Jane Harper: The Survivors, Little Brown UK, 9781408711989, January 202, hardback

Jane Harper is a brilliant crime writer, a CWA Golden Dagger award winner and I am always excited about anything new she writes. Along with Garry Disher, she superbly portraits what is called the Australian Outback noir. Both authors’ books I devour as I did with Jane Harpers upcoming book “The Survivors”, out in January 2021, which I had the privilege to read as a proof (thank you Little Brown UK!) , set in Tasmania for a change.

Her subtle description of the dark psychological undercurrents running through families and small towns is always intriguing and slowly builds up to an unexpected.

Kieran Elliott has spent most of his adult life feeling guilty about his part in the drowning death of his older brother Finn and his boat partner during a terrible storm after making a thoughtless mistake.  When he and his girlfriend Mia and their baby daughter return from Sydney to visit his parents who still live in the coastal town he once called home, the strong feeling of guilt haunts him even more particularly after the body of a young art student called Bronte who has been working as a waitress for the summer is found murdered by the beach. Bronte’s death stirs up memories of yet another unresolved death of his friend Olivia’s younger sister Gabby, who also disappeared during the great storm but whose body was never found.

I love it how seemingly benign Jane Harper starts her narration and how cleverly she peels away layers of secrets unearthing new truths until the bitter end. Not an outback setting this time but I thought all characters, like those of detectives Sue Pendlebury and Constable Chris Renn or Kieran’s family and friends, where well drawn out leaving various options open until the very end, four stars from me. 

 

William Boyd: Trio, Penguin Viking UK, 9780241295960, C format Export Paperback,

 

William Boyd is one of my favorite English contemporary writers and “Any Human Heart” and “Sweet Caress” are on my shelf of all-time favorite books.  Needless to say, I was really looking forward to reading his latest work “Trio” which is set 1968 Brighton but to my great disappointment I found myself dragging through the read. The  book did not have me fully engaged most of the time; after page 180 my interest picked up somewhat but “Trio” is one of his weaker books in my opinion, I hate to say this of an author I really like.  

Three protagonists are at the center of the novel, they are all connected through a film project that is shot in Brighton during the swinging sixties. My main problem with the novel was that I never really felt connected to any of the main characters, particularly true of the female characters who all come across as weak and with serious mental issues.  Anny Viklund is the star of the film, a beautiful actress with a string of men at her disposal but currently having an affair with Troy, her co-star in the film.  Elfrida Wing, a successful writer with a 10 year writer’s block and a serious alcohol problem is the wife of film director Reggie who is constantly having love interests on the side. Interestingly the best developed and most interesting character I found was the male figure, Talbot, the cunning producer of the film who like Anny and Elfrida, is hiding private secrets and conducting a separate life hidden from everyone else working on the film.  His role in the book was the one that made me want to continue reading when I became disengaged.

For those of you who like me love William Boyd’s work I would say read it and form your own opinion but I hope his next book is one that has my full enthusiasm again. What does have my full approval however is the great cover, love it! 

 

Louise Penny: All the Devils are here, 9780751579277, C format Export Paperback, Sphere

 

Louise Penny’s Armand Gamache crime series, all  set in the village of Three Pines in Canada’s Quebec countryside , was a recommendation of my friend  Neva several years ago and I have never looked back…  I am hooked now and have passed on the Gamache virus to several friends. To quote the Washington Post:  The series is deep and grand and altogether extraordinary”;  this sums it up pretty well. 

It is always difficult to talk about crime fiction without giving away too much of the plot as is the case with  Louise Penny’s latest  “All the devils are here”,  in my view her best to date even if it does not take place in Canada but solely in Paris.  Armand and Reine-Marie Gamache are visiting their children, Annie and Daniel who both have moved to Paris with their families, as Annie is about to give birth to her second child. 

When Stephen Horowitz, a self-made billionaire who is Armand’s godfather and the man who raised him after his parents died tragically, is deliberately attacked and run over by a truck after a family dinner with both of them witnessing the murder attempt , Armand is determined to find out why someone wants Stephen  dead who is barely alive after the attack falling into a coma. Things get even stranger when Armand and Reine-Marie head for Stephen’s apartment and discover the body of a man in the living room.  As Gamache starts to investigate with the French police not being too amused about his involvement,  secrets his godfather  hid from him over the years surface. As Armand starts to question the man Stephen really is, he becomes dangerously entangled in a spider web of lies and deceit endangering both him and his family.  I will not reveal  anything more  … had a great few days curling up in my new armchair and submerging myself in this terrific book.  Thank you Louise Penny, 5 stars from moi!

 

Selina Hastings:  Sybille Bedford – An Appetite for Life, Chatto & Windus, London,  (Penguin Random House Group) , 9781784741136, hardback, pub date: November 2020

I came across Sybille Bedford as an author during my time at Penguin and devoured her autobiographical last book “Quicksands”. What an unusual woman and what an extraordinary life.   Drawn very much to nonfiction and biographies at the moment, I was very happy to see Selina Hasting’s “Sybille Bedford – An Appetite for Life” announced to be published in November and lucky enough to read an early proof. Selina Hastings has written an incredibly thorough and objective account of Sybille Bedford’s fascinating cosmopolitan life.

Born in 1911 in Germany of aristocratic half-Jewish parents  who had a disastrous marriage, she spent her turbulent childhood in Germany but lived the majority of her adult life like a vagabond between France, England, Italy and the WWII years in the USA and some time in Mexico.  Her relationship with her promiscuous mother Lisa was  a very difficult one at best with her half sister Katzi often providing much needed support in her early years. Bedford  always knew she wanted to be a writer soon travelling in prominent intellectual circle although it took years before she took pen to paper.  Being openly Lesbian with some bisexual affairs, she had an incredible sexual appetite up into old age falling in and out of love constantly, often affairs turning into lifelong friendships with former lovers providing financial support when she was hard up. Her most famous entanglement was with Aldous Huxley and his wife Maria who became mentors and lifelong friends arranging a “bugger marriage” to a Mr. Bedford in England enabling her to become a British subject during a time of political upheaval in Europe when her assets were frozen in Germany. 

