Category: Blog Tour

Blog Tour/Review: Wolves in the Dark by Gunnar Staalesen

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I’m thrilled to co-host today’s stop on the blog tour for Gunnar Staalesen’s latest crime novel featuring Private Investigator Varg Veum, Wolves in the Dark. Be sure to check out the post by my co-host David at Blue Book Balloon as well. Orenda Books are becoming known for publishing the most amazing Scandinavian crime fiction and Wolves in the Dark will only add to that reputation.

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WolvesintheDarkAbout the Book

Publisher’s description: Private investigator, Varg Veum, fights for his reputation, his freedom and his life…Reeling from the death of his great love, Karin, Varg’s life has descended into a self-destructive spiral of alcohol, lust, grief and blackouts. When traces of child pornography are found on his computer, he’s accused of being part of a paedophile ring and thrown into a prison cell. There, he struggles to sift through his past to work out who is responsible for planting the material… and who is seeking the ultimate revenge. When a chance to escape presents itself, Varg finds himself on the run in his hometown of Bergen. With the clock ticking and the police on his tail, Varg takes on his hardest – and most personal – case yet.

Praise for Gunnar Staalesen and the Varg Veum series:

‘Gunnar Staalesen is one of my very favourite Scandinavian authors. Operating out of Bergen in Norway, his private eye, Varg Veum, is a complex but engaging anti-hero. Varg means ‘wolf’ in Norwegian, and this is a series with very sharp teeth’ (Ian Rankin)

‘A Norwegian Chandler’ (Jo Nesbo)

‘Gunnar Staalesen was writing suspenseful and socially conscious Nordic Noir long before any of today’s Swedish crime writers had managed to put together a single book page… one of Norway’s most skilful storytellers’ (Johan Theorin)

‘With its exploration of family dynamics and the complex web of human behaviour, Staalesen’s novel echoes the great California author Ross MacDonald’s Lew Archer mysteries… mature and captivating’ (Herald Scotland)

‘Norwegian master Staalesen is an author who eschews police procedural narratives for noirish private eye pieces… with some abrasive social commentary’ (Financial Times)

Format: ebook Publisher: Orenda Books Pages: 276
Publication: 15th June 2017 Genre: Crime    

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk ǀ Amazon.com ǀ Barnes & Noble
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find Wolves in the Dark on Goodreads

My Review

Wolves in the Dark is the latest outing for Varg Veum and, to be honest, things are not going well for him. He’s still recovering from the emotional aftermath of a tragic event in his personal life and the past few years have just about disappeared in a haze of booze. His bank account is all but empty, the new cases have dried up and it’s a struggle to keep off the bottle. Last, but definitely not least, he’s been arrested on a charge of participating in a child pornography ring on the basis of material found on his computer. Somehow you just know he wouldn’t be involved in anything as grotesque and evil as child pornography (not to mention that he and modern technology are pretty much strangers beyond the basics).

Varg knows he’s been set up and that the material found by the police has somehow been placed on his computer in order to discredit him as an act of revenge. The trouble is the number of people who believe him is small…and getting smaller.  Looking for the possible culprit means revisiting previous cases and confronting some shameful episodes from his alcohol-fuelled years. Forced to take proving his innocence into his own hands, Varg finds unexpected links and possible connections that throw up more questions than answers.  Eventually, the pieces of the jigsaw fall into place but a resolution?  Sometimes things in life don’t work out as neatly as that…

This was a great read containing everything you need for a satisfying crime mystery. I loved the character of Varg. He has many flaws but you have to admire his dogged determination and his relentless desire to search for the truth (not to mention a seemingly encyclopaedic knowledge of the back streets of Bergen and its one way systems). The book is full of twists and turns (not just in the streets of Bergen) and interrelated stories creating a complex web for Varg to untangle.  The author is clearly a master of his art because the story is set up perfectly for a next book (we hope!).

Despite being part of a long running series, Wolves in the Dark works perfectly well as a standalone read. I was intrigued by the hints of events in Varg’s past but not knowing didn’t affect my enjoyment, just added to the sense of mystery.  Having the opportunity to read Wolves in the Dark has made me keen to read the earlier books in the series that have been translated into English. Hopefully, the whole series will be translated eventually.

I received an advance reader copy courtesy of publishers, Orenda Books, in return for an honest review.

In three words: Gripping, compelling, atmospheric

Try something similar…Faithless by Kjell Ola Dahl

Granite Noir Fest 2017About the Author

Gunnar Staalesen was born in Bergen, Norway in 1947. He made his debut at the age of 22 with Seasons of Innocence and in 1977 he published the first book in the Varg Veum series. He is the author of over 20 titles, which have been published in 24 countries and sold over four million copies. Twelve film adaptations of his Varg Veum crime novels have appeared since 2007, starring the popular Norwegian actor Trond Epsen Seim. Staalesen, who has won three Golden Pistols (including the Prize of Honour), lives in Bergen with his wife. When Prince Charles visited Bergen, Staalesen was appointed his official tour guide. There is a life-sized statue of Varg Veum in the centre of Bergen, and a host of Varg Veum memorabilia for sale. We Shall Inherit the Wind and Where Roses Never Die were both international bestsellers.

About the Translator

Don Bartlett is the foremost translator of Norwegian, responsible for the multi-award winning, bestselling books by Jo Nesbo, Karl Ove Knausgaard and Per Pettersen. It is rare to have a translator who is as well-known and highly regarded as the author.

Connect with Gunnar

Website ǀ Goodreads

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#Blog Tour #BookReview Dark Dawn Over Steep House by M.R.C. Kasasian

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I’m thrilled to be hosting today’s stop on the blog tour for Dark Dawn over Steep House by M. R. C. Kasasian, the fifth instalment in the bestselling The Gower Street Detective series. You can find my review of this fantastic read below.

