August is over and with it the infernal heat. I have been weathering them at the same time with intensity and lightness in my readings. That is, with fire, blood and crime on the blackest days of sweat. And with romances, whims and eroticism in the softer ones. There have been more books and rereadingsof course, but he had to select. So there they are the 3 blackest in this 1st installment.

There are three very international titles that sign a American, an Italian and a French.

No crows - John Hart

The American John Hart had stayed with me this winter when I read Redemption. Then I got hold of The king of lies, which did not finish convincing me. Now it's been this No crows, who yes, he was right again. I like him style of this writer, his prose and his character creation quite deeply. In this novel he returns to compose a good plot and those characters also stand out.

A small community shaken by the disappearance of a girl. One year later, John merrimon, his 13-year-old brother, sees how the tragedy has his mother sunk in depression and drugs and made his father disappear as well. Hell-bent on finding her, or at least looking for her, he is dedicated to investigating on his own, with the help of a friend and also with the collusion of the policeman responsible for the case, the detective Clyde hunt.

Hunt, also obsessed with the case, has in front of his controls and his own obsession, which has led him to become emotionally involved with mixed feelings towards the boy's mother. The appearance of an ex-con giant and disturbed, a disturbing traffic accident of which the boy is a witness and the disappearance of another girl they end up complicating things. And the suspects are beginning to be many.

This is how you kill yourself - Mirko Zilahy

Debut novel of this Italian writer, I had it in my portfolio for a long time and I was finally able to take it. And honestly I had expected more, although it is always good to walk around Roma either way. Here very rainy, dark and with an atrocious monster nicknamed the Shade that populates their underground world. But curator Enrico Mancini and his team stay before they arrive.

Mancini, the typical European cop who has taken courses on criminal profiling at the FBI, is also the classic stereotype of a man haunted by the loss of his wife to cancer. He is at his worst, although his team, competent and effective, it stays by your side.

However neither the story nor the environment nor the resolution reach that point Which leads me to close a book, sigh, and nod in satisfaction. Maybe it's too grim and more is expected from a main character who can do better. Also, you can't avoid comparisons to other Italian cops with a lot more charisma like Schiavone or Ricciardi, to give just two examples. But perhaps is that you just have to give another chance.

Domino effect - Olivier Norek

Very good this novel by this lieutenant of the French judicial police. How it shows when the real cops write black. They just have to take reality and change their names. Perfect gear structure. An alter ego of the protagonist, the captain Victor coste (of whom besides I have taken a kiss), without fanfare, excessive vices or personal torture, just very tired of that dark reality that he sees every day. A team also very real, with his camaraderie, his instinct to protect his partnerriver and its moral conflicts.

Una very well constructed plot with very good characters, And a fierce criticism of the judicial system and especially of prisons. And that domino effect that occurs in the decisions and actions that intersect everyone. To top, fluent storytelling and dramatic bumps and twists without concessions.