Don't Understand the Logic

Last year, Norwegian author Jo Nesbo made his American debut with The Redbreast. The book gained quite a bit of critical buzz this side of the pond. My issue with The Redbreast is the fact that it's not actually the first book to feature hero Inspector Harry Hole. In fact, after much searching, it doesn't look like they're publishing any of his books in order.

From what I can find, thanks to Euro Crime, a great UK book blog that I think I have mentioned here before, the series is as follows:

1. The Bat Man

2. Cockroach

3. Redbreast

4. Nemesis

5. Devil's Star

6. The Redeemer

7. The Snowman

Not all of the titles have even been published in his native country. As of right now, The Redbreast is the only one of Nesbo's titles that is available here in the states. Devil's Star was actually the first of Nesbo's titles to be translated into English. Nemesis has a laydown date of this month, but is showing Random House Canada as the publisher. HUH?

So, yeah, not quite sure what logic is driving these decisions, but I've got Devil's Star coming courtesy of High Crimes and their fab international ordering system. I guess I'll have to decide if I want to pay the extra for Nemesis or take my chances and wait for it to finally be officially released here.

So after all that rambling, here's the starred review of The Redbreast from PW as posted on Amazon (hopefully I'll get to reading this one this week, but we'll see):

"Shifting effortlessly between the last days of WWII on the Eastern front and modern day Oslo, Norwegian Nesbø (The Devil's Star) spins a complex tale of murder, revenge and betrayal. A recovering alcoholic recently reassigned to the Norwegian Security Service, Insp. Harry Hole begins tracking Sverre Olsen, a vicious neo-Nazi who escaped prosecution on a technicality. But what starts as a quest to put Olsen behind bars soon explodes into a race to prevent an assassination. As Hole struggles to stay one step ahead of Olsen and his gang of skinheads, Nesbø takes the reader back to WWII, as Norwegians fighting for Hitler wage a losing battle on the Eastern front. When the two story lines finally collide, it's up to Hole to stop a man hell-bent on carrying out the deadly plan he hatched half a century ago in the trenches. Perfectly paced and painfully suspenseful, this crime novel illuminates not only Norway's alleged Nazi ties but also its present skinhead subculture. Readers will delight in Hole, a laconic hero as doggedly stubborn as Connelly's Harry Bosch, and yet with a prickly appeal all his own."

Blame it on Buffy!

I blame the current popularity of the newly minted Urban Fantasy genre on Buffy. Yep. And I thank her and Joss for it every day!

I love Urban Fantasy. A lot of it is melded with mystery or romance so you end up with vampire hunter detectives or vamp CIA agents (Jennifer Rardin's fantastic series), witch PIs who partner with pixies (Kim Harrison), werecat mysteries (Rachel Vincent), superheroes (Vicki Pettersson should be on everyone's must read list) and loads of other stuff. They're fun and the authors can essentially play with the mythos however they like meaning that even though you may see 12 vamp titles by 12 different authors, each one is going to be unique in its own way. Sure, sure there are some cookie cutter ones out there, just like every genre, but it's those different ones that stand out.

I started reading Jeri Smith-Ready's latest last night (right after I finished Jeaniene Frost's latest which is, um, not going to the Junior Junkies thanks to a particularly steamy sex chapter! No way am I getting the blame if the 'rents happen to see that.) So, I didn't get far in Wicked Game, about 60 pages before the clock hit 1 am and I forced myself to sleep.

I can tell you already that this one definitely falls into the unique category which means I'm gonna love it! Ciara Griffin is a con artist trying to get a real job. She applies for a marketing internship at WMMP radio and is surprised when she is actually gets hired. Her first day, she's sent home with an assignment to read a stack of books on rock history so that she can understand what the station is all about. Stuffed inside one of the books is an old pamphlet on vampires. As she skims through it, she starts to realize that there is something strange about the employees at WMMP - they're nut jobs who believe they're the undead, or are they? So, she does what any normal girl would do in this situation, she quits. Except they really want her. See, the owner of the station has put some money into it lately in hopes that it will be snatched up by a big corporation which means that all the vamps currently working there would be out of jobs. Not good considering the fact that Smith-Ready's vamps are a little delicate mentally and working around the music of their eras helps keep these guys sane.

