Arnaldur Indridason - the last three mystery novels in the Erlendur series

   Detective Erlendur is a morose, quiet, determined detective in Iceland.  Over the series of novels featuring him, we have learned about the blizzard when he was a child that he and his brother got lost in.  Erlendur comes home, his brother never does.  From Jar City through to Hypothermia, we have watched the slow uncovering of Erlendur's grief and how this event shaped him.  He is unable to connect with anyone, though he is able to function enough to have relationships for a time - long enough to be married and produce two children before divorce, and later eventually another love affair with a woman in the later novels.  He is not overtly depressed, he is chronically depressed and withdrawn.   Every so often, goes back east on his own to see if he can find out what happened to his brother.  My review of Hypothermia is here.

In the last three novels, something different happens.  At the end of Hypothermia, Erlendur sets out to discover what happened to a woman who disappeared in a town very close to where he grew up.  It was decades before the blizzard that trapped him and his brother.  Disappearances haunt Erlendur, so when he goes, he doesn't really leave any message behind. His detectives know this is normal for him, so they don't think much of it, though as the second week progresses, they start to get worried.
                                               

 Outrage is the next book in the series, taking place during the week after he has left.  One of his detectives, Detective Elinborg, handles this case in his absence.

Outrage is a story about a dead man found in a pool of blood, in his own apartment.  Clues suggest he had had a woman over shortly before his death.  Elinborg is handed the case when her co-worker Sigurdur Oli says he is working on another case, and can't help her.  In Outrage we get to see Iceland, and the detectives, and the case, through Elinborg's eyes.  I really enjoyed getting to know her, and her family: her husband who is quiet, her two sons, and her brilliant young daughter.  Near the end of the book Valgedur, the woman Erlendur is involved with, calls her to ask if she has heard from Erlendur.  It's been almost two weeks, and she is worried.  Elinborg tells her not to worry, but of course they both do.

The mystery itself is good, though a little convoluted.  The killer is not easily apparent, and it is only due to Elinborg's instincts that the real killer is uncovered.  The best part of the mystery is Elinborg herself, and her family.  She loves to cook, and has written a cookbook about desserts that is successful.  Her children are interesting, as is her marriage.  I'd like to know more about her!  So I ended up really enjoying the book as a whole.
                                                                  
Black Skies, the next book, features Sigurdur Oli, the other detective in the pair that work under Erlendur.  He is working on a big case when Elinborg is handed the rape and death case, so he is unable and mostly unwilling to help her. It takes place during the same two week time period Outrage does.  Sigurdur Oli is very ambitious, very aware of his appearance, and as we discover in Black Skies, somewhat crooked.  I say somewhat because he makes a mistake and spends much of the book praying it won't be uncovered, because he knows the people involved in the crime, and should have recused himself from solving it.  They are in important positions, banking etc, and don't want the police involved.  Of course it is much more complicated than that, and before too long, Sigurdur Oli realizes he is trapped, and has been set up.  He can't tell anyone, without revealing his complicity in the investigation.   It's an interesting portrayal of one of the main characters, and makes for gripping reading.  Sigurdur Oli also has a partner he has broken up with, who  he comes to realize he still loves, but it is too late for them.  Black Skies is about errors of judgement, and the policeman who makes some of the worst ones.  The other principal crime is a horrific story of a murder with a leather mask with a spike in the middle of it.  Why it happened, falls in Sigurdur Oli to solve, and the story of what happens to the main character of this investigation has direct links to what is about to happen to Erlendur in the final book in the series.  Again, in Black Skies, there are a few references to Erlendur's mysterious trip to the east Fjords and whatever he is investigating there.

