Sunday Salon: this week at Euro Crime

Late-breaking news: the weekly reviews are up on Euro Crime and Jo Nesbo's Nemesis (see previous post) is one of them. Fiona Walker is Euro Crime's reviewer. Her view? "….as thrilling and gripping as his previous books would lead you to hope. Harry may be your stereotypical alcoholic cop, but he still manages to feel completely original and as engaging as this kind of protagonist is able to be, which is rare, given that the genre is as saturated with them, as their blood is with alcohol."

The other reviews at Euro Crime this week include mine of two books: Martin Edwards's The Cipher Garden, a cleverly written mystery involving a small set of suspects; and Nicci French's Losing You, which I call an unbearably tense book with an overwhelmingly exciting plot. No special effects needed, either. Geoff Jones reviews Natasha Cooper's latest, A Poisoned Mind, a good story tackling social issues, although the main character seems to be somewhat beset by wimps. Ed O'Connor's Primal Cut, a slice of violent London crime, is in Sunnie Gill's frame:not a book for the faint-hearted, apparently. And Euro Crime herself, Karen Meek, reviews The Chameleon's Shadow by Minette Walters, described as a gripping read by a master story-teller.

There's a nice new feature at Euro Crime: at the end of each review are links to details of the author's other books, and to other Euro Crime reviews.

  

Sunday Salon: Norwegian, Australian and Montana noir

Are there any book readers and reviewers out there in the blogosphere that aren't in Sunday Salon? Yes, I see from my online reading, one or two. I'll highlight a few blog posts of possible interest to salonists.
Here is another review of Jo Nesbo's latest, Nemesis, this one at Material Witness. "This is another assured, skillful book from Nesbo, who has a gift for narrative as strong as that for dialogue, and is fast establishing himself in the very top tier of European crime novelists." (For some more Nesbo discussion, see International Noir Fiction.)
Peter Rozovsky, familiar to crime-fiction readers as the Detective Beyond Borders, reviews Adrian Hyland's Moonlight Downs for the Philadelphia Inquirer. When I read the book it was called Diamond Dove, and I couldn't agree more with the standfirst of Peter's review: "Adrian Hyland's debut novel explores lovely and forsaken terrains of land and soul."
PrairieMary writes a fascinating post about Montana Noir — the post itself is an open letter to an author of the genre, Gary J Cook, but it also lists some examples, one of which is Red Harvest, by the master himself, Dashiell Hammett. It's enough to make me want to go and read it again. Returning to Gary J Cook, here is PrairieMary on one of his books, Wounded Moon: "it was a good thriller besides — all the best heroes get martyred. All the best lovers escape having to live happily ever after, washing the dishes and fixing the car. And there was a dog named "History." "