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Midwinter Sacrifice (Malin Fors #1)

3.44 of 5 stars 3.44 · rating details · 1,142 ratings · 187 reviews

'An investigation consists of a mass of voices, the sort you can hear, and the sort you can't. You have to listen to the soundless voices, Malin. That's where the truth is hidden.'

The snow covered all the tracks, as the killer knew it would. But it couldn't hide the victim, the man who now hung naked from a lonely tree on a frozen plain.

Malin Fors is first on the scene. A...more

Hardback, 440 pages

Published October 1st 2011 by Hodder & Stoughton (first published 2007)

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Dec 24, 2012 Neide Parafitas rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: own, leituras-2012

Inverno na Suécia.

Nas planícies de Ostergotland é encontrado pendurado num carvalho um homem nu e obeso. O cadáver do homem dá mostras de grande violência, mas depressa se verifica que a neve ocultou qualquer eventual pista que pudesse existir do assassino, o que vem dificultar e muito a resolução deste mistério!!!

Um livro com suspense suficiente para nos deixar agarrados até à última página!!

Viciante! :)

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Jun 07, 2012 Shelleyrae at Book'd Out rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: arc-are, blog-reviews, netgalley-reviews

I have to admit I slogged my way through three quarters of this book and considered abandoning it several times. I didn't for several reasons, one being that this was a Netgalley request, the second because two reviewers I respect gave it a 4 star rating and thirdly because I admired several elements of the novel.
Midwinter Blood is a part crime/part police procedural in the style of what has been labeled 'Scandinavian Crime', not only for the author's origin and the setting but also distinguishe...more
I have to admit I slogged my way through three quarters of this book and considered abandoning it several times. I didn't for several reasons, one being that this was a Netgalley request, the second because two reviewers I respect gave it a 4 star rating and thirdly because I admired several elements of the novel.
Midwinter Blood is a part crime/part police procedural in the style of what has been labeled 'Scandinavian Crime', not only for the author's origin and the setting but also distinguished by the cold weather, gruesome murder and reserved literary tone(think Stieg Larsson, Camilla Läckberg, Jo Nesbø). It begins in the depths of winter in a small Swedish town where an obese man is found hanging from a tree in the middle of a paddock, badly beaten, cut and half frozen. Inspector Malin Fors and her colleagues of the Violent Crime Squad at Linköping Police Department are tasked with discovering the man's identity, and the identity of the killer. The crime scene suggests that the man could have been a sacrifice in the reenactment of an ancient Viking rite but as the victim's life is unraveled the detectives discover a shocking family secret.

"An investigation consists of a mass of voices, the sort you can hear, and the sort you can’t."

It may be that the translation is partly at fault but it was the abrupt shifting between voices, sometimes within a paragraph, that I found the most distracting. The author uses multiple viewpoints to narrate Midwinter Blood, the dead victim speaks of observing the police clustering at his swinging feet, a third person narrative provides glimpses into the lives of Malin's colleagues but it is primarily Malin's third person voice that tells the story.
Inspector Malin Fors is a single mother of a teenage daughter who has a complicated relationship with her ex-husband, her parents, and a tendency to drink too much. She is a dogged investigator, not afraid to push the boundaries and determined to find the answers she needs to solve the crimes she is assigned. The characters of Midwinter Blood, from Malin to the truly disturbing Murvall family are fascinating and I admired the way in which Kallentoft crafted such complex persona's. Even the victim is well developed, and though I disliked the corpses philosophical musings, I appreciated that the author honoured the man with a depth of characterisation rarely afforded to the victim.
The investigation itself was interesting as the detectives followed up leads, evidence and hunches but he pace of the story was a source of frustration for me. I imagine a real police investigation would have a similar rate of progress but the glacially slow beginning simply made me impatient and it barely improved for me until the last few chapters. How much the fact that Midwinter Blood is written in the present tense had to do with that, I'm not sure.

Judging by other reviews of this title if you have a fondness for Scandinavian crime then my review of Midwinter Blood you should not let my review put you off. However for me, while there were individual elements of Midwinter Blood I admired, the novel failed to coalesce into a satisfying read.(less)

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Jan 27, 2013 Bettie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: winter-20122013, tbr-busting-2013, translation, sweden, series, one-penny-wonder, paper-read, mystery-thriller

TBR Busting 2013
sweden>Linköping
translation
one penny wonder
paberback
winter 2012/2013
mystery
1st in series

Translated from the Swedish by Neil Smith

Opening: Ostergötland, Tuesday, 31 January In the darkness.

