International intrigue
12 crime, mystery and detective novels in translation
BOOKS| REVIEWS
There's no mystery here: We all love a good detective novel. And while there are many great mysteries written in English, you're missing out if you don't occasionally pick up a book in translation for a fresh take on the genre. Here is a range of recently translated works that include cozy mysteries, crime novels, historical thrillers and classic locked-room conundrums.
‘Still Life’
By Malin Persson Giolito, translated by Rachel Willson-Broyles (Other Press)
The Swedish author’s 2017 novel “Quicksand” was adapted into a Netflix series, and here she delivers 10 stories about people who fall afoul of the law.
‘Felix Faure Street’
By Ken Bugul, translated by Julie Huntington (Vanderbilt University Press)
Named for a seedy thoroughfare in the Senegalese capital of Dakar, the novel opens at a crime scene after a gruesome murder. The novel is steeped in the West African Wolof language; the author, Marietou Mbaye, used the pen name because “Ken Bugul” translates to “Someone Unwanted,” a pseudonym used by girls and women as a protection against misfortune.
‘The Secret Dinner’
By Raphael Montes, translated by Zoe Perry (Celadon)
This hugely popular Brazilian thriller involves four broke friends who get involved in the dark underworld scheme involving dinner parties for the wealthy people of Rio de Janeiro.
‘Night Train’
By Xu Zechen, translated by Jeremy Tiang (Two Lines Press)
In the Beijing author’s novel, a graduate student wants the money his father promised him so he can travel by train before returning to school. After his father refuses, the son bursts into the house late at night, saying he’s killed a man and must escape. With his father’s cash, he takes that trip. Upon his return, however, everyone now believes he’s actually a murderer.
'Centroeuropa’
By Vicente Luis Mora, translated by Rahul Bery (Bellevue Literary Press) Set in the early 19th century, this speculative mystery involves a recently widowed man who is attempting to start a new life in a village far from home. But when he begins to dig into the earth, he finds the frozen corpse of a soldier. And then another.
‘The Final Problem’
By Arturo Perez-Reverte, translated by Frances Riddle (Mulholland Books)
The Spanish author delivers a total summertime delight here. Set in 1960 on a Greek island temporarily cut off from the outside world by a storm at sea, the novel features an aging, Basil Rathbone-esque actor who once played Sherlock Holmes being forced to act as a detective to solve a potential murder or two.
‘Broken Truths’
By Alessandro Robecchi, translated by Gregory Conti (Other Press)
Set in modern-day Milan, “Broken Truths” novel involves a retired movie director who begins researching a comeback film about the death of real-life 1930s-era Italian crime novelist, Augusto De Angelis. But as the director begins his work, the widow who lives next door ends up murdered.
‘Ninan’
By Michel Jean, translated by Susan Ouriou (House of Anansi)
Convicted for killing his violent alcoholic father, an Innu man named Elie is released from prison after 10 years. But he’s no longer welcome in his native community in Nutashkuan, so he heads to Montreal in search of a new beginning and tries to eke out a life among other exiles living on the edge.
‘My Grandfather, the Master Detective’
By Masateru Konishi, translated by Kawai (Putnam)
In this bestselling example of Japanese “healing fiction,” a grandfather with Lewy body dementia teams up with his schoolteacher granddaughter to solve a series of mysteries that she brings to him whenever she visits.
‘The Camino’
By Anya Niewierra, translated by Eileen Stevens (Simon & Schuster)
In this novel by the hugely popular writer from the Netherlands, a woman mourns the loss of her husband, a former Bosnian refugee who died by his own hand on the Camino de Santiago. Resolving to walk the same path as her late husband, she soon begins to realize that things are not as they seemed.
‘Dead Weight’
By Hildur Knutsdottir, translated by Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor Nightfire)
In this Icelandic mystery, a lonely working woman comes home from the market to find a cat sleeping on her couch. But she doesn’t have a cat. And when she learns about a woman who’s missing hers, they connect and things begin to happen.
‘The Clock House Murders’
By Yukito Ayatsuji, translated by Ho-Ling Wong (Pushkin Vertigo)
A group of paranormal investigators are trapped inside the Clock House, a haunted mansion once owned by an eccentric, and are being killed one by one. Detective Shimada Kiyoshi must solve the mystery and stop the murders — from outside.