I'll keep you posted, but I can almost guarantee that it's going to be fantastic. Add to that the fact that it's freaking hilarious and I should zoom through it today - after I finish my work, of course. Oh, and you can check out Jeri Smith-Ready's site and listen to the Wicked Game playlist (super cool)! And, it's not up just yet, or not loading on my comp for some reason, but WVMP radio will soon have its own site with music and stuff to buy.

If you're interested in reading Wicked Game yourself, enter to win a copy (with some yummy chocolate accompaniments) over at Rachel Vincent's blog. Good luck!

I got my first proof in!

So I got my first proof in this week, finished up the edit and am waiting for one final pic for an inn. This one is the CA book and my name is on the ISBN page. Yay!

It's a strange feeling. On the one hand, it's not like I wrote a book - a painstaking, months long, labor of love. I am proud of my work and actually terrified that I missed a million typos, but I know it's not quite the same as writing a whole book. I compiled the thing and did some creative writing, inn descriptions and such, but for the most part I would liken it to translating a book. I have to read and retype all of the recipes, making sure that they make sense. This sometimes includes some internet searching to complete partial recipes.

I've already sent out requests for the FL book and am a little disheartened in regards to the number of responses I've gotten thus far. I don't want a replay of the GA book. I mailed 180 requests for submissions on the FL book with a deadline of next Monday. I've gotten 2 back. Ideally, I would have 100 participants - that would ensure that there is a good selection of recipes (hopefully) and a decent page count on the whole book.

Do me a favor and cross your fingers for me folks so that I'll get in 98 submissions over the weekend and can go straight to putting it together come June. Am working on wrapping up GA in the meantime. And trying not to eat too much while I do! Working on these makes me hungry.

Do I feel sorry or am I just annoyed?

I've been a reader since I was 8 or 9 years old. This was something my parents pushed for - my mom was a reader when she was younger, I have the books to prove it, and my dad is still something of a reader, though it extends mainly to nonfiction.

We used to have reading parties when I was a kid. Pillows spread all over the living room, blinds open letting the sun in, my dad, my brother, and myself with our books. Don't know if they still do these with the junior junkies.

Anyway, I am a reader. That's my point, and I kind of feel bad for people who aren't. Other times I just get aggravated. Why? Because our roommate has no way to entertain himself other than to watch TV. When he is home, the TV is running 24/7! He sleeps in front of the TV. He won't even turn it off when he leaves. I can't understand it. I like TV. I really do. I can sit in front of the box for hours on end when I feel like doing nothing else. I love movies and will watch TV on DVD for hours. I simply can't fathom a life wherein that is the only form of entertainment I enjoy. I like books. I can sit and read one in one evening if it is really good. I don't have to wait for something to come on, I don't have to sit through commercials, and I rather enjoy the quiet. Unfortunately, my book reading now has a permanent soundtrack of reality shows. Agh!

I can hear Bravo right now, which I guess in some way is better than actually hearing a rerun of the Dog Whisperer. Yes, that's another issue - he has a DVR and will rewatch the same episodes over and over again. My feeling is this, if I wanted to watch it, I would be down there. I certainly don't want to listen to it as I attempt to read my book.

Latest to jump off the reading pile is One Foot in the Grave by Jeaniene Frost. It's 4 years after Halfway to the Grave and Cat is still pining over Bones. She now works as a vampire hunter for homeland security and (just in the first few chapters) will be returning to her hometown for the first time since the events of Halfway thanks to the fact that someone has left a pile of bodies in the house where she grew up.

Now, does it sound like I need a 24-hour Discovery channel playlist to keep me entertained? No! I will say this about the roomie, he once admitted to me that he skipped school as a teen to read a Harlan Coben book - I think he needs some more Coben love, how about you?

