Anya LipskaRecensioni

This was an interesting read. Cassie is a mortuary technician, who sometimes feels the dead are sending her a message. She also has an interesting past, and here she works on the body of the teacher who got her off the streets and into A-Levels. This death is initially thought to be an accident, but of course it turns out to be more complicated. Then there is the mysterious disappearance of the body of an elderly man from the mortuary overnight.

It was difficult for me to get hold of a copy of this novel and I don't think I loved it enough to seek out the other two in the series, but it was a pleasant way to spend a few hours.½

The third (and final, for now) book in the new British crime series featuring Camden mortuary worker Cassie Raven is keeping up the high standard set by the previous two stories. The fact that I read all three books in just one week gives a clue how addictive they are. These are well-written, gripping stories with characters one actually cares about. Like many of these series, there are two things going on here. Each book is a standalone crime novel, telling the story of a crime that is solved in the course of the book. But there is also an ongoing story with the characters who feature in all the books, including Cassie’s Polish grandmother, her father Callum (recently released from jail) and — most important — the beguiling detective Phyllida (yes, Phyllida) Flyte. And in each episode, there’s a kind of dance going on between the openly bisexual Cassie and somewhat more staid Phyllida. As Cassie once puts it (and I’m quoting from memory), “Flyte is so deep into the closet that she can see Narnia.” So it’s not a question of if, but rather when, something more than a professional relationship will develop between the two women. I can’t wait for the next book.

The second book in the Cassie Raven series is as good as the first. This time, the Camden-based mortuary worker investigates a cold case even closer to home: her father, jailed for murdering her mother decades earlier, is back and wants to prove his innocence. Raven is introduced to the world of 1990s London, including Irish folk-rock, protests by eco-warriors and police who go deep undercover to fight them. Turner has created a great cast of characters and continues with a high standard of story-telling. Recommended.

Cassie (Cassandra) Raven works in a mortuary in Camden, north London, where she speaks to the dead — and it seems they might be speaking back. This is the first book in a series of three so far, and it’s very good. Cassie is a likeable character as are many of the supporting cast (plus some really bad people too). Unlike some other London-based thrillers I’ve read recently, this is a genuinely modern story with a powerful young woman as the lead. Cassie’s been compared to Lisbeth Salander, which may explain why I’m enjoying reading about her. It’s a good story — actually several overlapping stories — and I look forward to reading more from this series.

3,5*

I'm not sure why I enjoyed 'Body Language' as much as I did. It swept me along, made me smile, and piqued my curiosity enough that I found myself looking forward to returning to it whenever I had to put it aside to deal with the demands of real life. At the end of the book, I thought, 'I enjoyed that. I'm glad it's the first book in a series. I'm already looking forward to the next one'.

The odd thing is that, from a content point of view, 'Body Language' shouldn't have been a book that made me smile and feel better about the world. Much of the novel was spent with our main protagonist, Cassie Raven, slicing up dead bodies in an unglamorous morgue and most of the rest was spent trying to track down a disturbingly cold-blooded killer.

If 'Body Language' had a scent, it would be formaldehyde, decomp and tears and yet, as I read it, my main reaction was to feel uplifted and hopeful.

Some of that sense of hope comes from the fact that 'Body Language' isn't a typical forensics lab thriller. Cassie Raven isn't Kay Scarpetta or Temperance Brennan - high-profile, rich, preppy MEs with lots of letters after their names. She's a mortuary assistant, not a Medical Examiner. She's in Camden Town, a slightly bohemian, slightly disreputable, yet to be gentrified part of London, not some prestigious Institute in a rich State on America's eastern seaboard. She's bright but dropped out of school and has no degree. She's from an immigrant Polish family, was raised by her gran, left home in her teens and lived in a squat. She dyes her hair bright colours and wears facial piercings.

What does she have going for her? An engaging blend of empathy, compassion, curiosity and a tendency towards rebellion. She's good at noticing details a harassed or inexperienced coroner might miss. She knows how to support grieving family members as they identify their dead. She treats the dead in her care with respect. She always talks to them. And sometimes, in their way, she believes they talk back.

