CRIME FICTION SET IN SAUDI ARABIA

I am compiling crime fiction books I have read and enjoyed by the country they are set in.

Raja Alem's A dove's necklace, to be released in May 2016 won the Arabic Booker award in 2011. 
The reviews have rated this book very highly and I am looking forward to reading it. Though it is a murder mystery, it is much more than a crime fiction.  And the story is set in Mecca which would have shocked and irritated the religious bigots of the world! Today, I have placed a hold on it in TPLibrary and hope to get it soon and read it!
I read  A dove's necklace for the first hundred pages and gave up...sadly, it's not my cup of tea!



 Here is the list of 4 crime fiction books set in Saudi Arabia I enjoyed.

Finding Nouf 2008 is the same as The night of the Miraj 2008
City of veils 2010
Kingdom of strangers 2012
All of the above four books are by Zoe Ferraris.
Incidentally, Ferraris is an American lady who was married to a Saudi-Palestinian Bedouin when she wrote her first book "Finding Nouf". By the time she wrote her second book, she had separated from him and moved back  to USA. Her books reveal how claustrophobic life is for Saudi women. The more I read books set in Saudi and other Gulf countries, the more I grateful that I was not born there!


A Gentleman's game: a queen and country novel by Greg Rucka. This is a thriller about a female assassin of the British government who kills a terrorist.

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Other books  I read which are not crime fiction but are set in Saudi Arabia are :

 The Ruins of us by Keija Parssinen, which reflects life of a Saudi family and the emotional difficulties faced by a son born of an American mother and Saudi father.
Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea and translated by Marilyn Booth is another fast, interesting read about life of girls and women of a certain section of Saudi Society. This book gives a peek of life in Saudi Society which is always a bit of a mystery to many as there are  few books from this country.
Princess Sultana's circle by Jean Sasson is another book set in Saudi which I read and felt disgusted by the fate of women in the country.

Saudi Arabia Exposed: Inside a Kingdom in Crisis by John R Bradley. He is  a journalist and tells about today's Saudi Arabia ;this book is highly  readable, though it is not fiction! It was after reading Bradley's book,  that I was inspired to read  crime fiction book set in Saudi Arabia . I liked all of the crime fiction I read but was  appalled by the life of women in Saudi Arabia. I thank God that I was not born in that wretched country.( I apologize sincerely to the moderate Saudies and all women & children of Saudi for calling their country wretched)

Dan Fesperman's Layover in Dubai is a crime fiction I really enjoyed--it's set in Dubai, a city of UAE, the country which is a neighbour of Saudi Arabia.

CRIME FICTION SET IN DUBAI

Layover in Dubai is a crime fiction novel which gives a realistic picture of today's Dubai by Dan  Fesperman. I found this book fast paced and enjoyable. I think Indians, Pakistanis, Bangaldeshis, Sri Lankans who  have relatives in Dubai should read it. They will get an idea of how tough life is there and how unfair the system is to the thousands of foreign workers living there  especially those from economically deprived sections of society doing manual work.

CRIME FICTION SET IN AFGANISTHAN

As I mentioned in my other articles, reading crime fiction set in various countries has seized my fancy for the last few years. There are several countries which do not figure often in crime fiction though these countries  are probably racked by plenty of 'real' crime!


The two crime fiction books set in Afganisthan which I had the pleasure to read are

The warlord's son by Dan Fesperman (He has written another crime fiction novel which is set in Dubai)

The third book in the trilogy of Tom Rob Smith i.e. Agent 6 is set in Afganisthan. Though the entire book is not in Afganisthan, it gives quite an insight into the Afganisthan during the time of Soviet invasion. One realizes what a bloody mess the two giants USA and USSR have made of Afganisthan over the years as one reads this and other books! 

CRIME FICTION SET IN PAKISTAN

I have come across very few books  set in Pakistan. The  crime fiction set in Pakistan which I read and liked is A case of exploding mangoes by Mohamed Hanif. This book also had a lot of humor!

The warlord's son is an exciting novel which gives a realistic picture of today's Pakistan &Afghanistan. The novel was   thrilling and I loved the descriptions of the places in this book by Dan  Fesperman. I have never visited these places but  his descriptions of the place and people ring so true.
These books are a must read for anyone interested in knowing a little  about the state of  these places today. God knows, it is  difficult  for a curious tourist to visit Pakistan and Afghanistan today.

 Reading these books, in the safety of your bedroom, gives one both  thrills and information about  Pakistan and Afghanistan, without the fear of  whatever befalls visitors to these places.

 I have to next read the books by Dan Fesperman, set in war torn Bosnia.

What was amazing about The Devil's Banker  by Christopher Reich was the accuracy of his description of certain places in Pakistan. I have never been there but I have been to places in India, which are similar and he has got the men's attitudes towards women, exactly as it is. And the description of their unwashed bodies, stinking of sweat is real. I wonder if Reich has been to Pakistan and experienced all this.

