Help Needed - Janie Bolitho website

A new website has been set up for the late author Janie Bolitho: janiebolitho.info and the webmistress Jolene needs your help.

Biographical detail on the author is scant and Bolitho's DCI Roper series has not yet been reprinted and so copies are rare. Fortunately Allison and Busby have recently republished some of the Rose Trevelyan series, set in Cornwall.

If you have memories or information about Janie Bolitho, book reviews you want to share then Jolene would love you to get in touch via the website.

Janie Bolitho's Euro Crime bibliography (with a couple of reviews) is here.

Review: The Devil's Ribbon by D E Meredith

The Devil's Ribbon by D E Meredith, February 2013, 336 pages, Allison & Busby, ISBN: 0749012463

Reviewed by Terry Halligan.
(Read more of Terry's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

It is July 1858 and London is in the midst of a terrible cholera epidemic and many of the bodies that are being brought to St Bart's Hospital, Smithfield for examination and post mortem by Professor Adolphus Hatton and his able assistant Albert Roumande are infected with this dreadful disease. However, the two expert forensic pathologists have a very enthusiastic apprentice, Patrice, to teach and a great need to find diverse patients to demonstrate to him the skills he will need in his new profession.

During the Great Irish famine approximately a million people died during the years 1845 and 1852 and a lot of the remaining population emigrated both to London and America. There was a lot of racist antipathy directed towards these new Irish immigrants at that time and the body of leading Irish Unionist is found and Inspector Jeremiah Grey of the Yard requests the help of the two expert forensic pathologists in finding the cause of death and ultimately, hopefully, the killer.

In this multi-faceted story, in between the main narrative of the work of Professor Hatton and Albert Roumande, is given the back-story of the Irish killers discussing their next moves. Professor Hatton has dealt with other Scotland Yard detectives before, but not one as strange as Inspector Grey appears to be. He is a Welsh man and he dresses very flamboyantly and employs an Italian personal manservant who speaks very little English but appears to carry a personal firearm!

When it becomes clear that they are dealing with a series of connected killings the forensic pathologists must find, with the help of the policeman, the connections between the various victims and also identify who set off a huge bomb that exploded in the Burlington Arcade, Piccadilly, London killing many people.

The science of forensic pathology was in its infancy at that time of course and the investigatory techniques were very primitive in comparison to what we know today, but it is very interesting how much the pathologists of that time were able to discover with what limited evidence they had to hand and the primitive conditions they had to work in. The beginning of the science of fingerprinting is investigated.

I found this second book by D E Meredith even more gripping than the first, DEVOURED, and the amount of extensive research that she must have undergone was huge. As a British born child of Irish immigrant parents myself, I was particularly interested by this story, but I could not fault any of the author's detailed research and there were many new particulars she gave that I was completely unaware of.

D E Meredith gives a very vivid atmospheric picture of life at this time and I was transported by this wonderfully evocative story telling right back to Victorian London. The book in its hardback edition has sumptuous packaging including, very unusually, a ribbon page marker (I wish that all publishers followed this example) and a printed hardback case. All in all, a delightful and most extraordinary second novel in this new historic mystery series about the Victorian forensic pathologists Hatton and Roumande. I look forward to reading subsequent stories in this series. Strongly recommended.

Terry Halligan, May 2013.

Review: Pierced by Thomas Enger

Pierced by Thomas Enger translated by Charlotte Barslund, December 2012, 544 pages, Faber and Faber, ISBN: 0571272460

Reviewed by Laura Root.
(Read more of Laura's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

One of four Scandinavian crime novels nominated for this year's inaugural Petrona Award, PIERCED is the second in Norwegian writer Thomas Enger's series featuring online news journalist Henning Juul. In this instalment of the series, Juul is approached by convicted murderer Tore Pulli, former gangland enforcer turned celebrity property developer. Pulli has been found guilty of the murder of Jocke Brolenius, a thuggish Swedish enforcer, and prime suspect in the murder of a friend of Pulli's, Fighting Fit gym owner Vidar Fjell. As one of the injuries sustained by Brolenius was a "Pulli punch", a jawbreaking manoeuvre Pull was famous for in his enforcer days, and Pulli's knuckleduster (kept for sentimental reasons in the study of Pulli’s house!) was found at the scene, the case seemed crystal clear against Pulli.

In the run up to his appeal, Pulli makes Juul an offer he can’t refuse - if Juul looks for evidence that will exonerate him of Brolenius’s murder, he will tell him what he knows about the fire that injured Juul, and killed Juul’s young son, Jonas. After Juul agrees to help Pulli, he calls in some favours due to his successful indentification of the villain of the previous novel in the series, BURNED. Juul can rely on the assistance of fellow journalist, Iver Gundersen, and his police acquaintances Brogelund and Pia Nockleby to obtain more information about Pulli and his world. Juul also discusses the case with the mysterious police informer 6tiermes7, who contacts him anonymously via online chat. Juul and Gundersen visit the gyms and bars frequented by Pulli and his shady group of friends to attempt to find out more from a group of people who are not significantly keener to talk to the media than to the police. Meanwhile in a separate strand of the novel, at first seemingly unrelated to the Pulli plotline, news camera-man, Thorleif Brenden and his partner are being stalked, and their idyllic upper middle class family life suddenly begins to be threatened.

