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Malin Fors #4
Savage Spring
The Swedish town of Linkoping is bathed in Spring sunshine. The trees are blossoming and families are having breakfast at outdoor tables in the main square.Then a deafening explosion rips through the air.Broken glass and tulip petals cover the cobblestones, and two little girls, twin sisters, are killed while their mother is left fighting for her life.Detective Inspector Malin Fors has just attended her own mother's funeral when she is summoned to the devastating scene. But, although Malin is plagued with questions about her past and the secrets her mother never revealed, she must once again bury her own pain if she is to find Tuva and Mira Vigero's killer before he strikes again.
521 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
32 people are currently reading
1291 people want to read
About the author
Mons Kallentoft
53 books409 followersAfter 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
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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Displaying 1 - 30 of 114 reviews
October 11, 2014
And Mons Kallentoft does it again!
I bless the day I entered the library, first stumbled upon Midwinter Blood and decided to pick it up, because I would have missed this incredible series otherwise.
The writing is just beautiful and evocative, the characters are incredibly fascinating, the plot keeps getting thicker and thicker. Really, everything just draws you in and makes it impossible for you to let go.
I know I can't rest until I have all the pieces of this puzzle and I bet you won't be able to do it either.
And the thoughts and emotions going through my mind? Amazing!
I don't even know why I keep being surprised by the author's ability to shoot straight to my heart and make me feel all these painfully wonderful things and connect so readily with the people and what they go through.
It just feels that everything hits so close to home, even when I don't have necessarily experienced the situation myself. I guess I put myself in the characters' shoes, especially Malin's, and that's why everything feels more real and painful.
Malin is one really awesome human being. She has flaws like everybody else and she recognizes she should do a lot of things differently, particularly when we're talking about her daughter, but she tries to do her best. Isn't that what's truly important?
Also, she's very unique. She has this vision of the world, herself, other people and everything surrounding her, that makes you think she is not blind to the truth. She sees everything and stops to think and process everything she apprehends.
That doesn't mean she wants to see what she sees or that she doesn't sometimes acts impulsively. She does. It's just the way she thinks and acts that make her such an interesting character.
I hope there are great things ahead for her, considering the hard stuff she went through and the new developments in her life. She deserves to be happy.
Bravo! Can't wait to read the following books.
February 11, 2025
To nie są łatwe i przyjemne kryminały.
June 1, 2023
Jag har lite svårt att sätta ord på vad jag tyckte om den här. Jag hatade den inte, och jag avskydde den inte heller, om något kanske ett svagt ogillande. Själva utredningen var spännande och så, men upplösningen kändes jävligt långsökt, men kanske är det så när man har med svinrika människor utan moral att göra? Då får man gilla läget med varanerna.
En sak som jag är helt på det klara med att jag avskyr är Malin Fors. Det visste jag iofs redan från början. Visst, människor är själviska varelser, men Malin tar fan priset i Mest Självupptagna. Värre blir det när man dessutom inte kan träffa någon av hennes andra kollegor, de s.k statisterna i the Malin Fors Show, utan att även de måste referera till henne och göra sitt perspektiv till hennes.
Hennes reaktioner på familjehemligeten och dotterns framtidsplaner gör mig INTE mer vänligt inställd till henne.
En sak som jag är helt på det klara med att jag avskyr är Malin Fors. Det visste jag iofs redan från början. Visst, människor är själviska varelser, men Malin tar fan priset i Mest Självupptagna. Värre blir det när man dessutom inte kan träffa någon av hennes andra kollegor, de s.k statisterna i the Malin Fors Show, utan att även de måste referera till henne och göra sitt perspektiv till hennes.
Hennes reaktioner på familjehemligeten och dotterns framtidsplaner gör mig INTE mer vänligt inställd till henne.
October 2, 2013
I read the English translation of this and it was the second of his novels for me. Very well written and absolutely absorbing ... the highlight was discovering the thoughts of the character Sven on the death of his mother ... my own feelings actually put into words, something that I had been unable to do for myself - how liberating!
Now looking forward to consuming another one soon
Now looking forward to consuming another one soon
February 11, 2018
Recension: RecensionZellysBokhylla
March 26, 2013
Detective Inspector Malin Fors, the heroine of Mons Kallentoft's series of acclaimed thrillers, is an angry woman.
