New Books
"When a twelve-year-old boy is found strangled and hideously mutilated it looks like the work of a sex killer.
There are some bizarre clues: tangerine lipstick, a coded message, an accidental drowning, the death of a dog and a sliced caterpillar ... Lieutenant Kramer of the Trekkersburg Murder Squad and his Zulu colleague, Sergeant Zondi, really have to sweat it out before the facts make any kind of sense."
"Kate Shugak returns to her roots in the far Alaskan north, after leaving the Anchorage D.A.'s office. Her deductive powers are definitely needed when a ranger disappears. Looking for clues among the Aleutian pipe-liners, she begins to realize the fine line between lies and loyalties--between justice served and cold murder."
The Scandi's Part 2 (The Swedish Contingent)
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| Karin Alvtegen |
"Peter Brolin is sitting by himself in Nyléns café. Heavily in debt, unable to improve his situation and waiting for another fit of angst. Suddenly the door opens and a woman unknown to him walks up to his table. Obviously she mistakes him for someone else, and Peter is, due to his present state of periodical panic attack unable to protest. She disappears and leaves a parcel behind – for 1000 Swedish kronor, he is to deliver it to her husband. The parcel and the frightening content drags Peter into a nightmare, in search for this insane, obsessed woman – a pursuit in which he is eventually forced to confront the shadows of his own past."
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| Lars Kepler |
"My first exposure to Lars Kepler. I enjoyed this story very much. I had worried that it was too long and might run out of steam, but the story is well-paced, lots of tension and an excellent plot. Very interesting concept, a disgraced psychologist/ hypnotist, Erich is called in by the police to help with a case, to potentially save the life of a young woman. His actions have consequences that will lead Erich, Detective Inspector Joona Linna, Erich's wife, Simone and her father, an ex policeman, on a tense, action-filled chase to catch the killer and also try and save their son. So many twists and turns in this story, an excellent back-story and you have a well-crafted thriller. Looking forward to reading more of Lars Kepler. (4 stars)"
"On a summer night, police recover the body of a young woman from an abandoned pleasure boat drifting around the Stockholm archipelago. Her lungs are filled with brackish water, and the forensics team is sure that she drowned. Why, then, is the pleasure boat still afloat, and why are there no traces of water on her clothes or body? The next day, a man turns up dead in his state apartment in Stockholm, hanging from a lamphook in the ceiling. All signs point to suicide, but the room has a high ceiling, and there's not a single piece of furniture around -- nothing to climb on. Joona Linna begins to piece together the two mysteries, but the logistics are a mere prelude to a dizzying and dangerous course of events. At its core, the most frightening aspect of The Nightmare isn't its gruesome crimes -- it's the dark psychology of its characters, who show us how blind we are to our own motives."
The other books in the series are -
- The Fire Witness (2011)
- The Sandman (2012)
- Stalker (2014)
- The Rabbit Hunter (2016)
- Lazarus (2018 / not yet translated)
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| Camilla Lackberg |
"I have mixed feelings about this book. Overall, I enjoyed it, but I think that Camilla was trying a bit too hard. By that I mean that there were little threads in the story that just drifted off and ultimately meant nothing. Maybe that's what she intended. I'm thinking of the school teacher with agoraphobia that Erica visits who has some sort of secret (obviously related to events that are discovered later on by Patrick). But it's just left there, hanging, with no sort of resolution. The same thing occurs with Erica's sister and what takes place with Anna and her husband. Now maybe these are explored in future stories, but it did leave me somewhat frustrated. Having complained above, I do like the characters of Erica and Patrick and I enjoyed their burgeoning romance. I also like Annika, the secretary at the police station, who assists Patrick with gathering information. The story/ mystery was interesting and disturbing. I will try the next book to see how her style develops. I think it's worth the effort. One other point I will make is that I was satisfied with the translation of Stephen Murray. This has been hit and miss with some of my other Scandinavian authors and can impact on my enjoyment of the story. An entertaining first book. (3 stars)"
"During an unusually hot July, detective Patrik Hedstrom and Erica Falck are enjoying a rare week at home together, nervous and excited about the imminent birth of their first baby. Across town, however, a six-year-old boy makes a gruesome discovery that will ravage their little tourist community and catapult Patrik into the center of a terrifying murder case.
The boy has stumbled upon the brutally murdered body of a young woman, and Patrik is immediately called to lead the investigation. Things get even worse when his team uncovers, buried beneath the victim, the skeletons of two campers whose disappearance had baffled police for decades. The three victims’ injuries seem to be the work of the same killer, but that is impossible: the main suspect in the original kidnappings committed suicide twenty-four years ago.
When yet another young girl disappears and panic begins to spread, Patrik leads a desperate manhunt to track down a ruthless serial killer before he strikes again."
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| Stieg Larsson |
"It’s about the disappearance forty years ago of Harriet Vanger, a young scion of one of the wealthiest families in Sweden . . . and about her octogenarian uncle, determined to know the truth about what he believes was her murder.
It’s about Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently at the wrong end of a libel case, hired to get to the bottom of Harriet’s disappearance . . . and about Lisbeth Salander, a twenty-four-year-old pierced and tattooed genius hacker possessed of the hard-earned wisdom of someone twice her age—and a terrifying capacity for ruthlessness to go with it—who assists Blomkvist with the investigation. This unlikely team discovers a vein of nearly unfathomable iniquity running through the Vanger family, astonishing corruption in the highest echelons of Swedish industrialism—and an unexpected connection between themselves."
"The Girl Who Played with Fire is the second book in the Lisbeth Salander series. I've had it on my bookshelf for a couple of years and I'm glad that I finally dusted it off. Lisbeth, after the events of the first book, has left Sweden and spent the last couple of years traveling around the world. We find her in Grenada, still keeping tabs on events in Sweden and also on a troublesome man who has some sort of secrets. Back in Sweden Blomquist is working with a young journalist and his wife to publish a book and series of articles in his magazine, Millennium, about the Swedish sex industry. This will cause problems for many people; police, politicians, etc. Lisbeth returns to Sweden to make contact with people that she left behind on her departure and also to check up on the lawyer, Bjurman, who had abused her when she was a young teenager and who she holds under her thumb now. Her return will instigate a series of events, murders that will threaten Lisbeth's life and those of her friends. The story is told very matter-of-factly but holds your interest. So many people involved in the investigation of the murders; for which Lisbeth is the main suspect. The police include some who hate Lisbeth and want to bring her down, others with more open minds. You will reconnect with Armansky, her old boss who wants to try and help her. As well, Blomquist who trusts her implicitly, also works to solve the murders and proves Lisbeth's innocence. Of course, you also have Lisbeth, such an innocent character, smart, troubled, independent; such a neat character. There are some nice surprises in this second story and an exciting ending. I will have to get the third book and see what else Lisbeth becomes involved with. It's a long story, but doesn't seem long. (4 stars)"
The third book in Larsson's trilogy is The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. Lagercrantz has written two books so far; The Girl in the Spider's Web and The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye.
So there you go. Still a few Swedish mystery authors for you to consider. Next time. Have a great week!
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