Iceland, Moscow, and New York

I was in Iceland for a few days during the summer of 2005. The little hotel we stayed at was right around the corner from this important Reykjavik church (to the left). Somewhere on the internet I found a suggestion that Arnaldur Indridason was well worth reading - the stories in his books are placed in the Icelandic city. So when making an excursion to the English bookshop I found a paperback by said author "Silence of the Grave". I did indeed enjoy the book, but it is not easy to get ahold of others - so the next book will be read in translation to Swedish. Thank goodness for our local libraries.
The Moscow connection is also a product of the library. I had to find somewhere to return my used lightbulbs (you are not supposed to put them in the garbage). So I bicycled to the neared recycling center and placed my small offering of 5 light bulbs in the large bin. Since I was in the neighborhood I went to the branch library and found a book by Shamim Sarif a young author from South Africa. The novel, her 2nd, is called "Despite the Falling Snow" (from a poem by Robert Graves). It bounces back between Moscow in the 50ties and Boston in the present. As one of the characters in the book says - there are only a few plots (this one is a love lost and love found story) but what makes them interesting are the characters. This is the case with this little pearl of a book.
New York is the scene of at least part of the new Harlan Coben book, "Promise Me". Ever since I happened to read one of Coben's stand alones - that lead me to the Myron Bolitar series I have been a fan. This book is the comeback of said Bolitar after a 6 year hiatus. Not quite as funny as some of the earlier ones, but I really enjoyed reading it. An interesting aside: Bolitar had a pro basketball career cut very short when his knee was ruined, another long running series hero - Butch Karp of the Tanenbaum series - also lost his bid for NBA fame when his knee was blown out. This book was also courtesy of my local library (Andrew Carnegie comes to mind).
The other New York connection is Brooklyn and does not have to do with a book. I went to the movies yesterday evening and saw "The Squid and the Whale". It was billed as a drama/comedy and was as such. But it was kind of depressing, people do find so many ways to mess up their lives. The time period was middle 1980ties, which is starting to feel like a very long time ago. One thing I really enjoyed was the soundtrack - music by Pink Floyd, among others.

Two old and one new

I couldn't resist buying Laurie R. King's new Kate Martinelli book - "The Art of Detection". Both Sherlock Holmes and the Marin Headlands' military fortifications across the Golden Gate from SF play important roles in this delightful book. The story within the story is well worth the read. Otherwise Kate's life has been updated and continues on a positive note, not as dark as the earlier books.
The second old series is the lateste Lincoln Rhyme/Amelia Sachs by Jeffery Deaver - "The Cold Moon". Thanks to my favorite internet book store I can often get relatively new releases at really discount prices, I'm not sure how they do it - but it is great for me. This latest Rhyme/Sachs was, as always, fun to read; but it was not one of the better. Although I enjoy the characters in this series, I think that Deaver actually does a better job at suspense in his stand-alone books - "The Devil's Teardrop", for instance.
The new series is Conn Iggulden's Emperor series about Julius Caesar. I have read the first book and am on the second. It is interesting to read these books and compare with Colleen McCullough's very long and very enjoyable Maters of Rome series. The other opportunity for comparison is the HBO series "Rome", which is being sent on Swedish TV this summer.

Another name and another series

Another name is Barbara Vine, who everyone knows is Ruth Rendell, wrote a book with a Scandinavian connection (Denmark) in 1993. "Asta's book" was a wonderful read. Barbara Vine's latest book "The Minotaur" has a Swedish main character , a young woman named Kerstin, who tells the story. The title is because there is a maze involved (although not particularly mysterious or threatening) and the minotaur on Crete lived in a labyrinth. A psychological condition adds interest - autism (more specifically Asperger syndrome)
Today just about everyone knows what autism is, at the time when the main portion of the book takes place (late 60's) there was little or no general knowledge about the condition. Today the disorder arouses interest and is not a "shameful" thing to be hidden. Caring for someone with autism is, however, today as earlier a daunting task. Like many of Vine's books the story itself is of less interest than the characters that emerge from the pages of the book.
Another series is a Cork O'Connor mystery by William Kent Krueger ("Mercy Falls"). More wilderness stuff and an amazingly lot of blood and murder for a tiny town in northern Minnesota. What was a bit irritating is that the novel ends with the set up for the next in the series - so the resolution comes in the book that won't be out in paperback for at least another year. But I guess by then it will be time to read the whole series again.
Another series (2) is the latest outing of Nina Reilly "Case of Lies" by the sister duo Perri O'Shaughnessy. According to the sisters' website there may be somewhat of a wait for the next Nina Reilly book, they are publishing a stand-alone later this year. Nina Rielly seems to be the same kind of murder magnet as Cork O'Connor, at least five murders in this last book. I guess Lake Tahoe is no safer than Aurora, Minnesota. An interesting side plot, for those of us with a rudimentary interest in mathematics anyway, is a lot of information on prime number theory. Also some Pythagoras thrown in for good measure

Bounties of different kinds

The first Bounty to be discussed it the ship seen at the right - the site of the famous mutiny. The story, which I originally read in the book by Nordhoff & Hall, has facinated many. (There is a trilogy telling what happened afterwords by the same authors). Movies, books, and lots on the www are available about the mutiny . Perhaps one of the most interesting characters was Fletcher Christian (who has been played by box office draws like Clark Gable, Marlon Brando, Mel Gibson). Well, although it is most likely that Fletcher was killed on Pitcairn Island, there is a legend that has him returning to England and visiting his childhood friend William Wordsworth. Val MacDermid in her latest book "The Grave Tatto" has used the legend as a jumping off place for another very entertaining book. Thanks to my local library I could read it in hardback!
The bounty of a different kind is the 17th Butch Karp/Marlene Ciampi book . "Fury" by Robert K. Tanenbaum contains the usuals: Tran, Ray Guma, VT Newbury as well as major roles played by the Karp kids. Lucy and Marlene picked up an Indian and a cowboy during their sojourn in New Mexico. The word is that many of the novels were ghostwritten by Michael Gruber, but it doesn't really matter who wrote them if you like a funny and interesting escape with hardly believable characters and plots.