A woman decides to go for a bike ride on a Friday evening. She never returns and the police start a search which soon turns into a crime investigation

Access to the Same Information

We get to follow the investigation solely through short newspaper articles, police interrogations and interviews with suspects. It turns into a story about shadow characters where external attributes like what someone looks like or someone’s name is of less importance. We only find out about the involved people’s feelings to the extent they have chosen to share that in interrogations and interviews.

The tabloids’ angles and platitudes are long gone, instead we get to follow a tragedy with information of varying quality. It becomes a naked story in that the characters’ thoughts, vivid environmental descriptions and other things that usually are part of a novel are missing. It results in a realistic depiction of the tragedy’s reality, unlike the novels’ structured events and the tabloids’ doctored fabrications. The reader is given access to the same information as the investigators and when the involved people’s stories often differ it is easy to understand the police’s frustration when their work is disrupted.

The different narrative and the language appeal to me, and a lot is familiar from studies of verdicts and investigation protocols, which gives it an authentic feeling.

Original title in Swedish: Domslut

I had intended to write a complete review of this novel, but now that I have read it I feel that it will be difficult.

Is there no story? Yes, but it is difficult to identify it.

Is there no problem solver? Sure there is. An attorney named Póra Gudmundsdóttir, and her sidekick, her German admirer Matthew.

Are they not solving the crime? Wait a minute, that you will have to find out for yourself.

Imagine Harry Hole, Colombo and Tom Barnaby as snipers using pistols, in comparison Póra is the type who would use a machinegun. I get confused trying to follow the story. I cannot stand that the main character follows wild leads without even the slightest well-hidden common thread. Her meetings and conversations with suspects do not move the story forward.

The environmental descriptions are not done properly. I have been to the Iceland and visited some of the places where the novel take place and I do not even get a sense of presence.

The characters are so stereotypical, that I wonder if they could be caricatures, and if so, was that done on purpose?

Luckily we all have different taste in books, and to get a different view of Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, please read Veronica’s review of The Day is Dark.

And above all, read the novel and form your own opinion. But if I were you I would borrow it from the library…

I liked Ninni Schulman’s first novel The Girl with Snow in Her Hair, and her independent sequel, The Boy who Stopped Crying, was even better. I definitely want to read more crime novels by Ninni Schulman, another fabulous Swedish crime writer.

A Pyromaniac is Wreaking Havoc

A house is burned down and a woman dies during a thunderstorm in Hagfors, but it turns out it was arson, and not lightning that struck the house. A few days later two people die in arson, and it does not take long before a fourth person dies in the same way. Everyone in town is scared and the fire extinguishers are quickly sold out. Do the arsons have a connection? Will the police solve the case before even more people will lose their lives?

The Main Character

The main character, the local newspaper journalist Magdalena Hansson, returned to her hometown in the first book and she still lives there. She is put in hot air when she stumbles on clues that can lead to the pyromaniac. We also get to follow her private life, which is almost as eventful.

Somewhere in Sweden

The novel describes life in a small town in Sweden, and how difficult it can be to change people’s perception of you. It is also questioned whether it is safer in a small town, since bullying and loneliness can be just as difficult, if not more so there. I come from a small town and the town described in the book (Hagfors) could be any small town in Sweden (albeit with a different dialect).

Original title in Swedish: Pojken som slutade gråta

The Danish author duo Kaaberbøl & Friis have done it again!

Invisible Murders is the sequel to their first novel The Boy in the Suitcase, and it is just as terrifying and impossible to put down.

The main character and problem solver is once again the nurse Nina Borg, a strong character with an enormous social interest.

Nina is contacted by a friend, who is hiding illegal immigrants in an old car shop. Most of them are roms and many of them are very sick. Even though Nina as a nurse is doing everything she can to help the sick, she is met with anger and suspicion. What is going on? It must be something worse than illegal immigrants. Is it something that cannot see the light of day?

Nina assumes that the bad living conditions are the cause. She does not understand that something else is behind it until she becomes sick as well.

Could it have something to do with the teenage boy that is hidden beneath the floor?

Just like in their first novel, the authors have created wonderful characters. My imagination gets free reign. The environmental descriptions are vivid and masterfully created, which spices up an already awful story.

If I were to make a wish, it would be that the authors gave some more thought to the ending. It was remarkably thin and had a different tone and tempo than the rest of the novel. It was even lame. You can do better girls!

Original title in Danish: Et stille umærkeligt drab

The well-known politician Christian Weber is a proponent of a national DNA registry, and as an example of how it will work he voluntarily gives a sample of his saliva in a TV show. It turns out that his DNA matches evidence from a ten-year-old case where a young girl was murdered. Christian denies the allegations and a day later he has disappeared without a trace. If he tells the truth, what has really happened?

Truth and Consequence

The novel is about responsibility and shows that all our decisions in life have consequences, sometimes very serious ones. But chance also turns out to be of great significance. The novel also brings up violence and threats against women, and the guilt a mother has to live with when she has brought a violent man into her child’s life.

Interesting Intrigue

Current events are mixed up with Christian’s flashbacks and the murdered girl’s mother’s flashbacks. The debate regarding a national DNA registry is very interesting and the intrigue is exciting. The novel could have turned out great, but somewhere along the line it falls short. Too bad.

Original title in Swedish: Ingenstans under himlen

I read Stepping Out of Line approximately a year ago, and now the turn came to Denise Rudberg’s second novel in her elegant crime series about prosecution secretary Marianne Jidhoff.

