Bitrere enn døden

Siri Bergman #2

by Camilla Grebe, Åsa Treff

Den andre boken i serien om psykologen og psykoterapeuten Siri Bergman, med kontor på Södermalm i Stockholm.

En kvinne blir brutalt sparket i hjel i sitt hjem. Gjemt under kjøkkenbordet er den femårige datteren Tilde vitne til det som skjer.
Samtidig møter Siri og hennes kollega Aina en helt ny gruppe pasienter: De skal lede en selvhjelpsgruppe for fem kvinnelige voldsofre, og i løpet av noen mørke høstdager forteller kvinnene den ene historien etter den andre om håpløs kjærlighet, vold og fornedring. En av dem forfølges stadig av sin tidligere samboer, selv om hun har politianmeldt ham, og selv om han har funnet en ny kvinne. En kveld dukker han opp utenfor kontoret og vil snakke med Siri. Siri selv befinner seg ved et veiskille i livet ? skal hun våge å binde seg til et annet menneske?
Gradvis flettes vesle Tildes skjebne sammen med Siris og de fem kvinnenes.

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

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Camilla Grebe is an entrepreneur and a former publisher and CEO. She lives in Stockholm, Sweden. Her sister is Åsa Träff.

Reviews

[Sapphir · Rating 4 out of 5]

First-person narrator Siri is still a psychotherapist, and she’s still dealing with her own psychological issues while she’s slowly coming closer to her younger boyfriend. But now she has to lead a self-help group of women who have been exposed to male violence. Then a woman is brutally killed …
Also the second volume of this book series is well written, with a lot of empathy and understanding of the abysmal depths of the human mind, which is not surprising because one of the authors is in fact a psychologist herself. That’s why I found it particularly unsettling that Siri’s contemplations of her patients are always very judgmental, especially in terms of their outward appearance. One of her group members is a sixty-year-old woman, and whenever she’s musing about her, adjectives like “wrinkly” / “wrinkled” are used, which really started to annoy me at some point. Was that really necessary?
Otherwise, the novel is a great psychological thriller with a wicked twist at the end.
4 stars.

[Kirsten · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read the frist in this series (why isn’t it on Goodreads?) and I liked it better. Still, this is enjoyable, a good read, much better than say, for example, Liza Marklund’s and Camilla Lackberg’s novels. Absolutely recommended

[Simon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ich werde die Reihe nicht weiter verfolgen.

[Isabel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Me gusto mucho el contexto psicológico y que estaba bien documentado, pero vi venir el final.

[Bookread2day · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be honest I didn't enjoy More Bitter Than Death as much as I like reading The Ice Beneath Her that I gave five stars too.

[Madeleine Saurow · Rating 3 out of 5]

394 sidor pessimissm

[Rubi · Rating 4 out of 5]

La fecha en que decidí leerlo me hizo mucho más sensible al tema que expone: el maltrato a la mujer es sus bastas expresiones.n
Me ha resultado doloroso, frustrante y triste leer por lo que éstas mujeres de ficción pasa sabiendo que me ha pasado a mi y que les ha pasado a mujeres de mi circulo intimo, no he podido dejar de sentirme identificada.
The date I decided to read it made me much more sensitive to the subject it exposes: the mistreatment of women is their coarse expressions.
It has been painful, frustrating and sad to read what these fictional women go through knowing that it has happened to me and that it has happened to women in my inner circle, I could not help but feel identified.

[Eadie Burke · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book shows a different side of a murder mystery. You get a psychologist perspective rather than a detective's viewpoint. Siri Bergman is annoying at times and her decisions are not what you would expect from a psychologist. She has a drinking problem and has not gotten over the death of her husband. The book does show how people cope with grief and loss through Siri's character. She does, however, hold a self-help group for women of abuse and it is very informative. The book starts out with five year old Tilda hiding under a kitchen table when a man enters and beats her mother to death. Siri gets involved with trying to find the murderer and does become a victim herself. After the murder in the beginning of the story, the plot slowed down. It got more suspenseful towards the middle and I would not consider this a fast-paced story but it is still worth reading. I do enjoy the Swedish atmosphere and some of the characters. The ending had a chilling twist and really caught me off-guard. I look forward to reading the next in the series but it hasn't been translated yet.

