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Christian Tell #1
Frozen Moment: 'A good psychological crime novel that will appeal to fans of Wallander and Stieg Larsson' CHOICE
When Ake Melkersson's car breaks down, he goes to a nearby garage. However, as he approaches it he realises something is wrong. The owner of the garage lies dead, sprawled on the ground, his lower body crushed where a car has repeatedly driven over him. The murder investigation is led by Inspector Christian Tell.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
49 people are currently reading
936 people want to read
About the author
Camilla Ceder
14 books26 followersCamilla Ceder is a Swedish social worker and author.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 63 reviews
January 12, 2015
You would never know from Nordic mysteries that the Scandinavian countries rate highly on the lists of the world's happiest countries! There are more unhappy marriages, failed love affairs, psychologically fragile or unbalanced people, and miserable work careers per page that you can shake a stick at.
Mind you, my sister works at a court house here in Alberta--she tells me that no one EVER comes to the court house for a happy reason and that they have a lot of "frequent flyers" who she now knows by sight and can recount their rap-sheets. I imagine that working as a homicide detective would entail the same limitations--you are never dealing with a happy family and there will be some unhappy facts to face.
This first novel from Ceder seems to be a study in the many ways that a person can be lonely. Have a job that takes up too much of your time and attention to the detriment of your relationships? Have a mental illness that causes even your children to hate you? Have an abusive background that has warped your life in significant ways? Welcome to Frozen Moment, we have a character for you.
Two parallel stories play out as the novel progresses, encouraging the reader to figure out how they intersect. The interplay between present and past is tantalizing and keeps the pages turning even as the stereotypical homicide detective navigates his way through the crime scene and investigation. As usual in Scandinavian fiction, there is tension between the male & female members of the police force and tension between genetic Scandinavians and immigrants.
I will be very interested to read the further adventures of Christian Tell.
Mind you, my sister works at a court house here in Alberta--she tells me that no one EVER comes to the court house for a happy reason and that they have a lot of "frequent flyers" who she now knows by sight and can recount their rap-sheets. I imagine that working as a homicide detective would entail the same limitations--you are never dealing with a happy family and there will be some unhappy facts to face.
This first novel from Ceder seems to be a study in the many ways that a person can be lonely. Have a job that takes up too much of your time and attention to the detriment of your relationships? Have a mental illness that causes even your children to hate you? Have an abusive background that has warped your life in significant ways? Welcome to Frozen Moment, we have a character for you.
Two parallel stories play out as the novel progresses, encouraging the reader to figure out how they intersect. The interplay between present and past is tantalizing and keeps the pages turning even as the stereotypical homicide detective navigates his way through the crime scene and investigation. As usual in Scandinavian fiction, there is tension between the male & female members of the police force and tension between genetic Scandinavians and immigrants.
I will be very interested to read the further adventures of Christian Tell.
September 20, 2013
Book Review
Imagine you are a 14th century artist. Your chickens are pecking around outside and you've harvested a few eggs. You carry the eggs to your studio. Then you crack an egg, carefully cull the egg yolk from the egg white, being careful not to puncture the thin membrane keeping it together. You carefully pierce the yolk and allow it to drain into a ceramic container. You've ground your pigment to a fine powder and carefully create a mixture comprised of water, yolk and pigment powder. You have before you the gesso'd board and begin painting, taking excruciating hours to finely hone the image made up of egg tempera. Days later, it is done and you dry the image for a few weeks. You view your progress in northern light, in sun light, in the light of an oil lamp. You stand back, you move forward, changing your perspective often. Following this, all the while building the final image up in your mind first, barely able to sleep while you are fastened to the gesso board, you glaze the egg tempera under painting so it can accept oil paints. The process is meticulous, intriguing, slow but steady. The glaze dries, you carefully sand away any dust that has settled and now you begin applying very thin glazes of transparent oils, glazing each layer before you begin the next transparent layer. Months later, the painting is done, brilliant, like an old Kodachrome slide. Durable (it'll last centuries because of the meticulous process). The painting is part of you...forever.
