Customer Reviews

Frozen Tracks

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Set in the gray December of Gothenburg, Sweden, Frozen Tracks is a wonderful find for those of us who enjoy psychological police procedurals. Four college-aged men are brutally attacked from behind, leaving them the awful sequela of severe head trauma. The victims seem unconnected in their day-to-day lives and acquaintances, but the attacks continue in spite of a careful investigation into the incidents.

In a seemingly unrelated spate of creepiness, four-year-old children are returning home after preschool and reporting to their parents that they were enticed by an offer of candy to sit with a "mister" alone in his car. The children appear unharmed, but who lured them away and why becomes more and more important as DCI Erik Winter investigates.

Erik Winter is a nice addition to the famous policemen we know and love--Kurt Wallander, Inspector Sejer, Morse, Rebus, and others. He is well grounded in intelligence and common sense, and he is without crippling vices or depression as are many enigmatic police-heroes. Ake Edwardson writes well and has a real forte in characterization. His detectives are likable, believable, and unique enough for the reader to be interested in their separate lives--and it makes us want to read more novels featuring Winter and his crew of police officers.

And the atmosphere! Edwardson manages to expertly convey cold, gray autumn days turning into winter. The ever colder wind; the damp, rotting leaves; and the falling snow all contribute to the sense of escalating tension as more crimes are committed. Frozen Tracks' pace never flags; and although the resolution of the plot is not as fleshed out as it should be, the novel is deeply satisfying and clearly the work of an expert author in the genre.

Ake Edwardson's "Frozen Tracks" is another noteworthy Scadinavian police procedural whose somber moods reflect the nature of the crimes being investigated and the psychological manifestations reflected in the characters. Where Edwardson shines is in his extensive character developement, imparting substance and making them significantly more than cardboard cutouts.

The novel begins around the environs of Gothenberg and once again features Detective Chief Inspector Erik Winter. Winter and his team are probing a rash of assaults on male university students, who have been bludgeoned from behind suffering severe head trauma. Seemingly unconnected are a concurrent rash of abductions of 4 year old nursery school students. The children are lured into the car of a "mister" with the enticement of candy but then released unharmed. Winter in particular is alarmed by the danger as his daughter Elsa attends one of the hopelessly understaffed schools hit by this predator.

Christmas time is approaching and Winter's plan for a holiday in the Costa del Sol with his partner Angela and daughter will have to be postponed until the crimes are solved. Members of his squad are portrayed to also be dealing with intense personal issues which affects their focus on the spate of crimes.

The pedophilic predator is portrayed as an abused child, now grown up, fulfilling his unconsumated childhood. Interviews with a farm raised victim, lead Winter and his team to the bleak and desolate prairies of rural Sweden when a branding iron is considered as being the assault weapon. Winter and his sidekick Ringmar while interviewing possible suspects to the crime in the hinterlands have a foreboding that the unrelated crimes may somehow be connected. The plot slowly percolates until a young boy is kidnapped from a department store in the midst of the holiday shopping rush. Winter and his colleagues desperately try to learn the identity of the perpetrator before an even greater tragedy occurs.

Edwardson does an excellent job in believeably delving into the psycholgical implications wrought by the crimes in the abused and abducted children and their tormented parents as well as the assault victims. His meticulous developement of the characters, particularly the investigators, allows us to appreciate the emotional toll they experience as they despondently do their jobs amid their own stifling personal problems.

I've read all of the Åke Edwardson novels that have been translated to english this far, so I'm always happy when a new one shows up at my library.

Two story lines in one, the first being about brutal (and bizarre) attacks against young university students, the other told from the point of view of a man who, for no apparent reason (at least not at first), abducts young children from their nursery school playgrounds, only to return them several hours later, seemingly unharmed. Until the one time he didn't....

I'm confused at the review about the poor translation, I found this no more/less poorly translated than many translated books I've read. I think they dialogue he/she pointed out made perfect sense and went along with the personality of the characters. It's always weird to read translated books, especially when you're dealing with difficult languages, but I think Laurie Thompson has done a great job in any book I've read translated by him.

Anyway, if you like Scandinavian thrillers, you wont be disappointed by Frozen Tracks. The only irritating thing about it is the first novel in this series has not been translated to english, so I'm still missing some of the background!

