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Starting/joining in with buddy reads
By Judy · 1336 posts · 372 views
By Judy · 1336 posts · 372 views
last updated 1 hour, 41 min ago
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White Nights by Ann Cleeves (Shetland #2) (August/Sept 25)
By Susan · 29 posts · 12 views
By Susan · 29 posts · 12 views
last updated Sep 04, 2025 12:17PM
What Members Thought
My fifth Swedish police procedural starring Chief Inspector Martin Beck. I say "starring" however he really only has a bit part in this story of arson, murder, racketing and other complex plot twists, which was originally published in 1969. The main policeman involved in the case is bad tempered Gunvald Larsson who starts the story as a hero rescuing people from a burning building. But Sjöwall and Wahlöö are very democratic as ever and the police cast list, hierarchy and spoils are evenly spread
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Back to 3* for this, after a 4* for the last in the series. Too full of violent and sexual tricks to ramp up the interest while still pretending to be a meticulous police procedural. Emphasising the slowness of procedures by starting a chapter with 'Just over a month later ....' for no apparent reason doesn't do the business.
Enjoyable but over-rated.
Having mentioned in earlier reviews of the series that these books weren't ground-breaking if one had read Simenon, McBain, Dürrenmatt, I was deligh ...more
Enjoyable but over-rated.
Having mentioned in earlier reviews of the series that these books weren't ground-breaking if one had read Simenon, McBain, Dürrenmatt, I was deligh ...more
Sep 15, 2021
Kim Johnson
marked it as to-read
