All the Devils are Here - Louise Penny

 A great mystery- detective novel by Penny.  Set in Paris for a change.  Incredibly twisted plot that is full of surprises.  The focus is on the misdeeds and cover ups of large corporate powers, and also on the corrupts relationships between government, media and these large corporate powers.  

A Knife to the Heart - Barbara Nadel

 Another Inspector Ikmen novel.  Like John Rebus, he is aging.  His wife has passed away.  He is retired and feeling lost.  As usual the characterizations are good and it is nice to revisit some parts of Istanbul.

A Song for Dark Times - Ian Rankin

 Latest Rankin novel.  John Rebus has now been retired for a while and is aging noticeably - he actually moves out of his apartment because of difficulties with the stairs.  He is looking like an old man.  The focus this time is on the shady world of financing big development projects and also on the shocking land ownership situation in Scotland where a few people, more and more of them rich foreigners, own vast amounts of the country - I think the statistic is around 90%, but I could be a bit high there.  A leftover from the closing in of the commons and the expulsion of tenant farmers by noble land owners and clan chieftains in the late 18th and early 19th century.

A good read, but maybe not quite as good as many of the previous.  I wonder how much life is left in Rebus as a character...

Allah n'est pas obligé - Ahmadou Kourouma

 Un livre par un auteur du Côte d'Ivoire.  Il raconte l'histoire d'un jeune enfant qui se joigne aux armées privées en tant qu'enfant soldat.  C'est un récit des événements de sa vie, mais il y a très peu de batailles.  C'est surtout une présentation des croyances, du zeitgeist, des gens qui habitent dans la région, et de ce point de vue, c'est très intéressant.  Ils vivent dans un monde ou la raison compte pour rien.  Tout est expliqué par la magie, par les croyances traditionnelles, par une sorte de folie collective.  Et ce n'est point un portrait romantique ou nostalgique de cette mentalité - cela ne mène qu'au désastre.  

J'aimerais explorer un peu plus cette littérature africaine en français.