 His description of an Indian villain in The rules of betrayal captures the behavior of  chauvinistic men, with feelings of inferiority, who abound in many eastern cultures.(I am from the east and so if I sound racist, so be it..I have first hand experience of Indian men's behavior). The scene where a lady in a burka is surrounded by men and attacked by one, with the rest watching or cheering him on, is scary and unfortunately, all too common.  I hope a lot of people read this book to understand the life of  Pakistani people in general and women in particular.



I am looking forward to reading the book by a Pakistani police officer, which is crime fiction but based on real life incidents. This book has received rave reviews but not yet sold in Canada. The book is "The prisoner" by Omar Shahid Hamid, who worked as a police officer in Pakistan.

I am wondering if it is anything like Vikram Chandra's Sacred Games which is set in Bombay, India.

I had read a story by Kushwant Singh which was published by the illustrated weekly of India in the 70s or 80s which was 'like' crime fiction. It was about the debaucherous life of the Pakistani elite i.e. the politicians and the military. I think the illustrations for this series(or was it a single short story? I don't remember) was by M.F.Hussain. I don't remember the title too.

I would be so grateful if someone could tell me the title of this, if they remember reading this in the illustrated weekly of India.




I discovered that Ibn-E-Safi from Pakistan  is a popular writer of crime fiction in the Urdu language. I have not read his books as I cant find them in Toronto.
Even if I found the books, I cant read Urdu...I need English translations. I am sure the English translation could not have captured the beauty of the poetic Urdu language!

http://urdunvls.blogspot.ca/2013/12/jasoosi-novels-jasoosi-dunya-by-ibn-e.html
The above link is a list of his books.

Pakistan, like India with it's endemic corruption should actually be an excellent resource for crime fiction writers! I hope more crime fiction comes from here to help non Pakistanis learn about Pakistan...in an interesting and entertaining manner!

Other crime fiction by Pakistani writers or stories set in Pakistan are here below. I have not read these books but got their names from the internet.
Akbar Agha: Juggernaut. Pub: 4 hour books, India
Cheryl Benard: Moghul buffet Soho crime publication
James Church:Bamboo and blood
Simon Conway: The agent runner
Jack Coughlin: Running the maze
Omar Shahid Hamid: (Book 1)The prisoner and (book 2) The prisoner Pub: Pam Macmillan, India
Naseem Hijazi :(1)Muhammad Bin Qasin(2) Shaheen (3)Dastaan-e-Mujahid(I don't think these books are in English)
David Ignatius: Blood money A novel of espionage
Humayun Iqbal AKA Sabiho Banu: Challawa written in Urdu and Farsi in the 60s and recently translated to English by Mohammad Hanif (about a Pakistani lesbian detective!) and appears as a short story in the book edited by Faiza S Khan (Pub: Hachette books) i.e. The Life's too short literary review 01:New writing from Pakistan 

Mazhar Kaleem & Ishtiaq Ahmed: (1)Maka Zonga (2) Black Zero (3) Target mission (4)Kaghzi Qayyamat (5) Begaal Mission (6)Seamoon + G.Moff (7) Seamoon ki wapsi (8)Ghar ka samandar(I don't think these 8 books are in English)
Mary Louise Kelly: Anonymous sources
Shea Kinsella: Blood canal
Martin Lessem: A cloud in the desert
Khalid Muhammad: Agency Rules Never an easy day at the office  Pub: Dead Drop Books, Pakistan
Robert A Shaines: Secrets in a time of peace
Yusuf Toropov: Jihadi- a love story


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A wonderful non-crime fiction novel about a Pakistani family in USA I enjoyed was the American Dervish by Ayad Akhtar


Another wonderful book of non-crime short stories set in Pakistan I really admired is 'In other rooms, other wonders' by Daniyal Mueenuddin. Every character is so real, with all their human frailties and I discovered again, how similar the  psyche, behavior, thinking and culture of Indians and Pakistanis is, through the characters in the stories. The stories and characters here could have just as easily been set in India. I loved this book and would be sooo grateful if I had the skill to write like this!

CRIME FICTION SET IN PALESTINE-ISREAL REGION

The only book I can recall at this time set in the Palestine Israel region is
The collaborator of Bethlehem by Matt beynon Rees

I remember that I did not really like this book but cant remember why. Yet, I did learn a lot about the life of the common folks living there and  sadly, it was a eye opener which cleared the illusions I had about a certain group of people!

If you guys get a chance to see a TV mini series from UK called "The honourable woman" you should see it. It is excellent and the dark story is set in the Palestine, Isreal and West Bank.

I recently read , "The missing file" by D.A.Mishani, set in Tel Aviv. I completed reading the book but it's not one of the best mysteries that I have read. I felt a bit annoyed by the main character at times and wished the plot moved faster.

