In this fourth installment we encounter writers from France, Italy, Britain (3), The Netherlands, Austria, the U.S. (2), and Japan: Pascal Garnier, Mario Giordano, Graham Greene, Robert van Gulik, Wolf Haas, Dashiell Hammett, Keigo Higashino, Patricia Highsmith, P.D. James and Dan Kavanagh.
31. GARNIER, Pascal: The Front Seat Passenger (2010, France)
Garnier writes noir novels which are blacker than black – his books can really make you uncomfortable. His protagonists are not at all likable, and sometimes the reader will think that they deserve the terrible things that happen to them. Fabien Delorme returns home to Paris after a painful visit with his elderly father in Normandy to find the house empty. In fact, Fabien doesn’t mind the unexpected absence of his wife, Sylvie, from whom he has grown apart. Then he receives a phone message which changes everything: Sylvie has been killed in a car accident along with her married lover, Martial Arnoult, in Dijon over the weekend. Fabien is flabbergasted. He was of course aware that his marriage was a stagnant one, but he had no idea that Sylvie was having an affair – the discovery of her infidelity leaves him numb. When Fabien goes to the Dijon hospital to identify the body, he asks questions about the man who died in the car with Sylvie. He tells the police that he and the dead man are, after all, “sort of related now.” He also seems to feel related to Martine, Arnoult’s widow, a frail, shy woman, for when he sees her leaving the hospital morgue he follows her, and gradually insinuates himself into her life. Why does he do that? Is he curious? Does he seek revenge? Does he think he has some right to Martine in a sort of exchange? But Martine has a curious friendship with the first wife of her dead husband, from whom she seems to be inseparable – apparently there is more to her relationship with Madeleine, a muscular fifty-year-old with the sharp eye of a bodyguard, than meets the eye. Fabien stalks the two women, waiting for his opportunity to approach Martine without her duenna, and when he discovers that the two women are planning a holiday in Majorca, he decides to follow them - a scenario rife with disaster… A marvelously unpredictable story that is surreal and horrific in equal measure.
32. GIORDANO, Mario: Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions (2015, Germany)
Sicilia often appears in crime novels. On the one hand that is due to the black shadows cast by the Cosa Nostra, as described in the stories by Leonardo Sciascia, but the other side of the coin are the delicious food and wine which were already the obsession of Inspector Montalbano in the delightful novels by Andrea Camilleri. Mario Giordano, a Bavarian of Sicilian parentage who writes in German, has created a delightful detective and a lively, humorous portrait of Sicilian society and gastronomy in the figure of Auntie Poldi. The 60-year old retiree who swears in Bavarian has lived her whole life in Munich, but has decided to spend her last years in Sicily, the country of her late husband, where she has family in the form of three formidable sisters-in-law. She acquires a crumbling home and is actually planning to drink herself to death in the warm sun while enjoying the view of the Mediterranean - she always begins her days with a “revivifying Prosecco,” after which stronger refreshments soon follow. But when young Valentino Candela, a handyman who helps out around her dilapidated house, goes missing, Poldi is concerned, even the more so as nobody else seems to care. Then she stumbles on his body on the beach and vows to uncover his murderer. This brings her in direct opposition to the 50-year old official investigator, Vito Montana, to whom Poldi feels immediately attracted despite his explicit warning to her to stay out of his investigation. But Poldi has some theories and she is determined to follow them up and find out the truth. She is also determined to get Montana in her bed... The writing of the novel matches the feisty Auntie Poldi – it is generous, warm, bold, and amusing.
33. GREENE, Graham: Stamboul Train (1932, Britain)
I first read this novel when I was at grammar school – it was one of the first literary novels I ever read in English. That is probably the reason why it has remained in my memory and why I still like to revive it now and then, although I generally speaking am not a great fan of the author. As the title implies, Stamboul Train is a train novel – a thriller about a group of travelers aboard the Orient Express which went across Europe to Istanbul in the early 1930s. The book focuses on the histories of five or six people on the train, who make the trip for a variety of reasons, but whose concerns merge into a common destiny. We have:
- Coral Musker, a chorus girl traveling to a new job she has been offered in Istanbul.