This is what reading a Camilla Ceder novel is like. The materials lie before you: a crime, rural settings, various people, and psychological motivations. It is up to you to put the pieces together. The pages are voluminous. A thin image of what the result is like is placed at the beginning: the crime. You meet a person and you apply the brush of knowledge and motivations to them...one at a time, carefully, not too fast, multi-layered, if you will. You paint in the background with a hint of chilling mystical physical qualities. You play with time, with cause and effect, allowing each layer of the novel to dry before moving on to the next. You are a scientist posing as a policeman and you give yourself the name of Christian Tell. You are an artist parasitically inserting yourself inside Maya, inside Seja, and inside Caroline and you paint these women with quite different colors, pigments you have ground yourself from very different sources and place them next to each other in the painting. You are Ake Melkersson, the stranger who stumbles across a man's body behind a barn, an intense, shocking experience that causes you to step back from the painting and shudder. And as the first exposition and characterizations are laid down as foundation, you have a good idea of what the painting will look like. But that is not what is important. What is important is that you are wholly engaged in the meticulous process of constructing the painting. This is Camilla Ceder...at work.
Gothenburg, Sweden
The first in the Christian Tell series, Frozen Moment brings to readers the work of a newcomer on the Scandinavian crime writer front: Camilla Ceder. Ceder's story takes place in and around the desolate areas surrounding the town of Gothenburg, Sweden. It begins, characteristically with a crime. But, this is so much more than a cime novel. This is a story of social breakdown. Undeniably, Scandinavian writers are obsessed with the meltdown that occurs between parents and their children, and consequently the horrors that take place between these lost children who are given a welfare state as parents. It is a story of psychopaths that emerge from state sponsorship and deviant fathers and mothers. It is a story of jealousy, cowardice, and hapless neglect and you give it the name Sebastian. It is a story of utter loneliness in a frozen landscape patrolled by Christian Tell, our enigmatic detective called out to the initial crime scene. What he discovers is the body of a man shot in the head and then flattened repeatedly by an overweight automobile until every bone in the victim's body is crushed (not a plot spoiler, the story begins as such). And the first thing Tell asks himself is: why? And so we enter the realm of Camilla Ceder. Asking why, is the reason she became a crime author.
If you are comfortable with a slow burn. If you are patient and enjoy reading people, and find yourself interested in the means to an end, than this book is for you. Camilla will paint for you an exquisite painting.
Enjoy!
--------------------------------------------
Series Review
My interest in Scandinavian crime fiction really got started as I began reading Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole series. I'd heard of Nesbo but never gave the books a second thought, considered him to be "translated" crime fiction and let's face it, I was at the time delving through various American crime and thriller authors that just never end. Who was this guy? An economist? An upfront man for the band Di Derre? And now a writer? Nesbo stopped me dead in my tracks.
Nesbo's band Di Derre
I'd never really read any crime fiction from this region of the world. All I really knew about Scandinavia is that supposedly, it's a region that's been fairly successful in implementing democratic socialism and its inevitable resultant welfare state. Scandinavians I imagined were tall, blond, sexually enlightened, peaceful, not prone to crime, and progressive towards many societal aspects with which the rest of the world continually struggles.
That was a while back. Since then I've been on a very interesting journey, just baby steps at this point - a journey that has taken me back to the sixties with Per and Maj's 10 police procedural series featuring Martin Beck, fast forwarding to the nineties where I encountered Henning's Wallander series and Hoeg's Smilla's Sense of Snow and his troubling Borderliners, and again fast forwarding a few decades to this relative newcomer on the Scandinavian crime scene: Camilla Ceder.
Camilla Ceder
I am in the grip of these writers, under their thumb, so to speak. They are making hand gestures, tempting me, inviting me for a behind the scenes look at this supposedly benevolent Scandinavian mirage I've upheld all these years: inviting me not towards a benevolent lightness of being but into the dark abyss that lies behind the facade.
What I've discovered is that there are essentially two kinds of crime writers in Sweden. The first concentrates the novel in the more populated southern and central portion of the country, often eschewing the far north and it's lonely frozen wooded landscapes, if not the more desolate shorelines. Crime and urbanity seem to go hand-in-hand with these writers. The prose is more of a police procedural, with external perspectives, stylistically "harder", and linear with less dialogue than perhaps what we as Americans have come to expect. And then there are the writers who set their novels in the more rural and sparsely populated settings, lending a decidedly chill atmosphere to the stories (the Swedish have an almost mystical attitude towards wooded areas and trees). Camilla Ceder is a writer that almost certainly belongs in this second group, at least where it concerns her first novel (her novels are primarily set in the social and mental mechanisms of Gothenburg).
But, let's let Ceder speak:
"I am unquestionably influenced by my environment. [...] My books are set in different locations. The first book took place almost entirely in rural areas, while my second book was largely set in a city environment. I think that in many cases the Scandinavian crime novel has psychosocial undertones in which it is possible to highlight the loneliness and vulnerability of individuals within our society, a society which has otherwise been depicted (at least in part) as a prosperous utopia, an ideal society."
