European Reading Challenge 2019: Wrap Up Post

This is my wrap up post for the 2019 European Reading Challenge. The goal was to read and review at least five books by different European authors or books set in different European countries. I enjoyed reading these books and will be signing up for this challenge in 2020.

These are the books I read and reviewed for the challenge:

NORWAY:  What Never Happens by Anne Holt

Anne Holt is a Norwegian author of crime fiction, and this is the second book in her Adam Stubo and Johanne Vik series, set in Oslo. Adam is an inspector in the Criminal Investigation Service and Johanne has worked with the FBI as a profiler.

SWEDEN:  The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler

This book is set in Tumba, Sweden, and features Detective Inspector Joona Linna and Erik Maria Bark, a hypnotist. 

DENMARK:  The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen

Carl Mørck is a homicide detective in Copenhagen, and has been chosen to head the new Department Q, focusing on high profile cold cases.

ICELAND:  Snowblind by Ragnar Jónasson

Snowblind is the first book in the Dark Iceland series. The setting is the northernmost town in Iceland, Siglufjörður, close to the Arctic Circle.

UNITED KINGDOM:  The Shortest Way to Hades by Sarah Caudwell

The Hilary Tamar series centers around a group of young barristers who often seek Hilary's help when they run into trouble. This story is about an heiress, who is trying to avoid excessive estate taxes by an amendment to her grandfather's will. 

IRELAND:  Broken Harbor by Tana French

The fourth book in Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series features Mike "Scorcher" Kennedy, who had a minor role in Faithful Place, and his new partner, rookie detective Richie Curran.

FRANCE:  Turncoat by Aaron Elkins

Peter Simon, a professor of history at Brooklyn college, takes a journey to Spain and France, in search of his wife who has disappeared.

GREECE:  Murder in Mykonos by Jeffrey Siger

Inspector Andreas Kaldis has been assigned to the beautiful island of Mykonos as Police Chief. The first case after his arrival on Mykonos is the discovery of a young woman's bones in a church.

NETHERLANDS:  Death in Amsterdam by Nicolas Freeling

This is the first book of the Van der Valk series by Nicolas Freeling. It was originally published in 1962 in the UK with the title Love in Amsterdam.

GERMANY:  City of Shadows by Ariana Franklin

City of Shadows is set mostly in Berlin, starting in 1922 and then picks up the story again in 1932. Esther Solomonova and Nicholai Potrovskov are both Russian émigrés in Berlin. The difference is Prince Nick is rich and Esther is very poor and a Jew.

SWITZERLAND:  Allmen and the Dragonflies by Martin Suter

Forced to downscale, Allmen inhabits the garden house of his former Zurich estate, attended by his Guatemalan butler, Carlos. Refusing to lower his expenditures in order to live on the money he takes in, he gets involved in petty theft, and then in more serious crimes.

CZECH REPUBLIC:  Innocence; or, Murder on Steep Street by Heda Margolius Kovály

This novel was written in 1985, and is set in the 1950s, in the early days of Communist Czechoslovakia, a time when no one knew who to trust, and policemen and State Security agents were looking for traitors at the slightest excuse. 

RUSSIA:  Tarnished Icons by Stuart M. Kaminsky

This is the eleventh novel in Stuart Kaminsky's Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov series, set in Russia in the late 1990's. Rostnikov and his team in the Office of Special Investigations have a new boss, Igor Yakovlev, formerly of the KGB. And Rostnikov's son, Iosef, has decided to join the police and is working with Rostnikov's team