She's angry with her daughter, her dad and she hates her mother. She's a recovering alcoholic, a condition exacerbated before the events of Savage Spring when her daughter was kidnapped, and now she has a bomb blast to deal with in the town square of quiet backwater Linkoping, in which six-year-old twin girls are killed.
She also has a 'sixth sense for the truth'. This manifests itself in her hearing the voices of the dead and having a strong intuition about which leads and suspects to pursue.
We encounter her in Savage Spring at the cremation of her mother, a cold and emotionless woman. The passing of the elderly woman leaves Malin cold, but it is the trigger that finally exposes a family secret, compromising Malin's father and piling more angst on the workaholic detective.
As she fights her hunger for Tequila, Malin works flat out with the small local team of detectives to find the bomber, with initial lines of inquiry taking in the local Mosque and the Hell's Angels, and a search for members of the Economic Liberation Front, who are angry with the country's banks. Eventually, the narrative twists in new, more personal directions as we discover more about the victims.
Scandinavian writers such as Henning Mankell, Stieg Larsson and Arnaldur Indridason have alerted English readers to the wealth of Nordic noir, and while this novel isn't in quite that league, it is a decent thriller with a dark denouement. Less satisfactory are the disembodied voices of the dead girls, and also of identified children who seem to be trapped somewhere, story strands that are distracting and slow the pace. And six-year-old ghosts coming out with lines such as, 'Maybe this was an attack aimed at the SEB bank, the avaricious heart of the capitalist swine,' jolt you out of the story. An interesting subplot about the Security Police hampering the investigation of Malin and her colleagues is also abruptly dropped half way through the book.
It is the character of Malin Fors that is the best thing in the novel. Constantly on the verge of battering some suspect, sexually frustrated, struggling to reconnect with her teenage daughter, she is a compelling protagonist. Kallentoft has written six books about her so far, and 10 are planned.
June 3, 2014
I've gotta say D.I. Malin Fors is one of the most tedious and irritating characters in crime fiction. I'll read anything: the back of the cereal box, sports reports on cricket which I know nothing about, a poem in the literary journal based on the Black-Scholes equation used to play the stock market (well, I tried to read it).
But this, I couldn't stomach. I can open the book anywhere and quote some of the worst writing I've ever read - I think it's called chewing the scenery in theatre. Don't read this.
But this, I couldn't stomach. I can open the book anywhere and quote some of the worst writing I've ever read - I think it's called chewing the scenery in theatre. Don't read this.
May 16, 2016
åhh så bra bara lite synd bara att det är lite trögt att komma igång i hans böcker men väl inne då är sidorna som klister på en..........
December 14, 2021
Det är en spännande deckare, storyn i sig är rätt osannolik men det som stör mig i boken är det paranormala inslaget där Malin hör röster från döda. Den delen hade jag klarat mig utan. Hennes intuition hade gott räckt som förklaring och inte att hon hör röster från de döda. Kommer fortsätta läsa serien då jag gillar svenska deckare och tycker att Kallentoft skriver på ett lättsmält sätt.
October 15, 2024
It's years since I read one of these, and it took me a while to reaccustom myself to the characters and the narrative voice, which is quite... particular. But once I did, it was a great, engrossing thriller.
December 21, 2023
Não sei o que pensar sobre este livro. Parece que se juntaram todos os ingredientes para 1 policial e colocaram ali.
July 6, 2023
Otroligt spännande En bok man gärna sträckläser.
August 15, 2017
Tulipas vähän niin kuin hotkaistua tämä dekkari. Taattua Malin Fors -sarjan laatua!
September 2, 2015
This novel is the third of what the author conceived as four books based on the seasons of the year. Summer and Winter comprised the first two in the series, and now we have Spring. The novels feature Malin Fors, an insecure but talented detective, who struggles with her past, mixed-up relationships with her ex-, her lovers, parents, and especially her 16-year-old daughter. On one level, the novels are basically a police procedural. But the books are a lot heavier than that, filled with deep insights into Malin’s personality and psyche, her alcoholism and drive.
