The Hanging Girl by Jussi Adler-Olsen

 

(pb; 2015: sixth book in the Department Q series. Translated from the Danish by William Frost.)

From the inside flap

“In the middle of his usual hard-won morning nap in the basement of police headquarters, Carl Mørck, head of Department Q, receives a call from an old colleague working on the Danish island of Bornholm. Carl is dismissive when he realizes that a new case is being foisted on him, but a few hours later, he receives some shocking news that leaves his headstrong assistant Rose more furious than usual.

“Carl has no choice but to lead Department Q into the tragic cold case of a vivacious seventeen-year-old girl who vanished from school, only to be found dead hanging high up in a tree. The investigation will take them from Bornholm to a strange sun-worshipping cult in Sweden, where Carl, Assad, Rose, and newcomer Gordon attempt to stop a string of new murders and a skilled manipulator who refuses to let anything─or anyone─get in the way.”

 

Review

This Department Q case, revolving around a sun-based cult and its possibly murderous leader (Atu), is a steady-build, character-centric police procedural that, like its predecessor Department Q novels, is a slick, entertaining, sometimes quirky, and twist-punctuated read. It’s more low-key than other books in the series but it has its own vibe, a work worth checking out. Followed by The Scarred Woman.

Of Mice and Minestrone by Joe R. Lansdale

 

(pb; 2020; story/vignette anthology)

Overall review

Excellent anthology that fills in some of the timeline gaps in the Hap and Leonard oeuvre, a timely (with its social underpinnings) work that entertains even as it provides a brief, page-turning antidote to current real-life events.

 

Review, story by story

“The Kitchen”: Hap-POV vignette about him and his family visiting his grandmother’s house when he was six or seven years old. Fuzzy-warm, and vividly described.

 

“Of Mice and Minestrone”: Sixteen-year-old Hap tries to help a woman (Minnie) escape her abusive husband (Dash) when she turns up dead in a ditch, setting off a new chain of tragic events in the small Texas town of Marvel Creek.

Excellent two-part tale with all the elements of a worthwhile Hap and Leonard work—well-written, relatable and hissable characters, memorable bouts of violence, with strong social underpinnings.

 

“The Watering Shed”: Hap and Leonard, young men, go to the story-titular backwoods bar where Joe Shank, a no-nonsense barkeep-owner, holds sway. Of course, a racist idiot turns Hap and Leonard’s coming-of-age visit into something more violent.

 

Good, fun read, one that sets the tone for future adventure for the two heroes.

 

“Sparring Partner”: Leonard and Hap eat in a whites-only diner. Leonard enters a boxing ring and fights a gigantic bruiser (Hedge), who may knock more than wind out of Leonard. Another good, fun read.

 

“The Sabine was High”: Leonard, just back from Vietnam, goes fishing with Hap, freshly divorced from Trudy (from Savage Season) and just out of prison (for being a conscientious objector).

“Sabine” is well-written (a Lansdale trademark), solid, one of the quieter/non-action-oriented Hap and Leonard works.

Eddie and the Cruisers by P.F. Kluge

 

(pb; 1980)

From the back cover

“Eddie and his Jersey-bred band, The Parkway Cruisers, were going places. With an album and a few minor hits to their credit, the future seemed bright until Eddie died in a fiery car crash. Twenty years later, a British rock band turns their old songs into monumental fresh hits.

“With this comes a surge of renewed interest in the surviving Cruisers and in a rumored cache of tapes that Eddie made before he died. That’s when the killing starts.”

 

Review

Discontented high school teacher Frank Ridgeway, a surviving member of Eddie Wilson and the Parkway Cruisers, tells the story of how, decades later, one of their old songs resurrects interest in the band’s (supposed) one-album catalogue, and a spate of killings begin. The more he investigates, the deeper the mysteries, legends and regrets surrounding his time with Wilson run.

Eddie is a hard-to-set-down, entertaining novel that ably mixes suspense, relatable middle-age malaise, rock ‘n’ roll nostalgia, a later-coming-of-age tale, and an intriguing murder mystery into a seamless, worth-reading story.

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The resulting film of the same title was released stateside on September 23, 1983. Martin Davidson directed and co-scripted the film, also written by Arlene Davidson.

Tom Berenger played Frank Ridgeway. Michael Paré played Eddie Wilson. Joe Pantoliano played Doc Robbins.

Matthew Laurance played Sal “Sally” Amato. Helen Schneider played Joann Carlino.

David Wilson played Kenny Hopkins. Michael “Tunes” Atunes played Wendell Newton. Ellen Barkin played Maggie Foley (Susan Foley in the book).

John Stockwell played Keith Livingston.

John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band provided the band’s music.