As with Elinborg in the previous book, we discover more about Sigurdur Oli and what his history is.  His parents are divorced, and in the book he learns his father is dying of cancer.   Even though Sigurdur Oli is vain, and self-centered, he has an appealing quality - he is smart, and he does learn from his mistakes ,though he learns the very hard way.  I really enjoyed Black Skies, as dark as the crimes are, it is gritty and realistic as it portrays the betrayal of innocents and all the costs to society when it can't protect the most innocent.
                                                                         
The final book in the series, Strange Shores, was published late last fall.  It features Erlendur, during the two weeks that the previous books take place.  This is what Erlendur was doing out east......he goes out there ostensibly to uncover what happened to a woman in January 1942.  Supposedly Mattildur had set out to visit her family over the mountain pass....only a blizzard came up, and she never made it.  At the same time, a troop of British soldiers had gone out for a walk, and gotten lost on the same moors.  Not all of the soldiers survive, but the ones who do, claim they never met Mattildur, though they would have been walking during the same time and should have crossed paths.  This is Erlendur's cover story, even to himself, about why he is there.  Because the little village he is visiting, is close by his old family home, that his family left after a few years after the blizzard and his brother's death.  They can't bear the memories, and abandon the house and farm.

Throughout the book, each chapter opens with a little bit about a man who is losing consciousness.  Near the end, I realized it was Erlendur.  How, and why?  Strange Shores is about the grief left behind for the survivors, and about how losing his brother in the blizzard shaped Erlendur.  We discover the truth he has hidden from himself, that he blames himself for his brother's death.  His brother wouldn't have been there if not for Erlendur.......and his parents are so caught up in grief, that he is never able to tell them, and be relieved of his guilt. He comes to see that his whole life, this is why he can't connect with people, why he is a loner, and why he is drawn to solving mysteries.  He has always hoped his brother somehow survived, or would be found.  Strange Shores is heart-breaking in the end. Erlendur can't escape his past, either, and he finally realizes that he doesn't want to.  There is a deep melancholy in this book, as Erlendur after painstaking detective work uncovers what happens to Matthildur. This mystery novel examines the grief that people carry after losing someone they love, and what happens when the loss is compounded by the unknowable:  when the loved one disappears, how can anyone move on?  That mystery means the loss can never be closed, it lingers on as days, months, years pass, waiting to find out what happened, to have a resolution of some kind.  In the end, the resolution that Erlendur finds might not be to every reader's taste, and indeed he does something before the ending that shocked me so much that I put the book down and exclaimed, "no way!" out loud!  What he does is so shocking to me, though I realized this shows his slow unravelling as he faces the memories of that blizzard that he has buried deeply in himself.  I went back to the book, prepared for what I knew was going to come, and hoping anyway it wouldn't.  It is an ending that fits Erlendur and his character, and leaves me so sad for him.

This is a mystery series with a character not like anyone out there.  I love the setting, Iceland with its long dark hours and history that shapes the island and people making a living on it.  The darkness of human character, emphasized because of the long winters, and bleakness of much of the landscape.  Erlendur is unforgettable, and thanks to Black Skies and Outrage, his detectives are much more clearly delineated for me now.  I highly recommend the whole series to mystery readers. 

Interviews with Arnaldur Indridason:
Telegraph (UK)

Other reviews
 Outrage
Kerry at Mysteries in Paradise

Black Skies
Kerry at Mysteries in Paradise

Strange Shores
Crime Fiction Lover
Raidergirl3 at An Adventure in Reading

Books I can hardly wait for!

I am so excited!  Here are a few books that are coming out this year, ones that I didn't expect or even know about:

Giles Blunt, my favourite Canadian mystery writer, has a new one in his John Cardinal series, which is going to be released August 7.  Cardinal was last seen in Crime Machine, which I reviewed here last year. This was exciting enough to discover. 

Of all things, Alan Garner has a sequel - ok, third book, in the now Brisingamen and Moon of Gomrath two books series, now after 50 years has the third book due out next month, here is the link to the Guardian article. Click on Boneland in the article.  

I don't know when it's coming out in Canada, though it's on my wishlist now.  One of the best fantasy series ever.  I'm due to reread the two books now, so it will be fresh whenever Boneland is out here.

Here, is the cover of the new Artur Indridason, due out July 24.  It features Sigurdur Oli, last seen in Outrage, which was supposed to be in paperback this month, and has now been put back to October. I don't know if I should read Outrage first, I guess I should.  But why would the second one be out in softcover before the first one?  Mysteries of  publishing. 





And then, finally:  the very first Harry Hole mystery is going to be published.  It's not coming out here until October, but here it is, the cover of The Bat. 

