Fiction & More

Edgar Award shortlists announced

2012-01-20T09:45:00.000+02:00

The shortlists for the Edgar Awards have been announced yesterday. Below i give you the nominated titles in three major categories:

BEST NOVEL

The Ranger by Ace Atkins

Gone by Mo Hayder

The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino

1222 by Anne Holt

Field Gray by Philip Kerr

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR

Red on Red by Edward Conlon

Last to Fold by David Duffy

All Cry Chaos by Leonard Rosen

Bent Road by Lori Roy

Purgatory Chasm by Steve Ulfelder

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL

The Company Man by Robert Jackson Bennett

The Faces of Angels by Lucretia Grindle

The Dog Sox by Russell Hill

Death of the Mantis by Michael Stanley

Vienna Twilight by Frank Tallis

The winners will be announced on April 26th. To take a look at the full list visit The Edgar website

Ebook Review: No Time Left by David Baldacci

2012-01-18T11:05:00.000+02:00

I never thought that there would ever come a day, when I’d have to say that David Baldacci has written something not worth reading, but here you go. Thankfully, this is but a short story, which only came out as an eBook, because if it were a novel I’d feel really disappointed.
     The protagonist in this story is a man called Frank Becker, a professional assassin, who likes to undertake the most complicated, or rather challenging missions. When it comes to killing he is a man full of surprises. We first meet him as he shadows a man, in the crowded streets of an unnamed city, whom he ends up killing with a lethal injection. That takes place on the 5th of May of the year 2000, and so far so good.
     In the pages that follow the author talks about the personal history of the assassin, his complicated background and his unhappy childhood. He’s been abused as a child not only by his father, but also by his evil stepmother, a fact that left him scarred for life and created a dangerous void in his psyche.
     Becker, who’s spend the last twenty years killing people, is now ready to undertake a new, exciting, but extremely unorthodox mission: he is to assassinate a woman, whom he has never met, for which he knows nothing about, and whose whereabouts are completely unknown to him. The man who hires him though tells him not to worry about a thing and that when the time comes everything will be illuminated. And he’s proven right. And that’s exactly when the reader finds all of a sudden him/herself reading a fantasy story, which is bound to dissolve all and any expectations for a great ending. That doesn’t come to pass because the narration changes genre, but alas because the end of the story seems rushed and, honestly, badly written. As it seems the good author has decided, in his effort to surprise the reader, to walk into Stephen King territory. However, as great as he may be in writing action-packed thrillers, the fantasy game doesn’t seem to suit him. And thus he disappoints.

The Books of 2012

2011-12-27T20:30:00.000+02:00

A Year in Reading 2011

2011-12-19T22:50:00.000+02:00

One of my big favorites this year

I think I should start off by saying that I borrowed the title for this post from The Millions. And then… What can I say after that? Not much really. I can only state the fact that during this year I’ve read more books than ever before. And that 2011 was a year of new discoveries, during which I’ve fallen “in love” with Scandinavian crime fiction, felt pleasantly surprised by George R.R. Martin’s work and continued my long journey into the world of Japanese fiction; but during it I also enjoyed reading some beautiful stories by European authors. Now here’s a list of the books that I’ve read and reviewed:

David Baldacci – Hell’s Corner
Neil Gaiman – The Graveyard Book
Jeffery Deaver – Edge
Haruki Murakami – Kafka on the Shore
Terry Goodkind – Wizard’s First Rule
David Baldacci – The Sixth Man
Yoko Tawada – Where Europe Begins
Michael Connelly – The Fifth Witness
Hitomi Kanehara – Snakes and Earrings
Emma Donoghue – Room
Ian Rankin – The Complaints
Harlan Coben – Live Wire
Philip Pullman – The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ
Jo Nesbo – The Devil’s Star
John Sandford – Buried Prey
Banana Yoshimoto – The Lake
David Baldacci – One Summer
Charlaine Harris – Dead Reckoning
Téa Obreht – The Tiger's Wife
Karin Fossum – Bad Intentions
Lev Grossman – The Magician King
Stephen Kelman – Pigeon English
Janet Evanovich – Smokin’ Seventeen
Sara Blaedel – Call Me Princess
Jussi Adler-Olsen – The Keeper of Lost Causes
Lee Child – Worth Dying For
Camilla Läckberg – The Preacher
Andrey Kurkov – Death and the Penguin
Amanda Kyle Williams – The Stranger You Seek
Evan Munday – The Dead Kid Detective Agency
Wilbur Smith – Those in Peril
Tess Gerritsen – The Silent Girl
Mukoma Wa Ngugi – Nairobi Heat
Sebastian Barry – On Canaan’s Side
Lee Child – Second Son
Jo Nesbo – The Snowman
Tim Riley – Lennon
Andrey Kurkov – Penguin Lost
Stella Duffy – Theodora: Actress, Empress, Whore
Stephen King – Mile 81
Ismet Prcic – Shards
Jose Saramago – Cain
Harlan Coben – Shelter
Jamil Ahmad – The Wandering Falcon
Amos Oz – Scenes from Village Life
Michael Connelly – Suicide Run
Mary Glickman – One More River
Joyce Carol Oates – The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares
Michael Connelly – Angle of Investigation
Karin Slaughter – Thorn in My Side
Various - No Rest for the Dead
Roberto Bolaño – Antwerp
Alessandro Baricco – Without Blood
Ian Rankin – The Impossible Dead
Michael Connelly – The Drop
Karin Fossum – The Caller
Tess Gerritsen – Freaks

These are the rest of the books that I’ve read this year but have not yet reviewed; either because it was too early to do so or due to the lack of time:

