Therapy: review

Therapy, described as an ‘international bestseller’, was written by a leading figure in the German media, Sebastian Fitzek. It was first published in 2006 and appeared in the UK a couple of years later, though I have only just got round to reading it (a sad comment on my TBR pile, but believe me, I have some good books which have been in my possession for a lot longer which I still haven’t tackled – oh dear!)

The set-up is intriguing, and there are aspects of it which almost reminded me of the work of Boileau-Narcejac, or possibly even Cornell Woolrich, although Fitzek’s writing is very different from theirs. Josy, a 12 year old girl, has a mysterious illness and vanishes from her doctor’s surgery. Her father is Viktor Larenz, an eminent psychiatrist, who suffers a mental collapse and withdraws to a remote island in the North Sea.

His life is disturbed by the arrival on the island of a strange woman called Anna Glass, who claims to be a writer and whose characters, apparently, become real. In her last novel she wrote about a girl with a strange ailment who has vanished in circumstances very similar to Josy’s. Viktor reluctantly agrees to act as Anna’s therapist in order to solve this unsettling mystery.

This is a pretty good thriller, albeit rather bleak in tone. I enjoyed it, and there were some excellent twists in the narrative. A weakness, however, was the motivation of the culprit, which did not seem to me to be adequately explained. Nevertheless, a sound example of Eurocrime.

Wallander - Mastermind

Good as the Kenneth Branagh series for BBC TV was, I’m starting to think that the Swedish television take on Henning Mankell’s Kurt Wallander is even better. Thanks to Karen Meek of the excellent Eurocrime blog, I learned that the programmes are going out on BBC 4 and I have just watched ‘Mastermind’.

Needless to say, ‘Mastermind’ has nothing to do with either the television quiz show or its Crimefest equivalent! But it is an outstanding story, which I found gripping from start to finish. I’m not wildly enthusiastic about sub-titles, but on this occasion they proved no obstacle at all to my enjoyment.

Kirster Henriksson is very good as Wallander. It’s a more subdued performance than Branagh’s, but highly effective. In this story (which is original, not based on a Mankell novel) a middle-aged woman’s body is found hanging from her apartment ceiling, and drained of blood. Soon, the daughter of one of Mankell’s colleagues is snatched from her blood-spattered bedroom, and it turns out that the blood is not hers, but belongs to the murdered woman. Mankell’s daughter is then injured, and it emerges that someone is targeting the police. But why?

The climax is very tense. All in all, this is first-rate viewing. Strongly recommended.

Dancing again

Over the years, a number of my books have been reprinted. It’s quite a morale boost when this happens, so when Flambard Press told me that Dancing for the Hangman was to be reprinted, I was delighted. Then came the news that the printers had gone bust, victims of the economic meltdown. Aaaaagh!

Happily, another firm has now printed the book, and I finally received my copy of the reprint yesterday. And this gives me an excuse – or at least, all the excuse I need –to reproduce the basic artwork used for the cover (though my lack of know-how prevents me re-sizing it adequately...)

Rightly or wrongly, covers matter to a book. I’ve been fascinated in recent times to see how many cover images are actually used on several different crime novels. A number have been featured on those excellent blogs The Rap Sheet and Eurocrime, and I’ve been amazed that publishers of best-selling writers have shown such a lack of originality. (Incidentally, Jeff Kingston Pierce of The Rap Sheet has another blog called Killer Covers which is packed with interesting info and images on the subject of covers.)

For Dancing with the Hangman, Flambard chose an image marketed by an outfit called Art Evolution. It is ‘Sand Ridge’, by Harry Hall. The first time I saw it, I was mystified. No Edwardian gaslights!! I really wasn’t too impressed. But the more I have looked at the image, the more it has grown on me. Quite insidious. In the end, I became so partial to it that I bought a framed print of the image, which Harry was kind enough to inscribe for me, and it now hangs on the wall at home.