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Всего номинантов 29

7 декабря 2023 г.

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The Last Remains
Элли Гриффитс 0.0
The discovery of a missing woman's bones forces Ruth and Nelson to finally confront their feelings for each other as they desperately work to exonerate one of their own.

When builders discover a human skeleton while renovating a café, they call in archaeologist Dr. Ruth Galloway, who is preoccupied with the threatened closure of her department and by her ever-complicated relationship with DCI Nelson. The bones turn out to be modern--the remains of Emily Pickering, a young archaeology student who went missing in 2002. Suspicion soon falls on Emily's Cambridge tutor and also on another archeology enthusiast who was part of the group gathered the weekend before she disappeared--Ruth's friend Cathbad.

As they investigate, Nelson and his team uncover a tangled web of relationships within the archaeology group and look for a link between them and the café where Emily's bones were found. Then, just when the team seem to be making progress, Cathbad disappears. The trail leads Ruth a to the Neolithic flint mines in Grimes Graves. The race is on, first to find Cathbad and then to exonerate him, but will Ruth and Nelson uncover the truth in time to save their friend?
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Странная Салли Даймонд
Лиз Ньюджент 4.3

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Бедная Салли Даймонд не может понять, почему то, что она сделала, кажется всем соседям и полиции таким странным. Она всего лишь выполнила просьбу своего отца — сожгла его мертвое тело в сарае вместе с мусором. Что не так? И почему полицейские недовольны тем, что потом Салли тщательно вымыла весь дом и выстирала одежду? Мама бы точно ею гордилась.

После этой истории Салли оказывается в центре внимания голодных до сенсации СМИ и детективов. Внезапно она получает странный подарок — грязного игрушечного мишку с оторванным глазом и записку от некоего «С», которому явно известно что-то ужасное о ее прошлом. Но кто он? А еще Салли преследуют кошмары с изможденной женщиной в темной комнате, хотя до этого она никогда не видела снов.

Притворяясь полжизни глухой, просто чтобы ни с кем не разговаривать, Салли приходится познавать этот мир с нуля. Ей предстоит выяснить, кто этот таинственный преследователь, чье присутствие с каждым днем ощущается все острее…
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You’d Look Better as a Ghost
Joanna Wallace 0.0
A comic thriller following the trials and tribulations of Claire, a part-time serial killer, who is keen to keep her favorite hobby a secret—despite the efforts of a determined blackmailer

The night after her father's funeral, Claire meets Lucas in a bar. Lucas doesn't know it, but it's not a chance meeting. One thoughtless mistyped email has put him in the crosshairs of an extremely put-out serial killer. But before they make eye contact, before Claire lets him buy her a drink—even before she takes him home and carves him up into little pieces—something about that night is very wrong. Because someone is watching Claire. Someone who is about to discover her murderous little hobby.

The thing is, it's not sensible to tangle with a part-time serial killer, even one who is distracted by attending a weekly bereavement support group and trying to get her art career off the ground. Will Claire finish off her blackmailer before her pursuer reveals all? Let the games begin . . .
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City Under One Roof
Iris Yamashita 0.0

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A stranded detective tries to solve a murder in a tiny Alaskan town where everyone lives in a single high-rise building, in this gripping debut by an Academy Award–nominated screenwriter.

When a local teenager discovers a severed hand and foot washed up on the shore of the small town of Point Mettier, Alaska, Cara Kennedy is on the case. A detective from Anchorage, she has her own motives for investigating the possible murder in this isolated place, which can be accessed only by a tunnel.

After a blizzard causes the tunnel to close indefinitely, Cara is stuck among the odd and suspicious residents of the town—all 205 of whom live in the same high-rise building and are as icy as the weather. Cara teams up with Point Mettier police officer Joe Barkowski, but before long the investigation is upended by fearsome gang members from a nearby native village.

Haunted by her past, Cara soon discovers that everyone in this town has something to hide. Will she be able to unravel their secrets before she unravels?"
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The Associate
Victoria Goldman 0.0

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THE BODY COUNT IS RISING ... AND GETTING FAR TOO CLOSE

A missing architect. An interfaith charity project. Vandalism and online threats. Can racist slogans lead to kidnap – or even murder?