Marilynne Robinson – Gilead
Mako Yoshikawa – One Hundred and One Ways
Toni Morrison – Beloved
Margaret Atwood – Alias Grace
Amy Yamada – Trash
Dennis Lehane – Shutter Island
PD James – The Murder Room
Kobo Abe – The Woman in the Dunes
Colm Toibin – The Heather Blazing
David Baldacci – Deliver Us From Evil
Ogai Mori – The Wild Geese
George Pelecanos – Shoedog
Michael Connelly – The Reversal
Murasaki Shikibu – The Tale of Genji
Joseph Conrad – Heart of Darkness
Mordecai Richler – Cocksure
Kenzaburo Oe – Somersault
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – Half of a Yellow Sun
Taichi Yamada – Strangers
Masako Togawa – The Master Key
Minette Walters – The Breaker
Yūko Tsushima – The Shooting Gallery
Yasushi Inoue – The Hunting Gun
Kyoko Mori – Shizuko’s Daughter
Sōseki Natsume – The 210th Day
Paul Auster – The Book of Illusions
Hitomi Kanehara – Autofiction
Akira Yoshimura – Shipwrecks
Raymond Chandler – The Big Sleep
Stephen King – The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger
Richard Castle – Naked Heat
Rick Riordan – The Lost Hero
Edogawa Rampo – Japanese Tales of Mystery & Imagination
George R.R. Martin – A Game of Thrones
Dennis Lehane – Moonlight Mile
Hugh Laurie – The Gun Seller
Sōseki Natsume – I Am a Cat II
Hunter S. Thompson – Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Harlan Coben – Live Wire
Ray Bradbury – Fahrenheit 451
Miyuki Miyabe – Crossfire
Jeffery Deaver – Carte Blanche
Haruki Murakami – South of the Border, West of the Sun
Patrick Ness – The Knife of Never Letting Go
Daniel Kehlmann – Me and Kaminski
Bret Easton Ellis – Imperial Bedrooms
Yoko Ogawa – The Housekeeper and the Professor
Esther Freud – Hideous Kinky
Mario Vargas Llosa – Who Killed Palomino Molero?
Neil Gaiman – Stardust
Arturo Perez-Reverte – Purity of Blood
Chinua Achebe – Things Fall Apart
Kobo Abe – The Ark Sakura
Iris Johansen – Quinn
Natsume Sōseki – Kokoro
Andrea Kamilleri – The Track of Sand
Haruki Murakami – Pinball, 1973
Kathy Reichs – Flash and Bones
Shuichi Yoshida – Villain
Richard Castle – Heat Rises
A.D. Miller – Snowdrops
Julian Barnes – The Sense of an Ending
George Pelecanos – The Cut
Tatsuhiko Takimoto – Welcome to the NHK!
Marina Sonkina – Lucia’s Eyes and Other Stories
Yoani Sanchez – Havana Real
Tessa Afshar – Pearl in the Sand
Haruki Murakami – 1Q84
David Baldacci – Zero Day
John Connolly – The Burning Soul
Georges Simenon – The Train
Ninni Holmqvist – The Unit
Kaori Ekuni – Twinkle Twinkle
Kwei Quartey – Children of the Street
Michael Ondaatje – The Cat’s Table
David Baldacci – No Time Left
Kathy Reichs – Seizure
Barack Obama – Of Thee I Sing
Amy Yamada – Bedtime Eyes
Janet Evanovich – Explosive Eighteen
Thanhha Lai – Inside Out & Back Again

Neil Gaiman - Coraline
Hakan Nesser – The Return
Alex Kava – Hotwire
Patricia Cornwell – Red Mist
Paul Theroux – Murder in Mount Holly
Gillian Bradshaw – In Winter’s Shadow.
John Grisham – The Litigators
Yasutaka Tsutsui – The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
Stephen King – The Colorado Kid
Asa Larsson – Until Thy Wrath Be Past
Miranda July – No One Belongs Here More Than You
Sofi Oksanen – Purge
Hisham Matar – Anatomy of a Disappearance
Ryu Murakami – Popular Hits of the Showa Era
Thomas Caplan – The Spy Who Jumped Off the Screen. Out on the 12th of January.

Nick Arvin – The Reconstructionist
Vilmos Kondor – Budapest Noir. Out on February the 1st.
David Perry – The Cyclops Conspiracy. Out on February the 1st.
Raymond Khoury – The Devil’s Elixir. Out on the 27th of December.
Val McDermid – The Retribution. Out on the 10th of January.
Philip Pullman – Two Crafty Criminals. Out on the 8th of May.
Niccolo Ammaniti – Me and You. Out at the end of January.
Ernesto Sabato – The Tunnel. Out on the 27th of December.
A.S. Byatt – Ragnarok. Out on February the 1st.

During the past twelve months I’ve also read 30 books in Greek, which brings the grand total to 190, if the math is right. Not bad at all, I’d dare say.

Book Review: Freaks by Tess Gerritsen

2011-11-30T05:42:00.003+02:00

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The main protagonists in this short story by Tess Gerritsen, which only came out as an eBook, are the usual suspects: detective Jane Rizzoli and -“the queen of the dead”- medical examiner Maura Isles.
     The events of this case take place during one of the coldest winters in history in Boston, where the local police discovers the corpse of a young woman in a deserted church. Kimberly Rayner, as is the victim’s name, looks undernourished and seems to have been strangled to death. While Rizzoli and Isles observe the scene of the crime, the most outstanding object of which is an open casket, they soon come to realize that apart from the cops there’s another presence there; that of a scared young man who when spotted runs for his life with Jane in pursuit, who’s bound to get him. Of course, when arrested, he instantly becomes the prime suspect, even though he insists that he’s innocent. The man that goes by the name Lucas Henry says that he truly loved Kimberly, that they were soul mates and that all he ever tried to do was help her out. Truth be told, if someone ever saw the two of them standing next to each other, he would have no choice but believe his words, since they looked almost the same: deathly pale and ghost-like. Besides, according to Lucas their physique had to do with the fact that they were vampires. Not that they were attacking people in order to drink their blood, nothing like that; they just lived on… air, and blood, provided to them by some butcher or from a friend or two who got it from a blood bank.
      His story really sounds crazy, outrageous, but the police besides his presence at the scene of the crime, has no evidence whatsoever against him, while Dr. Isles is of the opinion that the two of them were suffering from a diagnosed illness which caused them to have shared delusions.
     But if it wasn’t Lucas the one that killed the girl then who was? Well, the events are about to take a dramatic turn, which will bring Jane face to face with an extremely dangerous situation. Thankfully though, her good friend, the doctor, will once again come to save the day, as she will discover who the real perp is, using her usual means: science. The solution to the riddle will prove to be just as strange, as the case itself.
     This is a well-written story, which will undoubtedly satisfy the fans of this unique team of investigators.

