Finally, I've managed to accumulate some books, some crime and thriller books to discuss here, it took me long enough... Enjoy these reviews, and don't forget that the world's very best crime fiction bookshop, Hammett Berlin, is turning 30 years old in the first week of June and we are celebrating throughout the whole week with games, food, non-alcoholic drinks, reinforced presence (I'll be there on Monday, Thursday and Saturday afternoons) in the shop and a raffle in which you can win dapper new books which the publishing houses gave us for free to give away to you! It will be fun, mark your calendar; June 2 - 7, at Hammett! Now, off to the reviews.
The Hitchcock Hotel by Stephanie Wrobel
Alfred Smettle made his lifelong dream come true when he bought a building in the middle of nowhere to turn it into a themed hotel, named for his namesake and biggest idol - Alfred Hitchcock, with crows and a hotel cinema playing his movies 24/7 and a bird room and other references to the suspense master's work.
Another lifelong dream of his is revenge. Because a wrong has been done to him in the past, and it's finally time for him to tie loose ends. He and his loyal assistant Danny immaculately plan and prepare a weekend getaway for five of his (formerly) closest college friends, cold revenge included.
Listen, the setting, the idea, (I mean, a fricking Hitchcock themed hotel? Yes, please, get me there now!), a locked room murder, all the little references and hints to big H, the voyeurism, the glass of milk on the table - all of this is great. I even felt kind of protective of the main character and was ready to turn a blind eye on his shortcomings. But the way this case turns out, the resolution, the very hate-able guests for the weekend, and that ending... were just nope. I would still give it a chance if I were you, because of all the plus points I mentioned.
Kill Your Darlings by Peter Swanson
Say what you want about Peter Swanson, you have to admit that he's a writer who knows how to capture the attention of his readers. I haven't read anything by him that is not insanely compulsively readable - not a single slog, not even a chapter that drags. And that's the case in Kill Your Darlings too.
We follow Thom and Wendy Graves and their marriage which seems to be kept together by a certain secret event in their past, and in a backwards puzzle way we move from today backwards in time towards the beginnings of their union, to find out how these two people who don't really even like each other that much, ended up in a marriage.
As I said above, it is very captivating and breathlessly readable, but it's not the strongest Swanson of them all (that one is The Kind Worth Killing).
Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers (Vera Wong #1) by Jesse Q. Sutanto
Every now and then comes a smart, sassy, fun, but also deep, truly remarkable character into the murder mystery world, and here we have her, Vera Wong! Sixty-year-old tea shop owner, mother to an ungrateful young man who neglects her, matchmaker, and recently detective.
When one morning she wakes up and finds a dead man in the middle of her shop, she starts asking the questions the police should, but doesn't, plus, there's all sorts of new people coming into her shop, and that's all very suspicious. She decides it’s a murder, she just needs to find who did it. And who it is, will surprise you.
Vera felt like a hot cup of oolong tea for my soul: she's funny, she's quick-witted, she's heart-warming. If you ever feel like a cozy, sweet murder mystery, I'd say go for this one, I will definitely go for further installments.
Easy Motion Tourist by Leye Adenle
And now for something completely different (than cozy tea shops); Easy Motion Tourist, wow!
If you're up for a walk in the colorful, chaotic, brutal underground of Lagos, where crime and corruption rule big time, where women either get raped or become prostitutes, and where you can't trust anyone, then you should read this book. Guy Collins, a British small journalist stumbles into this seedy world when he witnesses a woman being mutilated in front of a club and is detained by the police as a suspect. He is rescued by Amaka, who works to help women in this milieu, and he develops a crush for her, and the two of them will unveil an organ trade ring.
However the people behind this ring are part of a much bigger and powerful group than they could have imagined initially...
I am, right now, reading another book set in Nigeria (review incoming), and during the most recent Fantasy Filmfest past weekend I watched the first Nollywood horror film ever (The Weekend) which was baller! So everything is Nigeria right now, and the setting was super vibrant and dynamic, although the characters were quite flat, and the mystery somewhat stereotypical, the book structure predictable. Despite all these flaws, it was imperfect in a very entertaining way, and I've finished it in no time.
Yırtıcı Kuşlar Zamanı by Ahmet Ümit
A book which will probably not have any English translations, but hopefully a German release soon, since the star crime writer of Türkiye, Ahmet Ümit, is an established name within the German crime readers scene too.
In his usual style, Ümit explores the corruptible nature of government institutions, the deep state and unsolved murders within the police department when he turns his focus on his established investigator, Komiser Nevzat, who is at the center of a cold case he was investigating at the time his wife and daughter were killed in a bomb attack. Today too, he and his loved ones are in danger.
The case at the heart of this book is a very gnarled, complex one which reflects the complex political reality in Türkiye and if you can look passed a couple of cardboard characters without depth and credibility (I'm looking at you Evgenia whose sole purpose in life is to serve her man), it is a satisfying crime experience, written in beautiful prose, as we're used to read from Ümit's pen.
The City & The City by China Miéville
From all of Miéville's fiction books, I never would have thought that I would re-read this one, the most unsubtle of his works, but here we are. The reason of my re-read is, unsurprisingly, The Shine&Shadow group, which voted for it to be the next dark read, and it occurred to me that The City&The City is in fact a police procedural, it's just set in a fictional universe. A fictional universe which still is real enough for his message to hit hard - We are in Besźel and its twin city Ul Qoma, whose inhabitants have the ability to "unsee" each other for them to be able to live in the same place. So these two populations live side by side completely ignoring the other, until one day Inspector Tyador Borlú needs to investigate the murder of a student involved in the underground political movement, which leads him to Ul Qoma and from where things result in an examination of the legend of Orciny, a rumored third city existing between the two cities.
There are so many interesting things going on here, born from the interesting mind of China Miéville, such as the careful construction of linguistic nuances reflecting his universe's political and economic conditions, or the introduction of a legislative novum in the shape of something called "Breach", which stands for the act of going against the unseeing as well as the institution controlling that. Miéville has always interesting food for thought to offer but in The City&The City maybe even a little more than usual because of its verisimilitude.
I'm not sure if and which city or cities he based his universe on, there's talk about Jerusalem or Kosovo, and the Beszél part really really reminded me of Hungary, but I can't really say for sure. The "unseeing" part, on the other hand, is possibly something we ourselves do on a daily basis, it doesn't have to be due to an ethnic or religious difference, we do it with homeless people frequently enough whom we ruthlessly ignore.
The concept is possibly not new either, as, for instance Jack Vance wrote already in the 50's his short story "Ulan Dhor" which is about a city in which two sorts of people live, the ones only wearing red and the others only green, who can't see each other due to a magic spell, when our protagonist Ulan arrives with his green and red attire. And if we widen the concept to parallel worlds co-existing, I'm sure there would be thousands of other stories, of which I can't think of any right now from the top of my head.
The City&The City has a theater production and a BBC broadcast too, just in case you want to see/hear/read the story through different media.
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