Inspector Darko Dawson

Wife of the gods : a novel

by Kwei J Quartey. New York : Random House, 2009.

Kirkus liked it (thought, for Kirkus, these are tame words): Move over Alexander McCall Smith. Ghana has joined Botswana on the map of mystery. Quartey's approach to detective work is less charming and more sociological than McCall Smith's, his setting more rural and susceptible to the ways of magicians. There's plenty of room for them both, and the newcomer is most welcome.

a "surreal transmogrification of a genre"

 Berry, Jedediah. (2009). The manual of detection. New York: Penguin.


Kirkus Reviews An unlikely sleuth anchors an unlikely investigation in Berry's fantastical melding of Kafka, Hitchcock and The Man Who Was Thursday. Though its nonsense logic eventually lags behind its breakneck pace, Berry's debut is a boldly inventive deconstruction of Cartesian metaphysics, the criminal-justice system and the well-oiled detective story.

Capitol offense

Accused of murdering a police officer he held responsible for the tragic death of his wife, Professor Dennis Thomas implores high-profile lawyer Ben Kincaid to defend him.

The Chinaman

Book of the day on Book-a-Day calendar.


Friedrich Glauser (February 4, 1896 in Vienna – December 8, 1938 in Nervi) was a German-language Swiss writer. He was a morphine and opium addict for most of his life. In his first novel Gourrama, written between 1928 and 1930, he treated his own experiences at the French Foreign Legion. The evening before his wedding day, he suffered a stroke caused by cerebral infarction, and died two days later. One of Germany's best-known crime writing awards is the Glauser prize.

Lowboy

Book of the day on Book-a-Day calendar.

Possessing paranoid schizophrenic beliefs that he can save the planet from climate change by cooling down his own overheated body, sixteen-year-old New York youth Will Heller pursues a terrifying and delusional odyssey through the city's tunnels and backalleys.