Forthcoming books from Bitter Lemon Press

 January 2026

An Enigma by the Sea is by Carlo Fruttero and Franco Lucentini. In an exclusive resort in a dark, threatening pine forest on the coast of Tuscany, the rich and famous are gathering at their second homes for Christmas. On the morning that a husband and wife from one of the heavily-guarded villas go missing, a certain Count Delaude is washed up, battered to death, on the seashore. The cast list promises intrigue from the beginning. The count, a sponger and a sham had arrived under cover of dark with a beautiful young woman scheming to be a top model. Two comedians seclude themselves as they try to overcome a writing block. The depressive Signor Monforte, a retired academic, tries to woo a beautiful divorcee, while another, a woman this time, prepares to leave her husband. Two elderly spinsters and their Filipina maid are aghast at the awful predictions of their Tarot pack. The local police is inept, so Monforte finds himself in the role of detective, and is triumphant.

February 2026

The End of the Sahara is by Saïd Khatibi. On an early autumn morning in 1988, on the outskirts of an unnamed Algerian city, a local shepherd stumbles across the dead body of Zakia Zaghouani, a beautiful nightclub singer who ran away from her hometown and family, seeking a brighter future.  Incompetent and corrupt Inspector Hamid is perhaps the least likely to find the murderer. On their own, none of Khatibi’s characters can help us see and solve the crime. For that, we need a mosaic of many voices: Noura, the lawyer who represents Zakia’s fiancé; Ibrahim, who runs the VHS rental shop and whose mother is a cleaning lady at the hotel where Zakia worked; Kamal, the front-desk clerk at the hotel; Maimoun, the hotel’s owner; the Golden Sheikha, a rival singer; Zakia’s fiancé, Bashir; and more. Most of them are searching not just for Zakia’s killer, but for the stories of other ghosts flitting through their city, the ghosts of abused and murdered women; the ghosts of fathers who died during the country’s war for independence; and the ghosts of Algeria’s long colonial period.

April 2026

Holy F*ck is by Joseph Incardona.  Stella, a young prostitute working in the American south, has the miraculous power to heal her clients through sex. The scandalised Vatican sends contract killers after her. Stella works miracles. Literally. She heals the sick and the paralyzed, just like in the Bible. The Vatican is overjoyed-imagine, a real saint in the 21st century, and in the American South! The only hitch? Her method: Stella heals the people she sleeps with. And Stella sleeps around a lot-it's actually her job...

June 2026

Croatia, autumn 2022. The tourist season has ended, and Split settles into an uneasy quiet. Ines works the reception desk of a seaside hotel. Her mother, Katja, a cleaner, keeps the family afloat and cares for Ines and her younger brother, Mario. When Inspector Zvone is called to an abandoned factory on the city’s edge, he finds the body of seventeen-year-old Viktorija, daughter of a respected local doctor. The murder shocks the community and sends ripples through the lives of Ines, Katja, and Zvone—each forced to confront truths they would rather keep buried. As suspicion deepens and loyalties fracture, Mother of Sorrows becomes a devastating exploration of love, guilt, and denial. With quiet ferocity, Pavičić asks: what are we willing to sacrifice to protect those we love—and what are the consequences when we do? Mother of Sorrows is by Jurica Pavičić

Forthcoming books From Bitter Lemon Press

January 2025 

Runaway Horses is by Carlo Fruttero and Franco Lucentini. Siena, one of Italy's most beautiful cities, visited by all discerning travellers to Tuscany, is feverishly preparing for the Palio, a horse race dating back to the Middle Ages held every summer in the centre of the town. Milanese lawyer Enzo Maggione and his wife Valeria are unwittingly caught up in the maelstrom of plots, counterplots and bribes surrounding the race. They are even witnesses to the violent death of Puddu, the Palio's most celebrated jockey, found dead the day before the race. A murder mystery, a hilarious portrait of a fading marriage and a decadent society, and a history of the Palio all rolled up into one brilliant novel. What begins as a listless excursion to a medieval equestrian competition turns into a hallucinatory nightmare for Maggione and his wife, awakening their dormant libido for each other but, more dangerously, for others in their entourage. The death of the jockey is only one of the mysterious goings-on to be solved. It soon becomes clear that there are no bystanders in the Palio.

February 2025

The Best Enemy is by Sergio Olguin. A new investigation by Verónica Rosenthal, the audacious Buenos Aires journalist. Andrés Goicochea, a former director of the magazine where she works, and his ex-partner have been executed in cold blood. Her boss, Patricia, is in the hospital with a bullet in her lung. The authorities are trying to pass the murders off as a burglary gone wrong. Veronica has her doubts. The magazine’s investigation of a high-level corruption scandal seems more likely to have triggered the violence. A scandal perhaps influential Argentine businessmen perhaps involved with an Israeli linked to atrocities committed in Gaza years ago.