  It's set in Australia, and is the case that made his name (that we have seen referred to in The Red Breast and some of his other books).  I am so thrilled.  I am currently reading Phantom, his latest mystery, and am totally engrossed in it. The Bat was never published before in English, the Harry Hole series in English started with The Red Breast, so this is wonderful news.***edited to add:  We get the whole series! 

So what books are you waiting for, or that you have just learned are going to be out later this year?

Books I'm Waiting For, Part 2

Yesterday I posted about some books I was waiting for to come out in softcover, hopefully mass market size.  While I would love to be able to buy new books in hard cover, unfortunately my budget doesn't permit it except on occasion, and right now, my arthritic knees are so inflamed that any extra weight that I carry makes them ache so much more , that hard covers are out right now for me, except at home. So, while I seem impatient for books to come out, its because they are there, only I just can't quite get to them until they are in soft cover!  and sometimes it takes AGES.

So there I was, lying in bed after writing my post, and I suddenly thought: The Fault is in Our Stars!  I forgot to mention it!  How could I???  So herewith, is my second list of more books I am waiting come out in soft cover this summer/fall:


The Fault  In Our Stars - John Green July 24/12  (I am so excited!  I've wanted to read this ever since it came out!)
Black Skies (newest title out) - Arnaldur Indridason ***this will be in trade softcover.  Yaay!
Outrage  -           "         "      July 3/12  (as I said yesterday, only a month to go!)           
A Beautiful Mystery - Louise Penny - Aug/12 (hardcover, but for all you lovely Gamache fans who can read hard covers, lucky lucky you....newest one in two months!)
A Trick of the Light - Louise Penny - FINALLY - July 3/12
The Twelve - Justin Cronin Oct 16/12
11.22.63- Stephen King - No date yet...  sob....for the softcover.....
Boy in the Suitcase - Lene Kaarberbol Sept 4/121
Zone One - Colson Whitehead - July 10/12 (zombies!!!!)
Harbour - John Arne Lindqvist Sept 18/12 (At long last.....I  have been waiting so long for this one, it seems.  Ghosts!)
And his Little Star will finally be available here in Hardcover Oct 2/12

And look......Tana French has a new one out!!!
Broken Harbour - Tana French - July 3/12, and it looks awesome.

*happy sigh*  I'm sure if I looked harder, there would be more to come.  Is it good or bad that I have most of these lined up on Amazon so I can see right away if one is coming out? 

Apparently Peter Lovesey''s Stage Struck is already out in paperback (April), so I think I'm going to have to order it since I haven't seen it out here.

The Beaggar's Opera  - Peggy Blair - Feb 2013 (this is in large paperback already, the mass market is next Feb)

Tolstoy and the Purple Chair: My Year of Magical Reading - Nina Sankovich - June 19/12! another one this month! at long last!

Sigh, happy happy sigh. 

****Edited to add:  for lists of new books coming out :(in any edition, all first time releases,) go to Chris at Stuff as Dreams are Made Of here, and Kailana at  The Written World here.   They both have super lists of upcoming new books.  ****I'll be waiting for the softcover editions a year from now.......lol

My first reviews of the year

I have decided among my personal goals, to review every book I read this year.  So in keeping with the newness of the year and that I've read 4 books only so far, here for review are:

1. The Unstrung Harp - Edward Gorey.  Can I just say, if you are a writer or want to be one, run to your nearest second hand bookstore and start hunting for this book?  It's perfect, and perfectly describes everything we go through as writers, from the way we do anything but put pen to paper, to the way we react when we see our book in the sale bins.  Fabulous and funny.  One of my favourite quotes:

"Mr Earbass belongs to the straying, rather than the sedentary, type of author. He is never to be found at his desk unless actually writing down a sentence.  Before this happens he broods over it indefinitely while picking up and putting down again small, loose objects; walking diagonally across rooms, staring out windows, and so forth."

This also has the benefit of being accompanied by Gorey's wonderful pen and ink drawings.

This was a Library book so I have one completed already on my Library Challenge! Recommended, recommended, recommended!

