The Shadow Woman

Inspector Winter #2

by Åke Edwardson, Per Carlsson (Translation)

The second installment of the internationally best selling Erik Winter series

It's August and the annual Gothenburg Party is in full swing. But this year the bacchanalian blowout is simmering with ethnic discord spurred by nativist gangs. When a woman is found murdered in the park-her identity as inscrutable as the blood-red symbol on the tree above her body-Winter's search for her missing child leads him from sleek McMansions to the Gothenburg fringes, where "northern suburbs" is code for "outsider" and the past is inescapable-even for Sweden's youngest chief inspector. Psychologically gripping and socially astute, The Shadow Woman puts this master of Swedish noir on track to build an American audience on par with his international fame.

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

338 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Åke Edwardson is a Swedish author of detective fiction, and a professor at Gothenburg University, the city where many of his Inspector Winter novels are set. Edwardson has had many jobs, including a journalist and press officer for the United Nations, and his crime novels have made him a three-time winner of the Swedish Crime Writers' Award for best crime novel. His first novel to be translated into English, in 2005, was Sun and Shadow. The second, Never End, followed in 2006.

Series:
* Inspector Winter

Reviews

[Deb Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am thoroughly enjoying the Inspector Erik Winter series of police procedurals set in Sweden. There is a sense of realism there, from the crimes to the setting, but especially to the characters.

Erik Winter, the youngest person ever to become an inspector in the Swedish police, is a multi-dimensional figure, as are many of the other characters in the story. Author Edwardson has him developing over time, both in his personal and professional life.

Each of these books could be read as stand-alones, but the most enjoyment for the reader, IMHO, comes from reading them in order.

[Kasia (kasikowykurz) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Miałam problem z pierwszą częścią, mam też problem z drugą, choć pomiędzy obiema minęły trzy lata, a mój gust czytelniczy wyszedł poza strefę komfortu z 2018 roku. I o ile pierwsza połowa mi się podobała i słuchałam z ciekawością (choć z lektorem raczej się nie polubimy, nie mój typ głosu), to im bliżej końca, tym moje zainteresowanie było mniejsze, a przy ostatnich dwudziestu procentach było mi już wszystko jedno, co się zdarzy.

Nie przeszkadza mi, kiedy w kryminale nie ma seryjnych morderców i krew się nie leje strumieniami, inne gatunki też lubię, ale w tym wypadku nie wiem gdzie dokładnie leży problem, bo ja nie wiem dokładnie o czym ta książka miała być. Gdzieś w trakcie albo zgubiłam wątek. Nie wiem, czy to wina samej książki, czy tłumaczenia, czy wizji autora, ale nie wciągnął mnie w swój świat na tyle, żebym potrafiła do końca powiedzieć, co tu się zadziało.

Śmieszne jest to, że sama sprawa była spoko, podobał mi się ten wątek, ale wykonanie już nie bardzo. I w przypadku takich długich serii zawsze mam problem. Bo skoro wyszło tyle tomów i autor chętnie publikuje, co znaczy że ludzie to lubią prawda? I nie wiem, czy próbować dalej, bo może to po prostu dany tom i dana sprawa mi nie leży, czy jednak odpuścić i dać sobie spokój (może za kolejne trzy lata? :D)

[Megan Baxter · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's difficult to tell what the main problem with this book is - the prose, or the translation. It could be either. Or both. But either way, in English, this book is clunky. The prose is distracting and frequently uses turns of phrase that make me shake my head. (Someone could see the headache? Through your skull? As opposed to just noticing that you were acting like you had a headache?) It's so devoid of elegance or grace. It's just stiff.

Note: The rest of this review has been withheld due to the recent changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.

In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook

[Juliana Philippa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable Swedish mystery - wonderful characters and an interesting plot with great twists and turns

I read my first Åke Edwardson book, Death Angels , a couple of weeks ago, and while I loved the characters and thought the plot was well-done, the delivery of it all and conclusion/explanation definitely fell short for me. That book is in the first in Edwardson's Inspector Erik Winter series, and since there were so many things I liked about it, I decided to try the second one before making my mind up about the author.