March 2025

Hunkeler, now a retired inspector of the Basel police force, is hospitalized and sharing a room with Stephan Fankhauser, an old acquaintance terminally ill with cancer. One night, a groggy Hunkeler wakes up to see a young nurse administering an injection to his friend. The following day Fankhauser is found dead. There was no autopsy, and Fankhauser was quickly cremated. Hunkeler resolves to get to the bottom of the matter. His maverick investigation will threaten Switzerland's carefully honed reputation of neutrality during WWII. Hunkeler's Secret is by Hansjorg Schneider.

May 2025

The story begins in 1989 on the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia. The investigation into a young woman’s disappearance falters as Yugoslavia plunges into a fratricidal war. Another three decades will pass before the truth is revealed. Inspector Gorki Šain, haunted by his failure to unravel the case the first time, returns to solve the crime in 2017. We are barely two months before the fall of the Berlin Wall, only “an instant” before the shift from one world to another, the shift toward tragedy for a country ultimately forged by war. Red Water is by Jurica Pavičić.

Forthcoming Books From Bitter Lemon Press

January 2024 

Tokyo, 1958. Teiko marries Kenichi Uhara, ten years her senior, an advertising man recommended by a go-between. After a four-day honeymoon, Kenichi vanishes. Teiko travels to the coastal and snow-bound city of Kanazawa, where Kenichi was last seen, to investigate his disappearance. When Kenichi’s brother comes to help her, he is murdered, poisoned in his hotel room.  Soon, Teiko discovers that her husband’s disappearance is tied up with the so-called “pan-pan girls”, women who worked as prostitutes catering to American GIs after the war. Now, ten years later, as the country is recovering, there are those who are willing to take extreme measures to hide that past. Point Zero is by Seichõ Matsumoto.

March 2024

The Translator is by Harriet Crawley. Clive Franklin, a Russian language expert in the Foreign Office, is summoned unexpectedly to Moscow to act as translator for the British Prime Minister. His life is turned on its head when, after more than a decade, he discovers that his former lover, Marina Volina, is now the interpreter to the Russian President. At the embassy, Clive learns of a Russian plot to cut the undersea cables linking the US to the UK which would paralyse communications and collapse the Western economy. Marina stuns Clive with the news that she’s ready to help stop the attack, betraying her country for a new identity and a new life. Clive becomes the go-between, relaying Marina’s intelligence to MI6 back in London. What are the odds that two lovers, running the Moscow marathon with the FSB on their backs, can save Western Europe from economic meltdown?

May 2024

Hot Stage is by Anita Nair. A Bangalore police procedural featuring Inspector Borei Gowda, a splendidly grumpy, hard-drinking, deeply flawed character whose chaotic home life includes an absent wife, an estranged son and an enigmatic mistress. It all begins when elderly Professor Mudgood is murdered in his kitchen at 2 am on a November night. As Gowda investigates, he discovers that many people might have wanted the professor dead. He had been a vocal critic of the Hindutva Movement whose ethnic nationalism has gained traction recently, often at the expense of Islamic and Christian minorities. Also disturbing is the fact that the professor's extensive property in the centre of bustling Bangalore would be a gold mine in the hands of ruthless developers with access to corrupt politicians. And there is no shortage of such characters, even in the professor's immediate entourage. The fast-paced plot has many surprising twists leading to an ominous end, but police work is not just about going out and catching crooks. All kinds of office politics, caste politics and other considerations make Gowda's life complicated. 

June 2024

October 1944, in the Republic of Salò, a German puppet state in the north of Italy and the last fascist stronghold in the country. After months of ferocious fighting on the Gothic Line, Colonel Martin Bora of the Wehrmacht is handed a new, red-hot case. Transferred to the town of Salò on the shore of Lake Garda, he must investigate the theft of a precious painting of Venus by Titian, stolen with uncanny ease from a local residence. While Bora’s inquiry proceeds among many difficulties, discovering three dead bodies throws an even more sinister light on the scene. The victims are female, very beautiful, apparently dead by their own hand but in fact, elegantly murdered. Is it the work of a serial killer, or are the homicides somehow related to the stolen Venus? Why were intriguing clues left behind for Bora to find? And why is there an official attempt to make the investigator himself appear as the culprit? Caught in an unforeseeable web of events, hounded by the Gestapo (for years at his heels on the charge of anti-Nazi activities), hopelessly in love with an enigmatic, real-flesh “Venus,” Bora must resort to all his courage and ability – not only to solve the mystery and expose the perpetrator, but also, in a breathtaking crescendo, to try to save himself from the firing squad and secure an unlikely way out... The Venus of Salò by Ben Pastor.

