Thy´s Day # 19

Around ten years ago we had all our elm trees to the North removed because of the Dutch elm disease. It looked like a huge, black sore so we really enjoy the white and lilac bushes.

Mari Jungstedt, Den døende Dandy (2009)

Bogen er den fjerde i den svenske serie om kriminalinspektør Anders Knutas og journalisten Johan Berg på Gotland.

Den succesrige kunsthandler Egon Wallin har netop sikret sig en udstilling af en lovende ung kunstners værker, men samtidig har han åbenbart lagt planer om at sælge sit galleri på Gotland og forsvinde i al ubemærkethed.
En anden vigtig person, morderen, lægger også ambitiøse planer, og snart hænger liget af Wallin til offentlig beskuelse i en af Gotlands middelalderbyporte.

Knutas og hans team kommer på overarbejde, og inden længe opdager de tråde til det homoseksuelle miljø i Stockholm, men der er også en forbindelse til den afdøde maler Niels Dardel og hans mesterværk, ”Den døende dandy.”

Jungstedt har altid været god til at skildre det gotlandske miljø, og kunstnertråden er interessant og velfortalt, men i modsætning til sin noget tamme debut har hun nu også fået styr på krimiplottet og serverer et godt og spændende stykke politiarbejde. Selv om bogen ikke er uden svagheder i slutspurten, er den helt klart hendes bedste værk indtil videre.

Bogen er lånt på biblioteket.

Mari Jungstedt, The Killer´s Art (2010).
The novel is the fourth in the Swedish series about Inspector Anders Knutas and the journalist Johan Berg on Gotland.

The successful art dealer Egon Wallin has just arranged an exhibition by a promising young painter, but in secret he has sold his gallery on Gotland and planned to run off with the money afterwards. The murderer is also busy scheming, however, and soon the body of Wallin is hanging very publicly from one of Gotland´s medieval town gates.

Knutas and his team discover a connection to the homosexual environment in Stockholm, but there are also links to the late painter Niels Dardel and his masterpiece, “the dying dandy”.

One of Jungstedt´s strong points has always been the lively description of the environment on Gotland, and the art crime plot is interesting and well-written, but contrary to her somewhat tame debut, she also handles the police work and the plot really well this time. There are a few weaknesses in the ending, but this novel is clearly her best work so far.

The book is a library book. See Maxine´s thorough EuroCrime review of The Killer´s Art.

Mari Jungstedt in the Pink

The Swedish, British and Danish covers of Mari Jungstedt´s fourth crime novel. Do you think her Danish publisher expect male readers to sit around reading such a pink book?

How to Cook Up a Cozy

Here is my second blog post written by an American writer of crime fiction (and a wonderful blog you must visit if you don´t know it already): Elizabeth Spann Craig

Thanks so much, Dorte, for allowing me to guest post today—and talk about cozy mysteries, my favorite genre!


I was a cozy mystery fan before becoming a cozy mystery writer. There’s something really nice about settling down with a gentle book, characters you feel acquainted with, a charming setting, and a puzzle to work out. If you’re new to cozies, you might be interested in the Cozy Mystery List (an exhaustive directory).

After reading a good number of cozies you’ll start to get a feel for their structure and pacing.

Here are some things to consider when writing your own cozy mystery:

Your sleuth: The detectives in a cozy mystery are usually gifted amateurs. You’ll want to make sure their involvement in the murder investigation is plausible.

Your suspects: Don’t overload your reader with too many suspects or they may lose track and wonder who the character is when the killer is unveiled! On the other hand, too few means there really isn’t much of an element of surprise when the murderer is revealed. I usually shoot for five suspects (six at the most.)

Your crime: In cozy mysteries, the murder takes place off-stage. When your sleuth or other character discovers the body, spare the reader gory depictions.

The puzzle: You’ll want to play fair with readers, who will enjoy figuring out the killer for themselves. Usually the solution is found in a clue or series of clues that point to the murderer. Complex forensics take a backseat in cozy mysteries...the fun is in deciphering the clues.

