LEE GOLDBERG'S MONK CRIME NOVELS SET IN SAN FRANSISCO

Years ago, I enjoyed the crime TV show Mr.Monk, I loved the stories, the acting,  and most of all, I loved the the characters.

Now i.e. September 2017, I have borrowed the books from TPL and am having a blast!
Any one of the Monk novels, is just the right book to read  on days like today,  where the skies are grey and the temperatures are falling. The crimes are not gruesome & the characters are adorable.   Even though I was annoyed by the extensive descriptions of Monk's OCD, a couple of books later, I started enjoying instead of being irritated or merely tolerating his OCD!

Today, Sept 29th is a grey cloudy day with the temperature at 13 celsius. It's 9 am but I am still in bed with a Monk novel... I am going in to work late today. The silence in my room is broken every few seconds by the muted sound of the vehicles passing outside and the occasional screaming  sirens of  police cars and ambulances  racing by. My husband has left for work and I have the house to myself. The cat is sleeping at my feet. I am under a nice soft cotton sheet, which is not too warm and  just right for me. I have my breakfast on the table by my bed. I am reading  'Monk is cleaned out'.

After laughing when I read the bit about  Monk's stay at Stottlemeyer's house, I took a break to capture these blissful minutes in this article.

Heaven cannot get better than this!

Mr.Monk series   definitely  falls under the 'feel-good, comfort book' category for me. The only fly in the ointment is that  I may not read it over and over again like I do other 'comfort' books.

Or who knows?  After a few years I 'may' re-read the Monk novels  with the same degree of enjoyment as I am doing today. That's one of the few pros of being cursed with a poor memory!

IAN HAMILTON'S AVA LEE'S CRIME FICTION SERIES

I discovered this series of crime fiction with a female protagonist by accident.

This series is about a lady...Ava Lee, forensic accountant who's a Canadian citizen of Chinese origin, living in Toronto and travels all over the world (most the far east).

I like this series for many reasons: the plot moves fast; I can get a sense of the crime culture in the far east ...it may be real or untrue but it seems pretty real to me! This is the first series where I seem to get a handle on crime and criminals of the far east countries.

I love the fact that it's a female protoganist
I am loving the fact that he does not spend pages and pages on sex like the other writers seem to do.
I am learning so much about financial crimes and how money travels that I am now accepting that finance or economics need not be boring!
I am seeing how on what a large scale crime exists  in certain countries like China. And how the army, governments are involved . And so many things are not even considered as crime! manufacturing of knockoffs especially!
I was shocked to discover that MBA grads and other educated people run criminal organizations! I don't know whether to laugh, get angry or admire!
The style of writing is not great at all but I am a person who is satisfied with a running plot and happy to  read about places  I have never been.

Here is the list of books.

The Water Rat of Wanchai

(2011)

The Disciple of Las Vegas

(2011)

The Wild Beasts of Wuhan

(2012)

The Red Pole of Macau

(2012)

The red pole... is set in Macau, an autonomous region near Hong Kong.

The Scottish Banker of  Surabaya

(2013)

The Dragon Head of Hong Kong

(2013)

The Two Sisters of Borneo

(2014)

The two..is set in Borneo an island belonging to three countries (Brueni, Malaysia and Indonesia)

The King of Shanghai

(2014)

The Princeling of Nanjing

(2016)

The Couturier of Milan

(2017)

The Cou...is set in Italy and Hong Kong and China.

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.