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

Inger Holt, a Norwegian TV celebrity is murdered in Australia. The Norwegian policeman Harry Hole is sent to Sydney to assist with the investigation, but also to escape from his problems with alcohol and to get some distance to the car crash, which he survived but a colleague was killed in.

Harry Hole and the Australian policeman Andrew Kensington looks for the killer, and it does not take long before they suspect that they are dealing with a serial killer. During the investigation they meet drug dealers, pimps, prostitutes, transvestites, boxers, aborigines and circus artists.

I had heard so many great things about Jo Nesbø’s novels, so I looked forward to put another series on my “to read list.” But after having read his first novel The Bat Man I seriously doubt that I will read any other novels by Jo Nesbø. I did not like this novel at all, and it only goes to show how tastes can differ, since The Bat Man was awarded with The 1997 Riverton Prize for Best Norwegian Crime Novel and The 1998 Glass Key for Best Nordic Crime Novel of the Year.

I thought the novel was too slow, there was too much “fluff” and I never cared about the characters. Eventually I just wanted the novel to end. I did however like the titles of each chapter, which represent the content of each chapter.

We at TheCrimeHouse are very happy to welcome crime author Sara Paretsky to this interview!

On the photograph to the left you see Paretsky with the Cartier Diamond Dagger she recieved in 2002. The award is given by the Crime Writers´ Association of Great Britain to authors who have made an outstanding lifetime’s contribution to the crime fiction genre.

You’ve described your work process on your homepage and on your blog but where do you write? Is it in an office? In a sofa? Do you write directly on the computer, is it messy or do you keep everything very organized while writing and so on…
I live in an old house, and we turned the attic into my office. It’s a lovely light space, which unfortunately is also very disorganized. I like the comfort of many books around me. Indeed, I like to sleep with them in bed with me.

The character V.I was a totally new type of character in the 80s and as you’ve said in many interviews – women in noir/hard-boiled fiction were always portrayed as either a vamp or a victim before you changed this. Can you name some contemporary authors that you think also have strong and believable female character and write with the same type of agenda as yourself?
I wouldn’t second guess another person’s agenda in writing, but some of the other strong women that I like in contemporary fiction include Nevada Barr’s Anna Pigeon; the two characters created by Liza Cody, Anna Lee and Eve Wylie; of course, Grafton and Muller’s Milhone and McCone, respectively; Barbaraneely’s Blanche; and Valerie Wilson Wesley’s Tamara Hayle.

Can you tell our readers shortly what Sisters in crime is? Is it available for writers outside of USA?
We started Sisters in Crime in 1986 to try to change discrimination against women writers in the way our books were reviewed and distributed. Sisters continues to advocate for women crime writers, and there are chapters all over the world. For more information, and to see if there is a Swedish chapter, visit the website: Link…

Can you recommend 3 novels you think our readers should read (apart from your own books)
Liza Cody’s Bucket Nut – this book is almost a primer on how to turn an unsympathetic character into someone for whom the reader cares passionately.

I’m having a hard time with this question because in crime fiction there are series of books that I think are well-worth reading – Ian Rankin, Nevada Barr, Margery Allingham, Dorothy Salisbury Davis, Jonathan Coe, Karin Alvtegen – just to name a few, but not individual titles. In general fiction, three books that just jump to the top of the list in my head are:

Wolf Hall by Mantel

Gilead by Robinson

A Blessing on the Moon by Skibbell

V.I is aging. Will she retire? and if so when? And will there then be a new character?
I’m taking the coward’s way out now on V I’s age. She’s going to hover around fifty for awhile. If she retires, she’ll probably end up blowing up the nursing home that she’s incarcerated in. I can imagine creating a new character, but I can’t imagine leaving V I behind.

You told me that you liked Stieg Larssons Lisbeth Salander in general but had a hard time with the graphic description of the sexual abuse. It seems you draw some line there. Do you think books in general today are more graphic when it comes to violence and sex? And if so, do you have any idea why? Is it influences from TV and movies we see or perhaps symptoms of something else?
These are tough questions to answer in a short way. I think sadistic and graphic violence have always been a sub-part of the genre, but were considered pornagraphic and were not widely distributed or read until the last 15 or 20 years. The level and degree of graphic violence seems to get more extreme all the time. I think this is partly due to some writers wanting to create a dramatic presence for themselves in a crowded marketplace. I also think some readers are desensitized to the graphic descriptions of the violence so that the decibals have to be increased to get their attention. I also think that some of the increase in fictional graphic violence against women is a reaction to the women’s movement – some readers and writers perhaps feel so threatened by the greater presence of women in positions of authority that they act out revenge fantasies through these kinds of violent crime novels.

What was the first crime novel you ever read?
Rex Stout’s The Black Mountain

Chicago plays a big role in your books but our readers come from all over the world and have perhaps never been to Chicago. Can you give us a couple of tips of things to do in Chicago as a tourist and crime fiction lover?
Alzina Stone Dale’s Mystery Reader’s Walking Guide: Chicago is a great place for mystery lovers to start, but I would urge any new comer to the city to go to the Chicago Architecture Foundation: Link…

They’re at 224 South Michigan Avenue, right across the street from the Art Institute, and they offer wonderful tours of the city. People should also check out the Chicago Cultural Center’s website: Link…

because they offer bus tours of a number of neighborhoods, and if you email far enough in advance, you can get a tour guide who speaks your language.

Writing is obviously the main thing a writer does, but a big part is also marketing, touring etc. It seems authors ”have” to be more and more available to her/his readers and I can’t help but feel sorry for the sometimes hectic schedule some authors have. On the other hand it helps selling books and some authors likes coming close to their readers. What are your thoughts on this?
I enjoy touring except for the exhaustion of the travel itself. The trouble with touring is you spend one day in a place and move on so that you miss the pleasure of exploring a new country or a new city.

