In Harm's Way

Sandhamn Murders #6

by Viveca Sten, Marlaine Delargy (Translator)

A woman’s dangerous career comes to a chilling end in this spellbinding thriller by Viveca Sten, bestselling author of In the Heat of the Moment…

The body of world-famous journalist Jeanette Thiels is discovered the day after Christmas, frozen in a snow-spotted garden just steps from her hotel on Sandhamn Island. Detective Thomas Andreasson finds it highly unlikely that it was some bizarre accident. After all, the relentless war-zone correspondent was no stranger to conflict and controversy—both professional, and of late, very personal. Who would want to see her dead is another story.

Enlisting the help of attorney Nora Linde, his longtime friend on holiday, Thomas is anxious for the answers. But he and Nora don’t have to look far. The clues are leading them closer to home than they imagined. Jeannette may have made a career out of exposing corruption at the highest levels of world power, but she was also a woman with secrets of her own and they’re coming to light on Sandhamn. But for Thomas and Nora, unearthing the deeply rooted deceptions behind Jeanette’s death could now put those closest to her in harm’s way, too.

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Fiction, Thriller, Audiobook, Scandinavian Literature, Nordic Noir

412 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Viveca Sten made her author debut with crime novel Still Waters. It soon became a huge hit with both critics and readers and today the author has sold almost 3 million copies of her books worldwide.

In May 2014, her seventh novel, The Price of Power, was published in Sweden. It was hugely successful and Viveca cemented her place as one of the country’s most popular authors. Her Sandhamn Murder Series continues to top the best seller charts, not to mention the whopping success of the TV mini-series that is based on Viveca’s novels. An estimated 30 million people around the globe have been watching the adventures of Nora and Thomas unfold on the TV screen.

Today, Viveca lives in Stockholm with her husband and three children. During the summer months she leaves for Sandhamn to write and spend the holidays with her family. This year she has also been working on a cookbook that features stories from the Stockholm archipelago
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Reviews

[Kirsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can hardly believe that I have come this far in the series without writing a single review. Maybe it is because I devour them usually in less than 24 hours. And as opposed to many other similar series, they keep getting better. The characters are believable, sympathetic even, and in this book the implicit narrator is righteously enraged because of a racially motivated assault on one of the police officers, and the author manages to pull this off without being too selfrighteous or a nauseating dogooder.

It takes place in Stockholm’s archipelago and I can’t think of a better recommendation for these small islands, I would be off to visit as soon as possible no matter how harsh the weather is.

[Eline Van Der Meulen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Richting het kwaad is het 6e deel in de Sandhamn reeks en is het laatste deel dat vertaald werd in het Nederlands tot op heden. Dat is echt wel een domper want de reeks is superspannend en doordat de personages echt onder je huid gaan kruipen, wil de lezer wel graag weten hoe het hun verder vergaat. Spijtig genoeg moeten we die wens dus even opbergen totdat er nieuwe delen vertaald worden.

Richting het kwaad voert ons terug in de tijd ten tijde van een legeroefening, waarbij we kennis maken met een groep jongemannen die een opleiding volgen om elite soldaat te worden. Elk heeft zo zijn redenen om deel te nemen (het prestige, opgelegde druk van ouders,…). De lezer ziet al snel in dat er praktijken plaatsvinden binnen het bataljon die niet door de beugel kunnen. In het heden wordt Thomas op een zaak gezet waarvan na verloop duidelijk wordt dat het iets te maken heeft met de oude compagnie van toen. Het verhaal sleept je weer mee en is net zoals de voorgaande delen een schot in de roos. Zeer jammer dus dat de volgende delen niet beschikbaar zijn in het Nederlands. Voor richting het kwaad geef ik graag 4.5 sterren.
https://elinevandm.wordpress.com/2024...

[Kristi Lamont · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh how I love this series. Even without any mystery to attempt to solve, it would be nice to just pretend I'm on a ferry to a sea island, watching the sun sparkle on the waves as I enjoy a brisk wind, knowing that when I get to my summer home I'll be able to enjoy the richest of dark coffees and some homemade pastries in the coziness of my sunroom. Umm, you wanted to know about the story? Well, Ms Sten gets major points for giving Stieg Larsson a shout-out. Also, she led me down the garden path in a big way when it came to whodunnit; I was seeing totally plausible motive, means and opportunity in a different direction than things went. Nora? Sigh, Nora. Dither dither dither. Wish I could give this 3.5 stars but Goodreads still hasn't given me that option. Also wish the next in the Sandhamn Murders was already available in English!

