The Foreign Intrigue Book Club
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Do you like to travel? Experience a country through the eyes of a local? Try the food of another country? Join us for the Foreign Intrigue Book Group at Books Inc. Laurel Village, at 7:00 PM on the third Tuesday of the month.
January 2023 Selection:
When Marcus Didius Falco encounters the young and very pretty Sosia Camillina in the Forum, he senses immediately that there is something amiss. When she confesses that she is fleeing for her life, Falco offers to help her and, in doing so, he gets himself mixed up in a deadly plot involving stolen ingots, dangerous and dark political machinations, and, most hazardous of all, one Helena Justina, a brash, indominable senator's daughter connected to the very traitors that Falco has sworn to expose.
"Roman history and culture are nice accessories for the more durable tool that Davis employs--hilariously good writing." Washington Post Book World
November 2022 Selection:
Florence, 1967. It is winter, and one year has passed since the historic and devastating flood of the Arno, though the memories of that day still linger with the stains on the city walls. The anniversary of the flood brings with it a new case for Inspector Bordelli, who is weighed down with remorse for having taken justice into his own hands, and yearning for Eleonora, the woman he's lost, when the mystery opens.
“Over the course of his police procedurals, Vichi shows us ever more secret and dark sides to an otherwise sunny and open city. But his happiest creation, in my opinion, remains the character of Inspector Bordelli, a disillusioned anti-hero who is difficult to forget.”- Andrea Camilleri
October 2022 Selection
In 1919, when most women only dream of adventure, Jade del Cameron lives it. After driving an ambulance along the front lines of World War I, she sets off for Africa determined to fulfill a man's dying wish - never expecting to become involved in murder.
“One of the most appealing heroines to appear in the pages of a mystery...Arruda evokes the landscape of colonial Africa beautifully, creates a fine cast of characters, and spins a spine-tingling story.” Library Journal (Starred review)
September 2022 Selection:
Harriet Gordon has lost her husband and child to typhus and her reputation to a jail stint for roughness at a suffragette rally. Moving to Singapore to work for her school-principal brother seems like both her only option and a chance to recover, but it proves far from restorative when she finds a local dignitary murdered.
"Skillfully and seamlessly weaves actual people and events of the time with rich, multidimensional fictional characters." Kirkus Reviews, starred review
August 2022 Selection:
When two young ladies from a prominent Parsee household fall to their deaths from a university clocktower, an investigation fails to prove whether the tragedy stemmed from a suicide pact or foul play. Anglo-Indian Captain James Agnihotri of the Fourteenth Light Dragoons, convalescing in a Poona military hospital after Afghan soldiers ambushed his regiment in Kirachi, finds the case as captivating as the new Sherlock Holmes novel, The Sign of the Four.
“[Protagonist] Jim [Agnihotri] is an instantly likeable character whose good heart and endearing ways make him an ideal narrator.... His sleuthing takes him on an utterly enjoyable and picaresque journey through India on which he encounters beggars and brigands, adventure and danger - and finds romance.” - Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review
Unavailable, Out of Stock, or Out of Print
July 2022 Selection
One morning in the autumn of 1793, watchman Mikel Cardell is awakened from his drunken slumber with reports of a body seen floating in the Larder, once a pristine lake on Stockholm's Southern Isle, now a rancid bog. Efforts to identify the bizarrely mutilated corpse are entrusted to incorruptible lawyer Cecil Winge, who enlists Cardell's help to solve the case. The rich and the poor, the pious and the fallen, the living and the dead--all collide and interconnect with the body pulled from the lake. The Wolf and the Watchman brings to life the crowded streets, gilded palaces, and dark corners of late-eighteenth-century Stockholm, offering a startling vision of the crimes we commit in the name of justice, and the sacrifices we make in order to survive.
"For Stieg Larsson fans, a new voice...a stunning debut...Like Umberto Eco's novel [ The Name of the Rose, this] is a cerebral, immersive page-turner [with] a moral heft reminiscent of works by Graham Greene...Plenty of twists to satisfy thrill-starved readers." - The Washington Post
October 2021 Selection:
It's love at first sight when Penelope Kite sees Le Chant d'Eau--the Song of Water--a stone farmhouse tucked high in the hills above the Luberon valley. Penelope's daydreams of an adventurous life in Provence didn't include finding a corpse floating facedown in her swimming pool. The discovery of the dead man plunges her headlong into a Provençal stew of intrigue and lingering resentments simmering beneath the surface of the deceptively sunny village.
