What do you think?
Rate this book
Inspector Winter #3
Sun and Shadow
Like his fellow countryman Henning Mankell, Åke Edwardson is a successful figure on the international mystery scene and a brilliant discovery for lovers of intricate, psychologically charged, and stylish crime novels. With Sun and Shadow , Edwardson introduces readers to detective Erik Winter, the youngest chief inspector in Sweden, who wears sharp suits, cooks gourmet meals, has a penchant for jazz, and is about to become a father. He's also moody and intuitive, his mind inhabiting the crimes he's trying to solve. In this atmospheric, heart-stopping tale, Winter's troubles abound—and a bloody double murder on his doorstep is just the beginning.
392 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
71 people are currently reading
1299 people want to read
About the author
Åke Edwardson
68 books260 followersÅke Edwardson is a Swedish author of detective fiction, and a professor at Gothenburg University, the city where many of his Inspector Winter novels are set. Edwardson has had many jobs, including a journalist and press officer for the United Nations, and his crime novels have made him a three-time winner of the Swedish Crime Writers' Award for best crime novel. His first novel to be translated into English, in 2005, was Sun and Shadow. The second, Never End, followed in 2006.
Series:
* Inspector Winter
Series:
* Inspector Winter
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 177 reviews
October 12, 2020
Non posso dire che sia un brutto romanzo. C’è una trama piuttosto coerente, ma si intuisce la soluzione quasi subito. Winter è un commissario di quarant’anni che sta per diventare padre. La sua vita privata occupa molto spazio nel racconto, forse troppo. Non avendo letto i primi due casi, mi manca probabilmente qualche elemento. Bella atmosfera, buona ambientazione, ma poca caratterizzazione dei personaggi.
December 11, 2014
This is apparently the third book in Ake Edwardson's Erik Winter series, but it was the first one to be translated into English from the original Swedish and so was the first one I was able to read. This put me a bit at sea as a reader because there were frequent references throughout the book to events that had happened earlier and that were, I suppose, covered in the other books. I had to guess at their significance.
Another problem that I had with the book was its formatting in Kindle. Edwardson switches back and forth with the voice in which the story is told, almost from paragraph to paragraph at times. We'll get a few paragraphs of things from Erik Winter's perspective. Then we may hear from his girlfriend, Angela, or from one of the policemen with whom he works. That's not a problem except that there is almost always no break to show the change in voice. So I'm reading along thinking that I'm still hearing Erik Winter's thoughts and suddenly I realize that the perspective has changed and this is someone else's mind that I'm in. Really, would it have killed them to put a double space between paragraphs that represent a change in perspective? It certainly would have lessened my confusion.
And, as long as I'm putting my quibbles with the book up front, Edwardson's narrative style seems passive in the extreme. I'm not one who glories in reading the minute blood and guts details of horrible murders, but it does help the reader, I think, to at least be told in the most matter of fact way possible just what has happened to the victim(s). Here, we have a couple, murdered in their home, who apparently had their heads cut off and stuck on the top of each others' bodies, but this comes out ever so slowly and haltingly in the narrative. When the police arrive on the scene, it is merely hinted at but never stated. Later, another couple is attacked in their home and the man is killed, but, for some unknown reason, the murderer doesn't finish the job on the woman. She is grievously injured - apparently - but we are never told what her injuries are.
And in the ending of the story, we have the hero's pregnant girlfriend kidnapped and held captive for days and ( Spoiler alert! ) finally rescued unharmed, but we get no details of that kidnapping or the rescue. We are simply told that it happened. Very frustrating for the reader. At least for this reader.
In addition, the story goes a bit off track early on with a subplot concerning Erik Winter's parents who have retired to Costa del Sol in Spain. His father suffers a health emergency and Erik goes there to be with them and the story just seems to meander along without any real purpose. I assume this was intended to more fully flesh out the character of Erik in the reader's mind. But the digression goes on too long for my taste and didn't add much to the story.
When Erik returns to Sweden, he has the further personal complications of his doctor girlfriend, who is pregnant with their first child, getting ready to move in with him, even though she obviously has reservations. And then almost immediately he is plunged into the investigation of the gruesome murders.
This is certainly very different from every other Swedish or Scandinavian murder mystery/thriller that I've read in that it is told in such a passive voice. While that isn't necessarily a bad thing, Edwardson's iteration of it didn't catch my imagination. The book was okay, but just that.
Another problem that I had with the book was its formatting in Kindle. Edwardson switches back and forth with the voice in which the story is told, almost from paragraph to paragraph at times. We'll get a few paragraphs of things from Erik Winter's perspective. Then we may hear from his girlfriend, Angela, or from one of the policemen with whom he works. That's not a problem except that there is almost always no break to show the change in voice. So I'm reading along thinking that I'm still hearing Erik Winter's thoughts and suddenly I realize that the perspective has changed and this is someone else's mind that I'm in. Really, would it have killed them to put a double space between paragraphs that represent a change in perspective? It certainly would have lessened my confusion.
And, as long as I'm putting my quibbles with the book up front, Edwardson's narrative style seems passive in the extreme. I'm not one who glories in reading the minute blood and guts details of horrible murders, but it does help the reader, I think, to at least be told in the most matter of fact way possible just what has happened to the victim(s). Here, we have a couple, murdered in their home, who apparently had their heads cut off and stuck on the top of each others' bodies, but this comes out ever so slowly and haltingly in the narrative. When the police arrive on the scene, it is merely hinted at but never stated. Later, another couple is attacked in their home and the man is killed, but, for some unknown reason, the murderer doesn't finish the job on the woman. She is grievously injured - apparently - but we are never told what her injuries are.
And in the ending of the story, we have the hero's pregnant girlfriend kidnapped and held captive for days and ( Spoiler alert! ) finally rescued unharmed, but we get no details of that kidnapping or the rescue. We are simply told that it happened. Very frustrating for the reader. At least for this reader.
In addition, the story goes a bit off track early on with a subplot concerning Erik Winter's parents who have retired to Costa del Sol in Spain. His father suffers a health emergency and Erik goes there to be with them and the story just seems to meander along without any real purpose. I assume this was intended to more fully flesh out the character of Erik in the reader's mind. But the digression goes on too long for my taste and didn't add much to the story.
When Erik returns to Sweden, he has the further personal complications of his doctor girlfriend, who is pregnant with their first child, getting ready to move in with him, even though she obviously has reservations. And then almost immediately he is plunged into the investigation of the gruesome murders.
This is certainly very different from every other Swedish or Scandinavian murder mystery/thriller that I've read in that it is told in such a passive voice. While that isn't necessarily a bad thing, Edwardson's iteration of it didn't catch my imagination. The book was okay, but just that.
