I read four books in March:
The Age of Doubt by Andrea Camilleri
Ratlines by Stuart Neville
Murder One by Robert Dugoni
and my pick of the month, The Ghost Riders of Ordebec by Fred Vargas.
I was impressed by Robert Dugoni’s Murder One as I find the American legal system endlessly fascinating. I spent too much time in my youth watching Perry Mason.
But the inventiveness of her plots and the brilliant quirkiness of her characters make every novel written by Fred Vargas a joy to read.
Veteran Italian crime writer Andrea Camilleri won the 2012 CWA International Dagger with his 13th book to be translated in English by Stephen Sartarelli, The 
Potter’s Field. His 14th book The Age of Doubt is another fine addition to this addictive series.
Only Camilleri could begin a novel with Salvo Montalbano dreaming he is dead and with the detective attending his own funeral. When Montalbano awakes he drives to Vigata in the pouring rain, but is held up by a line of traffic as the road has been swept away by the sea. He approaches the first car which is hanging over the chasm and encourages the young woman driver to leave her vehicle and come back to his house. The young woman introduces herself as Vanna Diguglio and says she was going to the harbour to meet her aunt Livia’s yacht named the Vanna. Montalbano learns that the Vanna is bringing in a corpse they have found floating in a dingy just outside the mouth of the harbour. The dead man’s face has been deliberately disfigured, and when Montalbano realises the glamourous yacht owner Livia Giovannini is very surprised to learn she has a niece he knows this case is going to test his abilities to the full.
This novel contains most of the ingredients that have made this series such a success. There is social commentary as the reader learns about Italy’s not so gentle treatment of immigrants; and we are invited to enjoy Catarella’s malapropisms, Montalbano’s appetite for food, Mimi Augello’s amorous talents, and Fazio’s solid police-work. The ageing Montalbano falls head over heels in love with the aptly named Lieutenant Laura Belladonna, while discovering the identity of the disfigured corpse, and eventually the mysterious niece.
The lieutenant not only lived up to her surname, she exceeded it. She wasn’t just beautiful; she was knockout. For a brief moment, Montalbano was speechless. She was a good six inches taller than him, dark, with bright sparkling eyes, red lips in no need of lipstick, and above all, a very pleasant manner.
‘I’m entirely at your disposal,’ she said.
I wish! thought the inspector.
Why didn’t I enjoy this novel quite as much as some of the previous Montalbano books? I should say this is relative because this series is always a good read. Firstly I watched the TV version on BBC4 before I read the book, and therefore I knew the detail of the plot. I do prefer to read a book first and then watch the TV or movie version. It should not make any real difference but I enjoy seeing if the film follows the book.
But also Montalbano’s attitude to his superiors is usually amusing, unfortunately in this book the lies he tells the well meaning Dr Lattes are in poor taste and frankly not worthy of the honest policeman we have grown to admire. That won’t stop me going on to read The Dance of the Seagull which sits expectantly on my book shelf.
He started with a seafood antipasto. Since the nunnati were crispy as can be, he ordered a second side dish of them. He continued with a generous helping of spaghetti in squid ink. And he ended with a double portion of mullet and striped sea bream.
You can see my favourite Euro Crime books of 2012 here at Karen’s encyclopaedic resource. 
My discovery of the year was the Norwegian crime writer Anne Holt, and I recently finished the second book in her Hanne Wilhelmsen series Blessed Are Those Who Thirst and that must be a strong contender for the 2013 International Dagger [review soon]. All the five writers I enjoyed most in 2012 concentrated on their characters, and I think that is the key to any good writing. Brilliant plots and clever twists are all very well, but it is the ability to create interesting characters that are the basis of a long running crime fiction series and a successful career as a writer.
And of course being able to empathise with your readers, especially if they are retired dentists.
He had been newly qualified as a dentist, at a time when the previously lucrative profession had become less profitable after twenty years of social democratic public dental services. Anne Holt-Blessed Are Those Who Thirst
A man’s body with multiple stab wounds is found floating in a Venetian canal. The victim was suffering from a rare disfiguring disease that Brunetti hopes will help him in the identification of the man.
