Don't Look Back

Coming from the more gentile, Morse, end of the detective spectrum, Karin Fossum has been Norway's Queen of Crime since the mid-90s, with her internationally renowned Inspector Sejer Series. Don't Look Back is the first to be translated into English, and the first one I have ever read. And it is lovely. For a book about the murder of children.
Set in a sleepy mountain village an hour outside Oslo, the troubled undercurrents of the close knit community bubble to the surface when a teenage girl's body is found by the lake. Everyone knew and loved Annie Holland, she babysat their children and was the star of the local sports teams. No one had a reason to kill her. It is up to non-nonsense, slightly old fashioned Detective Sejer to discover the truth behind the seemingly innocent neighborhood's veneer.
Sejer is wonderful. Reminding me a little bit of a slightly less angsty Wallander, his slow-but-steady approach delves deep into the cracks exposed by his investigation. He also has massive faith in people, which I would love to see destroyed in further books in the series, which I will definitely be reading. He loves his dog, and his adopted grandson. A widower he constantly refers to his wife Elise, and there is a lovely moment with his wedding ring that made me suppress a small tear. This is a detective you want to get to know, as opposed to Hole, who you want to go to bed with.
Sejer's Lewis is Detective Jacob Skarre, a young blood taken under wing by an old hand. He smokes too much and doesn't have quite the same knack with people, but as a double act they work perfectly.
Very very different to Jo Nesbo, if you're a Wallander or a Morse fan, get into Fossum. I'll be on the hunt for more of her's in the future and am really happy to discover her through this challenge.
Happy Reading Paaskekrim!
BookElf xxx

The Devil's Star

The fifth in the Harry Hole series, and the third translated into English, this thick-but-quick Norwegian thriller covers all your basics of a good sexeh thriller; ancient symbols of devil worship, Nazism and fingers up the bum.
Concluding the Oslo Trilogy, beginning with The Redbreast and Nemisis that I read last winter, Jo Nesbo creates a violent disturbing world in a capitol city that sometimes feels as small as my hometown. With seemingly the tiniest police force in the world all on their summer break at the same time, Harry Hole is called back from his forced vacation to work a murder case alongside his nemesis Tom Waaler, who, take it from me, is EVIL.
The first of the series, The Redbreast, had me sitting up in bed until about three in the morning screaming 'HE'S A NAZI!!!!' at a book that has no ears. Although I didn't enjoy Nemesis half as much, mostly because I was spending the entire time waiting for Hole to cotton on to the dramatic irony, The Devil's Star picks up the pace again and was definitely my favourite of the three.
Harry Hole is an alcoholic wise-ass who should have been sacked a long time ago. In The Devil's Star, his life has fallen apart around him. Obsessed with finding the murderer of his colleague, his health is shot to pieces, his girlfriend has given him the final ultimatum; stop with the drinking or loose me forever. He can't sleep and he hasn't eaten in days. When he rolls up to the crime scene, the other offices don't want to leave him alone with the body. It is only when he discovers a small red diamond in the shape of a fine pointed star that the case, and Harry, starts to get a bit more interesting.
There are many, many red herrings, one so good I was utterly convinced I'd out-witted Nesbo a third of the way it. I LOVE psychological murder mysteries and quite a lot of this book reminded me of Waking the Dead and the DILFesque Detetective Boyd, whom I mourn and miss dearly. Harry Hole is a proper hottie, if a smelly, drunken hottie, and this book really came across as a real and identifiable character as opposed to a Smith and Weston toting Crime Stopper. There are also really sensual moments that Harry experiences alone, which made me really think about the male psyche and what have you. Probably all very sexistly but hey ho, it's CRIME.
Anyway, I'm now reading The Redeemer, the next in the Harry Hole series. Jo Nesbo is appearing at the Harrogate Crime Festival in July and I am very very tempted to stave off the HIVES I come out in every time I visit the town to try and lick him.

Happy Reading Paaskekrim!
BookElf xxx

Easter Crime!!!!

Because I don't already have enough reasons to love Norway, here's another one...
Every Easter, they all read CRIME.
The ENTIRE COUNTRY. READS CRIME.
This frankly weird but beautiful tradition apparently stems from a pretty nifty marketing ploy from the 20s. Over the Easter weekend, normal social activities would be closed to a good Christian community. No cinema, no dancing. And you can't be in Church or Eating all the time.... But READING is FREE. Free and allowed. So they started publishing all their crime novels (because everyone loves a good crime novel) and selling it as a 'tradition', and lo, like Santa wearing red and drinking coca cola, soon everyone believed that it was.
According to my friend, who is Actually Norwegian, this is a real legitimate thing. Norway, who have almost had WARS over which variation of their language is politically acceptable to use (how cool can you possibly be...) all go crime-nuts over Easter! The latest Jo Nesbos and Karin Fossums are released the week before, there are readings in bookshops all over Norway and TV stations run entire crime series from Holy Thursday through till Easter Monday.
I LOVE this idea, and plan to celebrate it in my own little way. Every day over Easter I'll be posting a review of a Scandinavian Crime book, and I'll also be reading some serious amounts of Murder Most Cold in homage to this great country...
...and who knows, next year I might actually be able to afford to go! (HA HA HA HA *chokes with laughter*).

Guest Post - Some Zombie Contingency Plans by Kelly Link

Mark Swain - friend of Leeds Book Club and writer of short fiction here - is a huge fan of the horror genera, and will be providing us with some reviews!
Feel free to drop him a line on twitter - you'll find him @DemonHeadClash

* * * * * HERE BE SPOILERS* * * * * 

Some Zombie Contingency Plans is about a guy called Soap who - whilst gate crashing a house party in the suburbs - recalls to a girl he has just met his past including how he ended up in prison following his theft of a painting.

