Sunday 20 February 2011

Book Review: Echoes from the Dead - Johan Theorin

This is the first novel I've been sent as part of the Transworld Crime Caper.  I'm a big fan of Nordic crime, so this was a good choice for me.
 
The island of Oland off the south eastern coast of Sweden is the setting for this mystery. Twenty years ago a child goes missing, his body is never found. His mother now lives on the mainland, but his grandfather a retired sea captain still lives on the island. When the little boys shoe is posted to the old man, questions and answers seem destined to be asked

This novel won the CWA Best First Crime Novel of 2009 and is well deserved. The little boy goes missing in the fog, and it is this bleakness that permeates through the book. The plot twists and turns allow the story to move at a good pace, with several shock developments.  The characters were well rounded and showed that all of them had secrets, some more important to keep to themselves than others.

I thoroughly recommend this novel. It's well written, has a good storyline and kept me guessing right to the end. I will certainly be looking for the authors next book.


Thursday 17 February 2011

I'm an accessory in The Great Transworld Crime Caper

Imagine my delight when I came across the following post on Transworld books blog:



One thing we really know how to do in Transworld Towers is crime, be it spooky Scandinavian, grizzly moorland or armchair killers we publish crime that grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let you go!
Thanks to the success of all who took part in the Summer Reading Challenge we have decided to repeat our crimes and launch The Great Transworld Crime Caper, an opportunity to go back to the beginning and revisit the scene of the original crimes that launched our most experienced villains.
We want you to be the judge, jury and executioner of the titles listed below.
We will have a two week registration period ending the 14th February, Valentine’s Day which will make us repent our sins and feel the love! Pick three books from the list below to read and review on a venue of your choice (Amazon, blog, etc) The challenge will finish on the 31st March whereby we will dust for fingerprints, weigh up our case and post up some of the best (or worst) reviews that we’ve had in.
For more information see here:  http://www.between-the-lines.co.uk/?p=260

Chose three titles from the books below:
1. Full Dark House by Christopher Fowler
2. Sacrifice by S. J. Bolton
3. Blacklands by Belinda Bauer
4. Birdman by Mo Hayder
5. The Chemistry of Death by Simon Beckett
6. Past Caring by Robert Goddard
7. Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin
8. Echoes from the Dead by Johan Theorin
9. The Surgeon by Tess Gerritsen
10. If I Never See You Again by Niamh O’Connor
11. The Accident Man by Tom Cain
12. The Business of Dying Simon Kernick
Enjoy your stretch in the clink!

I decided to choose the following three to review:
Echoes from the Dead by Johan Theorin
The Chemistry of Death by Simon Beckett
Sacrifice by S. J. Bolton

I have nearly finished reading Echoes from the Dead by Johan Theorin, and am thoroughly enjoying it. A review will of course be here soon.  Narrowing it down to a choice of three involved several glances at Amazon to decide which to pick, and I know that I'll be keeping an eye out at the library for others from the list which I fancy.

Monday 14 February 2011

Why?

So, this is my first ever blog post.  I'm not usually one to follow the crowd, preferring more to make my own decisions whether to "do" something or not. However blogging seems to be the in thing at the moment, and I currently have a lot of ideas going round in my mind. Therefore being of the opinion that ideas are best written down, mostly as I tend to forget them otherwise, I have decided to record them here.
I know a lot about a little, or a little about a lot, so my posts will be rambling, and random.


We shall have to see how it goes.