theme of women and how differently they handle disasters such as humiliation, rape and abuse, and the main character Naomi Jenkins who is the first-person narrator of several sections.

A minus: the police officers waste a lot of time pestering each other like spoilt school children and behaving unprofessionally in several ways. It may be intended as humour or caricature, but if so, it did not strike me as very funny.

I think Maxine sent the book to me. If not, I am sure you will enjoy her review anyway.

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.

Sophie Hannah, Little Face (2006)

[Bogen er desværre ikke oversat til dansk]

This British novel is the first in a series, and the author´s crime fiction debut.

Young Alice Fancourt marries David, the single father of Felix, and move into his rich, generous mother´s large and stately home. When the novel begins, Alice has just given birth to Florence. She leaves her home for the first time after the birth, visits a health club and returns home after two hours to find a baby she does not recognize in the cot. Her husband claims she is having a mental break-down after a difficult caesarian, and the police do not know what to think. A week later, David Fancourt report his wife and the baby missing.

The leader of the police team is Sergeant Charlie Zailer, a single woman, and a modern, efficient police officer. Usually she and DC Simon Waterhouse respect each other and enjoy working together, united against their unlikeable superior, Inspector Proust, the man behind this intelligent observation: "Women talk drivel because it entertains them. They fill the air with random words, and they don´t much care whether what they´re saying has any basis in fact."

Charlie wants more than friendship from Simon, however, which has made things difficult between them. The plot is good and absorbing, and on the whole this is a very promising debut, but neither Charlie nor Simon is able to tackle the embarrassment between them in a mature way, on the contrary they let misunderstandings cloud their judgments now and then.

My overall impression: A well-written, capturing psychological thriller about living with fear and cruel manipulation, a book which is very difficult to put down (actually I didn´t - I finished it some time after midnight).

Competition coming up
As I am the lucky owner of two identical copies of this book, I will give any reader of English fiction the chance to win a twice-read paperback of "Little Face" next week.
Keep an eye on my 10th Bait of the Box post.