Beastly Things is the 21st book in the Commissario Brunetti series, and once again reading Donna Leon felt like putting on a comfortable pair of old slippers. If the Brunetti series is written to a formula it is a both well trodden and fully satisfying one. The crimes are almost an afterthought to the task of bringing together a group of interestingly predictable characters and cataloguing their interactions. The fact that two of the series main characters are Italy and Venice with their multitude of faults and idiosyncrasies keeps the books entertaining.
Beastly Things deals with corruption in the Italian meat industry, but also blends in discussions on infidelity, Mafia, power, the horrendous Italian losses in the First World War and whose relatives and friends are more influential. All the main characters from the series, Paola, Guido, Vianello, Signorina Elettra and Vice-Questore Patta appear in the novel and by their actions or inactions encapsulate the problem that is modern Italy.
To manage the arrest of the highest members of a Mafia clan in a major city was to guarantee transfer to some backwater in Molise or Sardegna, where major crimes included theft of livestock or public drunkeness. Thus perhaps Patta’s professional longevity in Venice, where the mounting evidence of Mafia infiltration did nothing to spur his efforts to combat it.
And later in the book Guido and Paola discuss a problem at the university.
‘You said he’s politically well connected,’ Brunetti said, ‘Aren’t you afraid of that?’ She smiled the shark smile he had come to recognize when she was at her most dangerous. ‘Not at all. My father is far better connected than his patrons are, so he can’t touch me.’
There is an amusing passage where Brunetti and Vianello discuss what would be the reaction of their wives if they were unfaithful. Vianello decided he would be shot, while Brunetti had a choice between being pushed off the balcony after Paola had spread the word he was very depressed, or a rapid transfer arranged by her father to a Mafia infested small town in the South.
Beastly Things is a solid police procedural in which there is social commentary and exploration of the way Venetian society functions. It is an easy read and Leon’s Brunetti with his lovely wife, children and happy home life is always a pleasant change from other divorced alcoholic miserable male detectives.
There were 13 books shortlisted for the CWA International Dagger and the Ellis Peters Historical Crime Fiction awards, and I had read nine of them. Luckily or perhaps by good judgement among those nine were both winners, and I could not disagree much with the choice the judges.
I did think that the International Dagger shortlisted novel Trackers by Deon Meyer was a great thriller, but as I have been singing the praises of Andrea Camilleri since I began blogging in 2006, the 86 year old was due to win. The Potter’s Field was as usual brilliantly translated by Stephen Sartarelli whose end notes add so much to the reader’s knowledge and enjoyment. I sometimes think those end notes would make a great reference book by themselves.
In a recent post considering that short list I wrote:
The Potter’s Field is the best and funniest offering from Andrea Camilleri in the Montalbano series for some time, and perhaps a good outside bet.
Nice that the judges agreed and the thirteenth translated book in the Salvo Montalbano series was a winner. Read my full review of The Potter’s Field here.
The seven book Ellis Peters Historical Award shortlist had fewer outstanding books, but I hope I was fairly clear with my assessment.
My choice would be between the very clever and hard hitting Prague Fatale, and the atmospheric spy story Icelight. 
When I reviewed Aly Monroe’s Icelight I wrote:
I sometimes get irritated by silly blurbs but those on Icelight mention Graham Greene and John Le Carre and in this case I think they are justified. The Peter Cotton series is getting better and better, and in Icelight the internecine squabbling of the security services is a prequel to the real life problems during the Cold War.
You can read my full review of Icelight here and a post about the superbly evocative book cover here.
Congratulations to Aly Monroe and Andrea Camilleri, and the judges. 
The 2012 CWA Ellis Peters Shortlist contains seven books of which I have now read four. A fifth Laura Wilson’s A Willing Victim has been reviewed by Maxine of Petrona [The link is to her review] and I have taken her views into consideration in picking a possible winner of this prestigious award. Here is the shortlist of seven books.