Don't hit me. Do you hear me? Leave me alone.

No, no, let me in. Apples, the scent of apples. I can almost taste them.

Don't leave me standing here, in the cold and wet. The wind feels like nails that tear at my hands, my face, until there is no frosted skin, no flesh, no fat left on my bones,...more TBR Busting 2013
sweden>Linköping
translation
one penny wonder
paberback
winter 2012/2013
mystery
1st in series

Translated from the Swedish by Neil Smith

Opening: Ostergötland, Tuesday, 31 January In the darkness.

Don't hit me. Do you hear me? Leave me alone.

No, no, let me in. Apples, the scent of apples. I can almost taste them.

Don't leave me standing here, in the cold and wet. The wind feels like nails that tear at my hands, my face, until there is no frosted skin, no flesh, no fat left on my bones, my skull.

Stjärnorp

Lake Roxen

On the back

He has a completely unique
style, an exquisite narrative that
you drink in with pleasue

Kristianstadsbladet

Did not like the the dead man's interspersed narrative breakthroughs at all - that was a plot device too far. Low 3*

#34 TBR Busting 2013§
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Apr 17, 2012 Ancestral Gael rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: audio, fiction, sverige, crime, reviewed

Why did I read it? I have been enjoying Scandinavian and Nordic fiction of late; something about it resonates with me, and this came up in recommendations somewhere, and as the reviews weren’t bad I decided to delve in.

What’s it about? A man is found hanging, seemingly sacrificed, in the woods outside Linköping, Sweden, during a bitterly cold, winter’s night. Malin Fors, a police detective and single mother, investigates, trying to find the victim, the perpetrator and her own way in life.

"An inv

...more

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Aug 03, 2011 Mebhe added it · review of another edition

Que dire de plus si ce n'est que ce livre est tout simplement génial !

Le secret est bien gardé, jusqu'au bout. Et c'est du solide. Jusqu'au bout le lecteur, comme la commissaire Mal Fors et son acolyte Zakarias Martinsson (dit "Zeke") doutent devant les différentes pistes qui s'offrent à eux : le meurtre de "Bengt le Ballon" est-il l'oeuvre de petites graines de racailles en puissance ne supportant pas les personnes obèses ? Mais voilà également que le meurtre ressemble absolument à un rite du s...more

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Apr 12, 2013 Ingrid Verschelling rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011

Midwinterbloed is het eerste deel in een serie met commissaris Malin Fors in de hoofdrol.

Linköping- Zweden. Het is de koudste winter sinds mensenheugenis en 35 graden onder nul. Ergens op een afgelegen plek hangt, bungelend aan een eik, het naakte lichaam van een jonge man, Bengt Andersson. Malin Fors van de politie moet samen met haar collega Zeke Martinsson deze misdaad onderzoeken. Het lijkt op een ritueel offer zoals de Vikingen brachten tijdens midwinter om hun goden goed te stemmen. Dit br...more Midwinterbloed is het eerste deel in een serie met commissaris Malin Fors in de hoofdrol.

Linköping- Zweden. Het is de koudste winter sinds mensenheugenis en 35 graden onder nul. Ergens op een afgelegen plek hangt, bungelend aan een eik, het naakte lichaam van een jonge man, Bengt Andersson. Malin Fors van de politie moet samen met haar collega Zeke Martinsson deze misdaad onderzoeken. Het lijkt op een ritueel offer zoals de Vikingen brachten tijdens midwinter om hun goden goed te stemmen. Dit brengt de politie op het spoor van de Asatru-sekte, die zich veel bezighoudt met de Oudnoorse cultuur. Bengt Andersson was een corpulente, simpele man, die hulp kreeg van een maatschappelijk werkster Maria Murvall. Hij werd veel gepest in de buurt, vooral door twee pubers, die het vaak erg bont maakten. Wie zijn de daders, een sekte of moeten ze in een heel andere richting zoeken?

Als zij Maria Murvall gaan zoeken, blijkt zij al een aantal jaren in een psychiatrische kliniek te verblijven na een brute verkrachting. Verder onderzoek naar haar familie brengt heel wat naar boven. De familie Murvall staat onder leiding van Rakel, de moeder. Haar drie zonen gehoorzamen haar in alles. Door wie is Maria verkracht? En wat heeft dat met deze zaak te maken? Alles leidt naar het verleden.

