Square of Revenge by Pieter Aspe

Category: 50 Books

squareofrevengeThis is the first book in the Inspector Van In series.

This was a solid mystery with really good characters. Van In is great, he’s the older, drinkier detective, and his partner, Versavel, is the younger, less angry detective. This book also introduces the new deputy prosecutor, Hannelore Maartens. I enjoyed the characters and their relationships. Obviously the relationships are more developed in the second book, The Midas Murders.

The mystery was great. The very wealthy and powerful Degroof family is being targeted. Crimes are being committed against them, but since the father is all Major Political Guy, he’s trying to keep the whole thing hush-hush. So we get the tension of Van In being told to not investigate the crimes, but of course, he must. The revenge crimes are great. The first one, which takes place at the family’s jewelry store is what really piqued my interest because it is so conniving.

The reader is told who is committing the crimes, the mystery then, is the why. Why is this family being tormented? I enjoyed that format change from the usual whodunit of procedurals.

Great mystery, great characters, and I’m really enjoying where the series is going. If you like procedurals and Eurocrime, I recommend this one.

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Where Monsters Dwell by Jorgen Brekke

Category: 50 Books

wheremonstersdwell

wheremonstersdwell

What do we want?

SCANDICRIME!

When do we want it?

IN MY FACE RIGHT NOW!

Where Monsters Dwell is Jorgen Brekke’s debut novel, and let me just say, this is an ambitious crime novel. Here’s the synopsis from the jacket:

A murder at the Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia, bears a close resemblance to one in Trondheim, Norway. The corpse of the museum curator in Virginia is found flayed in his office by the cleaning staff; the corpse of an archivist at the library in Norway, is found inside a locked vault used to store delicate and rare books. Richmond homicide detective Felicia Stone and Trondheim police inspector Odd Singsaker find themselves working on similar murder cases, committed the same way, but half a world away. And both murders are somehow connected to a sixteenth century palimpsest book—The Book of John—which appears to be a journal of a serial murderer back in 1529 Norway, a book bound in human skin.

A Renaissance serial killer, Edgar Allan Poe, a super-old mystery book, and a Norwegian murder mystery? What’s not to like?

Well, first of all, there are too many timelines going on in this book. We have the 1500s, the present in the USA and Norway, Felicia Stone’s teen years, and a few years back when John Vatten’s family was murdered. It’s a lot to take in. I wish the 16th century stuff could’ve all been done with at the beginning instead of interspersed throughout the book.

The Edgar Allan Poe stuff, of which there was very little to do with Poe (There’s nil to do with Poe, really.), and the mystery in Virginia connecting to one in Norway was really a stretch when it came right down to it, and it seriously complicated things. Complications are not always bad, mind you, but in this case it didn’t add anything worthwhile to the story.

The detectives, Felicia Stone and Odd Singsaker, are solid characters. The author does a great job with their backgrounds giving the reader a good feel for the characters.

There was a very gratuitous blow job in this book that was so absurd I believe I mumbled, “Obviously a male wrote this garbage.” It was ridiculous and felt pretty juvenile.

I know I’m being harsh on this book, and I think I’m doing it because this book could really be a good one, if the author would trim some of the fat off (skip the Edgar Allan Poe tease, really cut back [cut, get it?] on the 16th century surgeon/killer parts) and tighten up the mystery. The Book of MacGuffin John added some creepy curiosity, but then fell flat.

I did enjoy the nod to Jo Nesbo’s character Harry Hole. It was cleverly done without naming names, and it made me smile. It felt like a high-five to other readers of scandicrime.

To sum up, this is an ambitious first novel. Too ambitious. If it had been less grand, I would have really loved this book. You can tell the author is a reader, and he’s got some writing chops. I look forward to a second novel, and I hope the author settles down and really finds his stride.

This book is available February 2014.

 

 

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Flu Queen

Category: dribblings

I recently had The Flu. It was the first time in my life that I’ve had The Flu.

It is just as bad as everyone says it is.

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Merry Stuff It

Category: dribblings

At Walgreens today. Cashier asks, “Are you ready for Christmas?”

“Not yet,” I reply.

“Well, Christmas is ready for you.”