- Carleton Myatt, a Jewish raisin merchant on a business trip, who faces anti-Semitism from fellow travelers in pre-World War II Europe. A shrewd and practical businessman, out of generosity, Myatt gives the sick Coral Musker a first-class ticket. Musker is grateful and falls in love with Myatt.
- Dr. Richard Czinner, a doctor, teacher, and revolutionary socialist leader, who returns to Belgrade after years of exile. He finds out that the socialist uprising has meanwhile taken place and been crushed, but still goes back to Belgrade to stand trial, as a political gesture.
- Mabel Warren, a lesbian journalist, who follows Czinner to report on his activities. She is in the company of her love interest, Janet Pardoe.
- Josef Grünlich, a thief who flees Vienna after a failed burglary that ended in manslaughter. When Warren gets off the train in Vienna to make a phone call to her editor, her bag is stolen by Grünlich, who immediately gets on the train with her money while Warren has to stay behind.
Things get really mixed up when several protagonists are arrested at the Hungarian-Yugoslavian border in Subotica. A series of thrilling episodes follows and in the end only very few of the travelers will reach Istanbul…
The novel includes reflections on social issues, as racism and socialism/communism. Another thread is the subject of loyalty, service to others versus service to self and whether trustworthiness to others pays off. Overall, the novel is suffused by an uneasy mood, reflecting the general mood during the economic depression of the 1930s.
- Coral Musker, a chorus girl traveling to a new job she has been offered in Istanbul.
- Carleton Myatt, a Jewish raisin merchant on a business trip, who faces anti-Semitism from fellow travelers in pre-World War II Europe. A shrewd and practical businessman, out of generosity, Myatt gives the sick Coral Musker a first-class ticket. Musker is grateful and falls in love with Myatt.
- Dr. Richard Czinner, a doctor, teacher, and revolutionary socialist leader, who returns to Belgrade after years of exile. He finds out that the socialist uprising has meanwhile taken place and been crushed, but still goes back to Belgrade to stand trial, as a political gesture.
- Mabel Warren, a lesbian journalist, who follows Czinner to report on his activities. She is in the company of her love interest, Janet Pardoe.
- Josef Grünlich, a thief who flees Vienna after a failed burglary that ended in manslaughter. When Warren gets off the train in Vienna to make a phone call to her editor, her bag is stolen by Grünlich, who immediately gets on the train with her money while Warren has to stay behind.
Things get really mixed up when several protagonists are arrested at the Hungarian-Yugoslavian border in Subotica. A series of thrilling episodes follows and in the end only very few of the travelers will reach Istanbul…
The novel includes reflections on social issues, as racism and socialism/communism. Another thread is the subject of loyalty, service to others versus service to self and whether trustworthiness to others pays off. Overall, the novel is suffused by an uneasy mood, reflecting the general mood during the economic depression of the 1930s.
34. GULIK, Robert van: The Chinese Bell Murders (1958, The Netherlands)
In the autumn of 668, Judge Dee has just taken up his post at Poo-yang, his third post. Everything leads him to believe that this position is easy: trade and agriculture are prosperous, natural disasters unknown, crime low, not to mention that his predecessor effectively administered his district, leaving Judge Dee only one criminal case in progress: a sordid case of rape followed by murder, for which only the main suspect remains to be convicted. But Judge Dee soon realizes that reality does not match this enchanting picture. Quickly, doubts come to him about the guilt of the suspect in the Half Moon Street affair. And this is only the beginning: the recent soaring fortune of a large Buddhist temple in the region arouses his suspicions, and an old woman comes to tell him about a gruesome story of nine-fold murder, whose sponsor is said to be a wealthy Cantonese merchant. And these two cases are delicate to say the least: the power of the Buddhist clergy and the Cantonese merchants is such that they are able to evade punishment, or have a magistrate who opposes them transferred to the borders of the Empire. More than ever, Judge Dee will have to maneuver with infinite caution. Read more in my article "The Judge Dee Novels by Robert van Gulik."
