Category: books

The Island by Ragnar Jonasson

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BOOK #2 IN THE HIDDEN ICELAND trilogy.

Slow burn. But it’s well worth reading all 3 books.

Elliðaey is an isolated island off the Icelandic coast. It has a beautiful, unforgiving terrain – and an easy place to vanish.

At the peak of her career Hulda Hermannsdóttir is sent to discover what happened when a group of friends visited Elliðaey – but one failed to return.

Could this have links to the disappearance of a couple ten years previously out on the Westfjords? Is there a killer stalking these barren outposts? …

ragnar-jonasson

You’ve seen photos of Elliðaey island.

In 1953, the white structure seen in the images was built by the Elliðaey Hunting Association. Anyone who wants to visit is allowed to do so.

Several tour companies operating in the Vestmannaejar peninsula offer day trips to Elliðaey, as well. See the puffins.

The Nine Lives of Pakistan by Declan Walsh

On By Rick McIn books, government, human rights, IslamLeave a comment

I’ve never been to Pakistan. But am keen to go as there is terrific hiking in the Himalaya.

I read this excellent book as research.

Sadly, in terms of progress, India has done far better since Partition .

The invasion in 1979 by the Soviet Union was a huge setback, of course.

Declan Walsh is an Irish author and journalist who is the Chief Africa Correspondent for The New York Times. 

Walsh was expelled from Pakistan in May 2013—an experience he wrote about in his 2020 book The Nine Lives of Pakistan: Dispatches from a Precarious State—but continued covering the country from London.

In fact, Walsh was ejected just prior to the 2013 Pakistani general election when Nawaz Sharif was just barely elected.

The subtitle of the book is Dispatches from a Divided Nation and the author criss-crosses those political, religious, ethnic and generational fault lines, assembling a portrait of the vast country of 220 million people through his travels and the lives of the nine compelling protagonists.

Walsh is a wonderful writer, with a gift for sketching an impression of a place, time and ambience with a few brief lines. …

What also shines through is the relish with which Walsh throws himself into the far corners of Pakistan, into crowds, celebrations and rites, with a drive born of fascination with the land and its people. …

Guardian Review

“Above all, Pakistanis are survivors. Yet a country, like a person, may only have nine lives. Rather than fate to overtake them, some of the people I met in the Insha’Allah nation took matters into their own hands…”

Book Review: The Nine Lives of Pakistan by Declan Walsh

Death in a Strange Country by Donna Leon

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Very good.

Death in a Strange Country (1993) is the second novel in Donna Leon‘s Commissario Brunetti mysteries set in Venice and the sequel to Death at La Fenice (1992).

In fact, a good series to dig into.

The Leopard by Jo Nesbø

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This Nesbø novel (2009) is a good example of why I don’t like the Harry Hole books.

Too complicated. Too dark. No characters to cheer for ➙ certainly not Harry.

There are better Jo Nesbø books, of course. Skip this one.

Following the traumatic Snowman case, former police inspector Harry Hole has exiled himself in Hong Kong.

Kaja Solness, a new Norwegian Crime Squad officer, tracks down Hole and asks for his help investigating possible serial killings in Oslo.

Hole is convinced to return when told that his father, Olav, is seriously ill and will not live much longer.

He returns to Norway to find that the Crime Squad is in the middle of a power struggle with Kripos and its power-hungry head, Mikael Bellman, who seeks to put his agency in sole charge of the country’s murder cases.

Hole finds himself the target of Bellman’s hostility, though Bellman is keen to take credit for the results of Hole’s work. …

A Heart Full of Headstones by Ian Rankin

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In the 24th instalment in the Inspector Rebus series written by Ian Rankin, both Rebus and his frenemy ‘Big Ger’ Cafferty, the gangster, are old.

Rebus had retired in 2007.

Both are a little bored. COVID-19 is a threat but lockdown has ended, probably in 2022.

Cafferty wants Rebus to find a man. Surprisingly, Rebus agrees.

Rebus ends up on trial for a crime. Did he do it?

Rebus both fears exposure of past misdeeds and examines his own motives at the time, trying to ascertain whether, in breaking the rules, he also crossed the moral lines he had drawn for himself.  …

All the Rebus books are great. This one certainly as good as any.

I recommend you start at the beginning:

Knots and Crosses (1987).

The Collector by Daniel Silva

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Book #23 is excellent. As usual.

I bought it from Audible, not wanting to wait months to get it from the library.

This one is set autumn 2022. It’s topical.

Will Putin try tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine?

