La cinquième femme, par Henning Mankell

Policier, traduit du Suédois

Dans une petite ville du sud de la Suède, les policiers sont encore sous le choc des événements liés à l'enquête sur des meurtres en série lorsque de nouveaux meurtres violents sont commis. L'enquête s'annonce très difficile : l'homme retrouvé embroché sur des pics de bambous a un passé élusif et le meurtrier n'a pas laissé de traces.

L'équipe de Kurt Wallander mène cependant un travail long et minutieux. En parallèle aux efforts et au dévouement des policiers, Henning Mankell nous fait découvrir une facette de la vie Suédoise : la réaction de certains habitants face à l'escalade de la violence. Une faction de villageois s'auto-proclame milice de quartier et entend mener la justice.

D'après ma source suédoise, ce phénomène n'est pas très répandu en Suède. Il est donc possible que l'auteur ait volontairement voulu le mettre en avant afin de montrer ses effets à ses compatriotes éventuellement tentés par une telle initiative.

Par ailleurs, j'ai bien aimé le style direct d'écriture et les détails dans l'enquête. Le livre était plutôt long mais pas trop.

Mon oncle, à qui j'ai emprunté ce polar, m'a conseillé de lire "La lionne blanche", du même auteur.

[Le site officiel d'Henning Mankell]

Pars vite et reviens tard, de Fred Vargas

Policier, Français

Ohhh un Fred Vargas !!! (ma réaction en découvrant ce livre un lundi midi) J'adore son style. Les personnages savent un tas de choses mais sans que cela fasse trop artificiel : après tout, c'est leur spécialité.

Cette histoire se concentre autour d'un crieur, un Breton échoué à Paris qui reprend la tradition familiale de crier les nouvelles et les annonces sur la place publique. Certaines annonces deviennent inquiétantes et le crieur, ainsi qu'un vieux lettré et le commissaire Adamsberg, déjà intrigué par des 4, comprennent qu'elles ne sont pas de simples annonces et cherchent à comprendre leur signification.

Une enquête à tiroirs avec une fin qui fait plaisir, Fred Vargas s'est encore bien débrouillée.

Dead right, by Peter Robinson

Police thriller. Starts with a very simple dead youth, and gets more and more complex.

Interesting to read, good characters and themes specific to the story. I thought the book ended a little bit too soon, without giving all the final results and answers to all the little things that had started to develop in the book. I suppose it's good for imagination, but I still prefer when a book finishes the story.

I enjoyed the book, but I don't think it will stay engraved in my memory.

Utopia, by Lincoln Child

A fantastic thriller. I really enjoyed discovering this amazing amusement park with all its technology and perfect immersion words. The plot is set little by little and keeps you turning page after page .. for a long time: the book is huge ! It had me falling asleep at 3AM several nights in a row.

Only draw back: I sometimes felt like the author wrote technical details just to show off (look, I know this and that about weapons, or about computers ...).

Other than that, the characters are interesting, and there are more than enough events and turns in the plot to keep the reader entertained. I hope they'll make one great movie out of the book: I want to see these Worlds come true ;D

L'homme aux cercles bleus, by Fred Vargas

I had to search the French corner of Münster's library for five good minutes before I spotted this rather small book.

Adamsberg leads the search, so no toad for this time. I really enjoyed meeting all the characters: a small book, with four main characters (Adamsberg, Danglard, Mathilde and Reyner) who are well drawn, plus important side-characters. Well .. that's Vargas's style .. I like it :)

I thought maybe it started a little bit fast with witty dialogues right from the beginning, but hey, that puts the reader in context faster I suppose.

Oh and of course, the end .. as unpredictable for me as ever :D

Sans feu ni lieu, by Fred Vargas

My mum's a Fred Vargas addict, and I read this one from her collection.

I really like the three historians. Mathias is my favorite, does anybody else have an opinion ? ;D
The way the idiot speaks is just fantastic, you can't help having his sentence construction in your head for days after you've read the book !

I'd recommend this book, just as the other two I've read from her: she's got a really nice style and creates great characters and fiction.

L'homme à l'envers, by Fred Vargas

With the memory of how much I enjoyed Un peu plus loin sur la droite, by the same author, I immediately decided to borrow this book. I liked it. The cool dialogues are there one more time, with a good plot and a nice story about the wolves and the road trip. I don't want to spoil the book too much, but .. I was sad somehow to discover who the murderer was. Also, this book had less of an effect on me, compared with the first one I read. I wonder if it is because the dialogues, mood and plot style aren't new anymore, or if it is just that the book wasn't as good as the first. Oh well .. I am definitely going to keep reading Fred Vargas, in any case.

Bad Chili, by Joe R. Lansdale

Andrew lent me that book. Quite a change from my usual romantic books :D

I enjoyed the writing style, learned new vocabulary and expressions. The book is a real page turner, but that keeps a relaxed atmosphere (I mean, there is no equivalent to super stressing music in bad horror movies in this book -- if anybody can understand what I mean here, I'll be happy). Somehow it reminded me of the style of "The stranger, by Albert Camus". Except that there isn't any swearing in Camus' book.

The two main characters are witty and good fighters, which is quite vital in the story. It is full of violence. A friend told me she couldn't read all the description about the violent videos. But what I found the most disturbing in the end was the description of domestic violence. It also reveals life in smaller towns in Texas, and describes a cool tornado. In any case, I really enjoyed the book and look forward to reading more from the author.

I don't think I'm ever going to be asked to write book reviews if anybody in the business reads my blog .. I hope you don't mind my style and senseless remarks. This is just what comes through my mind without any structuring or anything (in case it wasn't obvious already).


[Joe R. Lansdale's entry on Wikipedia]

Un peu plus loin sur la droite, by Fred Vargas

I discovered the author during my last holidays in France: my friend AL was reading one of her books (Fred Vargas is a woman -- I only just discovered that while reading the Wikipedia article) and told me she had a great writing style and that the plots were really good.

After reading it (borrowed from the library, no surprise here), I confirm. The characters have a good humor and an interesting history, independently from the plot, which was really good nonetheless. I loved the dialogs with and about the toad. A lot of the dialogs just sound so right and witty, I laughed out loud several times. Also a page turner.


[Wikipedia article on Fred Vargas (in French)], [Wikipedia article on Fred Vargas (in English)]