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The Black Path (Rebecka Martinsson #3)

by Åsa Larsson

3.74 · rating details · 380 ratings · 74 reviews

A grisly torture-murder, a haunting northern Sweden backdrop, and a dark drama of twisted sexuality collide memorably in Åsa Larsson’s masterpiece of suspense—a tale of menace, hope, longing, and darkness beyond imagining.

The dead woman was found on a frozen lake, her body riddled with evidence of torture. Instantly, Inspector Anna-Maria Mella knows she needs help. Because...more

Paperback, 400 pages

Published July 29th 2008 by Delta (first published 2006)

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Feb 03, 2011

Karen rated it

Shelves: scandinavian, crime

THE BLACK PATH is the sort of book that you need to read with your preconceptions and expectations firmly locked in a drawer. Having not read the second book in the series yet, I know something happened to Rebecka in that book, but the details aren't important to understanding, from the start of THE BLACK PATH, that she has been through a traumatic experience and she's struggling back into normal life.

But one thing you will find with THE BLACK PATH is that Rebecka, or Anna-Maria or ...moreTHE BLACK PATH is the sort of book that you need to read with your preconceptions and expectations firmly locked in a drawer. Having not read the second book in the series yet, I know something happened to Rebecka in that book, but the details aren't important to understanding, from the start of THE BLACK PATH, that she has been through a traumatic experience and she's struggling back into normal life.

But one thing you will find with THE BLACK PATH is that Rebecka, or Anna-Maria or any of the other characters that either reoccur from earlier books, or step forward into the limelight in this book, won't necessarily remain as the focus of the book. This isn't a book that's specifically about a single person's journey through the events that lead up to a crime (perhaps with the exception of the victim herself), but a story about the swirling circumstances of lives lived. That's not to say that the book has an unfocused or messy feel to it, rather the opposite. But it does give the way the story unfolds a fascinating, sort of ephermeral feel to it, as the focus moves around, and the events that somebody - but not everybody - are involved in, all lead to a resolution.

I have to say, that for me, there was a strong sense of Swedish about this book. But this was a combination of things. The weather, the environment, the sensibility of the people, the way that the supernatural interwove with the mundane facts of life. The book also incorporates some glimpses into Sami culture which were absolutely fascinating.

As with the first of this series that I read, I still find Rebecka and Anna-Maria slightly offputting as characters. Don't know why, but they just are. Having said that, they are fascinating, and people I'm interested in and care about slightly from afar. There's some real skill in writing a story with characters like these that keeps you so involved. But I was also very taken with the lack of predictable styling of the book - I liked the way that the story evolved without the need to ensure series characters got their alloted page space. (less)

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Dec 18, 2011

Ellie rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: nordic-noir, scandanavian, series, mystery, 2011ind-chal200bks, fiction

The Black Path by Åsa Larsson is the third in her series of mysteries featuring Rebecka Martinsson and is a wonderful story. All the characters were vividly drawn and all the story arcs interesting. I never wanted it to be over, a feeling I rarely have as I rush from one book to another. And it did what few books ever do: it made me cry. And I still loved it.

The book begins with what seems to be the certain death of a man on the ice but rapidly changes course when he discovers the bo...more

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Jan 11, 2012

Lane rated it

Shelves: foreign-setting, mystery, scandinavian

I've become a big fan of Asa Larsson. I see no need to compare her to the likes of Karin Fossum, whom I also love to read. She can stand on her own merits.

Personally, I think that Black Path is excellent. I like all of the storylines and am not troubled by the fact that our heroine, Rebeka, isn't always the main focus of the book. I enjoy Anna-Maria Mella and her partner, Sven-Erik, tremendously, and I think that the back and forth of the different plots was skillfully handled and ...more

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Mar 19, 2009

Trilby rated it

Shelves: crime, detective-story, mystery, thriller, sweden

Do not--I repeat--do not attempt to read this book if you are feeling even a tiny bit sad. Chapter after chapter of Bergmanesque neurosis, angst, violence, perversion, and sadism will have you heading directly into the nearest black bog. The ragged psyches of the many deftly drawn characters in this book range from a woman lawyer obsessing like a 13-year-old over an imagined romantic interest to a millionaire sociopath. Damn, don't these Swedes have therapists or clinical psychotropic drugs? S...more

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Jan 17, 2011

Jan G rated it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 03, 2009

Jess rated it

This lost a 4 star rating for reasons I don't normally have - I found the large number of characters with foreign names hard to remember, the translation (original is not in English) was often awkward, and it's hard for me to emotionally connect to a situation that I can't imagine being in (like planning government coup or a diet of animal pastes and weird fish). The method of jumping back in time didn't really add to the effect of the story, it just made it a bit more confusing. For these rea...more

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Oct 02, 2008

Carolyn rated it

damn, she's good--each book, this is the 3rd, gets better and fascinating. im beginning to see a theme in mysteries, the greed and meanness of mining interests, esp first world in third world countries....same in shadow walker. plus some spirit world thrown in, a la colin cotteril. plus its the cold world of sweden!