It's tough to be a book junkie!

I wish there were more hours in the day that I could devote to reading. As it is, I already devote quite a bit of time to my favorite solitary activity (well, not totally, Mike reads in bed at the same time, so in that sense we are reading together, no?).

Anyway, I like to stay ahead of the game and keep my eyes and ears open for the fabulous stuff that is coming out. This one slipped by me. Could be that I don't read much espionage - something I am trying to change with recent Stella Rimington purchases - Gail Lynds having been pretty much my only prior experience with the genre. I'm also on a big, big, big UK kick right now which is not to say that I am not reading the stateside stuff (because I am) but just that I have been utilizing my "Wish List" and stuffing it with obscure stuff from overseas that I desperately want to get my hands on.

In my efforts to stay in the know now that I am not physically touching every fictional entry, I read PW and various blogs. One recent addition to my bookmarks is The Rap Sheet, can't remember where I heard about it first, but it was probably on another blog. Anyway, Alex Carr (Jenny Siler) and a review of her recent release The Prince of Bagram Prison, were the subject of one of today's entries on The Rap Sheet and I immediately had to add it to my "Books I Now Must Have" list.

Here's what PW had to say about The Prince of Bagram Prison:

"At the start of this intelligent spy thriller from the pseudonymous Carr (the author of Flashback and other novels under her real name, Jenny Siler), Kat Caldwell, a gutsy U.S. Army interrogator stationed at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, takes charge of Jamal, a 15-year-old Moroccan boy caught in a jihadi sweep by a British Special Forces team. Having fled a degraded existence as an orphan in Morocco, the resourceful Jamal is no terrorist, Kat decides. After Jamal escapes custody, a team of American intelligence agents, working in both an official and unofficial capacity, go in search of him. Because of their earlier relationship, Kat is recruited to help locate the boy. When she realizes that something bad will happen if she finds him, she also goes on the run. Effortlessly shifting point of view and back and forth in time, Carr (An Accidental American) well deserves comparisons with the early John le Carré."

Flashback and Accidental American have also made it to my list. I'm thinking vacation reads!

New Releases 5/6

New releases this week include:

The Host by Stephenie Meyer - Her adult debut and it totally rocks! LOVED IT! See post below for synopsis and go buy the book!

The Tenth Gift by Jane Johnson - a 'book about a book.' I blogged about this one earlier this week as well. It was a great literary tale with elements of mystery, adventure, and romance. Another great one.

From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris - #8 in the Sookie Stackhouse series takes place just after Hurricane Katrina. 

Careless in Red by Elizabeth George - the return of Thomas Linley (after With No One as Witness)

Phamton Prey by John Sandford - the latest Lucas Davenport mystery. This (along with Harris above) is a series that is going to have to go on my TBR list. I had read the first title, Rules of Prey, years ago, but Sandford is consistently garnering praise from his fellow authors. I'll be rereading Rules asap, guaranteed.

Skeletons of the Feast by Chris Bohjalian - WWII lit-fic that's also going on my "wish list."

On DVD:

PS I Love You based on the novel by Cecelia Ahern. It's not as good as the book, but Gerard Butler and *sigh* Jeffrey Dean Morgan are totally hot and Hillary Swank is really cute in the lead role.

I'm Not There the Bob Dylan bio pick.

New reviews at bookbitch.com:

The Host

The Tenth Gift

Novel About My Wife by Emily Perkins

Bloodstone by Nate Kenyon

And welcome new reviewer Jennnifer Lawrence to the BB team!

Also, check out Cheryl's blog and leave a comment to win a copy of Maggie Marr's new title. And the ever fabulous Toni McGee Causey is running consecutive contests each Sunday until the release of her latest, Bobbie Faye's (Kinda, Sorta, Not Exactly) Family Jewels. Bobbie Faye is great fun (and she's a southerner from LA just like me!). Check out her Murderati blog for details. 

 

2008 Award Winners!

Last night was the 62nd annual Edgar Awards banquet. You can visit this site to see all of the nominees for this year's awards (accomplishments in 2007 publications).

