The Content Reader

Without any exact planning, I have gone down the mystery path lately. I have read several books that have a mystery and/or murder in it. What I like about them is that they are more like average fiction, rather than a detective story. Only one of them belong to the traditional genre. The other positive thing is that the murders are not that bloody or cruel. Many of the traditional detective/crime stories these days, have these gruesome, cruel and violent murders, which is not so nice to read about. The books I have read lately tend to lean on good, traditional mystery solving à la Agatha Christie. Ordinary Thunderstorms by William Boyd Adam Kindred is a scientist, working with climate relating research. He has a meeting with a fellow researcher at his home. When he arrives to the flat, he finds his friend dead, murdered. He is wrongly accused for the murder and has to go underground. In a split second he lost everything; his home and job and his whole life. He can't use his ...

The Miniaturist comes with a lot of good reviews, and as usual I am afraid that I will expect too much. Not so. This is a wonderfully written magical piece of historical fiction. Nella Oortman is married to a successful merchant trader in Amsterdam in 1686. He is a good catch for her and although she does not know him she has high hopes for the future. Once she arrives in Amsterdam to knock on the door of his house, her life changes for ever. And not in the way she expected it. "On the step of her new husband's house, Nella Oortman lifts and drops the dolphin knocker, embarrassed by the thud. No one comes, though she is expected. The time was prearranged and letters ritten, her mother's paper so thin compared with Brandt's expensive vellum. No, she thinks, this is not the best of greetings, given the blink of a marriage ceremony the month before - no garlands, no betrothal cup, no wedding bed." Johannes lives with his sister Marin in an elegant house, to...