Our main character is a Swedish detective who is “lost.” He’s on leave suffering from deep depression from having to justifiably kill a man. He’s also disgusted with the increasing bureaucracy of the system and diss the new ways displacing the old. He fears the administrative bloat of the system and envisions a day when all the administrators, former police officers, will simply pass paper to each in their offices. Yet he is supportive of a woman detective who is put down in various ways by most of the other men.



We pretty much know from the start who the bad guy is: a big-time financier and jet-setter who controls a mega-million international corporation. The bad guy lives in a McCastle within an electronically guarded compound in the countryside. Part of the mystery is figuring out exactly what kind of scam he has going.

The detective knows his thugs are responsible for the three murders, (two “accidents” and a “suicide”), as well as a failed car bomb and land mine attack. He decides not to resign from the force only when an acquaintance of his is one of those killed. He comes back to police work with a vengeance.

This police procedural is an easy and engaging read. This is one of several books with the same character known as the Kurt Wallender series. You can’t get lost in the meticulously constructed plot. The story is told from the POV of the main character and he mentally , or at daily meetings and with his partner, where we are in the investigation. He even fills us in on dates and times. And maybe at times it’s TOO much – in one paragraph we learn he was back at the police station just after 1:00; at 4:00 he went to the prosecutor’s office; he did not leave until 10:00 and he was home by 11:00!

A line I d: “It’s always easier to maintain a cleverly constructed lie than it is to find an unclear truth.”



We get some local color of Ystad of the south coast of Sweden, a real town, along with a map of the city center and a map of the outlying district so we can follow the action.

photos of Ystad: top from prettywildworld.com;
bottom from marinas.com

detective-stories swedish-authors168 s Zain1,611 193

Evil!
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