BOOK TWO in the Shanna Regan Murder Mystery series. The Associate is the sequel to The Redeemer , which was shortlisted for Best Debut Crime Novel of 2022 in the Crime Fiction Lover Awards.

'Faye Kellerman, behold your British counterpart!' – Jewish Journal

–––––––––––––––––––

When an architect vanishes in East London, her concerned fiancé asks journalist Shanna Regan to find her. The missing woman has been leading an interfaith Jewish-Muslim charity project that’s become the target of malicious damage and racist threats.
After Shanna witnesses a teenage girl fall to her death, she’s convinced the architect’s disappearance is also linked to a local youth outreach project. And then another woman is reported missing.
Amid rising local tensions, danger appears to be lurking around every corner. Even the safest sanctuaries seem to be hiding the darkest secrets. As Shanna uncovers a tangled web of lies, she puts her own life on the line. Will she find the missing architect before it’s too late?

The Associate is the compelling and thought-provoking sequel to The Redeemer.
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Scratching the Flint
Vern Smith 0.0
Set in pre-9/11 Toronto, detective noir Scratching the Flint takes place over twelve days during the spring of 2001. Smith's two-tone anti-fraud team of Alex Johnson and Cecil Bolan are back in their first full-length novel to investigate a vintage car theft ring à la MacGyver. When witnesses end up mocked and murdered, proof becomes a relative term to Cecil. Racked with guilt while the system sputters, he covertly assumes the role of not just investigating officer but also that of crown attorney, judge, and executioner, driving the case to a conclusion as brutal as the future.
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Тридцать дней тьмы
Дженни Лунд Мэдсен 3.0
Одинокая, разочаровавшаяся в своем таланте писательница заключает пари о том, что сможет за тридцать дней написать криминальный роман-бестселлер. За вдохновением Ханна отправляется в Исландию, где останавливается у гостеприимной Эллы в маленьком рыбацком поселке Хусафьордур. Через несколько дней племянника Эллы Тора вылавливают из воды бездыханным. Тор, как и многие в деревне, был сыном рыбака, но страдал сильной боязнью воды. Как в таком случае он мог утонуть? Кто убил мальчика?

Найдя в происходящем интересный материал для написания детектива, Ханна принимается писать роман по свежим следам, но понимает, что решить загадку будет сложнее, чем ей представлялось. Расследование затягивается в тугой узел, обнаруживается все больше улик: странные свидетельства местных жителей, действия полицейских, покушение на жизнь Ханны и просьба о прекращении расследования… Сильная снежная буря не дает Ханне возможности уехать из жуткого места и полностью погружает ее в череду необъяснимых убийств.
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Грехи наших отцов
Оса Ларссон 3.6

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Идти по следам смерти страшно. Но другого пути нет…

Женщина по имени Рагнхильд Пеккари добралась до речного острова, на котором жил ее брат, алкоголик и бездельник Хенри. От него давно не было известий, и она решила проверить, в чем дело. Ее наихудшие подозрения подтвердились – Хенри умер. Но вот к остальному Рагнхильд была совершенно не готова…

В морозильной камере она обнаружила труп какого-то мужчины. Экспертиза установила, что это тело отца знаменитого шведского боксера Бёрье Стрёма. Он бесследно пропал… еще в 1962 году. У убийства вышел срок давности, но прокурор Ребекка Мартинссон полна решимости докопаться до правды. В первую очередь потому, что семья Пеккари ей, мягко говоря, не чужая. Их связывает… ненависть, коренящаяся глубоко в прошлом. Так что для Ребекки это прежде всего семейное дело…
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Майкл Коннелли
Лучший криминальный писатель
Майкл Коннелли / Michael Connelly
247 книг
138 в избранном
Мик Геррон
Лучший криминальный писатель
Мик Геррон / Mick Herron
30 книг
13 в избранном

Лауреата выбрала редакция.

