10) My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite Well this was quite a gear-change from anything else this year. I described it to my wife Katie as like a Netflix crime series spliced up for the millennial generation and repackaged into chapters. It is dark, darkly funny, funnily disturbing and disturbingly dark; not necessarily… Continue reading Year 4 / Book 10: My Sister, the Serial Killer
Category: international
Year 4 / Book 4: Convenience Store Woman
4) Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata This was one of several books I got for Christmas, and I'd added it to the Santa list after reading quite a few positive reviews of it last year. And now I can see why: it's a wonderfully quirky, insightful, surprising short novel, quite unlike any books I've… Continue reading Year 4 / Book 4: Convenience Store Woman
Year 3 / Book 52: The Defenceless
52) The Defenceless by Kati Hiekkapelto Holidaying in Helsinki, and for my final book of Year 3 of Dogeared Man, I wanted to read a Finnish novel and remembered I had downloaded this many moons ago on to the Kindle. It’s the second novel by Hiekkapelto to feature Anna Fekete, a policewoman whose origins lie… Continue reading Year 3 / Book 52: The Defenceless
Year 3 / Book 46: A Climate of Fear
46) A Climate of Fear by Fred Vargas I love the Commissaire Adamsberg books by Fred Vargas: they are amongst the most engaging, intriguing, bizarre and unusual crime series out there, and this is another great addition (number 8) to the collection. This one manages to combine a mystery involving a historical association (linked to… Continue reading Year 3 / Book 46: A Climate of Fear
Year 3 / Book 37: Ghachar, Ghochar
37) Ghachar, Ghochar by Vivek Shanbhag I can't for the life of me remember where I heard about this wonderful, short book by the Indian author Vivek Shanbhag, brilliantly translated by Srinath Perur - but it got added to the wishlist a while back, and then spotted in the local Oxfam bookshop. It is one… Continue reading Year 3 / Book 37: Ghachar, Ghochar
Year 3 / Book 32: Involuntary Witness
32) Involuntary Witness by Gianrico Carofiglio Generally, whenever we travel to a particular place, I like to try and read a novel that is set in and around there. This killed two birds with one stone, as Carofiglio had been on my radar for a while - and this legal / crime thriller is set… Continue reading Year 3 / Book 32: Involuntary Witness
Year 3 / Book 22: The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye
22) The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye by David Lagercrantz Along with much of the rest of the world, I was a fan of Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy, especially the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. They combined hugely memorable lead characters in Mikael Blomqvist and Lisbeth Salander, an excellent supporting cast,… Continue reading Year 3 / Book 22: The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye
Year 3 / Book 13: Suspicion
13) Suspicion by Friedrich Durrenmatt I can't remember why or where I bought this book, although I have a distant memory of adding The Pledge (another Inspector Barlach mystery) to my to-read list a while back. I also didn't know that Durrenmatt is better known as a playwright, but apparently Mrs Temple (being a German… Continue reading Year 3 / Book 13: Suspicion
Year 3 / Book 12: Fever Dream
12) Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin This was recommended in lots of 'best of' lists in 2017, as a compelling piece of fiction by a young, emerging writer: Schweblin has been named one of the best young writers in Spanish (under 35) and this book was shortlisted for the International Man Booker Prize. It is… Continue reading Year 3 / Book 12: Fever Dream
Year 3 / Book 8: Blue Light Yokohama
8) Blue Light Yokohama by Nicolas Obregon I got this in paperback for Christmas after reading about it a while back. I'm a sucker for novels set in Japan, and even more so for detective novels set in Japan, so this seemed an obvious choice along those lines. Recent reads that stick in my mind… Continue reading Year 3 / Book 8: Blue Light Yokohama
Dog-eared Man: a book a week 