An explosion in the main square in front of a bank injures scores of persons, killing six-year-old twins and fatally injuring their mother. Who was responsible? The police begin investigating, without a single clue. Was it Muslim terrorists? Or protests against bankers and the financial system which led to an economic downturn? Or some other wild scheme? Than Malin intuitively comes up with another angle and she and her partner, Zeke, go off on their own. Meanwhile Malin continues to confront her own personal demons: her deep desire for a drink, her failed relationship with her parents, her need for a love of her own, and especially, her rapport with her daughter.
The same criticism made by this reviewer on the previous novels applies to Spring: It is too long and heavily written, although it is well-written. The author can certainly write (and write and write). Despite this observation, the book is recommended, and we look forward to Autumn.
An explosion in the main square in front of a bank injures scores of persons, killing six-year-old twins and fatally injuring their mother. Who was responsible? The police begin investigating, without a single clue. Was it Muslim terrorists? Or protests against bankers and the financial system which led to an economic downturn? Or some other wild scheme? Than Malin intuitively comes up with another angle and she and her partner, Zeke, go off on their own. Meanwhile Malin continues to confront her own personal demons: her deep desire for a drink, her failed relationship with her parents, her need for a love of her own, and especially, her rapport with her daughter.
The same criticism made by this reviewer on the previous novels applies to Spring: It is too long and heavily written, although it is well-written. The author can certainly write (and write and write). Despite this observation, the book is recommended, and we look forward to Autumn.
April 25, 2015
You ask, Cataline, why I would like a book in spite of something bad happening to children. Three reasons: the author's victims have a kind of life after death as he imagines them talking to detective Malin Fors and imagines her feeling their presence; the ending has many positive elements; and the psychological details about the characters, including the detectives who appear in each episode of the series, are wonderfully varied and realistic. Malin's personal challenges, involving her cold mother and weak father, her independent teen daughter, her daughter's father, her mostly controlled addiction, and her love life, enrich a complicated plot. In the story, the authorities run around like chickens with their heads cut off chasing the usual suspects when a lethal bomb goes off outside a bank in the middle of the Great Recession. Is it anti-capitalists? Religious terrorists? Something everyone is missing? Things get complicated. My one reservation is about a few tangents that didn't get pulled in at the end: the unfriendly investigators from Sweden's version of the FBI, the heroin addict who did something to save his family, and how come the children's mother had information on some "money" she wasn't ever told about.
January 3, 2016
3.5 estrelas.
Este foi, de longe, o caso mais difícil destes 4 livros da série Malin Fors. Crimes contra crianças tornam a leitura sempre mais difícil...
Passado mais de 1 ano sobre o final de Segredo Oculto em Águas Turvas, Malin tem o alcoolismo mais controlado e a filha já começou a aproximar-se mais. Também é aqui, finalmente, revelado o segredo de família, que os pais de Malin nunca lhe revelaram antes. Mais um crime contra crianças...
Este foi, de longe, o caso mais difícil destes 4 livros da série Malin Fors. Crimes contra crianças tornam a leitura sempre mais difícil...
Passado mais de 1 ano sobre o final de Segredo Oculto em Águas Turvas, Malin tem o alcoolismo mais controlado e a filha já começou a aproximar-se mais. Também é aqui, finalmente, revelado o segredo de família, que os pais de Malin nunca lhe revelaram antes. Mais um crime contra crianças...
July 8, 2013
really enjoyed the lastest in the malin fors series and felt this one was the best so far and kept you thinking who had done the crime and what motives and also have the red herrings too and like the voices of the victims talking to malin in her head. looking forward to the next in series once its been translated into English
November 21, 2013
Mons continua a ser um autor de eleição para mim! "Flores Caídas No Jardim do Mal", foi o melhor dos quatro que li, daí as minhas 5*. Este livro fecha um capítulo da vida de Malin, as suas incertezas, os seus receios, a descoberta dos segredos no ceio da sua família...uma investigação bem elaborada, enfim tem tudo! Recomendo a sua leitura sem quaisquer reservas.