July 2024

It all begins with Kalmann in hot water. He’s at the FBI Headquarters in Washington, arrested during the Jan 6, 2021 riots at the Capitol Building. All he wanted was to visit his American father in the US for the Christmas holidays – but his dad takes him (and a group of MAGA friends) to the protests in Washington to “regain the house which is ours”. He is promptly arrested during the riots. Thanks to sympathetic FBI agent Dakota Leen, he’s soon on a plane back to Iceland. But not before Dakota informs him that his recently deceased grandfather was on an FBI list of suspected Russian spies working in Iceland during the Cold War. Back home, Kalmann begins to suspect that his grandfather’s death from “heart failure” was a murder. His maverick investigation uncovers another assassination and takes him to the site of a US radar station abandoned in the 1970s. So, there are now two deaths to be solved and the threat of more to come. Much to do for our unlikely amateur detective who somehow never loses heart. Kalmann and the Sleeping Mountain is by Joachim B Schmidt.

Forthcoming books from Bitter Lemon Press.

 January 2023

Trouble is by Katja Ivar. Helsinki, June 1953, at the heart of the Cold War. Hella, now a reluctant private investigator, has been asked by her former boss at the Helsinki murder squad to do a background check on a member of the Finnish secret services. Not the type of job Hella was hoping for, but she accepts it on the condition that she is given access to the files concerning the roadside death of her father in 1942, at a time when Finland joined forces with Nazi Germany in its attack against the Soviet Union. German troops were sent to Finland, the Gestapo arrived in Helsinki and German influence on local government was strong, including demands for the deportation of local Jews. Colonel Mauzer, his wife and other family members were killed by a truck in a hit and run incident. An accident, file closed, they said. But not for Hella, whose unwelcome investigation leads to some who would prefer to see her stopped dead in her tracks.

February 2023

The attempted robbery of the armoured car in the back streets of Montevideo is a miserable failure. A lucky break for the intrepid Ursula Lopez who manages to snatch all the loot, more hindered than helped by her faint-hearted and reluctant companion Diego. Only now, the wannabe robbers are hot on her heels. As is the police. And Ursula's sister. But Ursula turns out to be enormously talented when it comes to criminal undertakings, and given the hilarious ineptitude of those in pursuit, she might just pull it off. She is an irresistible heroine. A murderess with a sense of humour, a lovable criminal with an edge and she is practically invisible to the men who dominate the deeply macho society of Uruguay. That Hand that Feeds You is by Mercedes Rosende.

March 2023

The Translator is by Harriet Crawley. Moscow 2017. Clive Franklin, a Russian language expert in the Foreign Office, is summoned unexpectedly to Moscow to act as translator for the British Prime Minister. His life is turned on its head when, after more than a decade, he discovers that his former lover, Marina Volina, is now the interpreter to the Russian President. At the embassy, Clive learns of a pending Russian assault on undersea cables linking the US to the UK which would paralyse communications and collapse the Western economy. Marina stuns Clive with the news that she's ready to help the UK to stop the attack, betraying her country for a new identity and a new life. Clive understands that it's a race against time. He becomes the go-between, relaying Marina's intelligence to MI6. He joins Marina as she trains for the Moscow marathon, an excuse to be together and an opportunity to exchange information. What are the odds that two translators, running the Moscow marathon with the FSB on their backs, can save the UK and much of Western Europe from economic meltdown?

May 2023

The Man in the Corduroy Suit is by James Wolff. British spy Leonard Flood is asked to investigate the poisoning in London of Willa Karlsson, a retired British secret service vetting officer suspected of being a Russian agent. British intelligence is terrified by the possibility that Moscow poisoned her upon her retirement since she was no longer useful to them. When Leonard discovers that he is also a suspect in the investigation and that Willa's story is less a story of betrayal than one of friendship, he must decide whether to hand her to her masters or to help her to escape.

June 2023

For Inspector Hunkeler the New Year begins with a most unwelcome phone call. He is summoned back to Basel from his holiday to unravel a gruesome killing in a gardening allotment on the city's outskirts. An old man known as Anton Fluckiger has been shot in the head and found hanging from a butcher's hook from the roof of his garden shed - like butchers hang the carcasses of dead animals. Hunkeler must deal not only with the quarrelsome tenants of the allotment but with the challenges of investigating a murder that has taken place outside his jurisdiction, across the French border in Alsace. The clues lead to the Emmental in Berne, and then events from the last weeks of the Second World War in Alsace come to light, the wounds of which have never healed in the region. The Murder of Anton Livius is by Hansjörg Schneider.

Books to Look Forward to From Bitter Lemon Press

 

January 2022

An elegant young Lebanese man carrying diamonds in his bag is on the train from Frankfurt to Basel, a drug mule on the return journey. At the Basel train station, Hunkeler is waiting for him after a tipoff from the German police. The courier manages to get to the station toilet and flushes the stones away. Erdogan, a young Turkish sewage worker, finds the diamonds in the pipes under the station. To him they mean wealth and the small hotel he always wanted to buy near his family village. To his older Swiss girl-friend Erika, employed at a supermarket checkout counter, the stones signify the end of their life together. She knows that Erdogan has a wife and children in Turkey. For the courier, finding the stones is a matter of life and death. His employers are on their way to "tidy things up". For Hunkeler the stones are the only way to get to the people behind the drug trade. They turn out to include not only the bottom-feeding drug gangs but bankers and politicians very high up the Basel food chain. Silver Pebbles is by Hansjörg Schneider.