The Crown: Nancy Bilyeau [set in 1537]
Sacrilege: S.J.Parris [1584]
I Will Have Vengeance: Maurizio De Giovanni [1931]
Prague Fatale: Philip Kerr [1941]
Bitter Water: Gordon Ferris [1946]
A Willing Victim: Laura Wilson [1956]
I admit to not particularly liking Tudor-Elizabethan historical crime fiction, although I did enjoy one of C.J.Sansom’s Matthew Shardlake series. The comments on Friend Feed that The Crown involves shenanigans in a medieval nunnery, and that fans of Dan Brown will enjoy it, create a big hurdle for this book to overcome in my mind. Sacrilege by S. J.Parris I note from an Amazon review reminds us every three pages that English people in 1584 hated foreigners, and I therefore would remove that book from consideration as well. My apologies to the authors if both these books are brilliant historical thrillers, and I have been mislead by other reviewers. If one of these novels wins I promise to read it.
I was about thirteen years old when I tackled La Reine Margot by Alexandre Dumas [in translation] and perhaps that, and subsequently The Three Musketeers and its sequels, spoilt me for anything 16th or early 17th Century.
My choice would be between the very clever and hard hitting Prague Fatale, and the atmospheric spy story Icelight. But the idiosyncratic I Will Have Vengeance could spring a surprise. We will know tomorrow night when the winner of Ellis Peters, and the International Dagger will be announced at a black tie dinner in The Library at One Birdcage Walk.
Trackers: Deon Meyer translator K.L.Seegers
The Potter’s Field: Andrea Camilleri translator Stephen Sartarelli
Phantom: Jo Nesbo translator Don Bartlett
Until Thy Wrath Be Past: Asa Larsson translator Laurie Thompson
I Will Have Vengeance: Maurizio De Giovanni translator Anne Milano Appel
The Dark Valley: Valerio Varesi translator Joseph Farrell
This is the official CWA International Dagger Shortlist of which I have now read five out of the six. I am not going to read The Dark Valley as I don’t think it is a contender based on Maxine of Petrona’s excellent review, and my own reading of the first book in the series, River of Shadows.
Of the remaining five books I really enjoyed I Will Have Vengeance, which is also shortlisted for the Ellis Peters Historical Award, and was pleasantly surprised it was shortlisted for the International Dagger. My own personal interests in Italian opera and Italian history [and Italian food] were obviously shared by the judges.
The Potter’s Field is the best and funniest offering from Andrea Camilleri in the Montalbano series for some time, and perhaps a good outside bet.
Phantom seems to have a big following in the Eurocrime polls, but I was a little disappointed with this one. It lacked the cleverly intertwined plot of Trackers, or the atmospheric feeling and tension of Until Thy Wrath Be Past. I may well be in a minority of one on this, but I will be shocked if a brilliant book like Trackers does not get the recognition and the award it deserves. The result will be announced on the 7 July 2012, along with the Ellis Peters Historical Award. [more on that later in the month]
Some years I have already read most of the CWA International Dagger shortlist before the announcement is made. This year it will be announced at Crimefest on 25 May in Bristol, and unfortunately my limited reading numbers, and the absence of any Liza Marklund’s books on the eligibility list, may mean that I won’t get round to reading all six. But never mind here is my unofficial shortlist from the books I have read, it may be totally out of kilter with the official choices, but at least has a nice geographic spread, with contenders from Argentina, Iceland, South Africa, Denmark, Sweden and Italy .
Sweet Money: Ernesto Mallo translator Katherine Silver
Outrage: Arnaldur Indridason translator Anna Yates
Trackers: Deon Meyer translator K.L.Seegers
The Boy in the Suitcase: Lene Kaaberbol [also translator] & Agnete Friis
Another Time, Another Life: Leif G.W. Persson translator Paul Norlen
The Potter’s Field: Andrea Camilleri translator Stephen Sartarelli
The cover photo might give you a clue as to which one would be my winner.
Is it possible for a woman who cannot relate in an adult manner to other human beings to be involved in law enforcement? But enough about British Home Secretary Theresa May.
I watched my recordings of the new Saturday night foreign TV crime series import, The Bridge, last night and I have avoided reading other reviews so I may be in a very small minority with my opinion.
Firstly I will definitely miss Montalbano which I found watching to be as pleasurable an experience as reading the books. The scripts seemed true to the books, the casting was spot on, the setting beautiful, and the television captured the essence of Andrea Camilleri’s writing which is all about the wonderful characters and less about clever plots. I do hope we get more Montalbanos on TV in the future.