CRIME FICTION SET IN ICELAND

I  read in a BBC article that Iceland has the largest number of writers in the world. So I am sure there is plenty of crime fiction from Iceland, though real crime is rare in this peaceful beautiful country.  However, the large English speaking part of the world may not have access too the Icelandic books, which don't get translated to English. Below are the only  crime fiction books from Iceland that I have read.
I found the names of the characters a little tricky  i.e. as I read the book, it took me quite a while to remember who is who and some men's names sound feminine and that's a bit confusing. 

But slowly, I have started enjoying the books . I am reading Oblivion now i.e. Christmas holidays 2015 and look forward to reading more or all of Indridason's books.

 Crime fiction set in Iceland  by Arnaldur Indridason

Silence of the Grave  

and Operation Napolean

Jar city

Black skies

Oblivion

Now I am reading (Jan 2016) another Icelandic book i.e.

Chilled to the bone(2013) by Quentin Bates and I quite like it.

Next I am reading Cold comfort by the same author.

CRIME FICTION SET IN SOUTH AFRICA

I have enjoyed crime fiction since my teenage years. When in India for the first three decades of my life, I had limited access to crime fiction and I read and reread the few books I could lay my hands on. After moving to Canada, thanks to the public library I have  free and  unlimited access to crime fiction! I have been steadily devouring books since I came here 11 years ago!
As mentioned elsewhere, I have recently developed a fancy for crime fiction set in countries which are similar to India...i.e. countries with high crime rate, corruption and poverty. I greatly admire writers who set their stories in these countries. The hero/heroine in the novels set in these countries has to face near insurmountable  odds to solve crimes. The odds include corrupt bosses in the police force, low pay, lack of adequate resources and of course, powerful criminals. To pull off an exciting yet, 'convincing' story in these countries is far more difficult than a detective novel set in USA or any west European country. That's my opinion.
 I Googled for crime fiction set in Asian & African countries without much hope of finding good stuff. To my pleasant surprise,  I discovered so many  exciting and fantastic crime books, it's unbelievable!
Here are a list of the books I really enjoyed. I hope you get access to these books. They are really good. Keep in mind, dear reader, I have at least sub-clinical level of attention deficit disorder(ADD) and if I could complete these books... with enjoyment, you too will definitely love them! Satisfaction guaranteed! All the books given here are available  in Toronto Public library.
The books below are set in South Africa

 The 4 books in  Jade De Jong series by Jassy Mackenzie 
Pale horses
Random violence
The fallen
Stolen lives
Jade is a female PI in south Africa and I find that unusual! She is in love with a police officer who has some Indian blood in him and that is another exciting thing for me! ( I am so thrilled if there is an Indian in any crime fiction book as Indians don't seem to figure much in crime fiction books. That is changing now) There is quite a bit of violence and sometimes when reading her books, I feel it must be scarier to live in South Africa than in India!

books by  Deon Myer i.e. 
Dead and dying
Dead at daybreak
Devil's peak
Thirteen hours
Seven days
Cobra
Blood safari
Trackers
Heart of the hunter
 I loved Deon Myer's books more than Jassy Mackenzie. They have depth, are realistic and the people seem real. I have not read all his books. I returned some of his books without reading as I was fatigued by my relentless non-stop reading! Also I simply cannot  bear to read any book where animals get hurt and his book Blood safari is a bit about wild-animal poaching.
Deon writes in Afrikaans and has been translated to English and other languages.

Another fantastic author I discovered was Malla Nunn, a lady born on the African continent and now living in Australia. Her books are set in Apartheid Africa and the  main characters  are a team of a white detective, a Jewish doctor and a Zulu police constable, all three of who belong to the disrespected groups of  the then African society. 
Her four books are 
The dead lie
A beautiful place to die
Present darkness
Blessed are the dead



I am also in the process of reading

Instruments of darkness by Robert Wilson
Zulu by Caryl Ferey (translatedfrom French)
The song dog by James McClure
Once I finish reading these three books, I will write a brief note about their 'readability'.

CRIME FICTION SET IN CUBA

I visited Havana, Cuba a few years ago and loved it. I enjoyed the sultry heat ...I visited in March to escape the brutal winter and winter blues of Toronto. I enjoyed the stay in my hotel, the sumptuous breakfast...I ate like a pig but was starving by 12 noon!
I loves the shopping in the market with handcrafted items...lovely wood carvings, the jewelry made of seeds from trees and plants of Cuba. I loved the Mojitos with mint leaves and rum and had one with lunch and dinner daily.
Hmm...What else?  I enjoyed looking at the colorful and huge American cars and photographed them like crazy! My husband enjoyed the cigars, though he did not smoke much. I saw the
once-majestic-now-crumbling buildings and sculptures in downtown Havana with melancholy, joy, grief...philosophical resignation? I liked the people...they were friendly, danced beautifully(outside on the streets), I loved the music in restaurants, the  innovative way they recycled things and crafted art from what would be dumped as 'garbage' in Canada! Believe it or not, I don't think I saw a single obese Cuban! Whether this absence of obesity implies Cuban poverty or Cuban good health is up to you!
I tried to read as many books about Cuba and Havana around the time of my trip. And Cuba has a special place in my heart because of the communism and socialist leanings. 
 I believe that if human beings were 'decent; nothing works better than communism and socialism.
Reality Check: But as human psyche is what it is, communism wrecks havoc and should be avoided like the plague