Verdict: I'm so glad that I did! The Shadow Woman had all the positives of Death Angels - great mystery and wonderful characters - while missing the negatives - feeling completely out of the loop and an abrupt ending. Winter is wonderful and I loved him just as much as I did before; his team appears again in this book and is just as well-written. I am predicting a romance between two of the characters and keeping my fingers crossed that it happens, because it would definitely be an "opposites attract" situation.

Best of all, of course, is that the mystery is actually a good one! One of my Goodreads updates halfway through was: "This book might have an amazing and mind-bending plot ... I'm still too confused to be sure." Having now finished the book, I can happily tell you that it did indeed have some terrific twists and turns - some that I started to guess towards the end and others that caught me *completely* off guard! Edwardson makes the reader just confused enough to make it interesting and keep you guessing, while leaving enough hints to make you eager to read on and see if what you're piecing together might be right. As with Death Angels we're given different POVs throughout the book, though Winter's is the main one. This includes the victim(s)' and perpetrator(s)', though these are obviously quite obscure and don't always make sense when you read them, gaining new meaning as you get further in the story.

I do have to say that I am still not completely sure I understand why the female victim did what she did when she did it (I'm referring to the actions that precipitate her death), but I have a feeling that may be something in terms of detail that was lost in translation. It is laid out for us, but I was nonetheless left with a few questions.

Having developed a little reader's crush on Winter and not being completely in love with his girlfriend, the only thing that's keeping me from wanting to read the other books is that I know from summaries that their relationship gets increasingly serious. When we start the series, Winter is dating Angela, yet still getting postcards from other girlfriends and considering sleeping with other women. We rarely see her and when we do, it almost always involves them having sex and sometimes includes a minor conversation, so I think it's no wonder that I don't really feel a connection with her. She's somewhat of a flat character and slightly boring.

Winter's sister and parents have roughly the same on-page time as Angela, however they all come off as three-dimensional characters. There's a tension between Winter and his father that is as-yet unexplained, though we're getting more info with each successive book.

On to the next in the series!

Chief Inspector Erik Winter Series
(As of May 2011, only books 1-5 have been translated into English)
Book 1 - Death Angels
Book 2 - The Shadow Woman
Book 3 - Sun and Shadow
Book 4 - Never End
Book 5 - Frozen Tracks
Book 6 - Segel aus Stein
Book 7 - Zimmer Nr. 10.
Book 8 - Vänaste land
Book 9 - Nästan död man
Book 10 - Den sista vintern

NOTE: I do think this is one of those series that doesn't have to be read in order, but is more enjoyable if you do.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

During Sweden's outdoor summer Gothenburg Party, an undercover policewoman is attacked. In the middle of the August heat, a dead woman is found in a local park with no identification.

This is police procedural at its best. As with some crimes that take place, there are no immediate clues and it is only through the tenacious investigations by a determined homicide team who broaden their search to all directions, even grasping sometimes at the most fragile leads.

The author brings us into the world of Chief Inspector Erik Winter. Even with the identification of the dead woman seemingly leading nowhere, he still has a colleague in hospital, the victim of a brutal attack, and a shooting that takes place, also at the Gothenburg Party. The situations that take his attention away from the dead woman's investigations aren't placed as red herrings, but, I think, more as somewhat subtle sociological statements on the effects of immigration in Sweden, and to strike a more realistic note in the novel, the note being that most crime squads do not have the luxury of only working on one case at a time, but have to juggle multiple unconnected cases.

This is not a fast-paced thriller with a lot of action, so I'd recommend this only to readers who enjoy a slow, gradual and detailed look at peeling back layers of clues, and finding the connections between the past and the present.

[Michael L Wilkerson (Papa Gray Wolf) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember my daughter as a toddler, blond hair, mostly straight but with just a bit of poof to it, a wit far beyond her years, mostly unintentional, a love for Ariel and most other things Disney. And when I read this book, the loneliness, the fear that this little girl felt I cried.

