Fiction
In reply to the discussion: What are you reading the week of Sunday, October 19, 2014? [View all]scarletwoman
(31,893 posts)As I mentioned last week, this is Ingolfsson's third book - I had already read his fourth book and then realized I hadn't read #3. It's okay, so far, but still rather disappointing after his first two books, which were both very unique and original stand-alones. Both books 3 & 4 are basically just standard modern day police procedurals with recurring characters. I wish he'd give up on that genre and go back to the kind of historical storytelling he did in The Flatey Enigma and House of Evidence (books 1 & 2) which were very specific to Iceland and truly fascinating. I would heartily recommend both of his two first books, and just forget about the two newer ones. As police procedurals, they just simply aren't that intresting or uniquely Icelandic, and could take place anywhere.
But of course, for Icelandic authors I'm totally spoiled by the fabulous writing of Arnaldur Indriðason and his Erlendur books. I'm still haunted by his last book, Strange Shores even two weeks after I finished reading it twice. (Please do NOT read it if you haven't read the rest of the series!) Ingolfsson's new police characters are simply flat and one-dimensional compared to Erlendur and his colleagues, who come off the page as real living, breathing people. I mean, I've been madly in love with Erlendur and have cared about him deeply through all 10 books of the series. Ingolfsson's Birkir and Gunnar are simply mildly clever plot devices and totally pale in comparison. Sorry, Viktor!
Last week I finished my re-read of the first two books of Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö's Martin Beck series, Rosanna and The Man Who Went Up In Smoke. There are ten Martin Beck books altogether, all written between 1965 - 1975. Per Wahlöö died in 1975 after finishing the final book of the ten. I read all ten a few years ago and decided to re-visit them and ordered the whole batch from the library. Eight have come in so far - I'm missing #3 (dammit!) and #8.
After I finish Daybreak, and while I'm waiting for Martin Beck #3, I'll be working my way through the other newer titles I've got on hand: Henning Mankell's newest entry in his Kurt Wallander series (Sweden) An Event in Autumn - a prequel that visits Wallander at an earlier time in his career. As with Erlendur in Strange Shores, Wallander had metaphorically ridden off into the sunset in Mankell's 2011 The Troubled Man. And as with Mankell's Wallander series, Indriðason has brought out an Erlendur prequel set in 1974 in his newest book, Reykjavik Nights. I haven't ordered the new Indriðason yet, since I'm pretty well-stocked with reading material at this time (ya think!). And I've wanted to hold off while I continue to emotionally process Strange Shores. (yeah, I know, I'm kinda freaky about that book...)
Interesting side note about Mankell and his Wallander character, Mankell openly credits Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö's Martin Beck series for his inspiration, and a reader of both series will notice a great number of similarities between Wallander and Beck. Not only that, but even a couple of the Wallander books have plots that are very much parallel to a couple of the Martin Beck plots. It's fascinating delving into this stuff.
I don't just read these books - I get involved!
Anyway, I've got the two newest Michael Ridpath books, Meltwater and Sea of Stone on hand to read, also. (Wheew! I'll have to quit my job to catch up on all this reading!) These are #3 and #4 in Ridpath's "Fire and Ice" series set in Iceland. Ridpath is a Brit, but he does okay by Iceland, imo, and I enjoyed the first two books of this series. He's no Indriðason of course - nobody is! - but he does a very nice job of describing the Icelandic landscape, his plots are interesting, and his lead protagonist has enough life and depth to him for a reader to care about him.
Meanwhile, somewhere out there Tana French's latest book, The Secret Place, as well as Camilla Läckberg's latest, Buried Angels, are slowly wending their way through the library system to my local library, and I'm looking forward to reading those. I've already read all of French's and Läckberg's books up to these newest titles.
Like I say, I'm going to have to quit my job...
Edit history
Recommendations
0 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):