July 10, 2014
500 sivua katkeran Malin Forsin päänsisäistä katkeraa monologia - ei rikosromaanin tuntua. Sarjan huonoin! Suomentajat eivät osaa ruotsin kirosanarekisteriä ollenkaan, eli tilitysmonologi ei edes vastaa alkukielistä. Conradin 'Pimeyden ytimessä' paistaa liian ilmeisesti läpi pahuuden kuvauksessa ja nimissä. Toivottavasti seuraava osa on taas ok.
August 30, 2016
This book has been around since 2013 but I finally got around to reading it. I was fully flummoxed by the story. Mons kept you the story only as Malin was privy to each outlandish area of the twin girls murder, their stepmothers murder, and their stepfathers murder. It was well written and I would give it four stars. Well worth reading.
October 17, 2013
Not quite sure about this one. Malin, the main detective, is not a very sympathetic character. The crime itself is quite interesting, but the part played by the children is very strange, as they speak with adult voices.
May 10, 2015
Couldn't finish, but got far enough to rate it. The constantly shifting POV, the 'voices' of the dead kids giving their opinion on things (too adult, not the voices of children at all!), and the whole set-up was too disorienting and confusing.
Not for me.
Not for me.
January 18, 2014
Fantástico, para além da história principal ser bem complexa e perturbadora é bem interessante estar dentro da cabeça de um anti-heroi como a Malin. Espero que se sigam mais livros.
April 19, 2015
I won a copy of the book on Goodreads. The book was long and didn't move me in any particular way.
May 19, 2018
Sometime last year I bought a job lot of crime books from a small independent books store. Ever since I have been slowly working my way through them. It has been a somewhat hit and miss affair, but for the price, I haven't been all that worried about it. So it finally came time to delve into Savage spring, for some reason I have picked this book up and put it back in my to be read pile more than once. I think in part this was down to the description, it felt like the kind of book I had to be in the right mood to read.
In starting this book I had not realized it was part of a series about Detective Inspector Malin Fors. She was an interesting person to get to know throughout the course of the book. Just the right amount of broken to keep me wanting to know more about who she is. Malin is another in a proud and long line of detectives from out Scandinavian brothers and sister. In the course of this book, we get to delve into not only her way of solving cases, but also into her private life and to a larger extent how she cam to be the person she is now. She is also another one who will fight to get to the trough using her intelligence to pull all the pieces together and get to the bottom of this bombing. Along the way, we also get to visit with some interesting supporting characters. And get to see how a warped and twisted person can be molded those around them into doing something so truly heinous.
This book turned out nothing like I was expecting from the blurb I had read on the back. It's always a little strange when you think you know the directs a book will take only to find it shooting off in complete a different direction. This time for me it was a good thing, The plot is well thought out and executed keeping me searching for the final revel right up until the end. The author has managed to craft a complex web of conspiracy as to why this bomb went off, however, he also has given me a look into the heart of what family can mean. It is through this that I was able to gain a deeper understanding of these people and the choices they made. I can't say this lead to me having compassion for them, bad things happen to people all the time and somehow they still mage to find a way to a better life. It does, however, make for a compelling read and anyone who enjoys there Scandinavian noir I'm sure will be gripped by this book and the journey it took me on.
While this is complex read the author's style means I was able not only to get through this book in not too long, but was also had great enjoyment in trying to beat the good Detective Inspector in solving the case. I have defiantly been won over and I will be hunting out the other books in this series to add to my to be read pile.
In starting this book I had not realized it was part of a series about Detective Inspector Malin Fors. She was an interesting person to get to know throughout the course of the book. Just the right amount of broken to keep me wanting to know more about who she is. Malin is another in a proud and long line of detectives from out Scandinavian brothers and sister. In the course of this book, we get to delve into not only her way of solving cases, but also into her private life and to a larger extent how she cam to be the person she is now. She is also another one who will fight to get to the trough using her intelligence to pull all the pieces together and get to the bottom of this bombing. Along the way, we also get to visit with some interesting supporting characters. And get to see how a warped and twisted person can be molded those around them into doing something so truly heinous.
