Rob Kitchin, The White Gallows (2010)

This Irish police procedural is the second in the Colm McEvoy series.

Within one day Detective Superintendent Colm McEvoy is sent out to two deaths. The first one is an anonymous Lithuanian, the second is old Dr Koch, a German billionaire in his 90s, the founder of a successful company. At first glance, Koch seems to have died a natural death, but the young officer who arrives at the crime scene suspects foul play when he notices some marks on the body.

Outside Koch´s unassuming farmhouse the police discover a noose hanging from an old oak tree. A gallows, prepared for Dr Koch, or some kind of message? Significantly, the noose is placed where the local gallows was in the past (nice touch), indicating that Koch´s death may be related to his past.

The hotheaded relatives are less than pleased when they realize they are on McEvoy´s list of suspects together with his Polish housekeeper Roza, his temperamental neighbour and two East Europeans, members of the Jewish organization the Yellow Star. The organization is on the track of a Nazi war criminal who used his expertise on chemistry in the Jewish Skeleton Project, a most horrible concentration camp experiment.

Colm McEvoy, a likeable and honest detective, has been a single father since his wife died of cancer a year ago. His twelve-year-old daughter seems to cope well and be happy to spend much of her time with her aunt though she can´t help worrying whether her hard-working father remembers to eat. McEvoy misses his wife acutely, and as he quit smoking a few months ago he is not only lonely and overworked, but also highly irritable. As a consequence, McEvoy rubs several people up the wrong way, suspects as well as colleagues, yet it may be a sign that he is ready to move on with his life that he shows some interest in Kelly Stringer, his pretty colleague with the shapely legs.

It was a great pleasure to read my way through the twists and turns of this exciting, yet quite realistic novel which is a highly appreciated gift from the writer. See my review of Rob´s debut, The Rule Book.

And to quote Norman of Crime Scraps, "Hopefully there will be a book three in the series."

Straight from the reader´s mouth

As I am cameraless today, I can´t show you my husband´s bargain. A clue: it is Swedish, and something you can read.

And finally I have read a book! No reviews for eight days, what a pathetic book blog. There will be a review for you tomorrow, though.

For now, a teaser:

“The farmhouse was a two-storey structure covered in Boston Ivy that had recently lost its bright red leaves. Three steps led up to a Georgian door, a semi-circle of clear glass above it. There were two Georgian sash windows to the left of the door, one to the right. A single-storey structure continued past the house to the right, interrupted along its length by a high archway. From McEvoy´s experience it almost certainly led into a farmyard that would be framed all the way round by outbuildings. It was a modest house for someone reputed to be one of the richest men in Ireland.”

I don´t know about you, but this farmhouse and its history is a setting I like. And on page 304 - oh, no, I shouldn´t tell you this, but I also like when the clues and tracks are a bit out of the ordinary. Nice touch!

And tomorrow I am going to take you to Ireland, one of my favourite holiday resorts.

Comment problems

I have just seen that Blogger is up to new tricks of some kind.

Apparently it does not show comments today .... just wanted to warn you.

And the winner is ...

My competition ended yesterday, and thank you to everybody who participated. I have had 30,179 visitors now, and I appreciate each and every one of you!

It was fun to see which writers you suggested, and of course I liked them all! The ones who got most votes were the New Zealander, Ngaio Marsh, and my countrywoman, Lene Kaaberbøl.

And now to what you are all waiting for: the winner is

Mason Canyon, Thoughts in Progress

Congratulations, Mason! And as soon as you have told me if you want your voucher in dollars or pounds, I will send a gift card off to you.

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NB: your blogger has returned home, safe and sound, and is now clutching her dear laptop again. But she spent most of her Sunday in church, on her bike, and out in the sun with Rob Kitchin´s wonderful crime novel. Thank you for playing along.

Blogger gone AWOL

A Danish blogger who is usually quite reliable (when it comes to blogging, that is), has gone missing. She was last seen right here Saturday afternoon. Her family and friends have not been unduly worried so far as she is known to neglect them shamelessly when on her precious blogging rounds all over the world, but late this afternoon they discovered that she had not touched her laptop for several hours!

Here is the evidence (click on photos to enlarge), and please leave any theories as to her whereabouts in the form of a comment. Her kind and forgiving family seem to want her back no matter how distracted she is. (They seem to fear she may have concocted several serious crimes while away so they feel relatively safer when they can keep an eye on her).

Writer´s Corner

Yesterday was a fantastic day. I took the pictures when I was still quite safe from the sun, but perhaps it was almost too good around 3 o´clock: 35 degree celcius in the tiny slice of shade that was left.

So I sat outside for eight hours, armed with coffee, phone and laptop, revising my Danish novel. Four chapters, which is not bad, I think. And what is best is that I enjoyed my writing day immensely.

Blog visitors right now: 29,997.

So remember to participate in my worldwide competition - last chance is tomorrow.

When Amazon tempts you

Well, Amazon.uk have tempted me with books they think they can sell me quite often, but yesterday was actually the first time I just rushed off to buy (even pre-order) a brand-new book. But somehow they had sussed that I might be the target group of this one:

Riley Adams, Delicious and Suspicious, a Memphis BBQ mystery. Riley Adams is a pen-name for Elizabeth Spann Craig, my American blog friend who wrote a post about cozy mysteries for me recently.

Elizabeth, I couldn´t help it. Your book screams ´read me, read me´. And I have such a good excuse: if I want to write cosies, I´d better read some more of them. The book doesn´t even cost very much - did you hear that you people out there?

NB: my husband and I are going off for a few days in our cottage, just the two of us, so I had better not promise you a lot of posts the next days.