before the frost: A Linda Wallander Mystery (2005 English translaation) by Henning Mankell

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In this latest atmospheric thriller, Kurt Wallander and his daughter Linda join forces to search for a religious fanatic on a murder spree. Just graduated from the police academy, Linda Wallander returns to Skåne to join the police force, and she already shows all the hallmarks of her father--the maverick approach, the flaring temper. Before she even starts work she becomes embroiled in the case of her childhood friend Anna, who has inexplicably disappeared. As the case her father is working on dovetails with her own, something far more dangerous than either could have imagined begins to emerge. They soon find themselves forced to confront a group of extremists bent on punishing the world's sinner

I can see in the dark (2011) by Karin Fossum

 

                                 KIRKUS REVIEW

Fossum gives Inspector Konrad Sejer (Eva’s Eye, 2013, etc.) a sabbatical so she can plumb the depths of a sociopathic nurse without a corrective moral counterpart.

Riktor has always known he’s different from everyone else. He can see in the dark. He’s given to bursts of irrational rage. And he doesn’t really care about people, not at all. Naturally, he’s taken a job as a geriatric nurse at the Løkka Nursing Home so he can make a difference in the lives of dying patients—for instance, by whispering invective to them, poking them in the eyes or switching their medications. When he’s left to watch a crippled child for a few moments, he effortlessly finds a way to torment her, and when he sees a cross-country skier plunge beneath the surface of an icy lake, he makes no move to help. It’s only a matter of time before Riktor graduates to murder, and once he does, the police are bound to find their way to his door. But the murder for which he’s arrested isn’t the one he committed. Indignant, he protests his innocence to Randers, the arresting officer, and Philip de Reuter, his court-appointed attorney. Wait till the trial, they both assure him. And as he waits, an improbable change steals over him. He’s unaccountably drawn to Margareth, the prison cook, and begins a new relationship with Ebba Neumann, the retired accountant whose endless crocheting always seemed the limit of her engagement with the world. By the time the trial finally arrives, he’s eager to tell his story. Fans of Fossum’s dark fiction will know better than to share his optimism.

Despite a conclusion as unsatisfying as it is inevitable, a chilling portrait of a dead-eyed devil whose self-excusing mantra is “If I only had a woman!”

My Lady Judge: A mystery of Medieval Ireland (2007) by Cora Harrison

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An excellent historical novel which outlines Brehon law.

Thank you Goodreads for the right up. First book.  There are more!

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My LadyIn the sixteenth century, as it is now, the Burren, on the western seaboard of Ireland, was a land of gray stone forts, fields of rich green grass, and swirling mountain terraces. It was also home to an independent kingdom that lived peacefully by the ancient Brehon laws of their forebears.

On the first eve of May, 1509, hundreds of people from the Burren climbed the In the sixteenth century, as it is now, the Burren, on the western seaboard of Ireland, was
a land of gray stone forts, fields of rich green grass, and swirling mountain terraces. It was also home to an independent kingdom that lived peacefully by the ancient Brehon laws of their forebears.

On the first eve of May, 1509, hundreds of people from the Burren climbed the gouged-out limestone terraces of Mullaghmore Mountain to celebrate the great May Day festival, lighting a bonfire and singing and dancing through the night, then returning through the gray dawn to the safety of their homes. But one man did not come back down the steeply spiralling path. His body lay exposed to the ravens and wolves on the bare, lonely mountain for two nights . . . and no one spoke of him, or told what they had seen.

And when Mara, a woman appointed by King Turlough Don O’Brien to be judge and lawgiver to the stony kingdom, came to investigate, she was met with a wall of silence .

The Boleyn inheritance (2006) by Philippa Grregory

Satellite people (2015) by Hans Olav Lahlum

Thanks to Goodreads.  K2 #1

 

    

 

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Preview — Satellite People by Hans Olav Lahlum

  

Oslo, 1969. When a wealthy man collapses and dies during a dinner party, Norwegian Police Inspector Kolbjørn Kristiansen, known as K2, is left shaken. For the victim, Magdalon Schelderup, a multimillionaire businessman and former resistance fighter, had contacted him only the day before, fearing for his life.

It soon becomes clear that every one of Schelderup's ten dinneOslo, 1969. When a wealthy man collapses and dies during a dinner party, Norwegian Police Inspector Kolbjørn Kristiansen, known as K2, is left shaken. For the victim, Magdalon Schelderup, a multimillionaire businessman and former resistance fighter, had contacted him only the day before, fearing for his life.

It soon becomes clear that every one of Schelderup's ten dinner guests is a suspect in the case. The businessman was disliked, even despised, by many of those close to him; and his recently revised Will may have set events in motion. But which of the guests - from his current and former wives and three children to his attractive secretary and old cohorts in the resistance - had the greatest motive for murder?

With the inestimable help of Patricia - a brilliant, acerbic young woman who lives an isolated life at home, in her wheelchair - K2 begins to untangle the lies and deceit within each of the guests' testimonies. But as the investigators receive one mysterious letter after another warning of further deaths, K2 realises he must race to uncover the killer. Before they strike again . . .

Summer Death ( ) by Mons Kallentoft

In this chilling crime novel starring the elusive, tough-as-nails Swedish police superintendent Malin Fors, a combustive summer turns deadly.

In the midst of the hottest summer anyone can recall, a sweltering heat wave and raging forest fires plague the small Swedish burg of Linköping. Things get especially hot for police superintendent Malin Fors when a teenage girl is found naked and bleeding in a city park, incapable of recollecting how she came to such a state. Then, the corpse of a teenage girl turns up on a lakeside beach. For Malin, the divorced, thirty-four-year-old mother of a teenage daughter, the case is more than an explosive nightmare in a season of fire—it’s personal.

Dark and brooding, with a protagonist that has earned Kallentoft’s novels a global readership, Summer Death is crime fiction at the cutting edge.

Thanks to Goodreads.

PS  Found his writing style uneven.

A thousand miles to freedom: my escape from North Korea (2015) by Eunsun Kim

    

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Preview — A Thousand Miles to Freedom by Eunsun Kim

   

    

Eunsun Kim was born in North Korea, one of the most secretive and oppressive countries in the modern world. As a child Eunsun loved her country…despite her school field trips to public executions, daily self-criticism sessions, and the increasing gnaw of hunger as the country-wide famine escalated.


By the time she was eleven years old, Eunsun's father and grandparentsEunsun Kim was born in North Korea, one of the most secretive and oppressive countries in the modern world. As a child Eunsun loved her country…despite her school field trips to public executions, daily self-criticism sessions, and the increasing gnaw of hunger as the country-wide famine escalated.


By the time she was eleven years old, Eunsun's father and grandparents had died of starvation, and Eunsun too was in danger of starving. Finally, her mother decided to escape North Korea with Eunsun and her sister, not knowing that they were embarking on a journey that would take them nine long years to complete. Before finally reaching South Korea and freedom, Eunsun and her family would live homeless, fall into the hands of Chinese human traffickers, survive a North Korean labor camp, and cross the deserts of Mongolia on foot.


Now, in A Thousand Miles to Freedom, Eunsun is sharing her remarkable story to give voice to the tens of millions of North Koreans still suffering in silence. Told with grace and courage, her memoir is a riveting exposé of North Korea's totalitarian regime and, ultimately, a testament to the strength and resilience of the human spirit