I can't believe the high ratings. I am so disappointed by this. It's extremely bad written, and 80% of the book is just uninteresting. The ending was laughable at least. No one would believe that.

I absolutely hated all the characters with no exception. All of them were flat and unrealistic. And I dunno why they are swearing all the single time. I found them to be rude, unpolite, and disgusting.

Especially hated Rebecka and Sanna. Rebecka was extremely annoying as a main character. She doesn't have charisma or a good personality: she seems angry all the time and is pretty stupid and boring for being able.

Another thing that annoys me is that there is no investigation at all.
I don't care if the characters are playing with their dog one entire chapter or doing other boring actions that have no relation with the main mystery. So yeah, the whole book is all about random stuff the characters do, and at the very end, the "clever" Rebecka sees a connection and finds out who the murderer is. And with no investigation whatsoever. if someone would believe that.

I am done with this author. 64 s Candi648 4,900

I needed to find a first-in-a-series book to read and had a hankering to read a crime novel. Having not previously read a Scandinavian crime book, I thought this was as good a time as any to give one a try. The thought of some astonishing landscape thrown into the mix appealed to me as well. I grabbed Sun Storm since it was readily available and I was happily entertained.

"The Aurora Borealis twists and turns a dragon in the night sky. Stars and planets are compelled to give way to her, this great miracle of shimmering light, as she makes her unhurried way across the vault of heaven."

This stunning phenomenon endures even as the prominent evangelist Viktor Strandgard lays dying on the floor of his beloved church of The Source of All Our Strength set atop a hill in Kiruna, Sweden. Viktor Strandgard is eventually found dead by his sister, Sanna, who goes to the church following a bedside vision of her brother. Fearing for herself and her two daughters, Sanna contacts her old friend Rebecka Martinsson. A former member of this fundamentalist church, Rebecka is forced to face some stinging memories that she thought were finally behind her. As Sanna finds herself a possible suspect in Viktor's murder, Rebecka finds her role as a Stockholm tax attorney perhaps not quite suited to representing a "friend" with whom she has a very tenuous relationship at best. But Sanna is counting on their old bond and entrusts her case as well as the care of her young daughters to Rebecka.

Enter Anna-Maria and Sven-Erik, two investigators assigned to the case. I really d Anna-Maria – pregnant, she has been placed on desk duty but still seems to be all too eager to get to the bottom of this case and away from her desk. She's one tough woman! Nothing seems to intimidate her, including the overly zealous band of hypocritical and evasive pastors of The Source of All Our Strength. Rebecka, too, must confront this group and does so with the strength of several years of animosity stemming from her history with the church and these leaders. I'm not quite certain of my feelings for Rebecka. I was definitely in her corner, but she was not always very able. Her caring for the little girls was commendable and her determination was admirable, but I couldn't always tolerate her personality. Perhaps she would grow on me in later installments of the series.

Overall, this was fast-paced, reasonably gruesome, and ultimately satisfying as a diversion from my usual form of reading. I have come to realize that I need to pick up a good mystery/crime novel from time to time. I enjoyed trying to guess whodunit and this book definitely kept me on my toes. It took me a decent amount of time to figure things out. The last part of the book, even if not completely believable, was tense and exciting! Throw in some fabulous scenes of the Aurora Borealis and the lonesomeness and desolation of the expansiveness of the snowy landscape and you have a respectable, solid start to this series. 3 stars.
european-literature mystery-crime winter-mini-challenge-2015-201662 s °°°·.°·..·°¯°·._.· ????? ??????? ???????? ·._.·°¯°·.·° .·°°° ?·.·´¯`·.·? ?????? ???????? ??????? ????????? ??736 836