Can you place these ingredients of a novel in the order you think is most important in a novel (feel free to add or remove any word): Characters, story, milieu, message to the audience, thrills, dialogue
Story and characters are intertwined for me. I can’t tell a story until I have characters that I care about, who come to life for me. Dialogue is a way of creating believable characters. As a reader, milieu is always less important to me than good writing. I guess good writing is number one.

What do you think/hope that the readers will think and feel after reading one of your books?
I hope readers will be engaged enough by the story that the story and the characters will stay in their minds.

Do you have a favorite crime movie and do you watch any criminal series on TV or and if, so what?
There are several crime movies that I love:  Myrna Loy and William Powell in the first of the Thin Man movies; Robert Mitchum in Night of the Hunter. Although the ending is a little treacly, the middle part, where he’s hunting the children, is bone chilling; I love Some Like It Hot – the all around great gangster-on-the-lam movie. I love the current series, NCIS, even though in many ways it’s quite predictable. I thought The Wire was brilliant but almost too close to the bone to make for comfortable viewing. I also love the brief-lived series with Paul Gross called Due South.

What are you reading now?
I’ve just come on Collin Cotterill’s Laotian crime novels. They’re gentle, but unflinching, and I love the characters. I’m also reading the Ian Rutledge series written by the mother-son team who write as Charles Todd. The best book I’ve read for some time is Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall.

Thank You Sara Paretsksy!

Several otherwise healthy people die of cardiac arrest within a short period of time in Sundsvall, Sweden. Is it a coincidence? Policeman Johan Axberg sees his friend Dr. Erik Jensen and when they discuss their jobs and experiences they both believe that something strange is going on. When they also find out that all the deceased people’s watches or clocks are missing they suspect that they may be dealing with a serial killer.

The Pendulum of Death (Translated from the original Swedish title: Dödens pendel) is Jonas Moström’s first novel and since the author is a doctor as well, he describes that world without any problems. The language flows well and the readers have access to more information than the police. Both Axberg and Jensen struggle with personal relationships but stay focused on the case regardless.

I do a quick search on the Internet and find out that the author just published the fifth novel in the series about Axberg and Jensen. If the rest of the novels hold the same quality I have several pleasant hours of reading ahead of me.

A baby is found abandoned and shortly thereafter the mom is found murdered nearby. The first task for the police is to find out who the child and woman are, which turns out to be a difficult task since no one seems to miss them.

We also get to follow a three-year-old girl who has been left home alone. The days pass and she is finally able to get in contact with the outside world.

The police also get another murder case to investigate when a teenage girl is found murdered on a ferry. Her sister is battling her own issues and the fact that their mom is an alcoholic does not make it easier.

“Mamma, pappa, barn” (not available in English yet) is the second part of the Hammarby series. This novel is better than the first part The Gingerbread House (Pepparkakshuset). The graphic descriptions found in the first part are missing (thankfully). The second novel is also much more exciting and almost impossible to put down.

There is also a continuation of the sidetrack from the first novel (a policewoman who was raped), but we do not find out how it ends this time either and I assume the author will continue this track in the next novel as well.

Review of The Gingerbread House

I´ve just read Qui Xiaolongs Death of a red heroine.

The main character Chen Cao lives in Shanghai. He works as a police inspector but is really a poet. He studied English at the university and to earn some extra money he translates englishcrime novels to chinese.

The novel starts with two men finding a women in the river. This is not just any women, it´s a famous women, who the communist parti uses as an example for the people of the perfect working women but when Cao and his colleague starts to dig in to her personal life, everything is not as it seems. The partyis not happy and Cao and Yu have to be very careful with their actions….

It took me a while to get through this book. Not because it was bad but because a lot of things was new to me. I have to admit that I thought I knew a lot about China but it´s different to read history books or watch the news. It´s a different thing to actually read how ordinary people live and work. Although the book is from the beginning of the 90s it´s still a very good way in to the Chinese society.

There is a lot of social critisism in the book and I am not surprised the the author lives in USA since 1989. However, there is a whole lot of love for the chinese people in the book which is shown through the characters, the food, and small quotations, poems and words of wisdom.

This is a really good crime novel and it gives a fantastic insight in the Chinese society (1990s) The book requires a bit of the reader but I think it´s a good thing. There are too many crime novels that you just hurry through. I will definately read more of Xiaolong and other Asian crime authors!

A man is found murdered in a channel in Stockholm. He has no identification on him, and the body is impossible to identify. Axel Hake becomes responsible for the murder investigation and the only clue he has is an unusual tattoo that the victim has on his arm.

I like the author’s writing style and the fact that he does not use too many sidetracks, which keeps the novel focused and on point. The story is really good, and it stays exciting and unpredictable except for the parts involving Axel Hake’s personal life, which I find less interesting.

Södermalmsmorden (Swedish title, I do not know if/when the novel will be translated to English) is the second novel in Lars Bill Lundholm’s series about Axel Hake. Each novel takes place in a different neighborhood in Stockholm, and this time the turn came to Södermalm.

Every time I see this movie I am amazed at how good a movie from the 1940s can be!

Paula (Ingrid Bergman) plays the niece of a famous female singer who was murdered some years ago. Paula is living in Italy practising singing when she meets the man of her dreams. They soon marries and by his suggestion they move back to London and the house where Paula’s aunt was murdered.

I will not reveal too much, except to say that you have to search for a more creepier villain. The story is timeless and the acting is brilliant! Also check out Angela Lansbury (Murder, She wrote) as a 17 year young actress, playing the very cheeky maid.