´Coffee and Cigarettes´

Born in a family with a controversial Nazi past, Ferdinand von Schirach uses his everyday life legal professional experience in creating stories with a clear moral conflict and questionning. Through the state prosecutor´s decisions, often surprising, facing the sometimes horrific facts of the culprits, there are fragments of human knowledge shared with us.

Kaffee und Zigaretten - Coffee and Cigarettes -, to which I had access in audiobook format - are a collection of his short stories, and some theater play, and even an ´audio film´. Although not equal in their approach to topics, the insights into human motivations and resilience, as well as the moral/religious hollow that does sometimes surround our way of seeing or escaping everyday responsibility was for me the most important exercise in reading those fragments. 

It is a long, insightful read/or listening, which can be also used as an useful German learning and practice (C1 to C2 levels). For me, it was also a reminder that the contemporary German literature has so many unique topics and voices, which may not necessarily relate or resonate current topics of other international literature. Hence, it makes me grateful for my German language skills.

Rating: 3.5 stars 

Orenda Books Cover Reveal: The Descent by Paul E. Hardisty and Death Flight by Sarah Sultoon

If you are following my blog, you may notice two things: I can hardly resist an offer of reading the titles published by Orenda Books and that I love beautiful, smart covers. This post is all about those two topics, as I had the honour of being invited to introduce you to two covers of incoming titles by one of my favorite publishing houses around, by authors I had the chance to previously review and can´t wait to read more about.

Death Flight by Sarah Sultoon

Sarah Sultoon is a knowledgeable and talented political thriller author, as I discovered in Dirt. An experienced journalist, her new book Death Flight will arrive on the 1st of February next year. Her topic moves from the Middle East to Argentina, where the story follows an investigation related to Argentina´s Dirty Wars. As I personally have a lot of questions about this tragic episode, I can´t wait to read the book. And the cover announces something really eventful. I love how the cover matches the sense of emergency and thrilling events about to happen. You may even get dizzy it looking at the image for a long time, and I can only expect a high intake of adrenaline from this book.

You can pre-order the book here: https://geni.us/jPl9Q

The Descent by Paul E. Hardisty

Paul E Hardisty is no new name for the readers of my blog. At the beginning of this year I´ve reviewed The Forcing, a thriller novel inspired by the climate emergency. The Descent is the prequel of this book and promises the same amount of action packed with inspired thoughts about the unfolding drama of the climate change. Dramatically, the cover inspires the same feeling of insecurity and burning emergency, through the choice of colours and the poster-like lettering. 

The book will be published in various formats on the 15th of February and here is the link to pre-order the book: https://geni.us/EPOP

Random Things Tours: Moroccan Traffic by Dorothy Durrant

The word ´traffic´ can be read in more than one way, and this ambiguity in the title of Moroccan Traffic by late historical fiction and bestseller Scottish author and painter Dorothy Dunnett is a delightful game of double meanings. It was my first encounter with this author and her Dolly mysteries - this one is the 7th in the series - but I have more than one doubt that it will not be the last time.

From the very beginning of the book, the reader is caught into a fast forward chain of events and characters. The prose is short, alert, fast, and so are the events unfolding. In the romanticized Marrakesh with her mother - with whom she has a decent love-hate relationship - Wendy Helmann may be exposed to series of unexpected dramatic events - race through the Atlas Mountains, kidnappings, explosions, dead threats, and many more. Her boss, the chairman of Kingsley Conglomerates may have a say in this, while he is busy with murky takeover negotiations. 

Everything is unfolding so fast that you can hardly get a break from reading, and this is how you can courageously spend a cosy weekend at home. The characters may remind of classical crime characters, but transposed into a more modern and lively environment. 

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Short Stories Book Review: I Hear You´re Rich by Diane Williams

Since two weeks, I can hardly read and review anything but books I am commissioned to for my regular book tours. Short stories and poetry though keep my world on artificial ventilation, a time limited escape from a reality I´ve seen maybe coming but couldn´t accept the thought of it.

A couple of months ago I´ve read my first Diane Williams collection of short stories and this week I got to finish her newest release: I Hear You´re Rich. Short stanzas from the everyday life, questioning the questions, leading you from one word to another in a different direction you dreamt of. I love brevity, especially in stories and Williams has her own art of creating the intense moment, like a cinematic moment carefully and assiduously prepared for a long time. A preparedness known by the author herself, but still surprising the reader. Each story can be read over and over again, and the concise nature of it will reveal more and more meanings. The richness of the ´short´ genre at its best.

Although I loved the writing, I was not always impressed by the topics. It´s a matter of taste, I know.