This, the second book by Edwardson I've read, the first being the initial novel with Erik Winter, Death Angels, confirms what I felt about the first; Edwardson is damn good! I will add the next in the series - Sun and Shadow - in my TO BUY list

A corpse of a woman, around 30, is found lying in a ditch, discarded as if trash. No identification and no one is calling in a missing persons report that resembles her. The autopsy shows no sign of sexual assault but it does reveal that she has given birth.

And so begins the quest to identify her and then her killer and to find a child. Thus begins a twisted tale that takes Winter to various parts of the west coast of Sweden; the coast itself, farmlands, the forests and even to Denmark to investigate a bank robbery from some 25 years back that went unsolved.

This journey weighs heavily on Winter's mind as he has become obsessed with the murdered woman and her child, a daughter around 4 or 5 years old. Also, his girlfriend is pressuring him to make a bigger commitment of their relationship and both his sister and his mother are pressuring him to become more involved in family.

The group of detectives under Winter's command is diverse; a Swedish born black woman; a pig headed, though good detective, semi racist; several senior members who are considerably older than Winter who is their superior.

Amidst all of the confusion of an investigation that seems at times to go nowhere are an attack on one of his detectives which leaves her with a broken jaw and a shoot out among possible rival biker gangs where a uniformed officer was severely wounded.

As complex of a story the Edwardson has written, he has made it more than intriguing. It was difficult at times to put down. . . so I usually didn't.

I'm not sure what it is about Scandinavian mysteries and cop shop novels that makes me enjoy them so but I do. I've enjoyed Icelandic novels, several from Norway (Jo Nesbo is fantastic) and of course, Sweden. I look forward to many more.

[Michael Martz · Rating 3 out of 5]

The 2nd novel in Ake Edwardson's Winter series is a decent procedural with a unexpected twist at the conclusion that illustrates the importance of the forensic tools now available to law enforcement. As a translation, the prose has its ups and downs, but it's a solid effort that moves slowly for awhile but picks up steam later.

Erik Winter, star of the series, is a 'hip' (he listens to American music! and he has long hair!) young (youngest detective ever!) Swedish inspector with a reputation as a brilliant investigator but sort of a lone wolf. He's unmarried but has a beautiful girlfriend who's putting pressure on him to solidify the relationship. The main plot of 'The Shadow Woman' involves the discovery of the body of a young woman in a ditch in a local park. The police are able to put together very little information about her since she carried no identification, but are at least able to determine that she'd had a child, she was approximately 30 years old, she wasn't killed at her final resting spot, and she was strangled. That's it. The initial 200 or so pages of The Shadow Woman is Winter and his cohorts running the playbook on how to determine identity to no avail. No one appears to be looking for her, no one has reported her missing, and apparently nobody, other than the police, cares. Finally, a small break appears when an old woman comes forth with information about a mother and child that lived near her that haven't been seen lately and the race is on. The police finally determine her name, but the child is still missing and, even more importantly, they have no idea who killed her or why.

Detective Winter is a fine lead character and his interactions as he tries to maintain some sort of normal life outside of his investigative work are the keys to understanding him. The plot is nicely done and it was interesting to see the challenges faced by the police to identify the victim- apparently pretty rare these days. The pace is slow throughout the first half as Winter et al struggle to find anything at all to help them, but the momentum clearly shifts after their break and it races to the conclusion.

