Der Tote vom Strand

Inspector Van Veeteren #8

by Håkan Nesser

Der Tote vom Strand - bk230; btb im Goldmann Verlag; Hakan Nesser; pocket_book; 2004

Genres: Crime, Mystery, Fiction, Thriller, Sweden, Swedish Literature, Scandinavian Literature

356 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Håkan Nesser is a Swedish author and teacher who has written a number of successful crime fiction novels. He has won Best Swedish Crime Novel Award three times, and his novel Carambole won the Glass Key award in 2000. His books have been translated from Swedish into numerous languages.

Håkan Nesser was born and grew up in Kumla, and has lived most of his adult life in Uppsala. His first novel was published in 1988, but he worked as a teacher until 1998 when he became a full-time author. In August, 2006, Håkan Nesser and his wife Elke moved to Greenwich Village in New York.

Series:
* Inspector Van Veeteren
* Inspector Barbarotti

Reviews

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Weeping Girl by Hakan Nesser.

This author despite Chief Inspector Van Veeteren retirement has produced a story that only a master story teller could write.
Ewa Moreno is caught up in a murder case from 1983. A teacher was accused and found guilty of murdering one of his students after she informed him of her pregnancy. Just 16 years old at the time of her death the trial was an open & shut case with the murderer put away for possible insanity.

Ewa Moreno is on a train beginning her long awaited vacation when she observes a girl weeping. that girl, Mikaela, is going to meet the father she never knew. Her father is the murderer who was put away 16 years ago when Mikaela was 2 years old.

This was a lengthy book and without Van Veeteren I was not sure if it would be worth reading. Let me assure you (the reader) this story was more than just worth reading. It was an excellent story by an excellent in depth story teller. Once again H.N. never left a stone unturned with well developed characters who were worth learning about as they picked up where their mates left off. A tremendously eye opening ending.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of the worst books I have ever read. Perhaps it was the translation, but all the dialogue comes across as painfully clunky. I was constantly asking myself "Who talks like this? Even to themselves?"

The plot was very thin. There was no character development. There were numerous lines of sub-plot which amounted to absolutely nothing and added zero to the overall story line.

The solution to the mystery not explained at all - in the last 20 pages of the book everyone just seemed to go "Oh yes, he was the murderer" and that was it. No explanation as to motive, how they came to this conclusion or anything else. Plus a really unbelievable scene on the beach where a murderer was burying a body within 20 - 30 metres of passers by and no one notices? Anyone ever tried to dig a three foot deep body-sized hole in the sand with no implements?

And for some reason just about every character in the book has a name starting with M: there's Moreno, Maas, Maager, Michel, Michaela. Every time a new character enters the scene, I was thinking "f@ck no, not another M name ..."

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another cracking book from the clever imagination of this wonderful author. All set in this made up world of Maardam, in Country that is a cross between the lands of Scandinavia and mix of Holland and Germany.
This is a delicious whodunit wrapped up in a deadly mystery.A man is found guilty of murdering a teenage girl he'd got pregnant. He was found at the scene of the crime but his mind snapped and was placed in a psychiatric hospital deemed quite mad.
His wife and 2 year old daughter leave the town to forge a new life, but once the girl reaches 18 her Mum decides to tell her who her Dad is and what he once did.
The story tells of how their meeting re-opens the past many hoped was buried long ago.
Some may quibble that this book is again build as a Inspector Van Veeteren mystery. While he makes a brief cameo role the strength of the novel is that we are introduced fully to DI Ewa Moreno. She is sharp and questioning a worthy
disciple of the retired Chief Inspector.
The story evolves while Moreno is on leave and her unofficial investigation has some of the charm I remember from Maigret on holiday.

[Lavina anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spannend boek. Leest heerlijk we. Leuke hoofdpersoon!

[Sandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Avevo appena finito di scrivere che mi piacciono i gialli nordici di Nesser, quando mi sono imbattuta in questo romanzo che mi ha deluso moltissimo. Sarà perchè protagonista non è il commissario Van Veeteren, personaggio che conosco bene e che dà una marcia in più alle storie raccontate; sarà perchè la protagonista, l'ispettrice Ewa Moreno, non è per niente simpatica, non fa quasi nulla durante tutta la vicenda che si svolge in un paese di mare durante le ferie dell'ispettrice stessa (come si faccia ad andare in spiaggia in un paese del nord Europa una freddolosa come me se lo è spesso chiesto mentre leggeva) e riguarda un caso risalente agli anni '80 di una ragazzina sedicenne buttata da un ponte la cui morte è stata attribuita al suo professore-amante, ed un caso attuale collegato al primo, la scomparsa di una diciottenne che ha appena saputo che il suo vero padre è proprio il professore accusato di aver ucciso la sedicenne. Insomma, la Moreno non indaga, è preda della sindrome premestruale che la fa litigare col fidanzato, il giallo si risolve solo alla fine grazie alle indagini di un altro poliziotto che le racconta alla Moreno, in più ci sono delle domande che rimangono senza risposta in merito alla soluzione....un giallo senza tensione, piatto e spento. Peccato

[Daniele · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a disappointment. The story line is so vague and there is absolutely no character development. The book has almost no climax at the end and basically the main character had nothing to do with the unfolding of events.

[Charlene Intriago · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like this writer - as evidenced by the number of his books I have read - and this story line is a 4 star but the translation leaves a lot to be desired - so I can only give that part of it 2 stars. At least for me, something is definitely "lost in translation". However, the first chapter of this book sucked me in with the sentence "Winnie Maas died because she changed her mind." And, of course, I had to find out why.

Inspector Van Veeteren has retired. His protege Ewa Moreno is on holiday. While on the train to a small beach town, she meets Mikaela Lijphart who has just turned 18 and is going to see her biological father, Arnold Maager, for the first time in 15 years. She doesn't remember him - didn't even know he existed until now - because 16 years ago he was convicted of murdering one of his students, Winnie Maas, and ended up in a psychiatric hospital.

Michaela goes missing, her father goes missing, a dead body turns up, the police chief seems to be hiding something - and Ewa Moreno cannot keep her nose out of the investigations.

Nesser's plots are intriguing and I can tolerate a few discrepancies in translation so I'm off to find #9 in this series!

[Imbtsman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've been reading this set of books in series and found them pleasant but unchallenging. I think that this is the worst to date. It began brightly enough but slowed gradually to a real plod. The "reveals" were very disappointing and based on, well, nothing really. This was end of the line for VV as Moreno is the main detective. I quite liked her but think this could be the end of the line for me too with this series. There's much better stuff out there Oh, another point, the typing is double spaced just to make the book look bigger .......

[Renita D'Silva · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thrilling and intense, suspenseful and unputdownable. Loved it.

[Heidi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Police Inspector Eva Moreno is not overly impressed when she is asked to interrogate a “scumbag” criminal (and police informer) on the first day of which was supposed to be a relaxing holiday by the seaside with her new lover. On her way to the dreaded interview, Ewa meets a young weeping girl on the train – and finds out that the girl, too, is on her way to a difficult meeting. Having just turned eighteen, Mikaela Lijphart has finally found out the identity of her birth father, who has been incarcerated in a mental institution for the last 16 years. She is on her way to see him to find out about the events that saw him imprisoned and her own mother reluctant to ever utter his name again. A few days later, Mikaela Lijphart disappears. Drawn into the investigation by the impression the young girl left on Ewa, and the local Chief Inspector’s reluctance to take the disappearance seriously, Ewa conducts a few investigations of her own – and gets drawn into an old murder case which may not have been as straight forward as it appears on paper ….