35. HAAS, Wolf: Come Sweet Death (1998, Austria)
Ex-cop Simon Brenner, who tries to position himself as far away as possible from the drudgery and corruption of being a police detective, takes a job as ambulance driver in downtown Vienna. But that is not exactly a retirement position, because of the tendency of his new colleagues to place bets on how many red lights they can run. Another problem is that his unit’s major competitor is listening in on their radio communications and beating them to many pickups. Knowing his past as a cop, Brenner’s boss asks him to investigate. Meanwhile, is it Brenner’s paranoia or are certain wealthy elderly patients dying more quickly than they should (and leaving their money to the ambulance service)? Then ambulance drivers start being killed and Brenner’s life is in danger, too... some people obviously don’t want their business exposed. Brenner has no choice but to act as a detective once more and race around summertime Vienna with blaring ambulance siren in order solve a complex puzzle. The title “Come, sweet death” is based on a famous aria by Bach, which gives Brenner the literal hint to help him solve the mystery. A hilarious book..jpg)
36. HAMMETT, Dashiell: The Thin Man (1934, USA)
Among the five thrillers Hammett wrote, The Maltese Falcon stands out for its femme fatale, Brigid O'Shaughnessy, as well as the meanness of protagonist Sam Spade; while The Glass Key seems to have been the author’s own favorite. I have a special fondness for The Thin Man, which stands apart from the rest for not being hard-boiled but rather a drawing room comedy with dead bodies. The main characters are Nick Charles, a former detective who is seldom without a drink in his hand, and his clever young wife, Nora, a wealthy socialite. Nick has stopped working to take care of his wife’s fortune and spends most of his time getting cheerfully drunk. The novel is set in the period the U.S. suffered under the Prohibition (1919-1933), but that doesn’t seem to be a problem for Nick, for there is always enough alcohol, for example in swanky speakeasies. The plot is of little consequence - interesting are the witty dialogues between Nick and Nora and the bantering detective duo that is “playfully in love” eventually became a media archetype. The two characters are thought to have been based on Hammett and his longtime girlfriend Lillian Hellman. A reluctant Nick is dragged into solving a sensational murder involving the weird Wynant family and various gangsters, all the time cheered on by the thrill-loving Nora. The fun of the book is even heightened in the film made in 1934 by W.S. van Dyke, for there is real chemistry between Nick and Nora as played by William Powell and Myrna Loy. They often seem to be improvising just for the fun of it. Not surprisingly, the film became a wild success and was followed by five sequels, between 1936 and 1947, all in the same vein, although no longer based on a story by Dashiell Hammett. Powell and Loy played their screen marriage so naturally that people mistakenly thought they were a couple in real life as well. They revolutionized the portrayal of marriage in films, doing away with its virtuous and staid image and making marriage sexy. Of course, they have a dog (Asta) rather than kids, a dog which actually plays an integral - and humorous - part in solving the various mysteries.
37. HIGASHINO Keigo: The Devotion of Suspect X (2005, Japan)
Keigo Higashino is a first-rate bestseller author in Japan and other Asian countries. I have a hearty dislike of so-called bestsellers as these are usually mediocre (after all, they have to please the crowd according to the most common denominator), but there are several things that win me over for Higashino, who at present is probably the most important living author of mysteries and detective stories in Japan. The first of these is that Higashino doesn’t write overblown thrillers with loads of violence and cruelty, but his mysteries center on quiet detection – they are almost serene (in the U.S. his type of work is apparently so rare that in some reviews it is compared to Columbo – which is not really a good comparison).
Higashino mostly writes about ordinary people in ordinary situations and recognizable Japanese locations. Although he is sometimes mentioned together with the Shin Honkaku writers (and won the Honkaku Mystery Award of 2006 with the present novel), nothing could be farther from the truth. Except in a number of short stories, puzzles are not central to his books, but he focuses on human beings. He doesn't need the trappings of weird mansions or deserted islands for his mysteries, which is a definite plus. In fact, the false idea that he writes traditional puzzle mysteries and should be judged according to the rules laid down by S.S. Van Dine for such books, has led to annoying misunderstandings – I saw at least one reviewer who blamed Higashino for not being “fair” to the reader by giving enough facts to be able to solve the mystery, something which is wholly beside the mark as Higashino writes a different kind of books. On top of that, the present novel is an inverted detective story: we know the murderer from the start and the emphasis is on the battle of wits with the police. Higashino has said himself that his greatest example is Matsumoto Seicho, who also wrote about the lives of normal people.