To date, I have read four books set in Cuba, of which two are already mentioned in my article titled, CRIME FICTION SET IN RUSSIA

The three are :
Jose Latour's Best Friends

Martin Cruz Smith's Havana Bay

Stuart M Kaminsky's Hard currency

Nick Wilkshire's Escape to Havana

I enjoyed both Havana bay and hard currency.
I found Latour's description of Havana and Cuba realistic(I read the book after my visit to Havana) but for some reason I did not like the book.. He has written a few other books but I am not in a hurry to read them ! I simply could not relate to the characters or maybe  the story was too complex for my brain!
I enjoyed Escape to Havana but it's not really in the same league of Martin Cruz Smith or Kaminsky according to me.
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Leonardo Padura Fuentes has been hailed as the greatest living Cuban writer(at least in the article I read) His  crime fiction works have been translated into English. These books have received rave reviews and I look forward to reading them as I am keen on crime from totalitarian and communist regimes.

Havana Blue 1991 (translated in 2007)
Havana Gold 1994 (translated in 2008)
Havana Red 1997 (Translated in 2005)
Havana Black 1998, translated in 2006
Adios Hemingway Translated in 2005
The fog of yesterday Not yet translated into English
Havana fever
The man who loved dogs(not crime but a raved-about novel)

A show appeared on Netflix i.e. Havana Blue but I did not really like it.


I have not yet read Fuentes books.

CRIME FICTION SET IN JAPAN

I have tried to read crime fiction from Japan but for some reason the books simply don't hold my attention and I give up. Once again, I would like to state, "It's not the book...it's me. there is something wrong with me!"

I cant recall the names of the Japanese authors or the books I tried reading and gave up.

But I did read-to-the-end a few books  by Sujata Massey which were set in Japan , California and Hawai. I liked them enough to finish and they were funny in parts but, they are not the best books I have ever read.

The only reason I read these books were because of the author's name, "Sujata" which is an Indian name. I was so thrilled to see the name Sujatha on the cover that I got the book immediately!

CRIME FICTION SET IN KENYA

I have read two crime fiction books set in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya by Ngugi Mukoma Wa. The books are:

Nairobi heat  
Black star Nairobi 

 Learning about the places in Africa though crime fiction novels is certainly entertaining and not boring like the history texts I had in school!

CRIME FICTION SET IN NIGERIA

I tried reading the crime fiction novel by a Canadian writer, Will Ferguson set in Nigeria (and a bit in Canada). The novel is called 419 and it deals with the internet scams originating from Nigeria.

I started this book partly because I am now into crime fiction from various parts of the world and mostly because I have myself received a few of these scamming emails! The emails read something like this...I am having a lot of money and I need help to move it out of my country...blah...blah...blah.
(Believe it or not, I know of 'educated' people with double degrees who have fallen for these scams!

I did not finish reading this book as I found it too slow for my taste. It is a bestseller in Canada and it must be good, but it's not my type

Another book set in Nigeria is An African affair by Nina Darnton. It's written by a journalist and not a novelist and  she  narrates the ongoing events in a style which is not appealing to me.
However one does get a glimpse of Nigeria as she has described cities, a bit of villages, the daily life of ordinary people and the politics. It is through novels by journalists like this one, that I am discovering the dirty role played in the underdeveloped countries by western 'democracies' and the companies from the developed countries. 
One paragraph in this book, about Lagos a major city in Nigeria, certainly applies to the Bangalore of 2013, I visited. I have typed the part of the para here
.....As we kept driving, the houses got bigger and nicer, but the smell never changed and the garbage mounds were just as high....

When will the Karnataka politicians find a permanent eco-friendly solution to the growing garbage problem in Bangalore! Your home in Bangalore may be luxurious and cost over a 300,000 US$ but you will still find stinking garbage right outside your house, you will still face water shortage and power outages. Indian politicians boast that the Indian economy is booming and Bangalore is a silicone valley...yet, people have to live in filth!
Now in 2015, I dont know if the Bangalore garbage-disposal situation has improved but I doubt it.