As in the previous novel in the series, BURNED, Juul remains a sympathetic hero, still struggling to deal with the loss of his son and plagued by nightmares and flashbacks, and amnesia, but mostly managing to function better in his day to day life than in the previous novel. Enger depicts character and milieu very convincingly, and gives a credible and interesting insight into both the frantic environment of online news journalism, and the violent, sweaty milieu of the muscled enforcers. For the most part the book remains a remarkably pacy page turner despite its fashionable 500 plus page length, though I did feel that some of the Brenden subplot could have been omitted, and that Brenden's complete failure to contemplate seeking help from the police at the start could have done with some explanation. The mysteries in Juul's personal life are not fully resolved, with a humdinger of a cliffhanger at the very end of this novel, leading nicely into the next entry in this top notch Scandinavian crime series.

Laura Root, May 2013.

Free Teresa Solana Short Story

Crazy Tales of Blood and Guts, an ebook collection of short stories by Teresa Solana, translated by Peter Bush, has recently been released by Bitter Lemon Press:

Official Blurb: Fascinating short stories that include a rather bloody satire on installation art (“Still Life No.41”, shortlisted for the 2012 short story Edgar award), a wonderful story of gruesome revenge involving a wayward son-in-law, a surprising and hilarious tale of a pre-historic serial killer who invents God and psychoanalysis, and, inevitably, a vampire story told with venom and humor.

One of the stories, The First (Pre) Historic Serial Killer, can be read for free online here.

Award News: Petrona Award Eligibles 2014

Here is a list of books (43) that can be submitted for the 2014 Petrona Award for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year ie:

• The submission must be in translation and published in English in the UK during the preceding calendar year ie 1 January – 31 December 2013.
• The author of the submission must either be born in Scandinavia* or the submission must be set in Scandinavia*.

(E-books that meet the above criteria may be considered at the judges’ discretion (does not include self-published titles))
*in this instance taken to be Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden .

More details about the award can be found on the Petrona Award website and the history behind it at Petrona Remembered.

Links are to Euro Crime reviews and gender, country and publisher details are also included.

Polls about the 2013 shortlist can be found on the top right of the blog.

Published in 2013

Jo Nesbo - Cockroaches, tr. Don Bartlett (M, Norway) Harvill Secker TBC

February

Leif GW Persson - Linda, As in the Linda Murder, tr. Neil Smith (M, Sweden) Doubleday
Antti Tuomainen - The Healer, tr. Lola Rogers (M, Finland) Harvill Secker

March

Marie Hermanson - The Devil's Sanctuary, tr. Neil Smith (F, Sweden) Little, Brown (Trapdoor)
Anne Holt - Blessed Are Those Who Thirst, tr. Anne Bruce (F, Norway) Atlantic
Camilla Lackberg - The Lost Boy, tr. Tiina Nunnally (F, Sweden) HarperCollins
Alexander Soderberg - The Andalucian Friend, tr. Neil Smith (M, Sweden) Harvill Secker
Johan Theorin - The Asylum, tr. Marlaine Delargy (M, Sweden) Doubleday

April

Gaute Heivoll - Before I Burn, tr. Don Bartlett (M, Norway) Atlantic
Mons Kallentoft - Savage Spring, tr. Neil Smith (M, Sweden) Hodder
Liza Marklund - Lifetime, tr. Neil Smith (F, Sweden) Corgi
Hakan Nesser - The Weeping Girl, tr. Laurie Thompson (M, Sweden) Mantle
Roslund & Hellstrom - Two Soldiers, tr. Kari Dickson (M, Sweden) Quercus

May

Viktor Arnar Ingolfsson - Daybreak, tr. Bjorg Arnadottir & Andrew Cauthery (M, Iceland) AmazonCrossing
Leena Lehtolainen - Her Enemy, tr. Owen Witesman (F, Finland) AmazonCrossing
Yrsa Sigurdardottir - Someone to Watch Over Me, tr. Philip Roughton (F, Iceland) Hodder & Stoughton
Dan Turrell - Murder in the Dark, tr. Mark Mussari (M, Denmark) Norvik Press

June

Lotte and Soren Hammer - The Hanging, tr. Ebba Segerberg (M & F, Denmark) Bloomsbury
Pekka Hiltunen - Cold Courage, tr. Owen Witesman (M, Finland) Hesperus Press Ltd
Gunnar Staalesen - Cold Hearts, tr. Don Bartlett (M, Norway) Arcadia