A lot of the book is a showcase to display Cassie Raven's personality and reveal her backstory. This is done in a graceful and engaging way that is made more powerful because one of the bodies 'speaking' to Cassie is the teacher who motivated and supported Cassie to resume her education and leave her vulnerable, crusty, homeless life behind and put her intelligence to good use. As Cassie tries to find out what happened to her teacher, we find out a lot more about Cassie.

I liked the way the 'the dead speak to me' part of the book was managed. It can be read as 'Cassie sees the dead and they communicate with her silently, seeking justice' or as 'Cassie is a deeply empathetic person with a strong need to know what happened to the bodies in her charge, strong observation skills and an intuitive problem-solving style that sometimes manifests as visions of the dead.' I still don't know which of those I'd pick and I enjoy the ambiguity.

There's more to 'Body Language' that the Cassie Raven story. though. The plot is twisty, clever, surprising and plausible. The ensemble cast works well and there's a promising 'Odd Couple' combination when Cassie has to influence the by-the-book, very conventional, very ambitious police officer who is in charge of the investigation into Cassie's teacher's death. I liked that the police officer had a good back story of her own and was more than a foil for Cassie.

I couldn't make my mind up about how well the book succeeded in bringing Camden alive. A long long time ago, I lived further up the hill from Camden and I knew the area well, so it was easy for me to see Camden Market and Camden Lock in my head. I'm not sure how much someone who has never been there would get from the book. But then, thrillers mostly don't bother to describe Manhattan in a way that a European who has never been there would understand. What does come across clearly is the energy of this part of town that still finds room for people who have more creativity than money and who come from such a wide variety of backgrounds that nothing and no one could seem out of place.

I've already bought 'Life Sentence' the next book in the series and 'Where The Devil Can't Go', the first book in the series that A K Turner wrote under the name Anya Lipska.