Higashino has written more than 80 novels and short story collections, and many of his books have been filmed. His most famous novel is the present “The Devotion of Suspect X,” written in 2005. Former bar hostess Yasuko Hanaoka is a divorced single mother who works in a shop selling bento lunch boxes. Tetsuya Ishigami is a highly talented but reclusive mathematics teacher, who lives in the apartment next door to Yasuko and her middle-school age daughter Misato. When Yasuko's abusive ex-husband Togashi shows up one day to extort money from her, the situation escalates into violence, and the extortioner ends up being killed by mother and daughter, though they were mostly acting in self defense. Overhearing the commotion through the thin apartment walls, Ishigami, who is secretly enamored of Yasuko but has never told her so (on his way to work he every morning goes to buy a bento at her shop), offers his help, disposing of the body and step-by-step plotting the ingenious cover-up of the murder.
Police detective Shunpei Kusanagi is unable to solve the case and brings in his acquaintance Dr Manabu Yukawa (know by his nickname “Galileo”), a physicist who frequently acts as advisor to the police. Interestingly, Dr Yukawa, who figures in eight more novels and story collections by Higashino, also happens to be an old college friend of Ishigami. This leads to a battle of wits between Yukawa and Ishigami, the one trying to out-think and outmaneuver the other, although it must be said that in the end Yukawa remains loyal to his friend. Things get complicated when Yasuko meets an old customer from her hostess period, a company president who recently has been widowed, and shows herself receptive to his advances – she appreciates Ishigami’s help, but doesn’t see him as “a man” and a possible partner at all. Despite that, Ishigami will show his devotion to her in a most radical way, and there are some unexpected plot developments waiting for the reader.
When you close the book you realize you have been reading a love story, a strange story of unrequited love...
Higashino mostly writes about ordinary people in ordinary situations and recognizable Japanese locations. Although he is sometimes mentioned together with the Shin Honkaku writers (and won the Honkaku Mystery Award of 2006 with the present novel), nothing could be farther from the truth. Except in a number of short stories, puzzles are not central to his books, but he focuses on human beings. He doesn't need the trappings of weird mansions or deserted islands for his mysteries, which is a definite plus. In fact, the false idea that he writes traditional puzzle mysteries and should be judged according to the rules laid down by S.S. Van Dine for such books, has led to annoying misunderstandings – I saw at least one reviewer who blamed Higashino for not being “fair” to the reader by giving enough facts to be able to solve the mystery, something which is wholly beside the mark as Higashino writes a different kind of books. On top of that, the present novel is an inverted detective story: we know the murderer from the start and the emphasis is on the battle of wits with the police. Higashino has said himself that his greatest example is Matsumoto Seicho, who also wrote about the lives of normal people.
Higashino has written more than 80 novels and short story collections, and many of his books have been filmed. His most famous novel is the present “The Devotion of Suspect X,” written in 2005. Former bar hostess Yasuko Hanaoka is a divorced single mother who works in a shop selling bento lunch boxes. Tetsuya Ishigami is a highly talented but reclusive mathematics teacher, who lives in the apartment next door to Yasuko and her middle-school age daughter Misato. When Yasuko's abusive ex-husband Togashi shows up one day to extort money from her, the situation escalates into violence, and the extortioner ends up being killed by mother and daughter, though they were mostly acting in self defense. Overhearing the commotion through the thin apartment walls, Ishigami, who is secretly enamored of Yasuko but has never told her so (on his way to work he every morning goes to buy a bento at her shop), offers his help, disposing of the body and step-by-step plotting the ingenious cover-up of the murder.
Police detective Shunpei Kusanagi is unable to solve the case and brings in his acquaintance Dr Manabu Yukawa (know by his nickname “Galileo”), a physicist who frequently acts as advisor to the police. Interestingly, Dr Yukawa, who figures in eight more novels and story collections by Higashino, also happens to be an old college friend of Ishigami. This leads to a battle of wits between Yukawa and Ishigami, the one trying to out-think and outmaneuver the other, although it must be said that in the end Yukawa remains loyal to his friend. Things get complicated when Yasuko meets an old customer from her hostess period, a company president who recently has been widowed, and shows herself receptive to his advances – she appreciates Ishigami’s help, but doesn’t see him as “a man” and a possible partner at all. Despite that, Ishigami will show his devotion to her in a most radical way, and there are some unexpected plot developments waiting for the reader.