Book Review: The Caller by Karin Fossum

2011-11-24T13:42:00.001+02:00

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Karin Fossum is an author from Norway whom I’ve discovered only recently, so this is just the second of her books that I’ve come to read. The first one was Bad Intentions which I whole-heartily recommend to all crime fiction aficionados.
     The events of this book, in which the main protagonists are the usual suspects inspectors Sejer and Skarre, take place in a small provincial town in Norway. It all begins when somebody spills blood on a baby girl who sleeps in her pram beneath a tree in the yard, and thus gives the parents the scare of their lives, since at first they think that their kid is bleeding to death.
     Sejer is called to investigate the case, which at the beginning seems no more than an ill-humored prank. However at that very same night he receives a postcard with just a few words on it, according to which: Hell begins now. And it does, as during the next few days a series of unfortunate events, sometimes funny but mostly scary, will take place, which will spread a vale of terror over the town: A man will find his sheep dyed orange, a woman will read her obituary in the newspaper, and another one will receive a phone call which will make her rush to the hospital to visit her badly injured in a traffic accident daughter, who’s not there.
     As the incidents increase day by day and the people get all the more scared, inspectors Sejer and Skarre do their best to discover who’s behind these actions. However that will not prove so easy because, even though the perp seems to be a psychologically disturbed person, he’s also highly intelligent and able to function well under pressure.
     The closer they get to him the better Sejer will come to understand his way of thinking. However as the perp will feel the breath of the law on his back, he will not feel scared. Instead he will decide to move ahead with his plans; plans that will make his past actions look nothing more than child’s play.
     Once again the author puts too much weight on the inner world of her heroes; she describes their way of thinking and their troubled psyches, and thus delivers a book that can be read not only as a crime fiction novel but also as a sociological-psychological commentary.

By the same author:

Bad Intentions

The Most Notable Books of Fiction of 2011

2011-11-22T18:49:00.000+02:00

The New York Times have printed this year's list of the 100 most notable books in America. Since we are notable for only concerning ourselves with fiction here's a catalog of the titles that belong to this genre:

The Angel Esmeralda by Don DeLillio
The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka
The Cat’s Table by Michael Ondaatje
Chango’s Beads and Two-Tone Shoes by William Kennedy
11/22/63 by Stephen King
The Free World by David Bezmozgis
Ghost Lights by Lydia Millet
Gryphon by Charles Baxter
House of Holes by Nicholson Baker
The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta
The London Train by Tessa Hadley
Lost Memory of Skin by Russell Banks
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
A Moment in the Sun by John Sayles
My New American Life by Francine Prose
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
The Pale King by David Foster Wallace
Parallel Stories by Peter Nadas
Say Her Name by Francisco Goldman
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
Stone Arabia by Dana Spiotta
The Stranger’s Child by Alan Hollinghurst
Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
Ten Thousand Saints by Eleanor Henderson
The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht. Read my review here
The Tragedy of Arthur by Arthur Phillips
Train Dreams by Denis Johnson

Book Review: The Drop by Michael Connelly

2011-11-22T15:19:00.000+02:00

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Harry Bosch is back, and even though he feels kind of rusty, he’s as good as ever. The good detective is still working in the open-unsolved unit and as we find out right from the start the higher ups have decided to keep him in the Los Angeles police force for four more years, which in real time translates into thirty-nine months. Harry, who does not wish under any circumstances to retire, receives the news as a blessing. It’s not that he wouldn’t be able to live outside the force; it’s just that solving crimes is maybe the only thing he can to do really well.
     His current partner is David Chu and the case they are called to investigate is that of one Lily Price, a woman’s who was raped and brutally murdered back in 1989. At the beginning the case looks simple, since now, using the new technologies, they are able to extract the DNA of the perp, from traces of blood that were found on the victim’s neck. The suspect has a history when it comes to crimes of this nature, but -and this is as big a But as you’d ever be able to get- he doesn’t seem likely to have committed this particular crime, since when it happened he was only eight years old. And now the questions are: How did his blood get there? And, who’s the real perp? As Bosch and Chu are about to start looking into it, a new case lands all of a sudden into their hands: the apparent suicide of the son of a councilman, with whom Harry clashed head to head more than once in the past. Given their ugly history he wonders as to whether it would be better if someone else handled the case, but then he learns that his involvement came as a direct request from the said councilman.
     So, having no word in the matter, the two partners head for the hotel where the man’s body was found. He’d supposedly jumped from his room’s balcony. This, at least at first, looks a simple case as well. However a few minimal clues that emerge here and there, some details that just don’t fit, as well as some facts that soon come under Harry’s attention, just complicate it. Thus, where he expected to sail through the case he finds himself wandering through a labyrinth made of secret and lies, and not before too long he comes to realize that he can’t really trust anyone, since time and again people betray him.
     In the end the only person that he can really lean on, but also truly have faith in, is his daughter Maddie, who’s decided to follow in his footsteps and become a cop. Harry is more proud of her that he could ever imagine himself to be and little by little he starts to train her for the future she chose. The more he trains her though, the more he feels like her ingenuity surpasses his, while her perception just about everything seems to get better and stronger all the time. Thus time and again she doesn’t hesitate to point out to him some things he failed to notice, his small omissions. In the meantime a new woman comes into his life and he feels that something good could happen with her; something good and lasting; but not when things are as complicated as they now are.
     As Harry will struggle to solve these cases he’ll have to, willingly or not, take a good look into his life and way of thinking, and maybe, just maybe, put some water in his wine, soften up a little, in order to give the people who worth it their due or simply a second chance.
     This is one of the best books Michael Connelly has written with this protagonist in the epicenter of the action. It reminds us of a crime novel and the story of a psyche at the same time. I’m sure the fans will love it, but this also offers the opportunity to the readers who have never met Bosch before to get to know one of the best fictional detectives out there.

