If you know any children who enjoy Halloween (and who doesn’t?) here are a few spooktacular books for their trick-or-treat bags:

1. Fibble: The Fourth Circle of Heck by Dale E. Basye

Dale E. Basye returns to Heck for his most over-the-top (the Big Top, that is) adventure yet. When Marlo Fauster claims she has switched souls with her brother, she gets sent straight to Fibble, the circle of Heck reserved for liars. But it’s true—Milton and Marlo have switched places, and Marlo finds herself trapped in Milton’s gross, gangly body. MORE…

CURRICULUM VITAE
Detective Erlendur Sveinsson
created by Arnaldur Indridason, in a series of award-winning mysteries set in Iceland, starting with Jar City/Tainted Blood

Home Base:
Rekyjavik, Iceland where he’s a detective with the city’s CID.

Sidekicks:
Sigurdur Oli, gruff, temperamental and impatient, and the more empathetic Elinborg, mother of three and a cookbook author in her spare time.

Personal Life:
In shambles. Divorced and the father of two adult but estranged children who he walked out on when they were very young. His ex-wife hates him. Periodically he tries to rebuild his relationship with his daughter Eva, a recovering drug addict. Occasionally sees Valgerdur, a biomedical scientist, but finds it difficult to open up about his feelings.

Favourite reading material:
Old Icelandic sagas and folklore and books about tragedies in extreme weather conditions.

Bad habits:
Smokes too much, sleeps too little, eats badly, broods a lot. Withdraws into himself and becomes very moody.

Work Habits:
Solves his cases with dedicated, old-fashioned police work, long hours and multiple interviews with suspects and witnesses. While doing so, he delves into political and social issues in Iceland such as xenophobia, drug and alcohol abuse and domestic violence.

Personal Demons:
He’s never forgiven himself for the disappearance of his younger brother in a snowstorm when they were both children. His brother’s body has never been found and Erlendur has had an obsession with missing persons cases ever since. He believes they are a particularly Icelandic crime due to a cultural indifference in a country where harsh weather and a high suicide rate are prominent characteristics.

Biggest mystery:
Where is he now? At the end of Hypothermia, Erlendur took some time off and went away to the Eastern fjords where his brother disappeared so many years ago, leaving his colleague Elinborg to solve the murder at the heart of Outrage. During that case, she gets a call from someone who has found Erlendur’s car, abandoned in a small town. There’s been no sign of him for weeks. Hopefully we’ll find out what has happened in future books. I’d like to know he was safe.

Death in the City of Light by David King has to be one of the most frightening things I’ve ever read, made even more scary because it’s based on actual fact. Body parts and pieces start turning up all over Paris in various states of decomposition. The main suspect for the police ends up being a very prominent doctor. How can someone who is supposed to save lives be capable of murder?

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Viktor is a failed novelist who takes a job writing obituaries of the living for a Russian newspaper to stockpile. And though he’s sad when his subjects die, he can’t help feeling a bit smug too; after all, he’s finally getting published even if anonymously. Plus the money is good. But when he starts getting more and more assignments, delivered in mysterious ways to his apartment, he senses something is as fishy as the frozen food he serves to Misha, his pet penguin rescued from the Kiev Zoo. Especially when the two of them start getting invited to the funerals.

Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov, translated by George Bird, is as absurdist as a mystery novel is ever likely to get, but it’s also very funny with a dry, cynical touch that I found very refreshing. I’m looking forward to reading the sequel Penguin Lost, just published this month by Melville House.

We are pleased to announce that Deon Meyer’s Thirteen Hours has won the prestigious Barry Prize for Best Thriller of 2011!