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Oct 08, 2011

Laura rated it

I thought that this was by far the strongest book in the series. Rebecka is back, she's working in Kiruna as a prosecutor and has her own role in the crimes we're following. I think the relationships she's developing locally are interesting (especially the contrast between her and Anna-Maria Mella). I also like the direction things are going in with her previous boss. This murder was the most involved and least spiritual, but I liked that. The only thing that was a little distracting was Es...more

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Dec 09, 2008

Nicole rated it

Shelves: translated-from-swedish

Very ambitious -- maybe overly so at times -- tale that touches on everything from Sami art, mental health, and family relationships to globalization, international finance, and social mobility and the Swedish welfare state. Well-drawn northern Swedish setting, and mostly interesting characters.

I thought that some angles of the Inna/Diddi sibling relationship were unnecessary and distracting (I will not say more so as not to add a spoiler), and I never was convinced as to why Ester ...more

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Jul 05, 2009

Cynthia rated it

I'm beginning to think that if you're a writer living in the subartic you produce only dense, dark books. This is certainly no exception, although so lyrically written and engrossing the rather cliche-d plot doesn't matter at all. Moody: both people end environment reflect the darkness radiating from the (oops, plot spoiler). Still, the characters are wonderfully rounded and human, though often in terrible internal pain. The lead detective is an exception: wonderful, happy family life; the kind...more

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May 24, 2010

Maddy rated it

Shelves: 2008-reads, tops

PROTAGONIST: Anna-Maria Mella, detective; Rebecka Martinsson, attorney
SETTING: Kiruna (north Sweden)
SERIES: #3 of 3
RATING: 5.0

It's early spring, and the ice on the lake in Tornetrask, northern Sweden, is thick. The inhabitants of nearby Kiruna journey here to go ice fishing, setting up small cabins on runners called arks, which protect them as they fish. A powerful storm blows one of the arks away, and its owner scrambles into a nearby cabin to escape from the ele...morePROTAGONIST: Anna-Maria Mella, detective; Rebecka Martinsson, attorney
SETTING: Kiruna (north Sweden)
SERIES: #3 of 3
RATING: 5.0

It's early spring, and the ice on the lake in Tornetrask, northern Sweden, is thick. The inhabitants of nearby Kiruna journey here to go ice fishing, setting up small cabins on runners called arks, which protect them as they fish. A powerful storm blows one of the arks away, and its owner scrambles into a nearby cabin to escape from the elements. And what he finds is more than enough to chill him to the bones – the body of a woman who appears to have been tortured.

Anna-Maria Mella is the lead detective on the case, assisted by Sven-Erik Stalnacke. They soon establish that the victim is Inna Wattrang and that she had been killed elsewhere. The investigation is going slowly until they are helped by a recently hired special prosecutor named Rebecka Martinsson. At one time, Rebecka was a powerful attorney in the big city. However, she was the victim of a horrible crime and has had a lot of difficulty managing to recover from what happened to her. It suits her perfectly to be working in a remote area without a lot of people contact. She is dedicated and intuitive; through her efforts, the case moves forward.

Inna and her brother, Diddi, were key employees of Kallis Mining, an endeavor set up by Mauri Kallis who is a brilliant entrepreneur. He is able to see opportunities far before others realize their potential and has become hugely successful as a result. At the moment, he is working on a mining venture in Uganda that is experiencing a lot of trouble due to the local political regime. However, the potential rewards are enormous.

Martinsson's research reveals that another person who had an association with Kalllis Mining died recently, supposedly committing suicide. Could Mauri Kallis be behind these deaths? Is there something he is trying to hide? Is a competitor trying to bring him down? Or is it someone else in his organization working for purposes only known to them?

THE BLACK PATH is one of the best books that I have read in a very long time. The reality is that I can find nothing that did not work for me. The setting was wonderfully drawn, with poetic descriptions that made me feel and see the environment being described. The plot had just the right degree of complexity; there were several different directions that it followed, all leading to a resolution that was perfectly wrought. The denouement was exciting and suspenseful, and I loved how the black path was integrated into the conclusion.

There was a large cast of characters, but each of them was treated with care and had an important part in the narrative. Reading the book was like playing a game of chess with pieces that had been carved by a master. Although some of them may have been more secondary than others, each was finely detailed and essential to playing the game.

On a scale of 1 to 5, THE BLACK PATH was a 6.