Rating: 4 stars

Random Things Tours: Stigma by Jørn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger translated by Megan E. Turney

 

Successful writing collaborations are rare but when the collaboration between two likeminded literary minds happens it´s a pleasure for the reader. ´Nordic Noir´ has offer many pleasures from individual authors but Jørn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger seems to be a completely different level. Yes, I know, every time I am discovering a new author of this ´Noir´ category I may repeat myself, but this is because this is how it feels like. Uniquely, this geographical area seems to provide an excellent selection of crime and thriller novels hard to compare to anything produced in other parts of the world. 

This was my second encounter with the literary bestselling duo Jørn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger. Stigma was translated into English from Norwegian by Megan E. Turney a translator I had the chance to feature previously for a Danish translation as well, and published by Orenda Books, one of my favorite crime and thriller edition houses I always feel honoured to feature on my blog. 

The book is the fourth installment from the Blix&Ramm series, and although I recommend reading the other books in the series, it can be also read as a stand alone. What definitely matters is the story, which is fast paced and although directly brutal and aggressive - not for the faint of heart - it is nevertheless very human in its raw emotional manifestation.

Alexander Blix is currently serving a prison term for taking upon himself the duty of avenging the death of his dear daughter. As a dangerous criminal escapes a German prison, he may be helpful in connecting some missing dots from his high security cell. Together with Emma Ramm, a journalist, one of his few visitors in prison, he is trying to help advance the investigation aimed at catching the criminal.

Personally, I felt the race for catching him, but also the highly adrenaline events unfolding. The combination between the action packed story and the human insights is my perfect thriller combo. It is an unpredictable story, with many layers and revelations about the people of the underworld and their realm. A lesson in life from an inspired thriller duo.

Rating: 5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Rachel´s Random Resources: Fatal Lies by Anita Waller

 

There are different kind of lies: small lies and survival lies and also fatal lies. There is a different degree of risk they may involve but nevertheless a lie is a lie and hiding the truth can be fatal. 

This is what happened with the protagonists of Fatal Lies by Anita Waller, published by Boldwood Books. The book is the second in the series featuring The Forrester Detective Agency, a family business of the Forresters from Sheffield, Waller´s city. Although I would definitely read - and recommend reading - the first installment as well, you can easily understand what is going on in the book without further knowledge of the previous book.

This time, it seems that a burglary went completely wrong, with the victim being killed. Was it something who went completely wrong? Was it an accident or was on purpose? And, if yes, who is to blame for it?

This is the task to be solved by the agency and in the end, it proves to be much more difficult as it looked at the first sight. More than once, he is rather forced to react than to act, and this set a definitely different trend for the investigation as well as for his professional outlook of his job and business.

I enjoyed reading Fatal Lies, particularly the good mixture between actions and the characters, has a local flair which is gives the story even more authenticity and also makes the characters relatable. In order to be successful, a thriller should not necessarily be set in a big city, easily identified on the list of ´100 places to see before you die´. Personally, I feel more attracted by stories set in small, relatively out of the radar locations, because at this micro level it is much easier to interact and see the human relationships unfolding. 

I would love to continue following the next adventure of the agency and eventuallymore books by Anita Waller as well. It looks like an author that has a lot of insights about humans and their motivations.

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Random Things Tours: The Babysitter by Emma Curtis

 

Stories with disappearing or killed babies are hitting very hard those days, particularly myself. But back in September when I accepted to read and review this book I could not fathom the new wave of hate and unspeakable violence hitting my beloved Middle East. But nevertheless, the role of a book is not to scare you, but to open up your mind and sometimes also take you out of your comfort zone. A challenge I always dare to accept.

The Babysitter by Emma Curtis was indeed worth reading it. It may unchain a wave of confusing feelings and uncertain thoughts about what the characters do, did or really are, but this is one of the strengths of Curtis literary mastery. 

Claudia, Anna and Sara are brought together by the destiny shared, willingly or not. Claudia is just released on parole from prison where she was convicted for the murder of her child, Tilly. Sara married Claudia´s ex-husband, while Anna was the babysitter who let them down when she was supposed to babysit. Apparently, they may not have too many reasons to stay in touch those days. However, it seems there is a secret binding them together and this revelation is the journey we are invited to during the reading of the book.

I enjoyed reading The Babysitter as you may enjoy a good written book no matter the topic. It builds a strong argument and the story itself is almost flawless, playing with double meanings and confusion until the very end. Expect a lot of suspense and unexpected turns of events, and insightful psychological games. 

Rating: 4.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own