Maria Lang – Crimes of Passion
A while back I posted a review of Josephine Tey’s novels. It occurred to me that Swedish mystery author Maria Lang (Dagmar Lange), is in some ways similar to this author. Unfortunately, I can’t offer you a page with freebies, but there are two e-book titles available in English, on Amazon.co.uk and on Amazon.com.
I have read a few of her books (in Swedish) and so far I can’t say I have noticed anything political in her writing. What I do see is quite a bit of passion. Her characters are all filled with passion and jealousy. Most, if not all, seem to be motivated by love and sex.
The main characters are Puck (a young woman) who’s a scholar in literature. At the beginning of the series, she meets an attractive young man who is also a scholar, Einar Bure. He has a very good friend, Christer Wijk, who is a cop.
I love this mystery-solving trio. They work so well together. And having a background in fan fiction and slash, I can’t help thinking I could write some really cool fan fiction about them, preferably with a bit of slash. 😉 Something tells me the author might understand the slash, if not the concept of fan fiction – although I know there was fan fiction written early on, based on Jane Austen’s books and the Sherlock Holmes books. Apparently, Maria Lang’s mystery writing colleague Dorothy Sayers was a member of the Sherlock Holmes fandom.
From that first case, the three keep working together solving crimes. The mysteries are quite cosy, but like I said, they were at the time (1940’s and on) considered rather ‘erotic’. Don’t get your hopes up though, what was considered erotic in the 1940’s and 50’s is not what we would call the same thing. They’re a lot of fun to read for someone like me, who is interested in history. The cover art is beautiful and evokes the look of the era, if I may say so. I have seen one of the movies – looking forward to seeing the rest soon – that have recently been made from the first six books (that were recently re-published). It’s really fascinating to see all the details – architecture, cars, fashion, furniture etc. The books are never too graphic or depressing. It’s all just good old-fashioned puzzle mystery fun. Maria Lang also caused a bit of a stir, when one of her characters was gay, long before that became common in literature.
On one of my blogs I’ve already mentioned this, but once when my mum was very young and a student, she used to go to the opera all the time, escorted by an older, married male classmate. They went to all the shows and after a while they began to notice that this author was ‘stalking’ them, taking notes, always looking away, ignoring them if they caught her staring. In the end, my mum and her classmate, who, for the record, weren’t involved, ended up as a young married couple in one of the books.
Some favorite books I recommend
I thought I’d do a post about some books I’d like to recommend. It’s a mix of new and old, e-books and printed books and several different genres.
E-books (that I’d love to buy in print):
Wattpad books:
* Kidnapping in Kaua’i by Ava Easter (mystery/fantasy),
* Feyland: The First Adventure, Feyland: The Dark Realm, Feyland: The Bright Court by Anthea Sharp (fantasy)
From other sites, such as Smashwords and Amazon:
* The Backworlds by M Pax (Science fiction)
* The Rune House by L J Hutton (fantasy)
* Housewife with a Halflife by A B Wells (fantasy)
* Cut Crop and Die by Joanna Campbell Slan (scrapbook mystery)
* The Night Also Rises by C B McCullough (SF)
* Fatal Boarding and Deep Crossing by E R Mason (SF)
* Defying Fate by D L Morrese (fantasy/science fiction)
* Bonds of Fire by Sophie Duncan (fantasy slash romance)
* The Glass Wall, Behind the Mirror by Madison Adler/Carmen Caine
Print books:
Mysteries:
* Eliot Pattison’s Tibet mysteries
* Barbara Nadel’s Turkey mysteries
* Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum comic mysteries
* Susan Russo Anderson’s historic mysteries set in Sicily (one of them only available as e-book)
* Jean François Parot’s French historic mysteries (in French and English, maybe other languages)
* Michael Innes’ mysteries
* Denise Mina’s Garnet Hill trilogy
Fantasy:
* Shadowbridge, Lord Tophet by Gregory Frost
* the Old Kingdom series about Sabriel by Garth Nix
* The War of the Flowers by Tad Williams
* The Blue Girl, Dreams Underfoot by Charles De Lint
* Kelly McCullough: science/tech/fantasy series starting with Webmage
* Eccentric Circles by Rebecca Lickiss
* The Invisible Ring by Anne Bishop
* Diana Wynne Jones’ books (all of them)
* Ursula K LeGuin’s Earthsea series
* Frances Hardinge’s books, especially The Lost Conspiracy (Gullstruck Island) and Well Witched   (Verdigris Deep)
YA:
* Tattoo the Awakening by Toni Leland
Historic romances
* Penelope by Anya Wylde (comedy)
* Kitty by Catherine Chapman
* The Only Gold by Tamara Allen (slash)
Science Fiction:
* Majestrum, The Spiral Labyrinth, Hespira by Matthew Hughes (sort of science fiction/fantasy)
* To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis (time travel story)
* The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K LeGuin
This is really a post about books, but I can’t resist adding some of my current favorite tv series:
Endevour, Grantchester – historic cop series
Shetland, Fortitude – cop series in rather unusual settings
Josephine Tey’s mysteries
After reading Josephine Tey’s mysteries, I thought I’d post some of my thoughts about them.
