Translated Thriller
and Horror Books
The Luke Baron adventures by Ilkka Reme are popular in Finland and will definitely appeal to young readers who like action and fast-paced stories dealing with topical issues.
Luke Baron Adventures
Ilkka Reme
Translated from Finnish
Andersen Press 14+
Operation Ocean Emerald(2010)
Fourteen-year-old Luke Baron unwittingly finds himself trapped on the Ocean Emerald, a floating luxury cruise liner carrying 1,000 wealthy passengers when he tries to return a lost passport to its owner. Little does he know that the passport belongs to a member of a sinister criminal gang who is planning to hijack the ship. When Luke accidentally stumbles across their plan the plotters are none too anxious for him to return to shore.
Operation Black Cobra (2011)
Luke has been surfing the internet and has agreed to buy a fake driving licence from a girl he has met online. What he doesn’t know is that it is all a scam run by a strange man called Nestor who is part of a criminal network. He finds himself an unwilling captive and accomplice in a terrifying plot to attack an armed nuclear convey. Can he stop the catastrophe that threatens to engulf London, the UK and the world?
Operation Code Breaker (2012)
Luke is on a school trip in Rome when he unwittingly becomes a witness and then a suspect in the theft of a masterpiece, ‘The Burial of Christ’ by Caravaggio from the Vatican Museum. As he begins to dig deeper Luke becomes increasingly suspicious. His investigation uncovers links with the Second World War and the Nazis, hidden gold and a secret code.
Another series from Finland:
Salla Simukka
Translated from Finnish by Owen F. Witesman
Hot Key Books 14+
These well-crafted novels by Finnish author Salla Simukka are exceptionally atmospheric; Own F. Witesman’s translation captures all the tension as the stories evolve as well as the descriptive prose, particularly of the freezing, relentless Finnish winter and the searing heat of a hot summer in Prague. The novels have all the key ingredients of a good thriller intertwined around topical subjects such as the murky criminal underworld, dangerous cults, stalkers and obsession.
As Red as Blood (2014)
Seventeen-year-old Lumikki, whose name means Snow White in Finnish, has a motto – the easiest way to get by in life is to interfere as little as possible. When Lumikki stumbles upon 30,000 euros, in 500 washed-out notes hanging up to dry in the school dark room, she is drawn into Finland’s murky criminal underworld, caught up in an increasingly dangerous and tangled web of deception, corruption and murder.
As White as Snow (2015)
Lumikki is recovering in Prague from her recent brush with death back home in Finland and nursing a broken heart after splitting up with her boyfriend Blaze. When a nervous young Czech woman called Lenka approaches her, claiming to be her half-sister. Lumikki needs to find out if she is telling the truth. After encountering Lenka’s ‘strange’ family and coming into contact with a journalist who is investigating a cult called 'The White Family', Lumikki finds herself in grave danger.
As Black and Ebony (2015)
Now back in Finland after her ordeal in Prague, Lumikki has a new boyfriend and is beginning to get her life on track, although she is still plagued by dreams of her ex-boyfriend Blaze. Soon she is receiving mysterious messages and texts from an anonymous source. Someone is watching her and appears to know things about her family history, stirring up memories that Lumikki doesn’t fully understand. She can tell no one; if she does both her life and theirs will be in danger.
The Game and The Crash are part of the Valley series by German writer Krystyna Kuhn. To date, only two have been translated into English and published in the UK.
The Valley series Krystyna Kuhn
Translated from Germany by Helen Ragg-Kirkby Atom 14+
The Game: The Valley 1 (2011)
Set in the mysterious Grace College, an elite school for the highly gifted, it is located in a remote isolated valley in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. For sister and brother Julia and Robert Frost, it is a much-needed escape from their past but when a student goes missing and is then discovered to have drowned in the lake they realise that they are not the only ones with a secret.
The Crash: The Valley 2 (2012)
The students of Grace College have a mystery to solve; what happened to the eight students who disappeared 40 years ago and whose memorial they discovered at the end of The Game? A small party set out to climb the impenetrable Mount Ghost that looms high above the College. They experience danger and mystery lurking around every corner.
Best-selling author Carlos Ruiz Zafón is probably best known for his acclaimed international bestselling novel The Shadow of the Wind published in 2004. Before he wrote this bestseller, he had already published books in Spanish for young adults. These page-turning, gripping, suspenseful novels are full of intrigue. They are at times both chilling and somewhat gruesome in places and certainly not for the faint-hearted. Zafón’s skilful, flowing and elegant prose are conveyed to an English audience by the superb translation of Lucia Graves.
Marina
Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Translated from Spanish by Lucia Graves
Weidenfeld and Nicholson (2013) 14+
Fifteen-year-old Oscar Drai discovers a semi-dilapidated villa on the outskirts of Barcelona where he meets Marina and her father Germán Blau. Marina takes Oscar to the hidden Sarria graveyard to watch a macabre ritual that occurs on the fourth Sunday of every month. They follow the mysterious ‘lady in black’ and begin a journey that takes them to a forgotten, post-war Barcelona where a dark secret lays waiting in the mysterious labyrinth beneath the city streets.
The Prince of Mist
Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Translated from Spanish by Lucia Graves
Orion (2010) 12+
When Max Carver steps off the train in the small seaside town where his family have recently moved to, he feels uneasy; the clock in the station appears to be moving backwards, a malevolent black cat attaches itself to his younger sister Irina and a series of strange things begin to happen. Soon the shadowy, sinister figure of the Prince of Mist appears — returning to settle an ancient debt. Max, his sister Alicia and their new friend Roland find themselves caught up in an adventure that will change their lives forever.
The Midnight Palace
Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Translated from Spanish by Lucia Graves
Orion (2011) 12+
The secret Chowbar Society, a group of seven orphans, who have sworn upon their name to keep the society secret, meet at their headquarters – a ramshackle house they call the Midnight Palace. Its objectives are to help, protect and give unconditional support to any of the other members in circumstances of danger or adversity. This is the background to what turns out to be a page-turning supernatural thriller that begins in 1916 with British army Lieutenant Michael Peake being chased through the dark streets of Calcutta. His life is in imminent danger because he harbours a terrible secret.
The fourth title, The Watcher in the Shadows published by Weidenfeld and Nicholson appears on the 2013 Anniversary List.
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