2. Lifelode - Jo Walton.  I couldn't  figure out why I couldn't find this book anywhere, until I found it at the library and discovered it had been written expressly for Boskone, the Boston Science Fiction convention held every year.  The New England Science Fiction Association are the publishers of this book, a limited hardcover edition of 800, of which Ottawa Public Library holds # 589. All this to say, it might be hard to find, but if you see it, grab it.  For anyone who likes fantasy, this is a fantasy book quite unlike any other, sort of like every other book Jo Walton has written recently.  It's fantasy, set in a medieval invented world, with a different kind of religion and making of the world, and the story is small: an ancestor comes back to her ancestral home and her actions threaten to destroy it.  One of the particular beauties of this story is that it is set in the domestic domain: much of the magic comes from Taveth, who's lifelode (life path) is to keep the house of her lord.  It is a path she has chosen willingly, as any does in the world of this book.  Everyone has the right path that fulfills them, and one of the fun and interestng ways in which this is domestic fantasy, is that hardly anyone is doing what they were meant to do.  They have given up their lifelode to do what is demanded of them by family, by relationships, by circumstances.  The wonder of this fantasy tale is that so many people find a way to step into their right path anyway.

I really enjoyed this fantasy.  The religion, the gods, the setting of the manor house, the way in which the harvest is depicted, the villagers helping the lord out in return for his protection, and most of all, the long look  at the heart of the manor, which is the kitchen and all that goes on there.  Taveth is the main heroine. Part of her magic is that she can see all the past and future of a person by the shadow selves that pop out around someone.  Everyone in this world has a gift, and part of their growing up is learning about it as well as about what they are to do in the world.  It sounds simple, and it's not.  It's magic, and what life is about - happiness, love, choice, where guests are going to sleep, is there enough food, and making sure everyone is cared for.  Even though Teveth can see the future selves, she can't prevent or even act to change the future because she doesn't know what leads to it.

Very fun, and a little bit different, and recommended.

This is part of the Library Challenge, and the Canadian Challenge 4.

3. Hypothermia - Arnaldur Indridason.  Detective Erlendur investigates a suicide that isn't quite normal - just the slightest intuition that something is off.  He also goes back over one more time two old missing person cases, because it's been over 20 years now, and the parents are dying in one case.

Hypothermia is a state that Canadians grow up being cautioned about from the earliest days in childhood: what the danger of extreme cold is, what the signs of freezing are, and when you should come in from the cold.  Hypothermia is the state of slowly growing colder, of the body parts shutting down until you freeze to death.  Hypothermia is also what almost killed Erlendur when he was lost in the blizzard when he was a boy.  It still affects him today, the nearness of death and escaping when his brother didn't, and in this book we see Erlendur talk about what it has done to him, and why he couldn't stay in his marriage.  It is fascinating and sad, and even if you have never experienced cold, you will have suffered loss at some point in your life and so this becomes a story about grief and loss, and how people never really recover from tragedy, though they do find ways to move on.  In the end, I was most surprised to discover that I think Erlendur is a romantic, because he won't, he can't, give up on these cases.  He is not a flowers-and -cards romantic, far from it!  It's in his soul though, the ability to care and keep caring long after all hope is gone. This series, and the writing also, keep getting better and better. If I didn't already have my love Harry Hole, Erlendur would be a close competitor.  I must have a thing for lonely police detectives who stand guard against the darkness of the world. 

4. The Serpent Pool - Martin Edwards.  This is the 4th Hannah Scarlett and Daniel Kind mystery novel.  I have to admit up front that I found it disappointed me in one area, though overall it is good.  The problem I have with this mystery is that Hannah's partner, Marc Amos, should be questioned when it turns out he has a link to an old case Hannah is investigating.  Hannah decides she doesn't want to question him that night, and then the action takes over.  Not only do I have a problem with Hannah's decision, but I found myself distracted, thinking that Hannah should at least go to her superior and let her know of her conflict-of-interest and have someone else assigned to questioning Marc, if not get herself removed from the case. She doesn't, and I don't like this, because wouldn't normally the first accusation be that she was hiding information about him from the investigation? Impeding it? Otherwise, it is quite an interesting mystery, with gruesome killings and the slow falling apart of Hannah's and Marc's relationship.  Despite the flaw this is still a good mystery and given the high quality of the previous books, I hope it's a one-off.  Recommended, with reservation.

