In the Dark

by Mark Billingham
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A Deadly Crash

A rainy night in south London. A gun is fired into a car which swerves on to the pavement and ploughs into a bus stop. It seems that a chilling gang initiation has cost an innocent victim their life. But the reality is far more sinister…

A Dangerous Quest

One life is wiped out and three more are changed forever: the young man whose finger was on the trigger; an ageing gangster planning a deadly revenge, and the pregnant woman who struggles desperately to uncover the truth. Two weeks away from giving birth, how will she deal with a world where death is an occupational hazard?

A Shocking Twist

In a city where violence can be random or meticulously planned, where teenage gangs clash with career criminals and where loyalty is paid for in blood, anything is possible. Secrets are uncovered as fast as bodies, and the story’s final twist is as breathtakingly surprising as they come.

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I have stolen the description above from the back of the book because I want the next reader of this book to be as unprepared for the plot of and characters in this book as I was. I consider it close to genious how Mark Billingham builds up my knowledge while still keeping me in suspense. As I read about what is happening and the lives of the characters, I still wonder what is actually happening, what will happen next and what the true motivations of the characters are.

Nothing is simple about this book, except reading it. The language and the composition of the story carries the reader forward in a quest to understand. And we do understand; we understand how life can force people into contexts they feel unable to escape. We understand that all kinds of relationships between human beings are complicated and sometimes demand behaviours not in agreement with your own wishes or conscience. We understand how everybody carries their own sorrow, guilt or fear that explain their behaviour, even though not excusing it. It is difficult to pick a side in this book. And this is why I am still pondering the how, what if and why of the events in this book.

I am sure I will re-read this book one day, and I recommend everybody to read this book. Actually I recommend every book that Mark Billingham has written and I am happy to say that my favourite character makes an appearance in this book too.

Mark Billingham has written the following novels:

Featuring Tom Thorne, detective inspector in London:
Sleepyhead (2001)
Scaredy Cat (2002)
Lazybones (2003)
The Burning Girl (2004)
Lifeless (2005)
Buried (2006)
The Death Message (2007)

Non-series:
In the Dark (2008)

The Case of the Imaginary Detective

by Karen Joy Fowler
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Rima Lanisell's father has died and she moves from Ohio to her Godmother Addison Early in California. Addison is a successful mystery writer, but her fictitious detective Maxwell Lane is even more famous than she is. Addison's books always start with a murder, and before even starting to write she creates the murder scene in a doll house. Her beach house in Santa Cruz is filled with these doll houses.

Rima herself is all consumed with the question "Why?". Most importantly; "Why must she lose everything?". She has lost her entire family and is constantly misplacing things; keys, gloves, shoes... Now she is trying to figure out why Addison made her father not only into a character in one of her books but a murderer.

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I chose this book because I wanted to read something that would be different from what I normally read. And it was different allright, but not in a refreshing way. This book is much too frivolous for me. It doesn't convey any strong emotions, no clear plotline, no beginning and no ending. Sometimes I'd smile thanks to a particular wording or some reference made, but on the whole I have to say that this book has felt like a waste of my time.

I cannot recommend this book.

Karen Joy Fowler has written the following novels:

Sarah Canary (1991)
The War of the Roses (1991)
The Sweetheart Season (1996)
Sister Noon (2001)
The Jane Austen Book club (2003)
The Case of the Imaginary Detective (2008)
(Also published as Wit's End)

The Carnival Master

by Craig Russell
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Maria Klee is still on sick leave. She cannot see herself going back to her job as a police detective in Hamburg. She hates herself and her life. She gives up on her therapy and goes to Cologne, hunting for the one person she hates more than herself; Ukrainian crime-boss Vasyl Vitrenko.

Her former boss, Chief Commissar Jan Fabel, is also marked by the cases that broke down Maria. He has decided to leave the police. He turns down an offer to be part of starting up a federal unit to support police forces all over Germany on complicated and multiple murder cases. As long as he is still attached to the police he cannot however refuse to read through the files Commissar Scholz from Cologne has sent in. For each of the yearly Carnival the past two years a woman has been murdered and a piece of flesh has been removed from the victims' bottoms.

The case in itself isn't at first enough to entise Fabel to go to Cologne, but when he realises this is where Maria Klee has disappeared to he decides to kill two birds with one stone. In the middle of what is the madness of the Carnival in Köln he has to attempt to protect the innocent and make sure the guilty are forced to pay.
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This is the fourth book about Jan Fabel by Craig Russell. I have read the previous three books and I like this series. The fact that it is set in Germany adds a new dimension; new places, new procedures and a new culture to get to know. Some things seem familiar though; Jan Fabel is a middle-aged, divorced man, finding it difficult to get his relationships to co-exist with his job. He is no cliché though, no alcohol problems or affliction for a certain type of music so really a new and interesting character to get to know and follow.

I recommend this series, but I do recommend starting at the beginning.

The series about Jan Fabel by Craig Russell consists of the following books:

Blood Eagle (2005)
Brother Grimm (2006)
Eternal (2007)
The Carnival Master (2008)

Edward Finnegans Upprättelse

(English title: Redemption)
by Roslund & Hellström
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Edward Finnegan in Marcusville, Ohio is consumed by hatred, hatred for the person he believes murdered his 16 year old daughter.

On board a cruise ship between Finland and Sweden John Schwarz loses his patience with a drunken passenger's physical advances on several women. When he is placed in police custody for assault it starts becoming clear that he isn't who he claims to be.

