international mystery and crime – Rosepoint Publishing

The Grey Wolf: A Novel by Louise Penny #AudiobookReview #InternationalMystery&Crime

Chief Inspector Gamache Novel, Book 19

Book Blurb:

“Brassard’s accents—whether French Canadian, Italian, or continental French—create indelible characters. His performance lets us feel Reine Marie’s warmth and Armand’s affectionate nature, and he adds an additional layer to surly Ruth and her potty-mouthed duck. Exciting and entertaining.”—AudioFile (Earphones Award winner)

The 19th mystery in the #1 New York Times-bestselling Armand Gamache series.

Relentless phone calls interrupt the peace of a warm August morning in Three Pines. Though the tiny Québec village is impossible to find on any map, someone has managed to track down Armand Gamache, head of homicide at the Sûreté, as he sits with his wife in their back garden. Reine-Marie watches with increasing unease as her husband refuses to pick up, though he clearly knows who is on the other end. When he finally answers, his rage shatters the calm of their quiet Sunday morning.

That’s only the first in a sequence of strange events that begin THE GREY WOLF, the nineteenth novel in Louise Penny’s #1 New York Times-bestselling series. A missing coat, an intruder alarm, a note for Gamache reading “this might interest you”, a puzzling scrap of paper with a mysterious list—and then a murder. All propel Chief Inspector Gamache and his team toward a terrible realization. Something much more sinister than any one murder or any one case is fast approaching.

Armand Gamache, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, his son-in-law and second in command, and Inspector Isabelle Lacoste can only trust each other, as old friends begin to act like enemies, and long-time enemies appear to be friends. Determined to track down the threat before it becomes a reality, their pursuit takes them across Québec and across borders. Their hunt grows increasingly desperate, even frantic, as the enormity of the creature they’re chasing becomes clear. If they fail the devastating consequences would reach into the largest of cities and the smallest of villages.

Including Three Pines.

A Macmillan Audio production from Minotaur Books.

My Review:

At installment nineteen, I’ve obviously missed a tremendous upheaval in an earlier successful and beloved series that heavily included the people of Three Pines. Alas, that is no more and what I’ve come into now is a long story that begins simply enough then multiplies and divides into an overly complex and far-fetched scenario.

If a dramatic shift in plot mining is not enough, so apparently is the replacement of a much-loved narrator with another, approved by the author, but sure to add to the upheaval in a series that’s lost steam apparently owing to the loss of the writer’s husband. (Did the man co-write?) It appears evident that the radical shift in the loss of prose, the familiar inhabitants of Three Pines, and the lengthy mind-numbing storylines may have lost a few diehard fans.

I did have the occasion to catch Book 16, All the Devils Are Here and found it as conflicted and confusing as this one. I did enjoy Robert Bathurst as narrator in that episode but thought Brassard delivered a credible reading as well.

The main characters? Gamache becomes a hero of epic proportions, saving Canada—nay—possibly the US as well. Gamache and his cronies become globe-trotting officers to chase down…who? Monks? And then do they find the evidence they need?

While I enjoyed the beauty of the language, the pace was agonizing, lots of new characters, and the laudable effort to save the day pushed disbelief.

The conclusion didn’t pull it together and instead left it open in a cliffhanger. Ugh! I thought I was being heroic finishing the audiobook and now I have to wait for full revelation? My patience gets shorter with each birthday.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Three Stars

Book Details:

Genre: International Mystery & Crime, Movie, TV & Video Game Tie-In Fiction, Police Procedural Mysteries
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
ASIN: B0CRHYCSQM
Listening Length: 14 hrs 19 mins
Narrator: Jean Brassard
Publication Date: October 29, 2024
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Links: The Grey Wolf – Amazon-US
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: LOUISE PENNY is the #1 New York Times and Globe and Mail bestselling author of the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache novels. She has won numerous awards, including a CWA Dagger and the Agatha Award (five times) and was a finalist for the Edgar Award for Best Novel. She lives in a small village south of Montréal.

The Narrator: A son of Quebec, Canada, Brassard is an actor, composer, and narrator and can be seen in a number of popular TV show series. He was born on November 6, 1958.

