What I have been reading
Dec. 14th, 2019 12:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scripsiMaj Sjöwall & Pehr Whalöö The Laughing Policeman Nine people are shot down on a bus late one evening. At first, it’s believed to be a random crime by a madman, but one of the dead is a policeman, and things don’t really add up. This is one of the best books of Sjövall & Whalöö’s detective stories, with my favorite Gunvald Larsson in excellent form.
But one of the things that strike me on this re-read, is the characterization of the “good woman”. She basically always look like Maj Sjöwall, slender, pretty and with short dark hair. She is also intelligent, understanding and always enjoys to have sex. However, to be “good” she needs to regulate her sexuality within a relationship. Like Kollberg’s wife Gun, or Åsa Thorell who we first meet in this book. Similar women who sleep with anyone, are more than once murder victims in these books. There is also absolutely zero understanding for women who are housewives- which was still very common in Sweden in the 1960s., They are nags and have no interests apart from taking care of family and home. That they are the product of a society that habitually slotted women in this role, regardless of what they really want and need from life, is completely ignored. It also annoys me how almost every woman is described on her level of attractiveness, with special attention on how breasts and nipples are shaped. Yup, sometimes it’s extremely obvious these books were written half a century ago.
F. G. Cottam The Lucifer Chord Ruth Gillespie is a writer who gets a commission to research and writes an article about a rock star who died in 1975. Only more and more strange things happen the more she digs in, people start to die, and is the rockstar really returning from the dead? On the whole I liked this book, which was suspenseful and had a good build-up. I am, less enamored, by Ruth than the author. It’s not that she isn’t a likable character, but I don’t need every single character was over her looks and how attractive she is. She’s is a returning character, so it feels rather repetitive too.
Torey Hayden The Lost Child I always feel a bit like a peeping Tom when I read Hayden’s books- reading about children's misery from the safety of my armchair. I know it's quite a genre with thss real-life books about mistreated children, but I’ve only ever read Torey Hayden. I read Murphy’s Boy when I was in my early teens and then I read everything by her despite that guilty feeling. The Lost Child is the first book in a decade or more, so of course, I couldn’t resist it. But I don’t think I like it very much, and the misery of a little girl who has been so badly treated she habitually lies only made me depressed.
Vivian Shaw Grave Importance The third Greta Helsing book. Mummies are all over the world are having strange spells of unconsciousness. And two angels are doing really iffy things in Rome and New York. It was an enjoyable read- I really liked the two first books, but somehow I felt this was the weakest of them. Also, I fail in finding reconstructive surgery of mummies as fascinating as Dr. Helsing thinks.
Tana French In the Woods The first of The Dublin Murders book. I liked French writing style and characterization, and the mystery of a teenager found dead in the same woods two children disappeared 20 years earlier was good. However, I developed a deep dislike for one of the protagonists, and I also didn’t care for the way one of the mysteries was handled. I may read more of her books, but not very soon, I think.
But one of the things that strike me on this re-read, is the characterization of the “good woman”. She basically always look like Maj Sjöwall, slender, pretty and with short dark hair. She is also intelligent, understanding and always enjoys to have sex. However, to be “good” she needs to regulate her sexuality within a relationship. Like Kollberg’s wife Gun, or Åsa Thorell who we first meet in this book. Similar women who sleep with anyone, are more than once murder victims in these books. There is also absolutely zero understanding for women who are housewives- which was still very common in Sweden in the 1960s., They are nags and have no interests apart from taking care of family and home. That they are the product of a society that habitually slotted women in this role, regardless of what they really want and need from life, is completely ignored. It also annoys me how almost every woman is described on her level of attractiveness, with special attention on how breasts and nipples are shaped. Yup, sometimes it’s extremely obvious these books were written half a century ago.
F. G. Cottam The Lucifer Chord Ruth Gillespie is a writer who gets a commission to research and writes an article about a rock star who died in 1975. Only more and more strange things happen the more she digs in, people start to die, and is the rockstar really returning from the dead? On the whole I liked this book, which was suspenseful and had a good build-up. I am, less enamored, by Ruth than the author. It’s not that she isn’t a likable character, but I don’t need every single character was over her looks and how attractive she is. She’s is a returning character, so it feels rather repetitive too.
Torey Hayden The Lost Child I always feel a bit like a peeping Tom when I read Hayden’s books- reading about children's misery from the safety of my armchair. I know it's quite a genre with thss real-life books about mistreated children, but I’ve only ever read Torey Hayden. I read Murphy’s Boy when I was in my early teens and then I read everything by her despite that guilty feeling. The Lost Child is the first book in a decade or more, so of course, I couldn’t resist it. But I don’t think I like it very much, and the misery of a little girl who has been so badly treated she habitually lies only made me depressed.
Vivian Shaw Grave Importance The third Greta Helsing book. Mummies are all over the world are having strange spells of unconsciousness. And two angels are doing really iffy things in Rome and New York. It was an enjoyable read- I really liked the two first books, but somehow I felt this was the weakest of them. Also, I fail in finding reconstructive surgery of mummies as fascinating as Dr. Helsing thinks.
Tana French In the Woods The first of The Dublin Murders book. I liked French writing style and characterization, and the mystery of a teenager found dead in the same woods two children disappeared 20 years earlier was good. However, I developed a deep dislike for one of the protagonists, and I also didn’t care for the way one of the mysteries was handled. I may read more of her books, but not very soon, I think.
