Ricky Pine's Blog

The Lighthouse at the End of the World by Philip Suggars
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I went into this book expecting a multiversal London portal fantasy in the style of V.E. Schwab - which would’ve been a great thing to have during the endless wait for the next book after The Fragile Threads of Power - but instead, I got what amounts to the London version of The Magicians, mercifully without a perpetually depressed protagonist- this one could make a great Taron Egerton vehi...

The Crime Brûlée Bake Off by Rebecca Connolly
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The first in this new British mystery series only feels cozy because it takes place on the set of a TV baking competition, but its dark connections to a historical death at the filming location, a classic country manor, give it a tricky tonal balancing act. It’s a bit of a slow moving story, molasses slow at times even. But the on set banter, particularly between protagonist Claire and her aristocrati...

The Devil's Star by Jo Nesbø
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The book which Netflix is adapting first for their new Jo Nesbø’s Detective Hole series, and now I know how it’s gonna play out while I’m still at only episode 2. But it’s gonna be a satisfying ride to get there, knowing not only how the main serial killer plot of this book goes, but also the long awaited conclusion of the Waaler story arc. After years of knowing Joel Kinnaman best for his role on For All Mankind, it’...

Nemesis by Jo Nesbø
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Harry Hole follows up on his investigation of lingering Nazi nonsense with a more personal story, as he wakes up with a touch of amnesia one morning and is the prime suspect in a woman's death, with his work nemesis Waaler happily leading the investigation against him. It's a shorter yet slower paced book compared to The Redbreast, although very Hitchcockian, and still with a bit of international intrigue involving bank robber...

The Redbreast by Jo Nesbø
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Harry Hole’s third mystery is the first one set predominantly in Norway, although it also features a few international jaunts (South Africa being a prominent one), as well as lots of flashbacks to WWII to showcase a few Nazi traitors in the country that made Quisling’s name synonymous with such. Additionally, there’s the backdrop of the Oslo Accords, and the present day neo-Nazis of 1999/2000 turning their hatred towards...

Cockroaches by Jo Nesbø
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

In which Harry Hole goes to Thailand to investigate the death of a (most unqualified) ambassador, and realizes just how much that guy got into some creepy corruption in his host country. As with its predecessor, it feels very ahead of its time, striving to present a non-stereotypical view of the country which Harry is visiting. It’s a little less successful in that regard than the first book, but only because the storyline...

Into the Leopard's Den by Harini Nagendra
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The fourth novel in the Bangalore Detectives Club series goes into the misty mountains of Coorg, deep in the countryside of Karnataka outside the city of Bangalore, where Kaveri investigates a string of murders linked to the place where her husband is currently on duty as a doctor. The narrative is a bit unfocused in this book, but it does come full circle in the end, especially bringing back a fair few c...

The Bat by Jo Nesbø
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Nordic noir down under? Y’know what, it works for me. I think I might’ve read some of Nesbø’s other Harry Hole books a while ago, but I’d already forgotten most of the details, and since Nesbø himself is now writing the series adaptation for Netflix, I figured I should go back to the beginning. Interestingly, this book didn’t get translated into English for 15 years after its initial publication, but for a 90s era book, it act...

The Murder at World's End by Ross Montgomery
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The first in a projected period mystery series focusing on a young man named Stephen Pike, fresh out of prison for a crime he didn't commit, and the gloriously foul-mouthed elder Lady Decima Stockingham feels both timeless and modern at the same time. Set in a meteorologically moody estate in Cornwall in 1910, Stephen and Lady Decima are soon forced to follow a classic locked-room mystery - the death o...

A Nest of Vipers by Harini Nagendra
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Bangalore Detectives' Club returns for their third complicated mystery, involving a traveling circus troupe, traditional Indian magic, and an impending visit from the Prince of Wales at a time when his previous visits have been marked by riots in other cities. While Kaveri and her allies are absolutely independence minded - and know well of Gandhiji and his movement, though they have a wide range of conflic...