{"id":8589,"date":"2020-10-19T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-19T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=8589"},"modified":"2020-10-19T08:31:19","modified_gmt":"2020-10-19T12:31:19","slug":"foreign-intrigue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=8589","title":{"rendered":"Foreign Intrigue"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If domestic intrigues are giving you fits, you might try some stories set in other countries. What you\u2019ll find, of course, is that there\u2019s no end to the shenanigans people get up to. But you knew that, right? Here are three award-winners from France, Germany, and Japan. In general, crime novels by non-American, non-British authors have a different style. They often have subplots that leave you to draw your own conclusions. Personally, I like that extra dose of mystery. These three happen to have wonderful cover art too!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Summer of Reckoning<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Summer<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Some teenage summers are just too awkward and painful to revisit. Marion Brunet\u2019s novel expertly describes a summer exactly like that. When I say it\u2019s set in the south of France, you\u2019re thinking Provence. Lavender and cabernet. The bleak, poverty-stricken village where sixteen-year-old C\u00e9line and her fifteen-year-old sister, Johanna, live with their brutish father, Manuel, is not that. C\u00e9line is pregnant, and Manuel insists she reveal who the father is. From his drunken determination, much tragedy ensues. Winner of the French Mystery Prize (the Grand Prix de Litt\u00e9rature Polici\u00e8re<\/em>), it was translated by Katherine Gregor. Read my full review here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mexico Street<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Simone<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Simone Buchholz\u2019s street-smart Hamburg public prosecutor Chastity Riley works closely\u2014in some cases intimately\u2014with the local police. Her cast of well characterized lovers, former lovers, and police colleagues is investigating the latest in a rash of car fires. This one is different, there\u2019s a dying man inside, a member of a notorious Bremen gangster family. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That connection leads Riley and her crew to some dark and lawless places, to a world and family life that operate under their own unforgiving rules. Winner of the German Crime Fiction Prize in 2019, translated by Rachel Ward. Read my full review here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Aosawa Murders<\/a><\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Aosawa<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In the 1970s, an Aosawa family birthday party ends with 17 people poisoned to death. The only survivor is teenage daughter, Hisako, who is blind. The evocative, layered story by Riku Onda is created retrospectively from interviews with the principals, starting with Hisako\u2019s memories, the ruminations of the police detective who is convinced Hisako somehow must have been involved, and the author of a best-selling book about the murders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was this the perfect crime? As the book blurb says, \u201cPart Kurosawa\u2019s Rashomon<\/em>, Part Capote\u2019s In Cold Blood<\/em>.\u201d Winner of the Mystery Writers of Japan Best Novel Award, and translated by Alison Watts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If domestic intrigues are giving you fits, you might try some stories set in other countries. What you\u2019ll find, of course, is that there\u2019s no end to the shenanigans people get up to. But you knew that, right? Here are … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Foreign Intrigue - winners of crime fiction awards in France, Germany, and Japan. Different languages and cultures, same bad behavior!","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[52,53,54,366,1749,3,311,632,126],"tags":[363],"class_list":["post-8589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime","category-criminal","category-detective","category-drama","category-international","category-mystery","category-novel","category-police","category-reading-2","tag-france"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-2ex","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8589"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8592,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8589\/revisions\/8592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}