Tenebrae criminibus

Five titles which reveal the emphasis I have placed on choosing crime reading.  When my life is taken up with a rolling programme of visitors and visiting, with all the supporting fielding activities that such a life entails, in order not to lose my personal plot, crime and detective novels which necessitate sustained reading sessions where the urge to page-turn is strong are welcome opportunities to switch off from all the practicalities of life and relax with an engaging read.  And, often,  to fall asleep...........

Let's start in the frozen North.  Snowblind (Dark Iceland Series) by Ragnar Jonasson is set in Siglufjorour: an idyllically quiet fishing village in Northern Iceland, accessible only via a small mountain tunnel, is where no one locks their doors. Snowblind is an impressive debut from a new talent.

Enter Ari Thor Arason: a rookie policeman on his first posting, far from his girlfriend in Reykjavik - with a past that he's unable to leave behind. When a young woman is found lying half-naked in the snow, bleeding and unconscious, and a highly esteemed, elderly writer falls to his death in the local theatre, Ari is dragged straight into the heart of a community where he can trust no one, and secrets and lies are a way of life. An avalanche and unremitting snowstorms close the mountain pass, and the 24-hour darkness threatens to push Ari over the edge, as curtains begin to twitch, and his investigation becomes increasingly complex, chilling and personal. Past plays tag with the present and the claustrophobic tension mounts, while Ari is thrust ever deeper into his own darkness - blinded by snow, and with a killer on the loose. Taut and gripping,

I listened to Snowblind on Audible and it was read by an Icelandic actor, Thor Kristjansson.  Whilst using a native affords verisimilitude to a reading of the novel, I found the heavy Icelandic accent often distorted the pronunciation of the English translation and was a distraction to concentration.

In contrast I read Arctic Chill (Reykjavik Murder Mysteries) by Arnaldur Indridason in hard copy.  A dark-skinned young boy is found dead, frozen to the ground in a pool of his own blood.

The boy's Thai half-brother is missing; is he implicated, or simply afraid for his own life? While fears increase that the murder could have been racially motivated, the police receive reports that a suspected paedophile has been spotted in the area.  Detective Erlendur's investigation soon unearths the tension simmering beneath the surface of Iceland's outwardly liberal, multi-cultural society while the murder forces Erlendur to confront the tragedy in his own past. 

Racial tension was to me a surprising theme to crop up in an Icelandic crime novel.  Preoccupied, as we are in the UK, with the extreme racism as well as xenophobia which has manifested since the result of the EU referendum, and aware these are issues that prevail in our immediate European neighbours such as France, I had not expected that this sociopolitical problem had extended its nasty tendrils as far as an apparently tolerant and liberal nation such as Iceland.

Freeze Frame (The Enzo Files) by Peter May implies another novel set in the chilly North.  In fact, the setting for this novel in the Enzo Macleod series is a small island off the Breton coast.  A promise made to a dying man leads Enzo Macleod, a Scot forensic expert who's been teaching in France for many years, to the study which the man's heir has preserved for nearly twenty years.

The dead man left several clues for his son there, designed to reveal the killer's identity but ironically the son died soon after the father. This opens the fourth of seven cold cases which have been written up in a bestselling book by Parisian journalist Roger Raffin.  Enzo has rashly boasted that he could solve these cold cases and he has been successful with the first three.

On the tiny Breton island Enzo must confront the hostility of locals who have no desire to see the infamous murder back in the headlines. There are possible suspects and the crime scene is frozen in time.  A dangerous hell hole (Trou d'Enfer) up on the cliffs and a collection of enigmatic messages as clues, add to the gripping narrative.  There are red herrings along the way, the solution is satisfying and it makes for an enjoyable read.  .

Mo Hayder can always be expected to grip her reader and turn out a crime thriller which breaks out of the traditional mould of plotting. As a crime writer she is fast-paced and addictive; Hanging Hill centres around a pair of estranged sisters—one a cop, one a coddled wife fallen on hard times—and the gruesome homicide of a teenage beauty, which exposes the nightmares that lurk at the edges of our safe domestic lives.

One morning in picture-perfect Bath, England, a teenage girl’s body is found on the towpath of a canal. Hanging Hill is a much better than average thriller with a masterful twist in the ending.  Always a bonus.

Why was she on the towpath alone late at night? Zoe Benedict—Harley-riding police detective, independent to a fault—is convinced the department head needs to look beyond the usual domestic motives to solve the case, but no one wants to hear it. Meanwhile, Zoe’s sister, Sally—recently divorced and in dire financial straits, supporting a daughter who was friends with the dead girl—has begun working as a housekeeper for a rich entrepreneur who seems less eccentric and more repugnant, and possibly dangerous. When Zoe’s investigation turns up evidence that the teenage girl's attempts to break into modeling had delivered her into the world of webcam girls and amateur porn, a crippling secret from Zoe’s emerges.  All roads seem to be leading to one conclusion: there’s something very wrong at the house on Hanging Hill. But will Zoe and Sally put their differences aside and fit all the pieces together before it’s too late?

Often one saves the best till last.  Not in this case though.  I was given a copy of Silken Prey (John Sandford) by an American friend who found he had two copies.

  All hell has broken loose in the Washington. An influential state senator has been caught with something very, very nasty on his office computer. The governor find this incredible.  In his view the senator is too smart to be caught out like that. It does not make sense.  As Davenport investigates, the trail leads to a political fixer who has disappeared, then—troublingly—to the Minneapolis police department itself, and most unsettling of all, to a woman who could give Machiavelli lessons in manipulation. She has very definite ideas about the way the world should work—along with the money, ruthlessness, and cold-blooded will to make it happen.

This is one in the Lucas Davenport series and the author is talked up as a writer with "trademark razor-sharp plotting and some of the best characters in suspense fiction."  I didn't find that a convincing opinion.  There are more than twenty titles in the 'Prey' series but I am not tempted to tackle another.