The Case of the Missing Servant by Tarquin Hall is both charmig and rather amusing, but nevertheless I find it too much of a copy of The no 1 Ladies Detective Agency.

The story takes place in India today, and the very friendly Mr Vish Puri s the most discrete private investigator in India. His wife is struggling with her husbands weight problem, and he himself stuffs his face with all sorts of goodies when she is not watching.

In this novel, Mr Puri is solving the case of the missing servant girl. Puri is contacted by one of the most well known lawyers in the country, who has been accused of murdering his young servant. The servant that is missing. In order to free his client from being a suspect, Puri must find her. Mr Puri does not hesitate, he digs into this high profile, and delicate case and start digging.

I would not call this a masterpiece within the genre, more a copy of the great, already working concept introduced to us by McCall Smith. However, the novel is absolute worthy of reading! It is a great document on the Indian society today. Hall is painting a very lively picture with lots of colour and humour. His writing is so good that I can almost smell the kachoris…

My guess is that what the author really is looking for by writing this novel is to drag the problem of political corruption into the daylight and mind of the ”little people”. That he has succeeded to do.

I will with great interest read more by Mr Hall!

We get to follow two Swedish girls from the island of Gotland in the criminal novel The Dangerous Game.

Jenny was discovered by a modeling agency about a year ago and she is now one of the most successful women in the business. Agnes worked for the same agency but lost her contract due to an eating disorder and is currently admitted at a clinic for people with anorexia. It is not a surprise that their lives will cross at some point in the novel, but the question is how.

The fashion photographer Markus gets brutally attacked when he and Jenny are on Gotland for a photo shoot. He ends up in a coma and cannot tell the police about the attacker. When another person in the fashion world gets attacked the police are pressured to find the guilty one quickly before he or she strikes again.

The Dangerous Game is Mari Jungstedt’s eighth novel in her series about Anders Knutas and the police on Gotland. I have read all Mari Jungstedt’s novels and keep reading them since they offer pleasant and relaxing reading. But they are not memorable, and I cannot recall the story in any of her earlier novels. But the novel is definitely perfect reading for the beach this summer.

Original title in Swedish: Den farliga leken

This is my first encounter with the author Jan Dybdahl. This means that I had no particular expectations of he work, which I often ( consciously or subconsciously) have when I pick up a book by an author I have read before.

This novel is about Viktor Amundsen, an old  Art Historian from Trondheim on the west coast of Norway born during the pre-war time.

First of all, I must thank the author for the wonderful descriptions of the childhood of Viktors. It is great that Jan Dybdahl allows himself to tell this part through the eyes of a child, and with the language of a child. Brilliant!

Particularely the part about young Viktor and his friend Turid is touching. Especially  the accident of Turids, that Viktor feels responsible for, and that is haunting Turid for the rest of her life. Later on, when Viktors older brother dies in a drowning accident. Viktor is secretly accused of causing it by his sloppyness.

Viktors life consists of a number of incidents which all seems planned by someone who wishes him no good. Someone who knows him too well. I will not dig any deeper into them, just read the book,  but somehow they appear far too unreal to me.

Maybe I am moaning too much, but I do want to get the feeling of “this could have happened to me”, which I by no means do in this case. The criminal intrigue does not hold all the way, I am afraid.

Particularely the part about young Viktor and his friend Turid is touching. Especially  the accident of Turids, that Viktor feels responsible for, and that is haunting Turid for the rest of her life. Later on, when Viktors older brother dies in a drowning accident. Viktor is secretly accused of causing it by his sloppyness.

Viktors life consists of a number of incidents which all seems planned by someone who wishes him no good. Someone who knows him too well. I will not dig any deeper into them, just read the book,  but somehow they appear far too unreal to me.

Maybe I am moaning too much, but I do want to get the feeling of “this could have happened to me”, which I by no means do in this case. The criminal intrigue does not hold all the way, I am afraid.

However – the character Victor does! I like him. I see an insecure, miserable and a tiny bit boring old man closing the books, seaking forgivness. He is 100 % real, as are all the other characters as well.

This novel has given me much to think about, many great passages of writing excellence to enjoy.