As a social worker herself (she's not entirely abandoned her "day job") the stories Ceder concocts are often multi-layered studies of human motivations. What interests Ceder is not the discovery of who committed the crime - in fact, in one sense there are few surprises in her novels - but to study the cause and effect as seen from different perspectives. To say that her novels are in this sense "substantial" would be an understatement.
"As for the motivation of my characters, my particular area when I write is often discerning people's reasons for the things they do. Why we do what we do, how we choose to deal with our lives and why; communication, interpersonal relations - these things are crucial. My interest in the factors that push a person into committing violent acts is actually what made me choose to write crime fiction."
Imagine you are a 14th century artist. Your chickens are pecking around outside and you've harvested a few eggs. You carry the eggs to your studio. Then you crack an egg, carefully cull the egg yolk from the egg white, being careful not to puncture the thin membrane keeping it together. You carefully pierce the yolk and allow it to drain into a ceramic container. You've ground your pigment to a fine powder and carefully create a mixture comprised of water, yolk and pigment powder. You have before you the gesso'd board and begin painting, taking excruciating hours to finely hone the image made up of egg tempera. Days later, it is done and you dry the image for a few weeks. You view your progress in northern light, in sun light, in the light of an oil lamp. You stand back, you move forward, changing your perspective often. Following this, all the while building the final image up in your mind first, barely able to sleep while you are fastened to the gesso board, you glaze the egg tempera under painting so it can accept oil paints. The process is meticulous, intriguing, slow but steady. The glaze dries, you carefully sand away any dust that has settled and now you begin applying very thin glazes of transparent oils, glazing each layer before you begin the next transparent layer. Months later, the painting is done, brilliant, like an old Kodachrome slide. Durable (it'll last centuries because of the meticulous process). The painting is part of you...forever.
This is what reading a Camilla Ceder novel is like. The materials lie before you: a crime, rural settings, various people, and psychological motivations. It is up to you to put the pieces together. The pages are voluminous. A thin image of what the result is like is placed at the beginning: the crime. You meet a person and you apply the brush of knowledge and motivations to them...one at a time, carefully, not too fast, multi-layered, if you will. You paint in the background with a hint of chilling mystical physical qualities. You play with time, with cause and effect, allowing each layer of the novel to dry before moving on to the next. You are a scientist posing as a policeman and you give yourself the name of Christian Tell. You are an artist parasitically inserting yourself inside Maya, inside Seja, and inside Caroline and you paint these women with quite different colors, pigments you have ground yourself from very different sources and place them next to each other in the painting. You are Ake Melkersson, the stranger who stumbles across a man's body behind a barn, an intense, shocking experience that causes you to step back from the painting and shudder. And as the first exposition and characterizations are laid down as foundation, you have a good idea of what the painting will look like. But that is not what is important. What is important is that you are wholly engaged in the meticulous process of constructing the painting. This is Camilla Ceder...at work.
Gothenburg, Sweden
The first in the Christian Tell series, Frozen Moment brings to readers the work of a newcomer on the Scandinavian crime writer front: Camilla Ceder. Ceder's story takes place in and around the desolate areas surrounding the town of Gothenburg, Sweden. It begins, characteristically with a crime. But, this is so much more than a cime novel. This is a story of social breakdown. Undeniably, Scandinavian writers are obsessed with the meltdown that occurs between parents and their children, and consequently the horrors that take place between these lost children who are given a welfare state as parents. It is a story of psychopaths that emerge from state sponsorship and deviant fathers and mothers. It is a story of jealousy, cowardice, and hapless neglect and you give it the name Sebastian. It is a story of utter loneliness in a frozen landscape patrolled by Christian Tell, our enigmatic detective called out to the initial crime scene. What he discovers is the body of a man shot in the head and then flattened repeatedly by an overweight automobile until every bone in the victim's body is crushed (not a plot spoiler, the story begins as such). And the first thing Tell asks himself is: why? And so we enter the realm of Camilla Ceder. Asking why, is the reason she became a crime author.
If you are comfortable with a slow burn. If you are patient and enjoy reading people, and find yourself interested in the means to an end, than this book is for you. Camilla will paint for you an exquisite painting.
Enjoy!
--------------------------------------------
Series Review
My interest in Scandinavian crime fiction really got started as I began reading Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole series. I'd heard of Nesbo but never gave the books a second thought, considered him to be "translated" crime fiction and let's face it, I was at the time delving through various American crime and thriller authors that just never end. Who was this guy? An economist? An upfront man for the band Di Derre? And now a writer? Nesbo stopped me dead in my tracks.