“Great news…

I will have the honor and pleasure to bring Louise Penny’s new Gamache investigation in her famous Three Pines village to her numerous fans’ ears with The Gray Wolf, which will be available October 29.

Pre-order your copy, or rather recording, here now!”

Happy Thursday!

City Gone Askew by Matt Cost #BookReview #InternationalMystery&Crime

A Brooklyn 8 Ballo Mystery Book 2

Blurb:

Award-winning author Matt Cost brings us back to Brooklyn in the Roaring ’20s and Hungarian private eye, 8 Ballo, who is hired by Theda Lazar Vogel to prove that her husband was murdered. His colorful cast of friends returns, as well as legendary figures such as Dorothy Parker, Coleman Hawkins, Bugsy Siegel, and Lucky Luciano.

8 discovers that a priceless Aquila—an ancient eagle Roman standard carried into battle 2,000 years ago—was stolen from Karl Vogel when he was killed. This provides ties to a secret German organization known as the Batavi. But Vogel was also involved in the eugenics movement centered in Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island, as well as being involved with the Ku Klux Klan.

As 8 peels back layers of the underbelly of 1920s Brooklyn, the more complicated and dangerous it becomes for him and those who are important to him. What is happening at Cold Spring Harbor with Herman Wall and the eugenics movement? Who are the mysterious Germans threatening 8? And what is the identity of the charismatic Grand Cyclops? 8 must race against time to uncover the truth and put a stop to the most chilling triumvirate ever conceived.

His Review:

The Aquila carried into battle by the Romans is a gold and silver eagle about 1 foot tall. A barbaric Germanic tribe led by a former Roman officer took it when they defeated the Romans. Theda Vogel’s husband Karl got it during the occupation of Germany after the Second World War. Theda knows it is priceless and wants it back. 8 Ballo also needs to identify her husband’s killers.

Youn City Gone Askew by Matt Cost g ladies are apparently becoming part of a eugenics movement that became common in many large cities in the United States during this time. 8 Ballo is enraged by this thoughtless crime.

Matt Cost has explored these problems with rare insight. 8 works to help the well-healed maintain a distance from crime and corruption. At the same time, he also has some major allies in Bugsy Siegel and other major crime heads. The country is being controlled by White Supremacists and crooked public officials.

This book is very enlightening and will expand public understanding of those turbulent times. Enjoy! 4.5 stars – CE Williams

I read Book 1 of this series back in April last year and greatly enjoyed. The series tackles a tough historical period for the country as well as the world. Many thanks to the author for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book. These opinions are my own.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: International Mystery & Crime, Historical Mysteries, Private Investigator Mysteries
Publisher: Encircle Publications
ISBN-10: ‎ 1645995445
ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1645995449
ASIN: B0D3SXMD59
Print Length: 304 pages pages
Publication Date: July 31, 2024
Source: Author

Title Link(s):

Amazon-US | Amazon-UK | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

The Author: Over the years, [Matthew Langdon] Cost has owned a video store, a mystery bookstore, and a gym. He has also taught history and coached just about every sport imaginable.

During those years, since age eight actually, the true passion has been writing. I Am Cuba: Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution (Encircle Publications, March, 2020) was his first traditionally published novel.

Mainely Power is the first of the Mainely Mystery trilogy featuring private detective Goff Langdon. This will be followed by Mainely Fear (coming in December, 2020), and Mainely Money (to be released in May, 2021).

Cost now lives in Brunswick, Maine, with his wife, Harper. There are four grown children: Brittany, Pearson, Miranda, and Ryan. A chocolate Lab and a basset hound round out the mix. He now spends his days at the computer, writing.

Enjoy Your Sunday

Silent Parade: Detective Galileo Series Book 4 by Keigo Higashino – #BookReview – #policeprocedurals

Book Blurb:

Detective Galileo, Keigo Higashino’s best loved character from The Devotion of Suspect X, returns in Silent Parade, a complex and challenging mystery—several murders, decades apart, with no solid evidence.

A popular young girl disappears without a trace, her skeletal remains discovered three years later in the ashes of a burned out house. There’s a suspect and compelling circumstantial evidence of his guilt, but no concrete proof. When he isn’t indicted, he returns to mock the girl’s family. And this isn’t the first time he’s been suspected of the murder of a young girl, nearly twenty years ago he was tried and released due to lack of evidence. Detective Chief Inspector Kusanagi of the Homicide Division of the Tokyo Police worked both cases.