Like Nesser’s previous novels (which I have not read), this story takes place in a fictional Northern European country which seems to be a hybrid of Denmark, Netherlands, Germany and Sweden – and features characters with names from various different European nationalities. This totally confused me at first, until I googled one of the featured town names (Maardam) and found out that it is not a real location – well, one mystery solved! I also found out that The Weeping Girl is the eighth book in Nesser’s Van Veeteren series, and the first one to feature Ewa Moreno as a central character.

I really liked Ewa – in her thirties, with a failed long-term relationship behind her, Ewa is at the stage where she is questioning her life and career and longing for a family of her own. Her relatively new love affair with psychologist Mikael Bau offers a small glimmer of hope for her dream to come true, but pragmatic Ewa has her doubts about any happily-ever-after, knowing only too well that her police career usually interferes with her private life. And Ewa is a conscientious, compassionate and dedicated police officer, who will sacrifice her own needs to find justice – and is not afraid to go behind the back of the inept local Chief of Police Vrommel (termed affectionately by one of his own team as “the skunk in uniform”). Resourceful and determined, Ewa follows her leads tirelessly to get to the bottom of the mystery. And despite some personal issues, Ewa is not the seriously damaged character depicted in many other Scandinavian crime thrillers, but a person most of us will be able to relate to on some level.

Nesser’s police procedural is not the typical Scandinavian thriller I have come to expect – with a very dark and brutal element dominating the storyline. I have seen the story categorised by one reviewer as “Eurocrime”, and with Nesser’s setting being modelled on several European countries, this is not a bad name for the genre. Readers who find writers like Nesbo, Mankell and Larssen a bit too bloodthirsty may be pleasantly surprised by this author, who focuses more on the actual police investigation than the dark foreboding atmosphere and lurid descriptions of crime scenes found in other Nordic thrillers.

I did find the book a bit slow in the beginning, but was quickly drawn into the mystery once it unfolded. At times the translation seemed clunky, which made for a few laughs (not sure if the humour was intended by the author or if it was courtesy of the translation only) – one description of a “coagulating head” sticks in my mind. A case of a quite literal translation of a Swedish idiom? Nesser’s writing style is sparse, with few words wasted on flowery descriptions or explanations, which may not appeal to everyone, but which I found quite refreshing and unique (although I thought it did make it a bit harder to connect to the characters).

In a new class of Scandinavian (or European) thriller, The Weeping Girl may appeal to a wider audience of readers who enjoy police procedurals without all the gore. And although it did not grip me as much as some of my favourite Scandinavian authors (Nesbo included), I enjoyed reading The Weeping Girl and will look up some of Nesser’s other work in the future.

Thank you to the Reading Room and the publisher for providing me with a free preview copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

[Lukasz Pruski · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am unable to understand - probably because of my fuzzy geezer brain - why people would want to read a 500-page book if its contents could be easily packed in 200 pages. Absolute majority of crime novels are about 400-500 pages long, and only selected few of them need that much volume. I figure the length of a crime novel must be dictated by business reasons rather than by the author or by complexity of the plot and thus a typical crime novel is heavily padded to reach what I believe is the contractual volume. Correct me if I am wrong, but I guess the reason for wanting fat books is that readers who pay, say, twenty-something dollars for a newly published book, need to "get their money back", right? Still, it remains a mystery to me why people would want to waste their time on reading the padding in a novel, the silly filler stuff, the irrelevant fluff. Also, just imagine the massive waste of paper.

To me, authors who use 470 pages for a story that could be well presented on 200-250 pages, commit a major sin. They steal my time, and time is the only thing that I am sure to never get back. I generally refuse to read crime novels that are significantly longer than about 200 pages, and prefer to read ones that are shorter than 200 pages. I would never pick "The Weeping Girl" by Håkan Nesser if not for the fact that he has been one of my favorite authors of crime novels (I even rated one of his books with five stars, a rating reserved solely for masterpieces of the genre). I am still angry at the author for forcing me to read 470 pages, whereas the plot, the characterizations, and even the psychological and sociological observations could easily fit in half that volume. The rating reflects my anger. I like the plot, I like the writing, I totally love one fragment of the novel, but - on principle - I cannot rate the book high. OK, now that I vented my anger, a few words about the novel.

