Glitter Drizzle

Agnes Ravatn has this way of writing characters who read as unlikeable and seem slightly pitiable through their actions. The Guests main character Karin is jealous, envious and tells lies. She becomes paranoid about the people around her and displays obsessive tendencies. She was not at all endearing to me but I felt compelled to read further and discover if she changed.  Set mainly at a…

Violinist and singer Seonaid Aitken came to the regular Playtime session in Edinburgh just before Christmas. Seonaid makes music across several genres: she plays violin in a variety of bands, and sings in others; she created one of my favourite albums of recent years, Chasing Sakura, which blends jazz, classical and folk themes – it […]Seonaid Aitken at Playtime. Edinburgh, December 2023.

The regular Edinburgh jazz night “Playtime” invited Fergus McCreadie to join the regulars Tom Bancroft, Mario Caribe and Graeme Stephen to play the music of Wayne Shorter. I think it was the second in-person visit from Fergus – the first was several years ago, even before the release of his trio’s first album. Playtime happens […]“Playtime” with Fergus McCreadie. Edinburgh, November 2023.

Ready Player Seven made their world debut at the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues festival on Sunday 26 November 2023. The seven-piece band treated the audience to a wild ride through a multitude of iconic video game themes. Ready Player Seven, led by drummer Vid Gobac, are Tolek Konior (guitar), Mike Kearney (keys), Cameron Bradley (bass), Chuck Dearness (trumpet), Patrick Darley (trombone) and Kassandra…

Philip Clouts, piano. Lewis Sallows, alto sax. Tim Fairhall, bass. Marek Dorcik, drums. Some jazz listeners complain that contemporary musicians can’t compose, as once they did in a supposed golden age—most often expressed as, ‘They can’t write tunes…’.  Philip Clouts either put the lie to that one, or transported us back in time—and although we […]Philip Clouts Quartet, 18th  November 2023. 

The regular Edinburgh jazz night “Playtime” invited Fergus McCreadie to join the regulars Tom Bancroft, Mario Caribe and Graeme Stephen to play the music of Wayne Shorter. I think it was the second in-person visit from Fergus – the first was several years ago, even before the release of his trio’s first album. Playtime happens […]“Playtime” with Fergus McCreadie. Edinburgh, November 2023.

The Wolf by is a prequel to three other books* by the Norwegian author Samuel Bjørk. All the books feature detectives Holger Munch and Mia Krüger. Munch is a veteran, chain smoking, middle aged detective (who does have a smile, a rarity in middle aged Nordic detectives) whilst, in this book, Mia is a remarkable 22 year old police trainee. Both the main characters and the supporting ones are all…

News about a new crime writing festival in Norway...

When I was at the Bloody Scotland festival this year I had the pleasure of bumping into Norwegian author Thomas Enger in the bar. I heard he had organised a festival in Norway so here is the lowdown on Krim Festival Norway! Thomas had been thinking about organising a crime fiction event for quite some time, but never really thought he had the time to do it. However, it turned out he is doing it…

#Blogtour Stigma by Thomas Enger and Jorn Lier Horst @EngerThomas @LierHorst @OrendaBooks @annecater #RandomThingsTours #BlixAndRamm #NordicNoir

White As Snow (An Áróra Investigation #3) by Lilja Sigurdardottir trs  Quentin Bates @lilja1972 @OrendaBooks @graskeggur @RandomTTours

Walter Presents announces season 4 of The Nordic Murders

Stella Blomkvist is a confident, aggressive lawyer who has to do her own detective work to represent her clients in the best manner possible. Murder at the Residence has more than one gripping plot line and great characters to get to know. The story is set in Iceland and the book is translated by Quentin Bates. The original author remains anonymous. The main protagonist is original. Stella is a…

As a reader I really value a captivating start to a book and  The Hideout opens with an awful tragedy which really caught my attention and kept me reading.  The story quickly moves on to centre around a young man called Samuel who has lost his way in life. Samuel has become used to committing petty crimes, this has led to him committing more serious crimes and he quickly finds himself in way too…

NORDIC NOIR: Walter Presents announces Norwegian series For Life

“What year was it they came here? Sixty-nine?” “Seventy” says Kloes says. “Same year my youngest boy was born. I remember when they arrived in their Peruvian knitted hats, talking a big game about organic agriculture and living off the land and all kinds of nonsense like that. They were going to share everything, they said. (Fatal Isles by Maria Adolffson) Are you one of those people who reads…

Have you watched the latest episodes of Beck?

Beck has a special place in my Nordic Noir experience. The books were some of the first in the genre that I read and I saw one of the original authors Maj Sjowall interviewed at Edinburgh Book Festival 10 years ago. The television show has had some ups and downs but the acting has been consistently excellent and the latest 4 episodes of Series 9 to be shown on the BBC continue that. These 4…

Lots of great Nordic authors to see at Bloody Scotland this year. Hope to see some of you there or perhaps you can join online events.

One week to go! Come and join us! Our local crime writing festival Bloody Scotland has done it again. There are so many great events this year, including a new walking tour which sounds fun and plenty of online panels to attend if you can’t make it to Stirling. These are my top Nordic picks with links to each event: The Darkest Web: features  Pascal Engman is the bestselling Swedish author of…