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44 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Engaging Swedish Debut, January 5, 2003
Fans of Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander series will be delighted with this first entry in fellow Swede Tursten's procedural series. Set in Goteborg, the book stars Det. Inspector Irene Huss and her colleagues in the Violent Crimes Unit as they investigate the murder of a prominent and very wealthy businessman. Like John Harvey's Charlie Resnick series, the story's about both the crime and the lives of those investigating it, with similarly satisfying results. The crime itself is an exceedingly tangled one, with loads of suspects, a locked door, and many complications and other crimes cropping up as the story progresses. That said, the primary culprit can be guessed almost right from the start, even if the motive and method for the murder cannot. A great deal of the novel's success is attributable to Tursten's detailed step-by-step rendering of the patient police work that leads to the resolution. The rich and famous milieux of the murder is nothing notably new, nor is the connection to a sleazier world of drugs and sex. However, one thing that American readers may not quite understand is the role of motorcycle gangs in Scandinavia. In the US, the image of the Hell's Angels have been considerably softened to one of benign oversized 50-somethings cruising around on expensive bikes in a now-benign subculture. However, in Scandinavia (and Canada, see John Farrow's thriller City of Ice), the Hell's Angels and other motorcycle gangs are directly involved in high-level drug trafficking and violent crime. Although the crime and its unraveling could be transposed to a US setting without a great deal of difficulty, the book has much to offer. Most importantly, the characters, from the police to suspects and witnesses, all are exceedingly well-drawn and believable. Det. Insp. Huss is especially likable as a 40ish woman in a male-dominated profession filled with casual sexism. Her coworkers are each intriguing, from enigmatic Hannu, to wheezing supervisor Andersson, bright young Brigitta, nasty Tommy, arrogant Medical Examiner Stridner, and the many technicians who assist the investigation. Huss's personal life adds great depth and sympathy to her character, especially the subplot involving one of her daughter's flirtation with neo-Nazism. Ethnicity comes into play as well, with several characters having Finnish backgrounds that render them quite alien to the Swedes. The pacing is quite good considering the book's length and complexity, as is the translation, which is exceedingly smooth and readable. This is an engaging debut, and I eagerly look forward to the next in the series.
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
All-star Swedish thriller, June 29, 2005
This review is from: Detective Inspector Huss (Paperback)
I really got into this story about a woman police detective in Goteborg, Sweden. This is not a lightweight mystery that comes to the conclusion that X killed Y. There are complex relationships between the characters, a lot of interrelated violent crimes, and motives that are not at all apparent at the start. The book pulls the reader right in by having a wealthy prominent man fall to his death from a high-rise balcony, landing in the street where his wife and son have just parked the car. The net of people involved continually widens, and the action doesnt stop. Some subplots running through the book add to the story (rather than distracting readers, as some authors do). The most interesting for me was the main character's having to handle her 13-year-old daughter becoming seriously involved with a group of neo-Nazis. The details of family and departmental relationships add a sense of reality. The one criticism I had was that the main character's husband was too perfect to be real. I thought it may have been more interesting if she had been divorced, raising the kids on her own. This would leave the possibility open for some romantic involvement. Apart from that, I did get the feeling of having been to Sweden when I finished the story. I highly recommend this book.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good book. Bad title., April 14, 2005
This review is from: Detective Inspector Huss (Paperback)
Soho Press must've held a book-naming contest and given the prize to the most-generic, least-offensive name. Roughly translated, the book's original title is "The Broken Tang Horse," which explains why several parts of the plot (including the mention of the artifact itself) are highlighted to give the title its full meaning. And putting "Sweden's Prime Suspect" on the cover?
Apart from the inane title for the English translation, the book is good in the vein of the team-effort Swedish police procedurals, although the viewpoint really belongs to Detective Inspector Irene Huss and Detective Superintendent Sven Andersson. (Most of the book revolves around Huss.) There's probably a few subplots too many with the daughter's flirtation with skinheads, or a husband who seems to be more of a "I'm cooking, let's eat!" guy, or the sexist office drama that never seem to show up with Kurt Wallander's gang down in Ystad. However, it's a good plot that develops a group of characters we'll hopefully see again with translations of Tursten's other books. (There are five more.)
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