The setting: Although many cozies use rural or small town settings, cozies set in cities are also doing well. The cozy atmosphere can be created in a variety of places.

The method: Anything is fair game (blunt force trauma, strangulation, gunshot wounds, drowning), but again, you’ll want to stay away from graphic depictions of the victim.

The red herrings and clues: You won’t want to lead the reader too far astray for too long with your red herrings. But it’s fun to have your suspects tell both truths and lies to the sleuth—then we’ll need to piece together which is which. Your clues need to be clear to the reader, but you can use distraction as a method of diverting the reader’s attention from the clue when it’s laid.

The sidekick: It’s great if the sleuth has someone to bounce ideas off of. Otherwise, you end up in the internal monologue arena for long periods of time. Sidekicks can also provide a little comic relief, or provide the sleuth with a different perspective on the suspects.

Offbeat characters: One fun part of reading a cozy is the lively cast of characters. Cozies are frequently full of quirky secondary characters that threaten to steal the limelight from the protagonist.

Subplots and hooks: It’s not all about the mystery in a cozy. Many cozies now feature subplots that revolve around different hobbies or epicurean pursuits. These subplots revolving around hobbies give readers an opportunity to learn a little more about the characters, too, aside from their relation to the murder.

Other things to know:
You’ll want to keep an eye on your language. Minor or zero profanity is usually preferred by editors.
Having a cat in the book can’t hurt. :)
Word count—about 65,000 to 75,000, roughly.
It’s probably best to keep away from any cringe-inducing subjects as a new cozy writer—death of a child, animal cruelty, etc… cozies are all about the escape.

Above all, have fun and your enjoyment will shine through your words.

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Bio: Elizabeth writes the Memphis Barbeque series for Penguin as Riley Adams, the Myrtle Clover series for Midnight Ink (under her own name), and blogs daily at Mystery Writing is Murder, which was named by Writer’s Digest as one of the 101 Best Websites for Writers for 2010. Delicious and Suspicious releases July 6, 2010. As the mother of two, Elizabeth writes on the run as she juggles duties as Brownie leader, referees play dates, drives carpools, and is dragged along as a hostage/chaperone on field trips.

Elizabeth Spann Craig (Riley Adams) http://mysterywritingismurder.blogspot.com http://mysteryloverskitchen.com Twitter: @elizabethscraig

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And next Monday: come back for a new guest blogger.

Viveca Sten, Stille nu (2009)

Denne politikrimi er en svensk debut, lånt på biblioteket.

Som tidligere nævnt er starten lovende, og beskrivelsen af skærgårdsmiljøet er fin og interessant.

Hovedefterforskeren er den sympatiske kriminalinspektør Thomas Andreasson, som mistede sin familie for et år siden. Han stammer selv fra øen Sandhamn, og han får hjælp med sagen fra Nora Linde, hans bedste barndomsven, som stadig bor på Sandhamn med mand og to børn. Thomas og Nora udgør et udmærket makkerpar, og måske passer de bedre sammen end Nora og den dominerende læge Henrik.

Andre anmeldere har sammenlignet bogen med Camilla Läckberg og Mari Jungstedts krimier, og hvis de dermed tænker på let sommerunderholdning, hvor detektivparrets privatliv fylder mindst lige så meget som plottet, er der noget om det. Svagheden er nok især, at forfatteren forsøger at holde spændingskurven oppe ved hele tiden at servere nye lig i stedet for at byde på solidt og interessant politiarbejde.

Men til en eftermiddag i solen (hvad for en sol?) går den nok.

Viveca Sten, Silent Now.

This police procedural is a Swedish debut from the library (not translated into English).

As indicated earlier the beginning is promising, and the description of the archipelago is credible and appealing.

The main investigator is the likeable Inspector Thomas Andreasson who lost his family a year ago. He grew up on the small island Sandhamn, and he is assisted by Nora Linde, his childhood friend, who still lives on Sandhamn with her husband and two children. Thomas and Nora make a fine detective and sidekick, and perhaps they are better suited for each other than Nora and the dominating doctor Henrik.