February 9, 2023
DNF 71%.
Przeczytałam pierwszy tom - był dziwny, ale byłam zainteresowana.
Przesłuchałam drugi tom - w sumie nic nie pamiętam, choć było to ledwie rok temu.
I przychodzi trzeci tom - nudny, rozwleczony, kompletnie o niczym. Przeskoczyłam pół książki (nigdy tego nie robię), żeby natrafić na jakąś konkretną akcję i dupa. Także ten, szkoda mi czasu na coś, co mnie kompletnie nie interesuje i strasznie wkurza, nie będę przecież czekać x tomów aż zacznie się coś dziać...
Przeczytałam pierwszy tom - był dziwny, ale byłam zainteresowana.
Przesłuchałam drugi tom - w sumie nic nie pamiętam, choć było to ledwie rok temu.
I przychodzi trzeci tom - nudny, rozwleczony, kompletnie o niczym. Przeskoczyłam pół książki (nigdy tego nie robię), żeby natrafić na jakąś konkretną akcję i dupa. Także ten, szkoda mi czasu na coś, co mnie kompletnie nie interesuje i strasznie wkurza, nie będę przecież czekać x tomów aż zacznie się coś dziać...
August 2, 2017
Sun and Shadow, the first Detective Erik Winter novel by Swedish writer Ake Edwardson to be translated into English (1999), is a dark psychological mystery that chronicles two grotesque double murders and the exhausting investigation that follows. The plot is complex, and it delivers the build-up to a fine suspenseful ending.
Edwardson’s style is literary. The writing is strong, especially the descriptive language and the dialogue. After Detective Winter visits his father, who has just had a heart attack and with whom Winter has had a strained relationship, he tells his lover, Angela, about it:
“What was it like, seeing him again?”
“As if we’d been chatting only last week.”
“Sure?”
“Depends what you mean. We spoke about safe subjects.”
“Everything takes time. He has to get better first.”
“Hmm.”
“Are you tired?”
“Not so tired that I can’t indulge in a glass of duty-free whiskey. What about you?”
These spare conversations, circling around a subject like a dance, are common. Dialogue effectively carries the narrative.
The novel avoids extensive descriptive passages that tend to slow the narrative movement. Yet often the descriptive language is strong. Here is an example of a strong and spare description:
“It was night in the apartment, no lights burning anymore. A standard lamp had been on all day, but the bulb had gone. As dawn broke, autumn sidled in through the venetian blinds and a roller blind in the bedroom let in patches of light.”
I would quibble with a couple of things (pet peeves of mine) in Edwardson’s style. (I should add here that it’s entirely possible that the first of these problems results from translation and may not exist in the original.)
First, the poor, overused verb “to be” gets worked to within an inch of its life in the novel’s prose, both as the main verb in a sentence and as the helping verb used with a main verb in the “–ing” (progressive) form. I’ll italicize examples in the following short paragraph to demonstrate:
“Winter was walking along the Ricardo Soriano. It was evening again. He went into the cerveceria Monte Carlo and ordered a glass of draft beer at the bar. The place was full of men watching a football match on a large screen. Real Madrid versus Valladolid. He drank his beer and felt comfortable among all the shouting. There were no women inside the bar. They were sitting at tables on the pavement outside, waiting for the match to end and the evening to begin.”
Five “to be” verbs in a short paragraph. The problem: All these “to be” verbs kill the immediacy of reader experience of what happens. Compare the following possibilities: “Winter walked along . . . “ or “The bar overflowed with men watching . .” or “All the women sat at tables on the pavement outside . . .” Revising “to be” verbs into action verbs is a staple of good writing.
My second quibble: Edwardson tends to filter sense experience instead of giving it to the reader directly. Here’s what I mean. Detective Winter goes into a bar, and the narrator tells us: “Winter could hear people speaking Norwegian, Swedish, and German.” The readers should experience the bar, not have Winter experience it for them. It would be easy to revise this passage to say, “People at the tables around him spoke Norwegian, Swedish, and German.” That way the reader experiences the polyglot with Winter instead of being told that Winter experienced it. This kind of filtering is too common in the novel.
Okay, with all that said, this book was a good read. I recommend it, especially for fans of Scandinavian crime fiction. It’s a strong example of the genre. The complex plot builds slowly and in the end delivers a powerful, driving finish.
Edwardson’s style is literary. The writing is strong, especially the descriptive language and the dialogue. After Detective Winter visits his father, who has just had a heart attack and with whom Winter has had a strained relationship, he tells his lover, Angela, about it:
“What was it like, seeing him again?”
“As if we’d been chatting only last week.”
“Sure?”
“Depends what you mean. We spoke about safe subjects.”
“Everything takes time. He has to get better first.”
“Hmm.”
“Are you tired?”
“Not so tired that I can’t indulge in a glass of duty-free whiskey. What about you?”
These spare conversations, circling around a subject like a dance, are common. Dialogue effectively carries the narrative.
The novel avoids extensive descriptive passages that tend to slow the narrative movement. Yet often the descriptive language is strong. Here is an example of a strong and spare description:
“It was night in the apartment, no lights burning anymore. A standard lamp had been on all day, but the bulb had gone. As dawn broke, autumn sidled in through the venetian blinds and a roller blind in the bedroom let in patches of light.”
I would quibble with a couple of things (pet peeves of mine) in Edwardson’s style. (I should add here that it’s entirely possible that the first of these problems results from translation and may not exist in the original.)
First, the poor, overused verb “to be” gets worked to within an inch of its life in the novel’s prose, both as the main verb in a sentence and as the helping verb used with a main verb in the “–ing” (progressive) form. I’ll italicize examples in the following short paragraph to demonstrate:
“Winter was walking along the Ricardo Soriano. It was evening again. He went into the cerveceria Monte Carlo and ordered a glass of draft beer at the bar. The place was full of men watching a football match on a large screen. Real Madrid versus Valladolid. He drank his beer and felt comfortable among all the shouting. There were no women inside the bar. They were sitting at tables on the pavement outside, waiting for the match to end and the evening to begin.”
Five “to be” verbs in a short paragraph. The problem: All these “to be” verbs kill the immediacy of reader experience of what happens. Compare the following possibilities: “Winter walked along . . . “ or “The bar overflowed with men watching . .” or “All the women sat at tables on the pavement outside . . .” Revising “to be” verbs into action verbs is a staple of good writing.
My second quibble: Edwardson tends to filter sense experience instead of giving it to the reader directly. Here’s what I mean. Detective Winter goes into a bar, and the narrator tells us: “Winter could hear people speaking Norwegian, Swedish, and German.” The readers should experience the bar, not have Winter experience it for them. It would be easy to revise this passage to say, “People at the tables around him spoke Norwegian, Swedish, and German.” That way the reader experiences the polyglot with Winter instead of being told that Winter experienced it. This kind of filtering is too common in the novel.