The plot alternates between 1983 and 1999. Winnie Maas dies in July 1983, "because she changed her mind." It is a pretty good first sentence, one that the reader can appreciate at the end. In July 1999 Detective Inspector Eva Moreno is sent to a small town of Lejnice to interview a criminal who is incarcerated there. She meets a girl on the train (the title "weeping girl") who tells her a curious story. Inspector Moreno gets interested and the connections between the current time and the events of 1983 slowly unfold.

Contrary to the blurb on the cover, it is not an Inspector van Veeteren novel. For me, it is better as I dislike series, but other readers may feel cheated. I mean the retired detective shows up at one point, but it is just a token appearance, a fragment of the padding in the novel.

I absolutely love the short fragment of the novel where two kids take advantage of the fact that the world is round. Extremely funny! I was laughing hysterically when reading the passage. There is also a mention of a Trabant that would not start. 50 years ago I used to ride in a Trabant and, indeed, it frequently would not start.

Mr. Nesser's story again takes place in a fictitious country, somewhere in Northern Europe - the names are a mixture of German, Dutch, and Swedish, with a smidgen of Polish (Lejnice, Sorbinowo, Wielki, etc.)

There is so much I like about this book: the fictitious country, no van Veeteren, solid plot, interesting and life-like characters, funny fragments. Yet the novel is twice too long, so the rating is only

Three stars.

[Hans Brienesse · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this quite an enthralling tale. The plot was good, it was well written, and had plenty of twists and turns so as to keep the reader guessing. The ending is both unexpected and classic. The characters are believable, in fact I think one could meet any one of them down the street and recognise them. Not too much else to say really without giving the plot away. For those who like simplicity without over-dramatising this is one to read.

[Maria João Fernandes · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans."

O Inspetor Van Veeteren reformou-se há três anos da força policial e neste livro está igualmente reformado para os seus leitores. Porém está sempre na mente dos seus colegas e tem uma pequena contribuição para a história, ainda que só pareça na última cena. A série continua sem o protagonista que lhe dá o nome e apesar de deixar saudades, dá-os a oportunidade de conhecer a Inspetora Moreno.

"Cut out the psychology and live according to instinct instead."

A Inspectora Moreno, da força policial de Maardam, interrompe as suas férias mesmo antes de começarem, quando o chefe lhe pede para interrogar um suspeito que a requisitou especialmente. Na viagem ao seu encontro, conhece Mikaela, a "rapariga que chora" e cujas lágrimas lhe suscitam curiosidade e simpatia.

"It's not as easy to turn one's back on things as a lot of people seem to think."

Mikaela acabou de fazer 18 anos, dia em que a sua mãe lhe decidiu revelar a identidade do seu pai verdadeiro. Arnold Maager encontra-se numa instituição psiquiátrica e a filha exige saber o que o levou até lá.

"Everybody has to pay for a moment of thoughtlessness. Some with their life, others with their sanity. You get the impression that the gods sometimes overdoo the retribution thing."

A acção desenrola-se em dois anos diferentes, que apesar de muito distantes no tempo, estão unidos por um evento trágico. Em 1983, um professor envolveu-se com uma aluna e apesar de este tipo de relação imoral ser quase normal, neste caso as consequências têm um peso significativo na vida de várias pessoas. Um peso destrutivo e, até certo ponto, secreto.

"What a strange collection of people I find myself surrounded by. They all seem to be a sort of caricature. Comic-strip chacters."

"The Weeping Girl" é o oitavo livro de uma série que não perde a qualidade à medida que avança. Håkan Nesser é consistente no seu estilo de escrita, proporcionando-nos uma visão privilegiada dos procedimentos policiais. O livro é particularmente excecional na exposição do dilema de uma mulher polícia que dá valor à sua liberdade e independência, bem como aos desafios que o seu trabalho lhe impõe, criando ondas na sua vida pessoal. Moreno é uma boa sucessora de Van Veeteren e se Nesser assim o desejar, pode continuar a série do ponto de vista feminino.