Mark Lawson recently wrote in The Guardian an article with the suggestion that we accept flawed foreign TV imports, and they receive gushing praise which would not be forthcoming if they were British. This theory has been touted for some time with regard to books by Mike Ripley at Shots magazine. I can envisage the scene in a dimly lit Copenhagen restaurant.
Sven Svensson [a Swedish TV executive] searching for minute portions of food on his well designed plate: Thank you for buying me lunch Merethe.
Merethe Knibling [a Danish TV excutive] having eaten her main course in one delicate mouthful: We have a problem Sven that last series we made is no good. We have tried everything detectives in wooly jumpers, detectives in satiny tops, detectives doing the murders, detectives getting killed, detectives sleeping with serial killers, and even forensic psychologists getting blown up, but your latest idea was a flop.
Sven: You mean a detective without a brain, and with the social skills of a rhinoceros.
Merethe: Yes, we have had it rejected by Montenegrin and Moldovan television. But I have been monitoring the BBC website and according to them Mike Wallace one of the original hosts of 60 minutes, when it began in 1968, went on to interview John F Kennedy. And as the BBC also thought Vidkun Quisling was Swedish, perhaps we can sell this eccentric detective to them.
Sven: Simples.
There have been some brilliant crime series imports on British TV.
The Wire [USA] was a quasi-Dickensian saga covering various aspects of the problems of inner city Baltimore, a series which had great acting and intelligent story lines.
Spiral [France] for the first two series had a Gallic flair, some neat plot twists, as well as attractive actors to keep the viewers interest. Braquo [France] was superb television, and showed what a difficult task is faced by an elite task force whose enemies include both criminals, and their own colleagues.
The Killing [series one] [Denmark] was of course outstanding, and although Sofie Grabol [Sarah Lund] and her jumpers became the big star, it was the superb acting of the supporting cast especially Anna Leonora Jorgensen and Bjarne Henriksen as the distraught parents of the victim that made that series. The blending of three plot strands, a police investigation, the family reaction, and a political intrigue was something new for British television.
When The Killing was televised I can see the BBC and other television companies thinking all this foreign stuff is great. But this reaction is like reading Sjowall and Wahloo, Karin Fossum, or Arnaldur Indridason and expecting every Nordic book to be of similar quality.
The Danish series, Those Who Kill, was standard stuff with rather predictable plots. But the last program in that series did at least raise the question about whether those countries that let murderers out of prison after six years are in fact more civilized than those who sentence murderers to life without parole.
Viewers who think foreign TV crime series are superior may well have stumbled across the ludicrous, and probably very expensive to make Kidnap and Ransom with Trevor Eve stunned into actually dropping his three mobile phones by the death of his colleague. But there is at least one shining example of a good solid well acted British TV crime series on at the moment; Scott and Bailey, a gritty police procedural set in Manchester. This features Suranne Jones as Rachel Bailey, and Lesley Sharp as Janet Scott; but Amelia Bullimore [2012's Head of Sustainability] as their boss DCI Gill Murray is the star for me.
I have digressed so back on to The Bridge-Bron-Broen I wondered how long would Saga Noren, the strange Swedish woman detective, last if working for our DCI Gill “Godzilla” Murray? Not long I suspect.
Saga goes way beyond the pill popping, bed hopping Carrie in Homeland, and is totally unable to relate to colleagues, victims and the general public in a normal way. She has the social graces of a spoilt child, and appears completely bonkers. Luckily her boss Hans also seems to be on another planet. Her Danish colleague, Martin Rohde seems fairly normal, but has a son who stays up all night playing computer games, but then this might be normal nowadays.
There are three strands to the plot, rather like The Killing, with a police investigation of a brutal murder, a rich woman attempting to get a heart transplant for her elderly husband, and a battered mother with her children being sheltered by a social worker from her abusive drug addict husband. Throw in to the mixture some kind of campaign to show the obvious fact that we are not all equal under the law, and that rich people have a better life than the homeless. Toss in a revolting journalist and make Stefan, the social worker, look like something out the 1970s, and perhaps viewers will stick around to see how it all comes together.
To stick with a crime fiction series on television or in a book you have to like the characters. Sarah Lund, Salvo Montalbano, Gill Murray, Morse, Foyle, Andy Dalziel are all very varied characters but in their different ways they are likeable. Saga Noren is very weird, and despite some clever touches in the plot I doubt whether when the dust has settled The Bridge will repeat the success of The Killing. But then there is always a novelization.