This leads me to the last review for tonight, another mystery I read last year from a favourite author who also had a problem with her mystery, I thought.

5. The Murder Stone - Louise Penny.  Normally I love Armand Gamache and the Quebec woods setting.  The Murder Stone is no different - set in an historic hunting lodge deep in the Quebec woods, Armand and his wife Reine-Marie have gone to celebrate their wedding anniversary, as they do every year.  Only this time a whole other family have also come at the same time, and when one of them turns up dead, and it's plainly not accidental or suicide, the Surete du Quebec must be called in.  So far, so good.  But stop me if I'm wrong, shouldn't Armand and his wife be investigated?  This is a 'locked-room' mystery, where there is a known set of guests, hotel workers etc in the remote countryside.  Even though Armand and his wife have no obvious links to the murdered victim, they should still be investigated and cleared.  However, Armand is put in charge of the investigation!  I really think he wouldn't be allowed to lead it.  He should have been side-lined and worked from the inside (because he is Armand and Chief Inspector, he would never stand idly by, but get involved anyway) to find the killer. So once again, I am left wondering, is it me? do both of these mysteries seem to have a fairly large hole in the investigative process?  Despite this, this was a very good mystery.  I enjoyed the locked room feel, the setting of the hotel in the far woods, the closeness of nature (there is a violent thunderstorm the night of the murder), the mosquitos that torment his second in command Guy Beauvoir, and the writing is excellent.  I really enjoyed this mystery over all, except for the blip.  We find out more about Armand's father and see much more of Reine-Marie than normal, and I quite like her, and them together, also.  Overall, this is still a wonderful mystery series, very well written.  Highly recommended, with one reservation.

This counts for the Canada Challenge 4.

I hope you are enjoying your first books of the year, my Gentle Readers.

I've been busy reading......

I can't believe almost two weeks has gone by since I last posted! I really thought it was only last week since I posted.....I've been under the weather, and very happily reading. I've read 4 books so far this month! You already have the review for The Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke. So I thought for this very late Sunday night, I'd give a short review for the other three books.

Blood on the Strand - Susanna Gregory - Book 2 in the Thomas Chaloner series. Set in 1663 London, this book sees Chaloner asked by Lord Clarendon, for whom he works, to investigate the murder of wealthy merchant and a vagrant who tried to attack the king outside Whitehall. I don't know if it was the aftereffects of Christmas, but I kept falling asleep through the first half of the book. I didn't matter when I tried to read it, I'd start dozing within a few lines. I finally made myself sit and read it for over an hour one day this new year, and the longer period of reading helped. There is a long period of set-up, and lots of double-dealing with the agents, lots of potential murderers. This is all made more complex by the Castle Plot failed set in Ireland before this book opens but many of the same spies are back and are named in a conspirator letter that sees some sentenced to death, which the vagrant turns out to be one of, and so the mystery deepens. Why was Chaloner left off the list? Why are some freed on a King's pardon and others not? Who killed Matthew Webb, and why? There are all sorts of subplots here, which I am glad to say finally in the last quarter of the book satisfyingly pull together. I do enjoy Thomas Chaloner as a character, and there is a serious twist to the ending that caught me unprepared - it's quite good. So while it starts off slowly, there is really good characterization, dialogue, and Restoration London comes to life. It's a 3.5/5 read. I will continue on with this series.

Arctic Chill - Arnaldur Indridason. This is so good! I can see why it made so many lists over at Kerrie's Top Ten Mysteries Poll she was running at the beginning of this year. You, my dear readers, know that I have been talking about Indridason for over a year now, ever since I read Silence of the Grave and Tainted Blood. I can't recommend this series enough. It is well-thought out police-procedural with a main character who is very quiet and a very astute observer of people, although not of himself. It's only in this book that he really begins to wonder how his disappearance from his children's lives has affected them, even as he continues to reveal slowly the deeper aspects of his childhood before and after his brother died, and how that has affected him. It's interesting that he doesn't talk about how burying himself in the snow to survive has affected him, but that's part of the charm of this series. There is time to learn, time to puzzle it out, even as he throws himself into murders to solve them. It is the ones who die alone who get to him,which he admits in Arctic Chill is because of his brother, the ones whose mysteries he has to solve while he waits to solve what happened to his brother all those years ago. This haunting sense envelopes this particular book, as it did the previous one (The Draining Lake, which I have sadly yet to review from last year!). A boy dies alone, and the book is about the investigation into his death.

