A dark book for holidays 2023. We recommend detective stories and thrillers

Richard Kozik (): “Nest of vipers” (Noir Sur Blanc) is the 21st and – at least for me – one of the better parts of Andrea Camilleri’s Sicilian series. Commissioner Montalbano investigates the double murder of an elderly Vigata man who first drank poisoned coffee and then was shot in the head. Who wanted to be so sure that he killed him, or were there two/two murderers? The longer the investigation lasts, the more disgusted the police officers are with… the victim. The man was a usurer, he led many people to fall and despair, and in addition he hunted young women whom he seduced or blackmailed. Indeed, many people hated him and wished him dead, as even his children admit. Meanwhile, Commissioner Montalbano, as usual, is distracted by personal matters: a visit from Livia’s “long-distance fiancée”, a mysterious homeless man who lives in a grotto near his house and the murdered man’s charming daughter… Together with “Nest of Vipers”, the reissue of “The Sandwich Thief”, the third volume, hit the bookstores. cycle.

Anna Kowal (): Once upon a time – this is how many fairy tales begin, but it is also a motif used in many detective stories. Also two titles from the Czarna Owca publishing house. The first is Cold Swamp by Liza Marklund. In 1990, Helena, the wife of Viking Stormberg, a policeman in Stenträsk, mysteriously disappears. She left a note: “Honey, I went to pick raspberries. I have to leave the apartment. Markus is at Karin’s” signed with an asterisk. She didn’t come back until evening. Her half-dead daughter was found in the forest. 30 years later, a letter arrives in the mailbox of Markus, the son of Viking and Helena. It is a threat, or perhaps a warning, written in Helena’s handwriting and signed with an asterisk. The Viking doesn’t know if he’s going crazy, or seeing ghosts, or if someone or something is threatening him and his family… The second book is “The Night Shift” by Alex Finlay. It’s New Year’s Eve 1999. People expect the world to end that night. Nothing like that happens, but four teenagers were attacked at a video rental store in New Jersey. Only one survived. The police quickly identified a suspect – the boyfriend of one of the victims, but failed to catch him. 15 years later, more girls are attacked in the same city, and again only one escapes with her life. FBI agent Sarah Keller must delve into the mysteries of both nights to uncover the truth behind the night shift murders…

Ryszard: If you have a little more space in your bag/backpack/suitcase, be sure to pack the first two volumes of Juan Gómez-Jurado’s trilogy: “Reina Roja. Red Queen” and “Loba Negra. Black Wolf” (SQN). Jon Gutiérrez is a police officer who, wanting to protect a prostitute from a pimp, planted drugs on him. Unfortunately, the girl tipped him off, and he, cornered by the mysterious Mentor, agreed to be the partner/guardian of the brilliant but mentally twisted Antonia Scott. Such investigative duos have been formed in various European countries – this is part of the secret project “Red Queen”. In the first part, the two get to know each other, and Jon manages to get Antonia to participate in the investigation. Someone kidnapped the son of the president of one of the largest banks in Spain, then killed him, drained all the blood from him and left him at the family home in a highly guarded, exclusive estate. The daughter of another tycoon is also kidnapped – Jon and Antonia know that they have very little time to find the murderer. In the second volume of the series, a treasurer of the Russian mafia is murdered in Marbella and his wife disappears. The men of a Russian gangster whom the man betrayed, the mysterious modder Black Wolf and our duo set out in pursuit. An already very complicated situation is further complicated by Antonia’s subsequent crises. In addition, at the port, together with Jon, they come across a container with the corpses of seven women, and the only one who survived the transport soon dies as well. As if that wasn’t enough, the Mentor tells them that someone has murdered the two Red Queens… It’s a really good read! And at the end of August, the last part of the trilogy will be released – “Rey Blanco. The White King.”

Anna: Traitor’s Heart by Ben Creed (Rebis) moves over to 1952 to the streets of Leningrad. An invisible killer is stalking the city… it looks like Koschey the Immortal has returned – a sinister hero from Russian folktales who leaves a gruesome and distinctive signature on his victims. Three thousand kilometers away, in the depths of the gulag, a former Lieutenant of the Rewol Rossel militia is close to death. Unexpectedly, however, a cruel savior appears – Major Nikitin, an investigator of the Soviet security apparatus, who ruined his life many years ago. Former enemies join forces and together they set off on the trail of the murderer from Leningrad, but along the way they will encounter other dark mysteries…

I have the impression that we have a slight problem with parity today, so I’m adding a solid portion of women’s crime literature from the Albatros publishing house. Alex Marwood is the pseudonym of the British journalist and writer Serena Mackesy. Her latest work is “Island of Lost Girls”. 1985. For 12-year-old Mercedes and her sister Donatella, the island of La Kastellana is simply home. However, with the arrival of multi-millionaire Matthew Meade and his spoiled daughter Tatiana, everything changes. And while the Meades are surrounded by unimaginable wealth, the price they all will soon pay will be much higher than the islanders could ever imagine. It’s 2016. Robin desperately searches for her 17-year-old daughter, Gemma, who went missing the year before. The last clue leads to the island of La Kastellana, a luxurious playground for the international socialites… The second proposal is “Say Goodbye” by Lisa Gardner. It all starts with a pregnant prostitute. What Delilah Rose tells FBI Special Agent Kimberly Quincy about one of her clients is too horrific to be true. And yet more prostitutes disappear from the street, disappearing without a trace. The agent is five months pregnant and has other things to worry about than a madman who tortures and kills his victims with… spiders. Only Kimberly’s mother and sister were victims of a serial killer. And the one he’s dealing with this time seems to have figured out the perfect murder…