[Ppeva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vannak könyvek, amiket kifejezetten bosszantónak és időpocsékolónak éreznék magyarul olvasva. Ebben az esetben is jótékony hatása volt a német nyelvnek, bár eredetileg nem németül íródott. Csak hát részben nem tudok svédül, részben meg így pottyant ez a könyv az ölembe.
Nem találkoztam még korábban "Sparbuch"-hal, eddig csak a szó "takarékbetétkönyv" jelentését ismertem. De ez itt egy "takarékos" vagy "öko" könyv – újrahasznosított papírra nyomtatva, szürke-fekete borítóval. Teljesen megfelelt így, ahogy volt, nem hiányzott, hogy fel legyen turbózva. Ez amúgy is afféle egyszer használatos könyv.
Kicsit elégedetlenkedtem, hogy annyira lassan csordogált a cselekmény, de végül szépen hátradőltem azzal a tudattal, hogy nem sietek sehova. A végére érve az volt a legnagyobb bajom a könyvvel, hogy túl sok szál nyúlt vissza a huszonévvel korábbi múltba, és volt benne néhány logikai bukkanó, valamint pár teljesen hihetetlen megoldás, pl. lebontották a későbbi években felrakott tapétarétege(ke)t a falról, és találtak az alsó rétegen néhány ujjlenyomatot..
A skandináv krimiknél megszokott módon ez is tartalmazott jócskán társadalmi problémákat. Nem gondoltam volna, hogy míg az 1990-es évek végén Svédországban a menekültek jelentik az egyik legfontosabb problémát, Dániában viszont főként az egymással rivalizáló motoros bandák (a Pokol Angyalai dán „ágazatai") – valamint a svédek… :) Mármint a hordákban átruccanó, szinte kizárólag eszméletvesztéses berúgásra "utazó” svéd turisták.

[Toni Osborne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Book # 2, in Inspector Erik Winter series and book #5 in the English version

The order in which this series is translated in English is quite bizarre but don’t let this concern you this is a decent police procedural, intricately constructed and stuffed with details of crime investigations (way too much in my books). Most of all, this mystery stands on its own, no worries if you start here.

In a prose that is bleak, Mr. Edwardson takes as its backdrop the Biker War in Sweden in the mid-1990 however he only mentions this in the opening pages. As the tradition imposes the story opens with the discovery of a woman’s body and the following pages are taken up with Winter and his colleagues investigation into her identity and solving the murder. Their efforts are slow, excruciating slow, minutia details, pages after pages of boring discussions, interrogations, etc.…. As the story plods along there are talks about illegal immigrants, relations between Swedes and Danes and some personal anecdotes. We need persistence to be rewarded. Mr. Edwardson does come through in his own time but far too late for my enjoyment. With its stilted dialogue, choppy narrative, plot twists that are hard to follow and a story without charismatic characters, I would describe “The Shadow Woman” as a lackluster installment to this series and by far not my preferred.

Having said this, I will nevertheless see what “Sail of Stone” has in store for me….one day…

[J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rather than the publisher's blurb-description above, (which seems to want to dial up some tabloid-style racial violence to splash on the book's back cover), Åke Edwardson's mystery is more about detection in and of itself. The ways the investigators may use to investigate, and the way crime gets brought to light.

Which is kind of a shame. First, obviously, for the reader who just wants some sensational race-baiting conflict, but also for those who might actually be after what's present in the real novel itself. "Simmering with ethnic discord" ..? Well, no, not so much. A little, maybe, as there are some tremors of racial intolerance in the book. But there is probably as much about the weather as there is about ethnic discord. (Maybe this is one of those national-border things, where the home country's edition is truthfully described, but anything goes once it's a foreign edition. Out of sight, out of mind, now with tabloid additives.)

The book itself uses classic, tight Police Procedural methods in the early chapters; a nearly perfect mystery in structural terms is laid out very carefully, at first. The main conflict in the story begins to emerge only halfway through, as we witness the clockwork mechanism of the investigators ticking through its paces. What begins to gain hold is the opposite of the 'procedural' methods-- that flash of the old Holmesian inspiration, which defies logic in the clockwork sense of police work, but nudges the investigator toward glimpses of a new understanding.

It is maybe the very clinical strictness of the early going that offers the reader a shock, a moment of double-take, when the detective takes the occasional unforeseen left turn in his quest. What was once an admirable tenacity in sticking to procedure becomes a wild goose chase, at least to the outside observer; the story is constructed well enought that the reader knows otherwise.

