beautiful inspector wallander melancholy

books:

The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps: The Best Crime Stories from the Pulps During Their Golden Age--The '20s, ...

16 reviews

Vintage, 2007

Top Value
1200 pages of rich, chewy pulp goodness! You can't find better value for your money anywhere. All the big names -- Gardner, Cain, Woolrich, chandler, Hammett. The very best of the rest. A complete Race Williams novel. A must-have!

Dexter in the Dark (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)

147 reviews
Jeff Lindsay

Vintage, 2008

Not as good as the first two but still enjoyable.
As most have said, this wasn't quite as good as the first two Dexter novels. I didn't dislike it as much as many though. Most people's biggest problem was the supernatural aspect to it. This part didn't bother me too much since it wasn't specific to any belief system that I am aware of. I think the biggest downside to it is that the supernatural explanation of the dark passenger sort of ...

The Big Sleep

109 reviews
Raymond Chandler

Vintage, 1988

"Tough Like Some Guys Think They Are Tough"
Before Jim Thompson's nihilistic, tough guy crime fiction, and long before smart-talking private detectives like Robert Crais' Elvis Cole or Dennis Lehane's Patrick Kenzie, there was Raymond Chandler and his prototype hard boiled PI, Phillip Marlowe. While Hammett's Sam Spade pre-dates Marlowe's 1939 debut here in "The Big Sleep", Chandler - through Marlowe - is arguably the standard by which ...

The Return: An Inspector Van Veeteren Mystery (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)

8 reviews
Hakan Nesser

Vintage, 2008

Another great Scandinavian writer
Another excellent example of mystery writing that does NOT depend on sex, violence and four letter words to tell a story that keeps you wondering about the outcome. You soon feel you know Van Veeteren and the conditions he works under as if they are old friends. You really feel the chill and damp of Scandinavian winters.

The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove

108 reviews
Christopher Moore

Harper Paperbacks, 2004

Christopher Moore
The author hasn't written a bad book yet. Completely amusing and the characters are well developed as normal everyday people. Very relatable. If a regular person ended up in the situations the characters do, they would react the same. Lust Lizard is one of my favorites.

The Fifth Woman (A Kurt Wallander Mystery)

24 reviews
Henning Mankell

Vintage, 2004

Amazing thriller
Well, I love thrillers, so my opinion is far from unbiased ... I liked this one, as many of Mankell's, because the mystery and suspense is blended with real life and totally human characters. Good, solid, interesting, clever.

The Water's Lovely (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)

43 reviews
Ruth Rendell

Vintage, 2008

The Water's Lovely
I enjoyed this book very much. It has interesting characters, lots of anticipated suspence, and the usual excellent story by Ruth Rendell.

The Winter of Frankie Machine (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)

37 reviews
Don Winslow

Vintage, 2007

Can't say it any better.
Winslow is a new discovery for me. sure can't improve on other reviews but totally agree, a great book, great writing. trite but true - you won't want to put it down. (but movies are never as good as the book, so i won't be seeing it, i want to keep my own pictures and feelings.)

The Man Who Smiled (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)

31 reviews
Henning Mankell

Vintage, 2007

Wonderful Reading For A Cold Winter Night
At the beginning of THE MAN WHO SMILED, another of Henning Mankell's brilliant Kurt Wallander mysteries, the Swedish detective is on leave from the Ystad Police Force and is contemplating resigning because of remorse over having killed someone in self-defense. Full of self-pity and angst, he is as dark and gloomy as a cold Swedish winter night. He has even stopped listening to his beloved operas. ...

Secret Asset (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)

10 reviews
Stella Rimington

Vintage, 2008

AUDIO Format review
If forgetting you are being read to is the sign of a good audiobook narrator, then performer Emma Fielding hits the mark. Her soft voice lets the listener lose themselves in MI5 intelligence officer Liz Carlyle's hunt for an illusive IRA mole inside British Intelligence's counter-terrorism division. Although her voice is lyrical, Fielding doesn't convey the necessary tension and suspense of ...

