Review: THE FORGOTTEN GIRLS, Sara Blaedel

• review e-copy provided at Net Galley by publisher Grand Central Publishing
• translated by Signe Rod Golly
• publication date Jan 7 2015
• ISBN 9781455581528

Synopsis (Publisher)

In a forest in Denmark, a ranger discovers the fresh corpse of an unidentified woman. A large scar on one side of her face should make the identification easy, but nobody has reported her missing. After four days, Louise Rick--the new commander of the Missing Persons Department--is still without answers. But when she releases a photo to the media, an older woman phones to say that she recognizes the woman as Lisemette, a child she once cared for in the state mental institution many years ago. Lisemette, like the other children in the institution, was abandoned by her family and branded a "forgotten girl." 

But Louise soon discovers something more disturbing: Lisemette had a twin, and both girls were issued death certificates over 30 years ago. As the investigation brings Louise closer to her childhood home, she uncovers more crimes that were committed--and hidden--in the forest, and finds a terrible link to her own past that has been carefully concealed. 

My Take

The publisher's blurb probably tells the reader a little too much of the plot. In the story behind the mystery Louise Rick is trying to establish herself as the head of the new Missing Persons Department. She has been made many promises by her boss, but it appears he has made similar promises to others. She ends up having to work with Eik, who is someone she would not have chosen, and they don't get off to a very good start. Nor does it appear that her boss's secretary Hanne likes her very much either.

Louise finds herself carrying out the investigation in an area that she grew up in, where some people recognise her and know a little more about her background than she is comfortable with. There is more than one murder, and after the investigation begins another woman disappears while running in the forest.

The plot becomes intriguing as the story unravels, and strands go back decades.

My rating: 4.5


About the author

I've discovered that this is the 10th novel published by this relatively new Danish author.
EuroCrime lists four of them (see below) but the author's website, which describes her as "Denmark's Queen of Crime", shows she has been quite prolific, her first novel being published in 2004. Wikipedia.

Detective Inspector Louise Rick

• Call Me Princess (apa Blue Blood)	2011	2
• Only One Life	2012	3
• Farewell to Freedom	2012	4
• The Forgotten Girls	2015	5

Explore her website

Review: THE SHADOW WOMAN, Ake Edwardson

• Format: Kindle (Amazon)
  
• File Size: 787 KB
• Print Length: 355 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0143117947
• Publisher: Penguin Books; Reprint edition (September 28, 2010) - it was originally published in Sweden in 1998
• Translated by Per Carlsson
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B003XQEVRG

Synopsis (Amazon)

It's August and the annual Gothenburg Party is in full swing. But this year the bacchanalian blowout is simmering with ethnic discord spurred by nativist gangs. When a woman is found murdered in the park-her identity as inscrutable as the blood-red symbol on the tree above her body-Winter's search for her missing child leads him from sleek McMansions to the Gothenburg fringes, where "northern suburbs" is code for "outsider" and the past is inescapable-even for Sweden's youngest chief inspector.

Chief Inspector Erik Winter investigates the murder of Helene Anderson, whose body was found in a local park. Armed with few clues, Winter soon learns that the young woman left behind a child who may still be alive. Further probing leads him more than two decades back in time to a bank robbery in Denmark that a very young Helene likely witnessed. (The perpetrators remain at large, a source of great frustration for local law enforcement.) Winter travels to Denmark, and soon a cold case turns hot. Back on the home front, the inspector must contend with the annual Gothenburg Party, a hedonistic free-for-all that prompts riots among nativist gangs. 

My Take

The novel begins

For three years a massive drug war between the Hells Angels and the Bandidos has ripped through Scandinavia. Antitank rockets swiped from the Swedish military have been launched at club-houses, gun fights have erupted in airports, car bombs have been planted and bystanders killed. A well-publicized truce will soo bring the Great Nordic Biker War to a close, but not before dozens of lives are claimed by the violence, many of them innocent.

While this foreword helps put the action of the novel in 1997 it also confused me until I realised the novel was a reprint.

It actually takes some time, and a lot of careful police work, and a vital contribution by a concerned elderly citizen, to identify the young woman's body. Erik Winter becomes concerned with what has happened to the red-haired little girl who was seen with the young woman. Winter is a policeman who can't focus on anything else once an investigation gets underway.

One of the interesting features of this story is the feeling of history repeating itself. Twenty five years earlier the young woman was involved in a similar incident when her own mother disappeared. Both mother and daughter leave behind paintings that give clues to the life they've been leading. My guess is that some readers won't realise there are two young voices in the narrative.

