Genre: Nordic Thriller

POV: 3rd Person

Sensuality: Subtle

Violence: A few gruesome scenes

My Grade: A

This is the best thriller I’ve read in years. While I enjoy mystery and suspense novels, I’m particularly picky when it comes to thrillers. I’ve read too many which seem deliberately convoluted and overly long. At 618 pages, Jo Nesbø’s The Redbreast is definitely long, but every page adds to the story.

A brief note on the series: The Redbreast was originally published in Norwegian as Rødstrupe in 2000. The English translation by Don Bartlett was released in 2006. The books in Jo Nesbø’s Harry Hole series have been translated out of order, and there are currently no plans to translate the first two novels into English. If you can, I strongly urge you to read the books in the order in which they were written so as to avoid plot spoilers for the earlier stories. I’ve provided a list of the books at the end of my review.

The protagonist of The Redbreast is Detective Harry Hole. Harry is a gifted policeman but his career advancement is hampered by his alcoholism, inability to play nicely on a team, and utter lack of interest in office politics. When Harry causes the department a high-profile embarrassment, he finds himself relegated to tedious surveillance work. Working alone is not a problem for Harry. Sticking to his assigned tasks is. It’s not long before he discovers that a rare rifle of a type favoured by professional assassins has been smuggled into the country, possibly by a neo-fascist group with whom Harry is familiar from his time in the crime squad.

When a former Nazi sympathiser is found with his throat slit, Harry doesn’t think it’s a coincidence. As the investigation unfolds and the body count increases, Harry finds himself faced with a killer who seems determined to deliver his own brand of justice. Harry’s only hope of finding the killer is to track down a small group of old men who betrayed their country to fight on the side of the Nazis during WWII.

The Redbreast is a page-turner in the very best sense of the term. For those of you who share my wariness of flashbacks, there are a few in this book, but they add to the story rather than detract from it. There are a few jumping timelines in the first 50 pages or so, but then they are reduced to just two: the present day and WWII. I loved the historical details of Norway’s occupation by the Germans during WWII. Although I’ve read a lot about the war, I didn’t know much about the role played by Norway.

The pace of The Redbreast is very different to that of the average American or British thriller, but it moves along nicely and the story unfolds slowly but surely. It is very much a character-driven tale, with the personalities of the characters lending as much weight – if not more – as the plot itself. Harry is a wonderful protagonist. He’s not the usual grumpy-detective-with-issues. He has a great sense of humour and doesn’t take himself too seriously. He’s more amused by than frustrated at his incompetent superiors. I enjoyed spending 600-plus pages with Harry, and I’m looking forward to reading further books in this series. This is a book which I can highly recommend and I’ve added it to my select list of Grade A reads.

Correct Reading Order of Books in the Harry Hole Series:

1. Flaggermusmannen (1997) by Jo Nesbø - Not translated into English
2. Kakerlakkene (1998)by Jo Nesbø - Not translated into English
3. The Redbreast (2006 – translation by Don Bartlett) Original title: Rødstrupe (2000) by Jo Nesbø
4. Nemesis (2008 – translation by Don Bartlett) Original Title: Sorgenfri (2002) by Jo Nesbø
5. The Devil’s Star (2005 – translation by Don Bartlett) Original Title: Marekors (2003) by Jo Nesbø
6. The Redeemer (2009 – translation by Don Bartlett) Original Title: Frelseren (2005) by Jo Nesbø
7. The Snowman (2010 – translation by Don Bartlett); Original title: Snømannen (2007) by Jo Nesbø

The message I received from the recent controversy over Bloomsbury ‘whitewashing’ book covers was that publishers market their books towards a white audience. No surprise there, but it does leave a bad taste in my mouth. They seem to think that a white reader won’t be interested in picking up a book featuring a black person on the cover, or will automatically assume that the book deals with issues such as slavery, segregation, racism, and so on. As a white reader, I find this highly offensive.

Taking a step back from how I feel about this on an emotional level, though, I have to wonder if they don’t have a point. If I see a black person on a book cover, what do I think the book is about? Honestly? Slavery, segregation, racism, and so on. In other words, if I’m not in the mood to read that sort of book, I probably won’t pick it up and read the blurb. Years of buying books has given me a certain sense of what a story is likely to be about based on its cover. Historical romance novels usually feature a lot of cleavage and heavage; thrillers frequently have a bloody image on their covers; and horror stories often depict a spooky house.