[Lynda Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

And she's done it again !! 6 for 6 all 5* book reviews from me !! That is the BEST record of any author I read. Although I just know that sooner or later I'll happen upon a dud.....there's usually one at least in every series I buy. However, Ms. Sten has yet to let me down at all and neither Ms. Delargy. That's a fantastic record.
The series continues to hold my interest and the characters are like happening upon old pals. I really do enjoy the whole package.....AND the presentation once again is second to none. NO mistakes. Each time this leaves me staggered that UK/American authors can't manage this. The Nordics always have the best presentation. Either they pay way more attention because of it being translated each time or they just have much more pride in their work. It's highly impressive, though. I did wonder about Jeanette visiting Iran but then writing about Iraq and wonder if that was right, though ? And a mention of an unborn child baffled me at one point as well.
I can't get past the 15 varieties of pickled herring mentioned.....I just couldn't bring myself to try ONE if I'm honest !! We had the usual mention of cinnamon buns, Volvo and ABBA but no IKEA which was a little remiss as they usually get a mention !!
It is again the immigration issues brought to the fore in this story, the same problems we have here, such as "expenditure on social benefits reaching astronomical heights due to immigration...." With SO many countries facing the same problems you have to wonder why we're all putting up with it, really. This passage said "If we don't preserve our cultural identity, we'll all end up as Muslims. Sweden must slash immigration" then a further remark from one of the police personnel said "I can't understand why people go along with all that crap" and all I could think was WHY NOT ??? It's certainly highly interesting to hear the same problems abound all across Europe......
I am happy to say that books 7 and 8 were recently discounted so I have them ready to read !! I'm looking forward to reading what happens with Nora in both her personal and professional life in upcoming instalments.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Without a doubt, I love the ending of this book.

The mystery is mainly concerning Thomas. Nora's plot is more to do with her job and her relationship status - she is slightly (oh so slightly) torn between her ex-husband who has realized he was an ass and her new boyfriend. That plot is handled quite well and is simply two people who used to love each other trying to figure things out.

The mystery - the killing of a reporter who reminds me of Seierstad - is compelling. There are almost too many people to chose from in terms of her death. What is done well is the relationships in the reporter's family - esp. with her daughter.

[Ken Fredette · Rating 4 out of 5]

I must say that Viveca Sten actually outdid herself writing this book. Nora Linde had Christmas and New Years at her house on Sandhamn Island with her sons Adam and Simon and for Christmas her ex Henrik. While there, a journalist, Jeanette Thiels dies, frozen to death outside her hotel. Detective Inspector Thomas Andreasson was told to investigate this woman's body on Sandhamn. As it unfolds it turns out after the autopsy she had died from a rare poison found in her intestines. We meet her ex husband, Michael Thiels and his daughter Alice, who is really upset hearing of her mother's death. She's so upset she blames her father for her death. We meet others in Thomas's team including Margit Grankvist, Staffan Nilsson (forensic technician), Aram, Karin, Sachsen, and the Old Man, the boss.
Mean while, Nora had been given a project that put her under Jukka Heinonen, as a lawyer showing how Finland and Sweden had merged and now they were selling their branches in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Nora didn't like the deal because it involved receiving monies through banks that were legal but questionable. She's set up a meeting with her boss which didn't go right.
Aram had another idea that he wanted to bring up and that was that the 'New Sweden' was by far the group that the immigrants hated and were in the way of progress. The people in the administration of it were by far the subjects in Jeanette Thiels papers.
These were by far the main focus of the story and were discussed in depth with all the trimmings that Viveca could come up with that made your gray cells ask questions. I won't spoil it for you but what a good read this was, I gave it 4 stars out of 5.

[Anissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

It being December, I've been leaning toward reads with Christmas themes or snow and this checked both those boxes. It's the sixth in a series and while it took a little to get into the ongoing travails of the detectives in the story, I don't think it suffered any with me dropping in now and reading it as a standalone. The descriptions of the setting really drew me in and gave a wonderful sense of place. I also liked the way the story moved along. There are 107 chapters but they're fairly short and I didn't feel bogged down. The characters were well enough done and I was guessing a good deal about who did the murder. I happened to enjoy how so many threads tied up neatly and I thought the murder was cleverly done.

I would read another in the series but not at the moment because it's December and I'm still looking for murder under mistletoe and crime secreted under snowdrifts.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have enjoyed watching this series on MHz and had never read any of the books. [Lied. Just saw that I read the first one back in 2018, another reason I need to track my reading on goodreads!] I was familiar with the marital ins and outs and never happy with any of that, but at least it kept my confusion to a minimum in dipping into the sixth book of the series as my first Sandhamn book to read. It was just one of those suggestions from Amazon that I nodded to and downloaded. Now I will go back to the beginning since I have learned all the books are available through Kindle Unlimited. This author really packs a lot of action and themes in one book. There is no way I could have understood the relationships without having watched the very well acted series.
This is a good one for a snowy weekend close to Christmas. The murder victim is a female journalist, mother of one young girl. It starts the book with a cold, harsh bang and you're hooked.

Kindle Unlimited

[Esther · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sadly, this book wasn't as great as the others in the series.

I felt no tension or anything thrilling for the first 85%. I also felt like there were a lot of unnecessary details and that the book lacked details where I wanted it most.

It was an original poison case, that has to be said. And I will never leave Thomas and Nora, so I will definitely read the next book.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Harm’s Way, the sixth book in Viveca Sten’s Sandhamn Murders series, is an excellent murder mystery that’s at least as good as the earlier books. I’ve given them all four-star ratings, but this one may be the best so far.

The prime focus of the story is on the death of prominent journalist Jeanette Thiels on a Christmas Eve visit to Sandhamn. When Jeanette’s body is found in the snow on the grounds of the Sailors Hotel on the day after Christmas, the hotel staff contacts the police. Detective Inspector Thomas Andreasson, who is spending the holiday with his wife and infant daughter on the nearby island of Harö, is called to investigate. The cause of Jeanette’s death isn’t immediately apparent, but Thomas suspects that she may have been murdered.

Jeanette had spent her career reporting on dangerous and controversial subjects, so the police theorize that someone may have killed her in order to prevent the publication of something she was working on. The ultraconservative political group New Sweden especially draws their attention when Thomas and his colleagues discover that Jeanette had maintained numerous files about the group.

But they also learn that Jeanette had a very contentious relationship with her ex-husband, Michael. The police profiler’s opinion that the killer most likely knew Jeanette well points to Michael as a prime suspect, since he had both motive and opportunity. But the clues are frustratingly far from clear.

As Thomas pursues his investigation with his partner Margit Grankvist and their colleagues, Thomas’s friend Nora Linde has her holiday celebration with her family interrupted by a work dilemma that threatens the happiness and security she was only recently beginning to feel after her divorce.

For me, the Nora thread of the book has almost become a distraction. In the first several books, Nora was an integral part of the story, as she was involved for one reason or another with Thomas’s murder investigations. In the more recent books, Nora has become a more peripheral player, and it almost seems as if Sten no longer knows what to do with her. In this book, she plays a very minimal role in the investigation of Jeanette’s murder, and her work dilemma is completely unrelated to it.

I assume that Nora is something of a stand-in for the author herself, as someone who spends much of her time living on Sandhamn and knows the place intimately. We do get an insider’s look at Sandhamn through her eyes. And for regular readers of the series, it’s nice to see how Nora’s personal and family life develops as time goes by. But to me, Nora no longer feels like a necessary character.

But my view of Nora’s place in the book aside, In Harm’s Way is a very enjoyable book. The police procedural aspect of the story is very well done, and the resolution of the mystery is exciting and satisfying. If you like a good solid mystery story, you’ll enjoy spending time watching Thomas and Margit and their colleagues at work as they try to identify a killer and get justice for Jeanette Thiels.

[Niki · Rating 3 out of 5]

meilleur que le polar précédent de Viveca Sten – en effet, je l’avais lu en diagonale tant j’avais trouvé que cela parlait trop de problèmes personnels des enquêteurs, cela prenant le pas sur l’enquête. Et tout y était totalement prévisible.

