My (Previous) Year in Reading: 21 to 30

…in chronological order.

2015 has been a great year when it comes to reading books for me. During it, according to Goodreads, I have gulped down 212 volumes that were not only novels for adults but also volumes that belonged in many other genres: YA, graphic novels, poetry, children's stories, short stories and books in translation. This has also been a year that I stopped writing reviews since I had much else occupying my mind and time, so below I'll give you no more than a few words about the books I have read. I hope some of my choices echo yours and I look forward to an exciting new year of reading.

So here it goes:

21) Gronk Volume 1 & Volume 2 by Katie Cook. Are you afraid of monsters? If yes, you should read these comic book adventures to get over your fear and have some fun on the way. If not, read them anyway, because, well, they are fun. This is the story of a monster who's not scary and her friends who are not monsters. A story as simple, and as beautiful, as they come.

22) The Lost Aztiki Tribe and the Mysterious Cave of Gold by EdwardLoffredo. The synopsis of this tale sounds quite promising but I have to admit that I felt a bit disappointed at the end, because somehow I expected more. Don't get me wrong. This is a good story, but perhaps, in my eyes, it's not good enough. What is it about? A great quest with the end product being treasure.

23) Peace, Bugs and Understanding: An Adventure in Sibling Harmony byGail Silver and Youme Nguyen Ly. It seems that most readers liked this book more than I did. I don't know why that is. Perhaps it had to do with the fact that I don't have children of my own or something. Anyway, there's not much to say here, as the title explains it all.

24) The Tell-Tail Heart by Monica Shaughnessy. This is one of the books that I really enjoyed reading this year. It's the tale of Cattarina, Edgar Allan Poe's cat, that finds herself involved in the investigation of a crime that will lead her down  a lot of dark alleys and put her life in danger. I can still remember that I was smiling most of the time while reading this tale, which means that this is as special as they come.

25) Outcast Volume 1: A Darkness Surrounds Him by Robert Kirkman, PaulAzaceta and Elizabeth Breitweiser. I love my comics dark and the one at hand does justice to my obsessions. The story, a tale of a man possessed by demons and looking for answers, is superbly told and the art does not disappoint. A lovely tome. I look forward to whatever comes next.

26)  Bang! Tango by Joe Kelly and Adrian Sibar. 2015 was a big year when it came to graphic novels, and I have to admit that some were better than others. This one could have been a little bit better. Though I liked the background story and some of the scenes were really good, whilst reading it I kept thinking that this was a rush job. The talent is there, but…

27) His Day Is Done: A Nelson Mandela Tribute by Maya Angelou. The truth is that this is the first book by the poet that I have ever read. I knew some of her poems, but I never really got into reading her in a comprehensive way. And now that I did I kind of feel like a fool for what I was missing. This hymn to the great man I absolutely loved reading. Words like serene streams running through the pages.

28) Shaker, Why Don't You Sing? by Maya Angelou. See what I'm talking about? Yes, I've read two books by her in a row. And though I didn't like this one as much as the last, I did find in its pages some gems, a few turns of phrase that made me feel like I was in the presence of a genius. One thing is for sure, this will not be the last book of hers that I read.

29) Cat vs Human: Poems About Cats by Yasmine Surovec. Oh the cats, most people just love to love them and so do I. I adored this book for its rhymes and its illustrations but most of all for its meawy ways. This is the second book that I've read about cats last year and I enjoyed them both just as much.

30) The Malady of Death by Marguerite Duras. I have read this book twice in a row. The first for pleasure and the second for an exercise in translation. Yes, I have translated it into Greek but no one will ever get to read it, since I did it just for me, in an effort to replicate the mellifluous words and sentences of the author. A short gem.

To be continued.

See also: 1 to 10, 11 to 20

 

Book Review: The Golden Egg by Donna Leon

Donna Leon is one of the crime writers that don’t quite follow the rules. Even though she’s lived in Venice, Italy for more than 25 years, she doesn’t want her novels to be translated into Italian, while the main character in her novels Guido Brunetti is nothing but a hardcore cop.

The Golden Egg is the 22^nd Commissario Brunetti novel and within its pages one would think that nothing much happens. A young man is found dead, everyone is certain that it’s a suicide and yet the good inspector decides to investigate because his wife Paola asks him to. Now that would sound crazy to any crime fiction fan who doesn’t know Brunetti, and especially to those that are used to the western clichés of moody detectives, with personal lives that smell of disaster, and who always find themselves in dangerous situations.

Brunetti is not only a good and honest cop in a country where corruption rules, but he’s also a great husband and father, who enjoys drinking coffees with his colleagues and wine with his wife and who likes navigating his beloved city with his own GPS: Guido’s Personal System. And he’s also someone who always tries to help out his friends, has no big regrets, doesn’t carry a gun, and works hard to bring criminals to justice.

The author doesn’t seem very interested in dazzling the reader with nonstop action and a plot full of twists and turns; she rather wants to tell stories about a city, its people and its customs, and about the local laws of silence that most often than not stop a lot of truths of coming to surface. And it’s exactly this silence that Brunetti has to overcome here to discover the truth behind the dead man’s life. So he moves all over the city, meets people, asks a lot of questions and little by little he comes to realize that a crime has indeed been committed, though it was of a different nature.