Malin Fors is een vrouwelijke rechercheur van 33 jaar met een dochter van dertien, Tove. Haar gezin met alle perikelen staat op de voorgrond in het boek, maar dat is niet ergerlijk. Tove heeft een vriendje, kan dat al met dertien jaar, vraagt Malin zich af. Zelf heeft ze af en toe gezelschap van een journalist, die ze dan ook nog op de plaats delict tegenkomt, wat wel eens moeilijk is. Voor haar ex- man Janne heeft ze ook nog wel gevoelens.

Mons Kallentoft beschrijft de ongelooflijke kou tot in details. Overal in het verhaal voel je die ijzige wind en vrieskou. Het volgende deel heet Zomerengel en daar heeft het warme weer een hoofdrol. Eigenlijk is het een serie, net zoals Johan Theorin heeft geschreven. De taal van Kallentoft is niet recht toe, recht aan, maar doet poëtisch aan. Ook het slachtoffer heeft nog een stem gekregen in het verhaal. De hoofdpersonen zijn goed uitgewerkt en de plot is goed. Kallentoft vervlecht de ijzige Scandinavische sfeer en het Zweedse landschap mooi in het verhaal, wat mij toch altijd wel aanspreekt: vier sterren.(less)

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Feb 21, 2013 Katia rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ce roman nous amène, aux côtés de Malin Fors, une jeune enquêtrice trentenaire, à élucider un mystérieux meurtre. Elle vit seule avec sa fille de quatorze ans, Tove, puisqu’elle s’est séparée de son mari Jan.

Malin ne vit que pour son métier, et un matin elle est appelée et va découvrir un homme nu, pendu à un arbre en forêt. Autour de lui, aucune trace, la neige a tout recouvert, et commence une enquête qui va mener les inspecteurs à se poser bien des questions. Notamment, comment est-il arrivé...more

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Dec 16, 2012 Lukasz Pruski rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Although Mons Kallentoft's novel "Midwinter Blood" is subtitled "A Thriller", it really is more of a police procedural. It is a Swedish procedural/thriller, with quite a complex plot. Detective Inspector Malin Fors is the main protagonist. Along with her police colleagues she is trying to solve a brutal murder of a man whose naked and mutilated body was found hanging from a tree. Soon, it becomes clear that the case has its roots in the distant past.

Ms. Fors is a divorced mother with a teenage d...more

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Dec 11, 2012 Valentina rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book took me a little by surprise. I expected a straight-forward thriller, but instead got a beautifully written, almost literary mystery.
The atmosphere the author creates in this book is fantastic. The cold winter landscape seeps into every page, into every character’s consciousness, making it almost another character itself. Malin Fors, the protagonist, is an interesting one. Thankfully, she is not a walking cliché of dysfunction, as many of the cops or detectives in thrillers tend to be,...more

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Oct 25, 2012 Gloria Feit rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It would be easy to blame the translator for the slow, plodding read of this first novel in a series of what purports to be police procedurals, but it would not be true. It appears to this reader to be the result of the author’s writing, and an editor who did not live up to the task. This Swedish novel reminds me of the stories told on how Thomas Wolfe created his work: He wrote and wrote, endlessly, delivering reams and reams of paper to his publisher. It was only Maxwell Perkins, a brilliant e...more

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Oct 04, 2012 Hana Howard rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Midwinter Blood
Mons Kallentoft

Midwinter Blood takes place during a bitterly cold and merciless winter in Linkoping, Sweden. Great for getting out of this heat spell in the U.S.

Detective Malin Fors is called to a murder scene outside of Linkoping. Hanging from a tree is an obese man who has been tortured and murdered. She and her partner Zeke Martinsson find out that the victim, Bengt Andersson was a loner, with a cruel and unloved family history. Because of his debilitations, he also was a targe...more

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Sep 18, 2012 Ronald Roseborough rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: crime, murder, mystery, suspense, swedish

A chilling tale of murder set in the deep freeze of a Swedish winter. A naked body is discovered hanging from an oak tree in the bleak, wind chilled, snow covered countryside. The trail is as cold as the victim's frozen blood. The badly beaten and tortured body yields few clues. The team of investigators, led by Detective Inspector Malin Fors, has to reach out to the public in hopes a photo, based on the victim's reconstructed face, will turn something up. There will be no rest for Detective For...more

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Jul 22, 2012 Ashland Mystery Oregon rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-sweden

Set in the dead, cold of Sweden's winter, Mons Kannentoft challenges Stieg Larsson's blockbuster supremacy. Kannentoft starts the mystery with a fat man, dead and cold hanging in the Linkoping forest, there, in the opening pages, we meet police superintendent Malin Fors.

