Short reviews of latest reading

I am a little bit behind with reviews, so here is a post with short reviews of books I have read lately.

The Katharina Code by Jørn Lier Horst

A famous Norwegian thriller writer, but this is the first time I read a book by him. It is the first in a series of cold cases with detective William Wisting. Twenty-four years ago Katharina Haugen disappeared from her home, never to be seen again. She left behind a small note with cryptical figures. Every year, of the day of her disappearance, Wisting is visiting her husband, Martin. With the years a special friendship has developed between the two. When visiting this year, Wisting finds the house dark and quiet and no sign of Martin.

This is the starting point of this fascinating story. It is not a book of action, it rather slowly follows new leads and new interpretations. It is all very exciting and I really enjoyed the cleverness of the story, the background and the build up to finding the solution to the case. The characters are well outlined and Wisting's daughter, who is a journalist, is also part of the solving of the case. Looking forward to the next in the cold case series.  There are several earlier books with William Wisting.

Lises Lettering (The Art of Drawing Letters) by Lise Hellström 

My handwriting is terrible, and I always admire people who can write decent letters. In order to improve, and being able to use it in my journaling, I bought this book for inspiration. It is a pep-talk book about daring to venture into something you don't know, and think you cannot achieve. She says, that if she can write beautiful letters, anyone can! I hope so. I thought there would be more sample writing but it is more of a "you can do it" book. For samples to practice on, I bought, Nib+Ink, The New Art of Modern Calligraphy by Chiara Perano, which seems to do the trick. I am just at the very beginning.

Frostnätter (Hypothermia) by Arnaldur Indridason

Indridason never disappoints. In this novel his detective Erlendur Sveinsson takes on a mysterious death. A cold, autumn evening a woman is found hanging in her summer house, by an isolated lake. All the evidence shows that the woman committed suicide, still Erlendur is not able to let it go quite yet. At the same time he engages himself in a few old cases where people disappeared without a trace.

Erlendur, like so many other middle aged, divorced and slightly depressed detectives, has to face ghosts in his own life. The reason he feels with the relatives whose nearest has disappeared, is that his own brother disappeared when he was a kid. He was lost in bad weather in the mountains. Erlendur has never really come to term with the fact the he was saved, and not his brother.

A master story teller, Indridason takes us on another, or several mysteries. Like with Lier Holst book above, this is also a slow action story, but never boring, always on the trail of new evidence. At the same time creates such interesting characters, so you are really there where it happens. The ending binds everything together in a most interesting way.