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????????56 s Laura51 30

I've been on a Scandinavian writers' kick since I read and fell hard for 'Out Stealing Horses,' by Per Petterson last August. After reading all three of Petterson's books, (reviewing so far only the first,) I turned to the genre which Nordic writers seem to dominate these days---the suspense novel. A recent trip to Iceland prompted me to pick up first 'Voices,' by Arnaldur Indridason, which I intend later to write about, but will just say for now that it is a subject on which I am emphatically tepid. Next, I turned to Stieg Larsson's 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,'which, with his 'Girl Who Played with Fire,' I praised highly here. Mari Jungstedts's three Anders Knutas thrillers came next--- to appear, but I've got to write them first, don't I?
I've just now finished Asa Larsson's 'The Sun Storm,' and felt it was just too good to push aside to write about at some later, maybe neverish, time.
Of course, YOU don't want to read about someone who's had his eyes gouged out (and that was the least of his worries), nor do you want to read about a pack of crazed Swedish fundamentalist Christians, but don't let that stop you from picking up this book. It was not the dream of my lifetime to read about those things, either. But the novel opens with a stunning description of the aurora borealis and works its way past the blood and gore to characters and a plot that gain in strength and lucidity and momentum to the extent that I couldn't put 'Sun Storm' down. This is Asa Larsson's first novel and it certainly isn't perfectly written. Its worst moments are better than many successful writers' best ones, though. If you want more info on the plot and things, you'll have to look elsewhere. I'll just say that in Rebecka Martinsson I found the best female protagonist I've encountered in a very long time. Larsson has a profound understanding of the human psyche and a powerful way of writing about it. It's not an easy book to read, but you've guessed that. Okay, but read it anyway. I've just ordered the sequel. 40 s Pam513 77

This is the first in a series by the Swedish Noir writer Asa Larsson. It has good things to recommend it. I enjoyed the tax forensics, the story of evangelism in a small Swedish town (didn’t know such a thing existed there) and the general winter landscape. I also learned that gherkin sandwiches are not an unusual thing to eat for breakfast.

However Hmmmm. It SEEMS a first novel and could have been easily improved by a competent editor. There are multiple small mistakes that leave you scratching your head. One of the two major characters is a petite and very pregnant take-charge policewoman (ripped directly from the movie Fargo). The other female character calls her “horse face.” Nice. That other character veers from inexplicable behavior to all out unable. The ending is ridiculous.

To top it all off, the author has a character sadistically kill off an innocent little dog (thank God off stage). Astoundingly, the dog is barely mentioned again. The children don’t mention it and no one else is boo hooing either. If you google “book writing + don’t kill the dog” you will find dozens of entries with this basic advice—unless you are writing the new Old Yeller. Now that was a book I couldn’t stand!noir35 s Repellent Boy518 556

Un famoso predicador de una "nueva" y exitosa religión es hayado brutalmente asesinado en una alejada iglesia de Kiruna, Suecia. Su hermana Sanna encuentra el cadáver y se convierte en la única posible sospechosa. Rápidamente llama a Rebekah, una antigua amiga que huyó de la ciudad y de su unión con esta religión muchos años atrás. Ante la petición de su amiga, Rebekah se verá obligada a revivir todo su pasado, mientras trata de encontrar las claves que le ayuden a descubrir que ha ocurrido en el presente.

Si soy sincero, haciendo un repaso a posteriori, el misterio no es tan contundente como los amantes del género solemos esperar, pero aún así me ha encantando. No quiero decir que el misterio no sea interesante, o esté bien creado, si no que no hay muchos giros o golpes de efectos que te dejen asombrado. Pero aún así, la autora consigue mantenerte en vilo y enganchado durante toda la novela. Creo que esto ocurre por dos razones principales. La primera de la razones es la ambientación, esa Kiruna fria y helada, lugar de auroras boreales, donde la noche está muy presente. Con una ambientación tan bien creada y tan opuesta a donde vivo, la autora ha conseguido sumergirme totalmente en la historia.

La segunda razón ha sido esa crítica bastante evidente a la religión, y es que presenta una imagen de los altos cargos de las organizaciones religiosas bastante negativa, con constantes referencias al uso de la fe ciega de sus seguidores como negocio, vaya lo que viene siendo una secta. Una opinión que al encajar mucho con la mía, me hacía disfrutar bastante leyendo cada nueva información sobre los tejemanejes de los pastores.