Okay, with all that said, this book was a good read. I recommend it, especially for fans of Scandinavian crime fiction. It’s a strong example of the genre. The complex plot builds slowly and in the end delivers a powerful, driving finish.
August 17, 2012
No, I didn't read this in Swedish, they had it on Amazon, maybe for free, and I read it there because, apparently, I wasn't already bored enough with Swedish mystery novels. I have to wonder at myself. I hated every Dragon Tattoo book and read them all. Not really read. Listened to on Audible. Sometimes its best to not listen to really good things on Audible so you don't mind interruptions and you don't care that really only heard half of it.
I never read an Erik Winter novel before, but Erik Winter is boring and I don't want to read an Erik Winter novel again. I am part Scandinavian myself, and I know for a fact that the genome has not completely suppressed a sense of humor. Gaiety, maybe, but not humor. And yet the Swedish novels that make it to this country, like the movies before them, are dreary things, and their characters never laugh.
Here we have another Swedish detective of the completely-buttoned-up, and not because-it's-so-dang-cold variety, but there are no pretensions to a global conspiracies, and computers barely exist. Erik Winter is not quite as irresistible to women as Mikael Blomkvist, though, of course, he's hot. In a cold and boring way. The crime itself is gory, and there's some suspense, but just in case you were worried about this, Erik Winter lives to fight crime another day, so go ahead and make out the lights and go to bed already.
I never read an Erik Winter novel before, but Erik Winter is boring and I don't want to read an Erik Winter novel again. I am part Scandinavian myself, and I know for a fact that the genome has not completely suppressed a sense of humor. Gaiety, maybe, but not humor. And yet the Swedish novels that make it to this country, like the movies before them, are dreary things, and their characters never laugh.
Here we have another Swedish detective of the completely-buttoned-up, and not because-it's-so-dang-cold variety, but there are no pretensions to a global conspiracies, and computers barely exist. Erik Winter is not quite as irresistible to women as Mikael Blomkvist, though, of course, he's hot. In a cold and boring way. The crime itself is gory, and there's some suspense, but just in case you were worried about this, Erik Winter lives to fight crime another day, so go ahead and make out the lights and go to bed already.
October 19, 2009
Sun and Shadow rolls out month by month, and begins in the months just prior to the new millenium. Set in Goteborg, Sweden, the action begins to heat up with the discovery of a truly grizzly double murder that leads Detective Chief Inspector Erik Winter and his team into a very dark place. The only clue left behind is a tape of some bizarre kind of metal music, and Winter knows that he and his team are going to be lucky to solve this gruesome crime. That's the basic story, but there's a lot more to this book than just stopping a murderer.
Edwardson's novel (3rd in the series) is more of a character study. As the pressures mount, the author allows the readers inside the heads of the main characters -- not just the policemen but others involved in the story as well. By providing an inside look into individual mindsets and psyches, the author creates a bit of suspense -- the police investigation interweaves with these personal psychological insights so that there are a number of potential suspects by the time the end comes. This technique slowed down the reading a bit, but when all is said and done, it made the book a bit more interesting.
Overall, the book is quite good but I do think by having missed the first two in chronological order I may have missed some of my own insights into Winter's character. I would recommend it to readers who like Scandinavian crime novels and may not be aware of this author. I now have the four books in translation, so I'll be visiting back with Detective Chief Inspector Winter quite shortly.
Edwardson's novel (3rd in the series) is more of a character study. As the pressures mount, the author allows the readers inside the heads of the main characters -- not just the policemen but others involved in the story as well. By providing an inside look into individual mindsets and psyches, the author creates a bit of suspense -- the police investigation interweaves with these personal psychological insights so that there are a number of potential suspects by the time the end comes. This technique slowed down the reading a bit, but when all is said and done, it made the book a bit more interesting.
Overall, the book is quite good but I do think by having missed the first two in chronological order I may have missed some of my own insights into Winter's character. I would recommend it to readers who like Scandinavian crime novels and may not be aware of this author. I now have the four books in translation, so I'll be visiting back with Detective Chief Inspector Winter quite shortly.
September 15, 2009
Although Sun and Shadow is not Åke Edwardson's first book featuring Erik Winter, the youngest chief inspector of Sweden's police force, it is the first book published in English. Go figure. My criticisms of the book have much to do with the fact that the main character particularly was not fleshed out enough for me to care much about him. Undoubtedly this has something to do with the order of publication. I picked up P.D. James after some time away and found I could make a similar complaint about her characterizations of the famous detective, Adam Dalgliesh.
July 11, 2013
So I got to page 197 and realized that I didn't care about Winter, Angela, the other cop's marriage, whether Winter did anything with the girl in Spain, or anything.
June 13, 2016
Although Edwardson has been on my list of Scandinavian crime authors to read for some time, I had previously put off reading any of his novels because they had been described as rather stringent procedurals, and as a rule, I am not a huge fan of this genre. I understand that meticulous investigations--with their red herrings and dead-end leads and countless interviews with doddering old women who may have seen something relevant to a crime but really just want to serve the dashing inspector biscuits and coffee and have some company for a short time--are some readers’ cups of tea. For myself, however, I’m not really invested in the process so much. I generally like the varied dynamics of a police force that you get in a procedural, but that enjoyment doesn’t really outweigh the sense of stagnation that sometimes comes over me in the midst of one of these novels.
I’ll admit: I like plot. And while this is a literary element that may be somewhat out of vogue in contemporary ‘literary’ fiction, it is (generally) still highly valued in crime novels. So while I appreciate the pleasure that one might take out of reading the intricate, but often dull or frustrating quotidian burdens of a police investigation, I usually prefer that the crime novels I ready eschew that sort of realism in favor of some broader character development, more back story, and/or steadily escalating tension.
All this preamble is to say that I have just finished, and very much enjoyed, Sun and Shadow, the first of Edwardson’s Erik Winter novels to be translated into English (although it wasn’t the first in the series). What is somewhat perplexing to me--and apologies, because this probably won’t end up being the best of sells for this book--is that Edwardson utilizes a number of tricks which I would normally really dislike in a novel. But somehow, even when all of these strategies--and dare I say, cheats--are combined (and I’ll get to this more momentarily), the end product is still a really enjoyable, well-paced, strongly characterized novel which I pretty much gobbled up in a few short days.