Nesbo's band Di Derre
I'd never really read any crime fiction from this region of the world. All I really knew about Scandinavia is that supposedly, it's a region that's been fairly successful in implementing democratic socialism and its inevitable resultant welfare state. Scandinavians I imagined were tall, blond, sexually enlightened, peaceful, not prone to crime, and progressive towards many societal aspects with which the rest of the world continually struggles.
That was a while back. Since then I've been on a very interesting journey, just baby steps at this point - a journey that has taken me back to the sixties with Per and Maj's 10 police procedural series featuring Martin Beck, fast forwarding to the nineties where I encountered Henning's Wallander series and Hoeg's Smilla's Sense of Snow and his troubling Borderliners, and again fast forwarding a few decades to this relative newcomer on the Scandinavian crime scene: Camilla Ceder.
Camilla Ceder
I am in the grip of these writers, under their thumb, so to speak. They are making hand gestures, tempting me, inviting me for a behind the scenes look at this supposedly benevolent Scandinavian mirage I've upheld all these years: inviting me not towards a benevolent lightness of being but into the dark abyss that lies behind the facade.
What I've discovered is that there are essentially two kinds of crime writers in Sweden. The first concentrates the novel in the more populated southern and central portion of the country, often eschewing the far north and it's lonely frozen wooded landscapes, if not the more desolate shorelines. Crime and urbanity seem to go hand-in-hand with these writers. The prose is more of a police procedural, with external perspectives, stylistically "harder", and linear with less dialogue than perhaps what we as Americans have come to expect. And then there are the writers who set their novels in the more rural and sparsely populated settings, lending a decidedly chill atmosphere to the stories (the Swedish have an almost mystical attitude towards wooded areas and trees). Camilla Ceder is a writer that almost certainly belongs in this second group, at least where it concerns her first novel (her novels are primarily set in the social and mental mechanisms of Gothenburg).
But, let's let Ceder speak:
"I am unquestionably influenced by my environment. [...] My books are set in different locations. The first book took place almost entirely in rural areas, while my second book was largely set in a city environment. I think that in many cases the Scandinavian crime novel has psychosocial undertones in which it is possible to highlight the loneliness and vulnerability of individuals within our society, a society which has otherwise been depicted (at least in part) as a prosperous utopia, an ideal society."
As a social worker herself (she's not entirely abandoned her "day job") the stories Ceder concocts are often multi-layered studies of human motivations. What interests Ceder is not the discovery of who committed the crime - in fact, in one sense there are few surprises in her novels - but to study the cause and effect as seen from different perspectives. To say that her novels are in this sense "substantial" would be an understatement.
"As for the motivation of my characters, my particular area when I write is often discerning people's reasons for the things they do. Why we do what we do, how we choose to deal with our lives and why; communication, interpersonal relations - these things are crucial. My interest in the factors that push a person into committing violent acts is actually what made me choose to write crime fiction."
August 15, 2015
Not as good as I would have hoped. I focuses on to many of the people in the police group so instead of getting to know a few of them really good you get a blurry picture of them all.
It is a crime story with a total of three murders. Alongside present time you get a story that starts in 1995 and continues into present time and connects with the crime story.
It is worth reading if you like crimes but I figured out who the killer was a good 100 or so pages before the end, hence the 3 instead of a 4 in rating.
Here is my review in Swedish: http://jennyjag.wordpress.com/2012/02...
It is a crime story with a total of three murders. Alongside present time you get a story that starts in 1995 and continues into present time and connects with the crime story.
It is worth reading if you like crimes but I figured out who the killer was a good 100 or so pages before the end, hence the 3 instead of a 4 in rating.
Here is my review in Swedish: http://jennyjag.wordpress.com/2012/02...
March 20, 2017
Het duurt een tijdje om je te wentelen in het verhaal. Maar... even doorzetten en alles w duidelijk. Een Scandinavische thriller waar ik toch van hou!
June 27, 2011
3.5 out of 5
In an interview with crime writer Michael Dibdin, he spoke about his Aurelio Zen mysteries and how they weren't necessarily whodunnits or even whydunnits. He compared the stories with lifting up a rock in a garden and looking at all the activity that goes on beneath it that no one is aware of. A murder or some other crime is an excuse to lift up that rock and see what's going on. Dibdin mentioned that one of his daughters had read a recent novel and noted that she had guessed the ending, and he laughingly replied, 'but that wasn't the point'. Although I love the puzzle aspect of mysteries and crime novels, the piecing together of clues to solve the crime, I also like the social and psychological aspects of seeing how a society ticks and what makes a member of that society commit murder.