I’m convinced that the conclusions I draw about a book’s content when I see its cover are due years of conditioning through clever marketing. The arguments used for marketing books a certain way is that that is what sells, hence the preponderance of heaving bosoms and bloody knives in romances and thrillers respectively. But surely the marketeers predictions of what will sell and what won’t become self-fulfilling prophecies? If a reader has only seen romance novels with cleavage, that’s the association they will make when shopping for books, even if they don’t actually like the covers. Similarly, if the only books published featuring black characters on the covers are ‘issues’ books, than that is what readers will expect the story to be about. The only way to change readers’ assumptions is to change the way books are marketed. It might take a while, but eventually readers will come to have different expectations when they see certain things on book covers.

One example – and isn’t it sad that I can only think of one example – of a black author with gorgeous covers is Dorothy Koomson. Here are a few of her books:

What assumptions do you make when looking at these covers? Do you think, say, The Chocolate Run, is about racism and segregation? That’s certainly not the message it conveys to me. Yes, racism comes into all of Koomson’s books, however peripherally, as it is part and parcel of being black in a predominantly white society. But her books are about so much more than that, and the issues they explore could apply to any one of us, no matter what skin colour we have.

Another thing which strikes me about these book covers is that the cover models are quite dark skinned. So often black models used on books are fairly light skinned. When faces are shown, the models’ features are often as close to white as it’s possible to get. In contrast, the covers of The Chocolate Run and Goodnight, Beautiful actively draw attention to the darkness of the skin through the use of brightly coloured clothing.

The first of Koomson’s books which I read was My Best Friend’s Girl, a 2006 Richard and Judy Book Club pick. I initially thought that her gorgeous book covers were the result of her success following her book club selection. According to her website, however, My Best Friend’s Girl was already a bestseller before the book club selection was announced. In other words, the cover chosen had nothing to do with the exposure given to the book by Richard and Judy.

So are Dorothy Koomson’s book covers the exception that proves the rule? Is there less whitewashing of book covers in the UK? Why can’t more publishers follow suit and create beautiful covers featuring black people for books which aren’t focused on racism? What can – or should – readers do to encourage publishers to change the way they market books?

I try to do a semi-regular links post on Saturdays but I’ve had so little time to blog hop over the past few days that I have nothing to recommend. Instead, I’ll leave you with a link to the weirdest website I’ve come across lately. It’s devoted to photos of Tom Selleck in various poses with waterfalls and sandwiches. It’s so ridiculously random that it’s actually pretty funny. Thanks to Christian for the link!

Enjoy your weekend!

Genre: Contemporary Romance (Harlequin Blaze)

POV: 3rd Person from both hero & heroine’s perspectives

Sensuality: Hot

Violence: N/A

My Grade: A-

Sarah Mayberry is my favourite Harlequin Blaze author. I’ve read her entire backlist and enjoyed all of them and loved a few. Her Secret Fling is now rivalling my favourite of her books, Anything for You, for first place in my affections.

Poppy Birmingham is a former Olympic swimmer who was forced into early retirement due to an injury. For the past twenty-five years, Poppy has lived for swimming and now needs to find a new outlet to channel her natural drive and ambition. When the sports editor of Australia’s most prestigious newspaper offers her a job as celebrity sports columnist, Poppy jumps at the chance. Although she has no journalistic experience, Poppy sees the opportunity as one which will allow her to carve out a new niche for herself, rather than pursuing the usual post-athletic careers such as TV sports commentator, swimming coach, or product endorser. Poppy is also excited by the prospect of working alongside her idol, Jake Stevens, an award-winning sports journalist and author of one of the most successful Australian novels ever written.

Jake Stevens is deeply resentful of his editor’s decision to hire Poppy Birmingham as the new member of the paper’s sports department. Jake feels that Poppy has no credentials to justify her obtaining such a coveted position over experienced journalists. Jake is also battling his own demons, not least of which is crippling writer’s block which is preventing him from writing the much-anticipated follow-up to his phenomenally successful debut novel.

Poppy is hurt and shocked by Jake’s hostile manner. Determining to keep her distance from him, she concentrates on doing the best job she can, despite her lack of formal training. When Poppy finds herself stranded due to a plane strike, she and Jake end up sharing a car ride home. Confined in such a small space for a significant length of time, they find there’s more to the other than they’d first assumed. They end up having a hot one-night stand, which turns into a passionate affair. But can sexual chemistry develop into love?