Джеймс Эллрой
Жизнь в сфере криминальной литер...
Джеймс Эллрой / James Ellroy
54 книги
48 в избранном
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Всего номинантов 30

7 декабря 2022 г.

Лучший криминальный роман
The Locked Room
Элли Гриффитс 0.0

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Pandemic lockdowns have Ruth Galloway feeling isolated from everyone but a new neighbor--until Nelson comes calling, investigating a decades-long string of murder-suicides that's looming ever closer. Three years after her late mother's death, Ruth is finally sorting through her things when she finds a curious relic: a decades-old photograph of Jean's Norfolk cottage with a peculiar inscription. Ruth returns to the cottage to uncover its meaning as Norfolk's first cases of COVID-19 make headlines, leaving her and Kate to shelter in place there. They struggle to stave off isolation by clapping for frontline workers each evening and befriending a kind neighbor, Zoe, from a distance. But when Nelson breaks quarantine to rush to Ruth's cottage and enlist her help in investigating a series of murder-suicides he has connected to an archeological discovery, he finds Zoe is hardly who she says she is. The further Nelson investigates these deaths, the closer they lead him to Ruth's friendly neighbor--until Ruth, Zoe, and Kate all go missing, and Nelson is left scrambling to find them before it's too late.
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The Shadows of Men
Абир Мукерджи 5.0

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Calcutta, 1923.

When a Hindu theologian is found murdered in his home, the city is on the brink of all-out religious war. Can officers of the Imperial Police Force, Captain Sam Wyndham and Sergeant Surendranath Banerjee track down those responsible in time to stop a bloodbath?

Set at a time of heightened political tension, beginning in atmospheric Calcutta and taking the detectives all the way to bustling Bombay, the latest instalment in this 'unmissable' (The Times) series presents Wyndham and Banerjee with an unprecedented challenge. Will this be the case that finally drives them apart?
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A Christmas Murder of Crows
D.M. Austin 0.0

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December 1923. In the picturesque Westmorland village of Crowthwaite, the barmaid at The Black Feather entertains a traveller with a local story of pagan sacrifice – the Murder of Crows. Unbeknownst to the guests already arriving for Christmas at Crowthwaite Castle, the storytelling foreshadows things to come.

As he does every year, Sir Henry de Trouville, tenth Baronet, has demanded his family join him for the festive season. But family friction soon begins to flare, and when the snow falls to herald Christmas it brings with it a shocking series of events.

Just before the passes through the Pennines are closed off, Detective Inspector Gilbert Dunderdale of Manchester City Police arrives at the castle to investigate the evil, and inconvenient, business of murder.
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Bad for Good
Graham Bartlett 0.0

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How far would you go?

The murder of a promising footballer and, crucially, the son of the Brighton's Chief Superintendent, means Detective Superintendent Jo Howe has a complicated and sensitive case on her hands. The situation becomes yet more desperate following devastating blackmail threats.

Howe can trust no one as she tracks the brutal killer in a city balanced on a knife edge of vigilante action and a police force riven with corruption.
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The Woman in the Library
Сулари Джентилл 4.2

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In every person's story, there is something to hide...

The ornate reading room at the Boston Public Library is quiet, until the tranquility is shattered by a woman's terrified scream. Security guards take charge immediately, instructing everyone inside to stay put until the threat is identified and contained. While they wait for the all-clear, four strangers, who'd happened to sit at the same table, pass the time in conversation and friendships are struck. Each has his or her own reasons for being in the reading room that morning—it just happens that one is a murderer.

