The Killing: Uncommon Denominator
Karen Dionne
Titian Books 320 pages
The AMC TV series, The Killing, was taken from Forbrydelsen, a Danish detective series. The original show (available on DVD in Danish) was good but just a little hard to follow. You had to read the subtitles while listening to the swift dialog and trying to watch expressions at the same time. The U.S. series starred Mireille Enos and Joel Kinnaman as Sarah Linden and Stephen Holder. The superb cast, including a host of supporting actors, made the dark, gripping series something millions of viewers looked forward to each week. This was modern roman noir at its best. Two subsequent seasons of the show were not quite as sharp and compelling as the first. Titian Books acquired the rights to The Killing and hired thriller writer Karen Dionne to write books based on the original U.S. series. The first one is out now with the familiar characters of Linden and Holder.
Enos and Kinnaman as Linden and Holder
The Doc / Tim Desmond / Black Opal Books 306 pages
A doctor and Civil War reenactor is asked to investigate the murder of a friend’s daughter and uncovers a murder squad run by the Department of Homeland Security.
The Inheritor / Tom Wither / Turner Publishing 348 pages
In this debut suspense novel, Islamic terrorists attack the U.S. energy infrastructure. Publishers Weekly called it a “high-stakes action thriller.”
The Ways of the Dead / Neely Tucker / Viking 288 pages
A reporter and former war correspondent covers the murder of a teenage girl, daughter of a high-profile Washington, D.C. judge. Of the plot twists, Kirkus Reviews said, “The shocks resound with acrid, illuminating insights into the District’s nettlesome intersections of race and class at the hinge of the millennium.”
Lights Out / Donald Bain / Severn House 203 pages
A hapless electrical engineer turns to crime to finance an affair with a beautiful Argentinean woman and winds up being sought by the Mafia, the cops and a PI hired by his wife.
No Stone Unturned / James W. Ziskin / Seventh Street Books 272 pages
Ellie Stone is a 24-year-old reporter for a small daily in upstate New York. Nearly ready to give up her job and return to New York City, she gets involved in the search for a killer.