Ici, on a aussi comme sujets secondaires les vies de Nora Linde – toujours compliquée, mais elle doit aussi affronter des problèmes professionnels ; Thomas Andreasson qui mène parallèlement l’enquête et les nuits blanches pour faire dormir son petit bout de fille ; ainsi que celle d’un jeune collègue, nouveau au sein de l’équipe, qui a connu les difficultés de l’intégration après avoir fui l’Iran lorsqu’il était enfant.

Le mouvement xénophobe est particulièrement mis en évidence dans ce roman, apparemment la Suède connaît les mêmes difficultés sur l’accueil des migrants que le reste de l’Europe. Ce qui fait le jeun de l’extrême-droite.

Heureusement, l’enquête sur la mort de la journaliste est suffisamment intéressante pour atténuer la longueur des problèmes personnels des protagonistes.
Cette fois j’ai apprécié l’enquête policière et le bouleversement final.
Une lecture de vacances, sans plus

[Melwin Modén]

super bra

[María Alejandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

No me enganchó y se me hizo eterno terminarlo aunque el caso era interesante. Creo que ya no leeré más esta serie.

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

December 2020 review after reading first five installments:
When a journalist dies on Sandhamn in a snowstorm, it is at first assumed she froze to death. The autopsy, however, determines the presence of a poison from a bean often used in making bracelets. While the ex-husband's motive to kill the woman emerges as a front-runner, rumors the journalist might plan to expose an organization catch the attention of investigators as well. Thomas, Margit, and Aram feel they make little progress. A suspicious neighbor's injuries land him in the hospital, and the killer strikes again. The killer believes the woman's young daughter holds a copy of her mom's writing. Thomas and Margit must to find the killer before another victim turns up. Meanwhile Nora's bank boss pressures her to give the go-ahead on a project she feels might hurt the bank, but her investigation turns up no evidence of wrong-doing. Will she acquiesce or stick to her gut feeling? Knowing the back story for Thomas and for Nora helped me appreciate this installment more when I re-read it in order. Although the first victim died on Sandhamn, little action takes place on the island itself. I do not believe the writing is as tight as it was in the earliest installments. This one departed from the formula which seemed to be developing over the last few in the series. I think removing 50 pages with tighter editing would strengthen the novel. (3.5 stars)

Review from October 2018 before I'd read earlier installments:
A 400 page book with 107 chapters! The choppy organization disrupted the flow of the novel, making it difficult to follow. A journalist is found dead Christmas eve. Suspicion falls to her "ex" who retains custody of their child, but other suspects and motives exist. The police immediately notice the lack of a computer in the journalist's hotel room, leading them to suspect murder even before the autopsy reveals it. While I like the setting, I did not get a strong feel for it. The police did not seem very developed. I'm sure it's because it is a later book in the series, and I read no earlier installments. I received an advance electronic copy through NetGalley with the expectation of an honest review. (2 stars)

[Nathalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ik las dit boek met plezier terwijl ik me herinner het eerste boek van deze reeks niet zo goed te hebben gevonden. Maar ik denk dat de personages mee geëvolueerd zijn en nu ook wat meer ervaringen achter de rug hebben. De spanning zat er goed in en ik werd duidelijk in het verhaal meegezogen, want ik heb het vannacht in één ruk uitgelezen! Het gaat over een bekende oorlogscorrespondente die zich bedreigd voelt, en naar Sandhamn vlucht maar er dan toch vermoord wordt. Het gaat over een vechtscheiding en een jong meisje dat daar het slachtoffer van is. Het gaat ook over racistische stromingen in de maatschappij. De moordenaar blijkt uiteindelijk echter zeer berekenend te zijn. Het einde is weer zeer onverwacht want er wordt tijdens het verhaal amper naar gehint. Als de vorige delen die trend voorgingen, zal ik die zeker nog te hand nemen. Viveca Sten is misschien geen Scandinavische top, maar hoort bij de zeer goede middenmoot in ieder geval.