Ryszard: I fully agree and I will gladly add three books to our recommendations Agatha Christie from the Dolnośląskie Publishing House. The first is “Black coffee”in which the opponent of Hercule Poirot is a thief… of the formula of an atomic weapon. Its inventor, Sir Claud Amory, is poisoned in his mansion, and revealing family secrets threatens scandal. Do women really use poison more often, and are murderers overconfident? And what does being a maid have to do with being a detective? The remark of an irritated Captain Hastings unexpectedly helps to put all the elements of the puzzle in order… The second novel, “Lord Edgware’s Death”, is one of Agatha Christie’s most controversial novels from the 1930s, touching on taboo topics of the time: anti-Semitism and homosexuality. When an actress plays another actress, which one is she pretending to be? Why did Lord Edgware have to die? And why is it not worth watching your fellow guests at the table? The answers to these questions are known by Hercule Poirot, who can move both in the world of stage illusion and real human desires. Third book – “Midsummer Night’s Murder” – is a collection of stories by the Queen of Crime. From Cornwall to the French Riviera, from Delphic temples to English country houses, Agatha Christie’s famous characters tirelessly solve the most complex crime mysteries.

On the other hand The Purple Web by Carmen Mola (Sonia Draga) is the second volume of the series with Inspector Elena Blanco in the lead role. It’s a hot evening when Inspector Blanco, at the head of the BAC (Brigada de Anallisis de Casos), enters the home of a quiet middle-class family, and inside – the room of her teenage son. The boy is watching a snuff live broadcast in which hooded tormentors torture a young girl. The officers become helpless witnesses of a sadistic spectacle, ending with the death of a victim whose name they do not yet know. How many girls like her have fallen into the hands of the Purple Web before? Elena Blanco hides from everyone, even from her good friend, Sub-Inspector Ángel Zárate, her greatest suspicion and fear: that the disappearance of her young son Lucas may be related to this macabre story.

Martha (): I’ll throw in the thriller BA Pariswith whom I had the pleasure of talking in May and for this reason I reached for her latest book “trapped” (Albatross). This a story about a kidnapped woman who has a difficult past behind her, but also other women who support her. I am glad that my professional situation “forced” me to get to know this book, because I spent exciting hours with it. BA Paris specializes in the so-called a domestic thriller whose protagonists are strong heroines exposed to difficult experiences. I liked “Uwięziona” so much that I am also after reading one of the earlier books by this author – “Therapeutic”. And I understand why this title won the Empik Bestseller in the category of popular literature.

Anna: W “Nobody wanted to know” by Alicia Gimenez Bartletta (Noir Sur Blanc) Inspector Petra Delicado and Sub-Inspector Fermin Garzon unexpectedly fell to the deceased, who lay in peace for five years. Petra will have to work with the Italian police to solve a case that will put her acumen and intuition to the test. The investigation is reopened at the request of the widow of Alfonso Siguan, a 70-year-old Barcelona textile entrepreneur murdered in 2008. His corpse was found in the apartment to which he had gone in the company of a young prostitute. At first, the police suspected the girl’s pimp, but soon he too was found dead, and the investigation was discontinued due to lack of progress…

Anna: The Last Hunt by Jack Carr (Black Sheep) is the third volume of the series, whose main character is James Reece, a former Navy SEAL captain. The hero recovers from surgery and begins to think about his future. However, his plans may be thwarted by the Russian mafia – at the instigation of Olivier Grey, a CSI analyst who has gone over to the side of the enemy, he sends a squad of assassins to the United States. At the same time, somewhere in distant Siberia, a woman is running away from a mysterious man. There is a snowstorm, hounds are baying through the trees, and a mysterious man will soon organize a hunt in which lives will be at stake… It Happened Twice by Franck Thrilliez (also from Black Sheep) will take us to the mysterious Hotel Falaise. This is where Gabriel Moscato, a gendarmerie lieutenant, goes to find his missing daughter. When our hero falls asleep in the hotel, something strange happens. In the middle of the night, he is awakened by a violent pounding on the window. A hail of dead birds is flying from the sky and the man is in another room, on another floor, and soon he finds out that it is 2020, that is, not a month has passed since his daughter’s disappearance, but over twelve years…

Richard: And for dessert Consequences by Yrsa Sigurdardottir (Sonia Draga). Detective Hulgar and child psychologist Freya now work together, as the police hired her to assist with interrogations (not only of children) and to support those conducting particularly emotionally difficult investigations. Their private relationship also develops. However, everything goes to the background when the police receive a report about a car abandoned in a housing estate in Reykjavik, and Hulgar and his boss Erla (who is about to give birth) find bags with a woman’s dismembered corpse in his trunk. Only the head is missing. DNA tests show that a person presumed dead for 11 years vomited into the trunk. She was a baby when she was kidnapped from a pram in front of her fathers house. Her biological mother was suspected of having been abducted, and when her body was soon found in the sea, the police concluded that she must have committed extended suicide. If the girl is alive, events must have turned out differently years ago… Who killed the woman in the trunk (or maybe not only her)? The police track down a distraught father who is looking for the person responsible for the death of his child. However, this one is elusive, and Erla wants to close the case before she gives birth, so time is running out.