Quote:
Originally Posted by DrNefario
Soldier of Sidon - Gene Wolfe. I loved the Soldier books way back when the first two were written, and this belated follow-up won a World Fantasy Award. Latro is a Roman mercenary in the pre-Empire ancient world. He forgets every night, so has to write things down. Since he has no memory, he doesn't think it odd to see demons and speak to gods.
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This sounds pretty interesting and I'll have to look these up at the library. I've heard that Wolfe's work was along the lines of the kind of literary fantasy that I tend to like sometimes, but I've never actually gotten around to trying him.
Finished Finnish author
Leena Lehtolainen's
My First Murder, 1st in her apparently very popular and adapted for Finnish television Maria Kallio, Intrepid Aspiring Law Student And Reluctant Cop series, which has been translated as an AmazonCrossing title, of which I bought several some years ago when they were 99 cents on sale.
Actually, I picked this one as a very short-lived,
probably glitch freebie, and of course I opt to read this first instead of the ones I actually paid cash money for. Priorities, what are they?
But it did give me a chance to evaluate if I wanted to shell out actual money in the future for more in the series, and the answer is "sure, if it's on deep-discount sale again".
So, Maria Kallio is a reluctant cop who's gotten disillusioned with her day job, having gone into it in the hopes of righting wrongs and dispensing justice and finding out that you don't really get to do all that much of it in actual policework, especially when you're handling vice and domestic abuse cases, which quickly become pretty damn depressing.
Thus, one transfer to homicide later, where at least catching killers seems to be much more straightforward, in between a return to studying for a law degree which she hopes will one day enable her to dispense justice as a judge, Maria is finally called upon to investigate a case which doesn't involve the usual drunken stabbings-gone-wrong.
The interesting angle to this particular murder mystery is that Maria is closely acquainted with the victim and much of the circle of suspects, several of them being former students together, and the victim himself being the ex of a close girl friend of hers.
The very personal touch to this, as Maria struggles to overcome her prejudices towards and against certain suspects based on her prior knowledge of them as well as having to deal with the tensions as the small circle of well-acquainted suspects begins to turn on itself with suspicion and distrust,
Ordeal by Innocence-style, while trying to convey their not-quite-accusations to Maria, makes for a nicely layered emotional touch to the investigation.
Also, the structural approach to this case had a low-key, heightened verisimilitude feeling to it. If fantasy has a "magical realism" subgenre for that type of story, then mystery must have a "procedural realism" one for this kind.
Maria's policework is very much the backbone of this story, taking her through the days as she interviews suspects, investigates evidence, follows up leads on the main murder case, in between taking care of other police duties such as handling more of the usual drunken stabbings-gone-wrong and assault cases as the unfinished investigation continues. This seemed different and novel compared to the more mono-focused single-case-oriented everything-which-happens-is-related-to-it crime thriller mystery types I've been reading recently.
This also had an interestingly retro look at Finnish society (this was originally published in 1992, but not translated into English until 2012), as Maria deals with tokenism as one of the few female cops in her precinct, as well as her parents' now-antiquated expectations. And also, 20 years on and an entire continent away, some things never change as she thinks that the people knocking unexpectedly at her door one day must be Jehovah's Witnesses.
Medium recommend. It's got an interesting approach to both the sleuth's actual relationship to the case and the depiction of how she investigates it, and the whodunnit makes sense, with clues you can probably follow, uncovered by solid, painstaking detective work. I liked this and I'm perfectly willing to buy and read further books in the series if they go on discount sale for a good price.