Spider Woman’s Daughter by Anne Hillerman

Born October 2, 1949, in Lawton, Okla.; Education: Attended University of Massachusetts, 1970; University of New Mexico, B.A., 1972. Addresses: Home: 707 Avenida Castellano, Santa Fe, N.M. 87501.

Tony Hillerman's daughter, Anne Hillerman, has written several nonfiction books, but recently took over the mystery series long written by her late father. The Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee novels, set on the Navajo reservation in Arizona, provide both the thrills of criminal investigation and engaging explorations of Native culture, all set against the starkly beautiful backdrop of the Southwestern United States. You may wish to read the series from the beginning, but to appreciate Anne Hillerman's work, start with: Spider Woman's Daughter.

Anne Hillerman skillfully continues the acclaimed mysteries featuring Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee. Spiderwoman's Daughter (the 19th novel featuring the Navajo cops) focuses on police officer Bernadette "Bernie" Manualito, who's married to Chee. When Leaphorn leaves a restaurant after a breakfast meeting, Bernie witnesses his shooting in the parking lot. Bernie's not on the case because she's an eyewitness, but keeps abreast of the investigation via her husband. While the FBI aids the tribal police, Bernie digs into Leaphorn's past to crack the case. - Description by Dawn Towery.

Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee series by Tony Hillerman 1. The blessing way (Jan 1970) 2. Dance hall of the dead 3. Listening woman (Apr 1978) 4. People of darkness (Jan 1988) 5. The dark wind (Mar 1982) 6. The ghostway (Jan 1984) 7. Skinwalkers (Nov 1986) 8. A thief of time (Jun 1988) 9. Talking God (Jun 1989) 10. Coyote waits (Jul 1990) 11. Sacred clowns (Oct 1993) 12. The fallen man (Dec 1996) 13. The first eagle (Sep 1998) 14. Hunting badger (Nov 1999) 15. The wailing wind (Jun 2002) 16. The sinister pig (May 2003) 17. Skeleton man (Dec 2004) 18. The shape shifter (Nov 2006) by Anne Hillerman 19. Spider woman's daughter (Oct 2013)

Read-alikes from NoveList

The eagle catcher  by Margaret Coel

Father John O'Malley and Arapaho lawyer Vicky Holden hunt for the murderer of an Arapaho tribal chairman at the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming.

John O'Malley and Vicky Holden mysteries  1

The shaman sings by James D.Doss

Modern science meets ancient Native American mysteries in southwestern Colorado when the two forces collide during the investigation into the murder of a young graduate student.

Charlie Moon mysteries 1

The visitant by Kathleen O’Neal  Gear

Two investigations, eight hundred years apart, into the 12th century murders of Indian women and children in what is now New Mexico. One is conducted by a tribal chief at the time they were committed, the other by an anthropologist in the present.  Anasazi Mysteries 1

White sky, black ice by Stan Jones

Half Inupiat Eskimo by birth, Trooper Nathan Active is posted to a remote Alaskan Indian village, where he soon finds himself investigating a suicide that seems to defy logic, as the man had shot himself in the Adam's apple.  Nathan Adams mysteries 1

Cry Dance by Kirk Mitchell

If there's one thing that Bureau of Indian Affairs Investigator Emmett Quanah Parker knows, it's that the dead don't always stay dead. …  The corpse of a woman, brutally murdered and bizarrely mutilated, is discovered on Havasupai Nation land. Parker is paired with FBI special agent Anna Turnipseed in a hastily assembled task force of two. The two share a mixed Native American ancestry and little else. ...

Emmett Quanah Parker mysteries, 1

Blackening song by Aimee Thurlo

Ella Clah, a tough Navajo FBI agent, must combine modern investigative techniques with traditional Native American mystical beliefs to solve a murder on the Navajo Indian Reservation in Shiprock, New Mexico. Ella Clah mysteries, 1

WEBSITES:

http://www.annehillerman.com/

http://www.harpercollins.com/author/microsite/about.aspx?authorid=32966

BLIND GODDESS by Anne Holt

March 2014

PERSONAL INFORMATION:

Born November 16, 1958, in Larvik, Norway; married Tine Kiaer, January 14, 2000; children: one.

