New To Me Authors, 3rd Quarter 2013

Today I am joining in on the meme for the best new-to-me crime fiction authors at Mysteries in Paradise. This meme runs at the end of each quarter. Check out other posts for this quarter.

In the third quarter of 2013, I read ten books by authors I had never read  before. This is my list of books by new (to me) authors:

1. Mind's Eye by Håkan Nesser 
2. Green-Eyed Lady by Chuck Greaves
3. Open Season by Archer Mayor
4. Blood of the Wicked by Leighton Gage 
5. The Square of Revenge by Peter Aspe
6. Detective Inspector Huss by Helene Tursten
7. The Broken Shore by Peter Temple
8. The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino
9. The Infernal Detective by Kirsten Weiss
10. The Yard by Alex Grecian

I will be reading at least one more book by all of these authors. They all piqued my interest enough to follow through and try more. But...

For two of these authors, I rushed out (well, hopped onto the internet) and bought copies of the next two books in the series. So I guess that would put them at the top of the list.

Håkan Nesser (b. 1950) is a Swedish author who writes the Inspector Van Veeteren series.

An overview of the series, from a fansite:
The series, most often referred to as the Van Veeteren series, takes place in Maardam, a fictitious city in a made-up country that could be anywhere in northern Europe. It follows the murder cases investigated by Chief Inspector Van Veeteren – eventually the retired Chief Inspector – and his two crime squad protégés, Münster and Moreno.

Leighton Gage (1942-2013) wrote a police procedural series set in Brazil. The main character is Chief Inspector Mario Silva of the Brazilian Federal Police.

In addition to the police procedural aspects, I liked the picture of Brazil and the political and sociological issues in that country. The story is told in a straightforward way; there are not a lot of descriptive passages. Time is spent on fleshing out characters, even the peripheral ones. The back story of how Silva has become a policeman is covered in depth and provides insight into his character.

But the reader should be forewarned that there is a lot of violence and brutality in this book. I felt that the level of violence was warranted, in that the book is describing a very corrupt situation in Brazil. It all seemed realistic, although it was not a comfortable read. 

Mount TBR Reading Challenge: 3rd Quarter Summary

This quarter I have read 10 books that count toward the Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2013. Combined with the 28 books I read in the first and second quarter, I have read a total of
38 books, which surpasses my goal of 36 books.

The books I read in July, August, September from my TBR piles were:

1. Mind's Eye by Håkan Nesser
2. Open Season by Archer Mayor
3. The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie
4. Roseanna by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö
5. Blood of the Wicked by Leighton Gage
6. Detective Inspector Huss by Helene Tursten
7. Murder at Hazelmoor by Agatha Christie
8. Seeking Whom He May Devour by Fred Vargas
9. The Broken Shore by Peter Temple
10. Vendetta by Michael Dibdin

One of the questions that Bev asked us to answer in our summary posts was:

Who has been your favorite character so far? And tell us why, if you like.

This quarter I did not have a favorite character. Except for the Agatha Christie novels, all of the books on this list feature a policeman as the main character. I will highlight two that I found especially interesting.

In Mind's Eye by Håkan Nesser the detective is Inspector Van Veeteren. He is very talented at his job and he knows it. This keeps him motivated to stay with the job even when he is not enjoying it. He isn't really likeable, but he is human and very interesting.

Quotes from the chapter where we meet the inspector:

Detective Chief Inspector Van Veeteren did not have a cold.

On the other hand, he did have a tendency to be depressed when the weather was poor, and as it had now been raining more or less nonstop for ten days, melancholy had made the most of the opportunity to sink deep roots into his mind.

And...

Why be a depressed master gardener or bus driver when you can be a depressed detective chief inspector...

Irene Huss is clearly the focus in Detective Inspector Huss by Helene Tursten. She is the only female detective in this set of books. In addition to highlighting sociological issues in Sweden, the book addresses women's roles in male dominated jobs like law enforcement.  

Irene reflects on her job.

Far too many cases had not left behind the sweetness of victory, but rather a bitter aftertaste. You become jaded and cynical in this profession, she thought in her darker moments. But she didn't want to become either jaded or cynical! You had to go on, keep moving forward. You couldn't stop and dig yourself a hole. The job she had chosen was not without its dangers, but she had never wanted to do anything else and had always enjoyed her work. The past few years she had begun to notice an insidious feeling that hadn't existed before. Only recently had she been able to identify it. Terror. Terror of people's indifference to the human values of others and terror of the ever-increasing violence.

Check out other summary posts HERE.