To start with the good:
Winter is a great character. He’s reasonably quirky--loves jazz and gourmet cooking (there’s several whole pages where he describes, in recipe-level detail, the meal he makes on New Year’s) --and we’re told early on that he’s Sweden’s youngest chief detective inspector. As the book opens (days before the new millennium), however, he is about to turn 40 and is starting to feel a bit introspective about his life. This is emphasized by the ample family subplot that Edwardson builds around Winter: when the book opens, his father is dying and his longtime girlfriend--who is six months pregnant with his first child--is moving in with him.
Edwardson really takes his time with this domestic development. In fact, although the reader knows right from the start of the book that there has been a double murder, the police don’t discover it until just over 100 pages into the book. The fact that such an elongated reveal works in a crime novel really speaks to how engaging Winter and the other detectives and characters are. You want to spend time with them and become immersed in their lives, rather than just jumping into the investigation.
Anther especially good element is the pacing. I’ve rarely gotten to the very end of a procedural and actually felt a great deal of anticipation to see the case resolved. That feeling that the police are so close! to cracking the case doesn’t usually catch with me. But here, Edwardson manages to develop suspense and build tension because the reader has spent 200 pages or so suspecting that they know who the murderer is. (I didn’t guess the right person, but I was pretty close...) So while the police investigation continues to narrow its suspects and get closer and closer to determining who the killer is, their tangential investigations and incorrect suppositions are all the more nail-biting for the reader.
Now for the elements that shouldn’t have worked, but somehow, really did.
1. Edwardson has a tendency to avoid grim/disturbing/or otherwise particularly visual detail. In some cases, this is almost Hitchcockian--we’re chilled by what we can’t see, what we don’t really know. In others, it’s a little disorienting and maybe suggests a tad bit of squeamishness/avoidance on Edwardson’s part. I don’t want to give too much away, but let me say this: the police discover the first murders around page 100. We know something terrible happened to the victims, and they (the corpses) are described a little. But Edwardson holds the real punch--the actual ‘what’ of the murders--for about 60 more pages. And when you find out what was done, it is an unexpected jolt. But given the circumstances, I was glad to not have had the scene f the crime described in all of its sordid detail--that would have been a little much.
This withholding of details and descriptions happens in a few other notable instances, some to lesser effect. The least successful example happens at the end of the book. A major character is kidnapped--for days. The whole time chronology suddenly compresses, Winter figures out where she is, and the whole book is wrapped up neat ‘n tidy within about five pages. We’re told that the woman “wasn’t hurt physically,” which, great, but because the book ends so quickly, Edwardson also dodges the difficulty of writing the psychological fall out that the kidnapping victim would most definitely have after such an abduction. We’re simply told that “...one of these days it would all come back to her, but not now...Perhaps never.” Which just seems way too easy. It’s possible--given that the Winter series seems to carry over plot lines and character history from book to book--that this character’s recovery will be dealt with in a later novel. But that doesn’t mean that you can just nip the entire experience in this installment.
2. The novel really depends on a bit of a red herring/ bait-and-switch. About a quarter of the way into the book, I had made a guess of who the murderer was. About half way through the book, Edwardson begins really telegraphing this character as the killer. A few other characters also seem like they might have some potential as the killer, but there’s really one who Edwardson focuses on. And while this may seem too obvious, it also plays into the general sense of tension. You start to think that you’re supposed to have guessed who the killer is, and stop minding that it seems obvious.
The problem is that when the character you suspect turns out to be innocent, there’s not a whole lot done to explain the actual killer’s motivations or background or particular psychosis. There’s a lot of groundwork done early on to explain the killer’s possible frame of mind and why he might choose to commit the murders in the way that he does. This makes sense when you think it’s character A who is the killer, but when character B is revealed, it really doesn’t. Neither does the manner in which he selected his victims, or the messages that he left the cops at the crime scene, or the supposed clues that were to be found in the music that was playing at the scene of the first crime.
3. All too convenient endangerment of major character and collision of plot and subplot. The character who is the almost-last victim is far too obvious, far too relevant to Winter’s life. It’s too convenient, really. However, Edwardson even makes this work. He develops the character as a possible person of interest to the murderer and does offer something of an explanation of why she was targeted. Now, she has nothing in common with the other victims and her kidnapping really just serves to ramp the novel’s climax up to a more dramatic level, but I pretty much bought into it at the end. Because again, I was really invested in seeing this case resolved.
In closing, I suppose I would say that Edwardson’s ample gifts of characterization, steady pacing, and satisfyingly determined plot are what make Sun and Shadow a satisfying read. I suppose it’s something like reading an Agatha Christie novel. You know that she’s not playing by the ‘rules’--you know you don’t have all the clues that the detective does, and you know that things are going to resolve themselves rather easily, and you know that all of the clues and plot points might not add up. But the execution (no pun intended) is so fluid and meticulous that you don’t really mind so much in the end.
I’ll admit: I like plot. And while this is a literary element that may be somewhat out of vogue in contemporary ‘literary’ fiction, it is (generally) still highly valued in crime novels. So while I appreciate the pleasure that one might take out of reading the intricate, but often dull or frustrating quotidian burdens of a police investigation, I usually prefer that the crime novels I ready eschew that sort of realism in favor of some broader character development, more back story, and/or steadily escalating tension.
All this preamble is to say that I have just finished, and very much enjoyed, Sun and Shadow, the first of Edwardson’s Erik Winter novels to be translated into English (although it wasn’t the first in the series). What is somewhat perplexing to me--and apologies, because this probably won’t end up being the best of sells for this book--is that Edwardson utilizes a number of tricks which I would normally really dislike in a novel. But somehow, even when all of these strategies--and dare I say, cheats--are combined (and I’ll get to this more momentarily), the end product is still a really enjoyable, well-paced, strongly characterized novel which I pretty much gobbled up in a few short days.
To start with the good:
Winter is a great character. He’s reasonably quirky--loves jazz and gourmet cooking (there’s several whole pages where he describes, in recipe-level detail, the meal he makes on New Year’s) --and we’re told early on that he’s Sweden’s youngest chief detective inspector. As the book opens (days before the new millennium), however, he is about to turn 40 and is starting to feel a bit introspective about his life. This is emphasized by the ample family subplot that Edwardson builds around Winter: when the book opens, his father is dying and his longtime girlfriend--who is six months pregnant with his first child--is moving in with him.
Edwardson really takes his time with this domestic development. In fact, although the reader knows right from the start of the book that there has been a double murder, the police don’t discover it until just over 100 pages into the book. The fact that such an elongated reveal works in a crime novel really speaks to how engaging Winter and the other detectives and characters are. You want to spend time with them and become immersed in their lives, rather than just jumping into the investigation.