CAREER:

Author, c. 1997--. Norwegian minister of justice, 1996-97; also a lawyer and journalist. Guest on television shows, including "Wiese," 1996, "Først & sist," 1998-2004, and "Store klassefesten, Den," 2000.

Anne Holt became a published author in 1993 with the novel Blind Goddess. She has also published a few standalone titles that have yet to be translated into English

As a former Minister of Justice, mystery writer Anne Holt has a solid background for creating suspenseful, enigmatic, and atmospheric crime stories set in her native Norway. Her intricately plotted, leisurely paced, and character-driven stories frequently feature a well-developed, complex, and intelligent female protagonists balancing their personal troubles with their quest to foil serial killers and solve vicious crimes. Through evocative and psychologically intimate portraits of her nuanced, colorful, and sometimes seriously disturbed characters, Holt fashions haunting mysteries with a chilliness that befits their icy setting. Start with: What is mine.

WRITINGS:

• Mea culpa: En historie om kjarlighet (novel), Cappelen (Oslo, Norway), 1997.

"HANNE WILHELMSEN" SERIES

• Blind goddess (Jun 2012) [translated by Tom Geddes]

Series: Hanne Wilhelmsen novels, 1

Small-time drug dealer is found battered to death on the outskirts of Oslo. A young Dutchman, walking aimlessly in Oslo, covered in blood, is taken into custody but refuses to talk.

• Blessed are those who thirst: a Hanne Wilhelmsen novel (Dec 2012)

Series: Hanne Wilhelmsen novels, 2

• Death of the demon (Jun 2013)

Series: Hanne Wilhelmsen novels, 3

• 1222; a Hanne Wilhelmsen novel (Dec 2011) [translated by Marlaine Delargy]

Series: Hanne Wilhelmsen novels, 4

"VIK AND STUBO" SERIES

• What Is Mine (alternate title: Punishment) (novel; originally published as Det som er mitt), translated by Kari Dickson, 2006.  

Series: Vik and Stubo, 1

Norway police commissioner Stubo teams up with troubled FBI profiler Johanne Vik for an investigation into the disappearances and murders of several young children.

• What Never Happens (alternate title: Final Murder), Grand Central (New York, NY), 2008. Series: Vik and Stubo, 2
• Death in Oslo, translated by Kari Dickson, (2009).

Series: Vik and Stubo, 3

• Fear Not, (2011).

Series: Vik and Stubo, 4

 MEDIA ADAPTATIONS:

Salige er de som tørster was filmed for theatrical release in 1997, and Blind gudinne was filmed for television in 1997.

AUTHOR READ A-LIKES

Karin Fossum is a Norwegian author of crime fiction. She started her writing career as a poet when she was 20 years old. She also worked in hospitals, nursing homes and rehab centers. She is best known for her Inspector Konrad Sejer series, which has been translated into 25 languages.

Karin Fossum made her debut as a novelist in 1995 with In the Darkness. It would not be translated and published in English until 2012. Her first English translation was her second novel, 1996′s Don’t Look Back, which was released in English in 2002.

Camilla Lackberg is a Swedish author of crime fiction. Her books consist of very in-depth characterization, often looking at how horrible her characters can possibly be. She doesn’t spend as much time writing about the scenes, but rather allowing the reader’s imagination to take over. She has often been referred to as the “Swedish Agatha Christie.”

Lackberg’s first published novel was titled Isprinsessan and was released in 2002. It wasn’t until 2008 when it was translated into English by Steven T. Murray and given the English title of Ice Princess.

Jussi Adler-Olsen is a Danish author of Scandinavian crime fiction. He is best known in English-speaking countries for his Department Q series. His novels have been sold in 36 countries around in the world, including the United States, United Kingdom, Sweden, Spain, Russia, The Netherlands, Japan, Germany and China. He was the most popular author in Germany in the year 2011, despite not being German.

Jussi Adler-Olsen became a published author in 1985 with a non-fiction book on Groucho Marx. His first foray into fiction was Alfabethuset (The Alphabet House) in 1997. His first novel to be published in English was Mercy (UK)/The Keeper of Lost Causes (US).

