GREAT READS FOR AUGUST, 2016
The Dying Detective, by Leif G.W. Persson
Lars Martin Johansson is
67 years old and retired from his job as one of the most effective and
respected police officers in Stockholm.
He was known among his colleagues as ‘the man who could see round
corners’ and his success rate at crime solving was envied by all, but he has to
admit that time has dragged somewhat since he stopped work. However, he has occupied himself in other
ways, usually by eating and drinking huge amounts of everything that he loves –
until horrifyingly predictable
consequences in the shape of a massive stroke give him warning that he must
change the beloved habits of a lifetime, otherwise there will be no lifetime
left.
Needless to say, Lars Martin is not a happy man. He hates being parked up on the sofa in his
study contemplating his floppy right arm and weakened right leg; physiotherapy exercises are boring and the
food his banker wife arranges for the caregiver to prepare for him wouldn’t
keep a vegetarian nourished, let alone a dedicated carnivore like himself. He needs distraction! And it arrives before he has even left the
hospital, in the shape of a request for help from the neurologist who treated
him: she has found among her late
father’s papers evidence that suggests that he as a church minister heard a
confession from one of his parishioners that they knew the identity of the
killer of a 9 year old girl whose rape and murder 25 years ago was never solved. She can think of no-one more able ( despite
his physical infirmity) to reinvestigate
a heinous crime that was mishandled right from the start – by tactless,
hamfisted and lazy Evert Bäckström, no less, anathema to all good Stockholm
police detectives. (See review below).
On reviewing all the old files which his contacts in the
force make available to him, Lars Martin is not surprised that the
investigation failed: the whole thing’s
a dog’s breakfast, mostly attributable to ‘that fat little horror’ who should
never have risen higher than issuing traffic fines – but nepotism is alive and
well as the fat little horror has a relative in the Police Union: he can’t be touched. Still!
Lars Martin is determined to go through everything with a fine-tooth
comb, even though due to a recently passed law, the case is prescribed: no-one can now be prosecuted for the
crime. The statute of limitations has
expired. But how poor little Yasmine
Ermegan died fills all normal people with such horror and revulsion that Lars
Martin is determined to find the killer;
he will worry about punishment for that pervert once he has a name – and
he WILL find him, for Lars Martin is still ‘the man who can see round corners’.
Mr Persson has given us a stand-alone novel this time,
with only indirect reference to his usual anti-hero ‘that fat little horror’
but what a delight it is to read. His
plotting is (as always) perfect, and minor characters all have great back
stories, including Maksim, the mysterious Russian orphan provided by Lars
Martin’s brother and employed as a chauffeur/general factotum, but able to lift
a heavy tray of food with just thumb and forefinger. He knows no-one who is stronger, he says, and
Lars Martin believes him.
Mr Persson is not averse to inserting himself into the
story, either – and not in a very flattering way! Oh, he’s a charmer and a great wit, is this
Mr Persson, but he also lays bare the underside of the human condition in stark
and unflattering terms, leaving us all in no doubt whatsoever that criminal
behaviour, neglect and cruelty are always with us. This is his best book yet. SIX STARS!
The Sword of Justice, by Leif G. W. Persson
The
absolute antithesis to the usual burnt-out but noble detective in thriller
fiction returns, much to every Swedish Noir readers’ delight: Detective Superintendent Evert Bäckström
rears his head again, corpulent, crafty and amoral as ever – and just as
successful, mainly because he is so expert at ‘making a bit on the side’ (what
else is a man to do to supplement the basic wage?), and manipulating every
system to his advantage.
He is
still not popular with those lesser beings, his colleagues; they know that every time he says – nearly
every day – that he has to attend an important meeting at Headquarters in
Stockholm he is really skyving off; filling
his fat little frame with expensive food and drink, then going home to sleep
the sleep of the just and/or avail himself of obliging female company, thanks
to his growing reputation as Sweden’s premier crime fighter. His colleagues will never take kindly to all
the orders and legwork he dispenses, particularly when his own dubious habits
and chronic laziness are well known:
yep, they’d love to see him fall flat on his smug face, preferably in
something nasty and foul-smelling, but will it ever happen?
Not
immediately, for Our Hero has received wonderful news: Thomas Eriksson, Sweden’s most crooked
defence lawyer has been found murdered at his home, along with his huge
Rotweiler. The police are hardly at a
loss to name suspects; there are so many
who want Eriksson dead that it will take considerable time to cross them off
their list of ‘people of interest to the investigation’ – which (naturally)
Bäckström is heading: as far as he is
concerned, someone has done Sweden an enormous favour ridding it of such vermin
– he is glad Eriksson is dead; still, it
is up to him (and his grumbling, mumbling team) to wield The Sword of Justice
and apprehend the killer.
Mr
Persson is a master of characterisation – he has created an anti-hero
absolutely unforgettable; portly,
gluttonous, an unashamed leaker of info to the newspapers (for a hefty
consideration) as the investigation continues, but a sharp little man
intelligent and shrewd enough to figure out every angle of what is fast
becoming a crime involving art fraud, the Swedish Mafia and – last but not
least – a trail that could lead to (surely not!) – the Swedish monarchy.
And let
us not forget Bäckström’s regrettable impulse buy: Isak the parrot, on his best behaviour in the
Pet Shop, only to turn into the Parrot from Hell when his new owner brought him
home. Isak plays a minor but important
role in proceedings, becoming in his own little way as memorable as his owner,
who trusts and prays that he will not meet the same fate.