SO – what is the overall impression? A good book, worthy of reading, however not necessarily as a criminal novel.

My advice, read this novel, absolutely! But try to see  beyond the not so great criminal intrigue!

So, beautiful and interesting Marstrand, on the Swedish west coast is begining to catch up with Gotland on the east coast when it comes to horrible crimes and mysterious creatures.

The second crime novel by Ann Rosman makes a flying start. An unknown woman is found dead by the sacrifice stone . A body without its head. At the same time, a womans head is found in a nearby garden. Opposite to what you would think, the head and the body is not a  match…

Old tales of Witchcraft and modern RPG , boating and local history. It is easy to pick up on the authors genuine interest in her home village and boating. Just as her debut novel, Fyrmästarens dotter, the story has a light and easy flow. They are also both page turners and no unwanted hick-ups or irregularities stop me from enjoying them. As for Själakistan, the beginning is truly brilliant, and the end is… Well, sorry – that you have to find out for yourself!

The environments and the characters are strong and very real. Beautifully painted. However, the odd person is somewhat loosely sketched, but that is ok too. I have no need to get equally close to all characters.

Well done Ann, yet another success!

A happy family in North Carolina falls apart after 12-year-old Alyssa Merrimon is abducted. The father abandons the family. The mother turns to drugs and alcohol, and an abusive former boyfriend. Despite everything, Alyssa’s twin-brother Johnny never gives up hope and continues to search for her. So does Detective Hunt, who also keeps a watchful eye on the family.

A year later Johnny becomes witness to a murder, and Johnny is convinced the murdered man knew something about Alyssa’s disappearance. The same day a second girl, a classmate of Johnny, disappears. Are they dealing with a serial kidnapper?

The Last Child by John Hart won the Edgar Award for Best Novel earlier this year, and if any of the other nominees are even close to being as exciting as this novel then I may have to read those as well.

The novel brings new twists every few chapters, and it kept me on the edge of my seat until the very end. One horrifying situation after the other takes place, and I barely dared to take my dog out for her evening walk when I was reading this book. That aside, the novel was awesome and The Last Child is definitely a must read!

In Sweden we celebrate Midsummer today to celebrate the time of year where the Summer Solstice. Where I live the sun goes down around 22.00 and up 03.40 but in the north of Sweden the sun doesn´t go down at during the summer months!

This is also a time when a lot of people start their vacation. I recommend that you try reading something new. Why not close your eyes and point your finger on a world map. Find a crime novel from the country your finger points. Who knows? maybe you´ll discover a whole new country by reading a book. I love reading about Sicily in Andrea Camilleri’s books, about Botswana in Alexander McCall Smiths books and China in Qui  books. For those of you who haven´t read anything from Sweden yet, I recommend Johan Theorin.

We at TheCrimeHouse wish you a happy summer with lots of time to read crime novels!

Peter James, welcome to The Crime House!

If you were to describe yourself in only three words, which would they be?

Curious about everything.

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From film producer to crime author – how did that happen?

I have alternated throughout my career to date between writing and producing film and television and writing novels.  But now I am so busy with the wonderful global success of the Roy Grace series that I have no time for anything else.  And actually, my heart has always been in writing novels more than anything else:  The problem with film (and tv) is that it is a collaborative business and the creative process almost always end up being compromised because just too many people have an influence.  For example you have the screenwriter, and very often a second screen writer or “polisher”, the producer – sometimes two or even more. The executive producers, again sometimes two or  more.  The director.  The principal actors. The director of photography.  The set designer.  The editor.  The composer.  The distributor. Each and everyone of these has influence on the end product.  With a book the creative process is utterly pure.  There is just myself and my agent and my editor.  If I don’t want to change one single word I have written I don’t have to.  I love that freedom from the “committee” process of film making.

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Which one of your films are you most proud of?

The Merchant of Venice (2004), when we had Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles to the premiere.  It is my most recent film and the one I am the most proud of.  It has a magical quality and it deals with some very important aspects of human nature – the incredibly topical one of religious fundamentalism being at its heart.   My favourite review of the film was in the Toronto Globe and Mail, which said the film makers “Hand succeeded in turning an anti-semitic play into a play about anti-semiticism.”