DarkDawnoverSteepHouseAbout the Book

London, 1884. Sidney Grice – London’s foremost personal detective – is restless. Having filed his latest case under “S” for “Still to Be Solved”, he has returned to his book, A Brief History of Doorstep Whitening in Preston, to await further inspiration. His ward, March Middleton, remains determined to uncover the truth. Geraldine Hockaday, the daughter of a respected naval captain, was outraged on the murky streets of Limehouse. Yet her attacker is still on the loose. But then a chance encounter in an overcrowded cafe brings a new victim to light, and it seems clear March and Grice are on the trail of a serial offender. A trail that will lead them to the dining room of a Prussian Prince, the dingy hangout of an Armenian gangster, and the shadowy ruin of a once-loved family home, Steep House….

Format: Hardcover Publisher: Head of Zeus Pages: 473
Publication: 1st June 2017 Genre: Historical Mystery

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk ǀ Amazon.com
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find Dark Dawn over Steep House on Goodreads

My Review

I’ve been aware of this series for some time (especially their gorgeous covers) but never got around to reading one although I’m a great fan of historical mysteries. Therefore, I was delighted to be given the opportunity by Clare at Head of Zeus to read the latest in the series, Dark Dawn over Steep House. Having done so, I’ve now added all four of the previous books in the series to my wishlist!

The story is narrated by March Middleton, goddaughter of Sidney Grice. March also acts as chronicler of Grice’s cases in the manner of Dr John Watson for Sherlock Holmes. In fact, Grice holds a similarly low opinion of March’s literary efforts as does Holmes of Watson’s. Grice has the peculiar mannerisms, pedantic mode of speech and keen powers of observation and deduction worthy of his fictional counterpart. He is also socially inept, rude, possesses odd phobias and is apt to pounce on any lazy use of figurative speech. However, he is also the man to have in a crisis not least of which because of his superior hearing and sense of smell and seemingly endless range of canes adapted for use as weapons, mechanical devices and goodness knows what else.

I found some of Grice’s bon mots laugh out loud funny. When a client describes having fallen into an opium-fuelled stupor during an assault as being ‘almost asleep but still aware of what was going on’, he quips, ‘Like an evening at the opera.’

March acts as the yin to Grice’s yang being equipped with the normal social graces. She is plucky, resourceful and independent and being a woman, she can gain access to people and situations that Grice cannot (she has no aversion to the colour green). Furthermore, unlike her illustrious godfather, she can hold a conversation with someone without being rude to them but she has a sharp tongue when needed. Marsh has experienced tragedy in her life and has survived some perilous encounters in previous cases.

There are intriguing and enticing references to these cases scattered throughout the book but, sadly, no further information on the Great Frog Disaster of 1878 mentioned in the Goodreads blurb. I fear that, like the Giant Rat of Sumatra in the Sherlock Holmes tale ‘The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire’, this is ‘a story for which the world is not yet prepared’.

I loved the esoteric literary jokes such as the chapter entitled ‘The Empty House’ which, as Sherlock Holmes aficionados will know, is the title of one of his adventures. There is a brilliant scene where Sidney and March visit the office of solicitor, Silas Spry, and find his underemployed clerk whiling away his time by writing a novel.  Glancing at the manuscript, they are unimpressed by it and advise him to write about something he knows instead.

‘I only know about being a clerk and not a very good one at that,’ he snuffled. ‘Who would be interested in the diary of a nobody?’*

[Finally, this last example is for those already lucky enough to own a copy of the book. Out of curiosity, March reads the first page of the clerk’s manuscript: ‘There was a message engraved in the locket,’ I read aloud. ‘That is not a very exciting beginning.’ Now turn back to Chapter 1 of your copy of the book. ]

The writing captures the atmosphere of the period and provided me with some new words to add to my vocabulary: ‘eldritch’ meaning weird, sinister or ghostly; and ‘sough’ meaning a whispering sound.

So by now you’re probably thinking this book is rather light-hearted, a bit too clever for its own good and a not very compelling murder mystery. Well, you’re wrong because as the book progresses it gets much darker, in fact fairly gruesome in places.  The reader is transported to the seamy, squalid underbelly of 19th century London – its rat-infested slums, maze-like alleys, murky side streets and seedy opium dens ruled by gangs and criminals prepared to stop at nothing to protect their patch. And treachery, immorality and double-dealing reside behind the gentile facades of well-to-do London houses as well.

Dark Dawn over Steep House will bring you face to face with murder, kidnap, suicide, disfigurement and depravity. You’ll soon be immersed in the twists and turns of an intricately plotted mystery where nothing and no-one should be taken at face value.   Grice and Marsh are not infallible and as they close in on the perpetrator there are mistakes whose consequences must be lived with for ever.

I found the mixture of quirky humour, eccentric characters and compelling plot really entertaining and I hope there will be another outing for Sidney Grice and March Middleton soon. In the meantime, I shall be catching up with the earlier books in the series.

I received a review copy courtesy of publishers, Head of Zeus, in return for an honest review.

*The Diary of a Nobody by George & Weedon Grossmith

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In three words: Clever, suspenseful, mystery

Try something similar…The Wages of Sin by Kaite Welsh (click here to read my review)

MRCKasasianAbout the Author

Martin Kasasian was raised in Lancashire. He has had careers as varied as a factory hand, wine waiter, veterinary assistant, fairground worker and dentist. He lives with his wife, in Suffolk in the summer and in Malta in the winter

Connect with Martin
Twitter ǀ Goodreads