March 2022

Brunet has followed on from the success of "The Summer of Reckoning" with this magnificent portrait of a woman and a mother, a beautiful and often poetic tale that is unflinching about social and personal violence. Set in Marseilles, this the story of Vanda, a beautiful woman in her thirties, arms covered in tats, dark luxuriant hair in heavy curls, skin so dark that some take her for a North African. Devoted to her six-year-old son Noe, they live in a derelict shed by the beach, a mother surrounding and defending her child like a lioness. She had wanted to be an artist; she is now a cleaner in a psychiatric hospital. But Vanda is quite happy in her shed by the water, alone with her child. "The two of them against the world", as she says. Everything changes when Simon, the father of her son, surfaces in Marseilles. He had left Vanda seven years earlier, not knowing that she was pregnant. When Simon demands custody of his son, Vanda's suppressed rage threatens to explode. The tension becomes unbearable, both parents fully capable of extreme violence. Vanda is by Marion Brunet.

May 2021

Kalmann is by Joachim B Schmidt. He is the self-appointed sheriff of Raufarho fn, a sleepy town in northern Iceland, and has everything under control. There's no need to worry. Day by day, he treks the wide plains which surround the almost deserted village, hunts Arctic foxes and lays shark bait in the sea - to process the fish into the Icelandic fermented delicacy, ha karl. But inside Kalmann's head, the wheels sometimes spin backwards. One winter, after he discovers a pool of human blood in the snow, the swiftly unfolding events threaten to overwhelm him. But with his naive wisdom and pure-hearted courage, he makes sure everything takes a turn for the better. There's no need to worry. "It can get pretty dark under a polar bear." Kalmann.

June 2022

Set in a Tokyo flat over the course of one night, Aki and Hiro spend one last night together before going their separate ways. Each believes the other to be a murderer and is determined to extract a confession before the night is over. Who has been killed and why? Which one is the killer? In an intense battle of wills over the course of a night, the true nature of the pair's relationship and the chain of events leading up to this night are gradually revealed. Fish Swimming in Dappled Sunlight is by Riku Onda.

August 2022

There are No Happy Loves is by Sergio Olguin. The third in the crime trilogy featuring fearless Buenos Aires journalist Veronica Rosenthal.

The Transparency of Time by Leonardo Padura (review)

The Transparency of Time by Leonardo Padura

Translated by: Anna Kushner

Publisher: Bitter Lemon Press

Format: Paperback: 10th June 2021, £12.99

Format: Hardcover: 15th June 2021, £21.30

Format: eBook available to download now, £6.64

Reviewed by: Russell James 

At first glance this is just another, the latest, in the Inspector Conde series. 

You may remember moody, introspective Cuban cop Mario Conde from the ‘Havana’ series (Havana Gold, Blue, Black, Red and Havana Fever) but here he is involuntarily retired from the service, fat, unfit and sixty years of age (sixty going on seventy, I’d say) hired by an old school friend who has reinvented himself as a flamboyantly gay art dealer, sending Conde on what appears a Maltese Falcon mission to find an ancient artefact stolen from him by his young lover. The artefact, a black Madonna, is very old and, as becomes clear, very expensive. The unusual feature of this tale is that Conde’s trawl through Havana’s lowlife is interspersed with episodes from the past, each a century or two earlier than the last, and each apparently revealing the reason the Madonna is almost unique.

Some readers will find these episodes too long, too full of historical detail, and not directly linked to the tale in hand. Other readers will say that these historic, perhaps mythic, episodes are what raise this crime novel out of the mire of Cuban poverty into the richer light above.

About the Author

Leonardo Padura was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1955. A novelist, journalist, and critic, he is the author of several novels, two volumes of short stories, and several nonfiction collections. His novels featuring the detective Mario Conde have been translated into many languages and have won literary prizes around the world. The Man Who Loved Dogs was a finalist for the Book of the Year Award in Spain. Padura lives in Havana.

About the Translator

Anna Kushner was born in Philadelphia and first traveled to Cuba in 1999. She has translated the novels of Guillermo Rosales, Norberto Fuentes, Gonçalo M. Tavares, and Leonardo Padura. 

About: Russell James

Russell James is an established British writer and critic and was Chairman of the Crime Writers’ Association during 2001 - 2002.  Initially making his name as a crime writer, his hard-hitting, low-life thrillers were usually set in south east London and, unusually, they featured no detectives; when the police did appear it was on the sidelines. All his crime books were well reviewed and most are now available as ebooks.

But that’s not all.

To Read More – Click Here

Gianrico Carofiglio in conversation with Sheldon Zenner

 

Gianrico Carofiglio in conversation with Sheldon Zenner, a former federal prosecutor and a defense attorney in the United States. They will discuss Carofiglio's new novel as well as his career path from anti-Mafia prosecutor to full-time writer.

