Two years ago, I started planning a trip to Europe for the spring of 2020 to visit friends and family. Obviously, that did not happen and I've been itching to visit those places ever since. Luckily, we have plenty of books that are set in those areas and allow for some escapism. Allons-y!

1) The first stop in the trip is the Netherlands. The Lotte Meerman series by Anja de Jager follows a female detective in the Amsterdam police cold case department - inspired by de Jager's father's cases. The most recent arrival in the store is A Death at the Hotel Mondrian (#5, TP, $19.99).

2) Over the border and back several decades, I am revisiting the Gereon Rath series by Volker Kutscher. I thoroughly enjoyed the first in the series, Babylon Berlin, for its immersive look at the political, social, and criminal spheres in Berlin during the Weimar Republic. Those more interested in a modern setting might enjoy Andreas Pfluger's Jenny Aaron series, centring on a female special operative who loses her vision in an accident.

3) To the Alps - Ruth Ware's One by One, (TP, $24.99) is a standalone, where a work retreat becomes trapped in a snowed-in ski chalet in the French Alps. Ruth Ware's writing is almost addictive, I've now read two of her books in one sitting. Also worth mentioning is the sequel to one of my previous Book of the Year selections (Flowers Over the Inferno). The Sleeping Nymph by Ilaria Tuti is due to be released in TP August 2021 ($20.95). We return to Superintendent Teresa Battaglia, a detective with early-onset dementia. Tuti's writing is comparable to the intensity and creepiness of my favourite Scandinavian authors, in the isolated setting of the Italian Alps.