First the positives:
They’re free.
They’re very well written in general.
They’re really good mysteries.
The minor characters are mostly nice and interesting.
To me, they’re historic, though I know the author wrote and published them in her ‘present’.
What I had a bit of trouble with:
In my opinion, the ‘sleuth’ Alan Grant, is a tiresome, annoying condescending pretentious snob. He’s terrfied of falling for some woman and ending up getting married.
In fact, most of the characters seem to be a bit bisexual, or maybe it’s just my fan fiction/slash-tainted mind that sees them that way, but that wasn’t meant to be a negative, it’s just connected to Grant’s fear of falling in love (and being lost to crime-solving). Actually, it feels quite modern.
I won’t go into any more about the negatives, because they’re very few and I did like the books. It’s obvious that they’re of far higher quality than most internet freebies.
Some of the books are standalones, others are part of a series about Alan Grant, apparently one of Scotland Yard’s finest (and he’d be the first to agree with that). As far as mystery solving talents go, I agree too. He is brilliant.
In one of the books, The Daughter of Time, Grant’s hospitalized and going stir crazy with boredom. With a little help from his best buddy (faghag?) actress Marta Hallam, he finds a historic mystery to solve. (“Did Richard III kill his little nephews?”). It’s probably the best of the books (or maybe The Singing Sands is or – actually I’m not sure – most of them are really good). The title isn’t explained in the book, so obviously Josephine Tey expected her readers to be as edcuated as she was. Is the meaning clear to most people? I didn’t know what it was referring to, until after quite a bit of research, I ended up finding the explanation in a review on Goodreads. The Daughter of Time, apparently, is Truth, rather than Duty. I’m sure that makes sense as far as history is concerned but I’m not sure if it helps with murder cases. Not in real life. Agatha Christie makes the same claim in The Mysterious Mr Quin (that murder cases can become easier to solve after some time has passed), and it certainly works in her book.
One of the books had a rather unusual (for the time) twist at the end, but I won’t go into that because I don’t want to spoil it for any future readers).
I must say Miss Pym Disposes is probably the one I like the least. It’s about a former teacher, turned best-selling author (a bit like Josephine Tey herself, apparently) who is invited to a girls’ school by an old friend from her own school days. She ends up staying much longer than she’d intended and finds herself fascinated by the students. This book is as well written as the others, but ultimately it ends up being about Miss Pym thinking she can make a life-or-death decision that affects many people and failing because she didn’t have all the facts and that pretty much ruins it at the end.
More than one of these books have been turned into movies and tv series. In fact, I seem to have seen at least one movie and one tv series, not knowing they were based on Josephine Tey’s books. I hardly remembered the movie (Young and Innocent) so that story wasn’t spoiled for me, but I turned out to remember more about the tv series (The Franchise Affair), so that book was pretty much spoiled for me, in the sense that I knew where it was heading right from the start. Strangely enough, that didn’t ruin the story for me, since it was fascinating to follow it anyway.
A Guide to Cozy Mystery (and Other Favorite) Books and DVDs
Read more here.
Mysteries and fantasy
I have found that many of my interests and hobbies are relatively rare. That is, not everyone shares my obsession with them. In fact, many of them never even heard of some of my favorites in a given area of interest.
It’s kind of like my favorite types of animals. (Though listing my favorite animals will take time and blog post space. It might be easier to list the ones I’m not too keen on, but I digress.)
So, to get to the point, it occurred to me that my two favorite genres of books are a bit like cats and dogs. Let me explain.
Crime novels, in general, are crime novels, though there are of course historic ones, thrillers, puzzles etc. So that is the same as cats. A cat is a cat, regardless of its breed or appearance. (Though to make this a little more complicated, most people haven’t heard of my favorite mystery writers either, so maybe I shouldn’t take this metaphor too far.)
Anyway – With me so far?
Fantasy is more like dogs. What’s a dog? A big tough, impressive one, like a – Eurasian? Yes. A lively, medium sized one, like a Tibetan Terrier? Yes. A small, adorable one, like a Lhasa apso or a Bolognese? Yes. A – you get the picture. My favorite fantasy books do have other followers, but really not that many. If I meet an average fantasy fan (yeah, I wish), I’m betting he or she might not even have heard of my favorites.
So there you have it. When it comes to crime novels, I like many different kinds. Fantasy, particularly my not so well known authors.