Gaudy Night  by Dorothy L. Sayers

PERSONAL INFORMATION:

Family: Born June 13, 1893, in Oxford, England; died of a thrombosis, December 17, 1957, in Witham, Essex,married Oswald Atherton (one source says Oswald Arthur) "Mac" Fleming (a journalist) in 1926 (died, 1950); children: one son. Education: Somerville College, Oxford, earned first class honors, 1915, B.A. (with honors), M.A., B.C.L., all in 1920. Religion: Anglican. Memberships: Modern Language Association (president, 1939-45), Detection Club (president, 1949-57, and co-founder).

Dorothy L. Sayers's mysteries feature not only devilishly clever plots that delight traditional mystery readers, but also the graceful writing, nuanced characters, and beautifully evoked settings often found in literary fiction. Series character Lord Peter Wimsey deepens and grows more subtle as the books progress, especially after he meets Harriet Vane, who comes to excel at investigation herself. The interesting supporting characters, strong sense of place in varied settings, and rich use of language round out a satisfying reading experience in each story. Start with: Whose Body.

Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries

Whose body?: a Lord Peter Wimsey novel (1923) [Series: Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, 1]

  (First book in series) Sayers's most renowned amateur detective, the engaging and amusing Lord Peter Wimsey, sets out to unravel a puzzling case involving the disappearance of a wealthy financier and the discovery of a nude corpse, wearing a golden pince-nez, in a bathtub.           

Clouds of witness (1927) [Series: Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, 2]

Unnatural death (1927) [Series: Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, 3]

The unpleasantness at the Bellona Club (1928) [Series: Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, 4]

Strong poison (1930) [Series: Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, 5]

The five red herrings (1931) [Series: Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, 6]

Have his carcase  (1932) [Series: Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, 7]

Murder must advertise  (1933) [Series: Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, 8]

The nine tailors (1934) [Series: Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, 9]

 

Gaudy night (1936) [Series: Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, 10]

Harriet Vane's Oxford reunion is shadowed by a rash of bizarre pranks and malicious mischief that include beautifully worded death threats, burnt effigies, and vicious poison-pen letters, and Harriet finds herself and Lord Peter Wimsey challenged by an elusive set of clues.

        

Busman's honeymoon ( 1937) [Series: Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, short stories]

Thrones, dominations (Feb 1998)

Newlyweds Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane explore another mysterious turn of events during the short-lived reign of Edward VIII, in a novel left unfinished and unpublished for almost sixty years.

       

Lord Peter views the body (1928) [Series: Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, short stories]

Hangman's holiday (1933) [Series: Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, short stories]

Lord Peter (1972) [Series: Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, short stories]

Gathers together in one volume all of the tales which depict the adventures of this celebrated British detective.

 

Striding folly: including three final Lord Peter Wimsey stories (1972)

In the teeth of the evidence (Jun 1968) [Series: Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, short stories]

Continuation of series by Jill Paton Walsh:

A presumption of death (Jan 2002)       

The Attenbury emeralds (Jan 2011)

Read-alikes from NoveList

.	Jemima Shore mysteries by Antonia Fraser Reason:  … Shore, like Harriet, is an intelligent, independent, unconventional woman. These mysteries also feature dark wit, a penchant for literary references, and a strong sense of place. -- Rebecca Sigmon
	Phryne Fisher mysteries by Kerry Greenwood Reason:  The Phryne Fisher books have a lighter tone and the atmosphere is more contemporary, but the post World War I Australian setting, Phryne's wealthy and aristocratic family, and the plot structures may appeal to Sayers fans who want to something slightly different. -- Katherine Johnson
.	Roderick Alleyn mysteries by Ngaio Marsh Reason:  Peter Wimsey and Roderick Alleyn are both aristocratic sleuths who work in Great Britain. These series have a writing style that is more literary than most mystery stories. -- Rebecca Sigmon
.	Kate Fansler mysteries by Amanda Cross Reason: …  Kate Fansler, who, like Harriet, is an intelligent, independent, unconventional woman. These mysteries also feature dark wit, a penchant for literary references, and a strong sense of place. -- Katherine Johnson
	websites:  http://www.sayers.org.uk/dorothy.html http://www.dorothyl.com/

       

                         

   

       

                                          

           

             

                    

             

Darkening Field -- December 2013

Darkening Field

December 2013

Writer William Ryan was born in 1965 in London, England. An Irish citizen, he went to boarding school at age six  He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin and the University of St Andrews and worked as a lawyer before taking up writing full-time. His first novel, The Holy Thief  was shortlisted for the Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year, The Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award, The CWA John Creasy New Blood Dagger and a Barry Award. His second novel,The Bloody Meadow, was shortlisted for the Ireland AM Irish Crime Novel of the Year. He has written for television and film; he lives in London with his wife and son.