Previous Honours:

• Shortlisted for the Boeke Prize
• An Independent Summer Pick
• Shortlisted for the Sunday Times Fiction Award
• Finalist for the Macavity Award for Best Mystery Novel
• Included in Margaret Cannon’s Deathly Dozen
• Finalist for the CWA International Dagger
• Winner of the ATKV Prize for Suspense Fiction (South Africa)
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CURRICULUM VITAE
Jack Reacher
(There is nothing amateur about this sleuth)

Personal Details

• Born: October 29th
• Measurements: 6′5″, 220-250 lbs., 50″ chest
• Hair: Dirty-blond
• Eyes: Ice blue
• Mother: Josephine Moutier Reacher. Widowed in 1988. Died in 1990 when she was 60. When she was 13, she joined the French resistance and under the alias Beatrice worked with Le Chemin de Fer Humain (the Human Railroad), saving 80 men. She garroted a schoolmate, a boy who threatened to give her up to the Nazis. Josephine Moutier was awarded La Medaille de la Resistance (the Resistance Medal) for her heroism.
• Father: Marine, served in Korea and Vietnam.
• Brother: Joe, 6′6″, 220-250 lbs. Born on an Army base in the Far East. Two years older than Jack. West Point graduate. He spent 5 years in Army Military Intelligence before joining the Treasury Department. Died at the age of 38.

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FINALLY, I can talk about The Affair by Lee Child. (The joy of a job like mine is that you get to read all these fab books before anyone else, but then the pain is that you can’t talk about them for ages.)

This page-turner is about Jack Reacher’s final case as an Army MP, before he puts his toothbrush in his back pocket and hitchhikes out of town. It’s 1997 and a young woman is dead in Carter Crossing, Mississippi. Evidence points to a soldier from a nearby military base, but the base activities are shrouded in secrecy (Bravo Company, 75th Ranger Regiment), AND the soldier in question has friends and relatives in high places. Complications abound. A colleague is sent to the base, and Reacher is sent to town, as backup, but undercover. He teams up with local sheriff Elizabeth Deveraux, who is as untrusting of him as he is of her. There are layers upon layers here – the soldier has an alibi, more deaths that may be connected are uncovered, suspicions are being cast upon Deveraux, doubts about the actual identity of the murder victim. The conspiracy threatens to shatter Reacher’s faith in his mission, in his job. Wonderfully complicated denouement, lots of coffee, pie and a love interest – everything you want in a Jack Reacher novel!!

Like many of my work colleagues, I am a big Jo Nesbo fan and had waited patiently for the arrival of his newest title, Headhunters. I started reading it as soon as possible, on the subway on the way home, and almost missed my stop. I’m a seasoned commuter, and this is a rare occurrence. In the early evening, I picked up where I left off and against my practice, read past midnight on a work night. The morning would require extra coffee, but I couldn’t leave off without finishing the story.

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Arthur Ramsgate Beauchamp,
CURRICULUM VITAE

Personal details:

• Born in VANCOUVER December 1936
• Outspoken Wife: Margaret Blake, leader of Canada’s Green Party
• Divorced from the vivacious temptress Annabelle after 30 years of cuckoldom and nearly as many years of alcoholism
• Daughter, Deborah, a teacher in Australia. Grandson Nick, a computer nerd.
• Deceased Parents: unloving and deeply conservative academics
• Education: Master’s in classic literature, law degrees both real and honourary
• Lives on Garibaldi Island, British Columbia, in the Salish Sea somewhere between Vancouver and Victoria,
• Occupation – wannabe retired criminal lawyer

Appearance:
Tall, hawk-nosed, comfortable only in overalls and boots while spading his garden or relaxing in his favourite club chair reading Virgil and Ovid.

Emotional makeup
Plagued by self-doubt, uncertain in his relationships, awkward in the presence of women, a sucker for the tall stories of the island ne’er-do-wells, a soft-hearted patsy — until he walks into a courtroom, his theatre, where he is taken over by another, commanding personality.

Interests:
Latin and Greek poetry, baroque and classical music, gardening, keeping his decades-old Fargo pickup running.

Ambitions:
To retire in peace and avoid the recurring demands of the criminal courts, an ambition he consistently fails to achieve.

Of Note:
He hasn’t had a drop to drink for 20 years.

Visit William Deverell online to learn more about Arthur Beauchamp.