Nature of the Beast by Louise Penny

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Quite an amazing plot. Based on a true story. A mammoth missile launcher, hidden in the woods and aimed at the US.

Hardly a day goes by when nine-year-old Laurent Lepage doesn’t cry wolf. His boundless sense of adventure and vivid imagination mean he has a tendency to concoct stories so extraordinary and so far-fetched that no one can possibly believe him.

But when Laurent disappears, former Chief Inspector Armand Gamache is faced with the possibility that one of his tall tales might have been true.

So begins a frantic search for the boy and the truth. And what Gamache uncovers deep in the forest leads back to crimes of the past, betrayal and murder, with more sinister consequences than anyone could have possibly imagined . . .

Google Books

Bruno Chief of Police by Martin Walker

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I’d never heard of this popular murder mystery series set in rural France.

This 1st novel in a long series was first published 2008.

Martin Walker is a journalist, having worked for The Guardian for 28 years. A Brit, he now lives in the Périgord/Dordogne in Southern France.

Benoît “Bruno” Courrèges, a passionate cook and former soldier who was wounded on a peacekeeping mission in the Balkans, who never carries his official gun and who has “long since lost the key to his handcuffs” is the village policeman in sleepy St. Denis.

Like Three Pines in Quebec, astonishing things keep happening in this tiny rural village.

The book is an easy read. Bruno an entertaining and enjoyable character.

I’ll try more in the series.

Amazon

My Food in Norway

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EVERYTHING is expensive in Norway. 😕

For the most part, I ate supermarket food. Cooked in a hostel or on my camping stove. SPAR was by far my favourite chain. They have grocery stores in 48 nations.

SPAR is the only chain that always has hot deli food, often discounted by 50% late in the day. As everywhere, rotisserie chicken is the best value food in Norway. At least for me.

SPAR sells a low-cost brand called “First Price“ which is often WAY cheaper than name brand alternatives.

The most recommended (lower priced) seafood in Tromsø was the Dragoy Fish and Chips restaurant. I tried both these two meals for about US $21 each. OK — not great. And not worth the price.

Cod Burger
Crab Burger

I asked for something local, traditional at another restaurant — and got this … something like meatloaf with an egg on top.

My favourite restaurant meal was reindeer stew. This glass of wine was the only booze I had in Norway. Beer is everywhere, including grocery stores. Wine not all that popular.

To be fair, I don’t like restaurants anywhere unless I’m socializing with other people.

Happily, Diet Coca-cola is not expensive in Norway, IF you buy 4 bottles at a time. And I’m OK with that. 😀

Weirdly, many hostels did not have a toaster. Gourmands of my class only require kettle, microwave … and a toaster.

Malice by Keigo Higashino

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According to the back of this book, Keigo Higashino is the “ bestselling and most widely read novelist in Japan.”

Only SOME of his books have been translated into English, however.

Malice is the first book in the Detective Kaga series.

Famous novelist Kunihiko Hidaka is brutally murdered days before he is relocating from Japan to Vancouver.

He is found in a locked room of his home by his wife and best friend, Osamu Nonoguchi.

Police Detective Kyoichiro Kaga sets out to solve the baffling case, playing cat and mouse with an always present and cunning killer.

It’s slow paced. Thoughtful. Very Japanese.

The murderer is revealed early. Most of the book is Kaga methodically revealing the truth.

Recommended.

The Jailhouse Lawyer by Patterson & Allen

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James Patterson loves to write with other authors.

This time it’s Nancy Allen, who practiced law for 15 years in Missouri.

Jailhouse Lawyer is a 2-book series, unrelated from one another. And both quite entertaining.

What ties them together is a revealing look at how small town law in the southern U.S. is still backwards. And unjust.

Happily, the female protagonists in each tale win in the end. Both stories are uplifting.

NOTE – It’s easy to tell which book webpage summary writer has actually read the books by seeing whether or not they mention that Jailhouse Lawyer is 2 books — not many. 😀

My bicycle is BACK in Canada

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Whew.

I feared SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) would pretend they LOST my bike box at Heathrow airport — and offer me less compensation than the value of the rig.

Travel insurance? 🤔

Though SAS didn’t once contact me over the 27 days it sat in Heathrow, some human managed to reroute it back to Vancouver Island as I requested.

My cycling trip through Norway was ruined — yet I’m feeling relieved that it wasn’t worse ruined.

I’ll now apply for compensation for both my lost bags.

In This Bright Future by Peter Grainger

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Our hero, D.C. Smith, had a mysterious past.

In the 5th book of the excellent series we learn of his role as a mole for British Intelligence during The Troubles in Northern Ireland.

Again, it’s Smith’s humour that makes this book so entertaining.

30 years later he returns on a personal holiday after being asked to find where the bones of an IRA friend had been buried.

The family wants closure.

Unfortunately, the IRA twice tried to kill Smith once it was revealed he was a snitch. And decades later there are some who want to finish the job.

Peter Grainger self-published for Amazon Kindle to start. And even today goes unrecognized as one of the top murder mystery authors alive.

Highly recommended.

Shadows Reel by C.J. Box

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The March 2022 book about Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett is in the context of global pandemic.

It’s very good.

A day before the three Pickett girls come home for Thanksgiving, Joe is called out for a moose poaching incident that turns out to be something much more sinister: a local fishing guide has been brutally tortured and murdered. 

At the same time, Marybeth opens an unmarked package at the library where she works and finds a photo album that belonged to an infamous Nazi official. Who left it there? And why? …

Meanwhile, Nate Romanowski is on the hunt for the man who stole his falcons and attacked his wife. 

CJBox.net

Cycling Arctic Norway – Nordkapp (North Cape)

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Finishing a cycling trip to the top of Norway is tough.

This is Europe’s most northerly paved road.

I didn’t do it. BUT Matthew did. 😀

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

About 200k tourists travel to Nordkapp (North Cape) each year.

The municipality is named after Nordkapp (North Cape), a 307-metre-high (1,007 ft) cliff that is commonly referred to as the northernmost point of Europe.

However, the true northernmost point of the European mainland is Cape Nordkinn (Kinnarodden), at 71° 08′ 02″ N, located about 20 kilometres (12 mi) from the village of Mehamn on the Nordkinn Peninsula.

If Europe’s northernmost point is allowed to be on an island, then it still is not the North Cape. It would be Cape Fligely on Rudolf Island, Franz Josef Land in Russia, which is located much further north at 81° 48′ 24″ N.

If Franz Josef Land is not considered to be in Europe, then Europe’s northernmost point is the northern point of the island of Rossøya, an islet in Svalbard, north of Spitsbergen at 80° 49′ 44.41″ N.