Legendary Israeli spy chief Gabriel Allon has only managed to stay retired for 10 months before being called back to save the world.

Most of our favourite characters get called up, as well. And there’s a brilliant and beautiful female master-thief, as well.

If you’ve not read the Gabriel Allon books, I recommend starting at book #1 in the series.

Thor Heyerdahl – Kon-Tiki expedition

On By Rick McIn books, movies, travel1 Comment

Like tens of millions of people my age, I was enthralled with Thor Heyerdahl books. The Kon-Tiki expedition‘ in particular.

In Oslo, I visited the Kon-Tiki museum. Very good.

His team was woefully inexperienced and under-prepared. Heyerdahl himself couldn’t swim and was afraid of water.

He was hardly a candidate to join the ranks of the great Norwegian sailors. 😀

Yet he did.

The trip began on April 28, 1947. Heyerdahl and five companions sailed the raft for 101 days over 6,900 km (4,300 miles) across the Pacific Ocean before smashing into a reef at Raroia in the Tuamotus on August 7, 1947. The crew made successful landfall and all returned safely.

Without question, Thor was stubborn and brave. An adventure badass.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The Escape Artist by Brad Meltzer

On By Rick McIn books, TV1 Comment

Very good. This is the first Meltzer book I’ve read.

The Escape Artist (2018)

A TV adaptation is planned.

Who is Nola Brown?

Nola is a mystery
Nola is trouble.
And Nola is supposed to be dead.

Her body was found on a plane that mysteriously fell from the sky as it left a secret military base in the Alaskan wilderness. Her commanding officer verifies she’s dead. The US government confirms it. But Jim “Zig” Zigarowski has just found out the truth: Nola is still alive. And on the run.

Zig works at Dover Air Force Base, helping put to rest the bodies of those who die on top-secret missions. Nola was a childhood friend of Zig’s daughter and someone who once saved his daughter’s life. So when Zig realizes Nola is still alive, he’s determined to find her. Yet as Zig digs into Nola’s past, he learns that trouble follows Nola everywhere she goes.

Nola is the US Army’s artist-in-residence-a painter and trained soldier who rushes into battle, making art from war’s aftermath and sharing observations about today’s wars that would otherwise go overlooked. On her last mission, Nola saw something nobody was supposed to see, earning her an enemy unlike any other, one who will do whatever it takes to keep Nola quiet.

Together, Nola and Zig will either reveal a sleight of hand being played at the highest levels of power or die trying to uncover the US Army’s most mysterious secret-a centuries-old conspiracy that traces back through history to the greatest escape artist of all: Harry Houdini.

bradmeltzer.com

Nola has been compared to Lisbeth Salander. NOT a good comparison. Nola is a bad ass ➙ but she’s no Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Knife by Jo Nesbø

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Some feel the 2019 instalment of the Harry Hole series — Knife — is Jo Nesbø’s best.

I can’t disagree.

The worst of the worst happens.

And Svein Finne is back, perhaps Harry’s biggest nemesis.

Harry Hole started drinking again and was kicked out of his home by his wife Rakel.

… Everything changes when one morning he wakes up covered in blood without remembering what happened the previous evening and, a short time later, he discovers that a murder had taken place that night. …

This book is long and complex.

Important to the plot are favorite characters including Kaja Solness, Katrine Bratt, and Bjørn Holm.

And new likeable characters including Sung-Min Larsen, an ambitious one-time student of Harry’s who works for rival law enforcement agency Kripos, and who looks as if he has his eye on Harry’s job.

… Roar Bohr (great name), sharp-shooting ex-special forces in Afghanistan, with a rifle, post-traumatic stress disorder and a score to settle with the man who raped his little sister. …

Crime Review


Publishers Weekly criticized the novel for having an “enormous number of characters, backstories, subplots, and themes” but nonetheless praised its “well-orchestrated” ending.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

A Good Kill by John McMahon

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The 3rd book (2021) in the P.T. Marsh series is easily the best yet.

… a troubled small-town police detective faced with three interwoven crimes that reveal sinister secrets about his community–and the deaths of his family …

In the years since the mysterious deaths of his wife and child, P.T. Marsh, a police detective in the small Georgia town of Mason Falls, has faced demons–both professional and personal.

But when he is called to the scene of a school shooting, the professional and personal become intertwined, and he suspects that whoever is behind the crime may be connected to his own family tragedy.

As Marsh and his partner Remy investigate the shooting, they discover that it is far from straightforward, and their search for answers leads them to a conspiracy at the highest levels of local government–including within the police force. …

Fantastic Fiction