There is a problem that is general to most mysteries, and that is with Plausibility; it is no better than 50/50 that readers will be able to accept the average detective's leaps of imagination. The Holmes model was an excercise in straining that acceptance to the last, unravelling thread. Åke Edwardson's model is different, first setting up narrow definitions for the narrative that must somehow confront the more chaotic, intuitive approach, as he arranges to bring it in. And it's not without humor:

"It's often been shown that the choice of location is not random. A murderer selects his spot."
"I agree with you. I think."
"We have to ask ourselves why she was put there. Why she was lying at Delsjö Lake. Then, why at that particular end of the lake--"
"Proximity to the road," Beier interjected.
"Maybe. Then we have to ask ourselves why she was lying exactly in that spot. Not five yards this way or that."
"You really go in for the mise-en-scène."
"The mise-en-scène involves movement; it's the opposite of standing still."
"That was beautifully put," Beier said.

Good characters, well rendered atmosphere, and no tabloid content. Very near to four stars.
I'll be looking for other titles from Mr. Edwardson; as good as he is here with the continuing-detective, I hope he does stand-alone titles, which are generally a much better test of the author's talents.

[Maddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

PROTAGONIST: Erik Winter, chief inspector
SETTING: Gothenberg, Sweden
SERIES: #2 of 11
RATING: 3.25

The stereotypical view of Sweden paints it as a place of calm and peacefulness. The truth of the matter is that it is a place that is in a state of unrest. Places such as Gothenberg are experiencing unprecedented violence and instances of gang warfare. In fact, one of Gothenberg’s police officers, Aneta Djanali, who is black, is severely injured by three men at the annual Gothenberg Party. And then an unidentified woman is found in a nearby park, murdered and mutilated. An autopsy reveals that she had borne a child.

Chief Inspector Erik Winter is called back from vacation to lead the investigation. It’s a time consuming task to identify the woman. Always foremost in his mind is the child, who was likely kidnapped at the time of the murder. As time passes on, he is certain that she has been killed as well. Eerily, the investigation reveals that the victim, Helene, had experienced a traumatic event as a child and that her child is now living through almost the exact same scenario.

I have become a huge fan of Scandinavian fiction in the past few years, and I really wanted to like THE SHADOW WOMAN more than I did. To me, Ake Edwardson is a competent writer but doesn’t rise to the level of a Jo Nesbo or Asa Larsson. The pace of the book was slow, and there were no action-filled moments or dramatic suspense to pump it up. The plot was complicated and confusing. It was frequently unclear whether what was happening was in the past or the present. I was often lost and found myself dissatisfied with the denouement. However, several of the characters were well developed, notably Aneta’s partner and an older woman who reports on the disappearance of Helene and her child.

At thirty-seven, Erik Winter is the youngest chief inspector in the Gothenberg district in Sweden. In this book, he seems much older than that, although he is struggling with the idea of making a commitment to his long-time girlfriend who is anxious to start a family. As I read, I kept awaiting a revelation that would explain why Winter was promoted at such a young age. I never really saw anything that made him dramatically stand out from those around him.

THE SHADOW WOMAN is the second in the Erik Winter series, although it is the fifth of the eleven series books to be published in English. Edwardson is a 3-time winner of the Swedish Crime Writers’ Award for best crime novel.

[Dorrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second book in Inspector Eric Winter's series, and it was just as compelling as the first one. A woman is murdered and her identity is unknown. No one claims to recognize her, and it is as if she had never existed. What I find so intriguing about Ake Edwardson's books is the way he foreshadows the action by going into the victims' heads before (and sometimes during) the crime is committed. We feel the victims' fear and anxiety, but we are not sure exactly what is happening to them. Edwardson goes into everyone's thoughts in his books, and that serves to round out all the characters--even the most minor of them. It's fascinating to know what everyone thinks of everyone else and to be privy to knowledge that other characters do not possess.

[Bondama · Rating 4 out of 5]

After finishing "Jar City", my sister loaned me the next book in the series,
Shadow Woman" - which I have to say, I liked even better - Ake Edwardson is brilliant at plot, in particular. I do have to say that the unusual plethora of unfamiliar names and places are difficult for this poor American! But, especially if the book is being listened to, soon becomes very familiar.