A book called Americanah by the Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is one of the best books I have read in over a year! Incidentally, this book is not crime fiction.  This writer has such an accurate  perception of people, honesty  and is a gifted writer! Another great book by her is Purple Hibiscus. It is her first book and we discover the life of Nigerians during a military coup in the country. Domestic tyrants have always  disturbed me due to the vulnerability of their victims...women and children. In this book, is a terrible domestic tyrant and his victims all of who seem so real, one wonders, who the characters are based on!
When people move from one place/country to another their perception of the old place and people is altered by the experiences of their life in the new place. Adichie has written about her fellow country men and women with her new perception.  This is something a lot of people can relate to.

If you are going to read only book this year, you should choose to read this fantastic book. Other books by Adichie are Half a yellow sun and  a collection of wonderful short stories i.e. The thing around your neck.  

RARE BOOKS! CRIME FICTION SET IN NORTH KOREA

Since a few years, I have started reading crime fiction set in different countries. This is an exciting way of getting to know, without even visiting, a country or a place, it's people and culture. I prefer the unvarnished truth these books give me...  while what a tourist actually visiting the place gets is beauty, nice people and pleasant experiences... but not the underbelly


I am listing here books set in North Korea written by someone under the pseudonym of James Church. He is apparently, I am quoting from Wikipedia here..."A former western intelligence officer with decades of experience in Asia. For the obvious reasons, he will not reveal who he actually is.
The books are:
A corpse in Koryo -2006
Hidden moon -2007
Bamboo and blood -2008
The man with the Baltic stare 2010
A drop of Chinese blood-2012


 I am waiting for these after booking them at  the Toronto Public library. These books must be really good as every one of the books is in circulation  and I am on a waitlist!. The reviews were good and comparing the protagonist to one of my favorite fictional characters i.e Arkady Renko  the Moscow based police officer created by Martin Cruz Smith.


I have searched for crime fiction from North Korea but there seem to be almost no other books. I can imagine the million obstacles to anyone doing anything creative and truthful  in this unfortunate country. These books must be worth their weight in gold simply because of the secrecy of this country and zero access to any sort of information about life in this closed country. I am looking forward to reading these books and telling you guys if I enjoyed them.

The orphan master's son by Adam Johnson 2012, set in North Korea is partly a crime fiction story which has received  rave reviews.
I am currently reading a set of short stories smuggled out of North Korea i.e. The confession by Bondi (not real name of author) which is not crime fiction ...it should be crime fiction, considering the crimes of the government against it's own people and it should not be called 'fiction' as these stories seem sadly true.


A corpse in Koryo: I finished reading this. It was okay. I got to learn the utter poverty in this country where even the government officials don't have simple things in the office and little by way of food to eat. So you can imagine the lives of others! I am trying to read the other books but they are not holding my attention and I may stop reading. It was good in bits and pieces.

CRIME FICTION SET IN CHINA

January 18th 2016:

Some thing happened and my article, Crime fiction from China got erased just when I was editing to add another book I read. Damn!

This is the list of books which are from China and which I remember reading.

The only crime fiction from China I have read is The eye of the Jade by Diane Wei Liang. The main protagonist is a female PI !
The only other book by this author, with the same female PI is Paper butterfly. I read this book and liked it. It gives an angle of the Tiananmen square I did not know and gives readers a glimpse of life in China just like the first book. I am curious about China and this book gives a picture of life in China both in cities and villages, life of middle and lower classes. 

The other books set in China BUT NOT CRIME FICTION which I have read and loved  are:

The good earth by Pearl.S.Buck. I think this is one of my few all time favorites! I have read this book at least three times fully and the pages I like...hundreds of times! I adore this book...the story, the characters especially Olan, and the simplicity of the people. It reminded me a lot of Indian villagers of south India, from where I am.

Another non-crime fiction book I have read set in China is "Rickshaw boy" by Lao She. It is like the good earth, a classic and wonderfully written story about life in China especially the  life of the poor. The characters are so realistic and it broke my heart to read about a girl who was abused by her father (forgot her name) mentioned in the book.

A wonderful NON-FICTION book from China I read and enjoyed was Factory Girls: From village to City in a Changing China by Leslie T Chang.
What I found intriguing and depressing was the life of these people especially their relationships. I was so depressed to read how the loss of a phone meant, loss of all friends! The people working in factories had such impersonal relationships with people around them and the so-called friendships could disappear by the loss of a cellphone(as they din't store the numbers anywhere else). There were so many aspects of the life of factory girls which the author has just mentioned without going in depth. But thinking about what was written, I felt she had just given the tip of the iceberg and so much was left unsaid. Tons could be researched and written for each page of the book. The life of the people, who had left their families and migrated to towns for jobs was so tough, at least to me...I cannot imagine living the life these girls lead...away from families, not close to either parents or fellow-workers, not able to be on the same page with family and not close to fellow-workers with whom one may be on the same page...

I hope I have not missed out on any books from China I have read...when this article got erased by  a glitch. 
I still remember, that in India, I would hit 'save' after typing a few words as  the electricity would shut down without warning and this power failure erased everything in the computer which has not been saved! Several times, I had lost many pages which left me fuming!