Tokyo Year Zero (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)

12 reviews
David Peace

Vintage, 2008

Japan After the Defeat, Under the Emperor MacArthur
Like any mystery or thriller, the story basically is about a murderer and how he/she was caught. But what sets this story above others is the noir like background of how the Japanese reacted to their defeat at the end of World War 2. More than anything, the surrender of the Japanese shattered a culture based on the 'living God/Emperor' and the forced introduction of democracy and free trade. ...

A Long Finish

10 reviews
Michael Dibdin

Vintage, 2000

I'll drink to it!
A glass of nice Cabernet Merlot would go well with this, the sixth Aurelio Zen novel, set in a wine-growing region of Piedmont in northern Italy. Dibdin creates interesting characters. Zan's psychology is getting darker and more brooding as his relationships with others become more brittle. As with all the Zen series, I recommend reading them in order. Previous cases are discussed, and the ...

End in Tears (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)

33 reviews
Ruth Rendell

Vintage, 2007

Inspector Wexford at his best
Fascinating story with many twists and turns. Inspector Wexford faces the challenges of both his personal and professional life with his usual discretion and charm. Highly recommended to all Ruth Rendell readers.

The Lake of Darkness

9 reviews
Ruth Rendell

Vintage, 2001

THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY...
Ruth Rendell is a fabulous British author who has churned out mystery after mystery filled with dark, demented twists. This is another tautly plotted, well crafted mystery with characters that, though seemingly normal, are just a tad off the beaten path. This book features Martin Urban, a staid and somewhat stuffy young man who would have felt at home in Victorian England. Martin wins a very ...

Beautiful Lies (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)

73 reviews
Lisa Unger

Vintage, 2008

A stellar first novel!
I had not heard of Lisa Unger until I noticed her newly released paperback version of "Beautiful Lies". I read the back cover and was intrigued. I ordered the book and found that I had a hard time putting it down. The way Lisa Unger writes is very refreshing. The story is a conversation between her(the main character, Ridley Jones), and you the reader. I enjoyed that approach. I ...

The Instant Enemy (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)

4 reviews
Ross Macdonald

Vintage, 2008

Fast paced, superbly constructed.
The Instant Enemy is the quintessential Ross Macdonald novel. Why? Because it incorporates so many of the elements Macdonald held near and dear to his heart. These include: -Family tragedies that repeat themselves over the generations. -Unexpected familial relationships between characters. -A young person's journey to claim a birthright unfairly denied. -The notion that one's ...

End Games (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)
Michael Dibdin

Vintage, 2008

When an advance scout for an American film company disappears, Aurelio Zen's most recent assignment in remote Calabria becomes anything but routine. Despite a savage attack that has scared the locals silent, Zen is determined to expose the truth. To make matters more complicated, a group of dangerous strangers, led by a rich, single-minded American have arrived to uncover another local mystery—buried treasure—and they will stop at ...

Some Lie and Some Die (An Inspector Wexford Mystery)

5 reviews
Ruth Rendell

Vintage, 1999

An Elegant Piece of Mystery Fiction
"Some Lie and Some Die" is a superbly crafted mystery novel. It's short--in pages, and in time-line, and it's not overly burdened with plotting or diverting details. It is, in a word, elegant. The events (a murder, a missing girl, a palette of suspects) are set against the backdrop of a rock concert, complete with egotistical stars and fawning sycophants, spoiled fans and irate neighbors. But ...

Sketchbook/Black lizard cover 8 1/4 x 11"

3 reviews
Watson-Guptill

Watson-Guptill, 2004

GREAT
I'm a minimalist. This is a 'must-read' for people like me. I HIGHLY recommend it.

The Chicago Way (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)

37 reviews
Michael Harvey

Vintage, 2008

Fast-paced novel, fun to read
Former police officer turned private investigator, Michael Kelly, is paid a surprise visit by John Gibbons, his old partner. Gibbons tells Michael a tale of Christmas Eve 1997. Gibbons happened on a girl who was being attacked and stabbed and he intervened. The man was arrested but by the next morning he had been released and Gibbons was advised to put a lid on the case. Now years later ...

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