Book Review: The Impossible Dead by Ian Rankin

2011-11-18T16:10:00.002+02:00

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One could say that it is sometimes a blessing to be a British crime fiction author, since the local publishers do not ask their writers to deliver a new book every six months, and thus the standards one has come to expect of them remain high as ever.
     Ian Rankin is one of those “lucky” authors and so we are not surprised to receive yet another great novel from him. In this his main protagonist is inspector Malcolm Fox whom we’ve first met in his previous novel, The Complaints (read my review here), who’s now called to investigate whether three cops of the Kirkcaldy precinct have in any way facilitated the actions of one of their colleagues, who’s been found guilty in a court of law for misconduct. Paul Carter, the policeman in question, was accused of asking favors of a particular kind from three women in exchange for not arresting them for some minor misdemeanors.
     From the very first moment that Fox and his partners, Joe Naysmith and Tony Kaye, arrive in town, they can feel a cloud of suspicion and enmity settle all over them. Of course that is hardly surprising since not a single cop likes the members of his team, because of what they do; and that is, in their eyes, work against their own people. One thing that’s kind of strange, or rather surprising though, is that there’s more to this case than what at first meets the eye. For starters, the man who gave Carter in was his uncle Alan, a retired cop. Then there are the connections of this said uncle with the criminal elements of the city. And, then come the facts of the distant past that suddenly spring to life during the investigation; facts that have taken place in Scotland back in 1985, a year of mayhem and relevant chaos, and which are in some strange way connected with what is happening today. Finally are the orders; the orders that come from the higher ups and who demand of Fox and his team to back off this case, as some ghosts are better to remain buried; but which ghosts and why?
     Rankin, using a simple investigative case as his vehicle, drives the reader back to the past and talks to him in a rather straightforward way about the widely unknown, or maybe forgotten, history of his country. Through the narration we get to learn about the student unrests of the 80’s, the nationalist movement and the communists of the era, about the armed groups and the revolutions that never came to be. And returning back to the present we find out some things about modern day Scotland, a place where poverty and unemployment are widespread, where alcoholism, drug addiction and crime, as well as corruption rule the day.
     The author paints a world that is bleak, on the brink of destruction, but which, thankfully, is not quite there yet. And he also paints a world where hope for a better future is still, if barely, alive. Fox reminds us in one way or another of Rebus, but he is special in his own way. He doesn’t drink, even though his sister is an alcoholic; he likes to be alone, even though he seems to desperately seek the company of a woman; and he does everything he possibly can to help those, who willingly or not make his life difficult. Of course he is not perfect, he has his flaws; but it’s exactly these flaws that make him look so deeply humane.
     This is one of the best crime novels of the year. Just read it.

2011 National Book Award Winners Announced

2011-11-17T12:10:00.002+02:00

The 2011 National Book Award winners were announced late last night. The winners in each category are:

Fiction:

Non-fiction:

Poetry:

Young People's Literature:

Costa Awards Shortlists revealed

2011-11-16T02:17:00.001+02:00

The Costa Awards shortlists have been announced last night. Twenty books have been nominated in five different categories. The winner for each category will be announced on the 4th of January and the overall winner, for the book of the year award, will be revealed on the 24th. The nominated books in each category are:

Novel

The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes
A Summer of Drowning - John Burnside
Pure - Andrew Miller
My Darling I Wanted to Tell You - Louisa Young

First Novel

City of Bohane - Kevin Barry
The Last Hundred Days - Patrick McGuinness
Tiny Sunbirds Far Away - Christie Watson
Pao - Kerry Young

Biography

Thin Paths: Journeys In and Around an Italian Mountain Village - Julia Blackburn
Henry’s Demons: Living with Schizophrenia - A Father and Son’s Story - Patrick and Henry Cockburn
Now All Roads Lead to France: The Last Years of Edward Thomas - Matthew Hollis
Charles Dickens: A Life - Claire Tomalin

Poetry

The Bees - Carol Ann Duffy
Night - David Harsent
Fiere - Jackie Kay
November - Sean O’Brien

Children's Book

Flip - Martyn Bedford
The Unforgotten Coat - Frank Cottrell Boyce
Small Change for Stuart - Lissa Evans
Blood Red Road - Moira Young

Book Review: Without Blood by Alessandro Baricco

2011-11-15T14:51:00.001+02:00

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Baricco has a unique gift with words and an ability to enchant the readers with his stories. Every time I read one of his books I’m met with a new surprise, and it’s always a pleasant one.
     The main protagonist in this novella is Nina. At the beginning of the story we meet her while hiding with her family in an old house in the countryside, in an anonymous country, during an unnamed civil war, which however reminds us of the Spanish.
     Nina’s father, Manuel Roca, is not on the winning side, and he seems to have a lot of enemies, so they have to live in hiding to stay alive. But no matter how much they want to escape the past, one day it will catch up with them and the results will be devastating. Their enemies, headed by a man called Salinas, will track them down and a battle will ensue during which Manuel and his son will be killed. Little Nina however who during all this hustle was hidden in the basement will survive. And then…
     And then the years swiftly go by, and there comes a time that Nina sets out to take her revenge. She’s afraid of nothing and of no one and she’s determined to spare no effort to reach her goal. And thus yesterday’s hunters become today’s prey.
     Of course, as one would expect, in a Baricco story nothing is exactly the way it looks; the author seems to suggest that every coin has two different sides; but of course that doesn’t mean that the one voids the other. At the end of the day what counts the most are the facts; it is them that write the history, it is them that engrave the souls. It is them thus that engraved Nina’s soul, but they were not enough to completely rob her from her humanity, because even though she’s out for revenge she’s not willing to inflict more pain than the pain inflicted on her, while at sometime she reaches a certain point where she can stare with a clear eye on her enemies’ truths. Besides, as we read: “You cannot dream of a better world and think that it will be delivered just because you ask for it.” The world is what it is, the author seems to say, the past cannot change, but it’s nevertheless worth the trouble to fight to make today and tomorrow a little bit better, a bit more humane.
     This is a well-written novella about the recurrent mistakes of men and their eternal passions.

Book Review: Antwerp by Roberto Bolaño

2011-11-10T15:15:00.003+02:00

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“I wrote this book for the ghosts” says the author, before adding that this “my only novel that doesn’t embarrass me…”

     The thing is though that this book is not neither a novel, nor a novella; it’s not even a short story collection. If anyone asked me I would say that what we have here is a collection of clippings of life and of random thoughts that somehow manage to meet at one point or another and thus make sense.
     The author is doing here what he does best; he’s playing. He’s playing with the words and the meanings and a non linear sense of time in order to tell the reader a story in shards; the story of a writer that struggles with words and the story of a hunchback; the story of a red-haired prostitute and the cop that abuses her. And also the story of a day and one more. All that takes place in the city of Barcelona.
     If there’s one thing that stands out in this small book, apart from the literary acrobatics, is the way the author drops into the text his cues; the cues that don’t seem to have anything to do with the story but somehow manage to make it better. Here are a few examples: “Forget the gesture that never came”, “Monogamy moves with the same rigidity as the train”, “There are silences made just for us”, “The gun was only a word”, “Loneliness is an aspect of natural human egotism”, “Only the inventors survive”, “Destroy your stray phrases”, “Everything is the projection of a forlorn kid”.
     Antwerp is not one of those books that have a beginning, a middle and an ending. The author seems more interested in walking on a tightrope made of words than telling a story. What he brings to light are parts of his inner world: his dreams, his thoughts and even his delusions. And for once again he reminds us of old man Borges, because every now and then he tends to address the reader with a mocking smile, as if implying that he’s not to be taken seriously by anyone. Bolaño seems to be changing costumes and roles all the time and so he sometimes becomes the author, other times the reader and yet other times the protagonist of the book; the god of his own creation.
     I’m certain that anyone who’s familiar with his work will enjoy this small gem of a book.