Camilla Ceder's debut novel, Frozen Moment, reminded me of Zen's comments. While not without flaws, I thought she made a very respectable showing in her first Christian Tell novel. The denouement was not especially surprising, and the ending was even a little anticlimactic, but what I found impressive for a first time author was her handling of a fairly large cast of interesting characters and the presentation of motive behind the crime. She lifted the rock in one little part of Sweden and showed the reader all the nastiness that goes on underneath.
Inspector Christian Tell is called to attend to the murder of an unknown man at a service station in a small community outside Gothenburg. Not only was the man shot in the head but the killer, in a moment of apparent rage, ran over the body with a heavy vehicle. The discovery is made by an older man on his way to work who is experiencing car trouble. The scene of the crime is so horrific that he flees and calls a neighbor to come pick him up and wait with him for the police to arrive. Seja Lundberg would rather remain in bed on this cold, snowy morning, but Åke Melkersson is so distraught she agrees to go pick him up. Seja is a journalism student with hopes of becoming a successful writer, so her peculiar behavior at the crime scene and desire to see the body seems somewhat plausible.
Running parallel to the murder investigation but set some dozen years prior is a second storyline. Maya Granith, only seventeen, has left home to attend a folk high school in rural Sweden. Life at home is difficult with a mother who is not only manic-depressive but controlling. Although she is one of the youngest students at the school and feels very much a loner, but she connects up with another student and begins an all-consuming affair. When Maya returns home for a brief stay, a tragedy occurs that will cause repercussions far into the future. The two storylines, of course, will meld into one, but not before a second man is murdered. The victim is again shot at close range and run over with by a car, but Tell and his team of detectives are unable to find any other link between the two cases. It would seem as if the paths of the two men never crossed, and the line of questioning the detectives are following yield no good results.
The paths of Christian and Seja have crossed before, however, without either realizing it initially. Christian takes an interest in Seja, but not just due to her inexplicable behavior at the first murder scene. The two begin a clandestine affair, one that would surely be frowned upon by his superiors were they to know Christian were sleeping with a witness to a crime. Both are alone after failed relationships, and both are under a great deal of stress--Christian is leading a difficult investigation while trying to keep his affair secret, and Seja because she is doing a little investigating on the side and hiding the fact from Christian which will of course ruffle many feathers when this is discovered.
I think the most successful aspect of the story is the development of the characters and their relationships with each other, and this was also my favorite part of the book. Most interesting are Seja and Christian but the other detectives each has their own backstory, which I can imagine Ceder fleshing out in later instalments. Christian has an especially close relationship with his boss, and the team includes a very young detective of Spanish ancestry. It's interesting to see Swedish society through the eyes of an immigrant family. The characters are varied and not always in agreement with each other, which only makes things more interesting.
Despite an occasional wrinkle in the telling of the story, Camilla Ceder is definitely someone worth watching. Thanks to Maxine for recommending Frozen Moment. You can read her thoughts on the book here. Marlaine Delargy gives a very smooth translation from Swedish.
In an interview with crime writer Michael Dibdin, he spoke about his Aurelio Zen mysteries and how they weren't necessarily whodunnits or even whydunnits. He compared the stories with lifting up a rock in a garden and looking at all the activity that goes on beneath it that no one is aware of. A murder or some other crime is an excuse to lift up that rock and see what's going on. Dibdin mentioned that one of his daughters had read a recent novel and noted that she had guessed the ending, and he laughingly replied, 'but that wasn't the point'. Although I love the puzzle aspect of mysteries and crime novels, the piecing together of clues to solve the crime, I also like the social and psychological aspects of seeing how a society ticks and what makes a member of that society commit murder.
Camilla Ceder's debut novel, Frozen Moment, reminded me of Zen's comments. While not without flaws, I thought she made a very respectable showing in her first Christian Tell novel. The denouement was not especially surprising, and the ending was even a little anticlimactic, but what I found impressive for a first time author was her handling of a fairly large cast of interesting characters and the presentation of motive behind the crime. She lifted the rock in one little part of Sweden and showed the reader all the nastiness that goes on underneath.
Inspector Christian Tell is called to attend to the murder of an unknown man at a service station in a small community outside Gothenburg. Not only was the man shot in the head but the killer, in a moment of apparent rage, ran over the body with a heavy vehicle. The discovery is made by an older man on his way to work who is experiencing car trouble. The scene of the crime is so horrific that he flees and calls a neighbor to come pick him up and wait with him for the police to arrive. Seja Lundberg would rather remain in bed on this cold, snowy morning, but Åke Melkersson is so distraught she agrees to go pick him up. Seja is a journalism student with hopes of becoming a successful writer, so her peculiar behavior at the crime scene and desire to see the body seems somewhat plausible.