[Richard Derus · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Publisher Says: A woman’s dangerous career comes to a chilling end in this spellbinding thriller by Viveca Sten, bestselling author of In the Heat of the Moment…

The body of world-famous journalist Jeanette Thiels is discovered the day after Christmas, frozen in a snow-spotted garden just steps from her hotel on Sandhamn Island. Detective Thomas Andreasson finds it highly unlikely that it was some bizarre accident. After all, the relentless war-zone correspondent was no stranger to conflict and controversy—both professional, and of late, very personal. Who would want to see her dead is another story.

Enlisting the help of attorney Nora Linde, his longtime friend on holiday, Thomas is anxious for the answers. But he and Nora don’t have to look far. The clues are leading them closer to home than they imagined. Jeannette may have made a career out of exposing corruption at the highest levels of world power, but she was also a woman with secrets of her own and they’re coming to light on Sandhamn. But for Thomas and Nora, unearthing the deeply rooted deceptions behind Jeanette’s death could now put those closest to her in harm’s way, too.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review,/b>: I now know more than I ever knew there was to know about pickled herring.

This is not an approving statement.

Again, we're police-proceduraling with Thomas and Margit. She's coalesced into more of a presence than I ever expected her to do, has our Margit; but I'm still not distracted from the mains by her involvement in investigations so I call the author's level of detail in limning her character good. The immigration issues facing Europe, the backlash from "cultural purity" proponents, the unbelievable, incredible hatred that some are consumed by for those not just like them all concatenate at the same time as Nora's Yule festivities on Sandhamn. (Why she includes the vile ex-husband is beyond me.)

After Iranian immigrant journalist Juliette dies in the snow outside her hotel on the island (you know, I love cozies and their settings, but the logical part of me says "the Swedes ain't idiots and this place would glow like Chernobyl on any statistical map of Swedish crime" like Midsomer would in England); it's not a horrible accident, of course. Juliette's work is digging into some unnerving and clearly unsavory stuff that the Powers That Be did not want exposed. Then Juliette's controlling Swedish ex-husband comes into the suspect frame; even his pre-adolescent daughter thinks he probably had some hand in her mother's death.

Enter Thomas and Margit as the lead investigators, and the police Scoobygroup we've seen before starts the interesting ferreting among the fallen leaves of this dogged, but hapless, woman's life. The work she'd been doing about the burgeoning nativist group that hates non-Nordic Swedes was reaching a critical mass and that's a reason to kill in that sick, twisted worldview. The issues between her and her ex keep the focus on the police's work in solving her poisoning; thus off the Nora parts of the plot. For those hooked in by Nora from the off, this story will feel frustrating. Her involvement in Thomas's case is pretty much nil; her plot strands are lawyering related, as her company is enmeshed in the colonial remnants of Sweden's centuries-old Baltic empire. This leads to some unpleasant, though legal, ways of making money, to Nora's deep disgust; her firm's head and she are due for a showdown over this shady, unethical entanglement (among other things, like misogyny and borderline harassment). As this echoes the main case's focus on the role of History in forming a place for better or ill, it wasn't a waste to include Nora. She doesn't play a role in the crime investigation but her moral musings and decisions do offer depth of field to the main idea behind the murder.

I am not a fan of the dithering "will-she-won't-she" style of storytelling I see all too much of in series reads. Why women should be presented as so weak as to constantly question their decisions about men is something I do not think we question as a trope nearly hard enough. Nora's ex shouldn't be up for rehabilitation after his emotional abuse of her. (Let's not even bring up The Slap. Might bring up my lunch wth it.) She's decided several books ago that the affair she discovered him having is the bridge too far. That should be allowed to be that. Her efforts not to estrange her ex-husband from their sons is admirable. But let's leave it as focused on the EX part and not so much the HUSBAND part.

That ongoing snark aside, the role of ethnicity in this story is very much the catalyst for some trademark idiotic behaviors among the investigators. Thomas in particular is, every book, doing something that unnecessarily endangers his life...and while I'm really not on board with his reunion with Pernilla, he DOES have an infant daughter to consider before haring off without backup to Get The Perp. And this time he's very much not alone, since one of the investigative Scoobygroup is an Iranian-born Swede whose dander gets up as facts of the case come to light. He decides, like his colleagues Thomas and Margit, to say "screw it" to rule-following and puts himself (and, one would think, any hope of bringing a successful prosecution) in danger.

Well, fiction ain't fact, and at least in the latter case I really got why the response was what it was.