Reading a crime fiction series can be a bit tricky at times because:
1] The author has written the series out of chronological order.
James Lawton’s Troy series and Liza Marklund’s Annika Bengtzon books are two examples of this particular quirkiness. At the moment I am reading Exposed by Liza Marklund, the first chronologically of the five books published in English, and the young inexperienced Annika is feisty but obviously immature in comparison with the Annika of Red Wolf [number 5]. This is the fourth of the Bengtzon series I have read and I have tackled them in the order 4, 2, 5, 1 -reading The Bomber [4] some years ago before I began blogging. New readers to Liza Marklund will be able to read the series in the correct order, and not become confused.
2] The publisher has had the series translated in the wrong order.
The worst example of this foible was the Harry Hole series by Jo Nesbo, where book 5 [The Devil's Star] in the Oslo trilogy of connected stories was translated before book 3 [The Redbreast] and book 4 [Nemesis].
This happens fairly frequently, or the publisher dives into book 11 of a 15 book series for some unknown reason. So for once it is a pleasure to read a long running series in order such as the Montalbano books by Andrea Camilleri.
3] The author switches perspectives between characters
The multi award winning S.J Rozan writes each book in her series alternately from the different perspective of her two protagonists Lydia Chin and Bill Smith. When you are not expecting it such as in Outrage by Arnaldur Indridason, where his usual lead character Erlendur does not appear and Elinborg takes over it can be a pleasant surprise, and give a new lease of life to the series. Hakan Nesser even had his Inspector Van Veeteren retire to run an antiquarian bookshop, but still have his advice sought by his former subordinates. When you have a team of investigators as in the Martin Beck series [Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo] or a cast of quirky characters as in the Adamsberg books by Fred Vargas the author can alter the emphasis from book to book, or within each book. This must make it much more interesting for the writer and ensures a better experience for the reader.
I particularly like this method of continuing to keep a series fresh.
4] The reader comes to a series late.
Some series have been running for so long that if one comes to them late and decide to catch up you face a marathon reading session, and have to absorb a lot of back story about the character. Diamond Dagger winner Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Milhone alphabet series started with A for Alibi in 1982, and has reached V for Vengeance in 2011. But Sue Grafton is a beginner when it comes to keeping a protagonist going on and on for years.
Ruth Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, began her Chief Inspector Wexford series back in 1964 with From Doon with Death and last year the 22nd Wexford, The Monster in the Box was published. In the new Wexford The Vault the former Chief Inspector is enjoying his retirement. Ruth Rendell could be almost considered the first Scandinavian crime writer to make it big in the UK as her mother was born in Sweden, and brought up in Denmark.
5] The characters do not age in real time
Some characters age for example Ian Rankin’s Rebus in the 17 book series which ran from Knots and Crosses [1987] to Exit Music [2007]. This series did not really take off until the 8th book Black and blue which won the CWA Gold Dagger, and Exit Music is set during the period before Rebus is due to retire.
Hercule Poirot, probably the best known Belgian in the world, was imagined by his creator Agatha Christie as an old man in her first book The Mysterious Affair at Styles published in 1920. He had been a policeman in Belgium for many years, retired and a refugee in the Great War. 
‘That is not true,’ said Poirot. ‘I had a bad failure in Belgium in 1893.’ [Peril at End House]
Elephants can Remember was published in 1972, and Curtain: Poirot’s Last case was published in 1975, although that was written in the 1940′s and locked away to be published after Miss Christie’s death. A disconcertingly long career for the great detective, but hours of pleasant reading for crime fiction fans.
A crime fiction series can raise a lot of questions for readers.
Do you continue to read them even when they have lost their early promise? Should authors take their characters to the Reichenbach Falls, or allow their protagonist to quietly retire to tend their vegetable garden, or run a bookshop? Do authors run out of plots and just rely on their idiosyncratic characters to carry a book? Do authors eventually get bored, or even begin to hate their creations? When authors who are best known for a series write a one off will a fan of the series buy that one off, or wait for the next book in the series? What is the ideal length for a series? What part has television played in the popularity of crime fiction series? ……………