Join them for a stimulating and lively conversation as they cross the globe – Gianrico Carofiglio will join us from Italy and Sheldon Zenner from Chicago – to discuss The Measure of Time, Carofiglio's inspiration and writing life, and an inside look at the intricacies of the Italian justice system from two brilliant legal minds.

it’s going to be hosted virtually in NYC but UK residents can watch it here in the UK from 6pm onwards on 6th May. It’s being co-hosted by the Italia Cultural Institutes on both sides of the pond.

The event is free by registration is required through this link.

The Measure of Time, translated by Howard Curtis, is the latest book in Carfofiglio's Guido Guerrieri crime series (just published in spring 2021 by Bitter Lemon Press).

One spring afternoon, defence attorney Guerrieri is confronted with an unexpected spectre from his past. In her youth, Lorenza had been a beautiful and unpredictable girl with dazzling charm. A changed woman faces him in his office that day. The ensuing years have ravaged her appearance and embittered her mind. As if that weren't enough, her son Jacopo, a small-time delinquent, stands convicted of the first-degree murder of a local drug dealer. Her trial lawyer has died, so, for the appeal, she turns to Guerrieri as her last hope. Guido is not convinced of the innocence of Lorenza's son, nor does he have fond memories of the way their relationship ended two decades earlier. Nevertheless, he accepts the case; perhaps to pay a melancholy homage to the ghosts of his youth. His old friend Carmelo Tancredi, a retired police inspector, and his girlfriend, the charming investigator Annapaola Doria are once again by his side. A masterful, compassionate novel, striking a balance between a straightforward trial story -some say the purest distillation of human experience - and the sad notes of time as it passes and exhausts itself.

Books to Look Forward to from Bitter Lemon Press

 January 2021

The story is set in Uruguay, it starts in a Montevideo prison where Diego waits for his lawyer, the slick Dr Antinucci, always raybanned, chain-smoking, never frisked by the prison guards. Diego, betrayed by his partner in crime, was arrested for kidnapping a businessman. But charges will not be pressed. The businessman and his wife have described Diego as duped by his partner, certainly no master criminal, so he will be let out. But Antonucci has plans for him, a favour must be returned for his surprising freedom, he must join forces with the psychopath El Roto and hold up an armoured truck in Montevideo. The mad and hilarious caper includes the robbery of course which degenerates into appalling violence, a few murders, and the general bungling of affairs by all the men involved. It is the belittled women, including Police Inspector Lima, who end up the true heroines of the story. This seemingly classic lowlife crime story has a powerful message: never, ever underestimate the women. All told with excoriating wit and humour from the Rio de la Plata. Crocodile Tears is by Mercedes Rosende.

February 2021

The Foreign Girls is by Sergio Olguin. Veronica Rosenthal has retreated to a cousin's remote cottage in the province of Tucuman, to recuperate from the traumatic events in The Fragility of Bodies. She befriends two female tourists -an Italian and a Norwegian-- invites them to stay and starts a sexual relationship with one of them. After a party they attend together, Veronica travels on alone but days later discovers that the women have been murdered. Suspicion falls on a local Umbanda priest, but Veronica starts to uncover a web of corruption, abuse and femicide in which government, wealthy landowners and a high-ranking official from the Argentina's 'Dirty War' are all implicated. Veronica's investigation, with its unforeseen political dimensions, has alarmed new enemies who will try to stop her at all cost.

March 2021

The Measure of Time is by Gianrico Carofiglio. One spring afternoon, defence attorney Guerrieri is confronted with an unexpected spectre from his past. In her youth, Lorenza had been a beautiful and unpredictable girl with dazzling charm. A changed woman faces him in his office that day. The ensuing years have ravaged her appearance and embittered her mind. As if that weren't enough, her son Jacopo, a small-time delinquent, stands convicted of the first-degree murder of a local drug dealer. Her trial lawyer has died, so, for the appeal, she turns to Guerrieri as her last hope. Guido is not convinced of the innocence of Lorenza's son, nor does he have fond memories of the way their relationship ended two decades earlier. Nevertheless, he accepts the case; perhaps to pay a melancholy homage to the ghosts of his youth. His old friend Carmelo Tancredi, a retired police inspector, and his girlfriend, the charming investigator Annapaola Doria are once again by his side. A masterful, compassionate novel, striking a balance between a straightforward trial story -some say the purest distillation of human experience - and the sad notes of time as it passes and exhausts itself.

April 2021

Things are looking bad for disgraced spy August Drummond. In emotional free fall after the death of his wife, fired for a series of unprecedented security breaches... and now his neighbor on the flight to Istanbul won't stop talking. The only thing keeping him sane is the hunch that there's something not quite right about the nervous young man several rows ahead - a hunch that is confirmed when August watches him throw away directions to an old European cemetery seconds before being detained by Turkish police. A reckless August decides to go to the cemetery, where he meets a mysterious figure from the dark heart of the Islamic State and quickly finds himself drawn into a shadowy plot to murder an Iranian scientist in Istanbul. But nothing is what it seems, and before long August realises he has gone too far to turn back. As he struggles to break free from the clutches of Islamic State and play off British intelligence against their Turkish counterparts, he will find his resourcefulness, ingenuity and courage tested to the very limit of what he can endure. How To Betray Your Country by James Wolff. 