I found this a moving book to read because the victim's death reminded me a real-life case, of Damilolo Taylor, who was murdered in London in 2000. I don't want to say much more about Damilolo's case because this book has many similarities to the outcome of the real case as well, so I don't want to give anything away to my readers who aren't familiar with the Taylor case. I, as well as most of Britain, was horrified during the investigation, and it is one that I find still affects me now - I expect it always will. So Arctic Chill could have been too similar to a real case, and I am relieved to say it wasn't. It's different enough, that I think it is more a comment on youths and crime today, and modern society. This is a gripping read. I cried at the ending, for both the book and the real life case, again. Even if Arctic Chill is entirely a creation out of the author, it so eerily recreates what happens all over the world that it becomes about a crime we have all heard about, somewhere. This is a mystery, and a series, that really is among the very best currently being written. And all the way through it is a haunting sense of loss that almost feels like music. A slow elegy, a mournful awareness of loss and change, and that some things can't really be recovered from. Excellent. 5/5

The Calling - Inger Ash Wolfe. A new Canadian author! A new mystery series! I'm excited! And how is it, you ask? Very good. It has its flaws (this is good to see in a first novel, because otherwise I'd be completely jealous that a first novel could be perfect!), mostly regarding how the acting chief of police for the tiny town of Port Dundas, Ontario, could lead a country wide investigation for a serial killer. To Wolfe's credit much of it is credible; I only wonder at Inspector Hazel Micallef not getting into major trouble as she would in real life, for not calling in the RCMP, although this is kind of talked about in the book, it's not what would happen in real life. That aside, this is really well-written. Hazel Micallef is believable as the acting Inspector of her station - acting because her superior officer actually wants to amalgamate the station with others in the region, thus cutting costs, so he won't hire a permanent Inspector. The killer is believable and surprisingly sympathetic at times. The premise is an elderly woman dying of cancer is found murdered in her home. When links are discovered to another murder later that weekend, suspicions begin to amount even though the murders are over 300 km apart.

The supporting cast of detectives is very well-drawn, the dialogue is excellent, the descriptions of Ontario in the fall makes me wish it was fall again! and the pace is fast and this is a very enjoyable mystery. I highly recommend it, and very much look forward to reading her new one later this year when it comes out in paperback. 4.7/5

****Hmm. Just discovered while downloading the pictures of the books, that Inger Ash Wolfe is a pseudonym for a "well-known Canadian literary figure". So not a first novel!!!***** Well, at least I don't have to worry at it's being soooo good for a first novel.

Only The Calling and Arctic Chill count for my 100 Books read challenge; Blood on the Strand was started in December. But, I count that as four books read this month, so I'm pleased.

I hope you have been happily reading this new Year too, dear Reader.

Are translated mysteries really better than English ones, and forgotten treasures

From The Guardian internet site, here is a link to an article about the Nordic authors who won the mystery awards at Bouchercon this past weekend. The reason I am linking you is not just because of who won, but because of what the translator of one of the books says:

"The awareness of Scandinavian crime fiction has certainly been building, with Henning Mankell and others softening readers up for Stieg," he said. "Then he came along and was so much better than all the others."

Larsson's British publisher Christopher MacLehose at Quercus agreed. "The crime writers in translation are for perfectly obvious statistical reasons better than English ones, because they are all chosen by serious publishers in their countries of origin and filtered down and down before they get translated into English," he said. "We're translating a tiny proportion so we should be getting the best of the best."