I will add more books from China which I have read, as and when I recall them.
.............
I discovered the author Qiu Xiaolong who writes crime fiction based in China. The books are:
Death of a red heroine 2000
A loyal character dancer 2002
When red is black 2004
A case of two cities 2006
Red Mandarin Dress 2007
The Mao case 2009
Don't cry, Tai lake 2012
Enigma of china 2013
Shanghai Redemption 2015
I have read none of Qiu's books yet.

CRIME FICTION SET IN THAILAND

Garden of hell : a Father Ananda mystery

by Nick Wilgus 
    

This is the only Thailand based crime fiction which I have read. It was okay reading  though the writing is a bit dry at places.(maybe because the author was once a journalist). We get to see the seedy side of Buddhist monasteries in Thailand and that really broke my heart! I always naively thought of Buddhists as mild, gentle, good, etc and it was rather sad to discover that bad Buddhist monks & monasteries exist!
An unusual and new thing for me in this book  is that the chief 'detective' is a Buddhist monk! He's actually a retired police officer who has now become a monk. I have read books where the main protagonist in the book was a Christina monk but this is the first Buddhist monk-detective.
This was the second book in the Father Ananda series.


Mindfulness and murder is the first book in the series which I am yet to borrow from the library.


Killer Karma is the 3rd book in this series.

CRIME FICTION SET IN SWEDEN

Sitting at a boring meeting, I spotted a Kurt Wallender book in front of a psychiatrist who was at the opposite end of the table. Curious, I  borrowed the book and that was how I discovered the Inspector Wallender Series set in Sweden by Henning Mankell. 

I am unclear about why I like these books as they are not my type i.e. not fast paced.  Yet I have read every single one in this series. I think I liked these books as Wallender has many behaviours which make him so ordinary...he's forgetful, not too neat, has difficulty getting along with both his father and his daughter(not to mention he's divorced). He's not doing so great financially and that is one aspect of crime fiction heros that I simply adore! I am always boiling at the corruption among Indian elite and the Indian police and it feels so good to see (at least in fiction) a policeman who is not rolling in money and who's  honest. I bought many of the books thinking that I will reread them but I dont think I will be doing that anytime soon...there is simply too many of the-never-read-books and never-seen-TV-shows out there!
The Kurt Wallender  crime fiction set in Sweden are :

1 Faceless killers 1997
2 The dogs of Riga 2001
3 The man who smiled 2005
4 The white lioness 1998
5 Sidetracked 1999
6 The fifth woman 2000
7 One step behind 2002
8 The pyramid 2008(These are a compilation of short stories of Kurt Wallender)
9 An event in autumn 2014 (This is a really short novel)
10 The troubled man 2011
11Firewall 2002
12 Before the frost 2005

The three crime novels by Steig Larsson set in Sweden i.e. The girl with the dragon tattoo series was ubiquitous a few years ago in Toronto and I finally read them. I enjoyed all 3 books by Larsson and the 4th in the series by the new author too; I especially loved the courtroom scene in the third book.
The books are:
The girl in the dragon tattoo
The girl who played with fire
The girl who kicked the hornets nest
The girl in the spider's web by David Lagercrantz

Maybe there are other books set in Sweden which I have read but unable to recall as I write this piece.

Reading another Sweden based book  'Never screw'up' by 'Jens Lapidus' now (Aug 2016) and liking it. It's a debut novel.

CRIME FICTION SET IN NETHERLANDS

Set in Netherlands

(De Cok series by A.C. Baantjer) but found the language too stilted and did not finish.
I did not find his books to my taste.

CRIME FICTION SET IN TURKEY.

These are books by Barbera Nadel.
But I gave up reading these books as I found them a bit not to my taste.

CRIME FICTION SET IN NORWAY

The only book I have read set in Norway is The Indian bride by Karim Fossum. I enjoyed the book but found it sad. The reason I picked this book was the word Indian in the title. I was intrigued about an 'Indian' bride in Norway.

I may read more books by this lady some time.

CRIME FICTION SET IN NAZI GERMANY

I discovered in January 2016 a wonderfully gifted writer, Phillip Kerr. He's the author of the Bernie Gunther crime fiction novels set in Nazi Germany around  the time of the world wars.
Bernie sounds sarcastic when he's merely stating facts; and the sarcastic tone makes the books so readable! I am currently enjoying one of these fast-paced books (If the dead rise not)as the tone of Bernie kept me going. I enjoyed this novel even as I  flinched at the atrocious thinking & behaviour of the Nazis. 

 It would be great if someone who writes exactly like  Kerr were to write about the crime in today's India. especially that perpetrated by the politicians and the government bureaucrats.   The crimes occurring in Indian villages, especially against Dalits by the upper castes  should be written, until the entire world is aware of these atrocious crimes and shames India into changing.