Award-winning author Sulari Gentill delivers a sharply thrilling read with The Woman in the Library, an unexpectedly twisty literary adventure that examines the complicated nature of friendship and shows us that words can be the most treacherous weapons of all.
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Five Moves of Doom
А. Дж. Делвин 0.0

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Hired by local mixed martial arts trainer Elijah Lennox to find a missing UFC Championship belt, pro-wrestler PI “Hammerhead” Jed must extract answers from the tight-knit MMA community. Still consuming his weight in banana milkshakes, Jed ventures into a world of jewel thieves, bodybuilders, eccentric yoga enthusiasts, and adorable baby goats. As he infiltrates an exclusive and unique no-holds-barred fight club, Jed might just find himself down for the count …

Five Moves of Doom is a high-altitude and high-attitude entry in A.J. Devlin’s award-winning mystery series, one that finds its hero pushed to his absolute limit, relying on his closest allies to survive, and making choices he never thought he’d have to make.
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The Dark Flood
Деон Мейер 0.0

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Having jeopardized their careers in an unauthorized investigation that threatened to reveal the corruption in South Africa's halls of power, Benny Griessel and Vaughn Cupido have been demoted from the elite Hawks police unit. While waiting to be transferred from Cape Town to seemingly mundane duty in Stellenbosch, Griessel receives a disturbing, anonymous letter: I can only trust you and Captain Cupido. There is an adder in our bosom. Be careful of phone calls. Assigned to investigate the disappearance of Callie de Bruin, a young university student and brilliant computer programmer, they hit dead ends until the trail, including the death of a fellow officer, leads to a series of gun heists and the alarming absence of certain weapons from the police registry. As Griessel and Cupido intensify their search for de Bruin, real estate agent Sandra Steenberg confronts her own crisis: state corruption has caused the real estate market to crash, exacerbating the dire financial straits facing her family. When billionaire Jasper Boonstra contacts her to represent a major property he wants to sell, she pushes aside her concerns about his reputation as playboy and swindler. And then Boonstra himself disappears, and Griessel is forced to juggle between Boonstra's bitter wife, protective lawyer, and Steenberg, the last person to see him alive.
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The Old Woman with the Knife
Гу Бёнмо 3.5

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The kinetic story of a sixty-five-year-old female assassin who faces an unexpected threat in the twilight of her career--this is an international bestseller and the English language debut from an award-winning South Korean author

At sixty-five, Hornclaw is beginning to slow down. She lives modestly in a small apartment, with only her aging dog, a rescue named Deadweight, to keep her company. There are expectations for people her age--that she'll retire and live out the rest of her days quietly. But Hornclaw is not like other people. She is an assassin.

Double-crossers, corporate enemies, cheating spouses--for the past four decades, Hornclaw has killed them all with ruthless efficiency, and the less she's known about her targets, the better. But now, nearing the end of her career, she has just slipped up. An injury leads her to an unexpected connection with a doctor and his family. But emotions, for an assassin, are a dangerous proposition. As Hornclaw's world closes in, this final chapter in her career may also mark her own bloody end.

A sensation in South Korea, and now translated into English for the first time by Chi-Young Kim, The Old Woman with the Knife is an electrifying, singular, mordantly funny novel about the expectations imposed on aging bodies and the dramatic ways in which one woman chooses to reclaim her agency.
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Элли Гриффитс
Лучший криминальный писатель
Элли Гриффитс / Elly Griffiths
49 книг
4 в избранном

Лауреат выбранный читателями.

Стив Кавана
Лучший криминальный писатель
Стив Кавана / Steve Cavanagh
17 книг
5 в избранном

Лауреат выбранный редакцией сайта.

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Всего номинантов 34

8 декабря 2021 г.

Лучший криминальный роман
The Night Hawks
Элли Гриффитс 0.0

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The night hawks, a group of metal detectorists, are searching for buried treasure when they find a body on the beach. DCI Nelson believes that the dead man might be an asylum seeker, but he turns out to be a local boy, Jem Taylor, recently released from prison.
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Razorblade Tears
S.A. Cosby 3.2

Лауреат выбранный редакцией.

Ike Randolph has been out of jail for fifteen years, with not so much as a speeding ticket in all that time. But a Black man with cops at the door knows to be afraid.

The last thing he expects to hear is that his son Isiah has been murdered, along with Isiah’s white husband, Derek. Ike had never fully accepted his son but is devastated by his loss.

Derek’s father Buddy Lee was almost as ashamed of Derek for being gay as Derek was ashamed of his father's criminal record. Buddy Lee still has contacts in the underworld, though, and he wants to know who killed his boy.

