The Swedish book blogosphere is going to be a very lonely – or at least singular-minded – place for the upcoming few days, as everyone is headed for the Gothenburg book fair. Everyone, it seems, but me. I could be moping in bed with a pint of Häagendasz and a particularly blood curdling crime novel (I have two words for you: S.J. Bolton!) but instead I thought I'd give all you lucky people who are in fact going some pointers in terms of book shopping. Here's a list of the books you mustn't miss at the book fair. As it happens, all of them will be for sale in the English Bookshop's temporary Gothenburg home!
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Trust Your Eyes (Linwood Barclay) Few, if any, fans of Linwood Barclay will be disappointed by his latest effort, where a schizophrenic young man, obsessed with maps, witnesses a murder on a Google Earth style site, in the process untangling an intricate web of lies, violence, and, as the late Steve Irwin would put it, danger, danger, danger. Make sure you keep your wits about you all the way to the very final page - there is a massive twist in the last few paragraphs! Gotta love the Barclay twist. Another winner. |
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The Daylight Gate (Jeanette Winterson) Tense, pitch-black, unflinchingly brutal and exquisitely written, Winterson's take on the early 17th century witch trials in Lancashire is part pure horror, part historical novel, part unorthodox love story. Brilliance is a given. Read a longer review (in Swedish) at my regular blog Dark Places: https://helenadahlgren.wordpress.com/2012/09/24/the-daylight-gate-jeanet... |
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The Mystery of Mercy Close (Marian Keyes) Granted, Keyes has been a bit off her game lately, but this brand new release features my favourite of the Walsh sisters, Helen, and has received great early reviews. Here's to hoping...! |
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Water Witch (Carol Goodman) Goodman, previously known for her elegant literary thriller, returns with the second instalment of the Fairwick Chronicles. It is urban fantasy at its finest, with heaps of references to literature, academia, and pop culture to boot. Also? The sex is MUCH better than in those tedious Fifty Shades books. If you love the True Blood series as much as you adore old school Gothic novels and a nice academic setting (akaporr in Swedish), do make sure to read the Fairwick Chronicles! The first book in the series is called Incubus. |
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How To Be a Woman (Caitlin Moran) If you have yet to experience the laugh-out-loud genius that is Caitlin Moran - what are you waiting for?! |
Finally, two books I haven't read yet but definitely would buy if I were at the book fair: Zadie Smith's NW and Paul Auster's Winter Journal. Say hi to Zadie and Paul for me, will you? (You lucky, lucky people!) My relationship with Auster has been a bit rocky lately (his portrayal of women and female sexuality has been rather barf-worthy in recent novels, I'm afraid - it pains me to say it, but there you go), but the excerpt I read from Winter Journal in Granta was very promising indeed. It also seems to me that Auster is on top of his game when he is writing from an autobiographical point of view (The Invention of Solitude). As for Smith, I think she is getting better with each book, which speaks volumes of her talent.
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While growing up in West Belfast, Sean does everything he’s supposed to do. He works hard, he studies, and he – mostly – stays out of trouble. The thirty-year conflict is over, he’s told, and his future is lit with promise. But when Sean returns home from university, he finds much of the same – the same friends doing the same gear in the same clubs, the same fathers and brothers missing… One night, he assaults a stranger at a party, and everything begins to come undone.
Close to Home begins with this sudden act of violence and expands into a startling portrait of working-class Ireland under the long shadow of the Troubles. // Discuss in the Fiction reading group //
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How to put a positive spin on a murder mystery... What happens when a ghostwriter for the rich and famous lands the ultimate gig: writing the memoir of a disgraced presidential candidate? Our witty, nosy narrator arrives at a secluded estate to meet Dorothy Gibson, the fallen political star everyone’s talking about. But when a neighbor turns up dead, the ghostwriter finds herself in the middle of a murder mystery she never saw coming. Add in a secret investigation, a suspiciously handsome man, and a plot twist no one expected – and suddenly, the story she’s writing becomes her own.
Perfect for fans of Knives Out and Agatha Christie, this clever, twisty mystery is full of surprises. // Discuss in the Crime reading group in Göteborg //
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