I really like that the main character is a middle aged woman. Two of her closest colleagues are men, Torsten and Augustin, but Marianne is the one in focus.

Storyline

A partner of the investment company The Chinese Wall is severely beaten in the days between Christmas and New Year’s. Marianne and her group are assigned to the case. The company has a very conservative view of women, but can the fact that the abused man wanted to go on paternity leave really be a motive? We also get to follow another partner’s family where the wife has been abused for years, and she is finally reaching her limit.

A New Habit

Twice is a Habit was much better than the first book, so I have nothing against my new habit if Rudberg continues in this style.

Murder in the 11th House

… Is an astrological detective story written by an American author named Michelle Scott Lewis. The author is himself an astrologer and is said to have predicted a series of economic events as the crash of the 2008th. The book is not translated into Swedish, but is available on the major international sites such as Amazon.com. This is Scott Lewis’s debut crime novel, and was released this year.

Story

David Lowell is a private investigator who uses astrology to in his detective work. Through a person’s social security number, he can pressent a series of characteristics that the person possesses. That way he can figure out how a person should act / have acted in different situations. I’m not much for astrology as science but the book was still a nice mix between astrology and reasoning reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes. In this book. Davids daughter ask him to him to help to clear a client. The client is a dual nature with a bad temper, and David does not know how he should interpret her, but when both the client, David and his daughter is threatened, he realizes that it’s probably more to the case than a fiery temper.

Style

The book is exciting, but not hard-boiled. Cozy but not wimpy, and has a set of great characters. The main character David belongs to the category of super detectives who both have brains but doesn´t hesitate to use force if necessary. It is certainly an enjoyable read and interesting enough to withstand a stretch reading.

I’ve recently mentioned my weakness for the mysterious country of Iceland, in a book review I recently did in Swedish. But I really have special feelings for the place even though I’ve never been there.

My first encounter with a modern Icelandic writer was Yrsa Sigurðardóttir and her debut- Last rituals, which really made me fall head over heels for her style of writing. Even though there is a gloomy atmosphere over Iceland (and that it sometimes rubs off on the characters) there are some tiny sparks of humour in there and I just love the contrast. Unfortunately, Yrsa’s recent books hasn’t been published in Swedish but they are available in English which is great for all you who doesn’t speak Icelandic (which of course includes me).

The storyline

The Day is Dark is the fourth book about the attorney Thóra and the storyline doesn’t actually take place in Iceland, but in Greenland. A mining company in the remote shores of Greenland runs into some troubles when members of the staff suddenly disappear. The natives aren’t willing to help since they are convinced the area is cursed since the original inhabitants all died there almost a hundred years ago.

Thóra arrives at the site with Matthew, her German partner (as in boyfriend, not work companion) and also a representative of the bank that is now about to make a deal with the mining company. Together with a couple of former staff member from the mining company, a doctor and the secretary Bella from Thóra’s law firm, they find themselves right in the middle of a mystery. The group starts to unravel a mystery in the isolated, snowy landscape and they have to deal with the natives’ superstitions and the very stressful and eerie environment.

My final thoughts

One of the things I like the most about Yrsa’s books is that she often interweaves supernatural elements. The reader senses ghosts and whatnots but they actually never make an appearance. It just plays in the mind of the reader even though it is never meant to be taken seriously. Being a fan of both horror movies and books, this tickles my imagination and I really enjoy it even though I really love a good, dry, English detective story any day. By the way, the scenery in The Day is Dark would have been really appreciated by Agatha Christie, I’m sure of that!

Yrsa Sigurðardóttir’s books are not as dark and gloomy as the ones by Arnaldur Indriðason so they might be a good introduction to Icelandic crime stories even though I can recommend them both.

Du gamla, du fria (original title in Swedish)

This is the ninth novel about the journalist Annika Bengtzon. In the first chapter Annika’s husband Thomas and six other Europeans are kidnapped by a terrorist group in Nairobi. In the second chapter a woman is found murdered in Stockholm’s suburbs. More women are found murdered after that. The previous Annika Bengtzon novel was awesome, but this one does not quite measure up.

(A Parenthesis)

The novel completely focuses on the kidnapping and the murders are simply a parenthesis. Speaking of parentheses, I thought the author used way too many. Other than that I like Marklund’s use of language.

Important Topics

It could have been a really exciting story, but despite the fact that the kidnappers are extremely brutal and do not hesitate to kill their hostages I do not find the novel that exciting. The novel brings up topics like the world’s injustices, the global society, and the questionable methods used by journalists. They are all important topics, but a little more excitement would be nice.

The glass designer Justus Hartman disappears without a trace from the hospital. His nephew, the police Thomas Hartman, has not seen his uncle in forty years and does not know where he may have gone. The search begins and the clues take Thomas from Gotland to the Kingdom of Chrystal. At Kosta Boda Art Hotel a man is found murdered in a glass coffin. Is there a connection between the disappearance and the murder?

Glassblowing and Alchemy

The Eternal Fire of Alchemy is the twelfth crime novel about Maria Wern and her colleagues at the police department on Gotland. I have read some of the other novels but not all. Since I have worked at Kosta Boda I had to read this one and it was nice to read the sections about glassblowing. On the other hand, I did not know anything about alchemy and learned some things about that.

Questionable Motive

I liked the plot but I found the killer’s motive difficult to believe. The novel would have been better with a different motive, but the novel is still worth reading.

*My translation, the original title in Swedish: Alkemins eviga eld