Twenty-five-year old Goth Cassie Raven, with her dyed, partly shaved hair, multiple piercings, tattoos and an inherent distrust of the police, is the likeable protagonist of this engaging and entertaining crime story. A mortuary technician and something of a loner, she loves her job, always treating the bodies in her care with compassion and respect, talking to them to reassure them she’ll look after them. She believes that the dead can talk and that, if she listens, they will tell her what happened to them.
Following the deaths of her parents in a car crash when she was four, she was brought up by her strict but loving Polish maternal grandmother, Weronika Janek. Although she grew up being told about her mother, Weronika never wanted to talk about Cassie’s father, other than to make it clear that she didn’t like him. As Cassie’s vague memories of him were of a loving, playful person, this left her with the feeling that there was something her grandmother was holding back, yet she felt unable to press for more information.
As a child she tended to be a loner, finding it difficult to trust people; she also developed what many regarded as a morbid interest in dead creatures. As a teenager she rebelled against Weronika’s strictness and although bright, dropped out of school with just four GCSEs, leaving home when she was seventeen to go and live in a squat with her boyfriend. Even when her relationship with him ended, she continued to enjoy her life of rebellion, moving from squat to squat with an ever-changing group of housemates, sharing everything from food to drugs. However, eighteen months later her life changed when, selling the Big Issue on the street, a middle-aged woman bought a copy of the magazine and stopped to chat. She was a science teacher from the local adult education college and soon became a regular customer, always bringing Cassie a cup of coffee and a sandwich. As a result of their developing relationship she persuaded Cassie to study for her A levels, a decision which led her to the job she loves.
However, one day Cassie’s world is turned upside down when she discovers that the body on her mortuary slab is that of Geraldine Edwards, her friend and mentor: she had been found drowned in the bath. The pathologist ruled that her death was accidental but Cassie is convinced that ‘Mrs E.’ is telling her that it wasn’t. With no evidence to go on, other than her instincts, she is determined to do everything she can to uncover the truth. Her investigations bring her into contact with DS Phyllida Flyte, who has recently moved from Winchester to Camden and is feeling very much an outsider in her new team. She appears to be a rather obsessional, uptight woman who, with her ‘not a hair out of place’ appearance, appears to have little in common with Cassie. Their suspicion of each other is mutually instinctive, especially when the body of an elderly man goes missing from the mortuary and Phyllida initially regards Cassie as the prime suspect. However, it soon becomes clear that what they do have in common is a pride in doing their jobs well and a commitment to seeking the truth in order to bring justice to victims of crime.
Although this story is told mainly through the eyes of Cassie, some chapters are devoted to Phyllida’s perspective, allowing the reader to observe the various influences which drive their determined pursuit of truth and justice. Both characters are satisfyingly well-developed and I really enjoyed seeing how each of them coped with working together. In their different ways, and for different reasons, they both find it difficult to trust, instinctively inclined to put up defensive emotional barriers whenever they feel that other people are getting too close. Yet gradually each was able to recognise the other’s emotional vulnerability, adding an edginess to their developing relationship. I was impressed by the psychological credibility of the various ways in which the author explored the tentative ‘one-step-forward, two-steps-back’ behaviour which typified so many of their interactions. In fact, strong character development is one of the strengths of this story, with even the more minor characters feeling fully formed and therefore memorable. Even though his appearances in this story are relatively brief, the new pathologist, Dr Archie Cuff – wearer of an old-Harrovian tie, cufflinks and a genuine Barbour jacket (‘not a knock-off’) and arrogantly disinclined to pay attention to the observations of a lowly technician – is shown to be capable of change!
There is a thread running through the story about how the psychological effects of trauma and unresolved grief can manifest themselves in a range of dysfunctional behaviour within relationships. I was very impressed by the psychologically credible ways in which the author explored this in relation to not only the two main characters, but also as a theme in the lives of some of the more minor ones. I thought the plot-development and the pacing of the story were well-handled, with enough unexpected twists to make it an enjoyable and satisfying read. I had wondered whether I might feel rather cynical about the paranormal aspect of the story but the way in which this was handled always felt plausible – probably because I felt able to analyse it in psycho-dynamic terms! Camden is an area of London I know well and, with its rather edgy, alternative-lifestyle vibe, it felt like an ideal choice of location for as ‘off-beat’ a character as Cassie. I thought that the author’s evocative descriptions brought the area alive, adding an enjoyable extra dimension to the storytelling.
I also enjoyed the detailed descriptions of Cassie’s job and increasing my knowledge of the range of procedures in a mortuary, not only in relation to how the physical examination is carried out, but also the little techniques used to make the body ‘fit’ for the relatives to view. I also discovered that there are differences between a post mortem ordered by a coroner in the event of an unexplained death, and the more detailed forensic one which is required to determine the cause of death following a crime. In the former the evisceration of the body and the taking of samples of bodily fluids for analysis is done by an anatomical pathology technician, like Cassie, with the pathologist examining the organs once they’ve been removed, whilst in the latter the pathologist is responsible for the whole process, with the pathology technician’s role being to assist. From the level of detail included in the scenes set in the mortuary it was clear that the author must have done considerable research. A similar attention to detail was also apparent in her descriptions of what life on the streets is like for the homeless and the drug addicts.
This is the first story in a new series and, with some firm foundations already laid, I’m very much looking forward to getting to know this cast of memorable characters better – including Weronika and Macavity, Cassie’s cat!
With thanks to Readers First and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Anya Lipska’s Where the Devil Can't Gobegins on a building site in London, where an incompetent young Polish builder and decorator gets strong-armed by the hero, Janusz Kiszka, for late payment of a sum of money he owes. The first few chapters develop the backdrop of East London and the fast money, back of a lorry, gambits to be enjoyed in the erection of sub-standard buildings for the Olympic Games.

Janusz’s troubled character slowly comes into focus. A devout but doubting Catholic, a large man whose face carries every trace of worry and wear it has picked up since his twenties, unsuccessful in love, he is fairly well off due to the increase in the value of his apartment. He makes his day to day money from intimidation and other small time activities he would never have envisaged when he was a young science student in Poland.

A mistake Janusz made in Poland, at the time of Solidarity, cut him off from a potential, respectable career as a scientist. Now, he has become a sort of go-to man in the Polish working class community in London, partnering often with a loveable but obnoxious loudmouth named Oskar. Janusz navigates uneasily between the working-class Polish community and his priest, who takes him to meetings and events in respectable institutions, such as the Catholic Church and the Polish Embassy, that still smack of the old, aristocratic Poland.

