26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Nice crime investigation procedural, February 14, 2007
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
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Winter loses his cool, November 14, 2010
This review is from: Never End: A Chief Inspector Erik Winter Novel (Chief Inspector Erik Winter Novels) (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.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Pretty Good, March 20, 2010
This review is from: Never End: A Chief Inspector Erik Winter Novel (Chief Inspector Erik Winter Novels) (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.
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