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Jan 01, 2010

Bernadette rated it

Shelves: read-2010, sweden

One night the body of a woman is discovered in an ice fishing hut near Kiruna in northern Sweden. Inspector Anna-Maria Mella and her colleague Sven-Erik Stalnacke soon discover the body is that of Inna Wattrang, a senior executive with Kallis Mining company but they can’t so easily learn who killed her. Was it her brother Diddi? Her boss Mauri Kallis? One of the many men she was intimate with? Or something to do with the company’s dealings in strife-torn Uganda? The police meet a wall of silence...moreOne night the body of a woman is discovered in an ice fishing hut near Kiruna in northern Sweden. Inspector Anna-Maria Mella and her colleague Sven-Erik Stalnacke soon discover the body is that of Inna Wattrang, a senior executive with Kallis Mining company but they can’t so easily learn who killed her. Was it her brother Diddi? Her boss Mauri Kallis? One of the many men she was intimate with? Or something to do with the company’s dealings in strife-torn Uganda? The police meet a wall of silence when trying to interview Inna Wattrang’s family and associates so can only piece together the case slowly.

Åsa Larsson creates memorable characters like few other people I’ve read. In this book, the third of what Larsson says is a 6-book series, there are half a dozen people who slowly but intriguingly reveal themselves over the course of the book. There’s Rebecka Martinsson, the main protagonist of the series, who is struggling with depression after the events of the previous two books. At the beginning of the book she is institutionalised and throughout the story she continues to struggle in a very realistic way. Each of the other characters also displays their own psychological problems including Inna’s brother Diddi whose dependence on drugs makes him increasingly erratic. Mauri Kallis and his sister Ester had separate but equally fractured upbringing and this plays out in the disturbed adults both have become. Somehow Larsson made me feel as if I were inside the heads of this disparate and disturbed group of people and their different perspectives on their worlds were utterly fascinating.

For 90% of this book the plot builds at a steady pace with details being teased out gently as each person’s story adds another morsel. Unfortunately the final 10% reads a bit like someone bought Michael Bey in to finish it off and the high-action sequences offer a jarring conclusion to an otherwise excellent story. It’s not that I’m opposed to thriller-style endings but sometimes they are out-of-place.

I certainly don’t subscribe to the view that all Scandinavian crime fiction is bleak but this is one title that does fit that category. Even the usually optimistic and upbeat Anna-Maria Mella has her share of gloomy moments in this book and I have to say it was nice to be able to walk out into the bright Australian summer sunshine after finishing. However, don’t be turned off by the dark nature of this superbly translated tale because it contains some of the finest characters you’ll read: you probably won’t like them all but I doubt you’ll forget any of them in a hurry.(less)

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Nov 13, 2009

Linny rated it

Shelves: mystery

Larsson adds layers of plot, characters, and create a complex melange with a backdrop of current affairs in Africa, mining, politics, corporate malfeance as well as the Swedish north country. She offers readers internal dialogue, complex characters, and plenty suspense. Although she sometimes presages action, it doesn't seem to matter - like "in 2 hours she'll be dead" because it's often back story. Well liked by US reviewers, prized in Sweden. Larsson has other Rebecka Martinsson book...more

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May 27, 2011

Sarah Librarian rated it

· review of another edition

I absolutely love �sa Larsson's writing. The Black Path is a fantastic third novel and explains a lot of the things that happened in her previous two books. One of the things I enjoy about Larsson's writing is the fact that she takes the time to develop her characters, not just in the first book, but over all three. The atmosphere she's created really draws you into the story and, in turn, helps you to love the main characters and all their little quirks and problems.

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Feb 22, 2010

Karen R. rated it

Asa Larsson is quite impressive in this series. There are mysteries and some gruesome things happen, but the real stories are the characters. Every character, even the bit part players, are made so real. In the Blood Spilt there were big sections about wolves and wolf behavior that were quite magical. This book has big sections about painting from inside the mind of a painter. Excellent. I highly recommend it. Again, if I were buying books, this one would be on my real bookshelf.

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Dec 19, 2011

Kathy rated it

The darkest of her books so far........and also the best. I found this author by reading her 2011 book first and then went back and started the series from the beginning.

Excellent, love the way she has the characters almost mystical and psychic....LOVE this author.....