The neighborhood in which the murdered girl lived is famous for an annual street festival, featuring a parade with entries from around Tokyo and Japan. During the parade, the suspected killer dies unexpectedly. His death is suspiciously convenient but the people with all the best motives have rock solid alibis. DCI Kusanagi turns once again to his college friend, Physics professor and occasional police consultant Manabu Yukawa, known as Detective Galileo, to help solve the string of impossible-to-prove murders.

His Review:

Saori Namiki is missing! She is the eldest daughter of Yutaro and Machiko Namiki. She had a beautiful voice (concert quality) and was absolutely stunning. Where could she have disappeared to? Three years later her body is discovered in a derelict house in the outskirts of a neighboring village.

The writing is very complete and covers all of the characters in the village. Some of them have known Saori since she was a small girl. Everyone in the village felt she was a credit to her family, would go far in life, and she was a talented treasure.

Kanichi Hasunuma is a stranger to the village and is disliked by everyone. He is abrasive and obnoxious. The Namiki’s own a restaurant and put up with his bullying every day. He requires that Saori refill his tea cup each time he drinks his tea and requests demeaning service from the young lady. He has been seen more than once pinching her buttocks and then laughing or smirking at her displeasure. He is finally banned from using the restaurant, however, he continues to come around with his haughty and demeaning attitude.

The whole village suspects Hasunuma has done something to Saori but they have no proof or witnesses. She was such a happy and outgoing young lady. A potential star musical performer! The discovery of her body destroyed her parents and her boyfriend left the village searching for answers. Who would have done such a thing to such a beautiful and gentle creature?

The writer builds this story like the integral detective investigation it took to solve it. Each character in the story is proven to have a solid alibi during the commission of the crime. The novel involves rather intricate devices to dispatch people. When the corpse of Hasunuma is discovered in a closed room the plot thickens. There are very few marks on his body and yet he is dead.

This entire novel reads like a crime investigation primer. How could some of the crimes actually have been committed? I marveled at the intricacies of the various methods and thought processes utilized to complete the crimes. I recommend the book as a way to delve into the minds of Japanese detectives and criminals. 4.5 stars – CE Williams

We received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author and publisher through NetGalley that in no way influenced this review. These are his honest opinions.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: International Mystery & Crime, Police Procedurals
Publisher: Minotaur Books
ISBN: ‎ 1250624819
ASIN: B08R2L9Y3L
Print Length: 345 pages
Publication Date: December 14, 2021
Source: Publisher and NetGalley
Title Link(s): Silent Parade [Amazon]
Barnes and Noble
Kobo

The Author: Keigo Higashino (東野圭吾) is one of the most popular and biggest selling fiction authors in Japan—as well known as James Patterson, Dean Koontz or Tom Clancy are in the USA.

Born in Osaka, he started writing novels while still working as an engineer at Nippon Denso Co. (presently DENSO). He won the Edogawa Rampo Prize, which is awarded annually to the finest mystery work, in 1985 for the novel Hōkago (After School) at age 27. Subsequently, he quit his job and started a career as a writer in Tokyo.

In 1999, he won the Mystery Writers of Japan Inc award for the novel Himitsu (The Secret), which was translated into English by Kerim Yasar and published by Vertical under the title of Naoko in 2004. In 2006, he won the 134th Naoki Prize for Yōgisha X no Kenshin. His novels had been nominated five times before winning with this novel.

The Devotion of Suspect X was the second highest selling book in all of Japan— fiction or nonfiction—the year it was published, with over 800,000 copies sold. It won the prestigious Naoki Prize for Best Novel— the Japanese equivalent of the National Book Award and the Man Booker Prize. Made into a motion picture in Japan, The Devotion of Suspect X spent 4 weeks at the top of the box office and was the third highest‐grossing film of the year.

Higashino’s novels have more movie and TV series adaptations than Tom Clancy or Robert Ludlum, and as many as Michael Crichton. [Goodeads]

Happy Autumn Weekend to you from Rosepoint Publishing

The Deathwatch Beetle (Ann Lindell Mysteries Book 9) by Kjell Eriksson –#BookReview – #TuesdayBookBlog

Book Blurb:

Kjell Eriksson’s next Ann Lindell book, The Deathwatch Beetle is an atmospheric thriller and a tender depiction of the countryside and the people of Roslagen.