"In many ways, she's the ideal detective. Instinctive, driven, and not least, a bit manic. Intelligent? Certainly. But in a good way. She finds shortcuts, dares to take changes. But not rashly. Not often at least." That's what Ma...more Set in the dead, cold of Sweden's winter, Mons Kannentoft challenges Stieg Larsson's blockbuster supremacy. Kannentoft starts the mystery with a fat man, dead and cold hanging in the Linkoping forest, there, in the opening pages, we meet police superintendent Malin Fors.

"In many ways, she's the ideal detective. Instinctive, driven, and not least, a bit manic. Intelligent? Certainly. But in a good way. She finds shortcuts, dares to take changes. But not rashly. Not often at least." That's what Malin's chief says about her. Malin's all that and more. She's taken to drink, an insomniac and a single parent of a teenaged girl. She works endless hours and fantasizes about the love she carries for her daughter, Tove. Late home one night, Malin finds Tove asleep on the couch: "She wanted to feel her daughter's weight, the burden of living love." What a contrast to the burden of hate carried by so many in the mystery!

The voice of the dead man floats through the novel, seeing and hearing, speaking but not being heard. His spirit is in limbo, even after the cremation of his body, tormented and tortured but even so detatched, as the coffin and then the body is burned.

Sweden's cold, cold winter showcases the collapse of normalcy, of humanity and civilization. Of madness and loneliness and abuse. Of the loss of light and love, replaced by darkness and fear and suspicion. The supremacy of families that destroy, when love might heal.

There's nothing to smell in the cold of Sweden's winter. Kallentoft often recalls the power of scent, both to stimulate recognition, and also to acknowledge absence. Smells carry many memories: sweet smells of summer, of sausages and vodka and lust; of yellow-red winter apples in a bowl on the polished table; disinfectant in the nursing home, unrelieved with a lemon scent that would help make life there bareable. Each are signals for powerful transitions in the work.

Three cheers to Mons Kallentoft for Midwinter Blood, and to Atria's Emily Bestler Books for bringing this work to the US market and sending a review copy. A compliment too to Anna Dorfman for her wonderful jacket design, compelling, frightening and darkness in the bright white of Sweden's snow.

Midwinter Blood, the first Malin Fors mystery was published in Sweden in 2007 to huge acclaim and translated into English by Neil Smith. It's called a classic, Scandinavian crime novel, and it is. What a wonderful book, introducing so many rich characters and themes. While there are five Malin Fors mysteries, Midwinter Blood was released in the US in January 2012, and the second, Summer Death in June.

--Ashland Mystery

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Jun 13, 2012 Barbara rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Midwinter Blood
Mons Kallentoft
The newest Swedish crime author to be translated for the English market, is best-seller Kallentoft. Midwinter Blood is the first of a series of four – each one representing a season. Obviously, winter is the first season, and the author reminds us on every page of how very cold northern Sweden can be, and how that kind of cold can affect events.
A police procedural, the series main characters are Superintendent Malin Fors and her partner, when she lets him in, Zeke....more Midwinter Blood
Mons Kallentoft
The newest Swedish crime author to be translated for the English market, is best-seller Kallentoft. Midwinter Blood is the first of a series of four – each one representing a season. Obviously, winter is the first season, and the author reminds us on every page of how very cold northern Sweden can be, and how that kind of cold can affect events.
A police procedural, the series main characters are Superintendent Malin Fors and her partner, when she lets him in, Zeke. Malin is young, driven, and having difficulty dealing with her single lifestyle and teenage daughter. Her parents had decamped to Tenerife, but her father calls regularly to be sure she has watered the plants in his apartment. Her daughter is smart, well-behaved and a “good” girl, but growing up much too fast for Malin.
Like a good crime book does, this one starts with a mystery person talking, setting the stage. Within ten pages, a naked body is discovered in the most bizarre of circumstances. A large man is hanging from a lone tree out of on the plains, He has been there long enough to freeze solid, but neither the hanging or the freezing are what killed him. He was beaten and mutilated, large chucks of his body removed.
The first order of business is to identify the victim, and the team learns that he is a solitary, lonely and pitiful figure, disliked and ignored or harassed by most of the town he lives in. He was a figure of ridicule, but who would kill a loner like him? Tips lead them from one person to another and a picture evolves, which includes some dysfunctional teens and a family of outsiders, controlled by their hate-filled mother. Another body sends the team onward.
Having read most of the Scandinavian crime writers, they are as different as any other group of writers in a particular genre. Most of the Scandinavian writers are skilled storytellers, and the geography of where the stories are located is important. Kallentoft does not come in at the top of my favorites, but he will probably be in the top ten. Barbara
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Aug 29, 2012 Paul Pessolano rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