Book Review: No Rest for the Dead

2011-11-08T13:59:00.001+02:00

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Twenty six authors came together in order to write an action-packed thriller and the result is No Rest for the Dead. The original idea was to create a short story collection, but since this is not an especially commercial genre and the proceeds were meant to go to charity, it has been decided that it’d be better if all of them worked together to write a novel.

     If you asked me I wouldn’t say that this book is something special, however it is a well-crafted book that moves at a fine pace and which manages to keep the reader’s interest alive from first page to last. And it is funny, in more than one ways; especially when, let’s say, author number one, decides to make the life of author number two a little bit hard, by driving the story in a completely different direction from the one at hand, and thus make him or her come up with some answers in questions that were not there in the first place. As a result there are many twists and turns and just when one thinks that he’s found the solution to the riddle, something turns up that brings things upside down.
     But let’s take things from the start, or rather from the end; today. Following the last instructions or, maybe we should say, respecting the last wishes of Rosemary Thomas, a curator of a San Francisco Museum, her closest friends and relatives, as well as some other people who were in one way or another connected with her, meet at her workplace to celebrate the anniversary of her death. Rosemary has been tried, found guilty and executed ten years before for the murder of her husband Christopher. All the evidence at the time was overwhelmingly against her and no one, or almost no one, had any doubts that she committed the crime. Two men though were not so sure that she was guilty. The first one was Hank Zacharius, a journalist, who from the very beginning believed in her innocence and did everything he possibly could to help her, while the second was Jon Nunn, the detective who investigated the case and who was responsible at large for securing her conviction. That case has haunted his life ever since and now, as the anniversary of her death is approaching fast, he’s determined more than ever to put his doubts at rest. The truth will set you free, people say, but Nunn is not that certain that that applies in this case, since it was yesterday’s truths, the ones that he could sense but never dared to investigate that caused his fall. The road to redemption will prove long and painful for a lot of the characters in this unique, in a certain way, novel that travels the reader into the dark corners of some people psyches, but also to some special places in the world of art.
     The people who worked on this project are: Jeff Abbott, Lori Armstrong, Sandra Brown, Thomas Cook, Jeffery Deaver, Diana Gabaldon, Tess Gerritsen, Andrew F. Gulli, Peter James, J.A. Jance, Faye Kellerman, Raymond Khoury, John Lescrorat, Jeff Lindsay, Gayle Lynds, Phillip Margolin, Alexander McCall Smith, Michael Palmer, T. Jefferson Parker, Matthew Pearl, Kathy Reichs, Marcus Sakey, Jonathan Sandlofer, Lisa Scottoline, R.L. Stine, Marcia Talley, David Baldacci (introduction), Lamia J. Gulli (editing).

Alan Hollinghurst voted as author of the year in Britain

2011-11-05T01:14:00.001+02:00

Alan Hollinghurst whose novel The Stranger's Child was omitted from the Man Booker Prize Shortlist has been voted by 750 book trade experts in the UK as writer of the year. His win has been announced in London on Friday night, along with the names of the other winners of the various categories of The Galaxy National Book awards. Here's the list in full:

Waterstone's UK Author of the Year: The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst (Picador)
Outstanding Achievement award: Jackie Collins
Specsavers popular fiction book of the year: A Tiny Bit Marvellous by Dawn French (Penguin)
More popular non-fiction book of the year: How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran (Ebury Press)
Crime and thriller of the year: Before I Go to Sleep by S J Watson (Doubleday)
Daily Telegraph biography of the year: Charles Dickens by Claire Tomalin (Viking)
International author of the year: A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (Corsair)
Food and drink book of the year: The Good Cook by Simon Hopkinson (BBC Books)
WHSmith paperback of the year: Room by Emma Donoghue (Picador) Read my review here
National Book Tokens children's book of the year: A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness (Walker Books)
Audible.co.uk audiobook of the year: My Dear, I Wanted to Tell You by Louisa Young, read by Dan Stevens (HarperAudio)
Galaxy new writer of the year: When God was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman (Headline Review)

Ebook Review: Thorn in My Side by Karin Slaughter

2011-11-03T05:34:00.000+02:00

In whichever way one looks at this, it is indeed a unique or, rather, somewhat strange story.
     The protagonists in Thorn in My Side are the conjoined twins Kirk and Wayne. They share between them the most important body parts, however the goddess of luck has decided to bless the one and fail the other. So Kirk is charming, tough and cunning, while Wayne is graceless, shy and weak. Having to share the same body makes them both unhappy, but just the one, the former, can openly express his feelings, and thus he has no problem calling his brother a parasite. The weakling thinks the same thing about Kirk as well, but he just keeps his mouth shut, because he knows his place. However, once there’ll come a night that will change everything and scar their lives forever.
     That night is here and is now. The two of them are at a nightclub, where Kirk is dancing with pride and joy, while Wayne just feels bored. If it was up to him he’d be someplace else, but he has no choice since tonight it’s his brother’s turn to do whatever he wants. And what he wants is to make love. Knowing pretty well though that no “normal” woman would ever go to bed with them, they, or rather he, Kirk, has to hire the services of a pro called Mindy.
     The events that are about to follow can only be described as tragic and during them all the differences between the two brothers will come to surface. And it is these differences exactly that brightly illuminate the spot on selection of the particular title for this story, since each one of them is indeed a thorn in the side of the other.
     The author describes, with not so light touches of humor, the darkness that lurks into the psyches of two men that feel trapped in their common body. It’s like the two of them together combine everything that is really good and awfully bad in people. In this case one plus one doesn’t equal two; it just equals a shared misery.
     This is a story that is part-funny part-bleak and so I can’t really say that it will be to everyone’s taste; in my eyes though it is worth reading.