Please do not let the fact that this book is from Iceland - I sometimes think that we Americans tend to read books who were originally written in English. But we're missing out, folks - My sister's discovery of the Scandinavian wealth of books is just such an example. A lot of us read the Steig Larsson books, but stopped there. There's a LOT more than one writer turning out exciting, literate, thrillers!

[Inga · Rating 4 out of 5]

Als eine unidentifizierte Frauenleiche auftaucht, muss Winter tief in der Vergangenheit graben, um die komplizierten Zusammenhänge von damals und heute aufzuklären. Es hat seine Gründe, warum kaum jemand die Frau kennt, aber sie hatte eine Tochter und Winter setzt alle seine Anstrengungen daran, das Kind zu finden.

Auch in Die Schattenfrau ist es ein interessantes Rätsel, das Winter in seiner besonderen Art versucht, zu entschlüsseln. Der Leser wird auf mehrere Umwege geführt, dabei flacht die Spannung aber niemals ab.

Eben dadurch besticht Åke Edwardson als Krimiautor: Ein guter Plot, interessante Charaktere (Haupt- und Nebenfiguren) und eine sorgfältig konstruierte Spannungskurve. Funktioniert.

[Kay Robart · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven’t been reading Åke Edwardson’s Erik Winter mysteries in order, making the private lives of the recurring characters a little difficult to follow. The books keep my interest and provide complex puzzles, but I still don’t feel like I get much insight into the personalities of the main characters. The slower pace of Edwardson’s police procedurals is probably more realistic than the speed with which crimes are usually solved in fiction, but the author’s ability to effectively build suspense is also affected by this pace.

See my complete review here:

http://whatmeread.wordpress.com/tag/t...

[Peter Holland · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good police procedural that keeps you guessing up until the last page. Erik Winter is a dogged DI who sticks with the perplexing case long after others might have filed it away. The 2nd book in this series.

[sslyb · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book confusing. Not only was the plot twisted there was too much hinted at. There was neither an explanation nor enough characterization drawn to understand motivation. 3 stars is generous. It's the author's second book in the Erik Winter series. I hope the books get better.

[Larissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Review here: http://reviewingtheevidence.com/revie...

[Marianne V · Rating 3 out of 5]

Une bonne histoire, l'intrigue est super intéressante, on accroche... mais les dialogues sont durs à suivre (aucune idée si c'est à cause de la traduction ou si c'est la même chose dans la version originale, ne parlant pas suédois), souvent j'ai dû revenir en arrière pour comprendre qui parlait, et parfois je doutais encore. Faut dire qu'il y a beaucoup de personnages (avec des noms suédois qui ne sont pas communs pour nous francophones) et qu'on ne connaît que la plupart en surface, donc c'est aussi mélangeant sur ce coup-là. Aussi, la troisième partie m'a parue "garrochée" un peu, autant pendant tout le reste du roman on suit pas à pas tous les éléments de l'enquête, là j'ai eu l'impression que l'auteur a sorti une couple d'éléments de son chapeau pour arriver à dénouer l'enquête, éléments assez faibles en plus. Ça crée certaines incompréhensions et déceptions par rapport à la finale. Heureusement, je l'ai lu à la plage, en vacances, alors je dirais que dans le contexte c'est une bonne lecture divertissante, mais ça ne passera pas à l'histoire comme roman disons.

[Sonja van der Westhuizen | West Words]

Over the past two years, I've read quite a wide selection of Scandinavian authors and even if some are better than others, there's a consistent standard and I've finished and enjoyed all of them. Unfortunately, The Shadow Woman became the exception.

It's extremely hard for me not to finish a book I started, to the point of dragging myself through hundreds of pages just to get it done. I stopped reading Ake Edwardson's Shadow Woman around 50 pages in and just couldn't endure anymore. Don't get me wrong, this might be purely a matter of taste or an aversion to Edwardson's style, but the dialogue is clumsy and repetitive. "Show, don't tell" does not exist here. Everything is told, more than once, yet it doesn't add anything interesting to the storyline. This leads to pages and pages where nothing happens and there's zero momentum or suspense.