The opening line in the story is 'This is a story about being lost in the woods' but the story isn't about lost in the woods at all. Throughout the tale woods are only mentioned again in respect to the painting and I don't see the theme of being lost or loss in general within the story. This sets the tone for the rest of tale which is difficult to follow in places and certainly requires a re-read to grasp fully.

That isn't to say the story is confusing in a frustrating manner, the characters are all well rounded with no confusion as to who is who and there are also no shuddering shifts in time or location. However the story is defiantly fantastical in terms of the way the characters interact with each other and also the language used.

Deceit is a major theme in the story, not only from the main character but also from the supporting players. The main character's name is Soap at the start of the story but then informs people that his name is Will. We later discovered that his name isn't Will at all. The other character in the story, Carly, also deceives the main character firstly by lying about the fact that the house is her parents and later on hiding her true eye colour with contacts. Based on this we can not take anything that any of the characters say as being an accurate reflection of events; therefore we must doubt that Soap's tale of how he ended up in prison and, as a consequence, doubt the whole content of the story.

Soap refers to Art in the beginning of the story and upon first reading we take these statements as merely his opinion on the subject. Here a few handpicked quotes:

'Art was why Soap was in prison'

'He hadn't know much about Art'

'Art and prison were the kind of things that you had opinions about, even if you didn't know anything about them'

'This was why people got pissed off about art'

It is only later in the story when we discover the main characters real name is Arthur that these comments take on a whole different level of meaning. I have only selected a handful of lines but the theme is plain to see once you know the characters name.

It is also worth noting that there are no actual zombies in the story. The character refers to zombies being simple and seems to make a connection being the uncomplicated way zombies are and uncomplicated way his life was in prison. Since leaving prison Soap appears to have wandered from one place to the next with no real direction; when he was in prison he was unable to make any decisions for himself; even wishing that zombies would attack the house so that his life could once more be simple. 

He makes a plan in the story of how he would survive the attack and who he would save which seems to indicate he wants to change his life but only if drastic circumstances forced him into this change. 

I enjoyed Some Zombie Contingency Plans but putting my finger on exactly why I enjoyed it has been difficult but I know I liked it, a bit like art.

Some Zombie Contingency Plans is available for free online here and is part of 'The Living Dead’ anthology as edited by John Joseph Adams.

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@DemonheadClash

Read more of Mark Swain's writings here!

Review 06 - The People of Sand and Slag
Review 05 - Under St Peter's
Review 04 - Death and Suffrage - Dale Bailey

Review 03 - Some Zombie Contingency Plans - Kelly Link

Review 02 - Sparks Fly Upwards - Lisa Morton

Review 01 - Dead Like Me - Adam Troy Castro

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Table of Contents - Guest Stars

Guest Post - Doctor Horrible - the Book!

As the sequel has just been confirmed, this seems like a TERRIFIC time to share the following review with you!

"If you’re not aware of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog by now, then you’ve probably only just stumbled across the internet when your parents introduced you to Rebecca Black as a way to learn the days of the week, or you’ve been stuck in a tardis or fallen down a wormhole or been scared of computers since the last time you were rick-rolled or some other random happenstance that has prevented you from logging on. 

For those three people, I will re-cap. Back in the 2007/2008 writers’ strike, Joss Whedon and his real life ensemble family, got together and wrote themselves a little musical just for the fun of it. The small idea of a podcast turned into a 3 part extravaganza of a musical, telling the story of wannabe supervillan (Neil Patrick Harris), his egotistical superhero nemesis (Nathan Fillion) and their shared love interest (Felicia Day), which, in true Whedon-style, broke the internet on the first day. 

Almost three years later and fans are still awaiting a sequel which has been held up by surprise TV renewals and a little independent movie project Joss insisted on working on. While we’re waiting, we can now peruse what is possibly the best companion book I have ever laid my greedy nerdy little hands on which fits on tables of all sizes. 

The book opens with an introduction by Captain Hammer himself, from an undisclosed location in a booby trapped underground bunker, where he would like to make clear that while it may have appeared that he was running away from the auditorium, he was actually running towards danger and saving the day once again. Neil Patrick Harris wraps things up with an afterward but before that you get the full shooting script including lyrics for the both the Sing-Along Blog and Commentary! The Musical, which is interspersed with insights from cast and crew, an ‘origin’ story from the writers’ Whedon, behind the scenes titbits, handwritten lyric sheets, Haiku (yup) and plenty more to keep you occupied, including, right at the end, the sheet music. 

In short, all the horribleness you need until those lazy Whedons get off their backsides and give us a sequel is available at all horrible bookstores now."

Originally posted - 3rd of May 2011
Chat with @Cidergirli - a friend and fellow Whedon junkie!
Visit 'Sweet Talk' the Awesome Blog!


Trailer on YouTube

Soundtrack:


01. Horrible Theme
02. My Freeze Ray
03. Bad Horse Chorus
04. Caring Hands
05. A Man's Gotta Do
06. My Eyes
07. Bad Horse Chorus (reprise)
08. Penny's Song
09. Brand New Day
10. So They Say
11. Everyone's A Hero
12. Slipping
13. Everything You Ever
14. Horrible Credits


Bad Horse - BookElf and I went mad for this for quite a while last year!

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Table of Contents - Guest Stars