June 2021

The Transparency of Time' by Leonardo Padura sees the Cuban investigator pursuing a mystery spanning centuries of occult history. Mario Conde is facing down his sixtieth birthday. What does he have to show for his decades on the planet? A failing body, a slower mind, and a decrepit country, in which both the ideals and failures of the Cuban Revolution are being swept away in favour of a new and newly cosmopolitan worship of money. Rescue comes in the form of a new case: an old Marxist turned flamboyant practitioner of Santeria appears on the scene to engage Conde to track down a stolen statue of the Virgen de Regla-a black Madonna. This sets Conde on a quest that spans twenty-first century Havana as well as the distant past, as he delves as far back as the Crusades in an attempt to uncover the true provenance of the statue. Through vignettes from the life of a Catalan peasant named Antoni Barral, who appears throughout history in different guises-as a shepherd during the Spanish Civil War, as vassal to a feudal lord-we trace the Madonna to present-day Cuba. With Barral serving as Conde's alter ego, unstuck in time, and Conde serving as the author's, we are treated to a panorama of history, and reminded of the impossibility of ever remaining on its sidelines, no matter how obscure we may think our places in the action.

July 2021

It is the end of October, the city of Basel is grey and wet. It could be December. It is just after midnight when Police Inspector Peter Hunkeler, on his way home and slightly worse for wear, spots old man Hardy sitting on a bench under a street light. He wants to smoke a cigarette with him, but the usually very loquacious Hardy is silent-his throat a gaping wound. Turns out he was first strangled and his left earlobe slit, the diamond stud he usually wore there missing. The media and the police come quickly to the same conclusion: Hardy's murder was the work of a gang of Albanian drug smugglers. But for Hunkeler that seems too obvious a resolution. After all, Barabara Amsler, a prostitute, was also recently found strangled, her ear slit. He follows his own intuition and methods which lead him deep into a seedy world of bars and night clubs. More ominously, he soon must face the consequences of certain events in recent Swiss history that those in power would prefer to keep far from the public eye. The Basel Killings is by Hansjörg Schneider.

Baghdad Central Channel 4 Series starts Feb 3

The Channel 4 Series based on Baghdad Central by Elliott Colla Starts Monday February 3 at 10pm. 

Watch the trailer below.

The TV series Baghdad Central starts in the UK next Monday, 3rd Feb at 10 pm on Channel 4, airing weekly. You can also stream the entire box set immediately after on All 4.  It will be on HULU in the US later this spring.

Watch the TRAILER, then binge the series or read the book. All good decisions.

The TV series is based on Elliott Colla's novel set in October 2003 in Baghdad. The occupation forces have disbanded the army and there is no police on the streets of Iraq. Inspector Muhsin al-Khafaji is a mid-level Iraqi cop who deserted his post back in April. Captured by the Americans and imprisoned in Abu Ghraib, Khafaji is offered one way out, helping the authorities rebuild the Iraqi Police Services. But it's only after US forces take his daughter Mrouj that he figures out a way to make his surrender palatable, and even rewarding. Soon, he is investigating the disappearance of young translators working for the US Army.

The international cast is led by Altered Carbon star Waleed Zuaiter, who plays Khafaji, and Homeland’s July Namir who plays the role of Mrouj, his daughter. The cast also features a double Olivier Award winner in Bertie Carvel (Dr Foster, Jonathan Strange and Dr Norrell) who plays Frank Temple. Also featuring in a variety of roles are Clara Khoury (Homeland), Leem Lubany (Condor), Neil Maskell (Utopia) and Golden Globe-nominated Corey Stoll (House of Cards). More information.

Books to Look Forward to from Bitter Lemon Press

January 2020

On a stormy summer day the Aosawas, owners of a prominent local hospital, host a large birthday party. The occasion turns into tragedy when 17 people die from cyanide in their drinks. The only surviving links to what might have happened are a cryptic verse that could be the killer's, and the physician's bewitching blind daughter, Hisako, the only person spared injury. But the youth who emerges as the prime suspect commits suicide that October, effectively sealing his guilt while consigning his motives to mystery. The police are convinced that Hisako had a role in the crime, as are many in the town, including the author of a bestselling book about the murders written a decade after the incident, who was herself a childhood friend of Hisako' and witness to the discovery of the murders. The truth is revealed through a skilful juggling of testimony by different voices: family members, witnesses and neighbours, police investigators and of course the mesmerizing Hisako herself.  The Aosawa Murders is by Riku Onda. 