My rating: 4.3

I've also read  FROZEN TRACKS

EuroCrime lists the titles available in English in this order
Chief Inspector Erik Winter, Gothenburg, Sweden

• Death Angels	2009	1
• The Shadow Woman	2010	2
• Sun and Shadow	2005	3
• Never End	2006	4
• Frozen Tracks	2007	5
• Sail of Stone	2012	6
• Room No. 10	2013	7

Review: THE SON, Jo Nesbo

• e-book courtesy publisher Random House UK, Vintage Publishing on Net Galley
• ISBN 9781448161102
• published in 2014
• stand-alone

Synopsis (NetGalley)

SONNY’S ON THE RUN Sonny is a model prisoner. He listens to the confessions of other inmates, and absolves them of their sins.

HE’S BEEN LIED TO HIS WHOLE LIFE

But then one prisoner’s confession changes everything. He knows something about Sonny’s disgraced father.

SONNY WANTS REVENGE

He needs to break out of prison and make those responsible pay for their crimes.

WHATEVER THE COST

My Take

Jo Nesbo really proves in this book that he is the master storyteller.

A prison inmate, a heroin addict, serving time for two murders, has so far been in prison for twelve years. Another brutal murder occurs while he is on day release supervised by a prison officer.  When he is questioned by the police Sonny immediately confesses to the murder and they decide they have to look no further.

But then Sonny learns something from a fellow prisoner that leads to him retracting his confession and then escaping from a prison that is thought to be impossible to break out of.

To be honest the story that Nesbo develops strains the bounds of credibility but that doesn't seem to matter as he reels you in page after page. You can't help wanting to know how it all turns out. And all the way through there are little mysteries that keep you guessing. 

It is a fairly black book, with widespread corruption, a number of gruesome murders, and shattered dreams.

One of the best books I've read this year.

My Rating: 5.0

I've also reviewed
NEMESIS
THE REDEEMER
5.0, THE SNOWMAN
4.8, THE LEOPARD
4.7, HEADHUNTERS
4.7, PHANTOM
4.7, THE BAT
4.7, POLICE

Review: STRANGE SHORES, Arnaldur Indridason

• first published in Icelandic in 2010
• translated in English by Victoria Cribb 2013
• ISBN 978-1-846-55711-8
• 296 pages
• #9 in the Erlendur series

Synopsis (Random House)

A young woman walks into the frozen fjords of Iceland, never to be seen again. But Matthildur leaves in her wake rumours of lies, betrayal and revenge.

Decades later, somewhere in the same wilderness, Detective Erlendur is on the hunt. He is looking for Matthildur but also for a long-lost brother, whose disappearance in a snow-storm when they were children has coloured his entire life. He is looking for answers.

Slowly, the past begins to surrender its secrets. But as Erlendur uncovers a story about the limits of human endurance, he realises that many people would prefer their crimes to stay buried.

My Take

I remember well reading the first novel by this author, JAR CITY (aka TAINTED BLOOD), first published in English in 2004, and I've been a follower ever since.

Some reviewers are saying this is his best ever. I'm not sure I would go that far, but it is certainly memorable. Detective Elendur has been haunted all of his life by the loss of his 8 year old brother in a snow storm, when he himself was only twelve, and by the impression that he was somehow at fault. Beggi's body was never found despite an extensive search. At times Erlendur relives that time when he was waiting in the cold snow for someone to find him, and he realised that he was no longer holding Beggi's hand.

The story of the disappearance of Matthildur during a similar snow storm is one that Erlendur seems to have known all of his life. He is on holidays in the area that he grew up in, and takes the opportunity to try to find out what people remember about Matthildur's disappearance. At the time some people didn't voice their suspicions and there were some who knew the truth.

Although this is not an official police investigation Erlendur puts a lot of energy into it and eventually solves the puzzle. But can justice be done?

This is an excellent read. Indridason leads the reader through layers of investigation, so that eventually we understand for ourselves what happened to Matthildur, and Elendur is able to come to terms with his role in Beggi's disappearance.

My rating: 4.6

Elendur has actually been missing from the most recent novels in the series: BLACK SKIES and  OUTRAGE, and it seems that STRANGE SHORES will actually be his final appearance - apart from the fact that REYKJAVIK NIGHTS published in 2014 is actually a prequel to the series. The first two novels in the series published in 1997 and 1998 have never been translated into English. There also appears to another novel in the Erlendur series, published in Icelandic in 2011, Einvígið, that has never made it into English.

I've also reviewed
ARCTIC CHILL
5.0, HYPOTHERMIA
4.5, OPERATION NAPOLEON
4.6, OUTRAGE
4.9, BLACK SKIES

Review: CINDERELLA GIRL, Carin Gerhardsen

• this edition published by Penguin Group Australia in 2014
  
• first published in Sweden as Mamma, pappa, barn in 2008
• translated from Swedish into English by Paul Norlen 2012
• ISBN 978-1-4059-1786-5
• 361 pages
• source: my local library
• #2 in the Hammarby series

Synopsis (Publisher)

Three-year-old Hanna wakes up to find she has been abandoned.  Her family is gone.  The house is locked.  She is trapped.

