I usually read the article in the Sunday NYT’s Book Review section that gives a brief summary of the plots of new books. Each week the focus is on another genre. I, of course, always read this article when the author writes about new crime novels.
Last week the focus was on four crime novels with foreign settings. This article complements the list that Nancy Russell recently compiled. All four look like winners.
“The Other Child” by German author Charlotte Link is set in the English countryside. The story centers on Fiona Swales, who during the war was one of the children evacuated to the English countryside in 1940. The story picks up Fiona’s story in 2008. She has relocated to Yorkshire and reconnects with a family she knew during the war. Marily Stasio, the author of this article, calls this a psychological thriller.
Peter Lovesay’s new novel about his detective Peter Diamond is called “The Tooth Tattoo.” Diamond works in the English city of Bath. Described as a well-written procedural murder mystery, “The Tooth Tattoo” deals with a Japanese music lover who comes to Bath to hear a celebrated string quartet.
Philip Kerr is back with another Bernie Gunther, no relation, mystery. Gunther is a police detective in Germany during WWII. I have read several of the novels in this series and found them to be well written mysteries with very interesting backstories dealing with Germany during the war.
Finally, D.A. Mishani has written his first mystery. Set in Tel Aviv, Inspector Avraham Avraham is involved in a case dealing with a missing 16-year old. Avraham is plagued with self doubt as he investigates this case.
A good mystery story set in a foreign locale–who could ask for anything more.