Police detective Ewert Grens and his colleagues starts to unravel the complicated story behind John Schwarz. On both sides of the Atlantic Ocean lives are turned upside down and political schemes put into play.

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I have conflicting feelings about this book. In the beginning I found it fragmented; the story switched between the US and Stockholm, between yesterday and today, and I thought the dialogue lacked flow. But then I seemed to pass a critical point and was sucked into the plot; I needed to find out what had happened and would happen to John, to Ewert Grens and his colleagues, and couldn't stop reading. But then the ending left a bad taste in my mouth.

I still think I will read more books by Anders Roslund and Börge Hellström. But this particular book I would only recommend with caveats.

Roslund & Hellström has also written:

Odjuret (2004)
English title: The Beast

Box 21 (2005)
English title: The Vault

Edward Finnegans upprättelse (2007)
English title: Redemption

Flickan under gatan (2008)
English title: The Girl Beneath the Street

The Soul Collector

by Paul Johnston
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After taking on a serial killer crime writer Matt Wells has resumed his life. The book he wrote about his tangle with "The White Devil" became a worldwide bestseller and he has used the money to create a safety net around himself, his family and friends as well as tracking the follower of "The White Devil" who got away.

But despite all sophisticated alarm systems and careful precautions one of Matt's best friends is murdered. Around the same time on of Matt's fellow crime writers is found dead; the body mutilated and the words "The devil did it" in latin written in a pentagram. Soon cryptic e-mails start taunting Matt to attempt to stop the killings. He realises he has to find whoever is responsible for threatening him and loved ones and killing his colleagues. But is it who he thinks it is?

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I am a great fan of Paul Johnston's writings so I had to read this book even though I normally resent writers re-cycling evil villains. The back blurbs even suggested a re-cycling of the plot. In reality it was not as easy as that and I would recommend this book to anyone looking for an intelligent, action filled, page turner with challenging cryptic clues. Too challenging for me at any rate.

This is the second book featuring Matt Wells and I would recommend starting with the first; "The Death List".

Paul Johnston has also written:

Featuring Quintillian "Quint" Dalrymple in a futuristic (2020-2028) Edinburgh:

Body Politic (1997)
The Bone Yard (1998)
Water of Death (1999)
The Blood Tree (2000)
House of Dust (2001)

Featuring Alex Mavros, half Scottish, half Greek, private detective in Greece:

A Deeper Shade of Blue (2002)
The Red Death (2003)
The Golden Silence (2004)

Featuring Matt Wells, in London:

The Death List (2007)
The Soul Collector (2008)

Long Tail

by Chris Anderson
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"Why the future of business is selling less of more"

Chris Anderson coined the expression "The Long Tail" in a article in Wired 2004. The book is expanding on the subject and provides a thorough account of how the technology of today has diminished the dependence of the big hits. The internet has made it possible for an increasing number of businesses to find profitability in selling many unique items to few buyers, a profitability previously only found in the big hits.

Anderson illustrates this with examples from the book, music and entertainment businesses, but also from further back in time. Sears, Roebuck and Co found their opportunity of doing business in the long tail in the end of the 1800s by starting up a mail order service.

This is the power of the Long Tail. The companies at the vanguard of it are showing the way with three big lessons. Call them the new rules for the new entertainment economy.

1. Make everything available
2. Cut the price in half. Now lower it.
3. Help me find it
   

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I am pleased that I've read this book. It has been a while since I studied economics and statistical distributions. Now I got a refresher course as well as an update in new principles to apply. I am left with the feeling that it is possible to find business opportunities with a starting point in myself. If you can find a way to use channels and filters to enable the correct audience to find your business chances are that audience will be big enough to provide profitability. Perhaps as a large corporation you still need the big hits, but as a small business or individual you have a better opportunity to succeed in a niche business today.

Wikipedia has an extensive article on the concept of "The Long Tail".

The Last Breath

by Denise Mina

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Paddy Meehan finally has all that she wanted; her own apartment in Glasgow and a job as a columnist at one of Scotland's leading newspapers. Then the police show up announcing that her former lover Terry has been found dead, naked in a ditch, shot through the head.

Despite it having been months since Paddy and Terry last saw each other he has put her as his next of kin, and left her all his belongings - including a house.

Paddy doens't agree with the police's interpretation of the circumstances of Terry's death and starts looking into the facts. Soon her snooping, and the fact that she has Terry's things, she too becomes a target.
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This is the third book about Paddy Meehan. Perhaps I would have taken to this book easier had I read the previous two. A substantial part of the book is a continuation of what obviously was a major storyline in one of those books.

Denise Mina's writing receives a lot of praise and to a large extent I understand and agree. The language is fantastic and the characters multi-dimensional and interesting. But right now this was not the book for me. The plot seemed too random and my emotional connection to the characters was too weak to make me interested in their thoughts and actions.

This doesn't mean I will stop reading Denise Mina's books; I've read several of her other books and enjoyed them a lot.

Denise Mina has written:

Featuring Paddy Meehan
Field of Blood (2005)
The Dead Hour (2006)
The Last Breath (2007)
(Also published as: Slip of the Knife)

Featuring Maureen O'Donnell - The Garnethill Trilogy
Garnetthill (1998)
Exile (2000)
Resolution (2001)

Other
Sanctum (2002)
(Also published as: Deception)