As we follow Brunetti all over the city we get to meet a lot of interesting characters: Mafiosi, corrupt politicians, a cruel mother, lawyers with no morals, people who prefer to turn a blind eye on a crime instead of helping the police; and the most surprising thing is that the Commissario doesn’t blame them, since he knows that they are right to feel the way they do. In Venice, and in Italy in general, it all comes down to who you know to get things done; this seems to be the message. Brunetti is no angel either, but he only uses his connections for the benefit of others and not himself. So, he’s more interested in helping a good cop getting a promotion than helping his boss out, and when it comes to office politics, he just keeps his distance. His job is to solve crimes and keep the streets safe, and not to parade himself in front of this politician or the other.

If you’d ask me to compare Brunetti with some well-known fictional detectives, I’d say that Ian Rankin’s Rebus and Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch come to mind, but for no other reason that all three of them are stubborn and only interested in fighting the good battle. However, even though the latter two have been through a lot of trouble, their Italian counterpart seems to be serene, as if he’s sailing through his everyday life, enjoying all the little joys that it has to offer: whether that’s dinner with his wife, a secret chat with the brilliant Elettra Zorzi, one of his colleagues, or reading his beloved Lucretius. Books are to Brunetti what music is to Bosch and Rebus: his favourite, though thought-provoking, escape from reality.

Book Review: Unseen by Karin Slaughter

I came to Karin Slaughter a little late and perhaps that’s one of the main reasons that I enjoy all her tales just as much. Whether they are short stories, novellas or full-scale novels it doesn’t make any difference to me. Her writing is consistently good and so are her plots, and in Will Trent I have found one of the most likeable and unforgettable heroes of crime fiction.

What makes this character different is his flaws, which are a little bit different from those of his colleagues. He’s dyslectic, an orphan and someone who prefers to work alone and undercover, not because he’s misanthropic but simply because he doesn’t want to see people he cares about get hurt. One could say that Will lives in his head, and they’d be more or less right, but that doesn’t mean that he’s unwilling to live in this world, in a circle of friends and lovers; he just finds it hard to do.

In this story Trent, along with many other cops and agents from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation go after an invisible man, a big time drug dealer who’s currently moving his operations from Florida to Macon. The problem they face in finding out who he is and arresting him is that no one has ever seen him. He runs his business in the darkness and moves in the shadows, and whoever comes close to discovering his identity doesn’t live to tell it.

So, how do you apprehend someone like that? Perhaps the only chance the cops have is to get lucky. But even if they do, will they be able to achieve their goal? Big Whitey, as the drug dealer is called, seems to be someone who’s not only very clever but also extremely careful. Will hopes to get close to him by going undercover, but what if the man you’re going up against knows your every move right from the start?

The author created a tight plot, with some twists and turns, but mostly with lots of downs when it comes to her heroes. Every single one of the protagonists of this series of novels seems to be struggling with their lives, with their past, and with some memories that they want to create but which perhaps are never meant to be. Amanda, Will’s boss and kind-of-a-mother, has to fight racial and gender discrimination every day, something that makes her life miserable most times than not. Faith, his partner at the GBI has her own ghosts to deal with, while Sara, his doctor-girlfriend is not the happiest woman around either. Can these damaged souls live together or around each other and do their jobs without getting into some serious trouble? Well, they can, and they cannot. And that’s exactly what makes the story work. Their weaknesses make them human, and their humanity brings them close, and as a result they have each other’s back no matter what.

If you’ve enjoyed the previous novels in the series you’ll surely enjoy this one. But if you haven’t had a chance yet to take a look at this author’s fictional criminal world, starting here could be as good a point as any. This is pure, well-written, and finely-tuned crime fiction, and as such if you are a fan of the genre, you’re bound to enjoy it.

L.F.

 

First published in Crime Factory magazine.

 

Book Review: The City of Blood by Frédérique Molay

I have to say that Frédérique Molay wouldn't have much luck if she first published her books in English. In that occasion the best she could wish for was for a small independent press to take her on. But, fortunately for her and for us, she writes in French, a language in which a crime novel doesn't have to be a door stopper to be popular.

Anyway, to the book at hand. “The City of Blood” is the third volume in the Paris Homicide series starring Chief of Police, Nico Sirsky. Nico is a living legend among his colleagues. His record at solving crimes is great, but what really makes him stand out is his humanity. He feels real sympathy for the victims and their loved ones and giving them closure is his number one priority.

The crime that he investigates this time is one that happened many years ago, but just came to light, under more than unusual circumstances. During the unveiling of a modern art project in a park the remains of a corpse are unearthed. How did they get there and who is the victim? Nobody seems to know the answers to these questions, but Nico is certain that he can find out the truth. And so the investigation begins. An investigation that will lead him and his team through the clouded paths of the past; a past that is more dark and full of secrets than one would expect.

There are no wild car chases or big thrills in this story. However, there is a great mystery at its heart that will keep the reader guessing from start to finish. Maybe the identity of the victim will come to light quite early, but that of the killer will remain secret almost until the very end.

I've read this book in just a day and the thing that I enjoyed the most during that time were the psychological portraits that the author built for her characters. Most of them are damaged goods, living in a past that is far gone, trying to create a future that will never come. The damage inflicted by that past on their souls is quite extended, and the only way to repair it is to come to terms with it, by knowing the truth that for so many years evaded them. However, as expected, not all can let sleeping ghosts lie. Some wounds heal, others don't, but at the end of the day what really matters is delivering justice, and that Sirksy does, in a story that the fans of quality crime fiction will surely enjoy.