The Demon of Dakar: A Mystery (Ann Lindell Mysteries) [Paperback]

Kjell Eriksson (Author), Ebba Segerberg (Translator)

Book Description

Series: Ann Lindell Mysteries | Publication Date: June 23, 2009

Winner of the Swedish Crime Academy Award for Best Crime Novel, international sensation Kjell Eriksson has quickly built a name for himself in the United States. In this highly acclaimed follow-up to The Cruel Stars of the Night, Manuel Alavez’s life is in ruins. One of his brothers is dead, the other is in jail, and the man who double-crossed both men is running a high-class successful restaurant. A series of dramatic events inevitably leads to murder, and Inspector Ann Lindell is forced to sample many fine meals at the restaurant as she attempts to thwart a cunning killer.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Swedish author Eriksson's masterful ensemble procedural, the third available in the U.S. after The Cruel Stars of the Night (2007), immerses the reader in the ordinary and extraordinary lives of detective Ann Lindell and her colleagues of the Uppsala police force. The odd assemblage of characters who engage the interest of the police include a Mexican peasant, Manuel Alavez, who has traveled to Sweden to see his imprisoned brother; a restaurant owner, Slobodan Andersson, whose successful restaurants, Dakar and Alhambra, owe much to shady funds and his unusual partner, Armas; and a single mother, Eva Willman, for whom a waitressing job opens new vistas. After Armas is found dead of a knife wound, others get caught up in the turmoil caused by the crimes of a few. There are plenty of shades of gray in this tale told with wry humor, compassion and a fine understanding that in life often things cannot be resolved either neatly or completely. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

“Kjell Eriksson’s crime novels are among the very best.”
- Henning Mankell

“With Kjell Eriksson, what we find is an extraordinary depth of feeling for honest people caught up in serious crime. [In The Demon of Dakar], Eriksson shows how crime undermines the foundations of both family and community.”
- The New York Times Book Review

“Intriguing . . . complex . . . will appeal to fans of Fossum and Tursten. A must for the growing contingent of Swedish crime-fiction devotees.”
- Booklist

“Riveting . . . it’s hard to see how the author could do any better. Eriksson is a gifted storyteller and a great creator of character . . . terrific.”
- The Globe and Mail

“An outstanding series . . . links between the murder at Dakar and other violent crimes heighten the urgency as more bloodshed looms. . . . Ably translated—has a big cast and a wide canvas, but Mr. Eriksson is careful to keep the story on a human scale.”
- The Wall Street Journal

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; First Edition edition (June 23, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312366701
• ISBN-13: 978-0312366704
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #861,083 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars another swedish procedural mystery with strengths and weaknesses, October 21, 2008

By 

Alan A. Elsner "Alan Elsner, author" (Washington DC) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Demon of Dakar: A Mystery (Ann Lindell Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Yet another police mystery from Sweden (what is it with these Swedes? They have one of the lowest murder rates in the world and one of the highest proportions of murder mysteries).
This one is set in the cathedral town of Uppsala. Its strength is the way the author reveals the workings of an entire police department. We get to know several of the detectives, not only at work but in their personal lives as well. The panorama of the book then is quite wide. We also get an interesting cross-section of the seamier side of Uppsala society -- the single mother trying to raise two teenage boys and hold down a job, the disaffected immigrant community and we also see a little bit of Uppsala's underworld focusing on the burgeoning problem of drugs in a place which had been largely immune to such problems.
The book runs into difficulties when the author also tries to get inside the head of his villain (I'm not giving anything away here -- it is revealed early in the book). This is a Mexican who has come to avenge the death of his brother killed in a drugs deal gone bad. Here, the book goes completely wacky. How can this poor former illegal immigrant to the United States buy a ticket to Sweden, rent a car, murder someone and then hang out in open sight for weeks on end? The motive for the killing -- a tattoo -- is also unrealistic.
The end of the book comes as a severe anti-climax. So yes, there is a lot that is good here but I would view it as a flawed effort.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars superb Swedish police procedural, June 3, 2008

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Demon of Dakar: A Mystery (Ann Lindell Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Uppsala, Sweden Police Detective Ann Lindell works a difficult homicide case as she struggles to identify the victim found floating in a river. The corpse is eventually identified as Armas, a co-owner of the upscale restaurant Dakar. Ann visits the other partner, Slobodan Andersson who also owns Alhambra and has questionable financing connections and plenty of enemies.

However the suspect list remains long besides Slobodan and his adversaries. Ann considers recently hired waitress Eva Willman and her two teen boys, chef Johnny Kvarnheden, homeless Konrad Rosenberg and Mexican peasant Manuel Alavez seeking to free his incarcerated brother.

The fascination with this superior third Swedish police procedural (see THE CRUEL STARS OF THE NIGHT and THE PRINCESS OF BURUNDI) is the cast as perspective is told from various participants so that the same incident is seen differently and their political viewpoints especially anti Bush runs strong. The investigation led by Ann is wonderful to follow as she, like the readers, meet the restaurant's players who all have motive to kill the victim. A slight adjustment is needed to Swedish nomenclature as delineating the names of people and places require full concentration, but THE DEMON OF DAKAR is worth the time.

Harriet Klausner

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Erickson is Trying to Do Too Much, November 8, 2008

By 

Douglas S. Wood "Vicarious Life" (Monona, WI) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Demon of Dakar: A Mystery (Ann Lindell Mysteries) (Hardcover)

The book jacket proclaims unanimous praise for Kjell Erickson, but I cannot join the chorus. 'The Demon of Dakar' is part-police procedural, part-psychological analysis, part social commentary and nearly always confusing and unconvincing.

A close friend and business associate of a restaurant owner turns up done to death. The reader knows who did it and thus can see the police try to connect the pieces. That the police struggle to do so and then look down seemingly logical, but wrong paths is one of the book's more interesting threads. Erickson introduces a veritable army of characters from within the police department, restaurants, the drug world, a prison escape, flight for the border, and so on and on.

Erickson's book contains enough characters, ideas for story lines, and themes to fill three books, but he tries to squeeze them all into one book. The result is unsatisfying confusion and half-told stories. And as another reviewer has pointed out, some of the stories are simply implausible. Moreover, the book suffers from a poor translation from Swedish to English. The translation uses clearly incorrect words in some places, stilted wording in others.

Smarter people than me have recommended Erickson's works, so you may want to take a look for yourself, but with all the excellent European crime writers (e.g. Andrea Camilleri, Leonard Sciascia, Sjowall and Wahloo, and Ian Rankin) out there I cannot recommend 'The Demon of Dakar'.