Monday, December 21, 2009

CRIME FICTION ALPHABET: L IS FOR LEIF DAVIDSEN



My contribution to this week's Crime Fiction Alphabet meme at Kerrie's Mysteries in Paradise is L for Leif. Leif Davidsen.

Leif Davidsen, born in 1950 is a Danish journalist, and author of a number of best selling political thrillers. He spent 25 years at the Danish Broadcasting Corporation as a radio and TV correspondent, specialising in Eastern and Central European affairs, and has been stationed in both Moscow and Spain.

His books that readily available in English:

Lime's Photograph [winner of the Nordic Glass Key in 1999]
The Woman From Bratislava

The Serbian Dane was written way back in 1996 and is very relevant today because of the issues it raises about freedom of speech and the action totalitarian states are prepared to take against dissidents. The story concerns Sara Santanda, an Iranian author with a fatwa and price on her head, who is invited by the Danish newspaper Politiken to visit Copenhagen. The Iranians through their Russian mafia contacts hire an assassin Vuk to kill the 'infidel bitch'......

The Sardine Deception was Davidsen's first novel written in 1984 and was translated into English by the now famous translators Tiina Nunnaly and Steven Murray and published by their own appropriately named Fjord Press of Seattle. I was privileged to receive my copy as a gift from the translators on a very wet Wednesday in May just before Crime Fest 2009.


Poul Jensen, a Danish house husband is married to glamorous TV journalist Charlotte Dansbourg, who is a very modern woman traveling the world in search of stories. When Poul learns that Charlotte has been killed in an ETA [an armed Basque nationalist and separatist group] bombing of a bar in San Sebastian he travels to Spain to collect her body.....

I enjoyed both these exciting books, and have the other two on my to be read in 2010 list.

6 Comments:

Blogger Dorte H said...

Good that I have another L ready for tomorrow.

Perhaps I should try to find a nice photo to adorn my post with also?

I like a number of Leif DavidsenĀ“s novels very much, but he writes in more than one style, and some of his appeal more to men than women, I think.

8:58 AM  
Blogger Uriah Robinson said...

I thought I had better steal your Dane with Leif as I had already used Lawton. ;o)

11:49 AM  
Blogger Kerrie said...

Thanks for the contribution Norman. Another author that I have yet to discover

12:23 PM  
Blogger Uriah Robinson said...

Thanks Kerrie there are so many Australasian authors I haven't read, in fact none apart from Peter Temple.

2:35 PM  
Blogger Bernadette said...

Thank heavens I don't have to add another author to my must try list - he was already on there from Maxine's D post. I just have to get around to finding and reading all these great books.

4:22 PM  
Anonymous gautami tripathy said...

Now where do I get hold of these authors that I read in Crime Fiction Alphabet?!

:D

Here is my Crime Fiction Alphabet: L post!

7:18 PM  

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