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Malin Fors #2

Anjos Perdidos em Terra Queimada

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É o verão mais quente de que os habitantes da província de Östergötland, no centro da Suécia, têm memória. A cidade de Linköping derrete com o calor e nas florestas os incêndios estão fora de controlo, tornando o ambiente sufocante. A inspetora Malin Fors é chamada ao parque municipal, onde uma adolescente foi encontrada nua e coberta de sangue. Quem telefonou a informar que a encontrariam ali? E afinal o que é que realmente lhe aconteceu? Enquanto a polícia se debate para dar resposta a estas perguntas, outra rapariga desaparece e uma descoberta arrepiante tem lugar numa praia fluvial nos arredores da cidade. Malin, que tem uma filha adolescente, teme pela sua segurança e, provavelmente, não está a exagerar.

Anjos Perdidos em Terra Queimada é o segundo volume da excecional tetralogia de Mons Kallentoft que tem na inspetora Malin Fors a principal personagem e que os leitores começaram a conhecer em Sangue Vermelho em Campo de Neve. Nesta nova história somos transportados para um enredo perturbador onde os preconceitos sexuais, a desconfiança face aos imigrantes, os amores desesperados e o ódio acumulado ao longo dos anos dão origem a um arrepiante cenário de crime e mistério.

422 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

58 people are currently reading
1791 people want to read

About the author

Mons Kallentoft

53 books409 followers
After being awarded the Swedish equivalent to the Whitbread Award for his debut novel Pesetas, Mons Kallentoft chose to give his own unique take on the classic Scandinavian crime novel. His success was immediate. The first book in the series about superintendent Malin Fors received unanimous praise from the national critics; it also conquered the bestseller charts and has today sold more than 300,000 copies in Sweden alone.

Was Mons Kallentoft born to be a storyteller? Yes, perhaps. Because, considering his upbringing, literature was not the obvious path in life. Mons grew up in a working-class home in the provincial town of Linköping, Sweden. Books were a rare phenomenon in his house; instead the young author spent his time playing football and ice hockey.

He discovered literature when he was about fourteen, and bedridden following a severe sports injury. Kafka, Hemingway and George Orwell introduced the young man to a whole new world.

The path to his own authorship led him through the advertising business, journalism and the shady side of Madrid. His debut, Pesetas, which was awarded the Swedish equivalent to the Whitbread Award, takes place among cocaine dealers and bankrobbers in the Spanish capital.

Following another couple of critically acclaimed novels (Marbella Club and Attractive, Healthy & Spontaneous), as well as an well-regarded travelogue/food essay (Food Noir), Mons Kallentoft chose to give his own unique take on the classic Scandinavian crime novel. His success was immediate.

The first book in the series about Superintendent Malin Fors received unanimous praise from the national critics; it also conquered the bestseller charts and has today sold more than 220 000 copies in Sweden alone. The novel recently appeared on the Norwegian bestseller charts and the series about Malin Fors will soon be published by leading publishing houses in nine countries.

Through the series about Malin Fors, Mons Kallentoft re-establishes his connection to his childhood home – a place that the truly cosmopolitan Kallentoft has spent all his life running from. The result is an innovative series of crime novels that are both poignant and packed full of suspense.

Critics and readers agree: Mons Kallentoft was born to tell the story about Malin Fors.
Series:
* Malin Fors

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5 stars
661 (20%)
4 stars
1,130 (34%)
3 stars
1,034 (31%)
2 stars
319 (9%)
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127 (3%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 229 reviews
973 reviews247 followers
July 6, 2016
Skim read most of this - it's weirdly poetic, and turns out that's not a good thing. Slips from first to third person constantly, repeats, monotones, muses. The dead speak in chorus (which could have been amazing but wasn't). This, combined with the fact that I hadn't realised this was the second in a series meant I didn't have a clue what was going on.

I still don't exactly know what happened, but whatever is was was narrated like this:

Janne, you're not there, your warm warmth.
I want you both to come home now.
Even you have gone, Daniel. Taken your cool warmth and left me alone with the dream and myself in this depressing bedroom.
I think it was a bad dream, but perhaps it was good?


Or (more often, in third person that flickers off into first again) like this:

Teenage worlds.
Tove's world.
The way she didn't tell Malin about Marcus to start with. How Malin had been hoping that their lives would somehow get more similar the older Tove got, that they would have more things in common.
Has that happened?
No.
Although.
No. Don't lie to yourself, Malin.
I don't know if Tove is keeping secrets from me. God knows, I certainly annoy her. Sometimes, Malin thinks, I can see that she almost despises me and the life I lead.