Now, I don't know about you, but this raised my hackles. Excuse me, but just because a mystery has been translated, does not make it a higher quality of writing than a mystery written in English!! And I do not think that Stieg Larsson is so much better than all the other Scandinavian writers! No, no, I think he is a much worse writer than most; he has a fast journalistic style that makes for entertaining reading, and he does write well; but his plot did have holes, his story did have problems. I would take Arnaldur Indridason over him any day, and Henning Mankell. They are far and away better Scandinavian mystery writers than Stieg Larsson. So, Gentle Reader, let me know what you think: do you agree with the speakers in the article? Or with me? I am, by the way, delighted that both won, and delighted that they were good mysteries (at least in my humble opinion!) and that even better, I've read them before they won the awards! As for English writers, Ian Rankin, Kate Atkinson, Ariana Franklin, Sara Paretsky, James Lee Burke, to name a few, are all better mystery writers than Stieg Larsson, in English. I will say that Larsson tells a good story, and it's gripping and his characters are good. But better than Gorky Park? Mallory's Oracle? No.

The other article from The Guardian is one about forgotten classics, link here. I'm curious to know if you have any forgotten classics that you think people should read, Gentle Reader. The Guardian wants to know, too! It's also about forgotten favourites of time gone past. I think I've read the book the author mentions, Mary Stewart's Touch Not The Cat. Eons ago. Now I want to read it again, just because it was mentioned in the article! It's fun to see what people treasured once, that they have forgotten about and rediscover. Has that happened to you? Do you find yourself discovering an old favourite, or wish that more people would read an older book that you really love? I like this article too because it says that even with all the new books being published every year, one of the joys of books is that we can turn to books from yesterday, last year, 100 years ago, and read them again. A forgotten classic can always be discovered again. And there is nothing like treasuring a book, at least for this bookaholic! So what do you treasure that you think has been forgotten? For tonight, I choose Woman in Black by Susan Hill, and On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers. Just in time for Hallowe'en!!

The Woman in Black I reviewed here last year.

On Stranger Tides I read first 20 years ago. I loved it then. It's one of Tim Power's first books, not as early as The Anubis Gates, but with the same sense of energy and fun. It has pirates, zombies, true love, voodoo, The Fountain of Youth, the Caribbean.....it's so much fun to read, very enjoyable, and a solid mix of fantasy and horror with doses of humour. It's a forgotten classic that I think is well worth discovering.

Time for tonight's ghost story from Bluenose Ghosts:

Occasionally a single ghost turns up on a ship. This story from Glen Haven is one of my favourites. I would like to think it really happened, and perhaps it did. Ben Smeltzer was a West Dover man and one of the crew of a vessel fishing off Georges in winter. It was snowing and there were no fish, and they were getting all iced up and the captain had decided to take the ship to Boston. At this time Mr Smeltzer went down below and, when he went into the cabin, there was a strange man sitting at the chart table writing on a slate - a large, healthy looking sea-faring man.

For readers who are not accustomed to the sea and its ways, I might mention that it would be impossible in the limited space of a sailing vessel for a person to stow away for any length of time, if at all, and this vessel had been at sea for some weeks.

"Who can this be?" Mr Smeltzer thought. "What does it mean?" He had heard of strange events at sea, and he scratched his head as he went up the companionway to talk it over with his captain.

"There's a strange man below," he said. "Never seen him before."

"You're crazy," said the captain. Then observing that Mr Smeltzer was serious about it he decided to humour him and added in a voice that had in it more than a hint of sarcasm, "What did you say to him?"

"I didn't say anything," Mr Smeltzer declared. "He can't be human."

"Well," said the captain, who began to have misgivings himself, "you come down with me and show me your man." So down they went and there was no one there. However the captain was a thorough man and Mr Smeltzer had stated specifically that the stranger had been sitting at the chart table writing on a slate. He therefore strode over to the table and picked up the slate. The top side was clean, just as he had left it. Without really thinking what he was doing he turned the slate over and there he was amazed to see a message. It read: "Change your course to nor'nor'west and steer so many hours and you'll come to a vessel turned on its side and the crew hanging on it."

He put the slate down and snorted.

