25-26 | Reading Log 2024-2025

25: The God of the Woods: This was an excellently executed family crime story. One of those where the explication of the initial crime necessitates a story that sprawls backwards across generations, tracing the fractures of today to long-past hairline cracks that seemed innocuous enough at the time. Very unique setting, well-crafted story. I'll be looking up other works by Liz Moore on the strength of this one.

26: Roseanna: Martin Beck Policy Mystery #1: Nearly the diametric opposite of God of the Woods, but I enjoyed this one as well. No lush descriptions or generational curses here; this book from 1965 is the prototype for the Scandinavian crime novels that would dominate the 90s and 00s. Sparse, minimalist, and unsparing. A single crime, relentlessly worked by a relentless man. Not a wasted word anywhere in it. There are about thirty more of these books, and I'm planning to work through them all over the next year now.