This is the first in the series of Inspector O mysteries. Inspector O is a North Korean detective who knows as little as the reader about the case he is trying to solve. The author leads the detective as well as the reader from one incomprehensible scenario to another until loose strings are tied together in the final chapter. North Korean politics and bureaucratic intrigue are the driving, but largely unknown, dynamics of the story.  I’m reserving judgment about Inspector O until I try another in the series.

Colin Cotterill

This is a delightful series of books (only the last in the series is missing) that can only loosely be called crime fiction because they are much more. Dr. Siri Paiboun, the main character, is the reluctant national coroner of Laos, a position to which he is appointed at the age of 72. As the country’s only coroner he discovers irregularities among his morgue’s “guests” that need explanation. Herein lies the crime motif for the novels. But in addition to weaving crime stories and their resolution, Colin Cotterill, through the character of Dr. Siri, takes us on a cultural tour that involves Laotian customs, political satire, and descriptions of locales that place the reader at the scene. Or, at least, so it seems. Strong character development, especially among the likable characters, carries the narrative even as the story lines  sometimes run a bit thin. In the end, the reader cares about these characters and wishes them well. I have never been to Laos, but if the people there are anything like the characters in this series, I would like to go.

Kjell Eriksson

Eriksson writes engaging Nordic crime fiction.  Strictly speaking, he doesn’t write crime noir, but rather police procedurals. The Nordic setting gives the books a noir feel because there is lots of snow, it is really cold, and it’s dark much of the time. Strong points in Eriksson’s style are the development of sub plots and attention to the back stories of characters. Compared to The Cruel Stars of the Night, The Princess of Burundi, is a disappointment. The Cruel Stars of the Night has a more intriguing plot and moves at a faster pace.

Keigo Higashino, Salvation of a Saint

Åsa Larsson

 Åsa Larsson  writes intelligent crime fiction involving lots of characters and complex plots. Part of a series, these two novels present two female protagonists, Rebecka Martinsson, a lawyer, and Anna Maria Mella, a police detective. There are a host of other characters who step in and out of the stories, each eventually playing a role, albeit minor ones, in the final resolution of the plots.

Jo Nesbø, The Snowman 

 Arnaldur Indriðason, Jar City 

Tim Dorsey

Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

Nonfiction 

Natural Science 

Lawrence Krauss, A Universe from Nothing: Why There is Something Rather than Nothing

 In this work physicist Lawrence Krauss advances the thesis that everything that is can indeed emerge from nothing. And thus, he removes a major, if not the major, argument in favor of the necessity of a creator. If everything that exists can emerge from nothingness, then the need for God no longer exists. The details of Krauss’ argument are complex and involve discoveries of quantum physics in which subatomic particles have been observed to wink in and out of existence. I don’t pretend to pass judgment on Krauss’ arguments from physics, but I suspect that he has subtly, but undeniably, changed the definition of “nothing” with his arguments.

Lisa Randall, Knocking on Heaven’s Door: How Physics and Scientific Thinking Illuminate the Universe and the Modern World

 In this work Lisa Randall develops two major themes. The first is to advance the thesis that scientific method is necessary to achieve genuine knowledge about the facts of the world. She suggests and science and religion can coexist if religion will keep to its proper domain. The second theme is to explain recent developments in physics and cosmology. This work is exceptionally well-written. Her writing is marked by good organization and clarity. I have now read several accounts of the Large Hadron Collider and it quest for the Higgs boson. In my experience, Randall’s is the best.

Charles Murray, Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010 

Charles Murray, a political scientist, is a controversial author. You may remember that he is the co-author of The Bell Curve (1994), a book that made him a pariah among liberal academics. In this 2012 work, he argues that the white cognitive elite and the white working class are getting further and further apart as the latter are increasingly less able to participate in the economic and political life of the United States. Murray attributes the increasing separation largely to a cultural divide that has occurred as the traditional virtues of family, hard work, and religion have eroded among the poorest of the working class. Note that Murray is describing the situation among white people. He purposefully leaves out minorities in order to eliminate the problems of analysis introduced with the inclusion of racial minorities. Although politically incorrect in a number of ways, this is an important book that deserves discussion.

Simon Winchester