Customer Reviews

The Depths of the Forest (Eurocrime series)

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I like to read crime books from around the world, particularly from Europe, and I will admit to a preference for those from the frozen north over those set in the sunny south. Judging from the numbers of each available I don't think I am the only one. The cover of this Euro Crime edition proclaims 'A new case for private investigator Ricardo Cupido'. Maybe just as well it does otherwise you might not notice. Cupido is one of the most anonymous and almost literally nondescript detectives I have come across. He is not even the main character in this book. That honour goes to the girl who is murdered in the first five pages. In mentioning this I am not giving away anything that isn't detailed on the book's back cover. In fact the back cover gives away a plot detail that is key to the denouement near the end of the book which is only found as a result of one of the few pieces of detective work in the story.

The bulk of the book is taken up with impressions of the murder victim as seen through the eyes of various people and at one point, very bizarrely, a rat crawling around her corpse. Cupido is hired by the lawyer boyfriend of the murdered girl who is not satisfied that the police are doing all that they could on the case. In most fiction P.I.s are rarely and barely tolerated by the police, but in this one they are happy to have his help and are willing to share case files with him. That is unlikely enough, but when a second murder takes place and the lawyer decides to cancel the deal with Cupido, the cops still call him in to help. That is stretching credibility just a bit far.

There are a few other aspects of the novel that left me unlikely to read any more in the series. The only real description of Cupido comes through the eyes of the female business partner of the murder victim who falls for him after a one night stand, described in unnecessarily salacious detail. The author also has a habit of repeating descriptions almost word for word, and generally when it is the not the most wholesome image he is describing. Of course this could be down to translation. I always try to make allowances in foreign novels for expressions or words that may have no direct translation, but sometimes things just jar and the repeated use of the word 'vertiginous' is a case in point here.

Back to the Scandinavian sleuths for me.