I do want to offer one very major content warning: There is, in this entry, animal abuse that I found very upsetting. It is the reason that I rated this read lower than the one before it, when before this occurred, I was set to give it a solid four stars. I am, it's true, very averse to this subject matter, and others might not find the event portrayed as upsetting as I did. For my fellows in feeling that children and animals being harmed are not welcome events in my entertainment, be aware this occurs.

Snowy, Yule-y streets in the sweetly intimate island community of Sandhamn. The expected death. The inevitable successful resolution of the crime. The ongoing lives of characters I've come to care about. All the elements of damned fine read. And so it was.

Until the content warning stuff happened. I'll be continuing with the series but some luster got lost off my pleasure.

[Emma Engström · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5

[Hedoga · Rating 3 out of 5]

( Audiolibro )

El más flojito y menos "adictivo" de todos.

Sin más.

Apenas sin presencia de las tramas secundarias que tanta vida le dan a esta saga y con una trama principal que no me ha atrapado en ningún momento.

[Tanja Berg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Det här är kanske den boken i serien jag gillat bäst så långt. Jag vet inte riktigt. Det som står klart är att mordmysteriet i sig självt är mera trovärdigt än tidigare. Författaren har så absolut haft en uveckling till det bättre.

En känd frilands journalist hittas i en snödriva precis efter jul, på Sandhamn. Det visar sig att hon har blivit skickligt förgiftad, det hela kunde ha förblivit oupptäckt om mördaren haft tur. Kvinnans dotter har fått ett USB minne som hon vägrar att berätta om till polisen. Det är kopplingar till partiet Nya Sverige och undersökningar i den riktningen får olyckliga konsekvenser för en av medlemmarna i polisutredningen.

Det är hög underhållningsfaktor och jag börjar verkligen bli ganska förtjust i Viveca Sten som författare. När jag såg att jag inte hade tillräckligt med bok kvar på min mp3 spelare för att räcka en hel promenad lastade jag ner nästa bok före jag gick ut.

[jay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok so I just realized this is a series? Oops.

The main storyline was ok, but Nora was kind of a useless character. I don't know if she's contributed more in the other books, but I didn't care what was going on with her. None of the things happening with Nora moved the plot along or anything, and it didn't contribute anything to the book. This was way longer than it needed to be, everything was so drawn out and things only really started happening about 80% of the way through.

[Elina Mäkitalo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pidin kirjasta. Melko paljon samoja kommentteja kuin aikaisempien osien kohdalla - sekä positiivisen että negatiivisen arvostelun kanssa. Annoin neljä tähteä vaikka olikin ehkä vähän huonompi kuin edellinen osa muttei kuitenkaan niin ratkaisevasti että olisi vaikuttanut numeroon. Mielenkiintoinen sarja.

[Val · Rating 1 out of 5]

My last book by this author

I've been mostly enjoying this series, but this will be my last book by this author..Animal torture/cruelty is a hard pass for me and there was no benefit to adding it to this story.

[Wal.li · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tödliche Nacht

Die Journalistin Jeanette Thiels wird am zweiten Weihnachtstag im Garten des Hotels, in dem sie sich einquartiert hatte, tot aufgefunden. Kommissar Thomas Andreasson, der gerade mit seiner Familie auf den Inseln weilt, fährt mit dem Taxiboot nach Sandhamn, um festzustellen, ob es sich um einen Unfall oder Schlimmeres gehandelt haben könnte. Die Tote sieht zwar sehr friedlich aus, aber ihr Zimmer scheint durchsucht worden zu sein. Also entscheidet Thomas, dass die Sache genauer untersucht werden sollte. Bald stellt sich heraus, dass sich die Journalistin sowohl durch ihre Arbeit als auch im Privaten Feinde gemacht hatte.

In seinem sechsten Fall geht es Thomas Andreasson, Frau und Tochter angesichts eines Schicksalsschlags, den sie erlitten hatten, recht gut. Vielleicht macht gerade sein privates Glück Thomas empfänglicher für das Leid anderer oder die Ungerechtigkeit in der Welt. Jedenfalls bereitet ihm schon der Fundort der Leiche Unbehagen. Und dies verschlimmert sich beim Anblick des durchwühlten Zimmers. Dennoch erscheint es zunächst kaum vorstellbar, dass diese unbescholtene Frau einen Anlass gegeben haben könnte, sie umzubringen. Natürlich stellt sich im Laufe der Untersuchung heraus, dass Jeanette Thiels einen vielschichtigen Charakter hatte, mit dem sie aneckte und für den sie gemocht wurde.