Janusz is asked to find a missing Polish girl in London. At the same time, the second major character of the novel, Detective Constable Natalie Kershaw, begins to investigate the case of a dead body found in the Thames. Then a second dead body appears, and Natalie discovers that they are both Polish. In alternate chapters, the reader follows Janusz on a physical journey from London to Gdansk (and its area) and then back again, on his quest for Weronika, while Natalie seeks out evidence to find out how the two young women died. At one point they cross each others pasts and if, at that moment, Janusz had dropped his guard and shared information Natalie’s case would have been been quickly solved. But Janusz’s distrust of the police, based to some extent on his experience in Poland, and the mistake he made, prevents him from talking.

On his physical journey to discover the truth, Janusz also engages in a historical journey (which illustrates why the novel is titled, « Where the Devil Can’t Go »), that gives the reader an interesting resume of the the Solidarity movement, the struggle to throw off Communism, the way in which informers were used by the Polish secret police to rat on their fellow citizens, and how all that is still influencing the behaviours of a few present-day Polish politicians.

Janusz is also very aware of the difference between the Polish generations, the old generation that is glad (for the most part) to have said goodbye to Communism, but that is still suffering from the wounds totalitarianism inflicted on the Polish psyche, and the younger generation, which works hard in England but whose main hedonic pursuits seem to be ego-centric, superficial and dismissive of anything older people wish to tell them about the past. On his physical and historical trip, at every step of which he is unknowingly spied upon and led where others want him to go, Janusz, who has worked in London for more than twenty years, comes to the realization that he no longer speaks the language of the place where he was born. He has become one of those Poles who has been away too long. He will never go back home.

Janusz and Natalie both discover towards the end of the novel that all the initial assumptions they had made about their respective investigations were wrong. Natalie finds out why the two young Polishwomen died. In the process of discovering what has become of Weronika, Janusz unearths a sordid tale of collusion with communism and that, in his quest to find the young girl, he had been less of a hunter than the prey.

The novel is well plotted, with many surprising twists, and it's very well written. The book ends in a very satisfying display of fireworks, in which Janusz and Natalie finally come face to face with the bad guys. But that’s all I’ll say about that. I don’t want to spoil the novel for everyone of you whom I encourage to read it.

I bought the book because of its Polish theme and I was not disappointed. Anya Lipska’s description of the surprise Janusz felt when he goes back to his home town of Gdansk, which no longer resembles the colourless, joyless town he left behind, reminded me of the gap between the miserable cities of Warsaw or Toruń I first saw in 1990 and the illuminated, sophisticated and trendy places they had turned into only 10 years later, after they’d had a few years to reconnect with their sophisticated, pre-Communist past.

Although most of the comments about the book I have seen so far tend to concentrate on Janusz Kiszka, I was just as delighted to read the chapters featuring Detective Constable Natalie Kershaw, a young Londoner, who is determined to show her wise, big-hearted Sergeant, « Streaky » Bacon that she is a good detective, while resisting the barrack-room humour of her male colleagues, as she tries to resist falling in love with a fellow cop. I hope that Anya Lipska will be able to develop both Janusz and Natalie in future novels. I will certainly be among the first to buy them.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first two books in this series and I'm glad to report that the third keeps up the high standard.
My only disappointment was to discover that the simmering romance between Natalie and Janusz had gone off the boil as his long term affair with Kasia has finally come to a head as she agrees to leave her no-good husband and move in with him (we like Kasia but Booo). Before she gets the chance however she disappears and Janusz must rope in Natalie to help him find her (Hurrah).
Their characters continue to develop and grow and the minor characters really come into their own in this book especially Oskar (who I love) who proves that there are deep feelings below that jokey exterior. Keep up the great work I for one will be waiting impatiently for the next book.