Kid, take note, my purchase consists of AZO, panty liners, cranberry juice, and spearmint chewing gum. Was it the chewing gum that threw you off? Cos context clues shoulda maybe told you to shut the hell up.

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Are you a grown-up?

Category: dribblings

Working at a ‘brary means I get to see many kids. Most of the kids are great, some are the pits, and a very few are complete stars.

I like kids?
I do, I mean, I like kids. I like your kids. Obviously you don’t have creature-children. Your kids are well-behaved and sweet.

If I try to talk to little kids at work one of two things happen:

1. The kid clams up, turns into a bashful statue or

2. Cries.

So I try not to talk to too many kids, unless they come to me and ask me a question, then it’s on.

ANYway, I’m in the stacks shelving some books and this little girl comes around the corner with one of the library’s stuffed animals. I say, “Hey kiddo.”

I call EVERYONE kiddo.

She says, “Hey.” She’s probably 5 at the VERY oldest.

“I see you’ve got a tiger.” That’s me, tryna be cool.

She ignores my words and says, “I gotta show you something.”

“Okay.”

“Follow me.”

So I follow her to the kid’s section where there are very short tables and chairs for kids to sit in.

“Sit down,” she says, pointing to a tiny chair.

“All right.” I sit.

“Look at this book! It’s so gross!”

She opens up a book about the human body. It for kids! don’t get weird. It has a stomach and a heart in it and the heart makes a “beating” sound but it really just clicks.

“Isn’t it GROSS?”

“Yeah, I guess that’s pretty gross.” Then she starts talking. I mean a-mile-a-minute kid chatter. She starts asking me questions, what’s my name, you got a brother? Just tons of stuff and then, while I’m in the middle of answering a question she says, “Wait a minute… are you a grown-up?” And I wish you could’ve seen the disgust on her face.

“Yes, I’m a grown-up.”

Her face falls, I mean, you’d have thought I had just admitted to Nazi war crimes.

“Do you… Do you work here?!”

“I do. In fact, I need to get back-” she interrupts me by throwing her hand up, not quite in my face, and saying, “Well, I don’t work here cos I’m a KID.”

 

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Hild by Nicola Griffith

Category: 50 Books

hildI was excited to have several days off for the Thanksgiving holiday because eating food and visiting with family is great PLUS I had Nicola Griffith’s new book, Hild, lying in wait, and I couldn’t wait to devour it.
Pretty sure the book devoured me. I feel like I’ve been dragged through a keyhole.
In a good way.

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The Midas Murders by Pieter Aspe

Category: 50 Books

midasmurders

Well, I do love a euro crime procedural don’t I?

This is the second book in the inspector/commissioner Pieter Van In series. This book was first published in Belgium in the mid 1990s, so the story takes place before the internet and cell phones were prevalent. They don’t even have a full-blown computer, they just seem to have a word processor.

I liked the mystery, a German business man is found murdered and things balloon into a whole real estate/old Nazi guy conspiracy. That’s what I love about a euro crime novel. Over here in the U.S. our crimes books are all twisted serial killer stuff, but over in Europe, there always seems to be an old Nazi hiding in a closet. So I thought the mystery was well done.

Van In’s partner, Versavel was a hoot. An interesting choice to pair up an old guy with a young homosexual. They work really well together. It was funny that the other police officers are kind of afraid of them.

Commissioner Van In was kind of a mess. I prefer my detectives and inspectors to be a mess, they need flaws, but Van In was just all over the place. Drinks too much, has a nice girlfriend AND a prostitute? He’s overweight, unhealthy, depressed. I believe in the middle of the book he has a heart attack but doesn’t go to the hospital? It was just too much, and then all of a sudden he’s all, “I’m good.” and he gets better? I don’t know. I did like his bad attitude and his casual prejudice against Germans. I’m not condoning prejudice mind you, I just mean it’s a character trait that shows that Van In is old school, but he’s also a good detective.

I could also pick up a very old school attitude toward women. But I cannot tell if it was Van In’s attitude or the author’s. The girlfriend was perfect, the prostitute was perfect, but all the other women were not described kindly and were all harpies. Meh. But, to be fair, all the women were in the government, and he wasn’t kind towards the men in the government either, so  IT MAY be that he feels that way toward government people.

I do feel that the political incorrectness in this story is very indicative of this time, and that most of it is actually used for humor.