Mysteries in July and Picks of the Month

Crime fiction is my favorite genre, even though I have been reading more widely this year. In July, I read seven crime fiction novels. Only one vintage mystery this month, by Agatha Christie. Two books translated into English from Swedish, one published in 1965, the other in 1993.

These are the books I read in July:

1. Mind's Eye by Håkan Nesser
2. Green-Eyed Lady by Chuck Greaves
3. Open Season by Archer Mayor
4. Plots and Errors by Jill McGown
5. A Question of Identity by Susan Hill
6. The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie
7. Roseanna by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö

Of all the books I read this month, I actually rated Plots and Errors by Jill McGown the highest (on Goodreads). The author was talented and versatile, and I enjoyed rereading the book. But it was a re-read, so I don't want to choose it for Pick of the Month.

Of new reads, I enjoyed the two books by Swedish authors the most. They were very different. Mind's Eye by Håkan Nesser and Roseanna by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö are my joint Picks of the Month.

Mind's Eye (1993) features the depressive Inspector Van Veeteren, a very talented and determined detective. I found all the characters to be interesting and believable. The book was more of a psychological study than a fairly-clued mystery.

I have not reviewed Roseanna (1965) yet. Detective Inspector Martin Beck is also talented and determined, almost obsessed with his job. The book is very slow to start, very unlike today's books where the author is usually working to grab the reader immediately. The body of a dead girl is found, the autopsy reveals that she has been brutalized, but the body was in water for a while, so there is a lot of guesswork. There is a long and painstaking investigation to find out who she is and then how and where the death occurred.

The Crime Fiction Pick of the Month meme is hosted at Mysteries in Paradise. Bloggers link to summary posts for the month, and identify a crime fiction best read of the month. Check out the link here to see the other bloggers picks.

N is for Håkan Nesser

Mind’s Eye by Håkan Nesser is my submission for the Crime Fiction Alphabet at Mysteries in Paradise this week.

From my copy of the book:

Håkan Nesser was born in 1950 in Sweden. In 1993 he was awarded the Swedish Crime Writers’ Academy Prize for new authors for his novel Mind’s Eye, and is the only author to have won the Academy’s best novel award three times: in 1994 for Borkmann’s Point; in 1996 for Woman with Birthmark; and in 2007 for A Rather Different Story. In 1999 he was awarded the Scandinavian Crime Society’s Glass Key Award for the best crime novel of the year for Carambole. His novels have been published to wide acclaim in nearly thirty countries.

At the beginning of Mind's Eye, a man wakes up with an excruciatingly painful hangover, not sure even who he is. He discovers the dead body of his wife in their bathtub and remembers who he is. He calls the police.

This is definitely not your standard mystery story. From almost the beginning of the book, a suspect is apprehended for a murder, is charged, and very quickly the story moves to the trial of the defendant for murder. There is no real proof that this man is the murderer, yet there seems to be no other answer.

The detective is Inspector Van Veeteren. He is very talented at his job and he knows it. This keeps him motivated to stay with the job even when he is not enjoying it. I don't know if I would call Van Veeteren likeable, but he is human and very interesting.

Quotes from the chapter where we meet the inspector:

Detective Chief Inspector Van Veeteren did not have a cold.

On the other hand, he did have a tendency to be depressed when the weather was poor, and as it had now been raining more or less nonstop for ten days, melancholy had made the most of the opportunity to sink deep roots into his mind.

And...

Why be a depressed master gardener or bus driver when you can be a depressed detective chief inspector...

The book is divided into three parts. Each part kept me interested. The first part focussed more on the people involved. The second and third parts moved on to more intense stages of the investigation. The story was compelling.  I read the first part the first night, the rest the next evening, rather than splitting the book up in many sessions as I usually do.

In summary, I liked this book very much and I am eager to continue the series. I found the characters to be interesting and believable. It was more of a psychological  study than a fairly-clued mystery. There were hints but no real clues to the solution, which is fine with me as long as the author keeps me entertained.

I prefer to go into a book knowing as little as possible about the story and I was glad I did not read any of the summary on the back cover of the book, because it tells way more than I want to know. But that is just me. Some of the reviews and posts listed below go into more detail of the story, if you are looking for more.

At Ms. Wordopolis Reads

At Reactions to Reading

In the Spotlight by Confessions of a Mystery Novelist...

Karen Meek's review at Eurocrime

Please visit the post at Mysteries in Paradise to check out other entries for the letter N.

This is the third translated book I have read this year and will count for the Books in Translation Reading Challenge.