This book turned out nothing like I was expecting from the blurb I had read on the back. It's always a little strange when you think you know the directs a book will take only to find it shooting off in complete a different direction. This time for me it was a good thing, The plot is well thought out and executed keeping me searching for the final revel right up until the end. The author has managed to craft a complex web of conspiracy as to why this bomb went off, however, he also has given me a look into the heart of what family can mean. It is through this that I was able to gain a deeper understanding of these people and the choices they made. I can't say this lead to me having compassion for them, bad things happen to people all the time and somehow they still mage to find a way to a better life. It does, however, make for a compelling read and anyone who enjoys there Scandinavian noir I'm sure will be gripped by this book and the journey it took me on.
While this is complex read the author's style means I was able not only to get through this book in not too long, but was also had great enjoyment in trying to beat the good Detective Inspector in solving the case. I have defiantly been won over and I will be hunting out the other books in this series to add to my to be read pile.
May 21, 2018
For more reviews check out Reading Under the Blankie
Long buried secrets, questions of motherhood and a deadly explosion await us in Savage Spring, the fourth book in the Malin Fors series.
Malin has calmed down considerably since we last met her in Autumn Killing. With the help from her boss and colleagues, who often act more like a family than her actual family, she is back on her feet and has been sober for over a year. It suits her. She still suffers from the occasional outburst every now and then, but I honestly couldn’t blame the poor woman. Her frayed relationship with her mother comes to an abrupt end with the woman’s death, and the guilt of feeling relief and some painful thruths coming to light don’t put her in an easy position. Loneliness, old flames and obsessions taunt her constantly.
The loneliness she feels is different to a mere lack of sex, she wants a warm embrace to curl up in, ears that listen to what she has to say, and a brain and a heart that respond, that wish her well, that like her for who she is. Malin thinks, I feel a serious longing, maybe for someone to love, but actually admitting that to myself isn’t at all pleasant.
Malin’s relationship with her daughter Tove is strained, but on the mend. Nevertheless, their careful bonding seems to balance on the verge of of a breakdown, and Tove has a secret too.
Family secrets is the theme in Savage Spring, not only for Malin personally, but there’s something about the perpetrator that seems to be firmly rooted in their past. But what is it? How far Malin and her team has to go to uncover the motives of the heinous crime that claimed the lives of two innocent little girls?
With his beautiful, expressive writing Mons Kallentoft paints a dark picture of family relationships and unthinkable acts committed by those we least expect it from.
Human greed is the best friend of evil.
The poignant voices of Tuva and Mira follow Malin around. They know the truth, but are too young to comprehend its meaning. There’s a sense of imminent danger in their innocent reporting of the events, keeping your on your toes the whole time. Are the perpetrators going to strike again? Who is their next target? What the hell is up with up with those lizards they keep talking about? It’s quite terrifying.
Both Malin and Zeke can sense the fear creeping into the room, crawling across the floor like some ravenous, infected lizard, bringing with it an unshakeable stench of rotting flesh.
With extreme violence, graphic details and a relentless investigator, Savage Spring is out there to blow your socks off.
Long buried secrets, questions of motherhood and a deadly explosion await us in Savage Spring, the fourth book in the Malin Fors series.
Malin has calmed down considerably since we last met her in Autumn Killing. With the help from her boss and colleagues, who often act more like a family than her actual family, she is back on her feet and has been sober for over a year. It suits her. She still suffers from the occasional outburst every now and then, but I honestly couldn’t blame the poor woman. Her frayed relationship with her mother comes to an abrupt end with the woman’s death, and the guilt of feeling relief and some painful thruths coming to light don’t put her in an easy position. Loneliness, old flames and obsessions taunt her constantly.
The loneliness she feels is different to a mere lack of sex, she wants a warm embrace to curl up in, ears that listen to what she has to say, and a brain and a heart that respond, that wish her well, that like her for who she is. Malin thinks, I feel a serious longing, maybe for someone to love, but actually admitting that to myself isn’t at all pleasant.
Malin’s relationship with her daughter Tove is strained, but on the mend. Nevertheless, their careful bonding seems to balance on the verge of of a breakdown, and Tove has a secret too.
Family secrets is the theme in Savage Spring, not only for Malin personally, but there’s something about the perpetrator that seems to be firmly rooted in their past. But what is it? How far Malin and her team has to go to uncover the motives of the heinous crime that claimed the lives of two innocent little girls?
With his beautiful, expressive writing Mons Kallentoft paints a dark picture of family relationships and unthinkable acts committed by those we least expect it from.