I'm not sure if this awkwardness was caused by the translator or if this is Edwardson's style. I might try another of his novels, translated by someone else, just to compare.

[Marsha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This second in the Inspector Winter mysteries was very well written, almost literary in style. I don't know what it is about Swedish mysteries that fascinate me so - perhaps it's the different society, perhaps it's the brooding, angst-ridden detectives. Whatever attracts me keeps me coming back for more and Erik Winter is no exception.
The mystery itself was well plotted and dealt with a child in trouble - both in the past and in the present. The characters are well rounded and interesting - sometimes dangerously so.
What I really liked was the language of Erik's thoughts. The author has a lyrical style that raises his novels above the level of mere mystery.

[Wendy Feltham · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well-written detective novel set in Goteborg, Sweden, with a charismatic long-haired detective leading the murder investigation. The plot was well-crafted, not too outrageous, with interesting twists and turns. I'm not sure I kept everyone straight in the homicide department, and wished I'd made notes as each character was introduced. Inspector Winter is an unusual fellow, with his music, his intense focus on details during the investigation, his connections with his sister, parents, and girlfriend. I enjoyed this novel, a different genre than I normally seek, and it took my mind off the catastrophe our world is currently facing. I would like to read more in this series.

[Merrilie Rowley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an excellent read and I am looking forward to reading more in this series. I particularly liked Inspector Winter and I am sure that his character will develop further in later books. The plot was original and well constructed with Gothenburg providing a scenic backdrop. My only criticism was I thought some of the translator's language didn't always quite do the job - there were some words that were very clunky. It will be interesting to see if there will be a different translator in later books.

[Hans Brienesse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another from one of the Scandinavian masters. Great plotline that keeps one guessing till the last page. I like this author for the reflections of today's society and life that he imparts to his novels. Again, you feel as if you are sitting on Winter's shoulder as he navigates the complexities of everyday humdrum life as well as twisted cases.Well crafted and well worth reading. Five stars for this one.

[Susan Springer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing that Inspector Winter #2 isn't nearly as good as the first. This is a long, confusing
investigation about the discovery of a dead woman, which is tied to a bank robbery in Denmark more
than 25 yrs. ago. There is a double disappearance of a woman and her daughter, and that daughter
and her own daughter. No wonder they had trouble solving the case!

[AV AV · Rating 3 out of 5]

Veel karakters, daarbij een tweetal karakters die ook nog eens elkaars spiegelbeeld zijn maar dan elk in hun eigen tijd. Verwarrend. Het kan aan de vertaling liggen, maar het leest niet soepel.
Ook is bij deze auteur goed onderscheid te maken tussen tekst die de sfeer tekent en de tekst die het verhaal maakt. Te weinig vloeiend in elkaar lopend. Zal ik een volgend deel lezen?

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

It felt like in the first half of the book nothing happened. The second part was definitely more of a page turner. I found the conclusion somehow unsatisfying. It's definitely written well as opposed to some other crime novels (even in its German translation).

[LELLA RIBEZZI · Rating 2 out of 5]

Esiste un tempo per tutto , anche per leggere un libro che fatichi a finire , ma la legge del vero lettore è quella di portarlo a termine . la critica non mi appartiene nei riguardi dello scrittore perché scrivere un libro comporta un grande lavoro e demolire il lavoro altrui non fa parte di me.

[Debra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an interesting storyline and it took a lot to get going as far as looking in the right direction in this murder mystery. I wasn't always sure of what was going on at times, but it all came together. The ending was great.

[Dokusha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wieder ein verzwickter Kriminalfall, der Winter dieses Mal unter anderem nach Dänemark führt und dessen Ursprünge Jahrzehnte in der Vergangenheit liegen.
Und wieder tue ich mit mit Edwardsons Stil schwer. Er schreibt eigentlich gut, aber irgendwie kommen wir nicht ganz zusammen.