Saturday 24 January 2015

The City of Blood- Review & Giveaway

My Thoughts 

Art is subjective. While there are some art that maybe loved universally, there are many that are loved by some and are controversial and questionable to others. When Artists yearn for immortality and being displayed in Galleries is never going to be enough. Once they reach the heights of fame in their artistic career, immortality through their art is something they court with. How to be remembered beyond your time? We bury time capsules for posterity. Why not bury an entire banquet in one of the important landmarks in Paris? That's what artist Samuel Cassian did in the eighties in the 'City of Blood', former slaughterhouse area in Paris in this instalment of Paris Homicide novels. Now decades later it is time to dig up the past and find out what remains of the banquet. And what did they dig up? Remains, alright but, remains of a dead person who seemed to be buried along with the banquet. Who was he/she? How did that person end up buried in this banquet? What is that person's connection to the Banquet? Samuel Cassian yearned for immortality and here is the kind of macabre immortality that people would remember for years. Well when you bury something in the City of Blood, you would expect to see some bones, wouldn't you? 

Nico Sirsky is in-charge of the case. Will he find the answers? Nico's mother is hospitalised and Nico makes a pact with himself, that his mother would survive the crisis if he find the truth about the remains in the buried banquet. Will he keep his end of the promise and his mother survive? 

The City of Blood is a short and interesting police procedural that could be read in a few hours. Like the earlier novel in the series 'Crossing the Line', this novel also has an interesting setting 'The city of blood', formerly abattoir of the City, and invokes the place with interesting information. 

 I do like my twists and turns and the final surprise that authors spring on us. While the police procedural is interesting, after a point finding the killer is straightforward, I was hoping there would be a final surprise. Having said that, Nico is an interesting character and I wouldn't mind getting further acquainted with him. Flesh and Bones in the City of Blood! 


Author Frédérique Molay

on Tour

January 15 – February 3

with

The City of Blood

[police procedural / thriller]

(translated by Jeffrey Zuckerman)

Release date: January 20, 2015
at Le French Book

212 pages

ISBN: 978-1939474186


Website | Goodreads

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SYNOPSIS

When a major Parisian modern art event gets unexpected attention on live TV, Chief of Police Nico Sirsky and his team of elite crime fighters rush to La Villette park and museum complex. There, renowned artist Samuel Cassian is inaugurating the first archeological dig of modern art, twenty-seven years after burying the leftovers of a banquet. In front of reporters from around the world, excavators uncover a skeleton. Could it be the artist’s own son? And does that death have anything to do with the current string of nightclub murders by the “Paris Butcher”? On the site of the French capital’s former slaughterhouses, the investigation takes Nico and France’s top criminal investigation division from artists’ studios to autopsy theaters and nightclubs in hopes of tracking down the murderer who has turned this Paris park into a city of blood. [provided by the publisher]

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Frederique MolayCalled, “the French Michael Connelly,” Frédérique Molay graduated from France’s prestigious Science Po and began her career in politics and the French administration. She worked as chief of staff for the deputy mayor of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, and then was elected to the local government in Saône-et-Loire. Meanwhile, she spent her nights pursing a passion for writing she had nourished since she wrote her first novel at the age of eleven. The first in the Paris Homicide series, The 7th Woman, won France’s most prestigious crime fiction award and went on to become an international bestseller, allowing Molay to dedicate her life to writing and raising her three children.

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ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR

Jeffrey Zuckerman was born in the Midwest and lives in New York. He has worked as an editorial assistant, a lifeguard, and a psychology researcher. Now an editor for Music and Literature Magazine, he also freelances for several companies, ranging from the pharmaceutical industry to old-fashioned book publishing. He holds a degree in English with honors from Yale University, where he studied English literature, creative writing, and translation.
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Click on Entry-Form to enter the giveaway:


Entry-Form

Visit each blogger on the tour:
tweeting about the giveaway everyday of the Tour
will give you 5 extra entries each time!
[just follow the directions on the entry-form]

International giveaway:
US residents: print or digital copy
Other residents: digital copy
8 winners