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book should have been labeled more as a psychological thriller. Or just psychological, forget the thrill part.
Perhaps that would have saved some of the frustrations with it.
Because instead of the typical thrill, crime, or police procedural, we get to follow in first person a psychologist and her clients who are mostly women who have been subject to male violence in their life, with constant interruptions to the story by short psychological reports of a child with whom there were thought to be problems, signed each time by a different specialist.
Siri, the first person psychologist seems unhappy and disconnected from everything. She's with Markus, a policeman she does not love, and she keeps talking about her dead ex Steffan (and as she never tells what happened, and how he died, after a few hundreds of pages of feeling cheated by the first person for keeping secrets from you, you feel cheated. At least I did. Cheated, and could not trust her with the story. Are you keeping a secret of "oh, I just happened to kill this and that person related to this story by the way" from us to the end the same way there was in e.g. one of Harlan Coben's books?). She's disconnected from her life, and her group of psychologist friends seems to fare no better. Everyone seems to be in a crisis of their relationships, or in a serial dater or man-eater situation.
The women clients in the psychology group all share their typical stories of violence.
And pages go on and on without the crime - apart of a few pages of Tilda's view.
Fine, let's treat it as a psychological thriller then. Wouldn't that be easier if I felt something for at least some of the characters? Like like them, or dislike them, or hate them, ideally a combination of those? But I'm left not caring about any character, feeling frustrated with their psychology stuff (that doesn't seem to really help anyone. At least the psychologist themselves. Well, not just them - how good is your psychology when thirty psychologists or psychiatrists or other mind specialist don't manage to detect that someone is supposed to have an IQ of 55?), and with an occasional mild caring even less or being frustrated by some characters. That, plus Vijay's unbelievably long dialogs for anyone's story to have been told in first person, and all sorts of socio-pscyhology blubber and trying to make you care.
The defining moments towards the end helped quite a bit, but it wasn't enough to erase the frustration.
2.5 * - but I hear the other books by these authors are better, so I'll give them a try.

[Lectus · Rating 2 out of 5]

Since I am a fan of Nordic writers I had to read More Bitter Than Death. However, I thought the book would focus more on the mystery of discovering who killed Tilde’s mother than domestic violence. That is, I thought this would be a Camilla Lackberg and Jussi Adler-Olsen type of book but it’s not.

Tilde, a five-year-old girl, is the only witness to her mom murder. One day, while Tilde was under the kitchen table drawing, a man comes in and beats her mother to death. The only thing Tilde could see was his shoes.

Tilde’s case falls in the hands of psychologist Siri Bergman and her friend Aina, who host a self-help group for victims of domestic abuse.

The book covers the lives of five different women in the group and then Tilde. I find this book very interesting for therapists and family counselors. And, although is not a how-to book, it would help women of domestic abuse because the advice is disguised under a fictional novel, yet everything the novel covers is very real.

I didn’t enjoy the book as much as I’ve enjoyed other Stockholm mysteries. In fact, it was a very slow read for me and I had trouble keeping focused. It must have been because of the other stories and I wanted to focus on Tilde. However, the book appeals to a very common problem and I think its subject along makes it worth reading.

[Paul Pessolano · Rating 4 out of 5]

“More Bitter Than Death” by Camilla Grebe and Asa Traff, published by Simon and Schuster.

Category – Mystery/Thriller Publication Date - June 18, 2013

This is another one of the best mysteries to come out of Sweden that will thrill those who like their mysteries that take place in that dark, cold, snowy place. It is also a book that does not give up its secrets until the very last page. A book that is skillfully crafted by the authors, and will keep the reader thinking and guessing throughout the book.

The book opens with Tilda, a five year old, witnessing the horrific murder of her mother. Although she witnesses her mother’s death she is unable to identify the murderer.