"Tricks. Sailors must always be at their tricks," but Mr Smeltzer insisted it was not a trick and he grew even more serious as he too read the message. More to satisfy him than anything, the captain called his crew down one by one and had each one write something on the slate. No script resembled the mysterious handwriting. By this time the crew all knew the story and they were as one in concluding that they should follow the slate's directions. Against his own wishes and judgement the captain changed his course. And sure enough, they had not gone far on their way when they came upon an upturned vessel. Men were still clinging to the hull, and they were in time to save them. They supposed then that the stranger who had appeared in the cabin had been one of the first to succumb and that he had taken this means of saving his fellow seamen.

Tainted Blood - Arnaldur Indridason

Tainted Blood by Arnaldur Indridason is the first book in the Icelandic mystery series featuring Detective Erlendur. I first encountered Erlendur when I read Silence of the Grave last year. It's the second book in the series, but all I could find at the time. I can't say enough good about this series, since I have been hooked since Silence of the Grave. I am so pleased that Tainted Blood is as good.


The book starts off quietly, with the discovery of a body in a basement apartment. After that, the mystery slowly builds as Erlendur and his team try to discover why the old man was killed. Erlendur is fascinating. He is an older detective, with a failed marriage behind him and lost touch with his children when they were little. One child has gotten in touch with him when the book opens. She is almost a failure, exactly like he is, personally, and like him, is very intelligent. It's not that Erlendur is a social outcast, far from it. He is part of the new breed of detectives in current mysteries, where their desire to solve a mystery takes them to places that precludes being able to sustain deep relationships. It's like looking into the human heart affects people, as it surely must: " You think it won't affect you. You reckon you're strong enough to withstand that sort of thing. You think you can put on armour against it over the years and can watch all the filth from a distance as if it's none of your business, and try to keep your senses. But there isn't any distance. And there's no armour. No-one's strong enough. The repulsion haunts you like an evil spirit that burrows into your mind and doesn't leave you in peace until you believe that the filth is life itself because you've forgotten how ordinary people live. This case is like that. Like an evil spirit that's been unleashed to run riot in your mind and ends up leaving you crippled."
This is the longest speech in the book by Erlundur. When I read it, it got me thinking about how mysteries and detectives have changed from the beginning of the twentieth century to recent times. Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett had heroes who were single, who commented on life because they were outside of it. They could go where no one else who was 'ordinary' could go. Investigating mysteries - crime - assaults on people - meant that you couldn't engage in ordinary life after. For a very long time this continued through detective series and mysteries, although there were exceptions - Tommy and Tuppence Beresford from Agatha Christie, Nick and Nora Charles by the same Dashiell Hammett - which were foils to the theory, but because they were a team, the sense of loneliness was not part of their story as it is when the detective is single.

I admire both kinds of detective series - Tommy and Tuppence are part of two of my favourite Agatha Chirtie novels, N or M, and By the Pricking of my Thumbs, but I have a particular preference for the plumbing of the human heart, for the sense of righting a wrong that restores some sense of justice in the world. The single detective in particular stands for morality, and Erlendur is Iceland's contribution to this form of detective story. Even though he has a failed marriage, he does get along with his team - although when we finally meet his boss, it is hilarious how he undercuts him, so Erlendur is no pushover or hierarchical, by-the-books detective either. There is a great deal of intuition, that essential key to great detective work. There is also what I think is part of the Iceland character, the inheritance from the old Icelandic sagas, the idea of fate and gloom. How could a people live in darkness, and snow, for much of the year, and not be somewhat morose and gloomy? I like Erlendur. He is quiet, forceful, persistent, and human. I enjoy how he solves mysteries, with doggedness, and the desire to discover why. There are no car chase scenes, no mobsters, no city in peril here. Just a quiet mystery involving a man who turns out to be much worse, a monster, and the crime committed years ago still ripples through lives in the current day, as crimes do. These are contemplative books on human life, not shying away from the twists in human nature, and I am becoming a very big fan of this series. I have gone out and bought the next two (after Silence of the Grave) that have been translated, to read in the new year as my challenges end.

This is also part of my Orbis Terrarum challenge, so I've now read 5 books in this challenge.

You might think this is not a big change from reading horror, but for me it is. I was thinking over this week why it was, and the conclusion I've come to is that horror often is unresolved, whereas in most mystery books, there is a resolution, a restoring of justice, peace, the balance.

Next up: back to RIP3, and The House of Dr Dee by Peter Ackroyd.