Otra cosa que me ha encantado, que ha sido más una impresión que un obviedad, pero por su personaje principal, Rebekah, y otros personajes femeninos de la obra, es que le he visto cierto punto feminista a la autora. El machismo con el que se describía a la mayoría de los personajes masculinos, ayudaba a reforzar la teoría, y esta se me confirmó al leer la sinopsis del segundo libro, donde habla directamente de feminismo.

En definitiva un thriller que pese a no ser espectacular en su parte de suspense, sí que cumple con ella, pero que destaca más por su ambientación y por lo que cuenta. Pocas veces me ocurre que un thriller me guste más por lo que no es suspense, pero cuando ocurre, lo valoro muchísimo. Pienso leer esta serie policiaca bastante seguidita, porque a poco que mantenga el nivel de crítica y ambietación de esta primera, lo voy a flipar. Y si ya encima mejora la parte de tensión, no me quiero ni imaginar.2000-2009 europa lecturas-2021 ...more21 s Teal608 223 Shelved as 'dnf'

What is it with Scandinavian writers and animal torture? The 3 Scandinavian novels I'd read before this one, by different authors, all featured animal torture or abuse — so when an absolutely adorable dog started accumulating page time here I went on full red alert. Stopped reading, started scanning ... Thankfully my paranoia enabled me to bail out BEFORE I got to the scene where the dog is tortured to death — and it's shown from the dog's POV. What the actual fuck. Some things are too loathsome to imagine; torturing animals or children falls into a category of things I never, ever want to read about. Åsa Larsson went on my Never Again list. Oh, and this book was the nail in the coffin for my venture into reading Scandinavian fiction as well. "Never again" to that, too.author-not-for-me crime-mystery-thriller fiction ...more20 s2 comments El Librero de Valentina292 22.6k

Un libro que, desde hace meses, tenía muchas ganas de leer, y hoy lo termino muy decepcionada, no me gusto el final, no me gustó la historia, un libro predecible, que no me deja con ganas de leer otras cosas del autor.16 s Fred Shaw562 44

Sun Storm by Asa Larsson, audiobook version.

A popular young priest is brutally murdered in his church in northern Sweden, and his sister who found the body is accused. Sanna Strandgord turns to her friend, attorney Rebecca Martinsson for help. Martinsson is a tax attorney and has no experience with high profile murder investigations. But Rebecca is smart and tough and goes to work.

To say this is a thriller would be putting it mildly. The characters are well developed and our heroine is admirable and will not be pushed around. The setting is Sweden in winter where there is bitter cold, constant snow and the aurora borealis is highly visible. Another key character is the church itself where Victor Strandgord was murdered. The other priests have built quite a business around the church and use “God’s Word” to justify graft, tax evasion and even murder.

I have enjoyed a number of Swedish authors and Asa Larsson has put together a terrific first novel. Highly recommended13 s Bettie9,989 10

Bettie's Books This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.Show full reviewbedside mystery-thriller paper-read ...more12 s Morana Mazor390 76

