The Winter War by Philip Teir and Joe Country by Mick Herron, #20booksofsummer24 7 & 8

Two reviews for you today from the TBR, continuing my 20 books of summer…

The Winter War by Philip Teir

Translated from the Swedish by Tiina Nunnally

I remember acquiring this novel shortly after Victoria reviewed it for Shiny New Books here, back in 2015 when it was published in English translation. Teir is Finnish, but comes from the south, where Swedish is the first language.

The Winter War is a family drama, recounting the strains in the marriage of Max and Katriina, and their two grown-up daughters, one in Helsinki, the other in London, who have issues of their own. It has a cracker of an opening line:

The first mistake that Max and Katrina made that winter – and they would make many mistakes before their divorce – was to deep-freeze their grandchildren’s hamster.

Max Paul is a sociologist of renown, however, his fame is predicated on one paper he published earlier in his career on sex. He’s moved on, but it always comes up in every interview or article – still – he’s nearing sixty now. But perhaps he should be grateful for it, for while he moved on, he also stagnated and hasn’t published anything notable for the past decades. He’s been occupied at writing a biography of Finnish philosopher Edvard Westermarck but that is out of control at over a thousand pages and he doesn’t seem able to end it.

Katriina, who has a high-powered job in the health service has grown away from him, consumed by her own work which no longer satisfies as it once did. She compensates by clinging to her daughters, Helen who has two young children, and from a distance, Eva, who has drifted for several years but now at 29 is beginning an art degree in London – we’ll hear a lot more of Eva’s story. Katriina also wants that symbol of home renewal that is a new kitchen, but luckily this doesn’t become a big thing. (Hang on! That was the elephant in the room of another Scandi dysfunctional family novel I read recently – The Divorce by Moa Herngren – plus ça change!).

When one of Max’s former pupils, Laura, approaches him to do a 60th birthday interview for a magazine, and when it is suggested that she could help him edit his book, the temptation to have an affair becomes a reality. Will he succumb? Will the family disintegrate? Can they all find their ways?

The novel’s title is a reference to the war fought between Finland and the Soviet Union during WWII. A potent metaphor for the battles looming for the Paul family. It’s also a nod to Max and Katriina’s different upbringings from different parts of FInland; Max only really speaking Swedish and feeling left out at times things turn to Finnish.

I think, on balance, I preferred this novel to the Herngren. They both covered similar situations, although Max and Katriina are twenty years older. The daughters being grown women rather than teens allows them to play their parts in a different way. Although Max is the lead character, Teir achieves a good balance, enabling a nuanced view of the relationships. I rather enjoyed it.

Source: Own copy from the TBR. Serpent’s Tail hardback (2015), 298 pages. Buy a used paperback at Amazon (affiliate link).

Joe Country by Mick Herron

This is the sixth novel in Herron’s Slough House / Jackson Lamb series – there’s two more plus two novellas and the ‘adjacent’ Secret Hours. I don’t want it to end, but also, I don’t want to wait another year to read the seventh book… a nice quandary to have!

The novel begins with an explosive prologue which ends with an ominous statement:

The man was dead. The woman was dead.
Slough House was going to need some new slow horses.

WTF! In best spy tradition (cf: Spooks etc) Herron isn’t afraid to kill off his characters. But who? He’ll keep us waiting of course. Meanwhile, after Herron’s trademark opening observed from the building’s point of view, we’re back in Slough House and are introduced to the new recruit to the team, Lech Wichinski, who has been demoted after kiddy-porn photos were found on his corporate laptop. No-one believes his protestations of innocence.

The main business of the novel though is River’s. After the funeral of River’s grandfather, aka ‘The Old Bastard’, a retired spook himself who had brought River up, is River’s pursuit of his estranged father. Frank Harkness is a former CIA officer, gone mercenary / rogue … and he just couldn’t resist being spotted hiding in plain sight lurking at the back at the funeral. And as Lamb comments to Catherine,

“Standish, I could chain him [River] to his desk and lock the door. You really think that’ll prevent him going after Harkness?”

We get less of Diana Taverner who is now First Desk and MI5 in this volume which I missed, but we get continuing development of the individual storylines of the rest of the Slough House team: Lamb of course, plus Catherine Standish and her battles with the bottle, Herron’s favourite punchbag River, the still grieving Louisa, spiky Shirley and my personal favourite, the so-awful-you-have-to-love-him Roddy Ho.

Herron’s characters all work, they all have depth, and there is much humour alongside the grimness that is a stark reminder of the dark side of intelligence work. I can’t recommend this series of novels highly enough. If you’re new to it, start at the beginning (see here).

Source: Own copy from the TBR. John Murray hardback (2019), 344 pages. BUY in paperback from Blackwell’s via my affiliate link.