The Redbreast: Jo Nesbo

The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo is a complex police procedural, following the story of a Norwegian detective investigating neo-Nazi activities in Oslo, with flashbacks to events during World War II on the Eastern Front. It is a very long book (my copy was a mass market paperback with 567 pages of small print) but I enjoyed almost every page of it.

Nesbo has written nine Harry Hole novels, and this is the third in the series. As yet, the first two in the series have not been published in English. I did not find it difficult to start the series with this book, although there were references to earlier exploits.

Harry Hole has many of the typical problems of policemen (at least the fictional ones): struggles with alcohol and smoking, depression, talented but has difficulty taking orders and dealing with co-workers. But I found him likable and interesting. He had integrity; he was confident of his abilities but not full of himself; and he was vulnerable. I liked the developing relationship with a single mother and her child.

There is a large cast of characters and they are convincingly written. I cared about what was happening to them.  I liked the short chapters and the headings for each chapter noting time and place.

I have recently become very interested in World War II and in reading both fiction and non-fiction on that time period. There is so much to learn. Although I was aware of the term "quisling," I was not fully aware of the origins of the term nor how many Norwegians aligned themselves with the Germans during World War II. This books was very educational for me, and entertaining at the same time.

The unfolding of two story lines at the same time and the fact that one of them was during World War II doubled my enjoyment of this book. However, I liked the contemporary sections a lot, and I am sure I will enjoy future books in the series whether or not they share this element.

This counts as one of my books for the following challenges:
Mt. TBR Challenge, Read Your Own Books Challenge, A-Z Challenge, Chunkster Challenge, 
European Challenge, Merely Mystery Reading Challenge, Mystery & Suspense Reading Challenge, New Author Challenge, First in a Series Challenge

Note: Even though this is not technically the first in the series, I am counting it because it it the first book in the series available (at this time) in English.

I am also participating in the April Challenge (Mystery, Crime, and Thriller Group) at Goodreads, and this book counts for that challenge.

The Company of Strangers: Robert Wilson

Robert Wilson's description of The Company of Strangers in an article at the Crime Time website:

"The Company of Strangers is a spy thriller / love story which is set primarily in Lisbon in the July of 1944, has its continuation in East Berlin of early 1971 and a denouement in England in the early 1990s." 

A quote: 

     Cardew's conversation drifted toward work.

     "Yes, the fifties were terrific once we go rid of bugger boys Burgess and Maclean. Thought we were right on top of the game, only to find it was a complete bloody farce…

Khrushchev said to Kennedy once that we should give each other a list of all our spies and we'd probably find they read the same. Too bloody right."

There are two main protagonists, Karl Voss, a young intelligence officer in the German Army and Andrea Aspinall, who becomes a spy for the British during World War II in Lisbon at a very young age. The complications of their family relationships and their affair mold the rest of the story.

It is a love story, but I would not call it romantic. It is more about the harsh realities of life. It is about families, and relationships, and maturing. It seems like a lot of books I have read lately have had a theme of family relationships and how they affect us. Or maybe I am just focused on that topic right now.

Did I like this book? Yes, very much. I enjoyed the author’s storytelling and the characterizations. It did take me a long time to read. It was a big thick book but I don’t think that was the problem. There was a section in the middle where it slowed down and I would have like more explanation of that period of Andrea’s life, but then it would have been even longer. At the end, I felt that the author had set the stage well for the final events. 

This book also appealed to me because of the time period and subject matter. World War II and spy intrigue. And then it transitions into a Cold War novel and double agents. Was the depiction of spies and their double crosses and cynicism realistic? I don’t know, but I was convinced. It was real for me.

This counts as one of my books for the following challenges:
Mt. TBR Challenge
Read Your Own Books Challenge
A-Z Challenge
Chunkster Challenge
European Challenge
Merely Mystery Reading Challenge
Mystery & Suspense Reading Challenge

Winter: A Berlin Family 1899-1945 by Len Deighton

This novel by Len Deighton was written following the first Bernard Samson trilogy, Berlin Game, Mexico Set, and London Match (reviews here and here). In a sense, it is a prequel to those books. It provides some background information on a few of the characters that are prominent in the trilogy. That was a major motivator in my decision to read it. And I did enjoy it from that point of view, as a look back at what came before. The Game, Set, and Match trilogy takes place in the 1980’s in London and Berlin (primarily); Winter is set in the first half of that century. But this novel stood well on its own.

 Winter is the story of two German brothers, both born around the beginning of the twentieth century. Both grow up in Germany, and both fight on the German side in World War I.  By the end of World War II, the brothers end up on different sides, one a member of the Nazi party, the other working for the Allies. This is believable in part because they are half American by birth. Their mother is from a wealthy American family, the father is a well-to-do German industrialist.

Deighton uses this story of family and friends to show the rise of the Nazi party in Germany and how it affected Germans and how they dealt with the changes in their society. There are some limitations. The story focuses on the wealthy family and does not spend much time on how Germans of lower classes were affected. Because the novel covers events over such a long span of time (1900 - 1945), characters were not always fully fleshed out, some periods and events were glossed over. Even at 571 pages, the author could not cover everything. The book ends at the Nuremberg trials.

What did I like about Winter?

The topic of World War II and Germany is a favorite of mine; thus, I found it very interesting and illuminating. Reading the book gave me a better perspective of the events in Germany's history and broadened my knowledge in that area. From what I have read, the author did a lot of research on this book. The limitations I note above are not criticisms. I enjoyed the book from beginning to end.

Reading this book makes me want to read other books on the subject. I am currently reading The Company of Strangers by Robert Wilson (a spy novel which begins in the early 1940’s and continues into the Cold War). My husband has a lot of non-fiction books about this time period. I would like to read In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larsen, and Richard J. Evan's Third Reich trilogy, especially The Coming of the Third Reich.

This counts as one of my books for the following challenges:
Mt. TBR Challenge
Read Your Own Books Challenge
A-Z Challenge
Chunkster Challenge
European Challenge

The Chunkster Challenge

Another 2012 Reading Challenge I plan to participate in: the 2012 Chunkster Challenge. I really like the name of this challenge.

I recently realized that the book I am currently reading would count in this challenge, so why not go for more long books?

I will be signing up for the Chubby Chunkster level (4 BOOKS).


 
Each book has to be 450 pages or more in length and must be adult literature. I guess that rules out the last Harry Potter book that I hope to read some day, but I have plenty of other books on my shelves (or in stacks) of that length that I want to read this year anyway.

No audio books or e-books (some exceptions) but I have never read either, so not a problem for me.

Some possibilities, according to my book cataloging system:
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
The Alienist by Caleb Carr
Blackout by Connie Willis
A Carrion Death by Michael Stanley
A Small Death in Lisbon by Robert Wilson

The last two are barely over 450 and I would like to include a non-fiction book, but we will see.

My choices... reviews will be linked when written

1. Winter by Len Deighton (571 pages)
2. A Small Death in Lisbon by Robert Wilson
3. The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo
4. The Coming of the Third Reich by Richard J. Evans