March 2020

The story takes place in the suffocating atmosphere of a social housing estate in the south of France. Sixteen-year-old Celine and her sister Jo, fifteen, dream of escaping to somewhere far from their daily routine, far from their surly, alcoholic father and uncaring mother, both struggling to make ends meet. That summer Celine falls pregnant, devastating news that reopens deep family wounds. Those of the mother Severine whose adolescence was destroyed by her early pregnancy and subsequent marriage with Manuel. Those of Manuel, grandson of Spanish immigrants, who takes refuge in alcoholism to escape the open disdain of his in-laws. Faced with Celine's refusal to name the father, Manuel needs a guilty party and Said, a childhood friend of the girls and conveniently Arab, seems to fit the role perfectly. In the suffocating heat of summer Manuel embarks on a drunken mission of revenge. A dark and upsetting account of an ailing society, filled with silent and murderous rage.  The Summer of Reckoning is by  Marion Brunet

June 2020

Deep as Death is by Katja Ivar.  Helsinki, March 1953. An unusually long and cold winter, everywhere frozen sea, ice-covered lakes and rivers. In a port city flooded with refugees, who cares if a young woman goes missing? An up-and-coming inspector who views this as an opportunity to advance his career. A heartbroken PI with a score to settle. They have yet to discover one thing: the most dangerous lies are those we tell ourselves. It all begins when Nellie, a prostitute working in a high-end brothel is found floating upside down in Helsinki Harbour. Not exactly a high priority case for the Helsinki police, so homicide chief Jokela passes the job to his former colleague Hella. It's beginning to look like a serial killer is at work when Elena, another lady of the night, narrowly escapes being driven into the harbour by her 19-year-old john. Problem was he had handcuffed her in the car. And to add further excitement to Hella's life, the madam is soon found dead in the garden outside the brothel.

July 2020

The Night of The Shooting Stars is by Ben Pastor.  It is just the beginning of a convulsed week, where danger lurks behind army headquarters, down sordid streets, and in the frightening Presidium of the Criminal Police. Bora is unexpectedly ordered by SS General Arthur Nebe, head of Kripo, to investigate the murder of a dazzling showman and clairvoyant, a major star since the days of the Weimar Republic. Bora's inquiry, supported by police inspector and former S.A member Florian Grimm, resurrects memories of the excessive and brilliant world of Jazz Age cabarets and locales. Around them, in the oppressive summer heat, constant allied bombing, war-weary Berlin teems with refugees and nearly a million foreign labourers. Soon enough the perceptive Bora realizes to his dismay that there is much more at stake than murder in a paranoid city where everyone suspects everyone, and where insistent rumours whisper about a conspiracy aimed at the very heart of the Nazi hierarchy. And then there is charming Emmy Pletsch, who works for Stauffenberg: could she be a key to understanding? Trying to solve the murder of the Weimar Prophet takes Martin Bora into the deadly whirlwind of an anguishing moral dilemma, as a German soldier and as a man. The 20 July plot and its dramatic implications as never told before.

BOOK REVIEW: THE COLD SUMMER, by Gianrico Carofiglio

THE COLD SUMMER

by Gianrico Carofiglio

Bitter Lemon Press, £8.99 , Sept 13th 2018

Reviewer: Michael Jecks

This is not the first book I have read by Gianrico Carofiglio. Some years ago I picked up another of his novels, intrigued by the promise of a story deeply informed by the writer’s experiences.

Why? Because Gianrico Carofiglio is no ordinary crime writer. He is a man who spent most of his working life as a prosecutor specializing in organised crime. In 2007 he was appointed as advisor to the Italian government’s anti-Mafia committee, and the following year he became a Senator.

So not a run-of-the-mill writer, then. And when you read his books, you can feel the depth of his knowledge, but also the deep humanity of the writer.

This story takes the reader back to the 1990s when there was a spate of chilling attacks on the justice system in Italy. Giovanni Falcone, his wife and several police officers were murdered by a massive bomb; a couple of months later, Paolo Borsellino and five more police were killed when a car bomb was set off as they passed. Falcone and Borsellino were enthusiastic anti-Mafia prosecutors, and posed a significant threat to the Sicilian families. The public outcry at these two atrocities was immediate - and the crackdown in their aftermath effective. Those responsible were identified, arrested, prosecuted, and convicted.

However, the Mafia violence was not unique to Sicily. There were gang wars between other Mafia gangs up and down Italy. This book takes the reader to Apulia, where the fighting was as brutal as anywhere.

I began reading this book immediately after reading a very different story indeed, and I read the first page with a real sense of gratitude. Whereas the previous book had been more of a character study set in a vaguely criminal environment, there were many aspect that I could simply not come to terms with. Within three pages of THE COLD SUMMER I felt I had been wrapped in a comfort blanket. This was a crime book written by a man who knew his subject and how to plot a story. I knew who the main character was, I was fully convinced by the way he was depicted, and I was very content with his behaviour. It’s an excellent beginning to a crime story - I recommend it.

To summarise: Pietro Fenoglio is a local officer in the Carabinieri. He has recently been left by his wife, and is trying to come to terms with his new status as a single man, while hoping she will return to him. But there is a brutal turf war being fought in the area around Bari, and he is soon thrown into the midst of the fighting as a Mafia boss’s son is kidnapped.