Other reviewers have compared the book to Camilla Läckberg´s and Mari Jungstedt´s crime novels, and if they think of light summer entertainment where the private lives of the detectives take up at least as much space as the plot, they have a point. The main weakness may be that the writer tries to keep up suspense by adding new bodies all the time instead of offering solid, interesting police work.

But for an afternoon in the sun (what sun?) it should be okay.

The Global Reading Challenge

I have just checked the 2010 Global Reading Challenge blog, and will you believe it, we are 100 participants now!

When I came up with the challenge in December, I would have been happy with ten or twenty participants, especially as I know how busy you all are out there. So it has been such a pleasure to see it growing - and even being ´bullied´ into adding a fourth level.

So far, I have only read eight novels out of fourteen myself, but then I have never planned to finish this challenge early. I want to spread the books out over the year (and if you suspect I am afraid I may forget all about the challenge blog if I finish too early, you are not quite wrong).

Tomorrow: book review.
Monday: guest post on Cozy Mysteries.

Grebe og Träff, Jeg ser dig (2009)

Svensk thrillerdebut, skrevet af to søstre. Jeg lånte bogen på biblioteket.

Jeg-fortælleren Siri Bergman er en dygtig og kompetent psykoterapeut. Efter sin mands død føler hun sig imidlertid alene og udsat i sit øde skærgårdshus, og hun overvejer, om hun overhovedet bør være terapeut, når hun har så mange personlige problemer at slås med.

”Mit hus er lille og ligger kun et stenkast fra stranden. Store glasdøre dækker hele facaden ud mod vandet. Det er et lyst hus. Gulvene er dækket af brede, gamle, slidte gulvplanker, som skilles af dybe sprækker, der er fyldt til randen af flere årtiers nullermænd. … Soveværelset vender ud mod klipperne på den ene side af pynten, og gennem det store vindue kan jeg se havet, selv når jeg ligger i sengen, som er alt for bred for mig.”

Snart sker der et dødsfald; en af Siris kvindelige klienter bliver fundet druknet lige neden for skærgårdshuset. Uanset om Siri vil eller ej, bliver hun hurtigt dybt involveret i sagen, fordi alt tyder på at hun er morderens egentlige offer. Desuden kan hun ikke rigtig stå for Markus, den unge betjent på sagen.

Denne spændingsroman er velskrevet og fængslende, lige fra første side. Jeg syntes især godt om hovedpersonen Siri og hendes nære veninde og kollega, frigjorte Aina. Plottet er som sådan ikke anderledes end så mange andre, men forfatterne jonglerer fint med miljøet, personerne og deres psykiske problemer hele vejen igennem.

Overbevisende debut, og jeg håber at høre mere til søskendeparret inden længe.


Grebe & Träff, I See You.

This Swedish thriller, written by two sisters, has not been translated into English, but I think it will be. The book was a library book.

The first-person narrator Siri Bergman is a very competent psychotherapist. After her husband´s death she feels alone and exposed in her isolated house in the archipelago, however, and she considers whether she ought to be a therapist at all as she has several personal problems.

“My house is small and only a stone´s throw from the beach. Large glass doors cover the façade facing the water. It is a light house. The floors are covered in worn old floor boards separated by deep gaps filled to the brim by dust mice. … The bedroom faces the cliff on the one side of the point, and through the large window I can see the sea even when I lie in the bed which is far too wide for me.”

Soon a death takes place; one of Siri´s female clients is found drowned on the beach below her house. Whether Siri wants to or not, she is soon deeply involved in the case as it seems that she is the murderer´s real target. Besides she cannot resist Markus, the young officer on the case.

This thriller is well-written and absorbing from the first page. I especially liked the main character Siri and her near friend and colleague, the liberated Aina. The plot may not be different from many others, but the writers handle the environment, the characters and their mental problems really well all the way through.

A convincing début, and I hope to hear more from the two sisters before long.