July

Jussi Adler-Olsen - Redemption (apa A Conspiracy of Faith), tr. Martin Aitken (M, Denmark) Penguin
Sara Blaedel - Blue Blood (apa Call Me Princess), tr. Erik J Macki & Tara F Chace (F, Denmark) Little, Bown (Sphere)
Arne Dahl - Bad Blood, tr. Rachel Willson-Broyles (M, Sweden) Harvill Secker
Elsebeth Egholm - Three Dog Night (F, Denmark) Headline
Karin Fossum - I Can See in the Dark, tr. James Anderson (F, Norway) Harvill Secker
Grebe & Traff - More Bitter Than Death, tr. tbc (F, Sweden) Simon & Schuster
Mari Jungstedt - The Double Silence (F, Sweden) Doubleday
Lars Kepler - The Fire Witness (M & F, Sweden) Blue Door

August

Arnaldur Indridason - Strange Shores, tr. tbc (M, Iceland) Harvill Secker
Kristina Ohlsson - The Disappeared, tr. Marlaine Delargy (F, Sweden) Simon & Schuster
Jan Costin Wagner - Light in a Dark House, tr. Anthea Bell (M, Germany) Harvill Secker

September

Anne Holt - Death of the Demon, tr. Anne Bruce (F, Norway) Atlantic
Steffen Jacobsen - When the Dead Awaken, tr. tbc (M, Denmark) Quercus
Liza Marklund - A Place in the Sun, tr. Neil Smith (F, Sweden) Corgi
Jo Nesbo - Police, tr. Don Bartlett (M, Norway) Harvill Secker
Hakan Nesser - The Strangler's Honeymoon, tr. Laurie Thompson (M, Sweden) Mantle

October

Jorn Lier Horst - Closed for Winter, tr. Anne Bruce (M, Norway) Sandstone
Martin Jensen - The King's Hounds, tr. Tara Chace (M, Denmark) amazoncrossing
Leif GW Persson - He Who Kills the Dragon tr. Neil Smith (M, Sweden) Doubleday

November

Jens Lapidus - Never F**k Up (apa Never Screw Up), tr. Astri von Arbin Ahlander (M, Sweden) Macmillan

December

Anders de la Motte - Game, tr. Neil Smith (M, Sweden) Blue Door
Anders de la Motte - Buzz, tr. Neil Smith (M, Sweden) Blue Door
Anders de la Motte - Bubble, tr. Neil Smith (M, Sweden) Blue Door
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Published in the US only (at the moment):
Anna Jansson - Strange Bird, tr. Paul Norlen, (F, Sweden) Stockholm Text

New Reviews: Jones, Monroe, Nakamura, Perry, Roslund-Hellstrom, Stanley

Six new reviews have been added to Euro Crime today:

Lynn Harvey reviews the third in Tobias Jones's Italian PI series, Death of a Showgirl;

Norman Price reviews Aly Monroe's Black Bear, the fourth in the Ellis Peters Award winning Peter Cotton series;

Amanda Gillies reviews the paperback release of Fuminori Nakamura's The Thief, tr. Satoko Izumo and Stephen Coates;

Terry Halligan reviews Anne Perry's latest Thomas Pitt novel, Midnight at Marble Arch, now out in paperback;

Susan White reviews the latest book from CWA International Dagger Award winners, Roslund and Hellstrom, Two Soldiers, tr. Kari Dickson

and Michelle Peckham says that Deadly Harvest is the best book so far in Michael Stanley's Botswanan Detective Kubu series.



Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here along with releases by year.

Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year 2013 - Longlist

The longlist for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award 2013 has been announced. The winner will be announced at Harrogate however we the public will be able to vote on the shortlist of six, announced on 1 July, from 4 July.

The criteria: "...the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award was created to celebrate the very best in crime writing and is open to British and Irish authors whose novels are published in paperback from 1 May 2012 – 30 April 2013".

More about the award is on the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival website.

2013 Longlist (links are to Euro Crime reviews)

The Guilty One – Lisa Ballantyne (Piatkus)

Finders Keepers – Belinda Bauer (Transworld)

Rush Of Blood – Mark Billingham (Little Brown)

Dead Scared – S J Bolton (Corgi, Transworld)

The Affair – Lee Child (Transworld)

A Foreign Country – Charles Cumming (Harpercollins)

Safe House - Chris Ewan (Faber and Faber)

Not Dead Yet - Peter James (Macmillan)

Siege – Simon Kernick (Bantam Press)

Prague Fatale – Philip Kerr (Quercus)

The Rage – Gene Kerrigan (Vintage)

Birthdays for the Dead – Stuart MacBride (Harper)

The Dark Winter – David Mark (Quercus)

The Lewis Man – Peter May (Quercus)

Gods And Beasts – Denise Mina (Orion)

Stolen Souls – Stuart Neville (Vintage)

Sacrilege – S. J. Parris (Harper)

A Dark Redemption – Stav Sherez (Faber and Faber)