KindlePrintReviews

The Moai Island Puzzle

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Written by Alice Arisugawa, translated by Ho-Ling Wong — Golden Age mysteries are formulaic and, far from being a flaw, it’s a major part of their appeal. The stories follow patterns, and the reward for readers is not in being tricked by a new and…
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Book Club

The Scrivener

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In Robin Blake’s third Cragg and Fidelis novel, the pair are investigating a locked-room mystery. Yes, it’s the middle of the 18th century and pawnbroker Philip Plimbo has been shot dead, apparently inside his locked office. Cragg thinks he took his own life, but Fidelis disagrees. As…
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The Scrivener by Robin Blake

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Having worked as a teacher for many years, Robin Blake became a full-time writer in 1986, publishing works of fiction and non-fiction. Most notably, he is an art historian who has written about Anthony Van Dyck and George Stubbs. However, in the 1990s, Blake made…
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KindlePrintReviews

Hard Cheese by Ulf Durling

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Translated by Bertil Falk — Män som hatar kvinnor (Men who hate women) became The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Polis, polis, potatismos! (Police, police, potatoes) became Murder at the Savoy, the sixth novel in Sjöwall and Wahlöö’s Martin Beck series. In a similar way, Gammal ost (Old Cheese)…
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Book Club

Snowblind

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Our thirst for Scandinavian gloom, death and despair remains unquenched. Ragnar Jónasson takes us to the bleak and suitably isolated town of Siglufjörđur, about as far north-west as it is possible to go in Iceland without falling into the icy waters of the Denmark Strait….
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Snowblind by Ragnar Jónasson

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Translated by Quentin Bates — What expectations do you find yourself harbouring when you pick up a Scandinavian crime novel? Nordic noir is the term that comes to mind. Cold, dark winters, sombre landscapes, a lonely male detective and a plot throbbing with despair and…
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