When you close the book you realize you have been reading a love story, a strange story of unrequited love...
38. HIGHSMITH, Patricia: Deep Water (1957, USA)
Among Patricia Highsmith’s 22 novels, I selected “Deep Water” because I wanted to read something new besides “Strangers on a Train” and the Ripley novels (which I dislike, because I can’t stand a character like Tom Ripley). This novel is an outcry against mediocrity. Vic is a meek and thoughtful man married to a beautiful, but shallow and callous wife, Melinda. They live with their six-year-old daughter in a small town in upstate New York, full of dull, second-rate people. Vic owns a small publishing business dedicated to the production of high-quality, specialist books and has several other intellectual hobbies that nobody in his circle understands. After eight years, Vic and Melinda’s marriage has not just turned cold, but grown positively toxic – Vic even lives in another part of the house – but for some reason (these are the 1950s!) they want to avoid the messiness of a divorce. Melinda has no job, neglects her child and does nothing in the house (Vic mostly cooks their meals). She spends all her time playing around with her stupid and offensive boyfriends. She not only brings them to the house for drinking and dancing until the early morning hours, but also takes them to parties of their mutual friends. The cuckolded Vic is a slow burner but finally shows his teeth. First he makes a joke, saying in public he has killed one of her boyfriends when the guy doesn’t show up for some time, trying to assert himself through this tall tale. When this is shown not to be true, he takes the next step with another boyfriend... and now it is no lie anymore. Highsmith’s genius is demonstrated by the fact that the reader feels more sympathy for Vic, the murderer, than for his victims.
39. JAMES, P.D.: A Mind to Murder (1963, Britain)
I was thinking to include either “Innocent Blood,” a novel which follows a young woman named Philippa Palfrey in her quest to discover more about her biological parents and the crimes in their past, or “An Unsuitable Job for a Woman” about Cordelia Gray, a new type of female detective. But when I tried to re-read these novels, I couldn't feel as enthusiastic about them as when I read them for the first time. Then I discovered an unread volume by P.D. James on my bookshelf, “A Mind to Murder,” the second novel in the 14-volume series of police procedurals focusing on inspector Adam Dalgliesh. I started reading that and, although it was rather conservative in set-up, I quite liked it. The setting is a psychiatric clinic in London. One night, detective Superintendent Dalgliesh is called away from a literary soiree (he is a published poet as well) to investigate the murder of the office manager, who has been killed by driving a chisel through her heart. Dalgliesh interviews all the doctors and personnel of the clinic and discovers that the relationships among the suspects are intertwined in a rather awkward way as lovers and ex-lovers, which makes the story more than a bit complicated. James is showing herself to be a serious writer, more interested in personality and character than in plot. This is not only evidenced in her descriptions of the various personalities in the clinic, but also in her characterization of Dalgliesh, a minor poet and major crime-solver, who feels a great deal and is a far cry from the cold, calculating detectives of many other authors – Dalgliesh is human. And here, for the first time, he feels unsure of his own mastery as he battles to unmask a cool killer who is proving to be his intellectual equal, and who is poised to strike again.
40. KAVANAGH, Dan (Julian Barnes): Duffy (1980, Britain)
Is Julian Barnes ashamed about the four sleazy detective novels he wrote between 1980 and 1987 under the pseudonym of Dan Kavanagh? Especially the first one is a lively book which is still worth reading, although it is also rather voyeuristic when the hero investigates the square mile of ‘saunas’, peepshows and sex shops that make up Soho. Duffy is a bisexual private detective and ex-policeman with a phobia of ticking watches. Two masked men break into Brian McKechnie's house, cut his wife and spit roast his cat. This leads to blackmail and McKechnie goes to the local police but finds them strangely uninterested and so he hires Duffy to investigate. The investigator uses his contacts in the seedy Soho underworld to identify those responsible and finds they have links to his ex-colleagues in the police, and to his own dismissal from their ranks four years earlier when he was fitted up. The trail leads to a porn king and after almost having been castrated by garroting in a massage parlor, Duffy contrives to catch both the criminal and the police crook by means of a diary. The language of the book is rather brutal for 1980, but today probably doesn’t lead to any raised eyebrows.
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