A Complex, Difficult, and Gripping Police Procedural
Anna Larrson is driving her seven-year-old son, Hugo, to Dived for slalom training. Hugo must relieve himself, so Anna stops in a wide part of the road. Hugo returns too quickly to the car and tells his mother that a hurt man is lying in the snow. Anna does not want to be late for the slalom training, but Hugo does not lie. Anna exits the car to see for herself. She finds a man with his hands bound behind him. His face is bloody. He has a severe wound to the back of his head. From here, a complex murder investigation starts.
This novel is the second in the Åre Murders series. The main storyline has two threads. The first is the investigation of Johan Andersson’s murder. The second thread tells the story of Rebecka Nordhammnar’s abusive marriage. Detectives Hanna Ahlander and Daniel Lindskog narrate the investigation. After some progress, the investigation seems to slow down significantly as the victim’s movements could not be determined after he left his business partner. The person seems to have the best motives for wanting his partner dead. The investigation focuses heavily on him. The lead detective, Daniel, has a severe domestic problem with his wife. She is having problems taking care of their baby daughter. Her demands for his time are affecting his work very seriously. I was hooked on this novel very quickly.
Two background threads provide much new information on Hanna and Daniel. Hanna’s background is expanded with her relationship with her sister, who comes to spend some time with her. Daniel’s relationship with his wife, who has severe problems with being a mother trying to cope with her first newborn, provides much insight into Daniel’s response to domestic stress. Professionally, the most significant change is in Hanna’s character. In the first novel, she did some very unprofessional acts. In this novel, the reader will see a maturing detective. There is one B-storyline between one of the detectives in an inappropriate relationship with a witness. Hanna’s previous indiscretions probably won’t come to light, but this detective's actions may turn into a multi-novel B-storyline. It will be interesting to see how it starts. These aspects of the novel increased my enjoyment of reading.
Several intimate scenes are present for the aspects of a novel that can make some readers stop reading. Most instances are simple sentences that it occurred. The one that wasn’t centered on what it meant emotionally. Vulgar and rude language, as well as impious language, occur at a low level. Violence is described almost exclusively after the fact, so it is not as edgy. The translation was excellent without any issues for me. There are some references to the first novel, but I did not see any that required reading the first novel. I had to access the Internet on my e-reader to discover all the novel's locations. I found this very handy. I believe none of these aspects should stop most from reading this novel.
I did not have an issue that I disliked, but the Rebecka Nordhammar thread was puzzling as it appeared not to have any correlation to the Johan Andersson murder investigation. After each chapter in that thread, I kept wondering what was the relevance of this thread. When it became clear, there was a relationship, but as I suspected and not as I expected. I liked Hanna's transformation as he stopped her shenanigans, but she was tempted once. There were no loose ends except what might be a multi-novel B-storyline I mentioned previously. This novel had all the aspects that I enjoy. The investigation is complex and, at times, perplexing. The author has seamlessly woven a rich background and B-storylines with the main storyline. I literally could not stop reading when I needed to sleep. After reading several of her Sandhamn series, the author earned a Must-Read rating for me. If police procedurals interest you, definitely try this Nordic version. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel and am looking forward to reading the next in the series. I rate this novel with five stars.
I received this novel's free prepublication e-book version through NetGalley from Amazon Crossing. My review is based solely on my own reading experience of this book. I wish to thank Amazon Crossing for the opportunity to read and review this novel early.