Once again, Sarah Mayberry delivers a winnner. Her characters seem so real they all but leap off the page. I loved the way Poppy is the emotionally stronger of the two. She doesn’t let the premature end of her swimming career get her down but instead looks for a new channel for her energies. She might not be as intellectually inclined as her academic family but she’s certainly not lacking in smarts. She takes her new career as a journalist very seriously and is determined to become the best writer that she can be. Her social life has suffered through her years as a professional athlete when she had little to no time to devote to a relationship. Now that she’s no longer committed to the pool, Poppy is ready to find a nice guy and settle down. That the nice guy might turn out to be grumpy Jake Stevens comes as a complete surprise.

Jake is quite dislikeable at the start of the book but he gradually begins to face his demons and work through them. He’s reluctantly impressed by Poppy’s diligence, and while she might not be the best journalist ever, she works hard to improve her style. Jake is overwhelmed by his attraction to Poppy, especially as it goes far beyond the purely physical. Jake is still scarred from a broken marriage and it takes him a while to learn to love again.

Sarah Mayberry’s writing style is witty and engaging. She excels at conveying an authentic sense of place, providing a convincing background against which her story plays out. Her attention to detail seems effortless. She manages to create believable secondary characters in just a couple of descriptive sentences. While grapic, the sex scenes fit the story and the people in it.

If you enjoy sexy contemporary romances featuring interesting characters, I can highly recommend Her Secret Fling.

Other Reviews of Her Secret Fling:

Jane at Dear Author – B-

Impressions of a Reader – A

All About Romance - C+

Book Binge – 4.25 out of 5

Leslie’s Psyche – A

Stacy’s Place on Earth – 4.5 stars out of 5 stars

I seem to be doing a great line in random posts of late and this one is no exception. Here are a few observations from my currently hectic life.

BOOK REVIEWS: I am slowly but surely catching up on my back log of reviews. Expect to see reviews of Sarah Mayberry’s Her Secret Fling and Jacqueline Winspear’s Among the Mad over the next few days.

GAME REVIEWS: I’m working on another board game post with mini reviews of Alhambra and the Ticket to Ride: 1910 expansion.

NEW BOOKS: I received three books in the mail today and I’m not sure which one to start as they all sound really good. They are: The Dead Travel Fast by Deanna Raybourn; Grave Goods by Ariana Franklin; and The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo.

LOST – SEASON SIX: The new season is weird as hell but I’m enjoying it. Now, if they’d only kill off the obnoxious Jack…

NUTCASES ONLINE: Weirdoes abound. Apparently, author Karen Marie Moning has been inundated by mail asking her to intervene in an online fight between her fictional characters. Role players have set up Facebook accounts in her characters’ names and are hating on each other. Er…OK. Thanks very much to RRR Jessica for the link!

READ REACT REVIEW: Speaking of RRR Jessica, she’s moved to new online digs! Check out her brand new blog here.

Happy Tuesday!

I got quite a lot of reading done over the last month. My grades range from Keepers to DNFs.

1. ‘The Ice Cream Girls’ (2010) by Dorothy Koomson – Women’s Fiction/Supense – A
2. ‘Her Secret Fling’ (2010) by Sarah Mayberry – Harlequin Blaze – A-
3. ‘Wildfire at Midnight’ (1956) by Mary Stewart – Romantic Suspense – A-
4. ‘The Ivy Tree’ (1961) by Mary Stewart – Romantic Suspense – B+
5. ‘Among the Mad’ (2009) by Jacqueline Winspear – Historical Mystery – B+
6. ‘Madam, Will You Talk?’ (1955) by Mary Stewart - Romantic Suspense – B
7. ‘Airs Above the Ground’ (1965) by Mary Stewart – Romantic Suspense – B
8. ‘Never Kiss a Man in a Canoe’ (2009) by Tanith Carey – Non-Fiction/Humour
9. ‘Price of Passion’ (2008) by Susan Napier – Harlequin Presents – C-
10. ‘Accidentally Yours’ (2008) by Susan Mallery – Contemporary Romance – DNF
11. ‘The Next Best Thing’ (2008) by Kristan Higgins – Contemporary Romance – DNF

What books did you read in February?

I joined Twitter a year ago today. While I’ve enjoyed many an interesting discussion on Twitter, I’d define my opinion of it as love-hate. I enjoy the opportunity to have a live discussion with like-minded individuals whenever I go online. Twitter is far more interactive than engaging in a conversation on a blog comment thread or a message board. The 140-character limit forces people to be concise and cut straight to the point, which holds a definite appeal to me, Queen of the Fifteen-Minute Meeting.