Ike and Buddy Lee, two ex-cons with little else in common other than a criminal past and a love for their dead sons, band together in their desperate desire for revenge. In their quest to do better for their sons in death than they did in life, hardened men Ike and Buddy Lee will confront their own prejudices about their sons and each other, as they rain down vengeance upon those who hurt their boys.

Provocative and fast-paced, S. A. Cosby's Razorblade Tears is a story of bloody retribution, heartfelt change - and maybe even redemption.

“A visceral full-body experience, a sharp jolt to the heart, and a treat for the senses…Cosby's moody southern thriller marries the skillful action and plotting of Lee Child with the atmosphere and insight of Attica Locke.” ―NPR
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The Source
Sarah Sultoon 0.0

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A young TV journalist is forced to revisit her harrowing past when she's thrust into a sex-trafficking investigation in her hometown. A startling, searing, debut thriller by award-winning CNN journalist Sarah Sultoon.

'A brave and thought-provoking debut novel. Sarah Sultoon tackles a challenging and disturbing subject without sensation, and her sensitive handling, tight plotting and authentic storytelling make for a compelling read' Adam Hamdy

'A stunning debut ... a powerhouse writer' Jo Spain

'A powerful, compelling read that doesn't shy away from some upsetting truths ... written with such energy' Fanny Blake
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Winter Counts
David Heska Wanbli Weiden 0.0

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“Winter Counts is a marvel. It’s a thriller with a beating heart and jagged teeth. This book is a brilliant meditation on power and violence, and a testament to just how much a crime novel can achieve. Weiden is a powerful new voice. I couldn’t put it down.”
—Tommy Orange, author of There There


A Recommended Read from:
Buzzfeed * Electric Literature * Lit Hub * Shondaland * Publishers Weekly

A groundbreaking thriller about a vigilante on a Native American reservation who embarks on a dangerous mission to track down the source of a heroin influx.

Virgil Wounded Horse is the local enforcer on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. When justice is denied by the American legal system or the tribal council, Virgil is hired to deliver his own punishment, the kind that’s hard to forget. But when heroin makes its way into the reservation and finds Virgil’s nephew, his vigilantism suddenly becomes personal. He enlists the help of his ex-girlfriend and sets out to learn where the drugs are coming from, and how to make them stop.


They follow a lead to Denver and find that drug cartels are rapidly expanding and forming new and terrifying alliances. And back on the reservation, a new tribal council initiative raises uncomfortable questions about money and power. As Virgil starts to link the pieces together, he must face his own demons and reclaim his Native identity. He realizes that being a Native American in the twenty-first century comes at an incredible cost.

Winter Counts is a tour-de-force of crime fiction, a bracingly honest look at a long-ignored part of American life, and a twisting, turning story that’s as deeply rendered as it is thrilling
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The Strangers of Braamfontein
Onyeka Nwelue 0.0

Лауреат выбранный читателями.

“Gripping, fast-paced, no holds barred. This story about life on the streets of Braamfontein is uncompromising in its depiction of the drugs, sex and gang rivarly that often threatens to consume all of those involved. It also reminds us of how the quests for a better life elsewhere often ends in unmitigated tragedy and how a country’s dysfunction feeds this desperation.” – Nze Sylva Ifedigbo, Author of Believers and Hustlers
Osas is a young man from Benin City in Nigeria arrives in South Africa to try and make a better life for himself and forget the cruel upbringing he had. Osas moves from waiting tables and washing dishes at a restaurant into a fast paced life in the Nigerian crime underworld. Guns, drugs, brothels, turf wars and death soon become a part of his life but is Osas ready when he finds in that world the mother that left him as an infant in Benin City? A crime thriller, filled with drama will leave readers on the edges of their seats.
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The Quiet People
Пол Клив 0.0

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"A cinematic, raging, rollercoaster of a plot with a wry humour … The Quiet People is wildly entertaining and will keep you guessing right to the end." —New Zealand Herald

"A superb novel from a champion storyteller." —Crime Watch

"Cleave writes the kind of dark, intense thrillers that I never want to end. Do yourself a favour and check him out." —Simon Kernick

______________________________

Cameron and Lisa Murdoch are successful crime writers. They have been on the promotional circuit, joking that no one knows how to get away with crime like they do. After all, they write about it for a living.

