Title: Your Friendly Neighbourhood Criminal
Author: Michael Van Rooy
Date/Place of Publication: 2008: Winnipeg, Turnstone Press
ISBN # 978-0-88801-339-2
# of pages: 324
Discovered by searching for Canadian authors at the Saskatchewan blog http://mysteriesandmore.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/2012-alphabet-in-crime-fiction-roundup.html
Read in paper book format.
Another anti-hero! Or perhaps a role model for ex-cons trying to go straight. Montgomery "Monty" Haaviko is having a bad day when the book opens, as he is caught in the middle of an armed robbery at a Winnipeg bank. However, this doesn't begin to compare with the past few months of his life.
He has been busy helping a friend set up a human smuggling route into Canada while at the same time, trying to figure out how to shut down the crack house in his neighbourhood and keep the children he babysits in line. Certainly a quirky story line. A former bad ass, Monty has his own moral code, a twisting of the ways cons operate so that he can fit as much as possible into his new straight life. It is not necessarily a code with which most of us would be comfortable but strangely, it makes sense in his world.
His real estate agent wife Claire is no shrinking violet either. Most of the time, she is a typical working mother but she always has Monty's back, even if that means lurking in the shadows with a crowbar. It will be interesting to get the first book in this series, "An Ordinary Decent Criminal", to learn how Monty and Claire met.
This was a thoroughly enjoyable book. Often, you are on the edge of your seat, waiting for the next bad thing to happen, and it's the kind of book you finally have to sit down and finish because the suspense is so great.
It was so exciting to discover this Canadian author and a shock to learn he had died suddenly two years ago (2011), aged only 42. He was promoting his third book in this series, "A Criminal to Remember". According to the Quill and Quire obituary, "At 21, Van Rooy was convicted of armed robbery and served nearly two years in federal penitentiary. He has always maintained his innocence and told the Winnipeg Free Press last year that he had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time." No doubt this jail experience assisted his development of the character Monty.
Friday, 18 January 2013
Saturday, 12 January 2013
Review: Death in Breslau, Marek Krajewski (Poland)
Title: Death in Breslau
Author: Marek Krajewski
Translator: Danusia Stok - from Polish
Date/Place of Publication: 2012: Brooklyn: Melville House
Original Publication: 1999: Poland, Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie Co. Ltd.
(as “Śmierć w Breslau”)
ISBN #: 978-1-61219-165-2
Number of Pages: 213
Read in E-book format
Also available in hard cover
This is the first of several books in the series about police investigator Eberhard Mock. More of an anti-hero than a role model, Mock is reminiscent of Captain Louis Renault, Claude Rains' character in the movie "Casablanca". Not entirely without scruples, he cooperates with the Nazis, partly out of necessity and partly for personal gain, even though he does not necessarily subscribe to their beliefs and he will do little things to annoy them...if he can do them without risk to himself.
This particular story opens in a Dresden psychiatric hospital in 1950, at that time part of East Germany. Stasi officer Major Mahmadov wants to question patient Herbert Anwaldt. He has asked to do this before and when the previous hospital director refused, it appears he was replaced. The new director reluctantly agrees and at midnight, the officer returns for the interview. A short while later, hospital employees hear screaming from Anwaldt's room but shrug it off as typical behaviour. In fact, Anwaldt is screaming in terror at the four desert scorpions on the floor.
The action now shifts back in time to pre-war Breslau. In 1933, Breslau (the German name for the Polish city Wroclaw) was part of Prussia and it eventually became one of the strongest bases of support for the Nazis. Mock, Deputy Head of the Criminal Department, has been called out to investigate the brutal murders of three people, a train conductor and two women. Mock recognizes the youngest victim, 17 year old Marietta, daughter of Baron von der Malten, an acquaintance of Mock. She and her governess, Françoise Debroux, were also viciously raped and desert scorpions were found on all three bodies.
From here, the story takes many twists and turns, right to the very end. The historical backdrop is a critical part of the narrative. Beginning in pre-war Prussia just as Hitler has been appointed German Chancellor, you can sense the steady insidious rise of the Nazi Party and its effects on how criminal investigations were undertaken and the rule of law applied. The police force in question were not previously comprised of angels though; they were already using violence, blackmail and secret files as key investigative tools.
This is certainly a journey through the seedier side of life in the 1930's and at times, the brutality is difficult to read. However, it is an intriguing and challenging book.
The author's background is quite interesting as well. With a Masters in classical philology and a doctorate in humanities/linguistics, Krajewski has worked as a librarian, jewelry salesman and security guard, senior university lecturer and now professional writer.
Link to Author's Website: www.marek-krajewski.pl
Author: Marek Krajewski
Translator: Danusia Stok - from Polish
Date/Place of Publication: 2012: Brooklyn: Melville House
Original Publication: 1999: Poland, Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie Co. Ltd.
(as “Śmierć w Breslau”)
ISBN #: 978-1-61219-165-2
Number of Pages: 213
Read in E-book format
Also available in hard cover
This is the first of several books in the series about police investigator Eberhard Mock. More of an anti-hero than a role model, Mock is reminiscent of Captain Louis Renault, Claude Rains' character in the movie "Casablanca". Not entirely without scruples, he cooperates with the Nazis, partly out of necessity and partly for personal gain, even though he does not necessarily subscribe to their beliefs and he will do little things to annoy them...if he can do them without risk to himself.
This particular story opens in a Dresden psychiatric hospital in 1950, at that time part of East Germany. Stasi officer Major Mahmadov wants to question patient Herbert Anwaldt. He has asked to do this before and when the previous hospital director refused, it appears he was replaced. The new director reluctantly agrees and at midnight, the officer returns for the interview. A short while later, hospital employees hear screaming from Anwaldt's room but shrug it off as typical behaviour. In fact, Anwaldt is screaming in terror at the four desert scorpions on the floor.
The action now shifts back in time to pre-war Breslau. In 1933, Breslau (the German name for the Polish city Wroclaw) was part of Prussia and it eventually became one of the strongest bases of support for the Nazis. Mock, Deputy Head of the Criminal Department, has been called out to investigate the brutal murders of three people, a train conductor and two women. Mock recognizes the youngest victim, 17 year old Marietta, daughter of Baron von der Malten, an acquaintance of Mock. She and her governess, Françoise Debroux, were also viciously raped and desert scorpions were found on all three bodies.
From here, the story takes many twists and turns, right to the very end. The historical backdrop is a critical part of the narrative. Beginning in pre-war Prussia just as Hitler has been appointed German Chancellor, you can sense the steady insidious rise of the Nazi Party and its effects on how criminal investigations were undertaken and the rule of law applied. The police force in question were not previously comprised of angels though; they were already using violence, blackmail and secret files as key investigative tools.
This is certainly a journey through the seedier side of life in the 1930's and at times, the brutality is difficult to read. However, it is an intriguing and challenging book.
The author's background is quite interesting as well. With a Masters in classical philology and a doctorate in humanities/linguistics, Krajewski has worked as a librarian, jewelry salesman and security guard, senior university lecturer and now professional writer.
Link to Author's Website: www.marek-krajewski.pl
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)