A Few Steps Forward

I have not written much about my challenges lately so perhaps it is time for a progress report.

First, the Danish challenge "Bogudfordringen 2011".
January - crime before 2000.
February - short stories
March - female Danish writers
April - books from the 1800s.


So far, no problems, but May is fantasy month. I bought Neil Gaiman´s Coraline the other day, hoping it would be to my taste.

Second, the 2011 Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge
I finished this challenge last week, and I really enjoyed reading a couple of books and stories I would not have chosen otherwise.
Margery Allingham, Hide Your Eyes (British 1958)
John Buchan, The Thirty-Nine Steps (Scottish – 1915)
Palle Rosenkrantz, Hvad skovsøen gemte (Danish - 1903)
Blicher, The Rector of Vejlby (Kindle - 3 Danish short stories, 19th century)
Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Lady Audley´s Secret (British – 1862)
Arne Magnussen, Den vidtudråbte besættelse i Thisted (Danish - 1699/1891)

Third, Ireland Reading Challenge
Five books read, one to go. And my, this challenge has been a pleasure. Five great reads, all strongly recommended.

Declan Burke, The Big O (2007)
Tana French, The Likeness (2008) 
Brian McGilloway, Gallows Lane (2008)
Colin Bateman, Mystery Man (2009)
Jane Casey, The Burning (2010)

For my last challenges I will keep you updated when I have news for you.

Jane Casey, The Burning (2010)

This novel is the Irish writer´s second thriller; a stand-alone which is set in London. My review of The Missing.

Young Kelly Staples has been looking forward to a night out, but a couple of hours later she finds herself in the loo, very drunk and wondering why she wasn´t smart enough to leave together with her friends. A kind gentleman offers to drive her home, though.

Kelly is not as easy a victim as she seemed, and she knows a serial killer is around so after a few pages it seems that the killer is apprehended. But while D.C. Maeve Kerrigan is talking to Kelly, the police find a fifth victim, Rebecca Haworth.

Despite the serial-killer label, this novel is not the tacky introspection of some gruesome psychopath. After the first chapters, we follow Louise North, Rebecca´s close friend, who seems curiously preoccupied by Rebecca´s life, and D.C. Maeve Kerrigan who struggles to solve these atrocious crimes against women. Besides, she is the victim of sexual harassment at work and personal problems with her yuppie boyfriend, so Kerrigan has her hands full. The stubborn Irishwoman trusts her instincts and her intelligence, however, and proves her worth on more than one front. 

I bought the book myself, and Jane Casey´s third book looms high on my wish list.

Ireland Reading challenge # 5.

Colin Bateman, Mystery Man (2009)

This novel is a Northern Irish stand-alone (a belated St Patrick´s Day review) 

The narrator of this story is a nameless first-person owner of a bookshop in Belfast. When his neighbour, a private detective, disappears, he is more or less pushed into taking over his unsolved cases.

One cannot help admiring the enterprising protagonist who calls himself Lawrence Block:
"The next customer was just looking for directions. He wanted to know where Queen´s University was. I said I wasn´t sure and sold him a street map. It was only around the corner, but the profit was the difference between burger and steak."

The detective business seems to be a bright, new way of making money, and having solved a couple of cases relatively successfully, ´Larry´ feels he is ready to embark on a missing person case. Soon he is not sure if he has got himself entangled in a Nazi conspiracy or just a long row of unfortunate coincidences.

This is an extremely funny story, especially Larry´s fumbling relationship with the girl next door, his self-appointed sidekick who is not always willing to accept her minor role.

I bought it myself and read it for the Ireland Reading Challenge # 4.

See the review that tempted me: Mystery Man

Declan Burke, The Big O (2007)

This love ... eh caper crime story is the writer´s second novel. No, of course a male Irish writer doesn´t write love stories. Yet... No, certainly not.

"Except what Karen remembered best was his eyes in the split-second when he realised what had just happened. How they got clearer but stayed perfectly still. Tigery eyes, gold flecks in hazel. Karen, knowing he couldn´t see her face behind the helmet´s visor, had been tempted to wink."

So this is the story about Ray and his companions who want to abduct Margaret, Frank´s ex-wife. Or perhaps it is the story about Karen, Frank´s receptionist and Margaret´s friend, who holds up people in her spare time and meets Ray during one of her stick-up ventures. 

And that´s when things begin to get a bit complicated. You are already confused? Honestly, so was I, at least half of the time, but I didn´t mind very much, because this story was just so funny that I didn´t worry too much about who did what to whom.

The book was a gift from a blog friend. I read it for the Ireland reading challenge # 3 and What´s in a Name (size).

Brian McGilloway, Gallows Lane (2008)

This Irish police procedural is the second in the Inspector Benedict Devlin Series.

This book was a fine choice for the Irish challenge. It conveys a strong sense of the setting close to the border of Northern Ireland and the special working conditions for the police force in a border area. Besides, McGilloway strikes a fine balance between giving too much or too little information about ´the Troubles´ between North and South.

On the very first page James Kerr is released from prison, and Superintendent Costello orders Devlin to keep an eye on him to find out if he really has found Jesus or is bent on revenge. He acted as a driver in a robbery, but his partners shot him and left him in the car for the police to pick him up.

Other elements of the plot are young women who are beaten up, and some drugs which are found in the backyard of British Peter Webb. Apparently Webb reacts by committing suicide, but perhaps things are a bit more complex. Besides, James Kerr seems to be interested in Webb and his wife.

As usual, Ben Devlin and his partner, Caroline Williams, have to get round the Special Branch to try to get some of the answers to their questions. Devlin is a likeable and very human protagonist who loves his family but gets caught up between priorities such as honesty, loyalty to colleagues and his own ambitions.

I bought the book myself, and I am looking forward to the third volume which is already on my shelf.
Read for the Ireland Reading Challenge # 2.
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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.
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And a fourth challenge: Ireland Reading Challenge 2011

No, I can´t resist this one. Besides, I have five Irish novels on my TBR. Five books I´ve been looking forward to for weeks or months. And do you think I can resist Jane Casey´s The Burning for long? (Neither do I). 

So "Kiss the Blarney Stone" it will be (reading six novels). The challenge is hosted by Books and Movies. Thank you for hosting this one, Carrie.

My preliminary plan:

Adrian McKinty, Dead I Well May Be (2003)
Declan Burke, The Big O (2007)
Tana French, The Likeness (2008)
Brian McGilloway, Gallows Lane (2008)
Colin Bateman, Mystery Man (2009)
Jane Casey, The Burning (2010)

Have you read any of these books/authors? Any favourites among them?