Anther especially good element is the pacing. I’ve rarely gotten to the very end of a procedural and actually felt a great deal of anticipation to see the case resolved. That feeling that the police are so close! to cracking the case doesn’t usually catch with me. But here, Edwardson manages to develop suspense and build tension because the reader has spent 200 pages or so suspecting that they know who the murderer is. (I didn’t guess the right person, but I was pretty close...) So while the police investigation continues to narrow its suspects and get closer and closer to determining who the killer is, their tangential investigations and incorrect suppositions are all the more nail-biting for the reader.
Now for the elements that shouldn’t have worked, but somehow, really did.
1. Edwardson has a tendency to avoid grim/disturbing/or otherwise particularly visual detail. In some cases, this is almost Hitchcockian--we’re chilled by what we can’t see, what we don’t really know. In others, it’s a little disorienting and maybe suggests a tad bit of squeamishness/avoidance on Edwardson’s part. I don’t want to give too much away, but let me say this: the police discover the first murders around page 100. We know something terrible happened to the victims, and they (the corpses) are described a little. But Edwardson holds the real punch--the actual ‘what’ of the murders--for about 60 more pages. And when you find out what was done, it is an unexpected jolt. But given the circumstances, I was glad to not have had the scene f the crime described in all of its sordid detail--that would have been a little much.
This withholding of details and descriptions happens in a few other notable instances, some to lesser effect. The least successful example happens at the end of the book. A major character is kidnapped--for days. The whole time chronology suddenly compresses, Winter figures out where she is, and the whole book is wrapped up neat ‘n tidy within about five pages. We’re told that the woman “wasn’t hurt physically,” which, great, but because the book ends so quickly, Edwardson also dodges the difficulty of writing the psychological fall out that the kidnapping victim would most definitely have after such an abduction. We’re simply told that “...one of these days it would all come back to her, but not now...Perhaps never.” Which just seems way too easy. It’s possible--given that the Winter series seems to carry over plot lines and character history from book to book--that this character’s recovery will be dealt with in a later novel. But that doesn’t mean that you can just nip the entire experience in this installment.
2. The novel really depends on a bit of a red herring/ bait-and-switch. About a quarter of the way into the book, I had made a guess of who the murderer was. About half way through the book, Edwardson begins really telegraphing this character as the killer. A few other characters also seem like they might have some potential as the killer, but there’s really one who Edwardson focuses on. And while this may seem too obvious, it also plays into the general sense of tension. You start to think that you’re supposed to have guessed who the killer is, and stop minding that it seems obvious.
The problem is that when the character you suspect turns out to be innocent, there’s not a whole lot done to explain the actual killer’s motivations or background or particular psychosis. There’s a lot of groundwork done early on to explain the killer’s possible frame of mind and why he might choose to commit the murders in the way that he does. This makes sense when you think it’s character A who is the killer, but when character B is revealed, it really doesn’t. Neither does the manner in which he selected his victims, or the messages that he left the cops at the crime scene, or the supposed clues that were to be found in the music that was playing at the scene of the first crime.
3. All too convenient endangerment of major character and collision of plot and subplot. The character who is the almost-last victim is far too obvious, far too relevant to Winter’s life. It’s too convenient, really. However, Edwardson even makes this work. He develops the character as a possible person of interest to the murderer and does offer something of an explanation of why she was targeted. Now, she has nothing in common with the other victims and her kidnapping really just serves to ramp the novel’s climax up to a more dramatic level, but I pretty much bought into it at the end. Because again, I was really invested in seeing this case resolved.
In closing, I suppose I would say that Edwardson’s ample gifts of characterization, steady pacing, and satisfyingly determined plot are what make Sun and Shadow a satisfying read. I suppose it’s something like reading an Agatha Christie novel. You know that she’s not playing by the ‘rules’--you know you don’t have all the clues that the detective does, and you know that things are going to resolve themselves rather easily, and you know that all of the clues and plot points might not add up. But the execution (no pun intended) is so fluid and meticulous that you don’t really mind so much in the end.
April 7, 2025
have you ever looked at someone and wondered 'what was going on inside their head????'
December 26, 2024
Filosofisk krimi som utspelar sig i mitt gamla Göteborg. Jag kan följa med i geografin och se miljöerna framför mig. Och många sökande psykologiska och filosofiska betraktelser blandat däremellan.
July 3, 2018
My first foray into the world of Erik Winter. I liked it a lot. I've also been reading the Irene Hiss series which takes place in Goteborg, very different! I still don't quite get the killers motivation in this but I liked the characters, and I'll happily read the next one.
June 27, 2012
After too many mediocre Scandinavian crime stories, this was just what I needed. A proper noir. Classic in the Sjöwall & Wahlöö elements and atmosphere, yet much more modern.
Meet Erik Winter, 39, in a crisis because of his life changing - his girlfriend just moved in, and he'll soon be a dad. While he and his fiancee should be spending their time getting ready for Winter Jr's arrival, Winter gets involved in the investigation of a brutal murder of a couple a few steps from his home. The beginning before the investigations take off seems to take a bit longer, but it all binds in beautifully. It's a beautiful, lost, very noir atmosphere first where Winter's parents live, in Spain, and then back to Gothenburg. It's something of the same cold Sjöwall & Wahlöö Sweden (and even in winter), but it doesn't seem so out of date. Unlike in the old noir, you get to know the people much more intimately. Yet the same claustrophobic noir atmosphere is still there. Sweden's second largest city, yet it feels like a small village, where everyone knows who you are and where you live. At least the bad guys do. Great atmosphere and characters, I'll definitely need to try another Edwardson soon.
The claustrophobic atmosphere and some of the characters are what raised this to 4 stars. The crime and its motivations were not the main virtues, they seem to follow the Sjöwall & Wahlöö line too well. There were also a few oddities in the translation (by Laurie Thompson - it seems some of the other books of the series are translated by others); e.g. "like greased lightning" which I had always taken as a Finnish expression, but which apparently was here simply translated from Swedish.
Meet Erik Winter, 39, in a crisis because of his life changing - his girlfriend just moved in, and he'll soon be a dad. While he and his fiancee should be spending their time getting ready for Winter Jr's arrival, Winter gets involved in the investigation of a brutal murder of a couple a few steps from his home. The beginning before the investigations take off seems to take a bit longer, but it all binds in beautifully. It's a beautiful, lost, very noir atmosphere first where Winter's parents live, in Spain, and then back to Gothenburg. It's something of the same cold Sjöwall & Wahlöö Sweden (and even in winter), but it doesn't seem so out of date. Unlike in the old noir, you get to know the people much more intimately. Yet the same claustrophobic noir atmosphere is still there. Sweden's second largest city, yet it feels like a small village, where everyone knows who you are and where you live. At least the bad guys do. Great atmosphere and characters, I'll definitely need to try another Edwardson soon.