“Midwinter Blood” by Mons Kallentoft, published by Emily Bestler Books.

Category – Mystery/Thriller

This is another mystery/thriller coming out of Sweden. “Midwinter Blood” has been a bestseller and sold over 300,000 copies in Sweden alone.

Malin Fors is a crime investigator and is balancing her career with her home life. She is divorced and has a teenage daughter.

Malin is called out on a cold and wintery morning to the scene of a gruesome crime. A young man, who has been bullied and looked down up...more

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Jun 02, 2012 Michael rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 110-books-in-2012-and-do-it-again, family-relationships, free-book-for-honest-review, mystery, own-it, police-procedural, read-in-2012, reviewed, series, thriller

In Linkoping, Sweden, Malin Fors is a young, superintendent of the police force with a teenage daughter. Malin is called to a murder scene where she sees an obese man who had been tortured and murdered. He is hanging from a tree.

The victim, Bengt Andersson was a man who was ignored by most people and bullied by others due to his weight and shyness. He lived in an area Malin describes as including "...scared kids, teased kids, never go to school kids. Alcoholic's kids."

His father was cruel and ab...more

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Mar 17, 2012 Sara rated it 2 of 5 stars

I'm still slogging through this book, but I'm having a time of it. The problem could be due partly to me suffering from Whodunit Fatigue. I've been reading so many murder mystery/police procedural novels lately and they're all beginning to merge in my mind. Hardly the fault of the books themselves, but it would be nice if there was something fresh and new to read.

While I like that the personal lives of the characters are woven throughout, it would be nice if there was a bit more to them than si...more

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Feb 21, 2012 Mary Gilligan-Nolan rated it 4 of 5 stars

I am waiting for some library books to arrive in a series I am reading, so I saw this on the shelf and the cover attracted me to it. I thought I'd give it a go and it turned out to be a really good read. Another Swedish author, I have a real yen for Swedish/Icelandic books recently, and so far, I have found them great. This one is the first of a series of I think four, although, the author has written some others. The main character here was a female Detective called Malin Fors, a single mother...more

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Jul 25, 2012 Lisa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

At the beginning of this dark Swedish mystery, I was prepared not to like it. First, I've read many of the authors's contemporaries (Mankell, Indridason, Fossom, Larsson et al) and felt it may be a case of 'been there, done that'. And while there are similarities certainly - the nordic culture, the stark environment and freezing temperatures - Midwinter Blood more than ably stands on its own merits.

Malin Fors is a police detective in a small, isolated town who is a bit reckless in both her priva...more

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May 23, 2012 Mathilda rated it 3 of 5 stars

A new Scandinavian crime novel by Mons Kallentoft, translated by Neil Smith: Midwinter Sacrifice….The dust cover refers to Larrson, Nesbo. And then states, now there is a new king of crime, meet Malin Fors: Talented, troubled and with a six sense for the truth. Set in a harsh and very cold Swedish winter that makes the deafening snow seem almost claustrophobic. There is a voice from beyond the grave that haunts the narrative and really gives it that little bit extra and stays part of the story u...more

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Feb 02, 2012 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: crimepieces

In many ways, this book has many of the characteristics that I associate with the Scandinavain crime fiction genre. It is set in one of the coldest ever Swedish winters and police detective Malin Fors is called to the countryside outside the town of Linköping where a man is found mutilated and hanging from a tree in the frozen wastes. Initial investigations suggest that it could be connected the ancient practice of a ‘midwinter sacrifice’, making offerings to the gods in return for happiness. Ho...more
In many ways, this book has many of the characteristics that I associate with the Scandinavain crime fiction genre. It is set in one of the coldest ever Swedish winters and police detective Malin Fors is called to the countryside outside the town of Linköping where a man is found mutilated and hanging from a tree in the frozen wastes. Initial investigations suggest that it could be connected the ancient practice of a ‘midwinter sacrifice’, making offerings to the gods in return for happiness. However, the murdered man Bengt Andersson was a target for teenage bullies and his complicated family history may have a role in the crime.