I’m interested to see where Van In goes from here. I would read more of this series.

 

 

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The Antigone Poems poems by Marie Slaight art by Terrence Tasker

Category: 50 Books

antigone

This slim book of poetry is stunning. I chose to read it because I was between books and needed a good palate cleanser. It’s described on it’s website as,

A bold retelling of the ancient tale of defiance and justice, its poetry and images capture the anguish and despair of the original tale in an unembellished modernized rendition.

So I wasn’t sure if I should go back and reread Sophocles or just wing it. I hadn’t read Antigone since senior year of high school, and all I can remember of it is Antigone is the daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta, incestuous king and queen of Thebes, and Antigone was imprisoned in a cave to death. But I cannot remember why she was imprisoned.

I decided to wing it because I’m lazy and figured if the poems were too confusing I could always stop and read the tragedy.  The good news is, you don’t have to revisit any Greek tragedies to enjoy this amazing volume of poetry. As far as Antigone goes, I think maybe she’s more of a general metaphor for woman.

The poems and drawings in this book were written and drawn in the 1970s, and every single bit of this book is just as readable and fresh as if it had been written 15 minutes ago. The writing in these poems is very sparse, simple, and yet so evocative. There were parts where I wasn’t sure if the woman in the poem was being raped, murdered, or having mind-blowing sex. The poems are very sensual, but also very vague allowing the reader to really react to it in the same way one would react to a piece of artwork; you make your own interpretation.

As soon as I finished reading the book (and let me add, the ending was so great.) I went back to the first page and read the whole thing again. No kidding, this book blew me away. I wish I was rich so I could buy EVERYONE I know this book.

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The Book of Jezebel: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Lady Things edited by Anna Holmes

Category: 50 Books

jezebel

If you’re a female and you’ve been to the Internet before, you’ve probably (hopefully) ended up on jezebel.com. And when you got there if you said aloud, “Oh, thank God!” in relief, then you might want to get this book. It is smart, funny, and very entertaining.

It is, as it says, an illustrated encyclopedia so it’s not really something you’d sit down and read cover to cover. It’s more fun to pick a letter and run. I was very pleased with how much variety is in the book, as well as the fact that the book doesn’t take itself too seriously. I mean, under the entry for Bower, Angela it reads: “The boss. Like it was ever really a question.”
So yeah, it’s filled with pop-culture references as well as historical people/places/things.

The Book of Jezebel is great fun and hey, we’re coming up on the holidays, so if you find yourself needing to buy a gift for someone who already has everything she needs, might I suggest this? Buy two copies and give one to yourself.

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Frankenstein Facepalm

Category: dribblings

So the week before Halloween a lady comes in the ‘brary, a grown-up, adult lady, my age, and she says to me, she says, “I need a book about Frankenstein.”

That’s it. No, “Hi!”
No, “Good morning!”
No, “Can you help me?”
Nothing. Just a demand. A stupid, unclear demand.

“I need a book about Frankenstein.”

“Okay. So you want literary criticism on it?”

“What?”

“You said you wanted a book about Frankenstein. So you don’t want the real-deal, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, you want something that discusses Frankenstein?”

“I just need, like, a Frankenstein book.”

“So you want the original Frankenstein book?”

“I don’t know?”

“Well what kind of-”

“I just need something with a Frankenstein in it.”

“Um. Do you… do you need a kid’s book? Or something with a picture of a Frankenstein monster in it?”

“No.”

At this point I’m dying on the vine. I mean, she doesn’t want the original, she doesn’t want lit crit, she doesn’t seem to want a kid’s book, what does she want? AND WHY CAN’T SHE ASK FOR SOMETHING MORE SPECIFIC THAN, “I NEED SOMETHING WITH A FRANKENSTEIN IN IT.”

My coworker, bless her, butts in and says, “Here, I’ve done a search for Frankenstein on the OPAC, why don’t you look at what we have and see if you can find something?”
So she starts to scroll through the search returns and is all, “There! What about that one?”
We look and she’s pointing to a children’s book called Frankenstein Looses a Tooth.

I got the book for her and then went to the break room and slit my throat with a pretzel and my own disappointment in the human race. We seem to have lots of pretzels in the break room lately.

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