So when their seven-year-old son Zach goes missing, the police and the public naturally wonder if they have finally decided to prove what they have been saying all this time…

Are they trying to show how they can commit the perfect crime?

______________________________

Praise for Paul Cleave

"Tense, thrilling, touching. Paul Cleave is very good indeed." —John Connolly

"Compelling, dark, and perfectly paced, New Zealand writer Cleave’s psychological thriller explores the evil lurking in us all, working relentless magic until the very last page." —Booklist

"Relentlessly gripping, deliciously twisted and shot through with a vein of humour that’s as dark as hell." —Mark Billingham

"Uses words as lethal weapons." —New York Times

"An intense adrenaline rush from start to finish’." —S J Watson

"A riveting and all too realistic thriller." —Tess Gerritsen

"A gripping thriller …I couldn’t put it down’ Meg Gardiner

"This very clever novel did my head in time and again." —Michael Robotham

"Cleave’s whirligig plot mesmerises." —People

"This thriller is one to remember." —New York Journal of Books

"On almost every page, this outstanding psychological thriller forces the reader to reconsider what is real." —Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
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The Girl Who Died
Рагнар Йонассон 4.0

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Teacher Wanted At the Edge of the World

Una wants nothing more than to teach, but she has been unable to secure steady employment in Reykjavík. Her savings are depleted, her love life is nonexistent, and she cannot face another winter staring at the four walls of her shabby apartment. Celebrating Christmas and ringing in 1986 in the remote fishing hamlet of Skálar seems like a small price to pay for a chance to earn some teaching credentials and get her life back on track.

But Skálar isn't just one of Iceland's most isolated villages, it is home to less than a dozen people. Una's only students are two girls aged seven and nine. Teaching them only occupies so many hours in a day and the few adults she interacts with are civil but distant. She only seems to connect with Thór, a man she shares an attraction with but who is determined to keep her at arm's length.

As darkness descends throughout the bleak winter, Una finds herself more often than not in her rented attic space - the site of a local legendary haunting - drinking her loneliness away. She is plagued by nightmares of a little girl in a white dress singing a lullaby. And when a sudden tragedy echoes an event long buried in Skálar's past, the villagers become even more guarded, leaving a suspicious Una seeking to uncover a shocking truth that's been kept secret for generations.
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Riccardino
Андреа Камиллери 0.0

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Anno 2005: Camilleri ha appena pubblicato La luna di carta. Sta lavorando alla successiva avventura della serie, ma in estate consegna a Elvira Sellerio un altro romanzo con protagonista il commissario Montalbano. Si intitola Riccardino. L’accordo è che verrà pubblicato poi, un domani indefinito, si sa solo che sarà l’ultimo romanzo della saga Montalbano.
Anno 2016. Sono passati 11 anni durante i quali sono usciti 15 libri di Montalbano. Andrea Camilleri sente l’urgenza di riprendere quel romanzo, che è venuta l’ora di «sistemarlo». Nulla cambia nella trama ma solo nella lingua che nel frattempo si è evoluta. Né muta il titolo che allora considerava provvisorio ma al quale ormai si è affezionato e che nel 2016 decide essere definitivo. Un titolo così diverso da quelli essenziali ed evocativi e pieni di significato ai quali siamo abituati, in cui risuonano echi letterari: La forma dell’acqua, Il giro di boa, Il ladro di merendine, L’altro capo del filo. Ma Riccardino segna quasi una cesura, una fine, ed è giusto marcare la differenza sin dal titolo.
Ma come è nata l’idea, e soprattutto perché.
Racconta Andrea Camilleri in una vecchia intervista che a un certo punto si era posto il problema della «serialità» dei suoi romanzi, dilemma comune a molti scrittori di noir, che aveva risolto decidendo di fare invecchiare il suo commissario insieme al calendario, con tutti i mutamenti che ciò avrebbe comportato, del personaggio e dei tempi che man mano avrebbe vissuto. Ma poi, aggiunge, «mi sono pure posto un problema scaramantico». I suoi due amici scrittori di gialli, Izzo e Manuel Vázquez Montálban, che volevano liberarsi dei loro personaggi, alla fine erano morti prima di loro. Allora «mi sono fatto venire un’altra idea trovando in un certo senso la soluzione».
Ecco: la soluzione la scopriranno i suoi tantissimi affezionati lettori di questo Riccardino che pubblichiamo ricordando Andrea Camilleri con grande gratitudine.