The claustrophobic atmosphere and some of the characters are what raised this to 4 stars. The crime and its motivations were not the main virtues, they seem to follow the Sjöwall & Wahlöö line too well. There were also a few oddities in the translation (by Laurie Thompson - it seems some of the other books of the series are translated by others); e.g. "like greased lightning" which I had always taken as a Finnish expression, but which apparently was here simply translated from Swedish.
March 6, 2014
Translated from Swedish by Laurie Thompson
It had started raining.
At page 100 - After an amazingly confused start where only stalwart fans of Edwardsson's Detective Chief Inspector Erik Winter would bother to continue, it has settled down. I love these stories because they are based in Göteborg and I can picture the places involved, the lurking teenage gangs and the abundance of buskers. I have been reading these as and when I can lay a hand on one so have been taking them out of order. There is a progression in the private lives of the policemen involved which makes them quite addictive but I wouldn't necessarily recommend them to anyone here.
Warning - DCI Winter stories are always gorefests so take heed if you are more into soft mysteries that need less bandages.
Pages 166/167
Apparently there is a difference between Death Metal and Black Metal. Black Metal is where the tempo is quicker and you need to arm yersel' with a text that you singalong to the music(!) with. It is basically a black mass text to the strains of a caterwaul and seems to be intrinsic to explaining the deaths of a married couple who are 'swingers'.
Finished - Need to re-read #4 to link up the continuing story lines. What a twisty twisted tale this turned out to be.
It had started raining.
At page 100 - After an amazingly confused start where only stalwart fans of Edwardsson's Detective Chief Inspector Erik Winter would bother to continue, it has settled down. I love these stories because they are based in Göteborg and I can picture the places involved, the lurking teenage gangs and the abundance of buskers. I have been reading these as and when I can lay a hand on one so have been taking them out of order. There is a progression in the private lives of the policemen involved which makes them quite addictive but I wouldn't necessarily recommend them to anyone here.
Warning - DCI Winter stories are always gorefests so take heed if you are more into soft mysteries that need less bandages.
Pages 166/167
Apparently there is a difference between Death Metal and Black Metal. Black Metal is where the tempo is quicker and you need to arm yersel' with a text that you singalong to the music(!) with. It is basically a black mass text to the strains of a caterwaul and seems to be intrinsic to explaining the deaths of a married couple who are 'swingers'.
Finished - Need to re-read #4 to link up the continuing story lines. What a twisty twisted tale this turned out to be.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 28, 2010
I wanted to like this book.
Things that were good:
1. The setting - Gothenburg, Sweden. I loved the cold, both in the landscape and in the relationships between the characters.
2. The murders - Black metal, dismembered bodies, and obvious female issues? Yes! Gruesome, just the way I like it in my thrillers.
And... that was about it.
The book was LONG. It took me, an seasoned fast reader... 25 DAYS TO FINISH. True, I've been busy. But I also haven't wanted to pick it up at night or at work during my lunch breaks because Sun and Shadow just wasn't very interesting. Instead of focusing on the gore or the mystery solving or the action of the plot, Edwardson meanders through a few months of multiple troubled characters, none of whom are particularly compelling or interesting.
The mystery wraps up unconvincingly. The inspector comes off as not particularly bright. And I was just glad to have stopped the thing.
Things that were good:
1. The setting - Gothenburg, Sweden. I loved the cold, both in the landscape and in the relationships between the characters.
2. The murders - Black metal, dismembered bodies, and obvious female issues? Yes! Gruesome, just the way I like it in my thrillers.
And... that was about it.
The book was LONG. It took me, an seasoned fast reader... 25 DAYS TO FINISH. True, I've been busy. But I also haven't wanted to pick it up at night or at work during my lunch breaks because Sun and Shadow just wasn't very interesting. Instead of focusing on the gore or the mystery solving or the action of the plot, Edwardson meanders through a few months of multiple troubled characters, none of whom are particularly compelling or interesting.
The mystery wraps up unconvincingly. The inspector comes off as not particularly bright. And I was just glad to have stopped the thing.
September 10, 2014
I'm glad I didn't begin reading Ake Edwardson' series from the beginning. It might be that the author needed some time to really reach his stride, and so he does with this Erik Winter series issue. Much better than the second of the series and a good suspenseful yarn despite giving us a few extra clues that pointed to the villain sooner than I expected.
In all, an enjoyable book.
In all, an enjoyable book.
October 22, 2016
could have been better... too much nonsense plot which lead to confusion.
August 21, 2018
Åke Edwardson was a new author to me in my Nordic Noir adventures and he’s a good one to find. This novel is unusual in that it combines a good murder story with continuing developing characters on several levels: pregnancy, marriage, horny 30-somethings, concern for one’s colleagues and, of course, Sweden’s famous cold weather. Oops! Not usually in Göteborg, which was one thing I discovered among many interesting things during the course of the investigations in the book. Göteborg is spelled “Gothenberg” in English but why escapes me. Stockholm is Stockholm, not Støkkhölm so why the difference? Besides, Göteborg sound better in Swedish than the English version. The murders being investigated are, as the Nordic Noir writers seem to prefer, serial in nature. They start with a couple, naked in their living room, with their heads transposed on their dead bodies. There is blood on their sofa, but also a few different examples of semen. So it goes with another couple, without the transposition of noggins. Erik Winter, the dashing young Chief Inspector enters the case with his associates whole pondering the life changes that are soon to overtake him: he is turning forty and his girlfriend, Alicia, is pregnant though they are not yet planning a wedding. Part of the novel is set in the Costa del Sol where Winter’s parents are getting some sun. Winter meets a beautiful young woman and has coffee with her and is tempted but passes though Alicia discovers the dalliance back in Sweden. That adds some tension to the plot as if transposed heads were not enough! Back for the Millennium (the novel is set in 1999) Winter gets heavily into the case and we learn about Swedish holiday customs, especially the menus for various festive days. How’s this for Christmas Day? Ham, lutefisk, sliced herring (traditional) potatoes and onions baked in cream, all topped off with anchovies! For New Year’s, the feature is veal, marinated in spices and oil for five hours and served after an appetizer of oysters inside omelets. One hardly wants to read about the mystery after all that. But the corps goes on, working through various clues including a whole bunch of “black metal” or “death metal” rock and the potential factor of the victims being swinging partners! (Remember those mixed DNA samples of semen on the couch!) There is the almost requisite kidnapping of Alicia, which leads to the conclusion of the novel that is, to my taste, a bit hasty. The trip has been so enjoyable that the rushed ending is a minor concern. This is Edwardson’s first mystery to be translated into English and it will be fun to read ensuing efforts.
March 5, 2018
Who had done that? Who could do anything like that? Put up your hand, whoever did it. Come on, hands up!
Okay, this book got me in the end.
