Summary: A new world had emerged, and he hadn't even noticed it. As a policeman, he still lived in another, older world. How was he going to learn to live with the new? . . We live as if we were in mourning for a lost paradise, he thought...
It could be said that as a policeman, Kurt Wallander, Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell's award winning creation, isn't much cop. He eschews the meticulous and the scientific in favour of his hunches, which all too often lead up blind alleys. He drinks too much, then drives. He doesn't get enough sleep. And to cap it all, his wife has left him and his daughter doesn't speak to him.
"Faceless Killers" is the first of the acclaimed Wallander novels. Set in January 1990, in a frozen landscape and against the backdrop of a rapidly changing Europe, this is a bleak novel that deals with the thorny issues of immigration and racial hatred. Wallander investigates a brutal double murder at a remote farmhouse in which the only possible clues are the whispered words of a dying woman and a freshly fed horse. When this limited evidence and its implications leak to the press it stirs right wing activists into action.
At times Wallander seems too much like the traditional hard-drinking, hard-living, hard-boiled detective of old, but he is more than that. He is a truth seeker, trying to make sense of his rapidly changing world, his method happens to be detective work, and it is this search that lies at the philosophical heart of the novel. --"Iain Robinson"

Summary: "Fleshmarket Close" is not one of the best of Rankin's John Rebus thrillers, but his second-best is still more than excellent. Middle age is catching up with Rebus--he currently has no desk as a none-too-subtle hint from his superiors that he should seek retirement--but he and his friend and protegee Siobhan, who is still not his lover, race around investigating a variety of seemingly unconnected cases… The sister of a dead rape victim is missing; stolen medical skeletons turn up embedded in a concrete floor; a Kurdish journalist is brutally killed; the son of a Glasgow ganglord has moved in to the Edinburgh vice scene.
Much of the book is dominated by two new settings--a sink estate divided between racist thugs and refugees, and a small town whose economy is dominated by an internment camp for those about to be deported; this is one of Rankin's preachier thrillers, but it is never less than intelligent and evocative in its descriptions of a contemporary squalor that spreads beyond the inner city. These are never quite orthodox police procedurals--Rebus' method is a little too like the standard private eye's way of wandering around being rude to people until something comes loose--but they have a deep seriousness about the way we live now that transcends mere noir moodiness.--"Roz Kaveney"

Summary: "I reached Paris early in the summer of 1939," begins narrator David Halifax. Following in the footsteps of another generation of American expatriates, he has come to Paris for the sake of art (in his case, at the atelier of the temperamental and brilliant Alexander Pankratov). And like those earlier artists, he has arrived at a particularly crucial moment, as France is simultaneously preparing for and ignoring the threat of war. David vows to ignore the vagaries of the quotidian, however, immersing himself in his painting, down to the minutest detail, so that it would stop being the whole picture and would break down into its individual parts, which were different from what the parts had been in reality. Now they were fragments of a different thing, a thing all by itself. But the ghost of the canvas underneath, the reminder of it, would always bring you back into the world from which the painting had emerged, many incarnations ago.
And of course, he "is"brought back to the world: far from being the muse of escape, his talent will be the siren that draws him irrevocably into the harsh world of war. When Pankratov recruits David as part of the movement to replace priceless French-owned paintings with forgeries before the Germans seize them, the young artist quickly becomes absorbed by the very "idea" of forgery, by the necessity to adopt another identity, to live and breathe and be the master he copies. But when their lives depend on a final forgery--one so audacious that it will strike to the core of Hitler's own artistic obsessions--philosophy gives way to breathless suspense, as the pair journey through Normandy at the moment of the Allied invasion, desperately searching for a treasured Vermeer.
The novel is so strong that its occasional moments of weakness seem an almost personal affront to the reader who has been bewitched by author Paul Watkins's quiet elegance. The narrative skims too quickly over David's life in Paris during the war years, and some of the most crucial facets of the generally well-balanced plot--Pankratov's diatribe to David on the German threat, for example, or David's decision to create that one last canvas--seem pale despite their avowed vigor. These moments feel as if Watkins has failed to prepare his own canvas properly, contenting himself with superficially dramatic strokes rather than carefully layering his foundation. But these flaws are minor detractions in an otherwise splendid work that balances canny portraiture with an unsentimentally evocative landscape. "--Kelly Flynn"

Summary: Absolutely the best book I have ever read. At the beginning the story was a little hard to follow as there are lots of characters being introduced in a relatively short space of time but its so worth persevering. Was so impressed I got to the end of the book and turned straight back to page 1 and read it all again. Have read it so many times since my copy is looking extremely dog-eared.
This is the first Fiona Walker I have read. Followed it up with Well Groomed (which is a follow on from this) which was good but not as good as this. Have also read a couple of other Fiona Walkers but found them not a patch on this and in truth very disappointing. I suppose when you've started with the best it doesn't get any better.

Summary: "The Full Cupboard of Life: More from the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" is the fifth installment of Alexander McCall Smith's outstanding series about Mma. Precious Ramotswe, proprietor of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, and perhaps the only female detective in all of Africa, with the exception of her assistant, Mma Makutsi. Mma Ramotswe's is an extremely intelligent woman who possesses a keen perception of the human character. She is also a good person with a kind heart and a strong set of values. Most inspiring, however, is her deep and abiding love for Africa, and for Botswana and its people in particular. "They are my people, my brothers and sisters. It is my duty to help them to solve the mysteries of their lives. I strongly suggest that any potential reader who has not already been introduced to our protagonist, read "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" and other prior books in the series. While not absolutely necessary, it will certainly enhance your experience with Mma Ramotswe and her country.
Fortunately Mma Ramotswe and Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, Gaborone's best mechanic, are still planning to wed and both are in good health, as are their two adopted children. Alas, their wedding date has still not been set. And if I am anxious about their very prolonged engagement, well imagine how the lady involved with the procrastinating fiance feels. She doesn't want to pressure him, however, as he has enough problems to contend with at the moment. He is concerned about getting out of a promise to make a parachute jump, which Mma Potokwani finagled him into, in the name of charity. And he is also being distracted by a predicament with a business rival at First Class Motors.
Case-wise, a wealthy beauty salon entrepreneur hires Mma Ramotswe to discover which of her many suitors are after her considerable fortune, and what their true motives for matrimony are. And assistant detective Makutsi's 'Kalahari Typing School for Men' is doing so well, she can afford to move...to a house with running water.
As most readers of the series know by now, this is not an ordinary crime novel/police procedural. Nor is it an edge-of-your-seat mystery thriller. Mma. Ramotswe is a private detective, but she manages to solve mysteries without the use of guns and violence, preferring to use unorthodox solutions instead.
The narrative is written simply, in a clear, uncluttered style. And our Number One Detective is a pure delight, as are the people she deals with, and their everyday problems which she helps them resolve.
JANA