Four years have passed since Cecilia Karlsson disappeared from the island of Gräsö in Roslagen. When Ann Lindell receives a tip that she has been seen alive she cannot help getting involved, even though she is no longer with the police.

The black sheep of the island, Nils Lindberg, has never forgotten Cecilia Karlsson, with whom he was in love as a teenager. And he carries a secret. He may not be completely sober all the time, but he has no doubt of what he saw out on the bay just before Cecilia disappeared. Cecilia’s parents are desperate, not knowing what happened to their daughter. Yet their silent house contains many things that have been left unsaid.

While Ann struggles to put the jigsaw puzzle together, she is trying to establish herself in her new life together with her lover Edvard who, like herself, is marked by life. At the same time, someone is hiding in a cottage in a remote part of the island. Someone who is looking for revenge…

My Review:

Such an unusual title and a story that takes place in the country of one my ancestors, I thought this might be an interesting departure from the crime mysteries we typically pick up. Described as an atmospheric thriller, I could agree with one part of that characterization. It was atmospheric.

My first experience with the series, in this particular episode (former?) protagonist Ann Lindell has retired from the police force and lives on the island of Gräsö off the eastern coast of Sweden. (My relatives still live on the western coast.) When Lindell gets a tip that Cecilia Karlsson was sighted alive, she can’t resist pursuing the lead.

It’s an island. People know each other and there are secrets. Some not meant to be revealed. The opening scene hooked the reader then basically foundered for the remaining portions of the book, introducing relatives and friends, chasing down little leads but at such a slow pace it was difficult to continue reading.

I’m not sure—is Ann still meant to be the main character? The narrative comes back to her often, but… It might have been helpful at the beginning of the chapters to explain who was up front and speaking that chapter. Not first person, but it often took me a couple pages to figure out who was making an appearance and his/her connection to the whole thing.

Ann didn’t come across in this episode as being a fully developed person, nor did I really engage in her boyfriend. I did come across, however, an explanation for the title.

“…something was scratching and gnawing in the wall, deathwatch beetle she thought it was called…”

Granted, I came in on Book 9 of the series, having lost, I’m sure a large part of setting the scene and characters as well as her earlier experience as a police person. But was something lost in translation? This one lost my interest fairly early on and it was never really regained.

I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author and publisher through @NetGalley that in no way influenced this review. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Rating: Two point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: International Mystery & Crime, Police Procedurals
Publisher: Minotaur Books
ISBN: ‎ 1250766168
ASIN: B08R2KR132
Print Length: 279 pages
Publication Date: November 23, 2021
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

The Author: Karl Stig Kjell Eriksson is a Swedish crime-writer, author of the novels The Princess of Burundi and The Cruel Stars of the Night, the former of which was awarded the Swedish Crime Writers’ Academy Best Swedish Crime Novel Award in 2002. They have both recently been translated into English by Ebba Segerberg.

All the Devils Are Here: A Novel: Chief Inspector Gamache Novel Book 16 by Louise Penny – #Audiobook Review – #TBT

Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Book Blurb:

The 16th novel by #1 bestselling author Louise Penny finds Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Quebec investigating a sinister plot in the City of Light

On their first night in Paris, the Gamaches gather as a family for a bistro dinner with Armand’s godfather, the billionaire Stephen Horowitz. Walking home together after the meal, they watch in horror as Stephen is knocked down and critically injured in what Gamache knows is no accident, but a deliberate attempt on the elderly man’s life.

When a strange key is found in Stephen’s possession it sends Armand, his wife Reine-Marie, and his former second-in-command at the Sûreté, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, from the top of the Tour d’Eiffel, to the bowels of the Paris Archives, from luxury hotels to odd, coded, works of art.

It sends them deep into the secrets Armand’s godfather has kept for decades.

A gruesome discovery in Stephen’s Paris apartment makes it clear the secrets are more rancid, the danger far greater and more imminent, than they realized.