Leif Persson has produced yet another
winner: he effortlessly patrols Jo Nesbo
country – with dark satire and delicious humour. SIX STARS!
One
Dog and his Boy, by Eva Ibbotson Children’s
Fiction
Hal
is an only child. His family is
seriously rich, but Donald, Hal’s dad is never home, instead racking up heaps
of air points pursuing all his worldwide business deals. Mum Albina is a shopaholic and changes houses,
furniture and carpet whenever she feels like it. Which is often. She also is a cleanliness freak and can’t
bear mess of any description, so, despite the fact that it is Hal’s birthday
she will never consent to him having a dog – the only present he has ever
wanted: well, he’ll get over it, thinks
Albina. She’ll just buy him another huge
electronic whatsit that he can play with by himself. For Hal has few friends – not that he cares,
IF ONLY HE COULD HAVE A DOG!
His
sadness finally makes an impression on his father, who decides to follow the
advice of one of his friends – why not rent a dog? There is a firm called Easy Pets that rents
dogs by the hour or by the weekend; it’s
jolly expensive (the proprietors cater to all tastes, especially people’s
worries about appearances, and charge accordingly) but Hal could choose a dog
on Friday, have it for the weekend, then on Monday when he returns to school,
the dog can be taken back to Easy Pets.
Simple.
Naturally,
Hal has no idea that he will only be renting a dog for the weekend; he is speechless with delight to think that
he will be allowed a dog at last and is completely unprepared for any future
betrayal. On his visit to Easy Pets with
his dad he chooses Fleck, a little mongrel terrier who was only there on
suffrance, smuggled in by the kennel maid who found him as a stray: it is the best weekend of Hal’s young life.
It
goes without saying (though Eva Ibbotson says it very well!) that his parents’
treachery has far-reaching effects: Hal
decides he will not be without his true friend Fleck. He decides to kidnap the little dog from Easy
Pets and use his birthday money to travel to see his grandparents, Donald’s mum
and dad whom Albina thinks are so low-rent they are really not welcome to
visit. It will be a long trip from home
to the North-East of England, but he is determined not to live in a house with
two people who have betrayed him so cruelly.
The
adventures of Hal and Fleck – and the other purebred dogs at Easy Pets (for
they would not stay behind!) are beautifully told, and the people they meet
along the way are charmingly drawn (even the villains). Ms Ibbotson covers a multitude of social ills
– environmental pollution, abandoned children and dogs – in a language so plain
and clear that every child who reads her books gets a great, humane message to
show kindness to animals, the environment – and each other. SIX STARS!
Pegasus
and the Flame, by Kate O’Hearn Junior Fiction
What a lovely story - and what a great
introduction to the Greek Myths for children who would not otherwise come in
contact with these marvellous legends.
Kate O’Hearn is doing more than she can possibly know to stimulate children’s
interest in the timeless and ancient tales of the Gods and Heroes of
Olympus, especially with the amount of
excitement she can generate in her plotting and her true blue characters.
Emily Jacobs is 13 years
old. She is trying to deal with the loss
of her beloved mother who died of cancer three months before. Her father is a member of the New York City
Police force, and he has to leave Emily alone on a night when a particularly
bad storm is raging. She is not really
afraid of being alone; her grief
troubles her more than solitude – until she hears thumping and bumping on the
ceiling, and it is even more worrying when the plaster starts to crack and
flake! Now, if that were me I would rush
to the bedroom and hide under the bed, but Emily is brave enough to go up onto
the roof to find out what – or who – is going to crash through to her
level. (Obviously she is braver than
this mere mortal) And what does she find but a beautiful horse, breathtaking in
its magnificence, and even more unbelievable:
it has WINGS. And it’s badly
wounded. How can she help him,
especially when she realises that he is Pegasus, beloved of the Gods, and
bearer of Zeus/Jupiter’s thunderbolts.
Pegasus has come to earth to search for ‘The Flame’, a descendant of Vespa, keeper of the Sacred
Flame of Olympus, now extinguished by enemies.
If it is not reignited soon, Olympus and all the Gods will perish.
Ah, this is thrilling,
and things get better and better as the plot advances – the characters are
positively Olympian in more ways than one;
Ms. O’Hearn has an excellent knowledge of Greco-Roman mythology and she weaves this
brilliantly into her story of young people dealing with grief and loss, not to
mention her love of animals, particularly horses – and even better still, the
story doesn’t end with this book: the
next title is ‘Pegasus and the Fight for Olympus’. What a neat treat to look forward to: can’t wait.
FIVE STARS
Pegasus
and the Rise of the Titans, by Kate O’Hearn
Junior fiction
Once again Emily and her friends journey to earth to find
a solution to Olympus’s imminent destruction, this time ending up at Diamond
Head in Hawaii (true!); they are forced
to make the acquaintance of Pele, the Fire Goddess, and her pesky, quarrelsome
sister Na-Maka, Goddess of the Sea, neither of whom get on – and their
subsequent battles are world-shaking!
This is such a great series for children, with all the
right ingredients to make them look forward to the next episode, but Ms O’Hearn
also has a vital underlying message concerning animal and environmental
conservation that can never be stressed early enough; it is greatly reassuring to know that children’s
environmental education can be absorbed so effortlessly and with so much
fun. FIVE STARS.
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