Running parallel to the murder investigation but set some dozen years prior is a second storyline. Maya Granith, only seventeen, has left home to attend a folk high school in rural Sweden. Life at home is difficult with a mother who is not only manic-depressive but controlling. Although she is one of the youngest students at the school and feels very much a loner, but she connects up with another student and begins an all-consuming affair. When Maya returns home for a brief stay, a tragedy occurs that will cause repercussions far into the future. The two storylines, of course, will meld into one, but not before a second man is murdered. The victim is again shot at close range and run over with by a car, but Tell and his team of detectives are unable to find any other link between the two cases. It would seem as if the paths of the two men never crossed, and the line of questioning the detectives are following yield no good results.
The paths of Christian and Seja have crossed before, however, without either realizing it initially. Christian takes an interest in Seja, but not just due to her inexplicable behavior at the first murder scene. The two begin a clandestine affair, one that would surely be frowned upon by his superiors were they to know Christian were sleeping with a witness to a crime. Both are alone after failed relationships, and both are under a great deal of stress--Christian is leading a difficult investigation while trying to keep his affair secret, and Seja because she is doing a little investigating on the side and hiding the fact from Christian which will of course ruffle many feathers when this is discovered.
I think the most successful aspect of the story is the development of the characters and their relationships with each other, and this was also my favorite part of the book. Most interesting are Seja and Christian but the other detectives each has their own backstory, which I can imagine Ceder fleshing out in later instalments. Christian has an especially close relationship with his boss, and the team includes a very young detective of Spanish ancestry. It's interesting to see Swedish society through the eyes of an immigrant family. The characters are varied and not always in agreement with each other, which only makes things more interesting.
Despite an occasional wrinkle in the telling of the story, Camilla Ceder is definitely someone worth watching. Thanks to Maxine for recommending Frozen Moment. You can read her thoughts on the book here. Marlaine Delargy gives a very smooth translation from Swedish.
June 28, 2018
A little disappointing. The central plot was quite interesting and clever, and I found what 'police procedural' there was in this novel fairly interesting and well-crafted. However my overall impression was that everything was smothered in an excessive amount of introspection and over-lengthly description. The first half of the book was so slow and contained so much detail about the mundane thoughts and lives of so many people, it left little room for anything of any real interest to happen in the story. There was no progression for huge amounts of the book, and I found the level of internal monologue accompanying every decision by every character quickly became a little tedious. Though readable, for me this fell slightly 'below average' in terms of enjoyment, compared to others in the genre I have read.
August 2, 2011
This book could have been labeled "Unputdownable" if only it had a decent editor. At least a hundred pages of background, scene-setting and other useless information could have been cut out. Do we really need to know the thought process behind every character as they made a phone call or walked to the door? No, we don't. Most of it added nothing except exasperation.
July 3, 2015
The 2nd half of this book would be 4 stars, but the beginning was so slow that I had to lower my rating. I really couldn't get into the book until after the first 100 pages - the author shouldn't have introduced so many background characters so early on. Later I appreciated what she was doing more, but I still felt like she told us too much up front, rather than letting us find out about the characters through their actions, more slowly.
But this is a strong debut. The protagonist and his girlfriend are compelling and believable, and the mystery is intriguing. I don't like that everyone is now compared to Stieg Larson - one of the characters here has a last name similar to one of his characters, but I didn't find any other similarities. I'd compare her more to Camilla Lackberg or Mari Jungsten - not bad company to be in - but not Dragon Tatoo territory either.
I'm definitely going to check out the 2nd available book.
But this is a strong debut. The protagonist and his girlfriend are compelling and believable, and the mystery is intriguing. I don't like that everyone is now compared to Stieg Larson - one of the characters here has a last name similar to one of his characters, but I didn't find any other similarities. I'd compare her more to Camilla Lackberg or Mari Jungsten - not bad company to be in - but not Dragon Tatoo territory either.
I'm definitely going to check out the 2nd available book.
May 14, 2012
Camilla Ceder's Frozen Moment is a long slog through the Swedish countryside and its psychological rot, but the author does make up for her snail's pace by enriching our understanding of how a Swedish crime team works together in a fairly humane manner. Ceder is herself a psychologist, and so it is not surprising that she wants to show both how and why crimes happen, as well as the strong (romantic and friendly) feelings that can undermine an investigation. As far as verisimilitude, I wondered why it took so long for one junior inspector to draw up a flow chart that solved the final mystery. This is an impressive debut of fully realized characters.
