May brings with it a host of new fiction in translation that proves, once again, that by the time something is translated, a large number of people have already vetted its quality and pronounced it very good indeed. The following includes two novels from Japan, a psychological thriller from Fuminori Nakamura and a locked room mystery by Yukito Ayatsuji, as well as the last novel from Spanish great Javier Marias, a brutally astute thriller from French author Louise Mey, and a deeply human new investigation from Icelandic writer Arnaldur Indridason.
Arnaldur Indridason, The Girl By the Bridge
Translated by Philip Roughton
(Minotaur)
In Icelandic author Arnaldur Indridason’s latest, a grandparents’ search for their errant smuggler of a granddaughter is a catalyst for another well-plotted and evocative mystery from one of the most thoughtful Scandinavian crime writers. Once again, former policeman Konrad is willing to help, if only to clear his mind of other preoccupations, but cases have a way of dove-tailing and Konrad will have to face some hard truths about his own obsessions.
Fuminori Nakamura, The Rope Artist
Translated by Sam Bett
(Soho Crime)
Fuminori Nakamura’s cool, calculated prose is the perfect fit for this seedy tale of a rope artist (one who ties up women artfully with rope according to Japanese tradition), the woman who murders him, the cop who tries to cover it up, and the mysterious woman who can tie everything together for the detective who won’t give up investigating. Warning: this book may make you blush if you plan to read it in public!
Javier Marías, Tomás Nevinson
Translated by Margaret Jull Costa
(Knopf)
A half-English, half-Spanish spy gets pulled into his old tricks after a years-long retirement by his mysterious mentor in this last novel from the great Javier Marías. Epic in scale and elegant in its intellect, Tomas Nevinson should be compared to le Carré’s The Honorable Schoolboy, Edgard Telles Rebeiro’s His Own Man, and Norman Mailer’s Harlot’s Ghost.
Louise Mey, The Second Woman
Translated by Louise Rogers Lalaurie
(Pushkin Press)
The Second Woman is at once a chilling psychological thriller and a visceral exploration of internalized misogyny and the mechanics of abuse. The woman of the title is the new partner of a man suspected of involvement in the disappearance of his wife. When the wife returns, with seemingly no memory of him or her son, a game of cat and mouse begins, between the detective and the husband, and between the narrator’s wishful hopes and her slow acknowledgement of her dark reality.
Yukito Ayatsuji, The Mill House Murders
Translated by Ho-Ling Wong
(Pushkin Vertigo)
The newly translated Mill House Murders, from Decagon House author Yukito Ayatsuji, is just as clever and delightful as the locked room mystery that got him on our radar last year. In the strangely shaped Mill House, with architecture inspired by European castles with a large interior courtyard and galleries, several people gather on the anniversary of the former housekeeper’s mysterious death plunging from the house’s tower room. They all have their agendas, complex backstories, and shifting allegiances, and by the end of the novel, I fear many of them shall be dead…
