Margery Allingham, Hide My Eyes (1958)

This British novel was the very prolific author´s sixteenth Albert Campion story.

I thought it would be very suitable for two of my reading challenges. I read it in Danish (I shouldn´t have, but my excuse is that I found it in a bargain bin).

On the first pages we meet the bus driver with the terrifying and uncanny face who carries a revolver and gloves in his case. He kills a money-lender, and for eight months he believes he has committed the perfect crime – until Inspector Charles Luke takes a closer look at some unsolved cases and sees a pattern emerge, assisted by Mr Albert Campion, the private detective. If the murderer had not turned out to be too smart, planning his very intricate crimes and alibis, they might never have caught him, though.

This story was a traditional crime story with lots of atmosphere and interesting characters, but the murderer´s behaviour was a bit incredible for me.

Read for 2011 Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge & Bogudfordringen 2011

Margery Allingham, En morder lukkes ind (1971)

De første linjer:
“Bussens ankomst var tidsmæssigt nøje beregnet. Køretøjet blev overhovedet ikke bemærket af nogen, som kunne være interesseret i det.”

Nej, man bør ikke læse klassisk, britisk krimi i venstrehånds-oversættelse, man risikerer at støde på ´possessive kvinder´og andet mærkeligt, men min undskyldning er, at den var så billig.

På første side møder vi buschaufføren med det rædselsfulde og uhyggelige ansigt, som render rundt med en revolver og et par handsker i sin taske. Han dræber en pengeudlåner, og i otte måneder ser det ud til, han har begået den perfekte forbrydelse – indtil kriminalkommissær Charles Luke kigger nærmere på en række uløste sager og aner et mønster, godt hjulpet af privatdetektiven Albert Campion. Men hvis morderen ikke havde været oversmart og gjort for meget ud af sine udspekulerede forbrydelser og alibier, havde de måske aldrig pågrebet ham.

Romanen er en meget traditionel krimi med masser af Londonatmosfære og interessante personer, men morderens opførsel virkede ikke alt for overbevisende. Hurtigt læst hyggekrimi som ikke ødelægger nogens nattesøvn. 

Læst som en del af:
Bogudfordringen 2011, januar: en krimi fra før 2000.
2011 Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge.
.

E-Book Resources

You probably remember that I bought a Kindle e-reader in November. I do enjoy my gadget, but I still read more printed books. I read 8-10 crime novels per month, and my principle is that I go for the cheapest possible copy. I understand if some writers grit their teeth when they hear about all the used books I buy, but then professional reviewers get all their review copies for free.

I know I am not the only e-book reader who is looking for new ways to get around the fact that some  e-books are more expensive than the paperback (typically $ 10-13 for Danish customers), and no matter what the retailers say, that is not a reasonable price. [Customers outside UK cannot buy e-books from e.g. Amazon UK or Waterstones]

So far I have found Smashwords, a wonderful site where many writers upload their older works at extremely fair prices.

If you are looking for free classics, ManyBooks.Net is the place to go, and if you are interested in review copies directly from the publishers, you may join NetGalley.

Where do you get your e-books? 
Have you found resources you will share with me and my readers? 

Readers´ resources: 

Ebooks.com

Read Without Paper 

Untreed Reads Publishing

Project Gutenberg

Book Depository (NB: they do not ship to Denmark) 

.

Cathryn Grant, The Demise of the Soccer Moms (2010)

This American suspense novel is the writer´s debut.

“After a moment of silence, a thud shook the walls of the living room and the hallway outside Amy´s bedroom. Her mother yelped. Amy rolled onto her back. The walls shivered again. There was a thick, damp sound like the pounding of her mother´s meat tenderizer on a piece of beef.”

When Amy Lewis was a little girl, her mother was raped in their own living room. She was too terrified to do anything, but for the rest of her life she remembers her father´s verdict: if her mother hadn´t invited a stranger in or ´dressed like a slut´, nothing would ever have happened to her.

Afterwards Amy´s mother stops caring about clothes, make-up, food – even her two daughters. So when Amy grews up, she decides to create a perfect life for her own girls. She becomes one of the group of devout soccer moms in their pleasant Sunnyvale suburb.

When Charlotte, a budding photographer and the mother of Meadow, enters the scene, things change very quickly, however. “She wore a gauze skirt paired with Doc Marten boots that made her look like a hybrid of Tinker Bell and a thug.”

The outrageous newcomer who doesn´t even wear a bra sticks out a mile, and the soccer moms Amy, Rachel, Jane and Kit are less than pleased with this inchworm in their paradise.

When it comes to plot, it is difficult to say if the story is mainly about crimes against women, or about the long-term consequences of these. No matter what, I rushed through the book in a few hours. As I had expected, the suburban environment was well drawn, and I was intrigued by the small group of female characters, especially Amy and Charlotte who appear to be opposites.

I bought the Kindle version myself.