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Why Crime stories?

I am fascinated by human nature, why we do the things that we do and I think the best way to observe the world is through the eyes of the police.  During a career in the police force the average officer will see almost every facet of the human condition – from violence to tragedy to comedy.  From wealth to poverty. From good people to totally evil people.  In addition I find the whole criminal world fascinating. There is no question in my mind that the police are the glue that hold civilised life together.

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Grace, the problem solver in your books, is there a real person behind his character?

Roy Grace was inspired by a real life police officer, Dave Gaylor.  The first time I met him was 15 years ago, when he was a Detective Inspector in Brighton.  I went into this office and the floor was covered in piles of blue and green crates crammed with manila folders.  I asked him if he was moving and he replied, deadpan, “No, these are my dead friends.”  I thought, great, I’ve just met the only weirdo in Sussex CID!!!    He then went on to explain that he just been put in charge of reopening unsolved cases – what we now call Cold Cases – for Sussex Police.  He said that each crate contained the principal case files of an unsolved homicide.  Then he said something that made a big impact on me:   ‘I am the last chance the victims have of justice, and the last chance the families have for closure.”  I thought these were incredibly human words, and when my publishers asked me some years ago if I would like to create a new detective character, I immediately remembered this.

The great thing is that Dave Gaylor, who rose to the rank of Detective Chief Superintendent, knows he is the career model (but not physical model) for Roy Grace and loves it!  He and I have become very close friends over the years, he reads each book as I go along, normally in 150 page chunks and we talk through all aspects of the police activity in the story and who in the Force it would benefit me to talk to and we travel overseas to police conferences together and to meet other police contacts of Dave around the world – most recently to New York, and to the International War Crimes Tribunal at The Hague.

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How do you feel about crime novels for children?

Many of the novels I read as a child were “crime” novels.  Enid Blyton’s “Famous Five” for instance.  In many of the Richman Crompton’s Just William books, which I loved, they caught bad people.  I think that the big lesson the crime novel can teach us is that life is not all black and white. There are not plain “good people” and “bad people”.  There are plenty of good people who do bad things – and bad people who do extraordinary good things.

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Do you feel there is a serious risk people will stop reading physical books in favour of for example listening to the Audio versions?

I don’t think so, and with the advent of e-books I think the future of reading is secured even more, as it is becoming “cool” again. Personally I still love the smell and touch of printed books but I think as e-books become less expensive they will become popular.  But… always remember that way back, story-telling began as an oral tradition.  Then the stores started to be recorded, first by being carved on clay tablets, then on paper.  It would be a curious thing if we end up back in the oral tradtion, only listening to audio books…

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Your first novel about Grace, Dead simple, immediately hit the top lists. Describe the feeling!

It is a wonderful, but very strange feeling.  Writing is a lonely occupation and yet, through email, I get contact daily from numerous readers around the world and I love hearing from them what they like and, sometimes, dislike.  I am immensely flattered that my stories are being read and mean so much to so many people, yet I’m nervous of upsetting or disappointing them.

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Your novels have been sold to many other countries, which must be wonderful. However, this means that a translator has been involved. Does it worry you that the translator doesn’t capture exactly what you want to say?

It is incredibly important to have a good translator, but apart from France, where I speak the language, I I have little way of gauging.  So far I have been very fortunate with the amazing translators who work on my books in 33 languages and my various publishers around the world.  Occasionally it does happen that the exact feeling doesn’t quite come through in translation and a reader will pick up on this which gives us the chance to correct it in any future publications.

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If you were to buy a novel and it was available in both original language and a translation, which version would you get?

If my language skills were greater, I would always choose to read a book in its original language!  What I find many of my readers to, is to buy both versions.  For instance I have a number of Swedish fans who buy the book in Swedish translation and the original English.  First they read the Swedish version, to be 100% confident of getting all the story, then they read the English version to hear the author’s original “voice”.

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You have won a number of awards – which one would be the most prestigious?

Of all of them I’m the most proud of being awarded an Honorary Doctorate last year by the University of Brighton.  This award was for (in their words) “Peter James has been made a Doctor of Letters in recognition of his ongoing contribution to the arts and to the status, infrastructure and culture of Brighton and Hove.”

