Book Review: Smilla’s Sense of Snow by Peter HØeg

Title: Smilla’s Sense of Snow
Author: Peter HØeg
Publisher: Picador USA
ISBN: 9781250002556
Genre: Literary Fiction, Mystery
Pages: 512
Source: Publisher
Rating: 5/5

Smilla’s Sense of Snow is a treat to read. There is everything in it which a book can offer – some great writing, mystery, literary fiction, and a sense of dry humour in certain parts. Peter HØeg proves that literature can be both entertaining and artful. Though on the surface, Smilla’s Sense of Snow is genre fiction, it is beyond just being a thriller.

Smilla’s Sense of Snow is based in Denmark and then takes the reader to the Arctic in order to solve a mystery. The book first released in 1993. I read it then and I have read it now and I must say that I enjoyed it more the second time round. Smilla Jaspersen – half Greenlander, half Dane, an unconventional loner and brilliant scientist, is struggling with her emotions (which she doesn’t display enough of) and is devastated when a young boy she had befriended mysteriously falls to his death from the roof of their apartment building. She doesn’t think it is an accident. From there on begins Smilla’s journey and the trail she follows to solve his murder.

The writing is good. The story is wonderfully told. (I do not read books that do not interest me; hence the books that I read are brilliant) The setting could not have been better. However, what stands out the most in this book is the characterization of Smilla. Smilla is an ordinary woman (do not mistake her to be that anyway). She is bold, clever, smart, instinctive and reckless at the same time. She is a rule-breaker (doing it all subtly) and is not afraid to say things the way they are. Peter HØeg has created a woman who will not opt for the role society expects her to play.

Smilla cannot connect with others and she knows that. She feels bad about it but she knows her limitations and that’s what I love about the character. May be that is why she wants to bring justice to the one friend she had made.

The descriptions are dense and required while writing a book that merges the setting and the mystery. One needs to mention the details and Peter HØeg has done a wonderful job of that. Smilla’s sense of Snow is not your regular mystery. It is surprising that at times it takes so much effort to read it, because of the intensity and how it is weaved through Smilla’s perspective and her way through the maze of questions and emotions.

Smilla’s musings are another dimension to the book. I loved reading them (as and when they came along). They added spice and character to the book.

Here’s one of them:

“Deep inside I know that trying to figure things out leads to blindness, that the desire to understand has a built-in brutality that erases what you seek to comprehend. Only experience is sensitive.”

In this world of Lisbeth Salander, I urge you to read Smilla’s Sense of Snow. It is as fresh and compelling as when it was first written. A brilliant feat.

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Book Review: The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye

Title: The Gods of Gotham
Author: Lyndsay Faye
Publisher: Amy Einhorn Books
ISBN: 978-0399158377
Genre: Thriller, Crime Fiction
Pages: 432
Source: Publisher
Rating: 4/5

It is not easy to write a good thriller and a crime novel. All the elements need to be in place – the setting, the place, the characters and the crime but of course. Everything to the finest detail – after all nothing can go amiss in such type of a genre. This is what Lyndsay Faye has effortlessly achieved in her book, “The Gods of Gotham”.

The book is set in mid-nineteenth-century New York. The city is in shambles. We are talking about 1845 New York. The Great Potato Famine had struck Ireland and thousands of Irish Catholics were surfacing in New York, adding religious turmoil to the already volatile city. There is political upheaval and radicalism. Everything seems to be changing in the city and the story is wrapped around the founding of New York City’s first police department (The Copper Stars) and the recruit and protagonist in question – Timothy Wilde.

Wilde is a luckless man. At 27, he is unlucky in love, works at a small Manhattan oyster bar, till the Great Fire (another important angle to the story) destroys his workplace, leaving him penniless and without a job. His politically connected brother gets him a job in the newly constituted police force and that’s where Timothy’s story starts off. He hopes for a career, till he stumbles on a blood-drenched child and only discovers that there is more to what meets the eye and sets out to solve the crime. With this he faces a lot of problems – both political and personal and of course solves the crimes of children being exploited by the end of the book.

The Gods of Gotham is a taut and nicely written book. To set a novel in the past is quite challenging, what is more so is to synchronize the story with the characters’ mindset and how they would behave in that culture.

The book is layered with several sub-plots: Timothy’s relationship with his brother Valentine, his devotion to his sweetheart Mercy Underhill, and more so his relationship with New York City, which Faye has done a fantastic job of describing. There were times while reading this book that I had to look up Google Images to see what New York would have looked like in those times and the descriptions could not be truer.

The mystery in the book keeps the reader going and thinking. Wilde is a likeable narrator and a competent detective for sure. Faye has managed to make him come into his own without overshadowing the other characters in the book – from the whorehouse madam to Mercy’s father to other policemen and the engaging child Bird. New York as a major part (or character) of the book, is always standing tall in the background adding the much-needed life and period-specific texture to the book.

The Gods of Gotham will keep you to the edge of your seat. It is feisty and also thrilling, describing life in 1845 at its grittiest best and paced excellently. There is a sequel in the offing and I cannot wait for it.

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Book Review: Phantom by Jo Nesbo

Title: Phantom
Author: Jo Nesbo
Publisher: Harvill Secker, Random House UK
ISBN: 978-1846555220
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 400
Source: Publisher
Rating: 5/5

Everyone who was a Swedish crime writer came to front after Stieg Larsson. Stieg’s entry in the popular crime fiction stream through the highly popular Millennium Trilogy paved way for all of them. One of the writers being Jo Nesbo, for which I am glad and thankful.