Global Reading Challenge # 1, North America. 

Tana French, The Likeness (2008)

[Dansk titel: Tana French, Som i et spejl - 2009]

This thriller is the Irish writer´s second novel featuring Cassie Maddox. See my review of her debut, In the Woods.

As I have read this one for the Ireland Reading Challenge, I thought the quotation below was very suitable. Besides, the setting (the Georgian Whitethorn House in Wicklow outside Dublin) is fairly important for the story:

“This country´s passion for property is built into the blood, a current as huge and primal as desire. Centuries of being turned out on the roadside at a landlord´s whim, helpless, teach your bones that everything in life hangs on owning your home. This is why house prices are what they are: property developers know they can charge half a million for a one-bedroom dive, if they band together and make sure there´s no other choice the Irish will sell a kidney, work hundred-hour weeks and pay it.”

After her latest murder case, Detective Cassie Maddox was traumatised which is why she has worked for the relatively quiet Domestic Violence section for a couple of years. But in the first chapter of this novel, her boyfriend Sam O´Neill who works for the Murder squad calls her out to take a look at a body. On the scene Cassie sees her own face, and she learns that some young girl has stolen her undercover identity as Lexie Madison. So now the main question is if the murderer wanted to kill the anonymous girl, or if he might have been after Cassie Maddox. In order to smoke out the murderer, Frank Mackey who runs the undercover operations persuades Cassie to assume Lexie´s identity – just for a few weeks.

Cassie had just found some kind of equilibrium with her new colleagues and Sam, but now Frank and Sam pull her in each their direction. Frank is a persuasive detective who obviously loves excitement and challenges whereas the gentle and level-headed Sam tries his best to protect Cassie. And Cassie has to make up her mind whether she prefers her quiet existence or if she wants to live the highly intoxicating life of an undercover agent again. And then there are Lexie´s four, young friends whom she lived together with in Whitethorn House.

Though I must agree with reviewers who have pointed out that the story is long-winded (the paper back is 700 pages), I was completely absorbed by the haunting atmosphere and the compelling characters. I just had to know what happened to them.

I bought the book myself. Read for Ireland Reading Challenge # 1.
.

Nyere nordisk

[My Nordic TBR + my wish list of untranslated fiction]

2010 blev et år, hvor jeg i stor stil læste britiske og amerikanske krimier. I 2011 vil jeg forsøge at få indhentet nogle af de nordiske serier & forfattere, jeg sættter stor pris på. (Men flere hundrede kroner pr bog – næh, så kan jeg godt vente på et gratis eksemplar fra biblioteket).

Mine julegaver fra familien hjælper lidt:

Anne Holt, Pengemanden (norsk – 2010)
Jussi Adler-Olsen, Fasandræberne (dansk – 2008)
Jussi Adler-Olsen, Flaskepost fra P (dansk – 2009)


Andet nordisk på hylden:

Åsa Larsson, Till dess din vrede upphör (svensk – 2004)
Carin Gerhardsen, Pandekagehuset (2009)


På ønskesedlen/bibliotekslisten: 

Susanne Staun, Døderummet (2010)
Jo Nesbø, Panserhjerte (norsk – 2009)
Arnaldur Indridason, Hypothermia/Frostnätter (islandsk – 2009 - endnu ikke oversat til dansk)
Håkan Nesser, En fortælling om hr. Roos (svensk – 2009)
Yrsa Sigurdardottir, Aske (islandsk – 2009)
Jussi Adler-Olsen, Journal 64 (dansk - 2010)
Camilla Ceder, Babylon (svensk - 2010 - endnu ikke oversat til dansk)
Henning Mankell, Kineseren (svensk – 2008)
.

Extra News: Congratulations, Cathryn!

Great news on the first day of 2011: one of my American blog friends, the wonderful writer of suburban noir, Cathryn Grant, has published her first novel, THE DEMISE OF THE SOCCER MOMS.

The Kindle price is very fair indeed, but you can buy an even cheaper copy from Smashwords.

Congratulation, Cathryn!

NB: if you are more patient than me - or if you don´t own an ebook reader, the print version will be out later this month. Cool cover, isn´t it?

DJ´s Bait in the Box # 84

Not Wednesday yet? How should I know, this is my holiday.

“For a second I was confused … because I knew her from somewhere, I´d seen that face a million times before. Then I took a step forwards so I could get a proper look and the whole world went silent, frozen, darkness roaring in from the edges and only the girl´s face blazing white at the centre; because it was me. The tilt of the nose, the wide sweep of the eyebrows, every tiniest curve and angle clear as ice: it was me, blue-lipped and still, with shadows like dark bruises under my eyes.”

The Rules:
If you recognize the quotation, or if you think you are able to guess who wrote it, please post a comment. Just leave a hint, don´t spoil the fun by giving too much away. The book will be reviewed on Wednesday.