Today it’s my lucky day – I have Anna Jaquiery visiting on her blog tour to promote her second book in her Inspector Morel series (the first was The Lying Down Room.) This book takes Morel to Cambodia, where his holiday and the death of a French citizen with influential connections co-incide, resulting in his holiday being cut short – here’s the blurb… A beautifully evocative crime novel set in Cambodia, featuring Chief Inspector Serge Morel. Perfect for fans of Donna Leon and Michael Dibdin.
‘Anna Jaquiery’s elegant, beguiling and beautifully crafted debut left me longing for more from her enigmatic Parisian detective, Commandant Serge Morel. A rare and delicate treat from a writer already in total command of her craft’ – M.R. Hall
Phnom Penh, Cambodia; the rainy season. When a French man, Hugo Quercy, is found brutally murdered, Commandant Serge Morel finds his holiday drawn to an abrupt halt. Quercy – dynamic, well-connected – was the magnetic head of a humanitarian organisation which looked after the area’s neglected youth. Opening his investigation, the Parisian detective soon finds himself buried in one of his most challenging cases yet. Morel must navigate this complex and politically sensitive crime in a country with few forensic resources, and armed with little more than a series of perplexing questions: what was Quercy doing in a hotel room under a false name? What is the significance of his recent investigations into land grabs in the area? And who could have broken into his home the night of the murder? Becoming increasingly drawn into Quercy’s circle of family and friends – his adoring widow, his devoted friends and bereft colleagues – Commandant Morel will soon discover that in this lush land of great beauty and immense darkness, nothing is quite as it seems…
Phnom Penh, Cambodia; the rainy season. When a French man, Hugo Quercy, is found brutally murdered, Commandant Serge Morel finds his holiday drawn to an abrupt halt. Quercy – dynamic, well-connected – was the magnetic head of a humanitarian organisation which looked after the area’s neglected youth. Opening his investigation, the Parisian detective soon finds himself buried in one of his most challenging cases yet. Morel must navigate this complex and politically sensitive crime in a country with few forensic resources, and armed with little more than a series of perplexing questions: what was Quercy doing in a hotel room under a false name? What is the significance of his recent investigations into land grabs in the area? And who could have broken into his home the night of the murder? Becoming increasingly drawn into Quercy’s circle of family and friends – his adoring widow, his devoted friends and bereft colleagues – Commandant Morel will soon discover that in this lush land of great beauty and immense darkness, nothing is quite as it seems…
Here, for the blog tour, Anna muses for us on the popularity of Scandinavian fiction, and why other quality fiction from other countries hasn’t caught on so much (and she also has a couple of names for your Wish List, so grab your notebook!)
Australian crime – The first time I was invited to talk about my novel The Lying-Down Room was at Tim’s Bookshop in Melbourne. We’re lucky in this city to have some great independent bookshops and this is one of my favourites. That night I got to speak alongside Australian crime writer Garry Disher, which was exciting because I’d recently read his most recent crime novel Bitter Wash Road and loved it. It tells the story of a detective who falls out of favour with his colleagues after getting mixed up in an internal corruption scandal at an Adelaide police station. He’s transferred to Tiverton, a God-forsaken country town where he’s the only police officer. Australia, with its vast landscapes and wilderness as it gets and Disher captures the atmosphere of a small Australian town and the isolation experienced by those who live in it beautifully. Reading Bitter Wash Road got me thinking about settings and about what readers are drawn to. Is it exoticism? Or do they want familiarity? And what is it about Scandinavian novels? Why, for example, is a crime novel set in Sweden more likely to be successful than one with an Australian setting? Take for example the success of Camilla Lackberg, whose crime novels are set in her home town of Fjallbacka, on the west coast of Sweden. Or the popularity of Henning Mankell‘s Kurt Wallander series. Or Stieg Larsson‘s Millennium Trilogy has sold over 60 million copies worldwide. The list of successful authors from Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark is too long to mention here. Maybe the appeal of the Scandinavian countries lies in the fact that they are both close and enticingly distant, with their long winters and remote, spectacular landscapes. Perhaps Australia is so remote in readers’ minds that it can sometimes seem like too far to travel. Still, for a taste of Australian crime I would urge readers to pick up books by Garry Disher or Peter Temple, for a start. Before you know it, you’ll be hooked.
What’s your thoughts on why some areas of the world become especially popular when it comes to crime fiction, while others, despite producing quality crime fiction, are somewhat neglected? Please leave your thoughts on this – it’s something I find particularly interesting. Next post, I’ll have a few thoughts on this, and my review of Death In The Rainy Season.
Below, left, is Anna Jaquiery herself, and on the right is the cover of her debut novel and the first in the Inspector Morel series, The Lying Down Room. And on Sunday, catch up with more of this blog tour at the fabulous blog, Being Anne…
crimeworm 