Soon the whole family is caught up in a web of lies and deceit. In order to find the truth, Gamache will have to decide whether he can trust his friends, his colleagues, his instincts, his own past. His own family.

For even the City of Light casts long shadows. And in that darkness devils hide.

My Review:

I know I was supposed to love this book but truthfully had a difficult time keeping an ear on my cell phone earbud and/or my little portable speaker. Goodness. I was so lost!

My fault, obviously, for trying (once again) to jump into a beloved series at Book 16 no less where the reader was supposed to know who all the players were and why.

Gamache and his wife, Reine-Marie is supposed to be in Paris to celebrate the birth of a grandchild—and visit with the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache’s godfather. Certainly out of their Three Pines, Quebec element, but seems no problem as they search Paris high and low for the person who plowed into his godfather, Stephen Horowitz following their dinner. Intensionally.

The plot seemed all over the board from priceless art to corporate crimes, getting deeper and deeper into rare earth minerals. Meanwhile, Horowitz comes under scrutiny for his possible WWII activities. Wayyy too much going on for this device to work for me. Would it please just settle on one, or even two, main plot points?

Gamache routinely bounces all his theories off his wife, who manages to insert some calming sense into each, after a man is found murdered in Stephen’s Paris apartment.

I greatly enjoyed the narrator, managing voices and French pronunciations with ease, sliding effortlessly over the Paris street names, restaurants, foods, and attractions. The author includes some harrowing tidbits and facts about the fanatical post WWII Paris atmosphere that unsettles—lost in some of the more horrific stories and pictures of the time. (I still marvel that there are any monuments left standing and weep over the loss of Notre Dame in the fire of April 2019. I will never forget our singing experience there and am amazed at their restoration progress.)

Of the immediate family characters, including Daniel their son, I most enjoyed Reine-Marie as being authentic. At Book 16, I’m quite sure I’ve missed the all-important development of Armand but coming into a city not of his domain and taking on the investigation seemed a bit sleuthish, especially given the extent of this plot. He has no authority; how much latitude would he be allowed by the Paris authorities?

Thinking I’ll try another Louise Penny book, but not sure it will be Book 17 of this series. Any of you die-hard Canadian author readers read this series? Did you also have a problem with this narrative?

Book Details:

Genre: Traditional Detective Mysteries, International Mystery & Crime
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
ASIN: B0842XLN7Z
Listening Length: 13 hrs 59 mins
Narrator: Robert Bathurst
Publication Date: Sept 1, 2020
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: All the Devils Are Here [Amazon]

Rosepoint Publishing: Three point Five Stars

The Narrator: Robert Guy Bathurst (born 22 February 1957) is an English actor. Bathurst was born in Gold Coast (now Ghana) in 1957. In 1959 his family moved to Ballybrack, Dublin, Ireland and Bathurst attended school in Killiney, later enrolled in an Irish boarding school. He is married to Victoria Threlfall and they have four daughters. [Wikipedia]

Look Twice (Ingrid Skyberg Book 8) by Eva Hudson – #BookReview – Women’s Detective Fiction

Book Blurb:

A double agent. A double cross. This time, Ingrid is in double trouble.

When Special Agent Ingrid Skyberg discovers an undeveloped roll of film left behind by her predecessor in the FBI, she isn’t sure what to make of the strange photos he took. A map of Scotland, an out-of-print book, a rare bird, a cluster of Post-It notes, an office party… do these images have something to do with crimes he committed as a Russian double agent known as ‘Skylark’?

Ingrid starts digging and becomes convinced that – far from being a traitor – her predecessor was just another victim of the mysterious Skylark who has killed many times to protect his identity. When a case file she has been using is suddenly deleted from the system, Ingrid knows that Skylark is now watching her… and the race is on to find him before she becomes his next victim.

Look Twice is a high-octane spy thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat, flipping the pages to find out if Ingrid can survive her most ruthless opponent yet.

His Review:

Running for your life with a friend is brutal. Outrunning you best friend is survival. Ingrid had only been a teenager when she and her best friend were running from a killer. She had outrun her friend Megan and now Megan is dead. Guilt still lingers after twenty years. She had only seen a face in the dark and couldn’t identify the killer.

