Via Declan Burke of Crime Always Pays, I've discovered Patti Abbott's blog -- Pattinase. Patti is running a series on Fridays called Forgotten Books, which this week features Roseanna by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo. I first learned about this Swedish series of 10 police procedurals via Norm of Crime Scraps (see here for a subsequent post on the topic by Norm: and here for his list of all ten books). Harper Perennial have republished all 10 in the past couple of years, in a fantastic paperback format in which a different crime-fiction author writes an introduction to each book, and other material about each novel is bound into the back of the text. So far, I've read only three of the series; they are so good that I'm not rushing them. My brief reaction to reading the first, Roseanna, is here; and my reviews of The Man Who Went up in Smoke and The Man on the Balcony are on Euro Crime. I am anticipating the next seven with pleasure.
Some ideas of forgotten books in the genre? Hunt by A. Alvarez would be one of my suggestions, as would be Laidlaw by William McIlvanney. A third is Total Eclipse by Liz Rigeby, an exciting mystery story featuring a scientist-protagonist, which is unusual. There are lots of nice touches in this exciting book, maybe I'll read it again and review it for the new series.
A couple of choices at other blogs: Peter of Detectives Beyond Borders chooses the Harpur and Isles series by Bill James (a few of which I have acquired at his recommendation, but have not yet read); and Declan himself nominates Horace McCoy’s Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye over at Crime Always Pays - by reading the post I'm reminded that McCoy wrote the excellent They Shoot Horses Don't They?
If you'd like to know more about Patti Abbott's Forgotten Books series, see here for the first week's post, and more details. And here's a list of blogs that have participated in week two. Now all they need is an RSS feed so that all the posts and links can be collected.
Some ideas of forgotten books in the genre? Hunt by A. Alvarez would be one of my suggestions, as would be Laidlaw by William McIlvanney. A third is Total Eclipse by Liz Rigeby, an exciting mystery story featuring a scientist-protagonist, which is unusual. There are lots of nice touches in this exciting book, maybe I'll read it again and review it for the new series.
A couple of choices at other blogs: Peter of Detectives Beyond Borders chooses the Harpur and Isles series by Bill James (a few of which I have acquired at his recommendation, but have not yet read); and Declan himself nominates Horace McCoy’s Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye over at Crime Always Pays - by reading the post I'm reminded that McCoy wrote the excellent They Shoot Horses Don't They?
If you'd like to know more about Patti Abbott's Forgotten Books series, see here for the first week's post, and more details. And here's a list of blogs that have participated in week two. Now all they need is an RSS feed so that all the posts and links can be collected.
Maxine I've read 2 Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo books: ROSEANNA and THE MAN ON THE BALCONY. I gave each a high rating and really must look for some more. There's this great book shop in Melbourne called "Kill City" that handles second hand (and forgotten) books, and I'll be visiting it in August when I go to Melbourne Writers' Festival. I'll have to remember to look for these books and also some more Colin Watson ones. I've read and can recommend
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Posted by: ksmith | 11 May 2008 at 10:10
Good point about Colin Watson, Kerrie -- I loved all these but have long since given away my copies. Shame, as I'd be keen to read them again, after your and Peter R's posts about them, which bought back happy reading memories!
Posted by: Maxine | 11 May 2008 at 13:27
Maxine, thanks for collecting the links to my old Sjowall and Wahloo posts.
They brought back memories of my searching through used bookshops in Totnes and Topsham to find missing books, and then after a long wait Harper Perennials brought out the 3 that I did not have.
They are still the gold standard for Scandinavian police procedurals.
Posted by: Norm | 11 May 2008 at 23:38