Com personagens dotadas de personalidades fortes, o enredo divide-se entre dois mistérios distintos: um central e outro secundário. Contudo, apesar dos diferentes destaques, são ambos igualmente interessantes e no desfecho as suas resoluções não desiludem.

Håkan Nesser é um dos meus escritores favoritos e espero ler o livro seguinte "The Strangler’s Honeymoon" num futuro muito próximo!

"Every day has enough trouble of its own to cope with."

[Marcello Nucciarelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Il volume appartiene alla serie del commissario Van Veeteren, in Italia meno fortunata di quella che ha per protagonista l'ispettore italo-svedese Barbarotti. Per qualche insondabile motivo l'editore, tutt'altro che unico in questo mal vezzo, continua a pubblicare la serie senza seguire l'ordine originario (forse in questo caso perchè il titolo lo rendeva adatto al pubblico estivo?), cosa che contribuisce a spiazzare non poco il lettore. Da una ricerca fatta su internet, che spero attendibile, questo dovrebbe essere l'ottavo titolo di una serie di dieci, ma è solamente il sesto a essere tradotto in italiano...
Caratteristica unica nei romanzi di Van Veeteren è quella di essere ambientati in una collocazione geografica imprecisata: la città in cui opera il commissario, Maardam, è infatti del tutto immaginaria e non si sa esattamente in quale nazione sia situata (i nomi sono spesso olandesi, così come il gulden, il fiorino olandese che precedette l'euro, ma il paesaggio è più tipico della Svezia e alcuni critici hanno trovato similitudini anche con Germania e Polonia). Il commissario è già in pensione e fa solo un'apparizione fugace nel romanzo: l'indagine è condotta da una delle sue sottoposto di un tempo, mentre quello che era il suo collaboratore più assiduo sembra che nel frattempo sia morto (probabilmente in un romanzo precedente a questo che però deve ancora essere tradotto...).
Per tutta questa serie di motivi la lettura risulta a volte faticosa e il romanzo, seppure molto piacevole, non pare all'altezza dei migliori scritti di Nesser.

[Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started off OK, but then deteriorated badly. Plot was pretty flimsy and full of holes as has been pointed out by other reviewers. I'm wondering if the author just got tired of writing it and so quickly finished it off by having the missing girl found and having her tell us what happened. That was the biggest let down, although there were others.
I'm used to reading novels where you have a sense of the murderer, villain, antagonist, whatever. Here there was nothing. Like others, I feel the story also didn't properly explain the motive for the murder. The back story with Winnie needed more development. The best part of the book was the writing depicting the two young boys playing at being slaves and discovering the body. I saw another reviewer write about how they enjoyed reading this scene, and I too really liked this writing.
I think if the last quarter of the book was tidied up with at least some sort of climax then it would have been a three star rating, but as it is it just falls flat.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nesser obviously keeps the same writing style, even when changing from Van Veeteren to Moreno... what doesn't work for me is the difference in the two characters... not sure if Nesser sees men as individuals with personalities and likes and interests, and women with just feelings and emotions, but the goings-on with Moreno and here angst (?) about Mikael was stereotypically overwrought and borderline moronic... needless to say, the mystery was brilliant, well thought out, believable, not full of stupid red herrings, and settled with that indelible twinge of justice over right vs. wrong... hopefully the personal aspects of Moreno get settled, or at least fill fewer pages, in the next novels...

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are 10 Van Veeteren books all in all. Barbarotti series not translated yet into English. This was number 7. Ewa Morenos taking the lead. Next due in September.
While there was an interesting story with events past and present crucial, that Ewa was determined to get to the bottom of, despite being on vacation herself. It was all so long winded and bogged down with description of feelings, events real or imagined that it got tiring and could have been better and tighter if a good many pages shorter.

