Iceland in the 70s: "Oblivion" by Arnaldur Indridason

Published 2015.

Who’s Marion? I wasn’t able to determine whether Marion was male or female.  All indications of gender are absent, and because of that, the developing relationship between Marion and Caroline became more interesting than it might otherwise have been. The dynamics of the two characters don’t really shed light on it. Do they bond as they do because both are women in a largely male society (the time is the late 70s)? If one assumes Marion to be male, are we to see him as unusually devoid of the patronizing attitude toward women typical of the time? There seems to be little flirting between them if Marion is male, but quite a bit more if female. It's all interesting enough to make me nostalgic at never having learned Icelandic.

You won’t find car chases, hanky-panky, and drunk detectives. Sorry. I know I shouldn't drop all these spoilers, but sometimes I can't help myself…

Black Humor in the Sticks: "Savage Season" by Joe R. Lansdale

Published 1990.

"I didn't want to be anywhere near Trudy right then. I had a hunch she would have harsh words to say about me and Leonard, and I wasn't up to it. I didn't want her to get me near a bed either. She could really talk in bed, and if she talked long enough and moved certain parts of her body just right, I might agree to have Leonard shot at sunset."

I started reading "Savage Season" while reading Arnaldur Indridason’s "Oblivion”. Why? Because I misplaced it at home on a Friday and I didn’t bother to go looking for it (yes, my office is jam packed with books, and sometimes even books get lost in that jungle). Had it been a better book I'm pretty sure I couldn’t’ve been without it during the weekend. So I read around 100 pages of "Savage Season" before finishing "Oblivion". Already then I knew I would like Lansdale better than Indridason, at least when it comes to writing Crime Fiction (I’m not even sure Lansdale writes it).

Lansdale seems a bit more intelligent regarding plot twist and turn than what we can find in a run-of-the-mill Western/Crime Fiction novel. Still, this book is a thriller of sorts, so I wasn’t expecting my mouth to be wide open when by the time I was finishing it. This isn’t “City of Lies” or “A Quite Vendetta”, or “The Usual Suspect”. Don’t expect a Kaiser Söse kind of surprise. Having said this, Lansdale paints an interesting story behind the characters making it interesting to read. Besides, Hap and Leonard are two characters that don’t go unnoticed. Black humor… I love that!

Telegraph: Trudy is a sexy beast and in the subsequent years has come back to Hap, wrapped him around her finger, and her around his dick, and then dumped him.  Lansdale does not explore Hap's duality, namely his dislike of violence that still falls to his temper.  Hap's dislike of violence even though he is very good at it.  Hap wanting a peaceful life but always taking on violent work (*sigh* what can a Man Do?).