Maybe this was better in Swedish.

Profile Image for Fábio Martins.
114 reviews24 followers
July 17, 2017
Custa-me bastante classificar um livro como mau. Bem,mais,na verdade,que o que custou lê-lo.
Mas não consigo melhorar a opinião que tenho deste. Seja qual for a perspectiva com que o olhe.
Não aderi há tanto tempo quanto isso aos prazeres dos livros policiais. Foi género que de uma forma sobranceira eu ignorei durante a maior parte da minha vida de leitor. Depois,um dia,percebi que estava enganado. E gosto de me entregar a um desses,de vez em quando.
O problema,neste caso,não é de género. O problema é extenso.
O tom é excessivo e de uma aproximação poética que me soa descabida e patética. O ritmo entrecortado com que se busca uma originalidade á custa de uma constante fuga de ideias. A pobreza temática. A inconsistência das personagens. A inverosimilhanca de algumas situações,que pontuam a tremenda banalidade de todo o enredo. A permanente mudança de narrador. A frequência do recurso à terceira pessoa.
Custa me bastante entender que existam 2 mil páginas disto. E custa me particularmente que eu as tenha todas nas minhas estantes.
Pior,este é o segundo volume. Faltam três. E eu sei que daqui a uns anos vou voltar a tentar. Porque sou teimoso e odeio a ideia de deixar obras a meio.

E a ideia de ouvir as consciências/vozes pós mortem?! Pensei que era bizarria do primeiro volume,mas afinal não.

Há muita gente a gostar de kalentoft. Se calhar não é para mim.
Já só me faltam mil e poucas páginas...
Profile Image for Antonomasia.
986 reviews1,490 followers
December 20, 2015
Nowhere near as annoying as most other books I've given two stars. But between approx pp.150-400 the description that mostly sprang to mind was 'fundamentally unconvincing'. And as for the following denouement and revelations about the killer, that was of the order 'I'm reading the sort of sensationalist trash I've only heard about second hand', and also completely fucking ridiculous. I've sometimes heard people say they weren't fazed or disgusted by a violent fictional scene because it was too absurdly baroque and over the top; can't remember if or when I'd experienced that before, but I did here. It was all the easier to be detached from it because of being unconvinced by that character committing those crimes in that way for the stated reasons. It didn't seem remotely real. I did ask myself

The writing is better than might be expected for this tacky plot, although its literary reflectiveness can get overwrought and repetitive, and made me a little less warm to detective Malin Fors this time round (though I've read plenty less likeable investigators). The prose style sat oddly with crime fiction cliches such as that case that reminds the detective of their kid, and then, you guessed it...

As in the previous book in the series, the politics lean a little more rightwards than in other Nordic thrillers I've read, and the theme of characters unable to escape damaged upbringings became, cumulatively, heavy handed; Kallentoft also seems less condemnatory of police brutality than some Scandi authors.
A more unusual motif repeats itself in the sex crimes in both books; this led to half an eyebrow raise, until I recalled another series where the first and second books are also similar, for different reasons - Asa Larsson's Rebecka Martinsson novels featuring two religious-themed murders.
And before things became increasingly silly towards the end of the book, there were quite a few observations about human nature I disagreed with, not enough to want to argue with - just recognition of being on a different wavelength.

There was also rather a glaring mistake in an item around which the whole case was constructed.

The book did attempt to explore an interesting situation without using typical jargon: ingroup trying to deal tactfully with outgroups and not being very good at it. (It laid it on a bit thick with the unlikely variety of minorities here; at one stage, suspects included men of Arab descent, an isolated butch lesbian who was abused as a child, and a woman who'd been in a Bosnian prison camp) but ultimately this didn't really go anywhere except illustrating clumsiness and faux pas by police officers who meant well but were clueless.

I'd still quite like to find out the conclusion of one of the cases from the first book, which apparently appears in book five - but after this one, I'm less enthusiastic about the series as a whole.
Profile Image for Lucy Qhuay.
1,372 reviews157 followers
September 15, 2014

I've said it before and I'm going to say it again - Mons Kallentoft is a true artist with words and he really makes an impact on you.

That being said, I was kind of disappointed with this one.

First of all, Malin Fors totally steals the show.

Her inner struggle with herself, her thoughts, feelings, hopes and fears hook you in such a way that there is no space for anything else.

That can be a good thing, but it also sucks.