I have read all the Harry Hole (Nesbo’s protagonist and major detective) novels and been thoroughly entertained by all of them. When I got the opportunity to review Nesbo’s latest Harry Hole novel, “Phantom”, I was ecstatic. Phantom is a riveting read (like most of his earlier books), tightly plotted and fast-paced. The proverbial, never a dull moment is most appropriate to this book.

Harry Hole returns to his home city. Oslo has changed. The drug task force has been successful in erasing the heroin problem from the city. A new drug menace has risen and it’s been delivered by a completely faceless and ruthless gang. The Eastern Europeans are there to stay and aren’t taking no for an answer. Oslo has also had a facelift in its structure. The dirt exists, only needs to be dug deep.

Harry is back and is not wanted or needed anymore. His former girlfriend Rakael’s son Oleg is in trouble. Arrested for murder of his friend Gusto (barely a young boy) and involved with the new drug gang. Harry but of course has taken it on him to save Oleg and find out the real murderer. At the same time, the new gang and the old one do not want Harry alive. It is where the action starts.

The threads are well-connected throughout the book. The book is not cluttered by the over-complication that existed in the earlier books. More so Don Bartlett has provided a brilliant translation keeping in mind Harry’s jokes and the underbelly of Oslo and its description as Nesbo would have originally written.

Phantom’s strength is that it can be a standalone book and readers do not have to refer to the previous Harry Hole books to make sense of what is happening. It is however great to start reading about this detective and what he does right from the beginning to get more perspective. Nesbo’s writing as usual hits the sweet spot of crime and mystery. Phantom is somewhat bleak and realistic portrayal of the drug culture and its impact. The book has clever twists and does not get sentimental, which could have been the danger. It is a captivating read for sure. Top-Drawer.

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Book Review: Cloudland by Joseph Olshan

Title: Cloudland
Author: Joseph Olshan
Publisher: Minotaur Books
ISBN: 978-1-250-00017-0
Genre: Crime
Pages: 294
Source: Publisher
Rating: 4/5

Give me a good crime novel any day! The thing about crime novels is that one does not have to think too hard. Yes, the reader is involved all the time trying to solve the crime, but that is where the thinking ends. To a large extent that’s what crime readers want – the idea that they are involved and also that it does not compel them to think so much.

“Cloudland” by Joseph Olshan is one such book. It is but obviously a crime novel and a great one at that. Once having been a major reporter for a national newspaper, Catherine Winslow has retreated to the Upper Valley of Vermont to write a house-hold hints column. Her life is smooth sailing till one fine day; she discovers the dead body of a woman thawing in the snow, leaning against an apple tree, dressed in a pink parka. Catherine recognizes the woman as a victim of a serial-killing spree who was reportedly missing since a couple of weeks in a blizzard.

She further gets embroiled in the case, when she discovers her neighbour – a forensic psychiatrist is working on it. The mystery gets further intense when she realizes that the serial killer is taking his/her tips of a rare and unfinished Wilkie Collins novel, which is missing from her personal library. To add to this drama, Catherine’s ex-younger lover surfaces, wanting to win her affections and has a mean glint about him.

This is the basic premise of the story. There are more layers to it, which I cannot reveal as it would then kill the fun of reading this book. The book is also complicated but in a nice way (yes that is possible). What I liked about the book is that the book is not just about mystery – it is also about fascinating characters and some side-stories. The plot gradually builds up and I can safely say it is one of the edge-of-the-seat thrillers. The writing is crisp and once in a while it is great to sit with a tub of popcorn and enjoy a thriller.

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Book Review: The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler

Title: The Hypnotist
Author: Lars Kepler
Publisher: Harper Collins, Blue Door
ISBN: 978-0007444342
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 512
Source: Publisher
Rating: 3.5/5

Written in the tradition of Stieg Larsson’s books, “The Hypnotist” by the husband-wife co-authors (pen name being Lars Kepler) is a decent read. It manages to bring out the elements of crime fiction and yet the plot is threadbare which was a problem at times while I was reading the book.

The Hypnotist is about a family living in Tumba, Sweden (no second guesses Sherlock), who are a victim of a homicide. The only witness to the crime is the sole surviving member – the son. The boy is in a state of shock with more than hundred knife wounds inflicted on his body. He cannot seem to recall or speak a word of anything that happened that fateful night. Enter, Inspector Detective Joona Linna, who in a heroic manner wants to get to the bottom of this crime. This can only be done by putting the kid through a hypnosis session in the presence of Dr. Erik Maria Bark and get to his subconscious level.

For me the plot was for sure different. The elements of suspense and thrill were there throughout the book and might I add that it was cleverly done as well. I like Swedish thrillers, but there is only this much one can take of them, considering the onslaught of them in the world of crime fiction. The book is written well in most parts and some parts just remind you of Stieg Larsson and Jo Nesbo’s styles of writing. The past and present portions of the book are well translated and add to the atmosphere of the book, which anyway they are supposed to. The clues like in any other crime book are laid out well and yet hidden from the reader. The mysteries are interwoven brilliantly and the book is fast-paced for sure. I would recommend it for a one-time read (Not that you can read a mystery again).

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