Winner for Best Novel was John Hart's Down River. Have not read this one so here is a blurb from the starred review in PW:

"Five years earlier, Adam Chase was arrested for murder, largely on the basis of his stepmother's sworn testimony against him. He was acquitted, but nearly everyone, including his father, still thinks he did it, and Adam's deep bitterness has kept him away from home ever since. Now, at the request of a childhood friend, he's back in Salisbury, N.C., where all the old demons still reside and new troubles await. The almost Shakespearean snarl of family ties is complicated by a very modern struggle between economic progress and love for the land, between haves and have-nots. Throughout, Hart expertly weaves his main theme: that by their freedom of choice, humans are capable of betrayal but also of forgiveness and redemption. This book should settle once and for all the question of whether thrillers and mysteries can also be literature."

Winner for Best First Novel by an American Author was Tana French's In the Woods. This one has been on my to buy list for so long that the only I am waiting on now is the paperback release! Here's another blurb from PW:

"Irish author French expertly walks the line between police procedural and psychological thriller in her debut. When Katy Devlin, a 12-year-old girl from Knocknaree, a Dublin suburb, is found murdered at a local archeological dig, Det. Rob Ryan and his partner, Cassie Maddox, must probe deep into the victim's troubled family history. There are chilling similarities between the Devlin murder and the disappearance 20 years before of two children from the same neighborhood who were Ryan's best friends. Only Maddox knows Ryan was involved in the 1984 case. The plot climaxes with a taut interrogation by Maddox of a potential suspect, and the reader is floored by the eventual identity and motives of the killer. A distracting political subplot involves a pending motorway in Knocknaree, but Ryan and Maddox are empathetic and flawed heroes, whose partnership and friendship elevate the narrative beyond a gory tale of murdered children and repressed childhood trauma."

Tana French's follow-up, The Likeness, is due out in July.

This year's Stoker Awards were handed out on March 30. The winner in the best novel category was Sarah Langan's The Missing, the follow-up to her 2006 title The Keeper which was nominated for Best First Novel in '07. I have read The Keeper and here is my review from Bookbitch.com:

Susan Marley wanders the town of Bedford, Maine, leaving a trail of nightmares in her wake. Everyone in the town thinks of Susan at their worst moments. Thoughts and dreams of her come unbidden and are beyond the townspeople’s control. Then, Susan Marley is dead. Rather than relief, her death brings a plague of darkness and evil to the dying town of Bedford. Those who are able, leave before the worst of it begins. Everyone who remains hides a dark secret in their past, a secret that the dead Susan Marley can now release upon them. Sarah Langan’s Stoker nominated debut is an absolute must for horror fans. This creepy tale will, at times, remind readers of King’s Needful Things. Like King, Langan’s characters are not ideal small town folk. Most of them are barely able to keep their dirty secrets hidden from the prying eyes of gossipy neighbors. It is just this element that makes the people of Bedford more realistic, if grandiose, depictions of the worst sort of people today. Langan has an impressive voice that is all her own. I recommend you lock your doors and curl up with this book late into the night. The Keeper is only the beginning. Langan’s recent follow-up, The Missing, revisits the cursed town of Bedford.

Finally, the 2008 Stoker for Best First Novel went to the very deserving Joe Hill and his Heart Shaped Box in which rocker Jude Coyne, collector of the weird and macabre, orders a ghost on-line. Turns out it was something of a trick, though, and the ghost is hell-bent on revenge against Coyne himself. Joe Hill is the son of horror master King and is already a force to be reckoned with.

It's hard to find new and original stuff that holds up in the horror genre, but Hill has every bit of talent his father does. I loved Heart Shaped Box as did, I believe, every other person who read it. Hill's collection 20th Century Ghosts was another of my favorites last year. The collection features a wide range of stories, not all of them "horror" but every one of them amazing and fantastic. If you are not familiar with Hill just yet, I strongly encourage you to go out and find a copy of one of his books, you won't regret it!