Another Swedish mystery writer
I suppose I might mention Anna Jansson too. A few years ago, I read some of her books and thought they were quite ok, but at the time, I was busily devouring other, more interesting books – Barbara Nadel’s mysteries and Eliot Pattison’s among others – so I wasn’t particularly impressed. This summer I got my hands on a few other books by her and either she’s improved or I’m in a different mood right now. Last year one of her mysteries was turned into a tv series, which I quite liked.
Anna Jansson is a nurse who turned to writing mysteries. Her books are set on the island of Gotland. The setting is one reason I find these books so interesting. Gotland is a very special place, with a fascinating history. Her heroine is female cop Maria Wern. She seems quite intelligent, but not particularly tough, not like the tv version, played by Eva Röse, who is an excellent Swedish actress. In a few of the books, there’s a medical theme, which seems appropriate.
Another Swedish mystery writer
I suppose I might mention Anna Jansson too. A few years ago, I read some of her books and thought they were quite ok, but at the time, I was busily devouring other, more interesting books – Barbara Nadel’s mysteries and Eliot Pattison’s among others – so I wasn’t particularly impressed. This summer I got my hands on a few other books by her and either she’s improved or I’m in a different mood right now. Last year one of her mysteries was turned into a tv series, which I quite liked.
Anna Jansson is a nurse who turned to writing mysteries. Her books are set on the island of Gotland. The setting is one reason I find these books so interesting. Gotland is a very special place, with a fascinating history. Her heroine is female cop Maria Wern. She seems quite intelligent, but not particularly tough, not like the tv version, played by Eva Röse, who is an excellent Swedish actress. In a few of the books, there’s a medical theme, which seems appropriate.
Swedish mysteries
Right now, Europe is discovering Swedish crime novels. I just read an article on the Guardian’s website which mentioned, among others, Stieg Larsson, Liza Marklund and Camilla Läckberg. The UK has already taken Henning Mankell’s Wallander mysteries to their heart.
It seems almost petty to mention that they’ve just scratched the surface. In all honesty, I haven’t read Stieg Larsson or Liza Marklund. I have however read Mankell, Nesser and Läckberg and I must say I wasn’t impressed. For instance, take the latter – when you write a ‘mystery’ that is so predictable that someone like me – a writer wannabe, but still just an amateur – knows exactly who is the killer, why he did it and how it all happened when I’m reading the first couple of lines of the second chapter – what does that tell you about the quality of the book?
Forget all of the above writers (the Whiskas people books – Whiskas people are those who go for the most popular of anything, in case you’re wondering). I’ll tell you about my favorites instead. Since we’re talking about Swedish mystery writers, I won’t go into my Finnish favorite, at least not here, or the British, American or French books I like. So, here goes…
Emma Vall. She’s really three persons using the same pen name. They’re reporters, and so is their main character Amanda Rönn. She investigates crimes in the northern town Sundsvall. Emma Vall also writes mysteries for kids, about a girl named Svala (she’s originally from Iceland, hence the unusual name). The mysteries for kids are as well written as the others. My only problem with the kids’ books, is that they’re a little predictable. The basis is as follows: Svala makes a few new friends (or reconnects with some old friends) who have a problem. She starts to investigate to help them. That’s it. Don’t let that stop you from reading them, if you like books for older kids. They’re still good, even if the writers might want to vary the ‘recipe’ a little. If I have to criticize anything about the ‘grownup’ mysteries, it’s the fact that while Amanda Rönn is relatively young – just over 30 – she prefers men who are around 60. I think that’s because one of the writers is about that age herself and creates love interests of her own age. All their books are well written and definitely worth reading.
Arne Dahl. Pen name for a man named Jan Arnald. In addition to writing mysteries he’s also a short story writer, editor and critic. His mysteries are about a fictitious group investigating serious crime – the A group. The group employs quite a few people, so chances are you’ll find a main character you’ll like. For instance out of the roughly ten people involved, I primarily like two of them, both male, but there’s no one I absolutely can’t stand. These books are well written and fascinating, but once in a while, Arne Dahl tends to get a little too fanciful (I noticed this in Hidden Numbers (Mörkertal).
Thomas Kanger. He’s a reporter too, just like the women behind Emma Vall. His main character is young cop Elina Wiik who works in VästerÃ¥s in eastern Sweden. Just like most cops, she’s single and trying to find time to date in the midst of her busy professional life. I used to like these books and I still like most of them. However, in The Borderland (Gränslandet) he just gets too fanciful for my taste. There’s absolutely no logic in the ending. It stops being a mystery and turns into speculative fiction and that just isn’t appropriate, without any warning. The earlier books are still fine, but I won’t recommend The Borderland.
Ã…sa Nilsonne. She’s actually a psychiatrist and medical doctor, but also writes excellent mysteries about the cop Monika Pedersen, working in Stockholm. Monika Pedersen is single (is there any cop who isn’t either single or divorced?), but has a close male friend, who is gay. Most of the cases are investigated in central Stockholm, but in the last book Monika goes to Ethiopia to follow up on a lead.