I had made the same comment about Stuart M Kaminsky writing books about Indian crime fiction; In this same vein, I believe that a TV serial such as The wire should be made about Indian crime as the personality & behaviour of the characters, especially the criminals and their women-folk is exactly like that of folks in India.

A few Indian and western authors have written about crime in India; but for me, there is something missing. I think, that Kerr, would hit the nail on the head if he writes about Indian criminals. I believe that his book would be true, yet readable.

Maybe, because I am Indian, Indian crime is too close to me for comfort ...  even if Kerr himself were to write Indian crime fiction, I may not enjoy.
 Kerr has written about the past in the Bernie Gunther novels... ergo, I can enjoy the novels without feeling 'too' sad, as I know that these atrocities are not happening now and knowing that people's  suffering is in the past and not current. However if novels about  current crimes in India were written, I will NOT have the same reading pleasure; The knowledge that  the crimes are real, the knowledge that the crimes are happening even as I am reading the book and the terrible awareness that people are suffering even as I am reading the book, will kill any book-reading-pleasure I experience!

The article in yesterday's Deccan Herald newspaper which left me sleepless and seething with impotent rage & triggered these thoughts about Kerr writing about Indian crime is http://www.deccanherald.com/content/526312/drunk-youths-kill-minor-gang.html

 If you would like to read Phillip Kerr's Bernie Gunther novels, here is the list.

March Violets  1989
The pale criminal 1990
A German Requiem 1991
(the above three were published in one volume called Berlin Noir)

The one from the other 2006
A quiet flame 2008
If the dead rise not, 2009
Field Gray 2010
Prague Fatale 2011
A man without breath 2013
The lady from Zagreb 2015
The other side of silence 2016
Prussian Blue 2017

I am looking forward to an exciting-next-few-months-of-Bernie-Gunther-books-of-reading, to pass the winter and spring days of 2016.

Phillip Kerr has written other books too including some for children.

Pavel Kohout: A widow killer. (1998).another thriller set in Prague under  Nazi rule.

CRIME FICTION SET IN FRANCE

I am reading probably my first crime fiction set in France. It's a book called The three evangelists by Fred Vargas. Read about 50 pages and it seems okay. I will know whether I like it or not by the end of the book.

Fictional detectives with happy families

One reason I love certain crime fiction is  because the hero is in a stable/happy family.   I get to enjoy not only the exciting and adrenalin pumping part of the book but also vicariously experience the quiet happiness of the detective returning daily to the  love, trust & warmth of his family.

Many crime fiction  these days both on screen and in books show the hero's family life as messed up ...be it his/her parents or his own family. The hero's personal life too is  messed up with affairs, divorces, drinking and God knows what else. I  do understand that the fictional hero's life is filled with misery because  misery is a 'bestseller' while  happiness is 'too boring to read about' and happiness simply doesn't sell!
Perhaps modern writers believe that Dystopian is 'fashionable' or 'misery & evil are stylish'???

Still, some of my favorite authors have created stable families for their heros and yet, their books are both enjoyable and bestsellers!
(a)Working in the field that I do i.e.mental health,(b)having parents who quarreled bitterly all the time (c)seeing more unhappy and dysfunctional families than the opposite, I find it such a relaxing pleasure to see a 'normal' family in fiction...be it in books or on the screen. 
The book I finished today, (Feb 28th 2016) i.e. Lieberman's Law  inspired me to write this piece in which I have compiled all the books I have read where the  detectives have stable families.  Reading the description of  family life of the detectives in the books gave me quiet pleasure!

 I felt truly satisfied reading the book Lieberman's law and  one main reason for this satisfaction is the family life of Lieberman. He does have his share of family problems...though a lot lesser than the other fictional detectives or even most real people. The family part of the book rings true, the crime solving  is satisfying and  the end of this book was  like the conclusion of  a delicious meal!



The delightful and enjoyable crime fiction with normal/stable/happy families  are given below. By normal, I mean that these families are not 'too' dysfunctional; they are families with strong bonds and values.

The  books in this Lieberman series

• Abe Lieberman series

1. Lieberman's Folly (1990)
2. Lieberman's Choice (1993)
3. Lieberman's Day (1994)
4. Lieberman's Thief (1995)
5. Lieberman's Law (1996)
6. The Big Silence (2000)
7. Not Quite Kosher (2002)
8. The Last Dark Place (2004)
9. Terror Town (2006)
10. The Dead Don't Lie (2007)

• The series below is also by the same author Kaminsky. It is set in the USSR/Russia. I loved all the families mentioned  in this series.
• Inspector Rostnikov series

1. Rostnikov's Corpse (1981)
   (also published as Death of a Dissident)
2. Black Knight in Red Square (1983)
3. Red Chameleon (1985)
4. A Fine Red Rain (1987)
5. A Cold Red Sunrise (1988)
6. The Man Who Walked Like a Bear (1990)
7. Rostnikov's Vacation (1991)
8. Death of a Russian Priest (1992)
9. Hard Currency (1995)
10. Blood and Rubles (1996)
11. Tarnished Icons (1997)
12. The Dog Who Bit a Policeman (1998)
13. Fall of a Cosmonaut (2000)
14. Murder on the Trans-Siberian Express (2001)
15. People Who Walk in Darkness (2008)
16. A Whisper to the Living (2010

I adored the humorous Archy Mcnally  and loved reading about his family and his girl friend in the series by Lawrence Sanders.

