Val McDermid, The Mermaids Singing (1995)

This Scottish thriller is the first in the series about the psychologist Tony Hill and Detective Inspector Carol Jordan. I re-read it at a very fast pace without taking notes; hence the very short review.

The setting is Bradfield, a fictional British city. The protagonist is Tony Hill, an excellent profiler, but he is not quite as good at attacking issues in his private life.

After some hesitation the police condescend to use Hill on the case, and all the way through he has to deal with suspicion and aversion.

Carol Jordan is appointed as his liaison within the police. She is very interested in Hill´s work, and soon she also takes an interest in his personal life.

This very exciting thriller is not for the squeamish reader as the cruel serial killer is quite imaginative, also when it comes to sex and torture.

Val McDermid, Sirenernes sang (1997).
Denne skotske spændingsroman er den første i serien om psykologen Tony Hill og kriminalinspektør Carol Jordan. Den korte anmeldelse skyldes at jeg genlæste den i en fart uden at tage notater.

Romanen foregår i Bradfield, en fiktiv britisk by. Hovedpersonen er Tony Hill, fremragende profiler, men ikke nær så god til at håndtere problemer i sit privatliv.

Efter nogen tøven nedlader politiet sig til at bruge Hill på sagen, og hele vejen igennem må han leve med mistænksomhed og modvilje.

Carol Jordan bliver udpeget som hans kontaktperson indenfor politiet. Hun er meget interesseret i Hills arbejde, og snart bliver hun også interesseret i ham privat.

Denne spændende thriller er ikke for de sarte, da den ondskabsfulde seriemorder er temmelig fantasifuld, også når det drejer sig om sex og tortur.

Johan Theorin, Natstorm (2008)

Efter en imponerende debut er det altid spændende at se, om forfatteren kan følge succesen op. Men her er der ingen grund til at være bange; svenske Theorin fortsætter i samme fremragende stil som han er begyndt.

Det meste af romanen udspiller sig i nutiden hvor et ungt par med to små børn flytter fra en villa i Stockholm til gården Åludden på Øland, som bærer præg af at have stået tom nogle år. Ægteparret er imidlertid ikke bange for at tage fat; det er ikke første gang, de istandsætter en bolig fra ende til anden.

Ind imellem hovedhistorien om Joakim og Katrines oplevelser, hører vi små korte beretninger om nogle af alle de mennesker, som er døde på gården i tidens løb, helt tilbage til vinteren 1846. Katrines egen familie har også en forbindelse til gården, da hendes mor boede der sammen med mormoderen som purung. Afsnittene er spændende, men giver indtryk af, at det ikke ligefrem er sundt for helbredet at bo på gården!

Som et ekstra element har forfatteren tilsat en regulær spøgelseshistorie, men han overholder reglerne for et ordentligt krimiplot: opklaringen af forbrydelserne afhænger ikke af noget overnaturligt.

Ikke mere om plottet, denne glimrende krimi skal opleves, ikke ødelægges af spoilere.

Johan Theorin, The Darkest Room (2009)
After an impressive debut it is always interesting to see if the author is able to keep up the success. Fear not: Swedish Theorin continues in the same great style as he started out.

The main part of the story takes part in the present when a young couple with two small children move from their Stockholm villa to Åludden on Øland, a farm which is marked by having been uninhabited for years. The two are undaunted, though, as it is not the first time they have renovated a house from one end to the other.

In between the main story about Joakim and Katrine´s experiences we hear short accounts of some of the people who have died on the farm over the years all the way back to the winter of 1846. Katrine´s family is also connected with the farm as her mother and grandmother lived there when the mother was quite young. These sections are interesting but leave the impression that the farm is not exactly a healthy place to stay, and of course this fear is confirmed before long.

As an extra element the author has added a regular ghost story, but he adheres to the rules of a proper crime plot: the solution to the crimes do not depend on supernatural elements.

No more about the plot. This crime story should be read, not destroyed by spoilers.

What to read next?

[Cherry-oh]

No, not me, but two young girls I know.

They are great readers (even in English), and now they want to move on from Harry Potter, The Borrowers, Lord of the Rings etc. One of them has read To Kill a Mockingbird and loves it.
The other girl has begun to read Scandinavian crime fiction.

So what I want is some suggestions - not "young adults" but adult fiction of good quality which is neither too advanced nor hard-boiled.