Bedford’s social and intellectual life was extraordinary and reads like a European who is who of writers and artists. What astonished me the most was how readily everyone put up friends for months, sometimes years in their houses offering financial and emotional support if needed affording Sybille Bedford her restless life style moving from country to country without a home base for many years.  She was a terrific wine and food connoisseur but also a terrible snob looking down on people who did not meet her intellectual expectations or background, selfishly demanding her lovers to support her eccentric lifestyle disregarding their needs.  

 I became very irritated with her behavior several times during the read but this is a fascinating biography of an unusual woman who was not a feminist and lived up to  95 despite the large amounts of food and drink she had consumed in her life.
But it is also a historical document of a century and an incomprehensible life style that has completely disappeared.

Craig Johnson: Next to Last Stand, A Longmire Novel, 9780525522539, hardback, Viking US (Penguin Random House) 

In times when long distance travels hold very little attraction, an armchair trip to Wyoming countryside and Sheriff Walt Longmire’s turf is a welcome distraction  during the last days of summer . I have been a huge fan of Craig Johnson’s Longmire series for some time. 

In his latest novel “Next to Last Stand” the historical battle of Custer’s Last Stand plays a prime role but this time as a motive in a very valuable painting which was destroyed in a fire and was never seen again. When Walt is called to the Veteran’s Home of Soldiers and Sailors to look into Charlie Lee Stillwater’s sudden death of an apparent heart attack, they discover in his room a partial painting and a Florsheim shoe box filled with dollar bills amounting to one million dollars. How on earth did Charlie come into possession of so much money while disabled and living in a retirement home for Vietnam vets?

 

Walt does what he does best: investigating the trail of the money and the history of the mysterious painting taking the reader with him into the workings of the Absaroka Sheriff Department in the beautiful Wyoming countryside. “Next to Last Stand” I found a less fast paced and violent novel compared to other Longmire books but this made it particularly fascinating due to the  unfamiliar subject matter in comparison to Longmire’s usual type of investigations this time unveiling the dealings of the corrupt art world; I had a great time reading “Next to Last Stand”.

Richard Osman: The Thursday Murder Club, 9780241425459, Viking/Penguin Random House UK, paperback 

Richard Osman’s “The Thursday Murder Club” made it straight to the No. 1 position in the UK bestseller charts after publication and just having finished this wonderfully entertaining book, I am  hardly surprised. I had such a great time reading this lighthearted, witty novel, spending totally uplifting hours, a treasure in these troubled times. 

Rarely does one come across a book combining very English humor with a good mystery packed all into one. A few times the comparison to “The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency” by Alexander McCall Smith popped up in my head which might explain the immediate success of the book but I have always hated comparisons as it would not do justice to Richard Osman’s original approach who is a wellknown TV personality in the UK. 

Four eccentric pensioners pushing eighty, Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron, all formerly successful professionals who can afford to live in a very nice little retirement village in the countryside, get together on Thursdays to keep their brain cells active and to amuse themselves investigating unsolved murder cases. The Thursday Murder Club as they call themselves is chaired by Elizabeth, whose background is unknown but points to former police or intelligence work who always comes up with these case files and eventually the answer. Suddenly they find themselves  involved in their first live
murder case as the shady developer who owns the retirement village drops dead, poisoned as it turns out. What follows is a fun, clever plot which becomes more complex as you turn the pages but still keeps you smiling. Totally loved “The Thursday murder Club”, thanks for the fun reading hours.

 

Garry Disher: Peace, Serpent’s Tail/Profile Books, 9781788165129, paperback, publication date: October 2020

(Disher is published in Germany by various publishers, "Peace" has not been announced yet) 

 

I was introduced to Garry Disher when reading “Bitter Wash Road” and absolutely agree that he deserves his reputation as one of the great masters of Australian literary crime fiction having just finished his latest book “Peace”, I loved it.  Disher has been awarded the “Deutsche Krimipreis” several times and is also the recipient of the Ned Kelly Lifetime Achievement award.

Hirsch, as Paul Hirschhausen is called, was already the protagonist in “Bitter Wash Road”, a former metropolitan detective and whistle-blower who reported corruption and cover ups amongst his fellow police officers only to find himself degraded to constable and transferred to a posting in the South Australian outback town of Tiverton.  The local police station also serves as his living quarters but most hours his four wheel drive is home when patrolling the vast rural countryside. In “Peace” Hirsch is struggling to resolve several apparently unconnected small town events and crimes in his district during the scorching Australian Christmas season.  But then his is called to a murder scene of a woman and her son to whom he had issued a warning days before and officials from Sydney show up taking over. In his own stubborn way Hirsch continues to investigate following his hunch that the murder victim might have been in a witness protection program. Dishers writing style has been called “rural noir”, a perfect description. Only fellow crime writer Jane Harper, whom I also hold in very high regard, narrates the evil undercurrents of seemingly everyday life in the bush and the darker side of human nature hidden behind a benign appearance so exquisitely.  I will not go into detail about the plot of the novel as it would totally spoil the coming together of the various events in the end but let me assure you, if you are in search of an extraordinary setting, an intriguing plot, a brilliant description of the characters and country life in the Australian bush, this novel is a perfect choice for you.   Disher has written a number of other crime fiction which I will definitely check into now, he definitely has a fan in me.