• McNally's Secret (1992)
• McNally's Luck (1992)
• McNally's Risk (1993)
• McNally's Caper (1994)
• McNally's Trial (1995)
• McNally's Puzzle (1996)
• McNally's Gamble (1997)
• McNally's Dilemma (1999)

This series was continued by another author after Lawrence Sanders death, i.e. Vincent Lardo but I dint read as I dint like his style of writing. Vincent lardo's books are not listed here.

 I liked another series by Lawrence Sanders i.e. the Delaney series based in New York city listed below.

Edward X. Delaney series: The Anderson Tapes 1970 The First Deadly Sin 1973 The Second Deadly Sin 1977 The Third Deadly Sin 1981 The Fourth Deadly Sin 1985

 Vish Puri a private detective in Delhi, created by Tarquin Hall  too has a nice family and is fun to read. But I dint find the books unputdownable. I enjoyed reading about Vish Puri's feisty mother who kept trying to butt into is private detective business!

The Vish Puri books are :

 The Case of the Missing Servant 2009
The Case of the Man Who Died Laughing,  2010.     
The Case of the Deadly Butter Chicken,  2012. 
 The Case of the Love Commandos,  2013

There were 4 books by James Hadley Chase where I loved a couple who featured to different extents in the books. The books are:
The double shuffle
There's always a price tag
An ear to the ground
Tell it to the birds
Of all , I really enjoyed Steve Harmas and his wife in Double shuffle. It was  exciting and I loved this couple's relationship! 

I also enjoyed the fiery wife of Tom Lepski another police officer created by James Hadley Chase in another series of books.

A lot of books by Alistair Maclean had normal happy families and that really increased my enjoyment of the book. I would like to add here that family was not the main part of the Maclean books; yet, I enjoyed even the brief mention of  family members & family life of the protoganists. Some of which I can recall are:
Force ten from Navarone (there is not much family stuff, only a very brief mention of Andrea's new wife). 
Ice station zebra(brothers)
The Satan bug
Circus
Seawitch

I am not asking crime fiction writers to create  'happy' families but reasonably down-to-earth, realistic families. For example, I enjoy reading the family life of Kurt Wallander (series) by Henning Mankell though his is not an 'ideal' or a 'happy' family.

 I wonder why the new crime fiction writers don't emulate the 'stable families' which feature in books of of the old writers'?
I don't know if I am the only one who thinks this, but since the last 2 decades writers seemed to think that their books will sell only if the crime is extremely bizarre, or cruel, or twisted. I am sick of the pedophilia, the bizarre mental illnesses of the criminals, the needless torture of the victims in the recent books. 
 Perry Mason books written from 1930 to 1970s sold in the millions though the plots were straightforward and the villains were not unnecessarily complex like the present day ones! I wish  the writers would go back to writing more believable crimes instead of the convoluted stuff they come up with at present.

Writers from the east (India, for example)seem to write fairly straightforward crime fiction; I don't know if it's because they lack the ability to be complex like the American and European writers or it's their choice. For my limited attention span & processing ability, I prefer a simple, straightforward crime, which moves along fast!


A lot of American crime fiction especially on screen, display the main protagonist's entangled sexual and romantic relationships with multiple partners. They also show several weaknesses or vices of not just the 'bad' guys but of the 'good' guys too. Though its attention-grabbing and thrilling, the immorality/moral ambiguity of all the characters is now putting me off! I am referring to shows such as House of lies, House of cards, True detective season 2, etc.
 I am either aging or mellowing down but I now seek simpler stuff with clarity regarding morals...I want  as much black & white and as little grey as possible!

A lot of classics I have read are simple and not as morally ambiguous as current day crime fiction. Maybe that is one of the reasons why classics are eternal. I believe there are a lot of people like me, who want poetic justice, want good guys to win and bad guys to lose, want something good they can believe in...like a strong supportive family, loving spouses, reliable parents and so on. These things add to the 'feel good' quality of a book which in turn has a tremendous positive influence on the reader's mood. Ultimately it is the mood the reader is left with, after reading a book, which determines if the reader will try the same author again. 

Let me add here that on some days when I am in some 'odd' moods, I prefer the morbid, the sad and maybe even dystopian fiction(like Child 44). But mostly, I prefer my crime fiction with less morbidity, more action and some humour.

Here is a link to others like me, who wonder why fictional detectives are so miserable!
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1522709-dark-dysfunctional-detectives