"Charming.... While the quirky characters are enjoyable, it's the details of the details of Provençal life that will attract armchair travelers, fans of Peter Mayle." - Library Journal
November 2021 Selection:
When blue chalk circles begin to appear on the pavement in neighborhoods around Paris, Commissaire Adamsberg is alone in thinking that they are far from amusing. As he studies each new circle and the increasingly bizarre objects they contain, he senses the cruelty that lies within whoever is responsible. And when a circle is discovered with decidedly less banal contents - a woman with her throat slashed - Adamsberg knows that this is just the beginning. "As droll and fascinating as la ville lumière itself."- Kirkus Reviews
September 2021 Selection:
A naked man is found with his eyes gouged out in the ancient forests crowning the Italian Alps, and sexagenarian superintendent Teresa Battaglia sets out to prove herself once again, understanding that this case may be connected to the region's dark history. "The plot is complex, chilling but compelling . . . An unsettling thriller with a heroine I loved, a smart cop who is female, a fighter, blunt and mature." Fresh Fiction
August 2021 Selection:
The vibrant capital of Sichuan Province is suddenly held hostage when an anonymous vigilante known as Eumenides declares war against a corrupt legal system, with Eumenides acting as judge and executioner. The public starts nominating potential targets, and before long hundreds of names are added to his kill list. First, he publishes a "death notice," announcing his next target, the crimes for which the victim will be punished, and the date of the execution. When an elite group of detectives and specialists, is assembled to catch Eumenides before he strikes again, they discover alarming connections to an eighteen-year-old cold case, and they find out that some members of the team have much to hide. “This procedural, the first novel in China's most popular suspense trilogy, boasts the rich cultural immersion, the bird's-eye view of procedural technique in an international police force, and the complex mysteries that have long driven the popularity of Scandinavian crime fiction.” Booklist, starred review
Unavailable, Out of Stock, or Out of Print
July 2021 Selection:
Travel writer Poke Rafferty is just putting down some roots in Bangkok when he agrees to help locate a distraught Aussie woman's missing uncle and accepts a generous payment to find a blackmailing thief. No longer gliding carelessly across the surface of a culture he doesn't really understand, suddenly Poke is plodding through dark and unfamiliar terrain - and everything and everyone he loves is in terrible danger. "Vibrant, deftly drawn characters...well-crafted... entertaining." Kirkus Reviews
June 2021 Selection:
Travel writer Poke Rafferty is just putting down some roots in Bangkok when he agrees to help locate a distraught Aussie woman's missing uncle and accepts a generous payment to find a blackmailing thief. No longer gliding carelessly across the surface of a culture he doesn't really understand, suddenly Poke is plodding through dark and unfamiliar terrain - and everything and everyone he loves is in terrible danger. "Vibrant, deftly drawn characters...well-crafted... entertaining." Kirkus Reviews
May 2021 Selection:
"In the 1960s 17 people die of cyanide poisoning at a large party at the Aosawas, owners of a prominent clinic in an ancient castle city on the coast of the Sea of Japan. The only survivor is their teenage daughter Hisako, blind, beautiful, admired by all, but soon suspected of masterminding the crime"
“The hot and humid atmosphere of the coastal town almost becomes a character in itself. The fascinating result is rich and strange, utterly absorbing. Onda makes you aware of ‘another, different world below the surface of this one’.” Times London
April 2021 Selection:
In this mystery set in 1963 Saigon, two agents for the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division, sergeants Ellsworth Miser and Clovis Robeson, have the daunting task of stopping an assassin known as the Red Queen, who leaves a "playing card bearing a red female figure" at the scene of her crimes.
"The plot speeds along faster than the Red Queen's Vespa . . . Jurjevics brings all of it to colorful, fragrant, often ugly life . . . Brace yourself." The New York Times Book Review
March 2021 Selection: After losing her husband, Rosie Lee could have become one of Singapore's tai tai, an idle rich lady. Instead she is building a culinary empire from her restaurant, Aunty Lee's Delights, where spicy Singaporean meals are graciously served to locals and tourists alike. But when a body is found in one of Singapore's tourist havens and one of her guests fails to show at a dinner party, Aunty Lee knows that the two events are likely connected.
“This delightfully anachronistic series debut from playwright and occasional novelist Yu (Miss Moorthy Investigates, 2012, etc.) boasts buoyant prose and a colorful cast, led by the lovably unstoppable sleuth herself.” Kirkus Reviews
Unavailable, Out of Stock, or Out of Print
February 2021 Selection: When Jack Irish - criminal lawyer, debt collector, sports lover, horse-racing man and trainee cabinetmaker - receives a puzzling message from a jailed ex-client he's too deep in misery over his football team's latest loss to take much notice. Next thing Jack knows, the ex-client's dead and he's been drawn into a life-threatening investigation involving high-level corruption, dark sexual secrets, shonky property deals, and murder. With hitmen after him, shady ex-policemen at every turn, and the body count rising, Jack needs to find out what's going on--and fast.