Di questo romanzo viene pubblicata anche una edizione speciale in cui vengono presentate entrambe le versioni del romanzo, quella del 2005 e quella definitiva. Il lettore potrà così seguire i mutamenti di quella lingua individuale, unica, inventata da Andrea Camilleri e la sua evoluzione nel corso del tempo. Una sperimentazione alla quale lo scrittore teneva moltissimo e che viene resa così evidente dal confronto tra le due versioni.

«Vorrei innanzitutto spiegare perché, in me, è nata la necessità di porre fine a questo personaggio. Ho scoperto che questa sensazione è comune a molti autori di libri gialli che scrivono di personaggi seriali. Arrivati a un certo punto, la serialità stanca. Il rischio grossissimo in cui può incorrere uno scrittore è la ripetitività del protagonista. Cioè che finisca per rifare le stesse cose. Anch’io stavo per correre lo stesso rischio. Però mi sono salvato in corner con tutta questa storia dell’invecchiamento e dei mutamenti del mio personaggio. Dell’essere dentro una realtà mutante, perciò mortificante, per il personaggio stesso. Questa mia soluzione, invece, lo rende vivo; lo rende diverso. Per altri scrittori è stato assai più difficile. Poi mi sono pure posto un problema scaramantico. Nella vita ho avuto due carissimi amici, scrittori di gialli. Uno era il francese Jean Claude Izzo, di Marsiglia, l’inventore di un Commissario dal nome italianissimo: Fabio Montale. L’altro era Manolo Vázquez Montalbán. Izzo decise un giorno di abbandonare il suo personaggio e lo fece mentre, nella storia, il protagonista si trovava gravemente ferito, in balìa delle onde, su di una barca. Montale, alla fine del racconto, avrebbe potuto salvarsi o non salvarsi. All’autore decidere in futuro che cosa fare! Come fece per esempio Arthur Conan Doyle con il suo personaggio di Sherlock Holmes, che a un certo punto finisce in un burrone. Poi, in seguito alle proteste dei lettori, lo tirò nuovamente fuori, riportandolo in vita. Queste, per inciso, sono cose che noi autori possiamo permetterci di fare, un po’, come Dio!
Il povero Manolo Vázquez Montalbán, anche lui, per esempio, voleva liberarsi del suo Pepe Carvalho e invece andò a finire che tanto Izzo che Manolo sono morti prima dei loro personaggi. Allora mi sono detto: “Col cavolo che faccio morire il mio personaggio!”. Queste sono cose che sto raccontando un po’ per scherzo ma anche un po’ seriamente. Mi pareva un po’ assurdo che un personaggio, nato letterariamente, morisse “sparato” oppure, alla fine di tutte le indagini, di tutte le avventure, andasse in pensione. Così mi sono fatto venire un’altra idea, trovando in un certo senso la soluzione.
Ho ottant’anni passati e a questa età è sempre meglio mettere da parte tutto quello che si trova. Quindi mi sono trovato a scrivere questo romanzo che rappresenta il capitolo finale di Montalbano; l’ultimo libro della serie. E l’ho mandato al mio editore dicendo di tenerlo in un cassetto e di pubblicarlo solo quando non ci sarò più. L’ultima indagine di Montalbano in realtà non è proprio l’ultima. Perché nel frattempo io continuo a scrivere e ho pubblicato e pubblicherò ancora altri libri del mio Commissario».
Andrea Camilleri, la Repubblica, agosto 2007
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