Man Asian Literary Prize Longlist

2011-11-02T21:05:00.000+02:00

The Man Asian Literary Prize Longlist has been announced today. The winner will be announced on the 15th of March. The longlisted novels are:

JAMIL AHMAD (Pakistan) - The Wandering Falcon. Read my review here

TAHMIMA ANAM (Bangladesh) - The Good Muslim

JAHNAVI BARUA (India) - Rebirth

RAHUL BHATTACHARYA (India) - The Sly Company of People Who Care

MAHMOUD DOWLATABADI (Iran) - The Colonel

AMITAV GHOSH (India) - River of Smoke

HARUKI MURAKAMI (Japan) - 1Q84. Book review coming soon

ANURADHA ROY (India) - The Folded Earth

KYUNG-SOOK SHIN (South Korea) - Please Look After Mom. Book review coming soon

TARUN J TEJPAL (India) - The Valley of Masks

YAN LIANKE (China) - Dream of Ding Village

BANANA YOSHIMOTO (Japan) - The Lake. Read my review here

Book Review: Angle of Investigation by Michael Connelly

2011-11-01T08:03:00.001+02:00

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This short story collection that came out only as an eBook is better than Suicide Run, which I reviewed recently, since not only the stories are more interesting but also because it gives the reader a chance to get to know better Connelly’s detective Bosch.
    In Christmas Even Bosch and his partner Jerry Edgar are called to investigate a not so common death. The scene of the crime, if ever there was one, is a pawnshop that belongs to a man of Russian origins. According to him his shop has been victimized by a burglar three times in the past and he’s quite certain that the dead man was behind those crimes. How did he get in though and what was it that killed him? Harry will get the answers to these questions with no difficulty at all. But now, and most importantly, he also has to find out who killed him. It’s Christmas Eve. All his colleagues are in a hurry to call it a day and go home, but he knows that he will never get peace of mind if he doesn’t solve the riddle. So he’ll start wandering from one place to the next, arresting people and posing questions until he reaches his goal. At the same time, the accidental recovery of a stolen saxophone will bring back to him memories from the Vietnam War and that’s exactly when one will be able to take a better look into his psyche.
     The story in Father’s Day somehow reminds us of an episode of CSI Miami in which something similar has happened. A fifteen month old boy is found dead in his father’s car. The cause of death is heatstroke and now it falls to Bosch and his partner Ignatio Ferras to discover whether it was an accident or rule it a crime. The child was handicapped and in cases like this no one can be certain about anything.
     Bosch takes a journey into the past in Angle of Investigation. The year is 1972 and he is just starting his career as a cop in the LAPD, when he and his partner-mentor Ron Eckersly are ordered to visit the house of a woman who, according to her daughter who lives in a different town, has been missing for a few days now. As it turns out the latter had every reason to worry since the two of them will discover the corpse of the woman in her bathtub along with that of her dog. That case has never been solved and now Bosch, who works along with Kiz Rider on the cold case division, is more determined than ever to solve the case and bring the truth to light.
     Three nicely crafted tales by one of the best American crime fiction authors.

Book Review: The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares by Joyce Carol Oates

2011-10-27T09:14:00.002+03:00

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Melancholy and agony are the two prevalent elements in this short story collection that comes out in America next week; agony about what tomorrow is going to bring, and melancholy for everything that the protagonists are going or have gone through and about their lives’ ever repeating deadlocks.
     The title story, which has the size of a novella, is I’d dare say the best by far. Reading through it we come to find out about the tragic events that take place in the life of a desperate woman, but we are also given a chance to have a good look into the darkness of some young souls. It all begins when eleven year old Marissa goes missing. The first suspect is a young professor, but soon enough he’s cleared since he has an alibi. Leah, the girl’s mother thinks that he’s innocent too and somehow, little by little she starts getting close to him. As they talk things over they come to think that there’s a big conspiracy taking place behind their backs. And a conspiracy there is. However, when the drama reaches its peak things take an unexpected turn which leads in a crude and ironical way to the fulfillment of somebody’s dream.
     Brad Shiftke and Stacey Lynn, a mysterious man and a young woman, star in Beersheba. Brad lives in Carthage, New York, where he one day meets Stacey who comes to visit. As it turns out she’s his second wife’s daughter. According to her he’s to blame for her mother’s death. Now she’s here to seek revenge.
     Jessica is a little girl that doesn’t feel so well these days. She and her family are in a house on the mountains, a place she loves, but this time she cannot really enjoy her stay there. And that’s only because the baby is with them; her newborn sister that draws all the attention on her and makes her jealous. Only one creature can really understand how she feels and that is none other than a gray cat. Nobody Knows My Name is the title of the story.
     The life stories of two brothers Edgar and Edward is what we come to read in Fossil-Figures. The two of them couldn’t be any different. The one is like a force of nature: strong, arrogant, willing to do anything to reach his goals, while the other is quiet, good-hearted, capable of doing great things, but unable to step outside, into the greedy and wild world where his brother thrives. As it is bound to happen they will take different paths in life, but one day they will meet again and then things will look completely different from the time their journey begun.
     A couple of brothers that somehow remind us of the ones above are also the protagonists in Death-Cup. Lyle and Alastor meet for the first time in many years a few days before the funeral of their rich uncle Gardner, and the first has no doubt whatsoever that his brother came back for the widow’s money. However he’ll do nothing to stop him from fulfilling his plans. Their relationship looks like a stretched thread that’s bound to break, but when that happens it doesn’t happen in the way that one would expect it to.
     In Helping Hands we read the story of a woman whose husband has died only recently and who now tries to start a new life. However, to do that she first has to get rid of a lot of his things; things that are of no use anymore, but which also never stop reminding her of him. So she visits a war veterans’ charity to make a donation and it’s exactly there that she meets a man that brings back to life the woman in her.
     A Hole in the Hands, the final story in this collection, is a story about vanity. Lucas Brede is a cosmetic surgeon that lately doesn’t do so well. He has money troubles and his business is slowing down and thus he’s desperate. As things start to get from bad to worse, he reaches a point where he’d do just about anything to earn some money, even if it goes against his personal ethics. A vain woman gives him the opportunity to do just that, but things do not turn exactly right and now he has to live with the consequences of his actions.
     This is a great collection of stories by one of the best American authors, which every friend of the genre can surely enjoy. It comes out in the US on the 1st of November and in Europe two weeks later.