I thought that the book was very well written. It is narrated in the present tense, something I personally don’t mind but not, I know, to everyone’s taste. The book started a little slowly but once it got going I did find it hard to put down. I liked the choppy nature of the narrative as the reader is moved around different characters. I also thought the characterisation was excellent, with minor characters such as Malin’s partner Zeke Martinsson and the journalist Daniel Högfeldt made interesting. He also writes well about the mother/daughter relationship although Malin does seem incredibly liberal in her attitudes.

What didn’t I like about the book? The parts written from the point of view of the dead Bengt Andersson were well written but I’ve come across a few books recently with passages incorporating the voice of the dead victim, most recently Åsa Larsson Until Thy Wrath be Past. The trouble is it rarely accords with what I would consider it like to be dead. I don’t find it distasteful, just extraneous I suppose to the narrative. The ending also left one particular plot strand without resolution. I found this disappointing mainly because the crime had been so horrific and I genuinely wanted to know the reason behind that particular savagery. It’s unlikely to reappear in future books and I felt slightly cheated by the fact it remained unsolved, particularly as it involved a violent crime on a woman.

But I have to say the book caught me up in its narrative and it became impossible to put it down.
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Jul 18, 2012 Allison Campbell rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: review-copies

"The cold stinks." "Maybe. But it still doesn't seem to have any smell, does it?" I have been on quite a Nordic crime fiction kick lately (along with everyone else), so the publication of Kallentoft's MIDWINTER BLOOD in English (as the first of four novels following Superintendent Malin Fors of the Linkoping police) was exciting for me. While all Nordic crime fiction speaks of cold and isolation, MIDWINTER BLOOD adds another dimension that sets it apart: insight into nearly every character's tho...more "The cold stinks." "Maybe. But it still doesn't seem to have any smell, does it?" I have been on quite a Nordic crime fiction kick lately (along with everyone else), so the publication of Kallentoft's MIDWINTER BLOOD in English (as the first of four novels following Superintendent Malin Fors of the Linkoping police) was exciting for me. While all Nordic crime fiction speaks of cold and isolation, MIDWINTER BLOOD adds another dimension that sets it apart: insight into nearly every character's thoughts, even the dead ones.

It is cold. Bitterly cold. The cold rises from the pages to make the hottest summer afternoon seem chilly. February in Linkoping is always cold, but this winter is extraordinary. Malin Fors is melancholy, musing on her lost relationship, struggling with her daughter's teenage years, dealing with increasingly difficult aging parents. And now with a mutilated corpse hanging from a tree. A professor at the university contacts the police when the scene reminds him of a midwinter pagan sacrifice, which means the killer may not be finished. The escalating mystery is very well-done, with unexpected twists and challenges. The dead man was an obese man who lived on the fringes of Linkoping, but not as an accepted part of it. Was the motive personal, or was he chosen at random, or because of his marginalization, for a ritual?

The dead man thinks, "In a way, it's nice hanging up here." This is not a typical sentence for a thriller, and this is not a typical thriller. The gorgeous language not only describes the cold and unravels the threads of the mystery: it also gives us insight into the character's inner lives. At first, I was not sure the constant interruption of action to share character thoughts (especially of minor or dead characters) was going to work at all for me, but I soon settled into the style and found it illuminating. Fors delves into small-town rumors and innuendo, the torment of the dead man at the hands of cruel teenagers, a strangely isolated family that clings together, and the reader sees their actions and hears their words, but also witnesses their thoughts and feelings. The result is like no other crime novel.

Source disclosure: I received an e-galley of this novel courtesy of the publisher.(less)

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Jun 29, 2012 Vicki rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Mons Kallentoft is Swedish and I have to admit I was drawn to this book by a favorable comparison of his writing to Steig Larssen of Dragon Tattoo fame. This is actually the second classic Swedish thriller featuring Superintendent Malin Fors, a divorced mom dealing with a personal sense of inadequacy which is balanced by excellent investigative skills, which Kallentoft his written. (I would have opted to start with the first one, but it is apparently only available in Swedish.)