After several years of being the youngest Chief Inspector of Gothenburg ever, Erik Winter is maturing. Now over forty, he's the father of a toddler and drifting towards marriage. With fatherhood comes the fear all parents have of some creepy deviant getting hold of his child.

Just such a creep hovers in the background of this story, luring children away from their nursery schools and then returning them unharmed. Parents are calling the police, not knowing what to do.

Meanwhile another peculiar criminal is absorbing the attention of the Gothenburg police. Someone is whacking college students on the back of the head with a weapon that leaves a bizarre mark.

Winter and his team meander in and out of these two investigations, making up the lack of leads with bouts of group speculation. Åke Edwardson portrays this "grasping in the dark" quite realistically.

Edwardson aims at artistic effects in his books. So I always spend some time feeling confused by half-expressed thoughts and switches in viewpoint. Still, he's good at building tension and atmosphere. A sense of dread emerges through the slow extraction of clues from a variety of sources, from crusty old farmers to reticent four-year-olds. Winter calls his team "archeologists of crime," and dig they do, reconstructing the truth from shards.

I've now read all the Åke Edwardson novels available in English, and I'm on the lookout for the next translation. He may not be my favorite Scandinavian crime writer, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying his books! If you want to try Åke Edwardson, I'd suggest starting with Death Angels or The Shadow Woman, which both take place earlier in Chief Inspector Winter's career.

I love stories where I can follow the character's life from book to book. It is interesting to follow and see the development over a span of time and multiple books. I very much enjoy police mysteries. Most of my favorite authors write just these kinds of books. Now with that said, I was a bit disappointed with this book. I think perhaps some of the awkwardness in the plot may have been in the interpretation into English, or maybe I just was not able to really identify with the places and people. For whatever reason, the book just never really worked for me. This was the first of the "series" I read, and I might give another one of the Winter novels a try, but only if I find it on a library cart or at a yard sale...

This one is hard to put down. It's taut and it keeps you on your toes. I love this series.
I have already bought another. It reminds me of the Danish thriller on TV "The Killing".
Buy with confidence and ENJOY!!!

Edwardson's books always leave me heavily in the midst of his city, people and even weather. I look forward to traveling to be with him and in the story when ever I have time to read. Edwardson is one of the most unusual writers when it comes to dialogue and I think I like that. You cannot pick up a bad book from this author. Get some of them and read them and then don't share them with your friends, because they might not bring them back.

Brian Oldham

I can understand that some might not like the book. I cannot understand those who are critical of the translation. (By the way, it's not an interpretation.) The translator has vast experience and a great background. I find the language quite natural. He ("Laurie" is NOT a she, as one reviewer seems to think) has produced a most readable and enjoyable product. I read a lot of Scandinavian mysteries and find Edwardson's stories the best of the lot.

I looked forward to reading this book, as it is a genre I generally enjoy. But I could not get past the first few chapters. It seems like an intriguing story. But the translation is absolutely atrocious! The language is stilted and awkward. The dialogue is appalling, to the point of being laughable. Just opening the book at random I find examples:

"It's about my little boy," she said. "He, er, I don't know...He told us tonight, if we understood him correctly, er, that he's been sitting in a car with a 'mister,' as he put it."


"...what should we do? Send her to a different nursery school? Get a nanny? Hire a bodyguard for Elsa?"
(why not: "...what can we do? Find another daycare? A nanny? A bodyguard?")


"I think I only have Czeck pilsner, I'm afraid," said Ringmar over his shoulder.
"I'll forgive you," said Winter...
(p.5)

How about:

("All I have's Pilsner," Ringmar called over his shoulder.
"No problem," Winter said.)

Come on! Real people don't talk like this! I'm a translator myself, and I know how hard it is to produce a readable translation. Dialogue is especially difficult. This translator has absolutely no ear for natural, colloquial language. She clearly does not understand the precept that, as Horace put it: "A true translator should take care not to translate word for word."

"Frozen Tracks" may very well be a good book. It wouldn't be fair to judge it by the English version, which is easily one of the worst translations I've seen in a long time! If you know Swedish, check out the original. My advice to English-speaking readers--freeze in your tracks before you go near this clinker!

This was one of the worst mystery/police books I have ever read--and I love Scandinavian thrillers. It was so boring I put it down halfway through and only picked it up months later to finish it because I had paid money for it. Terrible.