When asked about his fascination with Stalin's Russia, Ryan said in an interview on the Pan Macmillan Web site, "The gradual shift away from the early ideals and hopes of the Revolution to the absolute oppression of the thirties was a tragedy for many Soviet citizens, and one that was repeated around the world."

author’s web site:  http://www.william-ryan.com/

For history, background, pictures -- check the section ‘Korolev’s World’

Series: Investigations of Captain Korolev (Most Recent: Jul 2013)

Alternate series name: Alexei Korolev mysteries

The Holy Thief (2010)

(First book in series) As Stalin's great terror begins, a killer strikes. Moscow, 1936. A young woman's mutilated body is found on an altar in a deconsecrated church. Korolev is asked to investigate. The victim is discovered to be an American citizen, and now one false move will mean exile to the Zone, the frozen camps of the far north.

The Darkening Field ( 2012)

In 1937, Captain Korolev of Moscow's Criminal Investigation Division looks into the suicide of a young loyal party member who was intimately involved with a party director, a case that is unexpectedly linked to a treasonous plot.

Series: Investigations of Captain Korolev, 2

The Twelfth Department (2013)

Captain Alexei Korolev endures threats against his family when a high-level murder is tied to corruption in State Security and the NKVD.

Series: Investigations of Captain Korolev, 3

Read alikes

Nemesis by William Bernhardt In the 1930s Eliot Ness, the famous treasury agent who helped convict Al Capone, accepts a high-ranking public safety position in Cleveland, where the discovery of a dismembered torso soon plunges the city into a state of terror Alan Furst -- Night Soldiers series      An author of what he himself calls historical espionage, Alan Furst writes of reluctant heroes--ordinary, pragmatic men and women--fighting against totalitarianism and fascism in European countries of the 1930s and '40s. Well-researched and suffused with a strong sense of time and place, Furst's novels are written in a spare, cinematic style that keeps the fast-paced action from bogging down in historical detail. First book in series: Night Soldiers.  A young man in Bulgaria in 1938 witnesses his brother's death as a result of being kicked by a gang of thugs. He vows vengeance against Fascism and flees to Moscow, where he is trained as an agent of the NKVD, precursor of the KGB.    Philip Kerr -- Bernie Gunther series      If you've a penchant for confidently written noir that harkens back to the age of Chandler and Hammett, Philip Kerr is your man. Set in WWII-era Berlin, Kerr's hardboiled novels feature everything readers love about the detective genre -- a hard-drinking, sardonic gumshoe with his own moral code. First book in series: The March Violets.  In 1936 Berlin, Bernhard Gunther is a private investigator who solves a case of theft, murder, and corruption within the new Nazi supporting group. Martin Cruz Smith -- Arkady Renko series        Martin Cruz Smith is known for engrossing, well-researched, and labyrinthine plots; introspective, enigmatic, and sympathetic heroes who offer insights into themselves and their environments; and detailed and atmospheric settings that draw readers in. First book in series: Gorky Park.  In contemporary Moscow, Chief Homicide Investigator Arkady Renko unravels the mystery of a triple murder complicated by the shadowy and uncooperative presence of the KGB and by his falling in love.

Tom Rob Smith -- Leo Demidov series      British writer Tom Rob Smith pens thrillers that take place in the Cold War-era Soviet Union. His protagonists are jaded, dogged secret policemen slogging through the daily horrors of Stalin's Russia. Smith lends atmosphere to his fast-paced novels with solid historical detail and entirely convincing characters. First book in series: Child 44.  "Robert Harris meets Gorky Park in Child 44, Tom Rob Smith's stunning thriller--sure to be one of the most talked about debut novels of the year” --from Publisher