Two young ladies, Aina and Siri, both psychologists, are asked to moderate a group of five women who have been the victims of domestic abuse.

Although on the surface these two incidents should have nothing to do with each other, the authors are able to weave a pattern that includes these five women with the murder.

The reader will be amazed as to how these different scenarios come together, especially since some of the problems that are realized by this study group have implications to both Aina and Siri.

A mystery that is sure to satisfy, especially if you like your mysteries solved on the last page of the book.

[Roxanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

*** Spoilers***

I’m not sure if this book was badly translated or just not very good but I’m leaning towards the latter.

There’s no character development, a very weak plot, a lot of random and irrelevant forays into the relationships of minor characters that don’t contribute to the storyline, and a thoroughly unlikeable and unrealistic protagonist.

The most irritating thing for me was the portrayal of women - their constant crying, the obsessive focus on their beauty or lack thereof (ironically, in my experience it’s most often feminist women authors who focus excessively on the appearance of female characters), and especially their slow-wittedness and gullibility.

Finally, in crime fiction it’s just lazy writing to introduce the murderer right before the end of the book.

[Hans Brienesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite an interesting little tale and quite devious in its plot. This is really one where the perpetrator is not at all obvious and the twist on the last page was suspected by me 3/4 of the way through the story, then promptly dismissed. I should have stayed with my theory but even then it was not played out as expected either. Like all Scandinavian crime novels there is a big divergence into the lives outside of the plotline of the various characters. What I particularly liked about this book was how the characters were fleshed out one by one, chapter by chapter. At least this time the main character did have some excuse for being there however thin it seemed. A good read and slightly different.

[Maddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

PROTAGONIST: Siri Bergman, psychotherapist
SETTING: Stockholm, Sweden
SERIES: #2 of 2
RATING: 3.25
WHY: Psychotherapists Aina Davidsson and Siri Bergman agree to conduct a self-help group for women who have been abused both physically and emotionally. The various group members each reveal their stories of abuse. There is a horrific murder of the girlfriend of the ex-husband of one of the group’s members and then one of the group is killed. The book is narrated by Siri, and she’s a bit of a mess herself, seemingly incapable of love after the death of her husband. Siri’s actions are often quite stupid. I had a mixed reaction to the book. At times the psychological stuff and the women’s stories was too much; yet I kept reading. There was a nice twist to the conclusion.

[tilda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tää oli harmillisesti huonoin kirja, mitä oon Greben tuotannosta lukenut :( Eka puolisko oli ihan kiinnostava, mutta sitten tuntui että juoni junnaa tosi paljon paikallaan ja tarina oli vähän sekava. Tässä oli myös aika paljon kaikkea täytettä varsinaisen juonen ympärillä, sellaista mikä ei tuonut tarinaan mitään lisäarvoa. Jos sarjaa vielä suomennetaan niin varmasti sen lukemista jatkan, mutta tää oli kyllä pienoinen pettymys

[Anke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Weer een goed boek.

[Karen Jarvis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Took a long time to go nowhere. All the action right at the end off the book, where very minor characters suddenly play a much bigger part.

[Lisbeth]

Lydbok
Innleser stemme ble feil for meg 😔 Derfor stjernenøytral

[Monique Mulligan · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading the debut offering from Camilla Grebe and Asa Traff in 2012, Some Kind of Peace, I’ve been looking forward to reading more from this clever duo. More Bitter Than Death was released a while ago, but has only just been translated into English. Was it worth the wait? Sure was.

The story picks up some months after protagonist Siri Bergmann, a psychotherapist, escapes death at the hands of a stalker. She’s been asked to co-facilitate a group for women who are victims of domestic violence. Her colleagues express some concern that Siri might not be up to it, but she convinces them that she is – it gives her something else to focus on and perhaps it will help her make peace with the past.