This is the third book in a series about Detective Chief Inspector Erik Winter of Gothenburg, Sweden, and in this instalment, Winter is investigating a quite brutal double homicide while he also comes to terms with significant personal turmoil and changes.
It was the first to be released in English, and you can see why. Not because it's the most well-written story - I mean, that better not be the reason because I do intend to read the rest of the series now - but because it has a lot of references to North American and British language, cities, and culture. It's easily digestible for the Anglophone reader. There are parts of the book that are clearly references to past events, but for the most part it also generally stands alone pretty well.
For the most part it was also translated well. A lot of the Scandinavian phrasing remains, which frankly contributes to the Scandinavian character of the book. I didn't hate it, and I think that anyone who didn't spend the last year watching one particular Scandinavian television show wouldn't even notice.
If this book were only about the highly compelling crime, perpetrator, and protagonist, you would be reading a 4.5-star review right now. Everything about those elements entirely sucks you in and is crafted to near-perfection. There are sections you flip through greedily because you must know what happens next. This book should have knocked me off my feet and had me running to get all the books to read through the series.
However. The book as a whole does not do these elements justice. There are many aspects of this book that feel unnecessary, and don't feel worth it once the pieces have all clicked together. The reader keeps getting bogged down in unnecessary side plot and side characters that may very well service the overall arc of the series, but not this book. At least - they don't service the book enough. The main storyline is good but it kept spitting me back out after it had sucked me in.
I struggled with Sun and Shadow because I was bored by a book that I was completely and utterly compelled by. I had no idea that was possible.
‘I suppose the new millennium had to start somehow or another.’”
Okay, this book got me in the end.
This is the third book in a series about Detective Chief Inspector Erik Winter of Gothenburg, Sweden, and in this instalment, Winter is investigating a quite brutal double homicide while he also comes to terms with significant personal turmoil and changes.
It was the first to be released in English, and you can see why. Not because it's the most well-written story - I mean, that better not be the reason because I do intend to read the rest of the series now - but because it has a lot of references to North American and British language, cities, and culture. It's easily digestible for the Anglophone reader. There are parts of the book that are clearly references to past events, but for the most part it also generally stands alone pretty well.
For the most part it was also translated well. A lot of the Scandinavian phrasing remains, which frankly contributes to the Scandinavian character of the book. I didn't hate it, and I think that anyone who didn't spend the last year watching one particular Scandinavian television show wouldn't even notice.
If this book were only about the highly compelling crime, perpetrator, and protagonist, you would be reading a 4.5-star review right now. Everything about those elements entirely sucks you in and is crafted to near-perfection. There are sections you flip through greedily because you must know what happens next. This book should have knocked me off my feet and had me running to get all the books to read through the series.
However. The book as a whole does not do these elements justice. There are many aspects of this book that feel unnecessary, and don't feel worth it once the pieces have all clicked together. The reader keeps getting bogged down in unnecessary side plot and side characters that may very well service the overall arc of the series, but not this book. At least - they don't service the book enough. The main storyline is good but it kept spitting me back out after it had sucked me in.
I struggled with Sun and Shadow because I was bored by a book that I was completely and utterly compelled by. I had no idea that was possible.
‘I suppose the new millennium had to start somehow or another.’”
March 8, 2019
This is my best Ake Edwardson till now. For several reasons: the thriller has a clever plot, rather unique and not hiding for mentioning facts of nowaday's life, and it shows more of the character of Eric Winter than Edwardson did before.
But above all this thriller did not - as so many other thrillers by whoever do - 'finish in a second what has been built in a long hardly any development showing account of everything before'. Ake Edwardson took some time, not all the time, to let the reader follow the disclosure.
It should be the best part of a thriller, at least that's were the story is all about. But so often it is not. Sometimes this is done away in a kind of unsatisfying epilogue, to explain things afterwards. Too bad. I wonder why writers do this. Sometimes I get the idea they find it too difficult to write a proper ending. If it is not so, please don't give the reader the impression it is!
Edwardson at least tries to write proper endings, especially in this Sun and Shadow; here it was maybe not perfect but better than most.
But above all this thriller did not - as so many other thrillers by whoever do - 'finish in a second what has been built in a long hardly any development showing account of everything before'. Ake Edwardson took some time, not all the time, to let the reader follow the disclosure.
It should be the best part of a thriller, at least that's were the story is all about. But so often it is not. Sometimes this is done away in a kind of unsatisfying epilogue, to explain things afterwards. Too bad. I wonder why writers do this. Sometimes I get the idea they find it too difficult to write a proper ending. If it is not so, please don't give the reader the impression it is!
Edwardson at least tries to write proper endings, especially in this Sun and Shadow; here it was maybe not perfect but better than most.
March 14, 2022
Ich habe *vielleicht* schon schlechtere Krimis gelesen, aber dieser bewirkt zumindest, das ich von diesem Autor nichts mehr lesen werde. (Dazu ist auch mein TBR-Regal zu voll; da muss ich Prioritäten setzen.) Manche der Schnitzer gehen ect. auf die Kappe der Übersetzerin ("Dead Metal", "NP3-Datei", "Anchovis", "West Indien"), aber die Struktur des Romans mit den ständigen abrupten Perspektivewechseln (die bestimmt die "red herrings" im Ratespiel um den Mörder aufbauen und unterstützen sollen, aber mE ziemlich plump wirken) und vor allem die vielen vagen Andeutungen und Auslassungen anstelle von Beschreibungen fand ich nur noch nervig. Dass z.B. eine klare Tatortbeschreibung völlig fehlt und dann über endlose Kapitel in Mini-Anspielungen aufgedröselt werden muss, ist so ziemlich das Gegenteil von dem, was ich mir von einem Thriller erwarte. Na, zumindest findet der Ermittler Tom Waits gut.
June 23, 2023
Enough heavy and meaning full reading. So a mystery by a new to me Scandanian author. Short clear serious reading. A good mystery and wonderful characterizations- except too many police officers- difficult to learn about them all. Rather Gory. this is Book #3, and I have just ordered Numbers 1,2,4 and 5
Amazon synopsis: Like his fellow countryman Henning Mankell, Åke Edwardson is a successful figure on the international mystery scene and a brilliant discovery for lovers of intricate, psychologically charged, and stylish crime novels. With Sun and Shadow, Edwardson introduces readers to detective Erik Winter, the youngest chief inspector in Sweden, who wears sharp suits, cooks gourmet meals, has a penchant for jazz, and is about to become a father. He's also moody and intuitive, his mind inhabiting the crimes he's trying to solve. In this atmospheric, heart-stopping tale, Winter's troubles abound—and a bloody double murder on his doorstep is just the beginning.