Wenn man eine Weile mit der Lektüre dieser Reihe pausiert hat, freut man sich zunächst alte Bekannte wieder zu treffen. Es ist schön zu lesen, wie sich Thomas und Pernilla eingerichtet haben. Schnell kommt man zum Fall einer verängstigten Frau, die sich auf Sandhamn sicher glaubte. Gefesselt taucht man in die Geschichte einer Frau ein, die trotz ihrer großen journalistischen Leistungen, in der Familie nicht so gut zurechtkam und beruflich einigen mit unbequemen Fragen auf die Füße getreten ist. Spannend auch wie Thomas Andreasson und seine Kollegen an den Fall herangehen und immer neue mögliche Zusammenhänge ausgraben. Diese Reihe liest man gerne und die Pause bis zum nächsten Band wird wesentlich kürzer ausfallen.

[Neil Plakcy · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're interested in Scandinavia but don't like the trend to Scandi Noir, you might want to check her out. The books are set on a small island in the archipelago off Stockholm, and they are primarily police procedurals, although the detective gets help from his childhood friend, an attorney with a vacation home on the island.

The latest, In Harm's Way, has a tricky plot so I won't reveal too much, but a well-known investigative journalist dies after retreating to a hotel on Sandholmn on Christmas Eve. The plot ties together very well, except for the subplot involving the attorney. She has such a minor role, and her subplot doesn't connect at all to the main plot, so I ended up skimming her chapters.

There are some changes to the lives of the characters through the six books, but I think they don't need to be read in order. Apparently these are hugely popular in Sweden, with a TV series based on them.

[Clarabel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un rendez-vous plaisant mais alourdi par la voix atone du comédien (format audio). Tout sonne terriblement mollasson. C'est irritant !
Sinon l'enquête est basique mais dénonce la dérive identitaire qui sévit de plus en plus sur les pays européens avec une montée xénophobe qui s'affiche désormais sans honte.
Dans cet épisode, Nora est INEXISTANTE. Son personnage papier est très éloigné de celui aperçu dans la série TV. Elle ne fait que geindre et attendre un signe du destin (retourner avec son ex ou attendre le retour de son petit copain / dénoncer son harcèlement au boulot ou rester prostrée en boule sous la couette). Mouaip...
Ceci dit, j'apprécie cette série au charme nordique qui me fait voyager avec un goût de reviens-y. Gare à ne pas tomber dans la facilité non plus ! Car ça devient plan-plan... (Thomas n'est vraiment pas glamour.)

[Deborah Stevens · Rating 4 out of 5]

I continue to enjoy these mysteries set in Sweden, and the audio versions are well done.

A friend challenged me as to why I find these worthwhile... she read one or two and found them a waste of her time. Interesting question. I think that in addition to the rapid plots and unpredictable (to me) solutions to the mysteries, the author is interested in marriages, child rearing, work/life balance, and these themes matter to most of us, regardless of nationality. And I love "traveling" to Sweden.

(I do NOT read in Swedish but somehow Goodreads hasn't caught up with posting the English versions of the most recent titles in this series.)

[Elisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and with a suspenseful ending, even if the plot was a little too preachy and political for my taste. The subplot about Nora's professional life seems a little out of place and has no resolution. Still, entertaining enough.

[Helena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tämä oli parhaasta päästä Sandhamn-sarjaa, oikein taidokkaasti koottu dekkari, jossa osaset loksahtivat lopussa paikalleen. Yllätyin murhaajan suhteen! Aurinkoiseen mökkilomapäivään täydellisesti sopiva kirja siitäkin huolimatta, että kirjan tapahtumat starttaavat jouluaatosta :)

[Gail Radka · Rating 5 out of 5]

I repeat i am loving this series straight onto the next book. All the cases are different snd the thread of personal life running through all of them is a story itself. I love the characters and getting to know their families.

[Bexar Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best one yet. Was so hooked. Read it in a day!