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There aren't many contemporary French crime writers that make it into English translation, which includes a complete absence of a major writer like Franck Thilliez. Olivier Norek - another truly great writer - has been a little more fortunate with his Banlieus trilogy making it over, but aside from these Captain Coste thrillers there is a bit of catching up to do and all of them of a very high standard. It's gratifying to at least see Entre deux mondes due to make an appearance in translation next week as Between Two Worlds. Although the latter is a masterpiece, what everyone really wants is the new Coste novel, and even though he quit the SDPJ 93, Paris and indeed France at the end of Surtensions , that only intrigues where the writer might take him next. The answer is in Dans les brumes des Capelans - in the Capelans fog. We were given some clue about where he was headed, but despite now being located some 1,500km away, Coste is still technically in France. He is also stil...

Dylan Dog Colour Fest 50 contains three short stories, reprinted and in some cases newly coloured, featuring Dylan Dog's sidekick and housekeeper, Groucho. I haven't read enough Dylan Dog to know exactly what role Groucho plays; he's a kind of valet, a cook, a companion, but not a great help in the supernatural investigation cases. His true purpose you feel, since he looks and behaves almost exactly the way you would expect Groucho Marx to behave, is to bring a sense of irreverence to the series and prevent things from getting too heavy. And occasionally he comes to the rescue, pulling Dylan out of difficult situations. The balance works well, fitting in with the general tone of Dylan Dog adventures, but in this Color Fest special he is largely given his own platform. The consequences, you can imagine are riotous and often very funny. La cosa misteriosa che vive dietri il frigorifico Story - Tiziano Sclavi, Art - Luigi Piccatto The first two stories are reprinted and ear...

In a manner that is becoming familiar with the series involving half-Spanish half-German Frankfurt police Commissioner Cornelia Weber, En caída libre (In Free Fall) opens with two apparently unrelated cases, a Spanish connection and new complications in the Commissioner's personal life. The prologue presents the situation of an airline cleaning lady Fatima Celik, dying after a fall down the stairway of a plane that has just arrived from Santiago, Chile. Although accidental there is a suspicion that drugs were hastily removed from her pocket by a colleague just after the fall. Cornelia's involvement with this case arises out of another death. As with the first book in the series, Entre dos aguas , it arises out of the Main river in the form of the dead dismembered body of a young woman, Nicole Eulenberg, weighted down with stones and washed up on the shore at Niederrad. There is a Spanish or Spanish language connection in both cases, suspicion being thrown on a flight from Chil...

You'd think that Javier Marías would have fully explored the Oxford connections and its spy recruitment network from every conceivable angle now through  Todos las almas  and the expansive Tu rostro mañana trilogy. Not to mention where they run up against personal and marriage issues in the final book of the latter but with Javier Marías there are always new and interesting lines to delve into and new angles to approach it from. Berta Isla initially puts relationships at the heart of the book, as evidenced indeed by the follow-up carrying the name of her husband, Tomás Nevinson. It has to be said however that their marriage doesn't really get a chance to sit on any stable ground. They are both from different backgrounds. Berta a Madrileña at heart, Tom with an English father and Spanish mother has a talent for languages that sees him just as much at home in England. They have been a couple for a long time and are well matched in temperament, but there is a tendency not to spe...