The thought of an ordinary criminal risking his life by kidnapping a Mafiosi’s son is hard to accept. This must be a symptom of the gang war. Surely only a suicidal gangster would try to take on one of the most senior Mafiosi in the area? Rumours abound, and Fenoglio begins to have an idea who is responsible.

But then the man suspected of the kidnapping surrenders himself. The boy is found dead, but the suspect denies killing him. The police are forced into an investigation in which those investigating are forced to look at their own attitudes and behaviours. In a morally confusing world, the police have to look at their own motives, their own actions.

The story is split into three “Acts”. The first is the setup of the story, the kidnap, the search for the killer; second comes a part in which we are brought into the interrogation of the suspect, with the interview transcripts interspersed with the continuing story; finally the story returns to a straightforward linear path, hurtling towards the resolution.

This is not like a Michael Connelly, or Harlan Coben. There are not the sudden imaginative twists and turns that you expect from an American master; however, this story is convincing at a much deeper level. It feels less like a story constructed by an author, and more like an autobiographical narration, a man speaking of his memories of a time in the recent past, speaking about his own experiences of such investigations, and who has had to confront his own demons in the battle against organised crime. Carofiglio doesn’t resort to devious plot twists to establish his characters and storyline - he doesn’t need to. His knowledge of his subject is deep enough to imbue his writing with conviction.

I would highly recommend this book.

Books to Look Forward to from Bitter Lemon Press

January 2017

Athenian Blues is by Pol Koutsakis.  Stratos hates being called a hitman. A conscientious fixer is what he is. He fixes problems that very few can deal with. Things that people are willing to pay handsomely to get done, without wanting to know about the small stuff. Stratos is their man, provided that his meticulous research shows him that the targets deserve their fate.   But now, in the midst of the Greek economic and political crisis, this film-noir loving assassin takes on the highest-profile case of his career. He finds himself caught between the most beloved lawyer in Greece, known as “the guardian of the poor”, and his actress wife, the most desirable woman in the country. They are both in dire need of his killing services, but which one is telling the truth? Helped by three childhood friends, Costas Dragas, a homicide cop, Teri, a transsexual high-class hooker and Maria, the passion of his life, he discovers that truth, in shattered loves and broken families, is, as ever, a relative thing.

March 2017

 

The Road to Ithaca is the fifth in the Martin Bora WWII mystery series by Ben Pastor. In May 1941,Wehrmacht officer Bora is sent to Crete, recently occupied by the German army, and must investigate the brutal murder of a Red Cross representative befriended by SS-Chief Himmler. All the clues lead to a platoon of trigger-happy German paratroopers but is this the truth?   Bora takes to the mountains of Crete to solve the case, navigating his way between local bandits and foreign resistance fighters. With echoes of Claus von Stauffenberg, Bora is torn between his duty as an officer and his integrity as a human being.

April 2017

Heretics is by Leonardo Padura.  Inspector Mario Conde is back in a sweeping novel of art theft, anti-semitism and family tragedy.  From Cuba during WWII to 17th Century Amsterdam and back to Havana today.  In 1939, the Saint Louis sails from Hamburg into Havana’s port with hundreds of Jewish refugees seeking asylum from the Nazi regime. From the docks, nine-year-old Daniel Kaminsky watches as the passengers, including his parents, become embroiled in a fiasco of Cuban corruption. But the Kaminskys have a treasure that they hope will save them: a Rembrandt portrait of Christ. Yet six days later the vessel is forced to leave the harbour with the family, bound for the horrors of Europe. The Kaminskys, along with their priceless heirloom, disappear.  Nearly seven decades later, the Rembrandt reappears in an auction house in London, prompting Daniel’s son to travel to Cuba to track down the story of the lost masterpiece. He hires Mario Conde, and together they navigate a web of deception and violence in the morally complex city of Havana.

May 2017

A darkly humorous, literary and psychological mystery set in a Boston still suffering from

the consequences of the financial crisis. Written with the pace and controlled violence of the best of Tarantino’s films, it is the story of Franck, a private detective from NY, a cokehead and a dandy, who , in a race against time and the local sheriff, investigates two brutal murders committed by what could be the same psychopath.   Breaking with many conventions of the genre, the novel holds a satirical mirror to our society by entering the minds of two men at the edge of sanity. Sheriff McCarthy, a church-going family man, is desperately trying to keep some sort of boundary between the sordidness of his investigations and his private life. He is also a man trying to keep faith in human nature and the order that should prevail in the world. But Franck, willing to kill for the sake of a good pun, dominates the story. He is a disturbing, violent, totally decadent character, always over dressed, an actor with too much make-up, a man always rushing to the bathroom for another line of coke, revealing the darker workings of the case with a blood curdling laugh.  Tree Drops of Blood and a cloud of Cocaine is by Quentin Mouron.