Dolken från Tunis
(The Murder of Roger Ackroyd)
Agatha Christie
234 p.

For Decades ‘08.

B. Wahlström, 2002.
(first published 1926.)

Back cover blurb:

Mannen satt som jag lämnat honom, i länstolen framför eldstaden. Hans huvud hade fallit åt sidan. På ryggen, strax under kavajkragen, syntes ett blankt föremål - en märklig dolk.

Dolken från Tunis av deckardrottningen Agatha Christie - en klassiker som trollbundit läsare över hela världen!

I’m not a big Agatha Christie fan, not because I dislike her writing, but because I haven’t read much of it. I have read The ABC Murders and now this one. The first I read because I had run out of books whilst on a boat, and this one I read because I was interested as to how Christie would handle the topic. I already knew who murdered Ackroyd, I just wondered how on Earth it could be written convincingly. Without spilling the beans, I was so amazed. It was so clever! Alright, I wish I didn’t know who was the killer. (That is why I am trying to convince someone who doesn’t know who the killer is to read it. I have been this far unsuccessful.)

To my great disappointment, I couldn’t find an English copy of this book. I lent it at the library, because I wasn’t so desperate that I would pay for it. (I usually am.) However, despite searching high and low, I couldn’t for anything find it in English. I went mad looking in the English section. Therefore, I had to settle with the Swedish translation. I dislike reading in translation, because I feel that it is very likely something’s been lost in the translation. Therefore I try not to. (which is why I read so much in English!) Though, I think, this translation was pretty decent. I mean, I never ever cringed. And that’s something.

The Necropolis Railway
Andrew Martin
231 p.

Faber & Faber, 2002

Back cover blurb:

When railwayman Jim Stringer moves to the garish and tawdry London of 1903, he finds his duties are confined to a mysterious graveyard line. Perplexingly, the men he works alongside have formed and instant loathing for him. And his predecessor has disappeared under suspicious circumstances. Can Jim work out what is going on before he too is travelling on a one-way coffin ticket aboard the Necropolis Railway?

Admittedly, I am not that good at crime literature. I have only read a handful of crime stories, despite having seen several dozens of TV-shows involving murder and the solving of thus. I have read one Christie and maybe a few other similar books. It is not a genre I am extremely well-acquainted with. So, that said, it is obvious I didn’t choose to read this book because of the murder itself. And I think that is good, because the murders are not very prominent. There are several murders, and they are discussed a bit, but I was never really that concentrated when it came to the murders themselves. I didn’t really care who’d dunnit, as you can say.

This book is set in the beginning of the 20th century, which is a period I find very interesting, and this book has really brought out the atmosphere of the time. When reading it, I could almost feel the grime and dirt from the London streets: it was captivating. The main character is likeable and was believable as well. I never went “you can’t figure that out like that!”, which is something I oft do when watching, say, Midsomer Murders (I do, however, have utmost faith in Tom Barnaby as well).  The language of the novel captivated and pulled me in. I can’t say that the plot was the best thing with this book, but it was presented in such a way that I was intrigued. The murder mystery is parallell with Jim’s growing attraction to his landlady. Of course, I got an impression that he was attracted to every other characer in this book, but then again, I am a pervert. Everything is rounded off with descriptions of trains, how trains work, how trains of move, how it is working with trains, &c. If I had understood what they wanted to say with these descriptions, I would be able to drive a train no problem. Unfortunately, I didn’t. But at least I know now that The Railway Magazine is sixpence a month.

Händelser vid vatten
Kerstin Ekman
467 p.

Bonnier Pocket, 2000
(first published 1993)

Back cover blurb:

I början av sjuttiotalet är Svartvattnet en tynande norrländsk by bland många andra. Då händer något. Ett dubbelmord långt ute i väglöst land.
Det går arton år innan någon börja ana sanningen om det som skett. Och då blir det lika farligt igen därute i myrlandet. Händelsen har blivit en mörk kraft med verkan in i många människors liv. Det är dessa människor Kerstin Ekmans roman handlar om, deras försök att rädda minne och sammanhang fast de bor i den skugga av glömska som ligger över landsbygdens byar och små samhällen.
Men i lika hög grad är det en roman om ett landskap. Människan har farit illa fram med det. När de stora skogsbolagen drar sig tillbaka är det alltid förändrat av hyggen, vägnät och grustäkter. Kvar är de namnlösa platserna i starrens rike, gungande våta tuvor och sorlande vatten under marken. Vattnet viskar och jämrar, isande klart eller sugande svart. I sommarens bleka nattljus tycks händelser och platser sväva och vandra, lika svårgripbara och tvetydiga som människors minnen och handlingar.

If I had been given a free choice, I would not have read this book. The back cover blurb shows what an incredibly pretentious book this is. It has its good sides, of course, but I can’t say I really enjoyed it. Its language was hopelessly complex, seemingly only because it can be complicated. It belongs to a kind of books I dislike: the pretentious, self-content kind. These books give out philosophical questions as often as they describe how an older woman rapes a sixteen-year-old boy. There is a lot of sex in this book, and it is seldom I have read any sex-scene I have been so disgusted with. Ekman’s language may be beautiful, but it is too coarse and chopped to please me. Sometimes it is difficult to discern what it is about, all due to the language.

In fact, it is difficult to know what happens, full stop. Ekman claims the story is about a murder, but the murder is ignored for fifty pages atime, and when it is discussed, it is far from satisfactory. The characters are sometimes lost, sometimes found. Towards the end of the novel, some of the characters I would have thought were main characters are completely forgotten and we don’t get to know what happens to them, or why this happens. One of the characters, a man called Dan, is in the second half of the book constantly referred to as a bastard who did something horrible, but when it comes down to it, we never get to know what it is he has done. And seeing as he is one of the most important characters of the first half of the book, I think Ekman owes us an explanation.

At places, this book is lovely and it is a joy to read, but for the most of the time, it’s a drudge to read. If I hadn’t read it for school, I might even have put it down. If I hadn’t chosen this book (before I realised what kind of a book it was) for an extremely important individual oral presentation, I would have skimmed the pages instead of paying attention. That way, I wouyld have gotten rid of the misery quicker. Now, I didn’t, and now I know too much.