Andy Scott is on trial for killing a number of young women. Could he be the killer? Her mother, Svetlana, is convinced she should know the killer’s face, even after twenty years! He was the potential candidate for Prime Minister and now is on trial for twelve murders. Svetlana calls at the most inopportune times during investigations. An ignored call is a personal affront from a bad daughter.

Being a successful and efficient FBI agent requires a strong support team. The team goes up and down from your position. Ingrid is very well organized but keeps having her effective assistants transferred from her. Administering her position requires her to keep a constant eye on her support staff. Zeke, her newest assistant, is enduring yet another epileptic seizure. Triggers for epileptic seizure can be something as simple as a faulty electrical connection.

An envelope of old photographs found in the ceiling is a clue to the killer. They refer to a person named Skylark! Who is this unidentified Skylark? The hunt for the identity of Skylark takes many twists and turns. Meanwhile, Svetlana gets more irritated by her daughter’s lack of attention to her phone calls. Can the case against Andy Scott be fully investigated in spite of Ingrid’s distractions?

An entertaining novel that will keep you guessing at every turn. 4.5 stars – CE Williams

We received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author and publisher through NetGalley that in no way influenced this review. These are his honest opinions.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Women’s Detective Fiction, International Mystery & Crime, Espionage Thrillers
ASIN: B099NXP3NQ
Print Length: 375 pages
Publication Date: September 6, 2021
Source: Publisher and NetGalley
Title Link: Look Twice [Amazon]

The Author: Eva Hudson was born and grew up on a south London council estate. Before she started writing full time, she worked as a local government officer, singer, dotcom entrepreneur, portrait artist, project manager, graphic designer, web designer and content editor.

In 2011, her first novel – The Loyal Servant – won the inaugural Lucy Cavendish fiction prize from Cambridge University. She published the first of her chart-topping Ingrid Skyberg Thrillers in 2013 and never looked back.

ABOUT INGRID SKYBERG

One of the toughest Special Agents ever to come out of Quantico Ingrid Skyberg is tenacious, resourceful, virtually indestructible and just a tiny bit out of control. Assigned to the US embassy in London, Ingrid is on the case when an American citizen gets into trouble… or winds up dead… or is accused of a crime they didn’t commit. Whether she needs to wear combat fatigues or a cocktail dress, Ingrid Skyberg always gets the job done.

She’s a strong female protagonist, perfect for fans of action-packed thrillers with a twist.

[NOTE: Eva Hudson died in 2015 of cancer. Her books, this protagonist, this series is being continued by Jo Monroe. Please see her sweet, emotional testimonial at EVA HUDSON.]

The Final Days of Abbot Montrose: As Asbjorn Krag Mystery by Sven Elvestad aka Stein Riverton – #BookReview – #historicalthrillers

Before there was Nordic Noir, there was Sven Elvestad.

Book Blurb:

It is an evening in early May when the quiet of Montrose Abbey is shattered by the sounds of shouting and broken glass. When the police arrive, they find the abbey library ransacked and bloodstained. Broken furniture and a burning carpet bear witness to a violent struggle. And the abbot himself, the scholarly Abbot Montrose, is missing. Only a torn fragment of his cassock remains, caught in the wrought-iron fence surrounding the abbey.

The police, the press, and citizens of this northern city fear the worst. What could have befallen the missing abbot? Has he been murdered? Abducted?

As world-renowned Detective Asbjørn Krag and his partner, Detective Sirius Keller, begin to unravel the tangled knot of clues left behind, they find themselves in the city’s infamous Krydder District, “where the dark doorways are as close together as rat holes in an old warehouse.” The more answers they find, the more questions seem to pop up.

This well-constructed, evocative and witty mystery by Sven Elvestead, also known as Stein Riverton (for whom the Norwegian Riverton Prize was named), will keep you guessing until the very last page.

His Review:

Abbott Montrose is missing and there is blood in his residence. Officers 12 and 314 are first on the scene and suspect foul play. They had arrived at the residence very quickly after the whistled alert and saw someone running from the home. As they entered the living room they encountered many pieces of overturned or broken household furnishings and blood droplets on the floor. Money and other valuables are missing

Asbjorn Krag and Detective Keller are assigned to the case. Scraps of paper left that were clues to the possible perpetrator. One read of the payment of 30 kroner to a gardener for 6 days work, but the detectives immediately felt the gardener was not involved in the crime. A piece of the abbot’s vestment was found on the cast iron fence around his property and hinted to an apparent abduction.

