Red

At first glance, “Red” seems like one of those cosy, provincial British crime novels, with quirky characters and an old-fashioned interior. Yet Josephine Mark transforms this setting into a fast-paced, darkly humorous slapstick tragicomedy. It centres on a cold case: Rosa’s husband has frozen to death in the snow, drunk and naked. Rosa never believed it was an accident. When, decades later, she takes in a stray three-legged dog that smells blood on the deceased’s shirt, it’s reason enough to launch her own investigation. And indeed – all the town’s dignitaries, including the police, are implicated in the case. Josephine Mark depicts this as a blend of Miss Marple and Tex Avery cartoons. It is a comic full of contrasts, in which crude humour meets images of a radiant provincial idyll. And it is a comic that takes such absurd twists and turns time and again that you almost lose your grip. A brilliant crime thriller!