To receive this was quite amazing – particularly as I virtually got thrown out of school on my ear for only getting grade “e” in each of my three A levels – the lowest possible grades…   I feel I am living proof of Oscar Wild’s wonderful remark:   ”Nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.”   !!!!

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When you don’t spend your time writing thrilling novels, what is your favourite pass time?

Writing is a very sedentary occupation so I love to exercise – I find that really stimulates my mind.  All my life I have been an adrenaline junkie – I loved to ski fast as a child and I still take part in some ski races, but my biggest passion has always been cars, and driving fast.  I do some motor racing every year – which worries the hell out of my agent and my publisher – particularly as I had a spectacular crash in June 2009 – which was captured on YouTube – and you can find on my blog!  I also love tennis, eating fine food and drinking very fine wines…

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Stephen King once said it is essential for an author as much of his time reading, as he is writing. What do you read at the moment?

I am a voracious reader and get through up to 300 books a year.  However, I only read fiction when I am not actually writing.  During the writing process I read non-fiction – much of it related to my research – and also poetry.  At the moment I am writing my next novel, and researching the Mafia, so I am immersed in several books about gruesome Mafia killings, including, Murder Machine, The Ice Man and Joey The Hitman

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What Scandinavian crime writers are you familiar with, and do you have a favourite?

I fell in love with the films of  Ingmar Bergman when I was a student.  Few movies have ever haunted me as much as his Seventh Seal. So I would have to say my all time greatest Scandinavian writer was a screenwriter (and director) rather than novelist. But of the current generation I think Camilla Lackberg is really brilliant.

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If you were to point me in the direction of another crime writer to present to our readers at The Crime House – who would this be, and why?

I’ve always loved the crime novel gentre.  Since I was a child I’ve been addicted to Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, John D Macdonald, Elmore Leonard, Ed McBain, Ian Rankin – to name just a few.  But of the as yet younger generation coming up, from the UK, I think Brian McGillivray, a Northern Ireland crime writer has an authentic voice and sense of place, and is well worth reading.

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Mi and The Crime House says THANK YOU for taking the time to present yourself

to us. We await your new novel in Swedish/Norwegian/Danish/Finnish with enthusiasm!

A young girl disappears without a trace on her way home from a friend a fall evening. The friend suggests that she may have committed suicide, and the police eventually call of the search. A few months later a few kids find an arm buried in the snow. It turns out to be the missing girl’s arm and the police reopen the investigation.

In addition to the murder investigation we get to follow a family in Sandhamn in the early 1900s, and the chapters shift between the present and the past. Personal relationships play a big role in both stories and it was not surprising that they would be tied together in the end, but even so I could not figure out how the stories were related.

Basically, without Guilt is the third novel by Viveca Sten in the series set in Sandhamn, Sweden. Somehow I have missed the first two, but now I will definitely keep my eyes open for future novels. I have mentioned before that it is common for crime writers to tie the present to historic events and I think the author does it successfully in this novel.

Original title in Swedish: I grunden utan skuld

We at TheCrimeHouse are proud to welcome Johan Theorin, winner of the CWA John Creasey (New blood) Award 2010, to this interview!
 

Can you describe what a day at work looks like for you?
I have a working room in an old house in central Gothenburg, where I sit between 10 am and 6 pm. Sometimes it’s really slow and I only write one page/day but when everything works I can write up to 8-10 pages/day.


You are also a script writer. Tell us what kind of scripts you have written and how it differs from writing novels?
I didn’t write film scripts but interactive game scripts for the Internet and CD-ROM. Interactive scripts are tricky to write because the script are not in chronological order but more like a maze, with different directions the story takes. But there are of course some freedom in that sort of story telling compared to traditional novels with only one sequence of action.

Can you name some authors that have influenced your writing?
Basically all I’ve ever read! The great authors inspired me because I was jealous of them after reading them and wanting to write as good as them. The bad was inspiring because I thought “I can do this just as good and better”!