Amazon synopsis: Like his fellow countryman Henning Mankell, Åke Edwardson is a successful figure on the international mystery scene and a brilliant discovery for lovers of intricate, psychologically charged, and stylish crime novels. With Sun and Shadow, Edwardson introduces readers to detective Erik Winter, the youngest chief inspector in Sweden, who wears sharp suits, cooks gourmet meals, has a penchant for jazz, and is about to become a father. He's also moody and intuitive, his mind inhabiting the crimes he's trying to solve. In this atmospheric, heart-stopping tale, Winter's troubles abound—and a bloody double murder on his doorstep is just the beginning.
April 4, 2019
Ake Edwardson has written yet another compelling drama in the Inspector Erik Winter series. This character-driven police procedural series is set in Sweden, providing insights into the Swedish police and justice system.
Inspector Winter's father becomes gravely ill, necessitating his son to fly to Spain to be at his bedside. Meanwhile, his long-time girlfriend, Angela, is moving her things into his apartment, where they will live together for the first time. Angela and Erik are expecting their first child seven months after this story begins.
Adding to Winter's concerns is an investigation into the brutal double murder of a husband and wife in their own home. As that investigation continues, another similar murder and near-murder occur, increasing the urgency for the identification of the culprit and his/her arrest.
There's plenty here to keep the reader involved.
Inspector Winter's father becomes gravely ill, necessitating his son to fly to Spain to be at his bedside. Meanwhile, his long-time girlfriend, Angela, is moving her things into his apartment, where they will live together for the first time. Angela and Erik are expecting their first child seven months after this story begins.
Adding to Winter's concerns is an investigation into the brutal double murder of a husband and wife in their own home. As that investigation continues, another similar murder and near-murder occur, increasing the urgency for the identification of the culprit and his/her arrest.
There's plenty here to keep the reader involved.
April 24, 2022
Ake Edwardson's 3rd in the Winter series was an incredible letdown. "Sun and Shadow" begins with the discovery of a bloody double murder and spends the next hundred or so pages meandering as Swedish ace detective Erik Winter handles family-related issues. He returns to the very thin threads of the investigation, most of which yield little usable information, and 250 or so pages later a solution pops up seemingly out of nowhere (although a few breadcrumbs had been dropped along the way).
This was a novel with not much to recommend it except for the fact that it's part of what seemed to be a pretty interesting series, at least to this point. The writing is dull (translation), the characters not fleshed out at all, and the solution seemed to have been conjured up with no interest in establishing motive. Hopefully this one was an aberration and #4 will be back to competence.
This was a novel with not much to recommend it except for the fact that it's part of what seemed to be a pretty interesting series, at least to this point. The writing is dull (translation), the characters not fleshed out at all, and the solution seemed to have been conjured up with no interest in establishing motive. Hopefully this one was an aberration and #4 will be back to competence.
August 12, 2022
The energy picked up rather late in this otherwise outstanding police procedural. Once it did, it was a freight train speeding through the night. Erik Winter seemed distracted by a lot of life changes; i.e. his father's illness, Angela moving in and being pregnant with his child, and his impending 40th birthday. Then the strange murders of two couples who were "swinging" through Gothenburg and targeted by an unknown policeman. There were exciting parts provided by the police chaplain's daughter Maria and her observant boyfriend, Patrik. I found that I was much more interested in these other characters than in the inward, brooding Detective Winter. Overall, an exciting read and well worth reading.
January 11, 2025
As the third book in this series and I have read the others this one had me at a complete loss.
Not sure if it was the translation or a bit of a new writing pattern for Ake Edwardson.
That being said, this one feel flat, as in what the heck is going on flat.
Very very little descriptions of the "scenes" going on in the story. The vagueness was to the point of extreme frustration and annoyance. Why write a book and NOT give the details.
At the end you barely know who the murderer is and you still have no idea why they did it. You don't know any of the details that would round out the story.
Very disappointed in this writing on the third book.
May check out book 4 but if it goes this way from the start, I won't be wasting my reading time on it for long.
Not sure if it was the translation or a bit of a new writing pattern for Ake Edwardson.
That being said, this one feel flat, as in what the heck is going on flat.
Very very little descriptions of the "scenes" going on in the story. The vagueness was to the point of extreme frustration and annoyance. Why write a book and NOT give the details.
At the end you barely know who the murderer is and you still have no idea why they did it. You don't know any of the details that would round out the story.
Very disappointed in this writing on the third book.
May check out book 4 but if it goes this way from the start, I won't be wasting my reading time on it for long.
January 13, 2019
It was very....different. Really into it but it was not easy to follow. It wrapped up way too conveniently and did not answer many of the questions, such as MOTIVE. One of the several other “hard to follow” issues was the dialogue. Long back and forth dialogue without a prompt as to who was saying what. Several times I had to start the conversation over and add a little ‘he said/she said’ in my head to figure out who said what. Specifics that would have filled out the plot were left out or only hinted at. The chapters had several different storylines with no warning between paragraphs leaving you wondering which character was doing what. I started thinking I was missing pages or something.
December 20, 2020
Waarom zo uitgebreid verhalen over zijn relatie met z’n vader? En dat zonder enige aanwijzingen waarom de relatie met zijn ouders zo moeizaam is?
Ook in deze aflevering is het soms zeer verwarrend, wiens gedachten, wiens uitspraken zijn het waarover ik lees? Waarom zoveel ruimte voor een psycholoog die een onwaarschijnlijke profielschets van de dader weet te beschrijven?
Toch drie sterren omdat de schrijver de spanning weet op te voeren en je het verhaal laat uitlezen.
Ook in deze aflevering is het soms zeer verwarrend, wiens gedachten, wiens uitspraken zijn het waarover ik lees? Waarom zoveel ruimte voor een psycholoog die een onwaarschijnlijke profielschets van de dader weet te beschrijven?
Toch drie sterren omdat de schrijver de spanning weet op te voeren en je het verhaal laat uitlezen.
May 20, 2022
I enjoyed this third book in this series, but it moved along slowly. Much of the book was about Inspector Winter's personal life and showed more of his personality, but not as much about the murders.
There were a host of people that could have committed the crime, but you really did not know until you got to the end. The way you want your murder mysteries. :) I am looking forward to starting number 4. I am hooked.
There were a host of people that could have committed the crime, but you really did not know until you got to the end. The way you want your murder mysteries. :) I am looking forward to starting number 4. I am hooked.
November 5, 2017
Such fun - at first, the clues are so obvious, that you start to think the writer's not very good. Then as the clues start to pile up - all pointing in different directions - you have the delicious fun of an author telling a crashingly good murder mystery with a twinkle in his eye. Yes, it's gruesome (it's a Scandinavian murder mystery after all), but Edwardson has a wonderful touch.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 177 reviews