We meet Malin as s...more Mons Kallentoft is Swedish and I have to admit I was drawn to this book by a favorable comparison of his writing to Steig Larssen of Dragon Tattoo fame. This is actually the second classic Swedish thriller featuring Superintendent Malin Fors, a divorced mom dealing with a personal sense of inadequacy which is balanced by excellent investigative skills, which Kallentoft his written. (I would have opted to start with the first one, but it is apparently only available in Swedish.)

We meet Malin as she is called to investigate a body discovered hanging in a remote area at the edge of a forest outside the town where she works. It is one of the coldest nights in the month of February. The cold is so bitter and unrelenting throughout this story that it almost becomes another character in the novel. Malin and her partner find an obese man who has been terribly beaten and tortured, apparently before the perpetrator or perpetrators hung him. The corpse has no ID on his body and his face has been terribly savaged. The body is lifeless, but his spirit has remained nearby, and the readers are made aware of his enigmatic thoughts about the death experience and those people who have gathered at the tree who will be faced with trying to solve the murder.

The treatment of the body prior to death causes the investigators to consider whether this may have been a ritual killing by cult members who might still be practicing pagan worship sacrifices. After the police specialists have reconstructed the victim's face and published a photo in the newspaper, several citizens call in to identify him. No one seems to know Bengt well, but they are aware of him and his odd behavior. It becomes increasingly clear that he has lived a very sad and lonely life, his only interactions with others seemingly occur when he is subjected to bullying.

As Malin and her partner Zeke learn more about the victim Bengt and his childhood, they become aware of his cruel father whom the boy apparently killed with an ax to protect himself and his younger sister from further ill treatment. They also learned that the boy had been seen by a series of social workers, one of whom had shown him special kindness, teaching him basic habits of hygiene and neatness, but that woman had been replaced by other social workers who paid scant attention to him.

In the meantime, Malin is dealing with her teenage daughter Tove, who has apparently developed an interest in a boy at school and is telling her mom very little about her social life. Malin is also feeling anxiety about her ex-husband, Tove's father Janne, as well as a news reporter that she has a relationship with, though she doesn't want her daughter or her co-workers to know about that. Loneliness, as well as the overwhelming, relentless winter, is a major theme in this book. Virtually all the police investigation team are dealing with elements of loneliness in their private lives as well.

The investigation brings Malin and Zeke into contact with people who are secretive and bizarre in their behavior, but could they be guilty of murder? Could Bengt have been a predator as well?

The author continues to share Bengt's feelings as he floats through the countryside, and occasionally shares the thoughts of unnamed children in the past who have been treated with incredible cruelty. Is that Bengt, or is there yet another out there who suffered terribly as a child?

The twists and turns of the plot finally reveal the perpetrator and what the surprising and secret behavior of past generations has wrought on the children that resulted from those dysfunctional relationships. (less)

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Oct 26, 2011 Jane rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: passed-on

The opening is striking.

A man’s body, naked and mutilated, was found hanging from a tree on a frozen plane.

It was midwinter and snow had been falling heavily, obliterating evidence.

Malin Fors was first on the scene, and she would lead the investigation. She was a bright and capable detective, but she was struggling with life as the single mother of a teenage daughter. I liked her from the start.

The story moved slowly as the investigation moved forward.

It took time to identify the dead man. He ha...more

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Dec 26, 2011 Sean the Bookonaut rated it 4 of 5 stars

Magnus Utvik[1] is quoted as saying “Don’t Bother with Stig Larsson, Kallentoft is better”. Now while I wince at the promotion of one author at the expense of another Utvik is right about the quality of Kallentoft’s Midwinter Sacrifice.

Kallentoft with help from translator Neil Smith delivers a distinct impression of place, of Swedish culture, along with a chilling tale of murder and the dark underside of family relations.

The Story

A man is found beaten, tortured and hung in a tree. A midwinter...more

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Sep 13, 2012 Autumn rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I jumped on the Scandinavian Writer bandwagon like two years ago and I haven't found one I didn't like. Mons Kallentoft is the next Swedish writer that I took on and I wasn't disappointed.

His first American release is Midwinter Blood. Thank you publishing people for releasing the first book in the series first! I really don't like when the first book released in the US is like the 5th book in the series.

Midwinter Blood is about the case of an obese man found hanging in a tree on a cold, lonely m...more

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Apr 15, 2012 Lee rated it 3 of 5 stars

Another great Scandinavian crime thriller, the just keep churning them out. This book is written with a kind of poetic artistry that seems to be the authors signature and style.