Iako se danas mnogi romani nazivaju "psihološkim trilerima", Sun?eva oluja je upravo jedan takav roman u punom smislu zna?enja tog naziva.
Radnja se, naravno, vrti oko istrage umorstva, ali je veliki dio pri?e posve?en psihološkoj karakterizaciji likova.
Ali, da prvo kažemo nekoliko rije?i o zbivanjima u knjizi.
Odvjetnica Rebecka Martinson koja živi i radi u Stockholmu, na poziv svoje prijateljice iz djetinjstva, Sanne Strangarda, vra?a se u Kirunu, mjesto na sjeveru Švedske u kojem je odrasla, a gdje je okrutno ubijen Sannin brat Viktor, karizmati?ni, vjerski vo?a, poznatiji kao "Dje?ak iz raja".
Rebecka, iako nerado, vra?a se u svoj rodni grad kako bi pomogla Sanni koja je, u me?uvremenu, optužena za bratovo ubojstvo.
U Kiruni susre?e i ostale osobe iz svoje prošlosti, te se, povremeno podsje?a na doga?aje koji su doveli do njezinog odlaska, a to nas interesira jednako kao i pitanje tko je ubojica jer je o?ito da se nešto ozbiljno odigralo u tim davnim danima me?u sudionicima današnje tragedije.
I tu dolazi do izražaja autori?ino odli?no psihološko opisivanje likova koji, svi do jednoga imaju nešto što ih vodi pa se tu izmjenjuju: pohlepa, korupcija, naivnost, religiozni zanos, slijepa poslušnost, mentalno oboljenje, osje?aj odgovornosti... Neki djeluju sami dok se neki udružuju zbog istog cilja.
Tako?er je odli?no opisano kako ljudi manipuliraju jedni drugima te kako sami sebi dopuštaju biti izmanipulirani.
Moram spomenuti i da su likovi su vrlo životni npr. inspektorica Anna- Marija Mella sudjeluje u istrazi u osmom mjesecu trudno?e i mu?e ju svi oni trudni?ki problemi sa kojima se žena susre?e tijekom tog perioda. I sama Rebeca nije, možda, tipi?na, dobra i požrtvovana, heroina koje naj?eš?e susre?emo; ona ima svoje frustracije, neki je ljudi nerviraju, ne libi se iznijeti svoje mišljenje i onda kada bi ga bilo bolje prešutjeti, svjesna je svojih pogrešaka i uvijek je spremna re?i nekome u lice ono što ga spada.
Posebnu snagu ovoj pri?i daju mjesto i vrijeme radnje, a to je Kiruna, gradi? na najsjevernijem djelu Švedske u doba najja?e zime koje su u ovom djelu zemlje najhladnije i najmra?nije. Zbog hladno?e i mraka koji su stalno prisutni pratitelji doga?anja imate osje?aj kao da se sve to odvija ne nekoj udaljenoj, ledenoj planeti.
To je užasna hladno?a: ledeni zrak štipa i grize obraze, ako se diše kroz usta, boli u grlu i plu?ima, ako se diše kroz nos, nosne dla?ice lede se pri svakom udisaju; na pramenovima kose koji nisu ispod kape stvara se led pa zale?eni vrhovi zveckaju.
A tu je i, misti?na, Sun?eva oluja tj. polarna svjetlost koju susre?emo ve? na prvim stranicama kada ona prolaze?i po nebu, kroz krovni prozor crkve, "promatra" unakaženog Viktora Strangarda kojeg život napušta na podu ispred oltara.
Sun?eva oluja rijetka je pojava koja, po nekim vjerovanjima, upu?uje na katastrofu tako da je autorica odli?no ukomponirala i naslov romana, a i opis polarne svjetlosti ve? na samom po?etku, paralelno sa ubojstvom. Ali, ona je i dalje sveprisutna u romanu, taj sjaj na no?nom nebu, ta velika "plamena" zavjesa pod okriljem koje se odigravaju svi doga?aji i slomovi opisani u romanu.
"Sun?eva oluja" prvi je roman Ase Larsson napisan 2003god. koji je odmah privukao ?itala?ku publiku duljem svijeta, a za koji je, te iste godine, dobila nagradu Akademije švedskih pisaca kriminalisti?kih romana za najbolju debitantsku knjigu. U Švedskoj je prema romanu snimljen i istoimeni film 2007.god.
Nakon Sun?eve oluje, Larsson je napisala još ?etiri romana u kojima je glavni lik Rebecka Martinson, od kojih su ?ak dva bila proglašena najboljim krimi romanom godine od strane Akademije švedskih pisaca, a ja se nadam da ?e neki od tih romana ?im prije biti objavljen i kod nas jer, nakon ovakvog prvijenca, možemo samo zamisliti što nam još Asa Larsson ima za ponuditi! 12 s Sibel Gandy995 68

2,5 / 5
Polisiye miydi ?imdi bu
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