Yes, it's dark, but that's why it's haunting and it's well written ........she writes about complex characters, not all of them necessarily sunny and happy (Anna Maria fits this label of being sunny and h...more

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Sep 12, 2011

Natxo Cruz rated it

· review of another edition

En la línia dels dos primers volums de la trilogia. O sigui, infumable. El que pretén ser una novel·la negra es perd entre excessius flashbacks de tots els personatges (animals inclosos) en un ball de temps verbals que acaba confonent i avorrint i una trama que comença bé però desenboca en un final de pel·lícula de baix pressupost.
El pitjor de tot és que l'autora amenaça amb tres capítols més. Lògicament, que els llegeixin a Suècia. Ara que el fenòmen de Larsson (el de veritat) s'ha apagat...more

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Oct 01, 2009

Sal rated it

· review of another edition

Der (bisher) beste von drei sehr starken Kriminalromanen der Schwedin Åsa Larsson. Wer (wie ich) auf Håkan Nesser, Stieg Larson, Åke Edwardson, Maj Sjöwall und Per Wahlöö, Arne Dahl und Co. steht, der sollte unbedingt mal in die Romane der Larsson reingucken, freilich sollte man chronologisch mit Sonnensturm beginnen. Im Januar erscheint der vierte Teil der Reihe Bis dein Zorn sich legt :-)

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Oct 07, 2009

Kyra rated it

I am not usually a fan of Swedish mysteries - everybody is so...Swedish. Cold, clinical, hard to like. But this mystery by Asa Larsson is terrific. I read it out of sequence and will now absolutely have to find the others in the series. Likeable characters, excellent writing, great suspense, slightly implausible plot of course but who cares.

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Jul 16, 2011

Lisa Lewis rated it

· review of another edition

Third book in this series, which I continue to enjoy. I appreciated the focus shifting from the main character in the prior books to some others - it becomes hard to suspend disbelief when one person stumbles into so many awful situations! The plot isn't anything extraordinary, but I like the setting and the characters.

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Feb 26, 2009

Dorinda rated it

The genre: Swedish authored mystery novels, has produced some very entertaing reading for me as well as insights into the MN mindset that is often a mystery to me in itself. This is the 3rd of a series buyt can be read as stand alone. I plan to read the first 2. This one has some intersting info about Sami culture worked in nicely with the who-dunnit part of the story.

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Apr 20, 2009

Janice rated it

The third in a series featuring the two detectives Anna Maria Mella, Sven-Erik (of the big moustache) and lawyer Rebecca Martinsson. Lots of blood and gore but the plot line of company espionage and country intrigue is fairly believable. The landscape is cold and harsh just like the plot.

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Jan 08, 2012

Tina Siegel rated it

A fantastic book! Another wonderful Scandanavian crime writer. It's dark and edgy, with comic moments to leaven the atmosphere. Not as quite violent as The Millenium Trilogy, or Jo Nesbo's work, which I liked. The end is a bit unsatisfying but, otherwise, a terrific read. Highly recommended.

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Nov 27, 2008

Ann rated it

When I'm distracted ,I like to read murder and crime. This book takes place in Sweden which made for a different crime scene. It also was the third in a series apparently. I might read more by this author when I need to distract my mind from art making.

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Aug 10, 2008

Lawrence rated it

Continues the saga of our Swedish tax lawyer/"detective" in a big way. It's no longer local politics that determine the outcome, it's now events with international significance. And, the case doesn't really get solved. This one's more about the characters and their developing relationships. But it again demonstrates Larsson's superior ability to capture the inner motivations of her characters, providing insights into what gives rise to good and bad behavior. The crime is no less s...more

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Jul 03, 2011

Frederiqueeilish rated it

I love Scandinavian thrillers and this is a good one. It kept me reading throughout. Though at some point, I started suspecting the outcome which I normally don't like to do. But the story is well told. I would recommend it to poeple who like thrillers.

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Oct 24, 2010

james rated it

This is another fine mystery book by a Scandinavian author. She joins Henning Mankell, Stieg Larsson, and Karin Fossum. This story is set in the area around Kiruna, Sweden, which is in the far north of that country. It's a fast moving police procedural.

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Oct 11, 2011

Linda rated it

I read this book while I was reading some other books. I couldn't put this one down. It is another one of these Scandanavian mysteries and it is full of ice and cold and strong women. A great read.

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Sep 10, 2009

Louisa rated it

Shelves: 2009summerautumn

Stunning thriller -- multiple points of view, a bit of hyper-realism, and ... police procedural. This is a fabulous translation, it makes me regret that I am not fluent in Swedish.

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Oct 01, 2011

Lena rated it

Enjoyable read - enough like the other two that I have already read in the series to be friends with the main characters, and different enough to enjoy the mystery.

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About Åsa Larsson

Åsa Larsson is a Swedish crime-writer. Although born in Uppsala, she was raised in Kiruna in the far north. Prior to becoming a full-time writer, Larsson was a tax lawyer, a profession she shares with the heroine of her novels, Rebecka Martinsson.

Series:
* Rebecka Martinsson

More about Åsa Larsson...

Books by Åsa Larsson

The Blood Spilt (Rebecka Martinsson, #2)

Until Thy Wrath Be Past (Rebecka Martinsson, #4)

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The Black Path (Rebecka Martinsson #3)

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