[Cordula · Rating 1 out of 5]

very lame story.there is no real climax. whenever something happens the reader is not really taken. Little indications what might have happend with someone are not played well and it is pretty soon clear that the mentioned indication doesnt have anything to do with the missing/dead person...
I do not recommend. Maybe the translation into German was also bad...

[Amit Tiwary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super. The best part of the books in this series are the emphasis and focus on the investigation. And this is not Van Veeteren's case. This was DI Moreno's case till an extent. But still readable and recommended.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked that this was told from Moreno's point of view. But it was a bit slow moving, and the story jumped around a bit. I'll keep checking this series out, but it's a bit too cerebral for me sometimes.

[Stephanie Hutabarat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love the story, even tough I am regret that I am not reading from it 1st series. Anyway, this is my 1st book from Swedish's author that i read. Love the author way to write it in really nice plot. The main's characters behavior make me intrique to know more. 3 🌟🌟🌟 for this

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Storia intrigata ed intrigante, finale un po' superficiale. Molto bello il personaggio di Ewa Moreno.

[Petra Bohackova · Rating 5 out of 5]

Četlo se to úžasně. Zajímavé zjištění, co všechno se dá vyřešit o dovolené.

[Carla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heel goed verhaal..

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gewoon een uitstekende thriller/detective: goed geschreven, alles klopt en leest lekker weg.

[Raven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another one for you Scandinavian crime fiction fans from the consistently superb Hakan Nesser. The Weeping Girl sees ex-Chief Inspector Van Veeteren’s protege DI Ewa Moreno take the reins in this intriguing investigation, following the time honoured tradition of crime fiction protagonists unable to take a holiday without being immersed in a murder mystery…

It’s always difficult I would think to introduce a convincing new character from the shadows of such a compelling figure as Van Veeteren who has been at the heart of Nesser’s previous books, but he achieves this with aplomb. Using Van Veeteren as her point of reference in her machinations of this perplexing case, his voice can still be heard loud and clear, and Moreno soon proves herself to be an able protege of the now retired detective. Moreno is an assured combination of dedicated and compassionate police officer, cut through with the normal doubts of a woman in the throes of a new relationship with..well…in Moreno’s words ‘bloke/lover/stallion’. This is indicative of the humour that cuts through the plot with Moreno as queen of the apt aside to relieve the tension of this disturbing case, and as in Nesser’s previous books, these forays into the realm of humour are balanced perfectly. The characterisation is excellent throughout, with Moreno clashing horns with the utterly inept, and ‘stiff-collared pain in the neck’ local police chief Vrommel, but finds an ally in the charming and intuitive detective Vegesack, who more than proves his worth in terms of his dogged determination to get to the bottom of this case taking some degree of delight in ticking off his boss.

The plot mores than support Nesser’s assured characterisation, opening with a young girl’s mission to talk to her father having discovered his true identity on her eighteenth birthday. The only kink in her plan is that he is a murderer, incarcerated in a psychiatric unit, having been accused of killing a teenage girl some years previously. However, after meeting her father she disappears and so the intrigue begins. Moving fluidly between the earlier events leading to her father’s incarceration, and the real-time investigation of her disappearance with the unveiling of dark family secrets, Nesser effortlessly leads us through the case, with his trademark attention to procedural detail. Admittedly stalwart crime readers may cotton on to how the plot will play out but, bolstered by the fine characterisation and a cameo appearance by the great Van Veeteren himself, there is more than enough to satisfy the reader and I have no qualms in recommending this as a good read overall.

[Joann · Rating 4 out of 5]

First book I have read by this Swedish crime writer, but it won't be the last!

