Sunday Salon November 23, 2008

During the past week I have finished Phantom Prey by John Sandford, which was an okay read. Not as good as some of the previous Prey-novels I've read. But not so bad that I was very disappointed. Not at all. I have also begun reading Aldrig Mere Fri by Sara Blaedel. Sara Blaedel is a Danish crime-writer and her books are huge bestsellers in Denmark. The book I am currently reading is # 4 in her series about police-woman Louise Rick, who works homicide in Copenhagen. They are not translated into English, so I cannot provide any English links to her works. This particular book called Aldrig Mere Fri is taking place in my own immediate neighborhood here in Copenhagen, and that makes it even more enjoyable. I live in what used to be the city's largest red light / porn district. Nowadays the street-girls and the porn stores are becoming less and less and the hood has been taken over by students, young families, artists, fashion designers and trendy cafes. But we still have the odd porn shop and there are still prostitutes working the streets. While a lot of those girls live some horrible lives and while I hate the way some of them are in the hands of merciless human merchants, I have to say that the porn stores, the old booze-bars where you can still smoke cigs and get a cheap beer mixed with trendy cafes and fashionistas and families with strollers give my neighborhood a ver distinct flavor that I would not miss for the world. I think author Sara Blaedel manages to paint a fair image of my neighborhood in that book, Aldrig Mere Fri. The title is somewhat not really translateable, but it means something along the lines of: Freedom - Never Again. I think I'll finish that read during the week and then hopefully manage to continue with my serious reading for my thesis and also be able to read another mystery/crime that I have waiting on my shelf.

The image is of the street Istedgade, which is the main drag in my immediate neighborhood. The image is from my own photostream at flickr.