I'm in sort of a weird reading mood at the moment. Although I'm reading lots, I am not finishing many books. I'm doing the equivalent of 'grazing', but with books. Reading a little bit here, a little bit there, enjoying most everything but not settling down with anything specific. But I find myself thinking about or picking up mysteries and crime novels more than anything else.
After enjoying my first Bitter Lemon Press novel (see yesterday's post) I decided to pick up Petra Hammesfahr's The Lie (which came as an ARE and is due to be published in April). She must be quite popular in her native Germany--she's written over twenty crime novels and has won a variety of literary prizes for her work. I love books about doppelgängers. There's something creepy about them to begin with, but in a crime novel there's an added layer of mysteriousness. In The Lie Nadia and Susanne look uncannily alike, though their lives couldn't be more different. Susanne agrees to take her place while Nadia goes off with a lover for a weekend. Will Susanne be able to trick Nadia's husband into believing she's Nadia?
"She stared at the woman in the pin stripe suit who, for her part, looked her up and down in stunned astonishment. People pushed past them, grumbling or with irritated expressions because they were in the way. No one seemed to notice that by the lift two women were facing each other who looked more alike than some pairs of identical twins. Perhaps the difference in the way they were turned out meant it wasn't so obvious to others as it was to them."
"For, despite her painful experiences, Susanne well remembered the way she looked when she had still been in regular employment, suitably dressed with unobtrusive make-up. And presumably Nadia Trenkler would have sen her own face in the mirror when she was going through a bad time herself."
"Nadia was the first to recover her composure. With an exclamation of disbelief and a muttered, 'That's impossible,' she introduced herself and said, smiling, 'We must have a coffee and find out which of our fathers is responsible."
I've already raided my library's shelves for more Bitter Lemon titles and have a couple at home and a few others on my 'virtual list' for later. Bitter Lemon is a British publisher, but I'm happy their books are also slowly being released over here as well.