On the flip side, Twitter is a bastion of misinformation, half-truths and overreaction. Celebrities are constantly being killed off on Twitter, than miraculously brought back to life. The speed with which half-baked rumours circulate is frightening. It reminds me of a game of Chinese Whispers except that this is dealing with real life people and events. Things can quickly get blown out of proportion, as was the case when Amazon deranked books with homosexual and/or erotic content. Before anyone had the full story, there were calls to Google bomb Amazon. While I didn’t participate in the Google bombing because I thought it was a stupid idea, I did blog about the incident, probably before I was in possession of all the facts. It was a lesson learned, and I’ve tried to be careful ever since to hold off voicing my opinion until I feel I have sufficient knowledge to back it up.

Here are a few things I like about Twitter, followed by a few I don’t.

Things I Like about Twitter:

• The chance to have a spontaneous conversation with people who read the same books I do.
• Some of the people I follow tweet some interesting links.
• The opportunity to ask a question, however random, and get an answer quickly.
• Blog fodder: I’m often inspired to write a blog post after engaging in a conversation on Twitter.

Things I Don’t Like about Twitter:

• People who tweet the same link to their blog fifteen times per day. I have no problem with someone retweeting a link to their latest blog post for the benefit of those who live in different time zones, but it gets annoying if they retweet it more than a couple of times.
• The speed with which misinformation is spread.
• The false sense of intimacy. When you have a conversation with a few others, it’s so easy to forget that it can be seen by everyone who follows you and more besides.
• Contests which require I follow you and jump through hoops to win a prize. Frankly, I’d rather buy the book than go to all that hassle.
• Authors/bloggers/others who only use their Twitter accounts for promo purposes but don’t actually interact with their followers.
• Spam.

What’s your opinion on Twitter? Do you have an account? What do you see as the advantages and disadvantages of this form of social networking?

Looking through the list of books I’m planning to buy in 2010, I noticed an unprecedented number of hardcovers. I’ve traditionally bought very few books in hardcover due to the enormous difference in price when compared to the paperback editions. This year, however, there are eight books on my To Be Bought/Pre-Order list which are hardcovers. They are as follows:

The Ice Cream Girls by Dorothy Koomson – I’ve enjoyed all of Dorothy Koomson’s books so far, and the price at The Book Depository was simply too good to resist.

One Was a Soldier by Julia Spencer-Fleming – Need I say more? I’ve been waiting in impatient anticipation for the next Clare and Russ story to be released. There is absolutely no way I can wait until it’s out in paperback.

A Murderous Procession by Ariana Franklin – I’m enjoying this excellent medieval mystery series so much.

The Mapping of Love and Death by Jacqueline Winspear – This is the seventh book featuring Maisie Dobbs, the post-WWI psychologist-detective. This story is supposed to bring some joy into Maisie’s personal life and I’m looking forward to seeing how Winspear does this.

Lover Mine by J.R. Ward – I was on the fence about whether or not to purchase this book in hardcover. I wasn’t blown away by Lover Avenged. On the other hand, I know I’m going to want to read it when everyone starts talking about it. When I saw it reduced at The Book Depository, I was tempted into sin.

Untitled by Val McDermid – Val McDermid is my favourite author of contemporary thrillers. I’m particularly fond of her stand alone thrillers and she alternates publishing a stand alone with another instalment in her ongoing Tony Hill series. By my calculations, this year should bring another stand alone.

Heartstone by C.J. Sansom – I’ve loved all the books in Sansom’s Tudor mystery series featuring the lawyer, Matthew Shardlake. This will be the fifth novel in the series.

Shadowfever by Karen Marie Moning – This series is like crack. The last book ended on a major cliffhanger and I have to know what happens next.

Looking at this list, I notice that not one of them is a romance book. (I think it’s fair to say that J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood has evolved into an urban fantasy series, and can no longer be classified as paranormal romance.) I’m also more inclined to buy a book from a mystery series in hardcover because I’m anxious to know what happens next in the continuing story arcs. Last but not least, The Book Depository have had some great deals on new hardcovers lately, making it more difficult for me to resist temptation.

Do you buy (m)any hardcovers? What authors or genre would you be most likely to buy in hardcover?

