Student uncovers murders
cambridge university student Adam strickland is sent by his elderly professor to study a garden in Tuscany, Italy.
The garden, nearly 400 years old, was created by Federico dolci supposedly in memory of his wife who had died at age 25. There’s something about the layout of the gardens that leaves strickland feeling uneasy and the actions of nearby residents create additional suspicions in strickland’s mind.
Before long, he concludes that at least one murder had taken place at the villa and possibly more. Calling upon such resources as Dante’s The divine comedy and machiavelli’s Il Principe plus his knowledge of roman mythology, he is able to piece together a puzzle constructed centuries ago.
The savage garden is a departure from Mills’ first novel, amagansett, which was very successful and won the creasy Memorial Dagger Award winner. amagansett was set in Long Island, New York, and The savage garden takes place in the hills of tuscany just after the end of the second world war.
With only two published novels, Mills has become known as a writer who constructs complicated plots with unexpected outcomes.
A Person of Interest by susan choi (Viking, 356 pages, $24.95)
"A person of interest" is a euphemism for being a suspect in a crime. Dr. Lee, in susan choi’s latest novel, becomes a person of interest when his colleague at a mid-western U.S. university is badly injured and eventually dies after a bomb explodes in his office.
At first, Lee is secretly pleased that misfortune has struck the young computer expert. Dr. hendley seemed to be a favourite with the administration and of students while Lee was taken for granted by his superiors and was rarely visited by students.
Lee decides he cannot bear to visit the injured man in the hospital nor is he able to bring himself to attend the memorial service days later. Lee draws the attention of local police and the FBI due to his peculiar actions.
With good taste and great care, Choi explores several themes: an individual in isolation and in crisis, a foreigner as a suspect, and a country’s preoccupation with terrorism.
susan choi, born to a Korean father and a Russian-Jewish mother, lives in the U.S. Her novel, American Woman, made the shortlist for the Pulitzer Prize.
Havana Gold by Leonardo Padura (Bitter Lemon Press, 286 pages, $18)
Leonardo Padura’s novels, featuring Cuban Det. Mario Conde, are not only about peculiar crimes. They also comment on the state of his country.
In an interview for Political Affairs.Net in April of 2006, Padura says he wanted to capture Havana, "a city of contrasts, a labyrinth . . . but also a city of ruins suffering from physical neglect and its deterioration is obvious and sad."
Havana Gold, the last of his Havana quartet to be translated into English, Conde investigates the rape and murder of chemistry teacher Lissette Delgado. Since she was employed at his old high school, Conde reflects on his years as a teen nearly 20 years ago.
While investigating the murder he meets a young woman and once again thinks he’s in love.
In addition to the four Havana novels, Padura has written other Conde mysteries: Adios Hemingway which was recently made available in English and The Fog of Yesterday
soon to be translated.
Nemesis by Jo Nesbo (Random House, 474 pages, $32)
Harry Hole is practically a household name in Norway like Michael Connolly’s Harry Bosch is in North America. In Nemesis, fourth in Nesbo’s series, the popular Det. Hole is assigned to another peculiar case.
A bank robber insists he will shoot a clerk if he does not receive cash within 25 seconds. True to his word he does shoot the cashier as grainy CCTV footage shows. Hole and colleague Beate Lonn run the film clip many times and eventually find some clues. In the meantime Hole visits an old flame while his fiancé is in Russia. The next morning he learns that his former lover has been found dead. Hole has almost no memory of what happened that night and he becomes a prime suspect.
At the age of 17, Nesbo was a professional soccer player in Norway’s top league. When his knee was injured, he became a musician, then a stockbroker and now a mystery writer.
Paul Fiander is a freelance writer who lives in Halifax.
Tags: hills of tuscany,tuscany italy,susan choi,roman mythology,divine comedy,unexpected outcomes,amagansett,hendley,cambridge university,nearby residents,computer expert,second world war,dr lee,savage garden,creasy,s university,strickland,machiavelli,good taste,dolci
Sunday, July 20, 2008 |