This is a thriller/mystery, after all, and you're supposed to be invested in who was killed, who is the killer, how, why and so on. That didn't happened with me. Usually, when I got to the parts about the investigation, I would get a bit bored.

Also, I found some of the events who happened in the book ridiculous.

How do you have teenage girls being raped by someone with a dildo and then killed and you immediately jump to the conclusion that the perp is a dildo-wielding, crazed lesbian?

Let me guess the logic - victims raped with a sex toy, lesbians like women, women don't have penises, so they have to find other ways to play, therefore the killer must be a lesbian with a penchant for kinky toys.

This is making me laugh now, but when I read it I was offended in the name of all lesbian women. Statements like these don't do the world any good.
Profile Image for Sofia.
1,034 reviews129 followers
November 13, 2018
Que confusão!
Páginas de monólogos que se arrastam e que em nada contribuem para a construção das personagens, parecendo a voz de uma tia velhota, amarga e preconceituosa.
Erros que poderiam ser evitados na revisão de texto, nomeadamente entre os capítulos 17 e 21 em que a acção ora decorre em junho ora em julho.
O enredo não tem absolutamente nada de interessante e as motivações do assassino são fracas e não convencem.
O volume anterior não era nenhuma obra de arte, mas lia-se bem. Este foi só tortura. Mas talvez seja uma nova literatura policial: torturar os leitores até à morte.
Profile Image for Eva.
110 reviews16 followers
September 16, 2012
Missing the half stars used on other pages: it would be 3.5. Thanks to Ancestral's opinion I changed my view of this book. At the beginning, the switching from Ich- to Er-Erzählung was really bothering me as I didn't grasp who was speaking at certain moments. Once you get used to it, you'll (probably) enjoy the book. The plot is well constructed (although nothing new, but on the other hand, what is new in fiction/this world?). The author's style is quite specific: short elliptical sentences that may remind a reader of stream of consciousness (but this may be an overstatement for some critics). The end not too sentimental. But I don't agree with The Guardian that Malin is "one of the best-realised female heroines I've ever read by a male writer" as I had a constant feeling Malin is a man or at least she thinks and acts like one.
Profile Image for Vivienne.
Author 2 books112 followers
July 31, 2013
The second in this series. I do object to publishers trying to claim that a writer is better than another as they all have their strengths. Kallentoft has more in common with Henning Mankell than others cited on the cover.

Again there is a touch of magical realism as the 'voice' of the murdered girl does give her perspective.

The weather is also a character in its own right. 'Midwinter Sacrifice' highlighted the cold, here it is a freak summer heatwave that has the characters' brains melting as they struggle to solve the case.

As UK has been having a heatwave I found this at times difficult to read as even if the weather has cooled some reading the story reminded me of it.

Terrific mystery and now all four of the series are in English I hope to read them all.
Profile Image for Livros de Vidro.
287 reviews10 followers
Read
August 13, 2016
Reiteramos o que anteriormente dissemos relativamente à escrita do autor. Continuamos a não ser fãs.

Embora neste segundo volume se denote algumas melhorias, ainda não são as suficientes para nos fazerem suspirar e adorar o autor.

Confirmámos a sensação que tínhamos sobre a protagonista, Malin Fors, é fraca. Não transmite segurança, profissionalismo ou brilhantismos. Parece mais uma que anda ali, sem grande destaque, acabamos por simpatizar muito mais com o seu parceiro Zeke ( e o seu destaque nem é muito relevante). Fors perde ainda por ter um carácter pouco definido, sempre preso ao passado e com pensamentos inseguros e imaturos face às suas relações mais íntimas e familiares.