Human greed is the best friend of evil.
The poignant voices of Tuva and Mira follow Malin around. They know the truth, but are too young to comprehend its meaning. There’s a sense of imminent danger in their innocent reporting of the events, keeping your on your toes the whole time. Are the perpetrators going to strike again? Who is their next target? What the hell is up with up with those lizards they keep talking about? It’s quite terrifying.
Both Malin and Zeke can sense the fear creeping into the room, crawling across the floor like some ravenous, infected lizard, bringing with it an unshakeable stench of rotting flesh.
With extreme violence, graphic details and a relentless investigator, Savage Spring is out there to blow your socks off.
November 13, 2025
Another book that I read as a recommendation and reference from a friend.
Spring Remains is one of those crime novels that feels less like a chase for answers and more like a slow walk through a season that has not quite decided if it wants to warm or wound you. Mons Kallentoft (MK) brings a familiar blend of brooding atmosphere and emotional unease and the English translation captures that mood with enough clarity to keep you immersed even when the story drifts.
The novel tries to hold several tones at once. It reaches for introspection for police procedural grit and for a portrait of ordinary lives under quiet strain. At times this mixture works beautifully especially when the writing lingers on Malin Fors and the grief shaping her every choice. At other moments the strands do not sit comfortably together and the pacing stumbles just when it needs to tighten.
Malin remains the strongest reason to stay with the book. She is stubborn, vulnerable and quite so often her own worst enemy yet it is this complexity that for me, makes her believable in a way that stays with you. Some of the surrounding characters feel vivid and essential while others fade before they have a chance to matter which adds to the uneven feeling that runs through the narrative.
There are flashes of real emotional power. A few quieter scenes landed with a punch that surprised me and these moments are where the book is at its most affecting. The more brutal turns feel less successful sometimes tipping into excess rather than necessity. Readers who enjoy crime fiction for its atmosphere and its emotional undercurrents will find something worthwhile here. Readers who prefer relentless momentum may find themselves waiting for a spark that comes only in intervals.
For me this is a steady three star reading. It has heart and mood and a protagonist who continues to intrigue but it also wanders and occasionally loses its grip.
Spring Remains is best read slowly when you want something reflective and shadowed with melancholy rather than sharp edged and urgent.
Spring Remains is one of those crime novels that feels less like a chase for answers and more like a slow walk through a season that has not quite decided if it wants to warm or wound you. Mons Kallentoft (MK) brings a familiar blend of brooding atmosphere and emotional unease and the English translation captures that mood with enough clarity to keep you immersed even when the story drifts.
The novel tries to hold several tones at once. It reaches for introspection for police procedural grit and for a portrait of ordinary lives under quiet strain. At times this mixture works beautifully especially when the writing lingers on Malin Fors and the grief shaping her every choice. At other moments the strands do not sit comfortably together and the pacing stumbles just when it needs to tighten.
Malin remains the strongest reason to stay with the book. She is stubborn, vulnerable and quite so often her own worst enemy yet it is this complexity that for me, makes her believable in a way that stays with you. Some of the surrounding characters feel vivid and essential while others fade before they have a chance to matter which adds to the uneven feeling that runs through the narrative.
There are flashes of real emotional power. A few quieter scenes landed with a punch that surprised me and these moments are where the book is at its most affecting. The more brutal turns feel less successful sometimes tipping into excess rather than necessity. Readers who enjoy crime fiction for its atmosphere and its emotional undercurrents will find something worthwhile here. Readers who prefer relentless momentum may find themselves waiting for a spark that comes only in intervals.
For me this is a steady three star reading. It has heart and mood and a protagonist who continues to intrigue but it also wanders and occasionally loses its grip.
Spring Remains is best read slowly when you want something reflective and shadowed with melancholy rather than sharp edged and urgent.
