"Yo, Dr. Monkey, what have you been reading lately?"

Well, since you asked so nicely, here's the run down on what I've been reading in the past few months:

I decided to read another in the Kurt/Linda Wallander series after seeing the BBC/PBS adaption of some of Henning Mankell's other books. I liked this one better than the other one I read but still this one has it's problems. Mankell is a master of pacing, tone, and atmosphere but when it comes time for the pay off he's weak, very weak.

This novel features Linda Wallander, Swedish police detective Kurt Wallander's daughter, who is about to follow in her father's footsteps and become a cop. When one of her friends turns up missing during a massive investigation of some gruesome murders and animal abuse Linda and her father start at different points of investigating the crimes but they end up working side by side in the end, even though Linda is not offically even a patrol person yet. Mankell builds the suspense and drops clues in tiny batches but when Swedes finally figure it all out, he muffs the climax. The ending was such a disappointment to me that I may not read another of his books again. Although I would love to see the Swedish TV adaptions of his novels just to see how they differ from the PBS/BBC versions.

I had high hopes for this book and they were cruelly dashed twenty five pages in. It looked like a promisingly off beat novel about a reporter who is into goofy monster movies and other nerdy stuff who is drawn into a crazy conspiracy but it ended up being one of those novels set in New York city that only New Yorkers could love. It was too insular and too suffocatingly New Yorky for me. I only paid fifty cents for it so I don't feel too bad about not finising it.

This late 1970's crime novel was good but if the author had cut the last fifty pages it would have been great. Lots of twists and turns and a few stereotypical characters as well, but it's a pretty fun read. It just goes on a little longer than it should. But by the time you reach the end of it it's more than worn out it's welcome.

This book is one of the finest crime novels I have ever read. It's fast paced, compellingly written, and it sucks you in from the first sentence. It was written in the 1940's so some of the references are a bit dated and when the characters complain about the high price of things it's almost laughable how low they are in comparison to today's prices. Over all though, it's a cracking good read and one of the landmarks of crime novels. I highly recommend this one.