However, that’s not quite the beginning. First there is a flash-forward to an horrific scene where a five-year-old girl, Tilde (or Tilda in the translation), witnesses her mother brutally kicked to death. Certainly a way to hook readers – of course you want to know what happens and whether Tilde will be okay. Is it a case of domestic violence? Or is it a robbery homicide? The reader is then taken back to the beginnings of the group, when the victims tell their stories. There’s Kattis, beaten by her ex-boyfriend and afraid he’s not done with her yet; there’s Malin, a young woman raped by a man she met online, and Sofie, an abused teenager; and Sirkka and Hillevi, both abused wives. The group acts as a kind of sanctuary from the real world – for Siri as much as the patients.

Before long, the safety the women feel in the meeting is invaded by the cold realities of their lives. Kattis reveals that her ex-boyfriend Henrik may be a suspect in the murder of his most-recent girlfriend, Susanne – Tilde’s mother. Henrik approaches Siri to plead his case, saying that Kattis is not who she seems, Malin is becoming increasingly unstable and Hillevi just wants to protect her children. Siri’s guard is up, more than ever, but is it up against the right person? Can she protect everyone? Can she protect herself? And while she is protecting herself, what is she potentially losing? When a group member is killed, all the group members, Siri included, have to set aside their search for peace while the search for a murderer takes precedence. It’s time for old demons to be faced head on.

More Bitter Than Death is a tense, fast-paced read, which I got through in two sittings. However, it is more character-driven and the mystery, although threaded through the story with flashbacks and clinical notes, does feel secondary to the impact of the various events on the characters, particularly Siri. Her vulnerability, explained in Some Kind of Peace, and indecision adds to the tension, skewing her judgment and objectivity. It’s something other characters point out, but Siri cannot accept. She knows she’s indecisive and she knows her personal barriers may impact on her future happiness, but as for her objectivity as a professional, she doesn’t accept that her past continues to have any influence. The twist at the end is hinted at many times, albeit with some well-placed red herrings to deter readers … and the title itself reveals more than first expected.

I suppose the obvious question is whether More Bitter Than Death can be read as a standalone, since it continues the story began in Some Kind of Peace. It can, but you will gain more insight into Siri by reading the first. Grebe and Traff use location well to enhance the chilling themes of their books and, aside from the domestic violence theme, they touch on alcoholism, drug dependency, personality disorders, relationship conflicts and more.

For lovers of crime fiction, especially Scandinavian crime fiction, I’d highly recommend this well-written, edgy read. I’m looking forward to seeing how Siri develops as a character and whether she ever finds that elusive peace.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second in the Swedish crime series featuring psychotherapist Siri Bergman and her best friend and colleague Aina Davidsson.

In this book, Siri and Aina along with their old classmate Vijay collaborate on a domestic abuse study. Siri and Aina are to run a trial self-help group that would be led by professional facilitators. This set-up allows the authors to describe, as part of the narrative, the various manifestations of abuse of women, what it feels like to them, and how they cope (or not) with it during and after it happens. Furthermore, this plot device allows them to speculate on the motivations for such abuse. Is it solely about power and control? Does any of it have to do with love, albeit in a twisted form? What about the role of women? Are they ever complicit, in terms of “asking for it”? How do you determine who is telling the truth in relationship conflicts?

When one of the cases turns deadly, there is a great deal of pressure to find the answers, because the perpetrator remains at large.

Parallel developments in the private lives of the protagonists who work on these cases (not only Siri and Aina but also their colleagues Vijay and Sven), complicate the investigation, because they too are asking questions about the nature of love, and whether the pain it can create is worth the risk.

This is not just a sociological thriller however; it is also very much a psychological thriller, with an increase in tension that doesn’t let up until the very astonishing ending.

Discussion: The authors do an excellent job. I’ve read other Scandinavian crime novels that embrace the topic of domestic violence, but these authors are better in two ways. One, they focus their descriptions on the feelings elicited by what happened rather than the salacious details, which make unpleasant reading in any event. Secondly, they are never didactic, but seamlessly integrate their concerns into the plot.

Evaluation: This series is better than much of the crime fiction coming out of Scandinavia lately. I love being gobsmacked by a crime novel, and this one does not dissapoint me.