[Carolin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ein Fall aus den 80ern und einer aus den 90ern treffen hier aufeinander. Ein Fehler, der 1983 passiert, hat schwere Auswirkungen auf das Leben einer ganzen Familie und 16 Jahre später gibt es einen Toten am Strand. Bis dorthin gibt es viele Wendungen und nicht alles ist so, wie es scheint.

Zentrale Themen dieses Krimis sind Schuld, Familie, Betrug und dessen Bezahlung.

Besonders die Gründlichkeit, mit der dieser Krimi erzählt wird, hat mir sehr gut gefallen. Ich fand es auch interessant, einen kleinen Einblick in Ermittlerin Morenos Privatleben zu erhaschen, bin dem Autor aber dankbar, dass er es damit nicht übertrieben hat, sondern sich weiterhin sehr stark auf den Fall, die Verhöre und Schlussfolgerungen konzentriert hat. Auch wenn der Krimi eher langsam voran kommt, ist er spannend und auch wenn Teile der Auflösung schon ein bisschen vorhersehbar waren, las ich doch gerne die Hin- und Beweisführung. Von anderen Elementen war ich wiederum sehr überrascht. Auch die Zeitsprünge bzw. Rückblenden fand ich ebenso auflockernd wie spannungssteigernd. Der einzige Grund für mich, keine 4 Sterne zu geben, waren die unregelmäßigen "anzüglichen" bis vulgären Einsprengsel in den sonst so nüchternen Text...ich möchte nur auf die Brustwarzenplätzchen verweisen :D Hätten sie ins Gesamtkonzept gepasst, wäre das alles okay gewesen (es war nichts dabei, von dem man sich angeekelt abwenden müsste ;) es wirkte nur einfach sehr fehl am Platz in dieser gründlichen Schilderung der Ermittlung).

Ein netter nordischer Krimi, ein kleines bisschen düster, sehr detailreich und meiner Meinung nach spannender als die Mankells, die ich bisher gelesen habe. Auf Brustwarzenplätzchen und ein paar andere Ausdrücke hätte ich jedoch gerne verzichtet ;)

[Cerisaye · Rating 4 out of 5]

A police procedural that focuses on the (not always exciting) details of crime investigation, with an engaging female lead promoted from the ranks of secondary characters in previous novels in the Van Veeteren series. I can see some readers of the series might be disappointed to discover 'VV' appears only very briefly in this book but I was happy to spend time with Ewa Moreno and her complicated personal life. Moreno is extremely good at her job and admirably devoted to it, though a little too attached to her freedom and independence at the expense of her relationships, especially when it comes to her boyfriend (lover, stallion, fiancé, bloke...).

The story hinges on a young girl changing her mind in the Summer of 1983 and how that decision relates to the disappearance of another girl 16 years later, when Moreno is supposed to be on holiday at the seaside. There are plenty of twists to keep you guessing and the ending I must say took me by surprise, just when I thought I had it all worked out.

I like Moreno, and Nesser's writing style that takes its time to develop the unfolding tragedy at the heart of the story. Nesser's books have satisfying depth, strong characterisation and emotional complexity. Some might find the pace too slow and the pay-off something of a letdown. For me, however, it worked well enough. A sad story that could probably do with an injection of Chief Inspector Van Veeteren's dry humour to lift the sombre, introspective mood. I hope "VV" has a bigger part to play in the next book.

[Tony Nielsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes, you guessed it, I've just ripped through another Scandanavian crime thriller, this time from the very talented Hakan Nesser. Inspector Ewa Moreno is supposed to be on a long awaited summer holiday with her boyfriend. En route in the train she strikes up a conversation with a young woman who is weeping profusely. Mikaela spills the beans to Moreno, telling her that she is going to meet her father for the first time, after he was confined to a mental home when she was two, after apparently murdering a 16 year old girl. From there on in Moreno's holiday is subverted and her relationship with her boyfriend also implodes. Mikaela and her father both go missing, the mystery of the 18 year old murder resurfaces, and there's another murder. As you'd expect from Nesser its an intense and page turning story, with a conclusion that was hard to pick.