Continuação e classificação em: http://livrosdevidro.wixsite.com/livr...
Profile Image for Minty McBunny.
1,266 reviews30 followers
February 10, 2015
I had the same problem with this book as I had with the previous one, I liked the story, but the writing style was deeply annoying and distracting. I assume some of it is translation but the constant shifts in narrative voice, particularly the invasive, existential voice of the victim really distracts from what, at its heart, is a pretty straightforward police procedural. I'd like to know what happened to Malin to make her the way she is, and I will continue with the series, but it's definitely not my favorite in the genre.
Profile Image for Heather.
72 reviews13 followers
October 26, 2014
Didn't enjoy this as much as the first in the series, will still perservere with the rest, but hope there isn't the annoying victim/'s voice trying to communicate with Malin, irritating in the first book, more so in this. Also don't really understand why a flaking blue painted d**** had to feature so much, do painted ones actually exist?? Unnecessary Mons!!
Profile Image for Josefine.
9 reviews1 follower
July 24, 2012
Typical crime fiction and generally no better or worse than the average detective novel, but I found the writing really irritating. Characterisation is flat and makes it difficult to care about anyone involved, including the final victim. Will not be reading any more in this series.
108 reviews4 followers
June 19, 2013
Summer Death is the second book in the Scandinavian crime series written by Mons Kallentoft. I had not read the first book and didn't have any trouble following the story. I would have liked to have read the first to understand the main characters relationship with her ex-husband, Janne.
Other than that one aspect, the story is good enough to stand on it's own.
It takes place in the small town of Linkoping. It is a very hot summer and there are large forest fires raging making everything hotter. Malin Fors, in her mid thirties, is a police detective. Her ex-husband Janne is a fire fighter who is on vacation in Bali with their teenage daughter, Tove. Janne feels guilty being away from the fires he should be fighting. Malin is relieved her daughter is out of the country at the time of these crimes.
The crimes start with the discovery of a young teenage girl found naked and stunned in the Horticultural Society Park. She's not talking and doesn't seem to remember anything. This is just the start of a string of attacks and murders that occur over the summer. The girls are murdered then their bodies are scrubbed clean with bleach.
The age of the girls only add to the urgency that spurs Malin on to solve the case.
The pace was pretty fast but lagged in places. The characters were well written, the good guys are flawed and the bad guys and girls are really, really evil.
I liked it and will read the first to get the back story and look forward to the third.

Profile Image for CarolineFromConcord.
498 reviews19 followers
July 19, 2015
He's an impressive writer, but I think I liked books 1 and 4 of the Malin Fors series better (this one's 2). I appreciate the suspense, the strong characterizations, the insight that child abuse may cause some children to grow up into truly whacko criminals if they don't off themselves first. But how much child abuse can one stand to read about? And although the author's descriptive powers are great, I did get tired of hearing how hot it was the summer the murders occurred -- every few sentences, a new way of saying it's bloody hot.

What is distinctive about this typically gruesome Scandinavian author is that the endings reliably hold something positive. One way he accomplishes that is through the unusual conversations of the deceased (sometimes not yet deceased, just in grave danger), as our intuitive detective tries to get a sense of what the victims are telling her. It's not that she really hears them, but we do, and their words seem to nudge her in a subliminal way. Then, when the mysteries are solved, the voices of the dead express comfort and peace. So this tamps down the effects of the gruesomeness a bit, but why Scandinavian mystery writers need the gruesomeness in the first place is beyond me. And I think I will take a break before wallowing in book 3.
Profile Image for Mary.
113 reviews
August 12, 2013

As much as I enjoy Nordic Noir/Scandinavian crime fiction, I am not enjoying Mons Kallentoft's take on it. I did not find anything really "thrilling" about this thriller.

His main character, Malin Fors, seems to always have her head screwed on a little sideways, and half the time she can't seem to keep herself together much less have the brains to solve a crime. This can work if the author can make you care about the protagonist and understand why s/he crawls into a bottle, has demons, etc. But, I didn't really get the sense that Malin has that much dark matter in her life.

She spends way too much time mooning over her ex-husband and thinking about how to deal with her teenage daughter than she really spends thinking about the case at hand.

The little trope of having the victims "speak" to the reader was done a little better in this translation than the first book in the series, but I still found it rather annoying...especially when multiple bodies chimes in.

The most interesting thing about this book was the weather, and setting it during a heat wave was a nice twist, since most of the Scandinavian crime series take place mainly in winter.
Profile Image for Dennis.
107 reviews2 followers
October 4, 2013
This book attracted me because the author, Mons Kallentoft, is a young Swedish writer in the crime/thriller genre, and one reviewer compared him to Stieg Larsson. The action takes place in a small town in Sweden during an unusual heat wave. In a short span of days, a young girl turns up nearly dead, then two more girls are found dead, and the evidence points to a potential serial killer. The main detective, Malin Fors, gets the case. For one thing, I did not know that it could get that hot in Sweden in the summer, but after some research, found that it can, usually in the interior. I also liked that it gives you a look at modern life in the provinces, rather than Stockholm. While I didn't find his writing on a level with Larsson, I will read the other novels in this series. Kallentoft is edgy and blunt, and will keep you turning those pages.
Profile Image for Cátia Santos.
240 reviews37 followers
August 7, 2014
Apenas após 200 páginas o livro começou a ter algum interesse. Até lá, muita introspeção por parte da personagem principal, mas de uma forma não particularmente cativante.