I am especially impressed that it is a collaboration of two authors. The writing is always consistent; I would have never known! (Sisters Camilla Grebe and Åsa Träff apparently write these books via email, each writing a chapter and sending it back to the other to continue the story. It should also be noted that Åsa Träff is a psychologist specializing in cognitive behavioral therapy.)

Moreover, unlike much crime fiction, this series would work great for book clubs. Many issues are raised about the nature of crime and punishment, the situation of women, and the nature of love and relationships that will evoke good discussions (as in fact it did for me and my husband while I was reading it!)

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Premier livre que je lis depuis longtemps. J’ai pris beaucoup de plaisir. L’histoire est dès le début attrayante, cela m’a donnée facilement envie de continuer. J’ai été très prise dans l’histoire. En ce qui concerne le dénouement de l’histoire j’ai bien aimée même si j’aurais sûrement préférée une autre fin. Je trouve qu’elle s’est déroulé très rapidement et aurait probablement pue se faire sur une plus longue durée.
C’était vraiment bien dans la globalité

[Shelly Hammond · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was lucky enough to receive an advanced uncorrected proof copy of this book from Goodreads. I’d never read any other books by these authors or in this series so really had no idea at all about what to expect but the creepy cover with the little girl hiding under the table and the rest of the cover pretty much just all blackened out left me incredibly curious so I was very rather pleased to open up the cover and begin reading.

Not being used to reading books from Sweden or that general area, I will admit that I struggled a bit with the names for a little bit at first but it was a really fun struggle. Within a few chapters, the book was like any other, and all the names of the people and places seemed just as common as any other. It was really very cool just getting to read the differences.

As you read, you quickly learn that the little girl is named Tilde and she is the only witness to the beating death of her mother. Problem is, she couldn’t quite see the man who did it as she was under the table drawing. I don’t want to give too much more away about the story from this point on (as per my usual review rule, if you’ve ever read any of my reviews, I like to make you read it for yourself but give just a little bit) but I will add that this book does deal quite a bit with the subject of domestic violence. The authors do a really great job of touching on the subject in a well-informed, well researched, sympathetic way that is tastefully done and that is not at all preachy or over the top. It’s just plainly well written.

I really enjoyed reading this book and am so glad I was able to get my hands on an advanced proof. I enjoyed it so much, I am looking forward to getting more by these authors and I would recommend this to anyone out there who enjoys reading mysteries that are well researched, well written, and delve deep into that which makes a good crime mystery novel.

[Hasini · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uh, this book is pretty hard to give a rating to. It'll be around 7-8 out of 10. I thought it'd be quite a boring book, but for me, it was quite the page turner. Siri is hilarious, her personality is just priceless. She's a psychologist, who is trying to help mentally unstable people, yet she can't seem to help herself. That's all, and the guy who committed the murder was introduced like a 100 pages before the book ended, that was kinda sad, I couldn't guess who it was.

[Katie Lawrence · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a bleak, dark book. It was a struggle to finish this to be honest. If you like books involving abusive relationships, extremely violent murders, depressed or numb characters and mistreated children then this may be up your alley. Personally, I prefer some lightness to my reading and I found this to be really difficult to read.

[Lesley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did not read the first book from these authors but I want to NOW! I did not see the ending coming in this book -though totally makes sense when dealing with domestic violence! This book is not light in nature. It deals with child abuse domestic abuse and gruelsome murderer along with therapists that have their own issues! I was a splendid mystery for me!

[EmilyViolet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good, overall. The psychology angle of it was flawless. And a nice twist at the ending.
Dragged a bit in places though, so I can only give it three stars.

[Anna · Rating 1 out of 5]

No thrill whatsoever :/

[Nikki Mcelman-doucette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read it to the very. Last. Sentence.

[Digby · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too artificial and twee.

[Katriina Mannonen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Päähenkilö Sirin epäammattimaisuus ärsyttää kirjassa. Hieman ennalta-arvattava loppukäänne vaikkakin hyytävä. Aiempi kirja Levoton mieli oli parempi.