I’m three books into Adrian McKinty’s Sean Duffy series, eating up the pages, stuffing myself, hungry for more… but fighting this gluttony, fretful of running out, anxious to prolong the pleasure of Duffy’s company, of Mckinty’s superb writing. A new-to-me ‘moody sleuth’ such as Duffy is a treat too precious to squander. Another from … [Read more...]
Van Veeteren contemplates Tarkovsky
When an already moody sleuth starts relating events in his life to themes in Andrei Tarkovsky’s Nostalgia, as Van Veeteren does in the fourth of the series, Woman with Birthmark, I figure something significant is percolating. About ninety percent of the way through this book, Van Veeteren takes a break from the murder case that has him … [Read more...]
Van Veeteren – Curing an Aversion
A decade or so ago, when I wasn’t yet compiling moody sleuths, I read some of Hakan Nesser’s Scandinavian crime series: Borkmann’s Point, The Return and Mind’s Eye... not all at once, and likely in the wrong order due to the vagaries of translation. I remember enjoying them as police procedurals, finding lots to recommend the series: … [Read more...]
John Brady – More Minogue Please
Ten books isn’t a bad run. Ten books might be considered a goodly series, by some, but I’ve just finished Brady’s tenth (The Coast Road), and it certainly doesn’t read like Matt Minogue’s swan song. Though there's been re-issues and Amazon kindle editions as recent as 2015, I believe The Coast Road was first published in 2010. That’s … [Read more...]
Matt Minogue, Clareman… and cracked?
John Brady's Matt Minogue hails from Clare County, Ireland. Thirty years living and working in Dublin, and married to a Dublin woman, Minogue is apparently still credited, by those who know him, and those he happens to meet along the way, with all the 'odd traits' of a Clareman. Now, having never yet been to Ireland, nor knowingly met … [Read more...]