Saturday Diversion: Crime Fiction from the UK and Europe

There are few better ways to escape the dreary and depressing reality of modern American politics than to dive into the dark and dreary world of UK and European crime fiction. Crime fiction as a genre offers tremendous character studies plus graduate-level courses in geopolitics, cartography, sociology, linguistics, forensics, and class divisions.

Crime stories burst with atmosphere and flavor: Cranky detectives and plucky sidekicks chasing weirdos on the streets or crooks in government and business. Crazy dialects, A+ cursing, and rapid-fire dialogue. Pubs, alleyways, dingy hotels, darkly lit parks, police headquarters, and various nooks and crannies that make up all the great cities and small towns of the UK and Europe. It all comes to life in crime books.

Here are some of my favorite authors and series from overseas:

Adrian McKinty, the Sean Duffy series. McKinty grew up in working-class Northern Ireland in the seventies and eighties, but has been New York based for quite some time now. His standalone thrillers like The Chain and The Island are more widely known—and more lucrative for this once struggling writer. But McKinty’s Sean Duffy novels can’t be beat. Duffy is a Catholic detective in the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) during the height of the Troubles. He loves gimlets in pint glasses and old rock records (but not eighties music). Here's a summary of one of my favorite books in the series, In the Morning I’ll Be Gone:

Sean Duffy’s got nothing. And when you’ve got nothing left to lose, you have everything to gain, but only if you want it. So when MI5 come knocking, Sean knows exactly what they want, but he hasn’t got the first idea how to get it. Of course he’s heard about the spectacular escape of IRA man Dermot McCann from Her Majesty’s Maze prison. And he knew, with chilly certainty, that their paths would cross. But finding Dermot leads Sean to an old locked room mystery, and into the kind of danger where you can lose as easily as winning. And there’s no coming back from this kind of losing. From old betrayals and ancient history to 1984’s most infamous crime, Sean tries not to fall too far behind in the race to annihilation. Can he outrun the most skilled terrorist the IRA ever created? And will the past catch him first?

Henning Mankell, the Kurt Wallander series. Sadly, Sweden’s best crime novelist is no longer with us, but his Wallander books (and multiple television adaptations) live on as a perfect blend of character and place. Kurt Wallander is the chief inspector of the Ystad police department and lives a mostly quiet and lonely existence tracking down various killers, gangsters, terrorists, human traffickers, and religious fanatics. All of the books are fantastic and you’ll become really attached to Kurt—and later to his best dog pal, Jussi. Faceless Killers is one of the first books in the series:

Early one morning, a small-town farmer discovers that his neighbors have been victims of a brutal attack during the night: An old man has been bludgeoned to death, and his tortured wife lies dying before the farmer’s eyes. The only clue is the single word she utters before she dies: “foreign.”

In charge of the investigation is Inspector Kurt Wallander, a local detective whose personal life is in a shambles. His family is falling apart, he’s gaining weight, he drinks too much and sleeps too little. Tenacious and levelheaded in his sleuthing, he and his colleagues must contend with a wave of violent xenophobia as they search for the killers.

Ian Rankin, the Rebus series. Ian Rankin’s master creation, Detective Inspector John Rebus, is the quintessential brooding Scotsman—ex-military, salty, stubborn, makes up his own rules, fits in well in all the seedy parts of Edinburgh, and likes the drink and smokes. The dozens of books in this series see Rebus develop over many years chasing down various cases with his friend and polar opposite working partner, detective Siobhan Clarke. Fleshmarket Close is one of my favorite Rankin books:

An illegal immigrant is found murdered in an Edinburgh housing scheme. Rebus is drawn into the case but has other problems: his old police station has closed for business, and his masters want him to retire. But Rebus is stubborn. As he investigates, he must visit an asylum seekers’ detention centre, deal with the sleazy Edinburgh underworld, and maybe even fall in love…Siobhan meanwhile has problems of her own. A teenager has disappeared and Siobhan must help the family, which means getting close to a convicted rapist. Then there’s the small matter of the two skeletons found buried beneath a cellar floor in Fleshmarket Close. An elaborate stunt—but whose, and for what purpose? And how can it tie to the murder on the housing-scheme known as Knoxland?

Donna Leon, the Commissario Brunetti series. This series from American ex-pat Donna Leon is much lighter than some of the others. One, because it takes place in Venice with tons of good food and splendid spots to take in. Two, because Leon’s main character is the firmly upright, honest, and intelligent protagonist Guido Brunetti who makes for an excellent companion across many books. You can pretty much dive in to any one of the books in the series. The first one I read and really enjoyed was Blood From a Stone:

On a cold Venetian night shortly before Christmas, a street vendor is killed in a scuffle in Campo Santo Stefano. The closest witnesses to the event are the American tourists who had been browsing the man’s wares—fake designer handbags—before his death. The dead man had been working as a vu cumpra, one of the many African immigrants peddling goods outside normal shop hours and trading without work permits.

Commissario Brunetti’s response is that of everybody involved: Why would anyone kill an illegal immigrant? Because these workers have few social connections and little money, infighting seems to be the answer. And yet the killings have all the markings of a professional operation. Once Brunetti begins to investigate this unfamiliar Venetian underworld, he discovers that matters of great value are at stake within the secretive society.

Other notables: The Harry Hole series by Jo Nesbø. The Bernie Gunther series by Philip Kerr. The Quirke series by Benjamin Black. And for nostalgia’s sake, the Inspector Maigret series from Georges Simenon.

There are so many good UK and European crime books and series out there. This is only a taste, so please pass along your favorites! Enjoy the weekend reading.