“Irish is tough and resourceful, yes, but it's the way Temple brings out his fear, desire, humor, and self-doubt that ranks him among the most interesting series heroes. Read the seven-page opening chapter, as entertaining an introduction as you are likely to find in crime fiction, and you'll be hooked.” Booklist
October 2020 Selection: Jonas works for the UK secret service as an intelligence analyst. When his father is kidnapped and held for ransom by ISIS gunmen in Syria, he takes matters into his own hands and begins to steal the only currency he has access to: secret government intelligence.
"A compelling story of our times, beautifully written and told with all the authority and authenticity of an insider familiar with the complex and dangerous terrain." Peter Taylor
January 2021 Selection: When a young mother is brutally murdered (it seems to be a professional job), Sam Shephard, the young sole-charge police constable in Mataura, is at the heart of the police hunt to find the killer. After Sam is removed from the case, she can't stop herself making murder inquiries that get her into serious trouble with her superiors and put her in real physical danger.
“Overkill is Symon's first novel, but it reads like the polished effort of a genre veteran. More, please.” - Booklist
August 2020 Selection: "Set in Havana during the Black Spring of 2003, Death Comes in through the Kitchen is a charming but poison-laced culinary mystery that reveals the darker side of the modern Revolution, complete with authentic Cuban recipes.
August 2020 Selection:"[Dovalpage] creates a mélange of clashing cultures, multilayered deception, even traditional Cuban recipes, that are both entertainment and a revealing exposé of how a strangled society bypasses laws to survive, and dare to enjoy, daily life." Booklist
September 2020 Selection: Syria, 1970. Michael Howell has kept his family's Middle Eastern business enterprises going through a decade of takeovers, war, and revolution. One late night at the office, he discovers men working overtime, producing unauthorized bombs for the Palestine Action Force which will enlist his unwilling help in carrying out their plan.
"[A] complex exploration of power, responsibility, and identity in the modern high-tech world. . . . [Ambler's works are] political novels of a high order." The Washington Post
July 2020 Selection: When a young journalist named Bernardo Blanco is killed in the fictional Mexican port city of Paracuan, investigation into his murder reveals missing links in a disturbing multiple homicide case from twenty years earlier.
"Solares's debut deftly treads a risky tightrope between police procedural and surreal fantasy . . . this haunting novel forces readers to confront that bedeviling paradox of human nature, the eternal mystery of wickedness." Publishers Weekly (starred review)
June 2020 Selection: Inspector Albertus Beeslaar has left the ruthless city only to have his hopes of finding peace and quiet in the Kalahari shattered by the brutal murder of artist Freddie Swarts and her adopted daughter. But Freddie's sister Sara isn't convinced that this was a typical farm attack. Amid a spate of stock thefts, Beeslaar must solve this high-profile crime, all the while training his two rookie partners, Ghaap and Pyl.
" Weeping Waters is a deeply moving detective story [...] The story is unhurried, at times downright slow, as the tapestry of people and culture is woven, a weakness overcome by the tale's rich characterization, particularly that of Beeslaar, and the mystery's satisfying conclusion." Mystery Scene
Unavailable, Out of Stock, or Out of Print
March 2020 Selection: In the Swedish criminal justice system, certain cases are considered especially strange and difficult, in Malmö, the dedicated detectives who investigate these crimes are members of an elite squad known as the Sensitive Crimes Division.
These are their stories.
The first case: the small matter of a man stabbed in the back of the knee. Who would perpetrate such a crime and why? Next: a young woman's imaginary boyfriend goes missing. But how on earth do you search for someone who doesn't exist? And in the final investigation: eerie secrets that are revealed under a full moon may not seem so supernatural in the light of day. No case is too unusual, too complicated, or too, well insignificant for this squad to solve.
The team: Ulf "the Wolf" Varg, the top dog, thoughtful and diligent; Anna Bengsdotter, who's in love with Varg's car (and possibly Varg too); Carl Holgersson, who likes nothing more than filling out paperwork; and Erik Nykvist, who is deeply committed to fly fishing.
With the help of a rather verbose local police officer, this crack team gets to the bottom of cases other detectives can't or won't bother to handle. Equal parts hilarious and heartening, The Department of Sensitive Crimes is a tour de farce from a true master.
February 2020 Selection: Hella Mauzer was the first ever woman Inspector in the Helsinki Homicide Unit. But her superiors deemed her too 'emotional' for the job and had her reassigned. Now, two years later, she is working in Lapland for the Ivalo police department under Chief Inspector Järvi, a man more interested in criminal statistics and his social life than police work. They receive a letter from Irja Waltari, a priest's wife from the village of Käärmela on the Soviet border, informing them of the disappearance of Erno Jokinen, a local. Hella jumps at the chance to investigate. Järvi does not think that a crime is involved. After all, people disappear all the time in the snows of Finland. When she arrives, Hella stays the village priest and his wife, who have taken in Erno's grandson who refuses to tell anyone his grandfather's secret. A body is then discovered in the forest and she realizes that she was right; a crime has been committed. A murder. But what Hella doesn't know, is that the small village of Käärmela is harbouring another crime, a crime so evil, it is beyond anything any of them could have ever imagined.