Which English books should they move on to? The more suggestions the better.

The Visitor V

See part four here.

”Now, this is how we have planned to do this. I´ll sit up here next to you with the tape recorder. Then we are going to reconstruct the … well, the events as precisely as we can. You listen and use your eyes, and afterwards you tell us if you think everything looked all right.” Margaret Johnson got the feeling that she was talking to Emma Munch as if she were still four years old. A bit embarrassed she signaled to George Price that they were ready to begin the show now.

Contrary to their expectations the super had given his permission, but that was probably because he was waiting for an opportunity to gloat. Margaret was skeptical of the procedure George Price had chosen, but her colleague had assured her he knew exactly what he was doing.

She and Emma had to bend down in order to look through the banister. Not a sound reached them from the hall. Then a policewoman in a blonde wig and a floral dress stepped into the hall from the living room. She opened the front door quietly and let in a tall policeman in a tan wind jacket. Margaret discovered that she had been holding her breath. Until now the pair had followed the script to a T, as far as she could see, but now came the most important part. “You´ve got a new dress,” he said down there.

“No, that is not correct! That is not the way it was!” Emma sounded fragile, and very, very young.

Price stepped into the circle of light down there. “What are you saying, Emma?”

“It was not correct!” Her pupils were huge, and Margaret kept a close eye on her.

“Okay, we´ll try it once again.” He waved the two constables aside and whispered an instruction to them. They disappeared to either side of the hall.

Margaret put a hand on Emma´s shoulder, urging her to sit down again. The young girl was shaking, and she clenched her fists around the rails. Could she really justify that they went on with this performance? She had suggested that they let a psychologist be present, but Emma had turned down the idea vehemently. Why hadn´t she at least insisted they do it in bright daylight?

The woman in the dress stepped forth once again. She opened the door, and the wind jacket entered. “Please turn to the right,” someone whispered, and Margaret bit her lip. The woman leaned back her head, smiling expectantly, and the man bent down awkwardly. “You´ve got a new dress.”

”The ear! Look at his ear,” Emma whispered while she pushed her face up against the banister to get a closer look. And in the bright light from the ceiling lamp they all saw that Erich Munch´s left ear was frayed and torn on top, as if someone had snatched a tiny morsel.

For a second he stood like a statue on a floodlit stage, then he put his hands around the policewoman´s neck, squeezing it with all his might while he roared, “why didn´t I kill her too!”

---------------------------------------

”And I swear she was on the point of sucking her thumb and wetting her pants again. But so was I,” Margaret admitted to George Price several hours later when they had finished taken down a murderer´s confession.

Ann Cleeves, Raven Black (2006)

On the first pages of this book we meet Magnus who is sitting all alone in his kitchen right after midnight. It is New Year´s Eve, and he keeps the light on because someone might turn up after all.

Rather unexpectedly, two young girls knock on his door. They have been in Lerwick to celebrate Hogmanay. Old, slow Magnus enjoys their visit, and does not realize they only do it for a dare.

A few days later one of the girls, sixteen-year-old Cathrine Ross, is found dead after having been seen together with Magnus again. The case seems fairly simple to the locals as Magnus was also involved in the case of eleven-year-old Catriona who disappeared without a trace some years ago. She had made a habit of visiting Magnus and his old mother.

The local detective Jimmy Perez may seem relaxed and disorganized, but unlike some of the policemen who have been called in from Aberdeen, he is not certain they have their man. He is the type who won´t be satisfied until everything feels right.

Just like the engaging Vera Stanhope series, one of the things which characterizes Ann Cleeves´ new series is her talent for creating interesting characters, plus a fine sense of place, in this case the remote Shetland in the darkest and coldest winter period.

So the really good news is that this fine story is the first in a quartet!

See the post Ann Cleeves wrote for this blog in April where she explains why she came up with Jimmy Perez.

Ann Cleeves, Sort som ravnen (2008).
Denne krimi er den første af Ann Cleeves´ krimier, som er oversat til dansk.

Historien begynder hos Magnus, som sidder helt alene i sit køkken lige efter midnat. Det er nytår, og han lader lyset være tændt, fordi det kunne være, nogen ville kigge ind – selv om det ikke er sket i adskillige år.