Last year you won the CWA John Creasy (New blood) dagger award for your novel Echoes from the dead. How does it work and did you go to the award ceremony?
The CWA award is distributed by the British Crime Writers Society and there is a jury who reads the books of the year and pick the winners. The ceremony itself is a lavish banquet in a banquet hall in Hyde Park, London, with press photographers, film crew and smoking dressed guards. It was big. You can find an article about it here. Link…

 
Your characters are not perfect people but are still very likeable. My favourite character is Per from your latest novel. What is you favourite character?
Except the ships captain Gerlof there are several new characters in every novel and I have spent a lot of time with them during the writing. The killer Nils Kant in Echoes from the dead was special. In the beginning I really disliked him but in the end of the novel I mostly felt sorry for him.

Your crime novels are not that traditional or tied to a specific crime genre. Do you think yourself as a novelist, crime writer or something else?
I don´t have any problem with people thinking I write crime novels. It may not be procedural but all the novels about Öland are about crimes and mysteries. Then they also have other things in them, like folklore, natural romance, and relationships problems. I like to mix a lot of ingrediences in a story and see what happens.

 
Can you give our readers tips of 2 crime novels, 2 horror novels, 2 collections of short stories and 2 ordinary novels?
Crime: Calling out for you (English translation), The Indian bride (American translation) by Karin Fossum, The talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
Horror: The haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson and Mörkrädd (Swedish) by Andreas Roman
Collection of short stories: Fly till vatten och morgon (Swedish) by Thorsten Jonsson and Berättat om natten (Swedish) by Niklas Rådström
Novels: Busters ears by Maria Ernestam, Vim älskar Yngve Frej (Swedish) by Stig Claesson.

Your descriptions of the island Öland is very beautiful. Is it memories of Öland that brings out the description or where do you get your inspiration?
It’s both child hood memories of Öland and new experiences from the island. I still visit the island every year. But I can write about Öland anywhere – when I’m in Gothenburg I can just close my eyes and relocate to Öland in a second.

How do you look at the author ship today when a big part of a writers work is marketing?
The novels should be the only thing that is important. Not the persons who writes them – but that’s not how it works today. There is a huge interest in hearing and seeing the authors in libraries and book fairs. I sometimes sigh about it as a writer since I enjoy writing in peace, but I guess that as a reader I am the same. If I read an interesting novel I instantly want to know more about the author.

If you look at crime series on TV or watch a crime movie, what do you choose?
The latest TV-series about Inspector Winter, based on Åke Edwardssons novels was good. When it comes to movies, the latest I saw and really liked was Insomnia with Al Pacino and Robin Wiliams, but that was several years ago.

  
You were refused several times before you got published. What made you not give up?
In a way I have been an author since the 1980s. I´ve published short stories in over 20 years but they didn´t want my novels. It´s very hard not to be published but I didn´t give up. Writing was a hobby and passion and I would have continued writing all my life even if my novels never were published.

What will you write after you’ve finished the fourth and last novel about Öland?
I have some ideas for a novel that feels exiting, but I haven’t made up my mind yet. I will take a break from Öland though.

And last but not least. What are you reading right now? 
I’m reading the South African author Deon Meyers first novel Dead before dying. A very good procedural novel.

 A teacher is killed by a hit-and-run driver in the Belgian town Villette. Several witnesses claim that the car purposely hit her, so investigating judge Martine Poirot gets involved. The case turns out to have a historic connection and Martine suspects that the teacher was about to reveal an old secret that would have had a negative impact on several politicians in the town.

Martine’s husband, Thomas, works as a historian and he gets involved in an investigation of a medieval mass grave that is found in Villette. The novel also has ties to events in the country’s colonial past. In addition, we get to follow events in Rwanda during the Civil War, where Belgian soldiers were killed.

The Teacher in Villette is Ingrid Hedström’s first novel. She is a Swedish journalist based in Belgium, which explains her extensive knowledge about the country.

For present events to have a historic connection is a twist used frequently by crime writers, but few succeeds in doing it in such a brilliant way. I was hesitant when I started reading, but halfway through I could not put the book down.  A weak beginning, but a much stronger ending. Hang in there; it is well worth it!

Original title in Swedish: Lärarinnan i Villette