Best Crime Fiction 2012 – a mid year perspective

Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise invites us to look back over our crime fiction reading for 2012 and to tell her our ten best reads. They don’t need to be recent publications. Without further ado here you can find my list (no particular order). I took some liberty with the number of books suggested with Kerrie’s express authorisation.

 

• Excursion to Tindari (Pan MacMillan, 2005) by Andrea Camilleri (Italy)
• The Burning Soul (Hodder & Stoughton, 2011) by John Connolly (Ireland)
• Mixed Blood (Serpent’s Tail, 2011, first published 2009) by Roger Smith (South Africa)
• A Walk in the Dark (Bitter Lemon Press, 2011) by Gianrico Carofiglio (Italy)
• Phantom (Vintage, 2012) by Jo Nesbo (Norway)
• The Caller (Vintage, 2011) by Karin Fossum (Norway)
• Hour of the Wolf (Pan MacMillan, 2012) by Hakan Nesser (Sweden)
• Until Thy Wrath Be Past (Quercus, 2011) by Åsa Larsson (Sweden)
• The Rage (Vintage, 2012) by Gene Kerrigan (Ireland)
• The Drop (Orion, 2011) by Michael Connelly (United States)
• Black Skies (Vintage, 2012) by Arnaldur Indridason (Iceland)
• The Moving Target (Vintage crime/Black Lizard, 1998), by Ross Macdonald (United States) First published 1949
• The Draining Lake (Vintage, 2007) by Arnaldur Indridason (Iceland)
• The Woodcutter (Harper Collins, 2010) by Reginald Hill (Great Britain)

Next Week Movie Release: White Elephant (2012)

White Elephant (Original title: Elefante blanco) is a 2012 film directed by Pablo Trapero, premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, starring Ricardo Darin, Jeremie Renier and Martina Gusman.

Sinopsis: The “Villa Virgin”, a shantytown in the slums of Buenos Aires. Julian and Nicolas, two priests and long-standing friends, work tirelessly to help the local people.
Julian uses his political connections to oversee the construction of a hospital. Nicolas joins him following the failure of a project he was leading in the jungle, after paramilitary forces assassinated members of the community. Deeply troubled, he finds a little comfort in Luciana, a young, attractive, atheist social worker. As Nicolas’ faith weakens, tension and violence between the slum drug dealing cartels grow. And when work on the hospital is halted by ministerial decree, the fuse is lit…