Book Review: One More River by Mary Glickman

2011-10-25T06:17:00.005+03:00

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This is one of those special novels that one should read slowly, little by little, in order to enjoy it. Its prose is so rich, so beautiful that it flows like a peaceful stream and not like the wild waters of the Mississippi on whose shores a big part of the action takes place. The author through her story travels the reader back to the past of the American South; a past that smells of death and of change; a past full of conflict and love; a past where racial discriminations were the canon and where dreams were not that easy to come true.
     This is the story of a father and a son, Bernard and Mickey Moe Levy. Mickey is a young Jew who in 1962 meets and falls in love with a beautiful and brave girl that goes by the name of Laura Anne, whom he’s determined to have as his wife. However, no matter what he, or she for that matter, wants their coming together is not a given, since Laura Anne’s parents refuse to give her their blessing, because of the unknown origins of Mickey Moe’s father. Bernard always was, to say the least, a mystery to the locals in Guilford, Mississippi. As the old-timers could recall, he arrived one day in town with pocketfuls of gold and decided to make a home there, but nobody, or almost nobody, had any clue as to where he came from and how he got his money, thus even after he was dead, the people never stopped throwing suspicious glances towards his household.
     So, who was Bernard? Where did he start from and how did he end up there? How come he got to marry beautiful Beadie who was everything that he was not? And what was his real relationship with Bald Horace and his, virtually and visually, enormous sister, Aurora Mae? These are the questions that Mickey Moe needs to find answers to in order to solve his issues; however, to do that he has to put everything on hold for a while and travel far and away in order to trace his father’s footsteps in history.
     The author, through her oral and sing-song like narration, takes us back and forth in time and gives us the extraordinary yet simple stories of two men; that of Bernard, who left his home at the age of thirteen in order to seek his fortune elsewhere and his amazing journeys up and down the Mississippi, and that of Mickey Moe, a young man who’s willing to anything he possibly can to marry the love of his life. Their travels seem to follow parallel roads, they even seem to converge every now and then, but at the end of the day they are different, since the one has spent a whole life trying to create his personal myth, while the other just struggles to earn the right to live his.
     This is an outstanding novel that for some, not all that strange reason, reminds us of a lovely and somehow nostalgic blues song, and as such it deserves to be read -and yes, even be heard- by everyone who loves good literary fiction.
   It comes out in America next week.

Book Review: Suicide Run by Michael Connelly

2011-10-17T05:08:00.001+03:00

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I’d dare say that this October could be named Michael Connelly, or rather Harry Bosch month, since during it no less than three books starring the legendary comp will see the light of day. Never mind that two of them, this one and Angle of Investigation are just short story collections (both out already in England and Ireland) and can only be acquired as eBooks. (There are three short stories in each of them.) The third one, The Drop, is of course a novel, and it will come out on the 27th of October in Europe and a month later in the US.
     But let’s now take a look at the eBook at hand. Suicide Run is the title of the first story in this collection, in which we find Bosch and his partner Jerry Edgar working the night shift at the Hollywood Division. During it they are being called at the scene of a suicide. The suicide victim is a young wannabe actress and at the beginning things look clear as day. However Harry thinks there’s more to this case than that which at first meets the eye, so with the precious help of one of his favorite colleagues, Kismin Rider, he decides to take a better look at the facts surrounding it.
     In Cielo Azul, we meet the good detective while he’s on his way to the San Quentin prison. He’s going there to meet a psychotic killer, a few days before he’s executed for the brutal murder of a fifteen year old girl ten years before. Bosch, who arrested the perp, only wants to meet him in order to find out what’s the real name of the victim; the girl he came to call and remember as Cielo Azul.
     One-Dollar Jackpot is the title of the final story in which Bosch is called upon to investigate the murder of, a minor celebrity and fulltime poker player, Tracey Blitzstein. The woman was shot dead while in her car outside her house. Being in the kind of business that she was, and having earned a big sum of money at the casino, not long before, it’s obvious that more than one people would want to harm her. The perp could be one of her competitors, or a thief, or even that mysterious man that followed her out of the casino. But, as it’s often the case, things are much simpler than they seem.
     In this short collection we have three well-written stories which will undoubtedly bring enough joy to the fans of the good author and his most likeable hero.

National Book Awards finalists

2011-10-13T14:53:00.003+03:00

The lists of the finalists of this year's National Book Awards have been announced yesterday. The shortlisted books are:

Fiction:

Read my review here

Nonfiction:

Poetry:

Young People's Literature:

Book Review: Scenes from Village Life by Amos Oz

2011-10-11T04:21:00.001+03:00

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The international press hailed this book as a parable about what really goes on in Israeli society today.
     Scenes from Village Life cannot be described as a novel nor as a short-story collection. It features a number of interconnected tales, which I would simply describe as short glimpses of everyday life.
     The stories take place in the fictitious village of Tel Ilan, where lately a lot of strange things happen to some quite common people. Firstly, in Heirs, we have the story of a retired lawyer who lives in a house with his bedridden ninety year old mother and spends all his time doing absolutely nothing. Their every day is a copy of the one before and nothing much seems to happen, until a strange man arrives claiming that he’s a relative and turns things upside down. In Relations we read about a woman that feels really disappointed when her beloved nephew does not arrive with the bus and does something way out of character. Digging is the story of a retired army officer that every night hears someone digging underneath his house. He suspects that behind all that is Abel, an Arab student and aspiring author who lives in a shed in the garden, but his daughter Rachel just thinks he’s crazy. However soon enough she’ll have to change her mind, since Abel will start hearing the strange sounds as well. The old man, despite his past, seems to understand the reasons why the Arabs do not like the Israelis, while he thinks that after everything that has come to pass the only thing that one is left to feel is melancholy. In Lost we follow in the footsteps of a real estate agent who’s about to close the deal of his life, a fact that was supposed to, but fails to make him happy. So he starts wandering the streets in the night, thinking about his life, which leads him to the discovery of a suspicious package and the warmth of a woman’s embrace. Yet another unexpected occurrence, the disappearance of his wife, leads the mayor of the village to wander the streets at night as well, with a dog following his every step and keeping him company, in Waiting. Strangers talks about a love affair that was never meant to be. A seventeen year old boy is in love with the village’s postmistress, but when he finally manages to get close to her things take an unexpected turn. Singing, the last story, describes the meeting of some colorful characters in a house, where they spend their time singing and talking about politics. Their host, and narrator of the story, doesn’t seem to stand them anymore, so she escapes the living room and rushes to the master bedroom, where she hides under the bed, wanting to feel that she was “in a faraway place at another time.” The image she projects is bleak, just like the past.
     If I’d have to describe these texts in simple words I’d just say that what we have right here is the stories of some more or less common people; weak people and somewhat strong people; sanguine people and sad people; people full of insecurities and doubts about the future and questions about the world that’s destined to die. The author paints the picture of a micro-society where anything could happen at any given moment and it does. Just like in real life.
     This is the first book by Amos Oz that I’ve read and so I can’t really say whether it’s his best or not. What I definitely can say though is that it’s extremely well-written and it becomes lyrical at times, and thus can offer a lot of joy to the reader. Recommended.