The clues left at the crime scene led the two detectives to believe the thugs might be local. The investigation turned up more unsolved deaths and created various forks in the trail of investigation.

Confounding the investigation are clues that continue to preclude that the Abbot has indeed met his demise as he would have contacted his Bishop and others of his well being and whereabouts. A letter is found in the Abbots’ handwriting that affirms he is okay, but the letter is so crumpled and maltreated that the detectives are certain that he would not have treated a missive in this manner. Surely the Abbot wrote the letter under duress!

The detectives continue to suspect that the Abbot has met with foul play. Another unexplained death happens in the city and the resultant thinking is that indeed the Abbot has been injured or killed.

The detectives involved seem to have their case being solved on the backs of other murder victims. I began to question the ability of the two detectives to solve the crime or for that matter solve any crime! This is a slow burn Nordic Noir and the pace and apparent ineptitude of the detectives made it difficult to stay engaged. 3.5 stars – C.E. Williams

We received a complimentary review copy of this book through a request by the publisher that in no way influenced this review. These are his honest opinions.

Rosepoint Publishing: Three point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Historical Thrillers, International Mystery & Crime
Publisher: Kazabo Publishing
ASIN: B07GTGWMXK
Print Length: 214 pages
Publication Date: August 24, 2018
Source: Publisher
Title Link: The Final Days of Abbot Montrose [Amazon]
Barnes and Noble
Kobo

The Author: Sven Elvestad, aka Stein Riverton, was born in Fredrikshald, Norway, in 1884 and is the author of over 90 books. Jo Nesbø calls him “A great writer and the father of the Norwegian crime novel” and, even today, the Riverton Prize is awarded annually to the best Norwegian crime story. In addition to writing acclaimed mysteries, Sven Elvestad was one of the most famous Scandinavian journalists of the early 20th century. Well known for his exploits, he once spent an entire day locked in a lion’s cage and was the first foreign journalist to interview Hitler. –This text refers to the paperback edition.

[Goodreads] Sven Elvestad (1884 – 1934) was a Norwegian journalist and author. He is best known for his detective stories, which were published under the pen name Stein Riverton.

The Long Call: The Two Rivers Series Book 1 by Ann Cleeves – #Audiobook Review – Traditional Detective Mysteries

Book Blurb:

In North Devon, where two rivers converge and run into the sea, Detective Matthew Venn stands outside the church as his estranged father’s funeral takes place. On the day Matthew left the strict evangelical community he grew up in, he lost his family, too.

Now, as he turns and walks away again, he receives a call from one of his team. A body has been found on the beach nearby: a man with a tattoo of an albatross on his neck, stabbed to death.

The case calls Matthew back to the people and places of his past, as deadly secrets hidden at their hearts are revealed, and his new life is forced into a collision course with the world he thought he’d left behind.

My Review:

Book One of a new series by Ann Cleeves? Oh, yes. Count me in. As it happens, this was originally published as a digital release back in September, 2019. The audiobook was published just this April.

In The Long Call, the reader is introduced to Matthew Venn of the Devon Police. Venn is called out to investigate a body found on the beach at Crow Point.

It is a small village and all knew of the victim, but not actually who he was or his story. Cleeves dives us into the inhabitants, defining, describing the people and the possible relationship, if any, to the victim. The support characters are widely diverse.

During the course of the investigation, we learn more about Venn and his husband, Jonathan. Venn is surrounded by a magnetic group of colleagues, including his partner, DS Jen Rafferty, a dynamo with a chaotic private life and still manages to be extremely effective at her job. The villagers are not entirely onboard with his investigation nor particularly helpful.

It’s a smorgasbord of turmoil, well-developed characters, motives you can’t guess, and a perp who won’t peg as well. But it was a slow burn for me, and perhaps coming from an audiobook delivered in quiet monotone, tended to blur into the background. I had a little problem staying engaged and was only mildly surprised at the conclusion.

It’s sharply character-driven with immersive description into the local countryside. I previously read The Darkest Evening of the Vera Stanhope series and found it to sag somewhat in the middle as well although I may go back to that series as Vera is a “mature” but very competent DCI in Northumberland.