Unavailable, Out of Stock, or Out of Print
January 2020 Selection: Having left the Faroes as a child, Jan Reyna is now a British police detective, and the islands are foreign to him. But he is drawn back when his estranged father is found unconscious with a shotgun by his side and someone else's blood at the scene. Then a man's body is washed up on an isolated beach. Is Reyna's father responsible?
Looking for answers, Reyna falls in with local detective Hjalti Hentze. But as the stakes get higher and Reyna learns more about his family and the truth behind his mother's flight from the Faroes, he must decide whether to stay, or to forsake the strange, windswept islands for good.
Unavailable, Out of Stock, or Out of Print
November 2019 Selection: Brilliant neo-noir from one of the greatest post-war writers of German
A respected professor is dead - shot in a crowded Zurich restaurant, in front of dozens of witnesses. The murderer calmly turned himself in to the police. So why has he now hired a lawyer to clear his name? And why has he chosen the drink-soaked, disreputable Sp&aauml;t to defend him?
As he investigates, Sp&aauml;t finds himself obsessed, drawn ever deeper into a case of baffling complexity until he reaches a deadly conclusion: justice can be restored only by a crime. This is a captivating neo-noir classic from
the master of the genre.
The Execution of Justice is a dark, wicked satire on the legal system and a disturbing, if ambivalent, allegory on guilt, justice, violence and morality.
October 2019 Selection: "Swiss Vendetta is a true page turner. From the cook and maids to the Marquise and her family, de Hahn captures the nuances of her characters' backgrounds and perspectives. I found the plot fascinating, and de Hahn builds the tension and suspense perfectly to a satisfying conclusion. I was left wanting to read more about Agnes, and I am looking forward to her next adventure!"--Charles Todd
Inspector Agnes Lüthi, a Swiss-American police officer in Lausanne, Switzerland, has just transferred to the Violent Crimes unit from Financial Crimes to try to shed all reminders of her old life following her husband's death. Now, on the eve of the worst blizzard Lausanne has seen in centuries, Agnes has been called to investigate her very first homicide case. On the lawn of the grand Château Vallotton, at the edge of Lac Léman, a young woman has been found stabbed to death. The woman, an appraiser for a London auction house, had been taking inventory at the château, a medieval fortress dripping in priceless works of art and historical treasures.
Agnes finds it difficult to draw answers out of anyone--the tight-lipped Swiss family living in the château, the servants who have been loyal to the family for generations, the aging WWII survivor who lives in the neighboring mansion, even the American history student studying at the Vallotton château's library. As the storm rages on, roads become impassible, the power goes out around Lausanne, and Agnes finds herself trapped in the candlelit halls of the château with all the players of the mystery, out of her depth in her first murder case and still struggling to stay afloat after the death of her husband.
September 2019 Selection: September 1940: the Spanish Civil War is over, Madrid lies in ruin, while the Germans continue their march through Europe, and General Franco evades Hitler's request that he lead his broken country into yet another war. Into this uncertain world comes a reluctant spy for the British Secret Service, sent to gain the confidence of Sandy Forsyth, an old school friend turned shady Madrid businessman. Meanwhile, an ex-Red Cross nurse is engaged in a secret mission of her own. Through this dangerous game of intrigue, C. J. Sansom's riveting tale conjures a remarkable sense of history unfolding and the profound impact of impossible choices.
August 2019 Selection: Who is killing the celebrated bouquinistes of Paris? Max--an elderly Paris bookstall owner--is abducted at gunpoint. His friend, Hugo Marston, head of security at the US embassy, looks on helplessly, powerless to do anything to stop the kidnapper. Marston launches a search, enlisting the help of semiretired CIA agent Tom Green. Their investigation reveals that Max was a Holocaust survivor and later became a Nazi hunter. Is his disappearance somehow tied to his grim history, or even to the mysterious old books he sold? On the streets of Paris, tensions are rising as rival drug gangs engage in violent turf wars. Before long, other booksellers start to disappear, their bodies found floating in the Seine. Though the police are not interested in his opinion, Marston is convinced the hostilities have something to do with the murders of these bouquinistes. Then he himself becomes a target of the unknown assassins. With Tom by his side, Marston finally puts the pieces of the puzzle together, connecting the past with the present and leading the two men, quite literally, to the enemy's lair. Just as the killer intended.