Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Guess What I'm Reading

I've just started a new book (in translation) and it struck me how the following action in the sentence below rarely appears in British crime fiction (except in Oxford and Cambridge settings perhaps) but is common in a certain European country:
When Carl got home, he leaned his bicycle against the shed outside the kitchen...
Carl is a senior detective and the lead character.

Which country do you think this book is set in :)?

9 comments:

Uriah Robinson said...

Netherlands or Germany?

Maxine Clarke said...

I was going to guess Norway and Gunnar Staalesen, until I realised that Carl is an adult (and not a child called Roar)! I think it could be the Netherlands as Norman suggests.....or maybe Sweden, as a bicycle was important in one of the Martin Beck novels (admittedly now somewhat vintage!). Carl seems to be a Swedish-ish name....????

Jose Ignacio Escribano said...

Seems obvious The Netherlands, but....

Harvee said...

I can't guess, but my recent read is set in medieval England, in Camelot to be exact!

The Beloved Dead

Dorte H said...

The name and the bike could point towards remote parts of Denmark.

Karen (Euro Crime) said...

One correct answer :). I am reading Mercy by Jussi Adler-Olsen set in the land of The Killing (Danish version) and the first in a trilogy featuring Carl Mørck.

I can't remember the last time I read about a British character cycling anywhere! Miss Marple?

Anonymous said...

Quite a while ago I read a book in which the main character was a female police detective who was having an affair with a pathologist. She was an avid cyclist and there were quite a few descriptions of her long and arduous cycle to work and her exploits in a cycle group. Cannot remember the crimes she had to solve, nor her name or the author! Any ideas?

Anonymous said...

Unbelievable... after searching for days, I discovered my answer just minutes after leaving you a comment. The cycling Detective Inspector is called Joanna Piercy, who is "a feminine feminist who likes cycling and her (married) pathologist boyfriend, Doctor Matthew Levin. Ably supported by half Polish body building Detective Mike Korpanski she sets about ridding the moorlands of its too frequent homicides" and is the creation of Priscilla Masters!

Karen (Euro Crime) said...

Oh, I'm glad you found out who it was - that's so annoying when it's niggling you. I haven't read that series by Priscilla Masters but I've enjoyed the first two Martha Gunn books (no cycling in that series!).