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Tonight the clocks go back in the UK and the long winter nights will really begin.
In the Second World War we had double summer time, presumably to help the farmers, and it was light until almost 11.00 p.m but with GMT [Greenwich Mean Time] it will be dark at 3.30 p.m. in December and the number of road accidents will rapidly increase as tired workers and school children make their various ways home.
But at least it is not as dark as in Scandinavia because when visiting Stockholm, Upsaala and Helsinki in winter I recall it was dark at about 2.00 p.m or even earlier.
It is obvious that these dark winters have something to do with the high suicide rate in Northern Europe, and Martin Beck informs us in Cop Killer, ” Sweden led the world by a margin that seemed to grow larger from one report to the next”.
Roll on the spring.
I have started reading Siren of the Waters by Michael Genelin featuring Commander Jana Matinova of the Slovak Police; Slovakia will be an interesting new location, although the blurb shows she will be traveling a lot. My review will appear on Euro Crime.
The CWA Ellis Peters Awards are on Thursday 29 October and before that I will make my own selection of the winner. After my debacle with the International Dagger [I picked Echoes From The Dead by Johan Theorin, and rated the eventual winner last among the shortlist] I don’t want to put a damper on any book but having gone to the trouble of reading all six shortlisted books I will select what I think is the best historical crime fiction novel.
CRIME SCRAPS REVIEW 