Book Details:

Genre: Traditional Detective Mysteries, International Mystery and Crime
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
ASIN: B091RYVYLK
Listening Length: 11 hrs, 36 mins
Narrator: Ben Aldridge
Publication Date: April 8, 2021
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: The Long Call [Amazon]

Rosepoint Publishing: Three point Five Stars

The Author: Ann is the author of the books behind ITV’s VERA, now in it’s third series, and the BBC’s SHETLAND, which will be aired in December 2012. Ann’s DI Vera Stanhope series of books is set in Northumberland and features the well loved detective along with her partner Joe Ashworth. Ann’s Shetland series bring us DI Jimmy Perez, investigating in the mysterious, dark, and beautiful Shetland Islands…

Ann grew up in the country, first in Herefordshire, then in North Devon. Her father was a village school teacher. After dropping out of university she took a number of temporary jobs – child care officer, women’s refuge leader, bird observatory cook, auxiliary coastguard – before going back to college and training to be a probation officer.

While she was cooking in the Bird Observatory on Fair Isle, she met her husband Tim, a visiting ornithologist. She was attracted less by the ornithology than the bottle of malt whisky she saw in his rucksack when she showed him his room. Soon after they married, Tim was appointed as warden of Hilbre, a tiny tidal island nature reserve in the Dee Estuary. They were the only residents, there was no mains electricity or water and access to the mainland was at low tide across the shore. If a person’s not heavily into birds – and Ann isn’t – there’s not much to do on Hilbre and that was when she started writing. Her first series of crime novels features the elderly naturalist, George Palmer-Jones. A couple of these books are seriously dreadful.

In 1987 Tim, Ann and their two daughters moved to Northumberland and the north east provides the inspiration for many of her subsequent titles. The girls have both taken up with Geordie lads. In the autumn of 2006, Ann and Tim finally achieved their ambition of moving back to the North East.

For the National Year of Reading, Ann was made reader-in-residence for three library authorities. It came as a revelation that it was possible to get paid for talking to readers about books! She went on to set up reading groups in prisons as part of the Inside Books project, became Cheltenham Literature Festival’s first reader-in-residence and still enjoys working with libraries.

Ann Cleeves on stage at the Duncan Lawrie Dagger awards ceremony

Ann’s short film for Border TV, Catching Birds, won a Royal Television Society Award. She has twice been short listed for a CWA Dagger Award – once for her short story The Plater, and the following year for the Dagger in the Library award.

In 2006 Ann Cleeves was the first winner of the prestigious Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award of the Crime Writers’ Association for Raven Black, the first volume of her Shetland Quartet. The Duncan Lawrie Dagger replaces the CWA’s Gold Dagger award, and the winner receives £20,000, making it the world’s largest award for crime fiction.

Ann’s success was announced at the 2006 Dagger Awards ceremony at the Waldorf Hilton, in London’s Aldwych, on Thursday 29 June 2006. She said: “I have never won anything before in my life, so it was a complete shock – but lovely of course.. The evening was relatively relaxing because I’d lost my voice and knew that even if the unexpected happened there was physically no way I could utter a word. So I wouldn’t have to give a speech. My editor was deputed to do it!”

The judging panel consisted of Geoff Bradley (non-voting Chair), Lyn Brown MP (a committee member on the London Libraries service), Frances Gray (an academic who writes about and teaches courses on modern crime fiction), Heather O’Donoghue (academic, linguist, crime fiction reviewer for The Times Literary Supplement, and keen reader of all crime fiction) and Barry Forshaw (reviewer and editor of Crime Time magazine).

Ann’s books have been translated into sixteen languages. She’s a bestseller in Scandinavia and Germany. Her novels sell widely and to critical acclaim in the United States. Raven Black was shortlisted for the Martin Beck award for best translated crime novel in Sweden in 200.

Bio and photo from Goodreads.

The Narrator: Ben Aldridge

Ben Aldridge (actor) – Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Ben_Aldridge_(actor)

Benjamin Charles Aldridge (born 12 November 1985) is an English actor. … He is best known for is portrayal of Thomas Wayne in the crime drama series Pennyworth…