Além disso, algo que já aconteceu no 1º livro desta série e que ficava particularmente agradecida se não acontecesse nos dois que ainda me faltam ler, irritam-me os pensamentos dos mortos. Estão sempre presentes, ao longo de toda a história, o que, na minha opinião, nos faz sentido nenhum.

Um policial que, durante metade do livro, esteve completamente apagado. Espero bem que os dois volumes seguintes sejam bastante superiores a este.
Profile Image for Karen Rettig.
Author 2 books18 followers
January 15, 2019
This was one of those dark, Swedish mysteries, and I enjoyed it up to a point. The author’s recounting of the repetitive, often tedious nature of a homicide detective’s job was interesting and probably realistic. The story, however, took place in a summer that was brutally hot and dry; on every page (or so it seemed), the author had to comment on the weather in some way, I.e.: the car was an oven, the heat was shimmering over the road, her shirt stuck to her, etc. and etc. Too much. The plot, while interesting in the beginning, took a predictable turn toward the end, and I didn’t finish the book.
Profile Image for Liz English.
13 reviews
May 11, 2015
I love Mons Kallentoft, OK this is only the second book but for me he's a very good author. His characters are believable and the storyline in this and the first book are excellent. It all comes together and in between we're given some peeks into Malin Fors life. I have to admit I thought when I read the first book Mons was a woman, because of the excellent characterisation. The book can be a little difficult to read with the 'dead voices', but you soon get used to it. I enjoyed it so much I read it in three days and I'm looking forward to the next book!
Profile Image for Lénia.
Author 6 books760 followers
March 29, 2013
Enredo: ok. Escrita: chata, densa, mal conseguida. Percebo a ideia: que se leia isto como se víssemos um filme. Mas o autor está a anos-luz de uma escrita cinematográfica. Arrastou a história durante 400 páginas e atou as pontas em 22. O resultado é forçado e artificial.

Já tinha lido o primeiro livro desta série (são quatro). Não vou ler os dois que faltam. A vida é demasiado curta para ler maus livros!!
77 reviews13 followers
January 3, 2018
I was constantly getting the characters mixed up with each other. The plot was slow and boring at times. The pages seemed to drag on and the multiple point of views confused me. It wasn't until the final two chapters that I found myself on the edge of my seat. I am relieved to finally have finished it.
Profile Image for Stephen.
2,175 reviews464 followers
July 25, 2012
felt this one was slower to start off with the previous malin fors book but once the story got going was a page turner and using the same dead person dialect in the look, looking forward to number 3 in english now
Profile Image for Teresa.
1,492 reviews
January 7, 2013
Às páginas tantas perdi o fio à meada e já não o consegui desenredar…
As frases telegráficas cansaram-me.
Os sonhos, pensamentos e visões de Malin aborreceram-me.
Ainda fui espreitar para o final a ver se me animava, mas nada.
Fiquei pela página cento e cinquenta e fico por aqui com Mons…
Profile Image for Stil de scriitor.
620 reviews87 followers
May 16, 2016
O carte slabă. Nu mi-au plăcut acțiunea, personajele și limbajul. Și nu am găsit nimic care să mă impresioneze în mod deosebit.
86 reviews11 followers
October 26, 2017
this was not really my type of book i guess
Profile Image for Tina Ottosson.
126 reviews9 followers
June 28, 2017
Nja, redan i förra boken retade jag upp mig på hur Malins sexliv beskrivs, och inte blev det bättre i den här. Att det sen är en mördare med dildo, och därigenom en "sexuellt frustrerad" människa, kastrerad man eller lesbisk kvinna som de fokuserar polisarbetet på gör inte att jag känner så där superstort förtroende för den (påhittade) Linköpingska poliskåren.

Ger serien en bok till, men om det även i trean är lika stort fokus på kvinnor och deras sexliv lägger jag ner. Jag gillar helt enkelt inte män som beskriver kvinnors sexuella upplevelser, eller snarare de önskemål de har om hur kvinnor upplever sex.
Profile Image for Cata.
482 reviews79 followers
June 21, 2023
Melhor que o primeiro, mas miúdas de 14 anos não falam assim, nem mesmo depois de mortas
Sei lá, faltou qualquer coisa para o tornar mais sólido.

É um livro ok, acho. E lê -se bem.
Profile Image for Mathilda Spjutö.
24 reviews
November 3, 2019
I found this one a little bit offensive... The main character makes me upset from time to time and the whole investigation in this book is weird. Not a fan.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 229 reviews

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