Never End (Chief Inspector Erik Winter Novels) [Hardcover]

Ake Edwardson (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Swedish author Edwardson's 12 Eric Winter novels are best-sellers in Europe, but this is only the second of the series to be published in the U.S., following last year's Sun and Shadow. Winter, the fortysomething chief inspector of police in the coastal city of Gothenburg, takes every case hard but none harder than the unsolved rape-murder of a young woman five years ago. Now, as the city endures a summer heat wave, a serial killer with a similar MO has begun to prey on more young women. Obsessed with finding the link between the killings, Winter sweats his way through an investigation fraught with dead ends, all the while remonstrating himself for being inattentive to his new wife and child. In the manner of Henning Mankell and Ian Rankin, the focus of the novel shifts effectively between members of the investigatory team, all plagued with personal problems. Edwardson's series is as much about character interaction as it is about story, but he is no slouch at building suspense, and his ability to make the sweltering heat a kind of secondary character--as in Hitchcock's Rear Window--only adds to the tension. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"Edwardson's series is as much about character interaction as it is about story, but he is no slouch at building suspense, and his ability to make the sweltering heat a kind of secondary character - as in Hitchcock's Rear Window-only adds to the tension."
-Booklist

"This series is a tough, smart police procedural. . . . Edwardson is a masterful storyteller. . . . This is crime writing at its most exciting, with great atmosphere and superb characters."
-The Globe & Mail, Toronto

"A novel with the most exhilarating final 50 pages in recent crime fiction."
-Toronto Star --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult (June 22, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670037664
• ISBN-13: 978-0670037667
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,306,916 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice crime investigation procedural, February 14, 2007

By 

Cory D. Slipman (Rockville Centre, N.Y.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Never End (Chief Inspector Erik Winter Novels) (Hardcover)

Ake Edwardson in similar fashion to other Swedish crime novelists like the more famous Henning Mankell, chronicles a methodical homicide inquest while focusing in on both the psychological aspects of the suspects, victims and their police pursuers.

In a sweltering summer heat wave in the coastal town of Gothenburg, a corpse of a young woman is found in a hollowed out area within a thicket of trees in a local park. Pathology reports have determined that she had been sexually violated and strangled. Chief Inspector Erik Winter, in charge of the investigation, is stunned as the crime is eerily similar to an unsolved rape and murder committed 5 years ago in the exact same location.

Winter mobilizes his team to pore over the evidence but soon there is another young victim who was raped but survived. Her fragile psychological state provides few clues for Winter. Winter becomes obsessed with solving both the cold case of five years ago and the current crime wave. He is not without his misgivings as being a new father he's torn between sharing his time with his family and on the job.

Edwardson's nicely paced novel chronicles the arduous, dispiriting measures that the police go through while dealing with their own personal conflicts. He rightly devotes a more than adequate effort in character developement which adds reality to his plot

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Winter loses his cool, November 14, 2010

By 

Patto (Vermont) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Never End: A Chief Inspector Erik Winter Novel (Chief Inspector Erik Winter Novels) (Mass Market Paperback)

Erik Winter is normally a fabulous dresser. But in the sweltering heat of a record hot summer in Gothenburg, the handsome chief inspector has exchanged his designer clothes for shorts and sandals. And he gives himself a further challenge by trying to quit smoking.

Drenched in sweat and nearly insane from nicotine withdrawal, Winter is not in great shape to find a serial killer.

A rape and a murder take place on after another in the same secluded spot in Slottsskogan Park. The sinister atmosphere of the crime scene is almost palpable to the reader, and to Winter, who's convinced that the killer returns here obsessively again and again.

Certain details in the killer's MO inspire Winter to check the files on a previous unsolved murder. Sure enough, there are grim similarities. Files and reports play an important role in this story. The truth, Winter feels certain, is buried somewhere in the reams of paperwork generated by police work.

As Winter and his team investigate, their various defeats and triumphs only seem to complicate the mystery. Interviewers come up against what feels like a wall of secrecy. The solution of the crime is hard won.

The private lives of Winter and his detectives offer satisfying subplots. I especially enjoyed the almost-love relationship between two of the detectives.

I always seem to experience confusion at some point in an Åke Edwardson novel. The author gets too tricky for me. This time it happened around the end. But I've decided that a little confusion doesn't matter much in a book that engrosses me as successfully the Erik Winter mysteries do.

Never End may not be perfect, but it's quite a good police procedural. I recommend it to fans of Swedish noir.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Pretty Good, March 20, 2010

By 

NorthShoreCanary (New York) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Never End: A Chief Inspector Erik Winter Novel (Chief Inspector Erik Winter Novels) (Mass Market Paperback)

After reading the first two blockbusting Steig Larsson books I went in search of anything similar. One of the reviews on the back of Never End said the last 50 pages was the most incredible ever mystery writing blah blah, so I bought it. Let me say that there is no comparison to the phenomenal Larsson books that have taken the world by storm. This book is not in that league but is worth the read. It is a good, dark and sexually creepy mystery.