The Mystery of Mercy Close is billed as an amusing detective story involving a missing-persons case. However, the mystery elements of the book take a back seat in a novel that is strong on character and humour, yet at heart an affecting study of depression. Fans of Marian Keyes will love this enjoyable page-turner, though it is probably not a book to read if you are looking for a novel that is primarily a mystery thriller.

It has taken 20 years for the highly-regarded Leena Lehtolainen's first Maria Kallio novel to be translated from Finnish, so plaudits to Amazon Crossing for allowing English-language readers to experience her work, and to Owen Witesman for a smooth translation. Was the wait worth it? Yes and no. The plot is a standard one for a crime novel: a group of choir singers meet to practice before a performance, but one of them is killed. Maria Kallio is the (temporary) detective assigned the case, her "first murder", because her boss is an alcoholic and her immediate superior is going on holiday.

The story is told from Maria's perspective as she interviews the remaining singers, then spends the rest of the book revisiting them and digging further into their various accounts, as well as looking into the affairs of the victim and his colleagues and family. Maria is an attractive protagonist, but the rest of the characters are not well-realised. Eventually she works out various possible motives for the crime and, after a few false theories, discovers who is probably responsible. The solution, however, is "pick any of the characters", rather than one that provides any emotional resonance.

While Maria is investigating this crime, she has to continue her usual job. The brief description of how she deals with a rape case is more involving, I found, than the main murder plot. Overall, the book is a pleasant read but not especially innovative even for its times. It provides a fascinating picture of Finnish life, but as a crime novel it is firmly one for those who like a traditional whodunnit.

The Cutting Season is a slow-paced but absorbing read. The book is set at Belle Vie, a lovingly recreated sugar-cane plantation in Louisiana which is a major tourist attraction as well as a venue for high-society weddings and banquets. The author uses the setting to examine past and present attitudes to the Black history of the state. Caren is the manager of Belle Vie, acting for the Clancy family who own it. She's an uptight person, uneasy about the celebrations (via a thrice-daily theatre show) of the old days of slavery and the Civil War, and hating the shacks on the land which reconstruct the slaves' quarters. Caren's own personal history gradually emerges: she grew up on the plantation, escaped to law school, but for reasons unknown to the reader until the end of the book, has given up her studies and returned, together with her daughter Morgan.

The first part of the book is the least successful, dwelling on Caren's prickly character, her mostly unrevealed past and present dilemmas, and on the characters who live and work at Belle Ville. There is a plot, in the form of Caren's discovery of a dead woman near the perimiter fence. She is reluctant to help the police investigation into the crime, while at the same time finding herself followed by a mysterious pick-up truck as well as suffering various nerve-wracking episodes. She begins to realise that hidden events in the nineteenth century may be relevant to these experiences.

The second part of the novel is the most enjoyable, as the past and present mysteries fuse. Caren's ex-partner Eric, as well as a journalist called Owens, make an entrance and provide the book with some perspective and direction, representing ways in which Caren can escape her environment if she dares. Gradually, Caren uncovers more about the victim and her life, as well as trying to come to terms with her and Morgan's own future.

The Cutting Season is strong on atmosphere and a sense of claustrophobia as Caren struggles to become truly independent in a small, closed society which treats her with little respect. She stubbornly digs into the past and present mysteries, with some help from Eric and from Owens. In the end, both mysteries are solved in a rather unsatisfactory way, depending on someone suddenly deciding to look at something that has been untouched for years, and on a somewhat clunky "pick one of the cast of characters" denouement. Nevertheless, The Cutting Season is an assured, serious and involving novel which I recommend.

The Fashion Resource book is beautifully presented, replete with imaginative and appealing four-colour illustrations. Its main focus is that of research: "why primary research is fundamental in developing personal identity as a fashion designer within a global industry", to quote from the foreward. The first section is about the research process, providing chapters on the work of some famous designers from various specialities. The main section is about research and inspiration, using such examples as nature & science, uniforms, heritage and art. Finally, the book provides a dozen or more case studies of designers such as Burberry, Prada and Chanel. I am sure that this book will be invaluable to students or those wanting to become students in the fashion design industry, as well as being fascinating to people who are just interested in fashion and its role in modern society.

Sebastian Bergman is a slightly overweight, messed up criminal psychologist. He has not practised or done any work for about 6 years, since a devastating personal tragedy. He has a recurring terrible dream, and having tried abusing prescription drugs and alcohol, he's settled into being a sex addict.