A big thanks to Harper Collins for a chance to read this book. I was really looking forward to it as I work in Stratford near the Olympic Park where much of this book was set and it was great to read about familiar places. Apart from the setting however this was a cracking read.
Janusz Kiszka, a part of East London’s Polish community, is asked by his local priest to find a missing waitress. This simple request leads him into all sorts of trouble including being accused of murder by up and coming detective Natalie Kershaw. The action takes him back to his native Poland and a secret that goes back a generation.
This was a real page turner. Sometimes the first novel in a series can feel a bit contrived as the reader is introduced to several new characters all at once but I never felt like that with this book. Janusz is a bit of enigma at first, good guy or bad guy? Turns out he’s a bit of both plus being a great cook into the bargain. His best friend Oskar is a fantastic character as well a brought much needed humour into a very dark tale. Natalie’s character was good but less fleshed out I thought but towards the end of the book there were some flashes of great things to come from her.
However it was the insight into Polish history that made this a great book for me. The struggle to throw off Communism, the secret police’s use of informers to single out troublemakers and the clash between the generations was all fascinating to read. I feel like I’ve learnt a lot whilst reading a brilliant bit of fiction.
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to reading the next in the series immensely.

I started reading this novel because of the title. Really... I'm familiar with the quote by the German poet Ludwig Tieck. The quote in German goes something like this:

"Wo der Teufel nicht selbst hin will, schickt er ein Weib", which means "Where the Devil Can’t Go, he'll send a woman" (Kershaw in this particular case).

After reading the novel, I came to conclude that there's also a polish version of the same proverb. Despite the numerous tales and proverbs celebrating the wiseness of old people and promoting their well-being, the unwritten lore (stories and proverbs and riddles and songs) of a culture is replete with reflections of a basic distrustfulness of age.


You can read the rest of this review on my blog.

"Death Can't Take a Joke" or "How to Avoid the Murder-She-Wrote Sydrome" by Anya Lipska


Crime fiction is riddled with clichéd characters, that, in and of itself, is not a bad thing (it's all in the hands of the artist...a few examples come to mind: P.D James, Michael Connelly, Len Deighton, John Le Carré, Robert Littell, Henning Mankell, R. J. Ellory).
Pick up a book at random. Any book. I can tell you with almost 100% accuracy that every character in the book will fall into one of three groups:

You can read the rest of this review on my blog.

For a book written in English, "A Devil Under the Skin" has a lot of awkward sentences and strange uses of English words. I don't mean that Ms Lipska has added grammar slips to make Janusz Kiszka sound more like an immigrant, I mean Ms Lipska writes some strange sentences. Why does she use "a shoe repairers" rather than "cobbler" or even "shoe repair shop"? Or "to recognize even" instead of "even to recognize"? Occam's Razor is not a law in the philosophical or scientific meaning of law. There are others.

This is the first Kiszka and Kershaw I have read and it is fine as a standalone. You get enough background to understand what's going without being burdened by it.

I would have ranked it higher if I had liked the sentences more.

I received a review copy of "A Devil Under the Skin: Kiszka and Kershaw Book 3" by Anya Lipska (HarperCollins UK) through NetGalley.com.

The second book in the Kiszka and Kershaw series set within the Polish community in London, DEATH CAN'T TAKE A JOKE has been a much anticipated arrival, which does not disappoint.

In the first book, WHERE THE DEVIL CAN'T GO, Lipska builds a terrific partnership between the distant, slightly standoffish, Polish PI Janusz Kiszka and an ambitious, young, British detective Natalie Kershaw. This is not your traditional police procedural relationship, there's no love interest (not even a spark of sexual tension), and there's no enforced working relationship (they aren't colleagues). In DEATH CAN'T TAKE A JOKE this relationship is expanded further as once again, their investigations overlap deep within the complex world of the Polish expatriate community centred around the area of Kershaw's police beat. It's a clever way of pulling together an unlikely pairing like this, particularly as Kiszka's involvement here is initially that of a suspect.

Part of the reason this pairing of characters works well is the contrasts. The life of the immigrant forced from a country he loves by circumstances beyond his control, a broken marriage and fractured relationship with his only child, versus that of someone British born, whose major life change is moving in with partner, and fellow cop Ben. Although there are some similarities in that their love lives always seem to be teetering on the edge of not quite getting it right, they both fare slightly better with friendships. In particular, Kiszka's long-term friends have been a source of real enjoyment in both of these books, particularly the magnificently batty Oskar, who is the perfect foil for the taciturn Kiszka in every way. Their enforced abode sharing in this book is the source of a series of particularly funny one-liners. There's also a good working relationship between Kershaw and her boss - he's not the stereotypical thorn in our hero's side for once, and there's a great sense of understanding, camaraderie and co-operation.

