[AuntiePam]

Anyone read "The Dumas Club" by Perez-Reverte?

Not that one, but I tried The Fencing Master (twice) and it put me right to sleep. People say nothing but good things about him though, so maybe I'll try another.

What's the title of the first Mankell book? I'll try it.

[Horrorfiend]

I read The Club Dumas. A fantastic book. Now I want to The Flander's Panel by the same author.

For good fiction that happens to be crime fiction, I recommend just about every piece of work that Elmore Leonard has done. He's a fantastic writer with a great style.

[whitebelly]

Today i just finished the last Mankell book in the series (or, more correctly: the last book available in english, in PB) and I really am thoroughly impressed. What a writer! If you want to read the series chronologically (and there are advantages for doing so, because the same set of characters keep appearing and part of the pleasure of reading this series is keeping track of them) this would be the order to follow:

1. Faceless Killers
2. The Dogs of Riga
3. (the third book is not translated into english, i read it in dutch)
4. The White Lioness
5. Sidetracked
6. One Step Behind

In my opinion, 2., 4. and 6. are the best, so you might want to try those. Part of the appeal lies in the main character, inspector Wallander, so if you really hate the guy, you might not like the series too much.

As for Perez-Reverte: I somehow thought the ending was a bit ... abrupt. I was disappointed in a way. It starts out so promising, and then it sort of collapses near the end. Though it put in me in the mood for Dumas again. There's a film with Lena Olin and Johnny Depp, I have it somewhere lying about on dvd, but haven't got round to seeing it.

[AuntiePam]

Thanks, I'll try the first one anyway. I've read some Soviet and Scandinavian crime writers, and I like their no-frills honesty, although they can be a bit bleak at times.

[Horrorfiend]

As for Perez-Reverte: I somehow thought the ending was a bit ... abrupt. I was disappointed in a way. It starts out so promising, and then it sort of collapses near the end. Though it put in me in the mood for Dumas again. There's a film with Lena Olin and Johnny Depp, I have it somewhere lying about on dvd, but haven't got round to seeing it.

The Ninth Gate. I have it on dvd too. Great film.

[whitebelly]

I hope the film is better than the book then ;) It's Polanski, so it should be good!

Am reading "The Athenian Murders" by Jose Carlos Somosa, which is not what you would think it would be (straight-forward whodunnit in ancient times). A really hard nut to crack, much worse (I mean: better) than "The Name of the Rose", which it is often compared to.

[AuntiePam]

Faceless Killers arrived yesterday, and I'm liking it so far. Some of the dialogue seems a bit improbable, and I'm thinking maybe it's the translation, or maybe it's okay to state the obvious in police stations in Sweden. "We have to catch this killer." Yeah, okay . . .

And I got a great deal on the book -- it's pristine, and it was only $4.95 plus shipping on Amazon.

[whitebelly]

The consensus among Mankell fans and fanatics is that the series just gets better. To be honest, I thought "Faceless Killers" was ok but certainly not exceeding. It's a good introduction, but the really brilliant stuff comes later, with the "The White Lioness" as the absolute top read. I also liked "Dogs of Riga", not only because it has an ingenious plot, but, less objectively because most of it takes place in Latvia, and I am immensely interested in Eastern European literature, and like reading about Eastern Europe in general (my partner being Polish has nothing to do with it! :D). And Mankell is really good - and lucid - when it goes about international politics, which is clear both in "The White Lioness" (in which a murder in Sweden suddenly leads to a surprising high-profile complot in South Africa) and "Dogs of Riga" (where Wallander is supposed to solve a crime in cooperation with the corrupt Latvian police).

Due to circumstances I had to leave Somoza's "Athenian Murders" for a while; resumed yesterday and am probably going to finish today. I hope the English word "mind-boggling" expresses my enthusiasm-cum-bewilderment sufficiently (am trying to visualise a mind that boggles, ... tricky ;)). In between scrubbing the bedroom floor and hanging up the washing I even had to go and look up Plato's Theory of Ideas again :eek: ! Talk about mixing the mundane with the exalted ...

[Priestvyrce]

Iain Pears' Art History mysteries are fun and fairly international in scope. Though the stories are based in Italy, you get to travel with the detectives to other parts of Europe(even America!). Plus, they are pretty educational about art and its history. The books are just a fun read.

[AuntiePam]

Does it matter if I read The White Lioness out of sequence? Your description makes me want to read it next.

I've done it before, read series books out of order, and it spoiled the earlier books.