October 13, 2011
Although the cover blurb compared this with Stieg Larsson...I don't see it. However, if you are a fan of Ake Edwardsson, Karin Fossum, Camilla Lackberg or Henning Mankell, you hit the jackpot. I am always leery of first novels that set up a series, but this one delivers. I'm looking forward to the next installment.
March 19, 2013
This was an enjoyable book. It meandered a bit, but I mean that in a good way; a frenetic pace, even in a murder mystery, isn't always what you want. I did figure out the ending, but with a book like this that doesn't really matter because the journey is more important than the destination. I'll keep reading this series.
August 3, 2012
Yet another Scandinavian thriller with social comments.
Not bad, but time for something new, guys & girls!
Not bad, but time for something new, guys & girls!
August 2, 2012
Took a while to get into this but then rather enjoyed it. Liked the character interplay between the detectives and particularly between that of the protagonist and his mentor (the last few pages were brilliant in terms of how carefully the authoress observed the interplay of personalities). My only bone to pick was that I didn't quite get how the murderer chose the victims. It was made clear in the story that there were no leads for the police to investigate so I found it rather perplexing as to how the murderer magicked their names from thin air. Don't want to say more otherwise I would spoil it!
December 28, 2015
Sweden in December, two unexplained murders which the police only find to be connected by chance, and flashbacks to a story from years before. The identity of the murderer, and the connection between the cases (which involve one case of mistaken identity), become apparent around half way through, and the rest of the book is the race to resolve all the issues without further loss of life (only partially successful). Quite a large police team, with several of the usual personal problems! if you enjoy Scandinavian crime fiction you will feel at home with this.
January 22, 2012
Not a bad debut at all for yet another Scandic mystery novelist. My main gripe was that the story took too long to pick up, and many a reader may have given up before the good stuff really got underway, probably the last 1/2 or 1/3 of the book. I almost contemplated giving up too, but was going through a busy period and hence happy to slowly plough through the slow bits. The relationships between the characters seem promising, and probably will develop as the series progresses.
January 8, 2016
Really enjoyed this book, at times I did feel there were too many characters to keep track off and that we were given too much information about their past but the story was very compelling. I liked the main character Christian Tell.
Set in Sweden around two murders the police unravel the clues as to the murderer, two stories are going on which at first seems awkward but as the plot unfolds the stories meet, well written, will defo read this author again
Set in Sweden around two murders the police unravel the clues as to the murderer, two stories are going on which at first seems awkward but as the plot unfolds the stories meet, well written, will defo read this author again
March 10, 2018
4 star read. This first novel, by Swedish author Ceder, is a very good read. Inspector Christian Tell is a complex man with his share of personal demons. A man is murdered in a grisly manner in a garage in a remote area. During his investigations, Tell meets Seja, a witness, and begins a relationship with her. The investigation leads him to a similar murder. Trying to find out how the two cases are related means getting people to give up some old secrets. A very good first novel.
April 7, 2012
The story itself is good if it was not so atomized - too many characters with their detailed histories. If I had wanted to remember them all with their (sometimes quite similar) names I would have had to make notes, which is what I don't do when reading a mystery. Not quite sure if I want to read other books by Ceder when she writes them. Personally like another Camilla - Lackberg better.
November 24, 2012
I really liked this book and found the characters well written and realistic. I also liked learning about Sweden. I just found a couple parts slow and I didn't like how the author just ended the book in Tell's perspective. Other than that this book was superb and I highly enjoyed it, eventhough it was a sad story.
July 3, 2013
This new author is compared to Stieg Larsson. When I started the book, my thought was that there is no comparison. I wasn't very impressed with the book. Partway through the author finally settled into the story and it got steadily better. By the time I finished I'd decided that i would probably read another book by this author should she write another.
December 13, 2013
Actually, I enjoyed it once I passed the first 200 pages. But since I rarely put down a book without finishing it, I plugged away. There were two stories running simultaneously and they finally caught up with each other. After that it was quite enjoyable, and with hindsight a well crafted crime story.
April 14, 2012
"A sound Norwegian crime story that is well-written and generates enough momentum to keep the pages turning.
But only just... The outcome is too predictable, and the novel lacks anything that makes it stand out."
But only just... The outcome is too predictable, and the novel lacks anything that makes it stand out."
January 28, 2015
The first book of a series with Detective Inspector Christian Tell. Very slow start with three story lines and a bunch of new characters. After midway it picked up pace. Good overall but even close to "Lisbeth Salander."