Helt uventet banker to unge piger på. De har været i Lerwick for at fejre Hogmanay, den traditionelle skotske nytårsfest. Gamle, tungnemme Magnus nyder deres visit, og opfatter slet ikke, at de bare gør det for at vise, de tør.

Nogle få dage senere bliver en af pigerne, seksten år gamle Cathrine Ross, fundet død efter at have været på besøg hos Magnus igen. I de lokales øjne er sagen nærmest afsluttet med det samme, fordi Magnus også var indblandet i en sag, hvor en lille pige forsvandt sporløst nogle år tidligere. Elleveårige Catriona besøgte ofte Magnus og hans gamle mor.

Den lokale kriminalinspektør Jimmy Perez er tilsyneladende afslappet og uorganiseret, men i modsætning til flere af de tilkaldte politifolk fra Aberdeen, er han slet ikke sikker på, de har den rigtige person. Perez er typen som bider sig fast, indtil han er helt sikker i sin sag.

Ligesom i den skønne Vera Stanhope-serie, er det typisk for Ann Cleeves´ nye serie, at hun har et stort talent for at skabe interessante personer, samt et tiltalende miljø, i dette tilfælde den fjerne ø Shetland i den koldeste og mørkeste vinterperiode.

Så den aller-bedste nyhed er, at denne velskrevne historie er den første i en serie på fire!

Se det indlæg, Ann Cleeves skrev til min blog i april, hvor hun forklarer, hvorfor hun opfandt Jimmy Perez-figuren.

The Visitor IV

See part III here.

”Do you have anything at all which can justify spending our resources on this case again?” The superintendent tapped his pen against the green blotting pad.

Margaret Johnson kicked her colleague underneath the table. This meeting had been his idea, and if the boss was in that mood, she was not going to let anyone throw her to the wolves.

George Price rustled his papers. ”Erich Munch´s mother dies, and the following night her flat is burgled. Someone has gone through everything, but as far as we can see, nothing has been taken, or at least not anything valuable. We have the flat searched, and they find her diary from the year that Susanne Munch died stashed away in the cistern of all places.”

“Sounds like someone has been reading too many thrillers,” Margaret mumbled.

Price looked up from his notes for a second, but chose to ignore her remark. “A couple of days after Susanne´s death she writes in the diary: They keep asking me when he came and went. If only I could be sure I did not fall asleep during the film. But I have said what I said, and I can´t change that. And the flat is crawling with Erich Munch´s fingerprints.”

“So you are saying that the guy has left fingerprints in his own mother´s flat?” The corners of the superintendent´s mouth told their own, acid tale.

Price leaned forward, before he continued. “The diary is not as concrete as I had hoped for so we have no decisive new evidence yet. But Erich Munch´s mother was not nearly as certain as she claimed then, and apparently he knew that. Who else would go through her things in the middle of the night? Furthermore we have listened to that tape with Emma Munch´s conversation with the psychologist several times. That girl remembers something even if she doesn´t know it herself. And now next step must be a reconstruction.”

Price had been one of the first policemen on the scene of crime. The case went back to his days in uniform, but Margaret knew he would never forget the sight of the little girl who just sat there above the stairs, clutching a blue blanket.

To be finished on Saturday.

DJ´s Bait in the Box # 26

[This week´s bait was eaten by yours truly]

This British crime novel is not a debut but the first in a series.

“Her concentration was so fierce, and everything seemed unreal here, surrounded by the reflected light which made her head swim, that she walked right up to the sight before realizing exactly what she was seeing. Until then everything was just form and colour. Then the vivid red turned into a scarf. The grey coat and the white flesh merged into the background of the snow which wasn´t so clean here. The ravens were pecking at a girl´s face. One of the eyes had disappeared.”

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, do not spoil the fun by giving too much away. The book will be reviewed on Friday as usual.

Gæt en bog # 26.
Denne britiske krimi er ikke en debut, men den første i en serie.

”Hendes koncentration var så stærk, og alt så så uvirkeligt ud her, omgivet af det reflekterende lys som fik hendes hoved til at svømme, at hun trådte lige hen til synet, før hun indså præcist hvad det var, hun så. Indtil da var alt bare form og farve. Så blev den stærke røde farve til et tørklæde. Den grå frakke og det hvide kød faldt sammen med baggrunden af sne, som ikke var så ren her. Ravnene hakkede i pigens ansigt. Det ene øje var forsvundet.”

Reglerne:
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