Meanwhile, a teenage girl has been found murdered aboard the Cinderella, a cruise ship that sails between Sweden and Finland.

Detective Chief Inspector Conny Sjöberg visits the girl's home to deliver the tragic news.  But as he investigates it becomes chillingly clear that the girl's younger sister will meet a similar fate - unless the police can crack the case and trap this elusive and vicious killer.

And all this time, somewhere in Stockholm, a little girl waits to be found and rescued. . .

My Take

I recently read the first in this series, THE GINGERBREAD HOUSE, and if anything CINDERELLA GIRL makes better reading. This is certainly shaping up to be a good police procedural series. I read somewhere that Gerhardsen has been working on #7 so I hope we get a few more translated into English.

There are three main strands in the plot: the murder of a teenager on an overnight ferry from Sweden to Finland; the apparent abandonment of a three year old in the flat where she lives with her parents; and the rape of one of the female members of the police team.

The reader knows why Hanna's mother has not returned to the flat, but the police are not aware of Hanna's existence. Hanna herself begins to make random phone calls and contacts an elderly lady called Barbro who initiates her own search for her.

As the blurb says, this book makes compulsive reading. Will Barbro find Hanna in time? Who murdered the girl on the boat and why? And who is Bjorn who rings Hanna and promises to visit her with food?

The internal workings and relationships in the police team get a lot of focus too, and things are not as harmonious as they seem. There is some overlap from the first in the series and I think these are books that should be read in order. Certainly at the end of CINDERELLA GIRL things are not neatly tied off, and so reading this one will be important for best appreciation of the next.

My rating: 4.8

The next in the series is THE LAST LULLABY - blurb from Fantastic Fiction
Inspector Conny Sjöberg and his police colleagues are perplexed by the brutal killing of a family in their Stockholm apartment.

With no clues, the murder inquiry starts with working out how was it possible for the mother, who worked as a cleaner, to afford a multi-million dollar property?

Despite a heavily reduced team, with experienced officers ill, injured or mysteriously missing, Sjöberg struggles to keep the investigation on the rails. But Conny has problems of his own - from a woman he cannot get out of his head, to a shocking revelation about his own past - all of which threaten to compromise the hunt for this heartless killer...

Review: THE GINGERBREAD HOUSE, Carin Gerhardsen

• first published in 2008
  
• This edition published in 2012 by Stockholm Text Publishing
• translated from Swedish into English by Paul Norlen
• Also available from Penguin Australia and Amazon (Kindle)
• ISBN 978-9-1871-7330-1
• first title in the Hammarby series
• 305 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (Penguin Australia)

Ingrid Olsson returns home from a Stockholm hospital to discover a man in her kitchen. She's never seen the intruder before. But he's no threat - he's dead.

Criminal Investigator Conny Sjöberg takes the call, abandoning his wife Åsa and their five children for the night. His team identify the body as that of a middle-aged family man. But why was he there? And who bludgeoned him to death?

Lacking suspect and motive, Sjoberg's team struggle until they link the case to another - apparently random - killing. And discover they face a serial killer on a terrible vendetta . . .

My Take

A reading friend introduced me very enthusiastically to this author. Our local library has the first two titles in the series, and I'll be reading the second.

The reader sees the story not only from the angle of the police investigators who identify the body of the 44 year old man on the kitchen floor, but also from the point of view of one of his victims. As the bodies of other 44 year olds turn up, the police team tries to identify the thread that connects them. But we, the readers, already know what that thread is.

There is quite a lot of background about members of the police team, as we would expect at the beginning of a new series. A female member of the team is drugged and raped and undertakes an investigation of her own into the perpetrator. That thread provides an interesting second story.

The byline on the front cover of the edition I read says "published by the same team that brought you THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO", and I did think "Oh no, someone else riding on Stieg Larsson's coat-tails". The writing in THE GINGERBREAD HOUSE is not as complex as Larsson's nor the story quite as deep, but the blurb is right when it says "dark, suspenseful, and deep".

So here is a new name in Scandinavian crime fiction for you to track down. The next in the series is CINDERELLA GIRL which I gather may have had the working title of PLAYING HOUSE.

My rating: 4.7

About the author

Carin Gerhardsen was born in 1962 in Katrineholm, Sweden. Originally a mathematician, she enjoyed a successful career as an IT consultant before turning her hand to writing crime fiction. Cinderella Girl is the second novel in The Hammarby Series, novels following Detective Inspector Conny Sjoberg and his murder investigation team. Carin now lives in Stockholm with her husband and their two children. She is currently working on the seventh title in the series.