In parallel with Sebastian's story, a murder has taken place. Sixteen-year-old Roger Eriksson has gone missing. Because of the incompetence of the local police, nobody begins to look for the boy for a few days, whereupon his body is found in a lake - and drowning was not the cause of death. Internal police politics ensure that a small specialist team from Riksmond, led by Torkel Hoglund, is bought in to take over the investigation.

It turns out that Sebastian is an old colleague of Torkel, and that the two men have helped each other through some difficult personal times in the past. Sebastian isn't in the least interested in helping with the murder case, but calls in favours to get himself on the team and, he hopes, access to the police computers which will help him track down some shocking information he's discovered.

The juxtaposition of the police investigation, which brings up more and more nasty secrets of small-town life, and the unwelcome Sebastian's contributions, make an interesting and unusual tale. Sebastian himself is a fascinating character, as he gradually becomes drawn into the investigation despite himself, and finds some degree of rehabilitation in doing so. In the end, he's left as a bit of a frustrating enigma, doubtless to be explored further in future books. I look forward to reading them, not least because of Marlaine Delargy's characteristically excellent translation.

This novella, just over 100 pages long, takes the form of a statement. A young man and his partner Sonja travel to the country to stay with their friends Heinrich and Eva for a few days over Easter, in the middle of rural, conservative Austria. The foursome hear of a terrible crime, in which a man has kidnapped three boys and persuaded two of them to commit suicide. The book consists of a description of the foursome's activities in the days leading up to an arrest: cooking, eating, playing games and some degree of interaction with the locals.

While the friends pursue their apparently innocent activities, they follow the horrible story of the murders on TV. The killer's video camera has been found, so there is much debate on the media, from politicians and religious authorities about the justification of showing the film of the boys' deaths. Heinrich becomes obsessed with the TV coverage, whereas the two women alternate between hysterical fear and fascinated horror. All four of them seem compelled to not only watch the case unfold, but also, when it appears that the killer may still be on the loose and in the area where they are staying, to participate in local gossip and speculation.

The Camera Killer won the Friedrich Glauser prize for crime fiction in 2002, so it is a book to be taken seriously. I found it unenjoyable, as it is a straight description of events designed to show the characters' moral emptiness and detachment from reality - for example by the way Sonja is named only once, and by the way that the foursome switch to playing badminton or cooking dinner whenever there is nothing about the case on TV or in the papers. The crime itself is so horrific that I did not want to read any of the details about it. There is no explanation of the motivation for the murders here (perhaps not a bad thing): people are simply blank slates whose characters and motives can only be surmised by the reader.

Einar, a journalist with the Afternoon News, is posted to Akureyri in the north of Iceland to boost the paper's regional coverage. He is fed up at having to leave Reykjavik for this backwater, not least because it separates him from his 14-year-old daughter. Nevertheless, he determines to make the best of it, helped by photographer Joa but hindered by office manager Asbjorg, with whom Einar does not get along.

The book begins at a fast pace, with Einar reporting on a story that interests him: the case of a woman who drowned while on a white-water-rafting team building exercise. His Reykjavik bosses, however, send him on assignment even further north to investigate what they think to be cases of racist-inspired brawling, due to the large influx of foreign workers on the multinational construction sites being developed everywhere. Then, a teenage boy who is putting on a production of a traditional Icelandic play goes missing, later to be found dead. Einar had interviewed the boy previously about his production, and is curious about what happened to him, even though any details are hard to obtain.

Einar makes peace with Asbjorg in order to get an "in" with the police, while at the same time dealing with his obnoxious news editor, and their mutual corporate henchman boss, who want him to spend more time on trivial stories than on investigative journalism. By his persistence in befriending relatives and those who knew the two people who have died, Einar gets gradually closer to the truth.

There is a lot to like in Season of the Witch, whose title refers to a 1960s song by Donovan: the mystery is solid and the characterisation more rounded than a typical crime novel. However, the middle section of the book drags, being too repetitive rather than developing the story. This is the fourth book in a series, but the first to be translated into English.

The opportunity to read Karin Fossum's first novel in her series about Inspector Sejer is very welcome. Originally published in 1995, In The Darkness already contains all the elements that are familiar to readers of this excellent Norwegian novelist. The tale is deceptively simple: Eva and her six-year-old daughter Emma discover the body of a man in the river one night. Although Eva tells her daughter she has called the police, in fact she does not. Later, however, another person sees the body and so Inspector Sejer awards himself the case.