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Friday 2 January 2015

Color Coded Challenge 2014 Wrap up

Here are the books read for the Color coded challenge hosted by Bev @ Myreadersblock blog. 
1. A book with "Blue" or any shade of Blue in the title. -Tail of the Blue Bird by Nii Aykwei Parkes
2. A book with "Red" or any shade of Red  in the title. Nightmare in Burgundy by Jean-Pierre Alaux
3. A book with "Yellow" or any shade of Yellow in the title.  The Yellow turban by Charlotte Jay
4. A book with "Green" or any shade of Green in the title. The Greenland Breach by Bernard Besson
5. A book with "Brown" or any shade of Brown in the title. Encyclopaedia Brown, Boy Detective by Donold J Sobol
6. A book with "Black" or any shade of Black (Jet, Ebony, Charcoal, etc) in the title- The Black Mountain by Rex Stout
7. A book with "White" or any shade of White (Ivory, Eggshell, Cream, etc) in the title. The Ivory grin by Ross Macdonald
8. A book with any other color in the title (Purple, Orange, Silver, Pink, Magneta, etc.).The case of the Black-eyed blonde by Erle Stanley Gardner
9. A book with a word that implies color (Rainbow, Polka-dot, Plaid, Paisley, Stripe, etc.).-The Zebra-Striped Hearse by Ross Macdonald
Through the Glass, darkly by Helen McCloy

Thursday 1 January 2015

Vintage Mystery Bingo Challenge 2014 Wrap uo

Happy 2015! 

Here are the books read for the Vintage Mystery Bingo Challege. I Completed the Golden card and claim two bingos in the silver card. While i read so many I reviewed only one. Maybe 2015 will be a better year for blogging!  

Colour- The Black Mountain by Rex Stout
Anywhere except US or Uk-The Yellow turban by Charlotte Jay 
Crime other than murder- Dorothy Dixon solves the Conway case by Dorothy Wayne
Locked room- The moving toyshop by Edmund Crispin
Academic - Through the glass, darkly by Helen McCloy
entertainment- Vintage Murder by Ngaio Marsh 
More than one title- Death in Cyprus by M M Kaye 
Number- Death in five boxes by Carter Dickson
Free Space - The Case of the Deadly Toy by Erle Stanley Gardner 
New author- The blank wall by Elizabeth Sanxay Holding
Method of murder- The African poison murders by Elspeth Huxley
Women- Laura by Vera Caspary
Spooky - Beat not the bones by Charlotte Jay
Movie- The Lady Vanishes by Ethel Lina White
Amateur detective- Death in Zanzibar by M M Kaye 
Man- The Hollow man John Dickson Carr
Country house- No wind of blame by Georgette Heyer
Mode of transport- Strangers on a train by Patricia Highsmith
Author read before- The case of the Waylaid Wolf by Erle Stanley Gardner 
Courtroom-  The Case of black eyed blonde by Erle Stanley Gardner 
Fellow challenger- A shilling for candles by Josephine Tey
Professional- The Ivory grin by Ross Macdonald
Water- Singing in the shrouds by Ngaio Marsh 
Outside comfort- A Coffin of Dimitiros by Eric Ambler
Detective team- If death ever slept by Rex Stout
Time- The clock strikes twelve by Patricia Wentworth 
Short story Collection- The labour of Hercules by Agatha Christie
Translated- Maigret in Exile by Georges Simenon
England- The Beast must die by Nicholas Blake
Borrow- A kiss before dying by Ira Levin
Animal- The Chinese Parrot by Earl Derr Biggers
Place-  Death in the wrong room by Anthony Gilbert
Size- A dram of poison by Charlotte Armstrong 
Medical- Man Missing by Mignon G Eberhart
Pseudonym-The secret of the old clock by Carolyn Keene 
U.S- Beast in view by Margret Millar

Silver
Two Bingos 

Last Horizontal line and Four Corners Bingo
entertainment: Assignment in Andorra by May Mackintosh 
Women-The skull beneath her skin by P D James
Mode of transport-The Zebra-Striped Hearse by Ross Macdonald
Outside comfort- A Case of need by Jeffery Hudson
Borrow- Dekok and the Somber Nude by A C Baantjer
U.S- The James Joyce Murder by Amanda Cross

Colour- Encyclopaedia Brown, Boy Detective by Donald J Sobol
Animal in the title - Crocodile on the sandbank by Elizabeth Peters
Crime other than murder- Encyclopaedia Brown finds the Clue by Donald J Sobol
Short storycoll-Encyclopaedia Brown and the case of the secret Pitch by Donald J Sobol