Review: REDEMPTION, Jussi Adler-Olsen

• REDEMPTION is UK market title
• apa A CONSPIRACY OF FAITH (US Market) or MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE (Danish title)
• #3 in the Carl Morck series
• first published 2009
• translated from Danish into English by Martin Aitken
• published by Penguin Books 2013
• ISBN 978-0-141-39999-7
• 632 pages
• source: my local library
• Author website: www.jussiadlerolsen.com

Synopsis (author website)

In a far corner of Scotland, at the police station in Wick, a bottle was forgotten in a windowsill for a long, long time. Inside the bottle was a barely readable note; the only two things that were certain were that the first word was the Danish word for HELP and that it was written in blood.

When the horrifying message in the bottle finally makes its way to the desk of Carl Mørck at Department Q - the Danish department for "cases of special focus" - terrible events begin to unfold. Carl Mørck and his assistant Assad find themselves drawn into a scary case of cults and disappearing siblings, whose parents have never reported them missing. They suddenly realise that time is running short.

From the author
Jussi, can you give us a hint about what the main themes of Message in a Bottle are - what are we to expect?

Well, what to expect? Hopefully, that Carl Mørck and Assad will keep moving in their own strange ways, while a horrible case is turned upside down. They have a lot on their plate in Message in a Bottle. Not least when a new personage, who was definitely not invited, shows up in the basement. At the same time, terrible things happen in Denmark, which... well as you may have guessed by now, I am not going to say anything at all ... Message in a Bottle is a case for Department Q. And as you may well know, they keep it to themselves.

My Take

Department Q are in the middle of researching arson cases, and looking for connections with more recent examples of arson, when the hand written message in the bottle turns up. Transcribing the message is just the sort of thing that Department Q, and in particular Morck's oddball assistant Rose, and her sister Yrsa, are good at. The more letters that Rose manages to decipher from the note, the more Morck recognises that this is a piteous plea for help.

To say that this is a long and rather involved plot is probably an understatement. By the time I'd got about half way through though the length had ceased to matter and I was caught up in the mounting suspense of whether Department Q could locate another more recent pair of victims in time.

I missed reading #2 in the series, which meant that I was in the dark about how some circumstances in REDEMPTION had occurred. So my recommendation is that you tackle the books in order (see below), although I think I managed to piece things together pretty well.

For some readers there will be too many coincidences (see the review on Reactions to Reading.) and certainly the main plot is rather fantastical, but every now and then it hits the level of the possible, and that is what kept me reading.

My rating: 4.5

I have also reviewed
4.8, KEEPER OF LOST CAUSES 

The series (Fantastic Fiction)
Department Q
1. Mercy (2011)
     aka The Keeper of Lost Causes
2. Disgrace (2012)
     aka The Absent One
3. Redemption (2013)
     aka A Conspiracy of Faith
4. The Purity of Vengeance (2013)
     aka Guilt
5. The Marco Effect (2014)

Wikipedia article about the author.

Review: THE FIRE DANCE, Helene Tursten

• first published 2005
  
• #6 in the Irene Huss series
• translated into English 2014, by Laura A. Wideburg
• published in 2014 by Soho Press
• ISBN 978-1-61695-010-1
• 306 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

In this sixth installment in the critically acclaimed Swedish crime series, the murder of a young ballerina named Sophie, apparently an arson victim, sets off shrill alarm bells for Detective Inspector Irene Huss, who remembers the matching details of an unsolved case from fifteen years earlier, when Irene had only just started in the police force. The stepfather of the then eight-year-old Sophie has been murdered in a very similar way, and at the time the girl herself had been under suspicions. The circumstances force Irene and her colleagues to confront an uncomfortable question: can a child be responsible for the cold-blooded murder of an adult? The case awakens vivid memories that take the reader back to Irene's days as a young police officer.

My Take

Rather frustratingly we are once again playing catch-up with quality Danish crime fiction. THE FIRE DANCER was first published in Swedish in 2005, and has only made it into English nearly a decade later.

The case spans Detective Inspector Irene Huss's career with the the Goteborg crime unit. She had been newly appointed when her boss asked her to take over the questioning of eleven year old Sophie Malmborg with regard to a house fire that killed her step-father Magnus Eriksson. Fifteen years later the details of the earlier case come flooding back to Irene when she learns of the death of Sophie also in an arson attack.

What I've enjoyed about this series is Irene's determination to get to the bottom of the cases. She has a very practical attitude to her work. Throughout the books there have been glimpses of her home life, and in the background in THE FIRE DANCE are her twin teenage daughters making their own ways in life, and her husband chef Krister who is suffering from burnout.

A satisfying read.

My rating: 4.5

I've also reviewed
THE GLASS DEVIL
4.4, NIGHT ROUNDS
THE GOLDEN CALF