Whilst the characters are a big part of why this series has worked so well, they are supported by good, believable and complex plots. There's no surprise in the death of Kiszka's friend being an official investigation, and the focus of his own attention. There's also something elegantly realistic about the way that the connections between a Ukrainian mystery woman, a ruthless Romanian gangster and the unknown Polish man who seemingly jumped to his death fall into place. There are even touches of history lesson woven in - we're learning more and more about the political tensions in Poland, and the reasons why so many people have fled or been forced out.

All of which leads us to the underlying reason for this series heading into firm favourite stakes. Lipska is a consummate storyteller. The characters, the place, and the plots are realistic. The dialogue is well structured, and even the inclusion of Polish terms and slang flow into place without ever bogging the reader down in translation thinking. The combination of plot, personal and pace are perfect. There's real impetus to keep reading here, and that's not because of any impending sense of doom or gloom, it's because of a genuine engagement with the investigators, their friends, family and colleagues, and the victims.

If you've not read the first book WHERE THE DEVIL CAN'T GO, then you could dive straight into DEATH CAN'T TAKE A JOKE. There's enough feel for the back-story of all the main characters that you're not going to be completely lost and bamboozled. Although you'd be missing a real opportunity to catch up with, and then wait impatiently for the third book in the series. Just like the rest of us welded-on fans.

http://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/review-death-cant-take-joke-anya-lipska

No idea whatsoever how or why, but WHERE THE DEVIL CAN'T GO by Anya Lipska wafted into my somewhat dodgy attention span recently, and I started reading it immediately. As in read the sample, bought the ebook and read it as soon as it downloaded.

Sometimes the universe is very kind and benevolent place, because this is an excellent debut book. Set within the Polish community in England, I think I've since heard somewhere that this is the first novel of this sort out of that environment.

The story is set deep within that Polish community, many of whom are in England for work, escaping economic deprivation and sometimes official persecution in their homeland. The timeline is before the London Olympics, with much of the community working on building the Olympic venues.

Janusz Kiska doesn't work as a builder, rather he's an unofficial "fixer" for the community, a solid, taciturn man with a past and strong connections back to his homeland. One of the very early Polish arrivals in England, he sees things as a migrant, and as a long-term resident. Believable, fascinating, approachable although slightly stand-offish and touchingly sentimental, Kiska is a strong man with a strong sense of right and wrong. Thoughtful, calculating, clever and not above rule bending if required, his connections extend from recent arrivals, through to the religious hierarchy of the community and many of the leaders and power-brokers in both Polish and English society.

Natalie Kershaw is a young detective trying to forge her way in the male dominated police force. Her struggles in the force make her another outsider, especially as she's not against breaking a few rules herself. Starting a relationship with a workmate is probably the biggest rule she could have broken. Despite her doubts, she is supported by her boss, and whilst her colleagues might be a bit tricky, a large percentage of the problems she experiences could be put down to her own attitude. She's touchy, prickly and as believable as Kiska.

These two characters form less alliance, more a ceasefire when their cases of missing or dead young women connect up. Kiska working within the community and Poland with knowledge of the people, their superstitions and the language on his side. Kershaw with scientific and, eventually, the support of police resources behind her.

There's a lot working in this book. The characters are strong, and whilst we have a pairing of male and female, the romantic complications are in other directions. The plot elements are cleverly unpredictable, relying on the evils of money, drugs and sex as well as politics, influence and corruption. The book also takes the reader into a community that's not as well known, at least in these parts. Along the way there's some light cast about a background and the consequences of migration and marginalisation which was elegantly done.

Like it when a debut book puts an author on my "to be bought immediately" list. WHERE THE DEVIL CAN'T GO was finished in a couple of greedy reading sessions, DEATH CAN'T TAKE A JOKE pre-ordered immediately. It's going going straight to the top of the pile come March 2014.

http://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/where-devil-cant-go-anya-lipska

Great thriller set in London's Polish community. 'Fixer' Janusz Kiszka and ambitious young detective Natalie Kershaw are likeable protagonists.

Great thriller set in London's Polish community. 'Fixer' Janusz Kiszka and ambitious young detective Natalie Kershaw are likeable protagonists.