A trio of crime novels for my catch-up review:
62 The Quaker by Liam McIlvanney
Stylist tartan noir with the inevitable slew of dead women (which I could do without) but an attractive and interesting protagonist. It's the late 1960s and DI Duncan McCormack has been sent to find out why the existing investigation has failed to crack the case of "the Quaker", a serial killer preying on (obviously) young women. His investigation links up with his own previous Flying Squad work in Glasgow's criminal underworld. McCormack has secrets of his own that threaten to intrude upon his career. It all comes together in a satisfying denouement and Glasgow's seedy underbelly is well evoked in the writing. I'd happily read more by this author.
63 The Godmother by Hannelore Cayre
This was right up my street. Translated from the French original, it is the highly unusual story of Patience Portefeux - born to career criminals (a Tunisian father and a Viennese Jewish mother), she has a jetsetting childhood that falls apart after her father's death. She marries well only to lose her husband young, and spends years making a poor wage translating the conversations of drug gangs from the Arabic for the French police. A series of coincidences makes her realise that she might be able to do rather better for herself by cashing in on her knowledge of this underground network. Something akin to a comic caper ensues, but this book is much better than that. Patience is a fantastic character, who sees in colours and whose childhood dream was to collect all the fireworks in the world. The matter-of-fact, resourceful way in which she navigates her new world is hugely satisfying and the writing is very funny (and obviously very well translated). Patience is never a figure of fun; you're with her and rooting for her all the way, and the plot works like a well-oiled machine. Recommended.
64 Invisible City by Julia Dahl
A much more conventional novel, this, but in an unusual setting - the Hasidic Jewish community in Brooklyn. Rebekah Roberts is a young crime reporter whose orthodox Jewish mother left when she was a baby. She uncovers secrets about her own past as well as her mother's community when she is assigned to cover the murder of Rivka Mendelssohn, whose body is found in the bucket of a crane owned by an important local figure. There's plenty for Dahl to explore in the customs, secrets and lies of her protagonists. The book is competently written and pulls you along, and Rebekah is a fairly sympathetic main character, although we hear a bit much about the effects her anxiety has on her gastrointestinal system for my liking.