The book is set in that harsh Swedish winter that makes the deafening snow seem almost claustrophobic. There is a voice from beyond the grave that haunts the narrative and really gives it that little bit extra.

at the end of the book some of the mystery within it still lives on but at the same time it leaves you feeling sa...more

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Sep 16, 2012 Mark rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: crime

“Winters here are the devil’s work.”

The body of an obese man is found hanging in a large oak tree, like a grotesque art piece. He is stripped bare and horribly disfigured. It is mid-February and brutally cold. Malin Fors is the police detective in charge. She is in her early 30s, an over-worked single mother, living in a rural town in Sweden. The murder investigation takes her down a long convoluted trail, filled with a frigid nastiness.
This is the 1st of a series and for me, it was flawed. The...more

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Jan 15, 2013 Pat rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nordic-crime-fiction

Against a backdrop of a very cold Swedish winter, a bizare murder is investigated by detective Malin Fors, a single mother trying to balance a hectic professional life with home life. A convincing character who is fallible and full of worries about work, lovelife, her daughter and the choices she has made.

More of a police procedural than thriller, Kallentoft delves into the human bonds that define our existense with a dark, bleak, meandering style that may not be everyone's cup of tea. This sto...more

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May 09, 2013 Bob rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Such a promising start but the narrative style became too distracting to enjoy what was going on. The author is a fan of Cormac McCarthy and it shows. Unfortunately, although the style is clever, I'm not sure it's appropriate for this type of novel. The disconnect of not knowing for certain whose head you're in or whose perspective you're seeing things from can be seen as clever writing but is not necessarily enjoyable.
I found parts of it confusing. This was either intentional, in which case it...more

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About Mons Kallentoft

After being awarded the Swedish equivalent to the Whitbread Award for his debut novel Pesetas, Mons Kallentoft chose to give his own unique take on the classic Scandinavian crime novel. His success was immediate. The first book in the series about superintendent Malin Fors received unanimous praise from the national critics; it also conquered the bestseller charts and has today sold more than 300,...more After being awarded the Swedish equivalent to the Whitbread Award for his debut novel Pesetas, Mons Kallentoft chose to give his own unique take on the classic Scandinavian crime novel. His success was immediate. The first book in the series about superintendent Malin Fors received unanimous praise from the national critics; it also conquered the bestseller charts and has today sold more than 300,000 copies in Sweden alone.

Was Mons Kallentoft born to be a storyteller? Yes, perhaps. Because, considering his upbringing, literature was not the obvious path in life. Mons grew up in a working-class home in the provincial town of Linköping, Sweden. Books were a rare phenomenon in his house; instead the young author spent his time playing football and ice hockey.

He discovered literature when he was about fourteen, and bedridden following a severe sports injury. Kafka, Hemingway and George Orwell introduced the young man to a whole new world.

The path to his own authorship led him through the advertising business, journalism and the shady side of Madrid. His debut, Pesetas, which was awarded the Swedish equivalent to the Whitbread Award, takes place among cocaine dealers and bankrobbers in the Spanish capital.

Following another couple of critically acclaimed novels (Marbella Club and Attractive, Healthy & Spontaneous), as well as an well-regarded travelogue/food essay (Food Noir), Mons Kallentoft chose to give his own unique take on the classic Scandinavian crime novel. His success was immediate.

The first book in the series about Superintendent Malin Fors received unanimous praise from the national critics; it also conquered the bestseller charts and has today sold more than 220 000 copies in Sweden alone. The novel recently appeared on the Norwegian bestseller charts and the series about Malin Fors will soon be published by leading publishing houses in nine countries.

Through the series about Malin Fors, Mons Kallentoft re-establishes his connection to his childhood home – a place that the truly cosmopolitan Kallentoft has spent all his life running from. The result is an innovative series of crime novels that are both poignant and packed full of suspense.

Critics and readers agree: Mons Kallentoft was born to tell the story about Malin Fors.
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Quotes from Midwinter Blood

“Nunca se sabe nada ao certo, Malin, antes de se saber. Até então prevalece a ignorância.” — 1 person liked it

“Procuramos memórias, visitamos as nossas vida.Desolador, não? Mas são assim os hábitos dos vivos.” — 1 person liked it

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Midwinter Sacrifice (Malin Fors #1)

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