Genre: Psychological Suspense/Women’s Fiction

POV: 1st Person (told from the alternating points of view of the two main characters)

Sensuality: Subtle

Violence: There are some disturbing scenes but most of the violence occurs off page

My Grade: A

I’ve been a fan of Dorothy Koomson’s books since I read My Best Friend’s Girl four years ago. Her novels are often labelled as chick lit although I would classify them more as general fiction or women’s fiction.

The Ice Cream Girls is the first of Dorothy Koomson’s books to be released in hardback, and marks an exciting new departure for her as a writer. I’ve been looking forward to it since I read the intriguingly vague blurb on her website. Given how much I’d enjoyed her previous books, I had high expectation of this one, and it more than surpassed them. This is a creepy, cleverly constructed tale of psychological suspense which kept me turning the pages until the very end.

As the story of The Ice Cream Girls contains plenty of twists and turns which I’m loath to spoil, I’m going to be deliberately vague in my description of its premise. Pretty teenagers Serena Gorringe and Poppy Carlisle – one black, one white – become embroiled in the most notorious murder trial in decades. Based on a photograph of the girls posing nonchalantly in bikinis and eating ice cream, the press dub them The Ice Cream girls. The photo becomes synonymous with the trial, presenting a stark contrast between the youth and beauty of the girls and the hideousness of their alleged crime.

One of them is sentenced to life in prison, while the other is acquitted on a technicality, and returns to live in a society which believes her guilty. She struggles to carve a life for herself in spite of her past. She succeeds in marrying a nice man and having two gorgeous children. However, she is aware that her present happiness is built on lies and deceit. Plagued by panic attacks, she struggles to maintain a semblance of normalcy while living in daily expectation of her precarious house of cards coming crashing down around her.

After twenty years in prison, the girl who was convicted is released on parole. Shell-shocked and institutionalized, she’s regarded as a pariah by both her family and the world at large. Determined to prove her innocence, she wants to track down her former co-defendant and force her to set the record straight about what really happened that fateful night.

The Ice Cream Girls is a masterpiece. Dorothy Koomson excels at characterization and this is very much a character-driven story. It is told from the alternating points of view of both Poppy and Serena. As each have their own distinct voice, it’s easy to keep track of who is narrating. The book also contains flashbacks which are deftly woven into the story. I’m not fond of flashbacks in general, but I think this book represents one of the best examples of their clever use that I’ve ever read.

For fans of subtle psychological suspense, I can highly recommend The Ice Cream Girls. It’s only February but I already have a book to include on my Best of 2010 list.

(I believe Dorothy Koomson’s books can be hard to find outside Europe, but they are available at The Book Depository.)

Other Reviews of The Ice Cream Girls:

Chick Lit Reviews – 5 out of 5

The title of this post might be slightly misleading as I’m merely stating what regular visitors to my blog have probably already noticed. When I started Monkey Bear Reviews almost a year ago, I didn’t have a rigid view of what I would blog about, but I figured it would mainly concern books, with a particular emphasis on romance novels. I wanted a forum in which I could discuss romance books with my reader’s hat on, leaving any discussion of my writing progress (or lack thereof) for RWA lists. With the exception of posts related to the publishing industry, the vast majority of what I’ve written here has concentrated on romance novels, either in the form of reviews, or as op-eds devoted to aspects of the romance reading experience.

Fast forward ten months and I feel the need for a change. I’ve mentioned several times that I tried very hard to have this blog reflect me as a reader, not as a writer. I’ve come to the realisation that it doesn’t matter. I don’t think my visitors care whether or not I publish the odd post about writing. As it happens, I rarely feel inclined to write about writing because, well, I’d rather write! Upon occasion, though, a topic occurs to me which relates to my writing and then I don’t blog about it as I think it won’t interest my visitors. I also hesitated to post about board games as I was sure no one would want to read it, and it turned out to be my most popular post in January.

I suspect my recent blogging ennui was due at least in part to boredom. I was getting sick of writing about the same old stuff. Potential ideas for posts occurred to me, but none of them were related to romance novels, so I didn’t write them. From now on, I’m going to blog about whatever strikes my fancy, be it board games, news articles, writing, blog design, or non-romance novels. As I still read a lot of romance, the majority of my book reviews are likely to be of that genre.

I hope the topics I choose to blog about will interest people, but, to be frank, the most important thing is that they interest me. If I’m to keep up my enthusiasm for blogging, I need to roll with my moods and blog about whatever I feel like discussing.