In his characteristic laid-back but observant style, Sejer has befriended the widow and young son of the dead man, who has been missing for six months. Unable to progress, but now knowing he has a murder case on his hands, he decides to look into the only other case of unnatural death that has been reported to the police in the past year. Sejer's slow but methodical investigation gradually brings to light some small clues that he can follow up. Whether or not the two cases are linked becomes gradually clear to the reader, but the author keeps some surprises up her sleeve.

The book is in two halves: the first half tells the story of the investigation and of Eva's life from the point of discovery of the man's body; the second is from Eva's perspective of previous events, providing a rich psychological portrait of a woman struggling to make ends meet in the wake of a divorce, without compromising her artistic integrity. The details of small-town life, together with the touching portrait of two lonely widowers (Sejer and Eva's father) adjusting to a solitary existnce, are very moving and beautifully observed. The author wastes no words in telling her tightly plotted story, but ensures that the reader will be haunted by it for some time after finishing it.

I thoroughly enjoyed this superb debut novel. Here is an author who not only can write, but clearly loves writing. A Killing in the Hills is a pleasure to read from start to finish.

What's so good about this book is not the mechanics of the plot (which do not work, in my opinion), but the characterisation, storytelling and atmosphere. The narrative is a layered one, and revelations about the layers occur at different points in the book, providing far more reader interest and engagement than is usual in a typical crime novel.

Belfa (Bell) Elkins is a prosecuting attorney in the impoverished West Virginia hamlet of Acker's Gap. She was a trailer kid, but when she was about 10 her home burnt down - more is revealed gradually. As the book opens, a man walks into a diner, shoots three elderly men, and walks out. The shooting forms another narrative framework. One of the witnesses to the killing is Bell's daughter Carla, who has just been to her teen anger management course - and boy, does she need it! Another theme of the book is Bell's relationship with Carla and with Sam, her ex-husband: all portrayed realistically and compellingly with an originality rarely encountered in contemporary crime fiction (which regularly features stroppy teenagers). Another theme is a case involving the death of a small boy in a game gone wrong: Bell has to decide on the charge to be made against the person responsible.

Bell is the heart of the book; her past, her professional life, her relationships with colleagues and an elderly couple she's befriended, and her close, movingly portrayed friendship with the sheriff, Nick Fogelsong. All the characters, important or minor, are vividly protrayed, though the diner gunman is the least successful.

The intertwined plots play out against a beautiful portrayal of this rural area, a wonderfully conveyed portrait of a community riven by poverty and hopelessness. The main story, that of the gunman and his actions subsequent to the initial shooting, is not credible in various ways - and the final revelations also lack believability. But this does not derail this excellent novel: there is so much to like about it that I can only urge you to read it for yourself, and discover this very talented author.

Death of a Carpet Dealer is mainly set in Oskarshamn, a small coastal town south of Stockholm, from which the ferries to the islands of Oland and Gotland depart and arrive. As the novel opens, however, Carl-Iver Olsson, the titular carpet dealer, is on a rather different ferry, one that travels up and down the Bosphorus to and from Istanbul. And, given the title, it is not giving anything away to reveal that he is discovered to be dead when the time comes for disembarkation.

Chapters alternate from different points of view: the Turkish sections concern two workers on the ferry who may or may not be involved in Olsson's death; and the Istanbul police, who initially investigate the crime. When it becomes apparent that the victim was Swedish, the Oskarhshamn authorities are informed and dispatch two officers to Istanbul to help and to be present when Olsson's family identifies his body. After an interlude in Istanbul, most of the action thereafter takes place in Oskarhshamn.

Events are told from the point of view of several connected characters. One of these is Veronika, a 47-year-old doctor who is about to give birth to her third child, and who has taken an old carpet to Olsson's shop for repair. The shop is run by Olsson's niece Annelide, who is married to one of Veronika's colleagues. Olsson's wife, soon to be widow, is a nurse at the same hospital, working the night shift. And Veronika's husband Claes is a senior police inspector who is given the Olsson case. Each character has a chapter to reflect on life and his or her concerns, often seeming rather tangential to the plot, before the subject changes to another one. In this fashion, a mosaic-style picture of life in this country area of Sweden is provided.

In the second half of the book, the plot becomes more central as some facts are revealed to the reader that were hitherto unknown, coming to a climax at Olsson's funeral at the end. The full picture of what's happened and why becomes apparent gradually because of information that is revealed piece-by-piece from the various characters' perspectives and actions, rather than by any great detective work or puzzle-solving. Even when the police have worked out who is their main suspect and "stake out" the church before the funeral, the person concerned simply exits through a side door nobody thought to cover, unobserved. The book is rather old-fashioned but none the less a pleasant, easy read.