Book Review: The Wandering Falcon by Jamil Ahmad

2011-10-06T03:20:00.003+03:00

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This is one of those novels that could be read as a fairytale. Actually it contains all the elements of a good old fairytale, as it talks about habits, customs and traditions in the forever mysterious east, and tries to explain to the ever ignorant people of the west some of the things that however how hard they try they do not seem able to comprehend.
     The main character in this story is a man that goes by the name of Tor Baz; a love child. Tor Baz was born at a military outpost in the middle of the desert, and grew up among the soldiers and his constantly worried parents, who were afraid that their sin would catch up with them. What sin was that? Well, they were not actually married, and his mother was the wife of his father’s boss. As it turns out they were right to be afraid, as one day they would be discovered by the people they have wronged and thus lose their lives. Tor was spared his life but he was left behind all alone in an oasis in the desert, helplessly hoping to live to see another day. And that’s exactly where an army officer found him and decided to save his life. So he had the six year old boy follow him to a far away town, where the kid was destined to discover an exciting new world; a world of written and oral knowledge, of modern and ancient wisdom. His teacher was an idiosyncratic mullah called Barrerai, a man who was bound to play an important role in the future history of the region. While times were changing and new realities were starting to emerge, and as “one set of values, one way of life had to die,” he had to do the best he possibly could to protect his people from their worst instincts, to stand in the way of the bad things to come out of their ignorance and sometimes plain stupidity.
     Tor Baz and Barrerai, using as their only weapons their knowledge and their cunning, would in the future pave different courses around their remote world, but their paths would meet time and again, either in the dens of memory or in some godforsaken places. Following their adventures we get to visit lands unknown to us and learn about some values and ways of life completely different from the ones we know. The aphorisms we read every now and then may sound crude to our ears; “Conscience is like a poor relation living in a rich man’s house”; but probably they speak tons of truth about the people in the region. As the two protagonists wander again and again over the invisible at the beginning but more tangible as time went by borders between Pakistan and Afghanistan, they get to meet, and introduce us to, a lot of people, and they see and hear and learn too much; they reach great heights of wisdom; wisdom which they share with the reader.
     This is a novel in fragments. However the author does not seem that interested in experimenting with the writing; he simply wants to tell his story; a story that evolves through the shards of different lives; a story about a world waist deep into the still waters of tradition and incapable of embracing change and adapting to new realities. But this is also a story about a land where women have no voice and no rights, and where the men’s ethics can at the very best be described as questionable, since they consider abductions and the trafficking of women as normal; no matter that the memory of one the secondary characters was “only a sea of women’s faces, and his small body shook with tension every time he saw yet another face to be sold.”
     The Wandering Falcon is a novel that really has a lot to tell to the readers in the west. At times it becomes dark but that only adds to the reading pleasure. Its prose is beautiful and nostalgic in a way that I cannon really explain, since the story carries a lot of echoes of today. This is a book finely crafted and worthy of the attention of any reader who’s interested in the mysteries of the east.

Book Review: Shelter by Harlan Coben

2011-10-04T03:21:00.003+03:00

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This is the first book of a series starring Mickey Bolitar, the nephew of the now famous sports agent and part -or rather, most- time detective Myron.
     Mickey has just moved in into his uncle’s house and their relationship is, for the time being, if not hostile, at least tense. Myron once had a big fall out, if you can call it that, with his brother and Mickey’s father, and since then things between them have fallen apart. Despite Myron’s willingness to let bygones be bygones, Mickey who’s recently lost his dad, while his mom is in rehab, is not that eager to form any kind of bond with him. Truth be told, life has never been easy for Mickey; exciting maybe, but not easy. He was born in Chiang Mai province in Thailand and his life, until recently, was like that of a nomad. Following in his parents footsteps who were volunteers for various NGO’s, he’s lived in Africa, Asia, Latin America and elsewhere, and so he was unable to make any really good friends, while his education, though rich, could be better be described as sporadic. He spent year after year collecting bits and pieces of knowledge that’d probably sometime in the future prove useful, but which for the time being left him feel somehow wanting. However, that future is now here and it’s up to him to work things out in a new city, Newark, and in a new school.
     Well, at the beginning, luck seems to be by his side, since from his very first day at school he meets Ashley, a beautiful, kind girl with whom he falls in love. Not before too long though she just seems to vanish from the face of the earth and as expected he feels at a loss. Where did she go? Has anything bad happened to her? He has to find her; he needs to do that; but how? He doesn’t know how, but as he’s soon to find out he’ll not be alone in his quest, as he’ll become friends with two of the least popular people at school: the streetwise Ema and a seemingly worthless, but nevertheless clever boy whom he calls Spoon.
     So the three of them will start investigating the case together and they will soon come to realize that there’s more to it than they had ever imagined, since everything suggests that Ashley has been kidnapped. Behind this abduction though lies a bigger mystery, a world full of danger, secrets and lies; a world they have to infiltrate in order to discover the truth and save her life. The investigation will lead them to strip bars and tattoo parlors, and even to a haunted, according to the locals, house, and time and again they will come face to face with great danger and in close contact with fierce criminals. During the whole ordeal Mickey will come to realize that things are never exactly the way they seem to be and that more often than not our personal truths are no more than big illusions.
     The author drives his heroes into strange and dangerous situations, he trips them over and makes them smile, he gives them some true life lessons, but also lessons in history, and he makes them fight with their demons in order to overcome them. Mickey is, whether he likes it or not, a younger copy of his uncle Myron: he’s stubborn and strong, and believes in a cause, whatever that may be. Spoon on the other hand is one of those guys that everyone else describes as a loser, but given the chance, he’s bound to prove them wrong. As for Ema, well, Ema is a star: she’s a tough girl and a Goth, with a strong will and no fear, and with a sense of humor that cannot easily be matched by others; she’s one of the best fictitious characters I’ve ever met.
     This book is the perfect start to a new series of adventure stories. And even though according to the publisher its target group is young adults, I feel confident that the author’s regular readers will enjoy it just as much. Coben here seems to have placed a bet with himself, and I dare say that he won that bet already.

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