March 6, 2019
Mons Kallentoft is one of several Nordic Noir writers who prefer a straight story running parallel to the mystery. In this case the mystery is who blew up the Linköping main square, an ATM machine and two little girls and their mother. Malin Fors, the lead detective in Kallantoft thrillers, responds with the entire Linköping police force and the hunt is on. In the meantime, Malin has just buried her unregretted mother, her daughter, Tove, is heading for college and Malin is fighting alcoholism. She has just concluded rehab and finds the temptations strong, particularly since the investigation starts slowly. In a strange turn of events, Malin’s police are outperforming the Swedish National Police and we hear little about their parallel investigation. The breakthrough occurs when Malin, using her very strong instincts, feels that they are headed the wrong way in finding the killer or killers of the children. She sees more future in investigating the bombers and branch out from there rather than concentrating, as the police do, on the children. Mallentoft uses a “Greek Chorus” device throughout that intermittently comments on the action and pleads for a swift end to the case. It is comprised of children’s voices and Malin can’t really hear them but the sense that they are there urges her on. I found the technique somewhat irritating until I regarded it as a psychic break for Malin and her partner, Zeke, who is almost completely devoid of personality. There is a handsome young doctor who Malin sets her cap for, Peter Hemse. He is sort of a carrot, lying outside the action, knowing only that Malin is interested. This is a long book—472 pages in paperback—but stay with it. Its payoff is worth it.
May 5, 2022
The fourth book in the Malin Fors series opens with a bomb blast in a busy town centre that kills two young girls. Most of the book's plot involves Malin trying to figure out why the girls were targeted, and who the bomber was, and as usual the book plays with the readers' expectations a lot. It also does a good job of acknowledging the very modern problem of Islamophobia in relation to terrorist activity. As usual, the ghosts of the victims appear, following Malin around, and speaking to her, as though to suggest that she had a psychic link with them, although it is still not made explicit.
There are also a couple of subplots too. Firstly, Malin's mother has just died at the start of the novel. This book explores Malin's childhood, and explains why her mother ran away, leaving her father to look after Malin, and uncovers a secret that has been hinted at in previous titles.
Another plotline involves Malin's complicated relationships, including her previous affair with a colleague, and also her ex-husband, Janne, who starts seeing another woman in this book, causing Malin to react jealously. It also hints at a new love interest for her.
As usual, this book leaves a few loose plot threads at the end, and I suspect that they will all be wrapped up in the next book in the series, "The Fifth Season".
I enjoyed this a lot, and it maintained the high standard the series has set so far, by taking a situation that doesnt make sense, and gradually revealing more, and throwing in a few red herrings and even a double bluff. I can't wait to read more about Malin Fors.
There are also a couple of subplots too. Firstly, Malin's mother has just died at the start of the novel. This book explores Malin's childhood, and explains why her mother ran away, leaving her father to look after Malin, and uncovers a secret that has been hinted at in previous titles.
Another plotline involves Malin's complicated relationships, including her previous affair with a colleague, and also her ex-husband, Janne, who starts seeing another woman in this book, causing Malin to react jealously. It also hints at a new love interest for her.
As usual, this book leaves a few loose plot threads at the end, and I suspect that they will all be wrapped up in the next book in the series, "The Fifth Season".
I enjoyed this a lot, and it maintained the high standard the series has set so far, by taking a situation that doesnt make sense, and gradually revealing more, and throwing in a few red herrings and even a double bluff. I can't wait to read more about Malin Fors.
March 21, 2025
J’ai été agréablement surpris par le premier volet , hiver, aussi j’ai décidé de poursuivre, me disant notamment qu’on découvrirait la suite des énigmes non résolues. Bien non. Chaque livre est du stand alone. Si les histoires sont acceptables, l’écriture l’est moins. Le fait que l’auteur s’obstine à faire voler et parler les morts rend l’histoire grotesque, surtout quand les morts ne disent rien qui fasse du sens. Le fait que l’auteur nous mène pendant 300 pages a nulle part et que tout à coup, par l’heureux hasard d’un zélé et la mémoire phénoménale de zèke, on peut cueillir comme par magie l’assassin qui, ça adonne comme ça, n’avait pas encore quitté le pays! Quelle chance!!! Vraiment! Alors, on se dirige enfin vers le dénouement, qui en passant, laisse 2 flics seuls pour cueillir les assassins. Une autre inconsistance. Encore une fois, l’auteur se garde de boucler l’enquête, ce qui arrive à la mère? Le dessin du père? Le meurtrier? Alouette?? Bref, une déception pour moi.
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