January 16, 2018
erg interessant boek
August 4, 2025
Choć "Śmiertelny chłód" nie należy do najbardziej rozreklamowanych kryminałów skandynawskich, a w sieci pojawiają się mieszane opinie, dla mnie była to lektura bardzo satysfakcjonująca. To nie tylko kryminał, ale też powieść z wyraźnym rysem psychologicznym.
Autorka z powodzeniem łączy intrygę kryminalną z portretem wewnętrznego życia bohaterów. Zamiast skupiać się wyłącznie na śledztwie, Ceder daje czytelnikowi możliwość zajrzenia w głąb emocji, doświadczeń i codziennych zawiłości ludzkiego losu. To właśnie takie książki lubię-nieśpieszne, nastrojowe, bardziej opowieści o ludziach niż jedynie o zbrodni.
Wbrew niektórym opiniom, nie nudziłam się ani przez chwilę. Wręcz przeciwnie: Ceder swoim stylem potrafi wciągnąć bez nachalnych chwytów. Akcja płynie, a ja śledziłam ją z autentycznym zainteresowaniem, kibicując nie tylko śledztwu, ale i zmaganiom emocjonalnym bohaterów.
Znakomita była też atmosfera-zimna, oszczędna, czyli dokładnie taka, jakiej szukam w skandynawskich opowieściach.
Warto również zaznaczyć, że marketingowe porównanie autorki do Camilli Läckberg uważam za nietrafione. Czytałam dwie książki Läckberg i, przyznaję bez bicia obie porzuciłam bez żalu. Ceder tymczasem trafiła do mnie znacznie bardziej, jej styl jest głębszy, dojrzalszy, mniej przewidywalny.
Podsumowując, "Śmiertelny chłód" to kryminał z duszą. Jeśli szukasz czegoś więcej niż tylko trupów i pogoni za mordercą, to książka dla Ciebie.
Autorka z powodzeniem łączy intrygę kryminalną z portretem wewnętrznego życia bohaterów. Zamiast skupiać się wyłącznie na śledztwie, Ceder daje czytelnikowi możliwość zajrzenia w głąb emocji, doświadczeń i codziennych zawiłości ludzkiego losu. To właśnie takie książki lubię-nieśpieszne, nastrojowe, bardziej opowieści o ludziach niż jedynie o zbrodni.
Wbrew niektórym opiniom, nie nudziłam się ani przez chwilę. Wręcz przeciwnie: Ceder swoim stylem potrafi wciągnąć bez nachalnych chwytów. Akcja płynie, a ja śledziłam ją z autentycznym zainteresowaniem, kibicując nie tylko śledztwu, ale i zmaganiom emocjonalnym bohaterów.
Znakomita była też atmosfera-zimna, oszczędna, czyli dokładnie taka, jakiej szukam w skandynawskich opowieściach.
Warto również zaznaczyć, że marketingowe porównanie autorki do Camilli Läckberg uważam za nietrafione. Czytałam dwie książki Läckberg i, przyznaję bez bicia obie porzuciłam bez żalu. Ceder tymczasem trafiła do mnie znacznie bardziej, jej styl jest głębszy, dojrzalszy, mniej przewidywalny.
Podsumowując, "Śmiertelny chłód" to kryminał z duszą. Jeśli szukasz czegoś więcej niż tylko trupów i pogoni za mordercą, to książka dla Ciebie.
August 13, 2019
After languishing unread for several years this tome finally got its chance recently; in need of something new for the daily commute I plucked it from the dusty pile of books, primed it with a bookmark and stuffed it into my rucksack.
To be honest I didn't think my journey to and from the office, a daily expedition that involves both bus and train as well as no small amount of walking, could be any more of an ordeal. Then I added Frozen Moment to the mix, a book stocked with characters who buckle under a surfeit of back-story, a troubled lead detective backed up with a team of Scandi-Cop stereotypes and a tedious expository style which causes the plot to meander back and forth before the readers eyes. Suddenly delayed trains and inclement weather didn't seem so bad.
Admittedly, as a long time fan of Scandi-crime fiction, I wasn't fooled by the "move over Wallander" tag on the cover for a second but at the very least I expected a decent yarn; something readable and entertaining. Unfortunately, for me, Frozen Moment was a chore of a read which I struggled to finish; when I found myself absent-mindedly flicking to the back pages I knew it was time to throw in the towel.
To be honest I didn't think my journey to and from the office, a daily expedition that involves both bus and train as well as no small amount of walking, could be any more of an ordeal. Then I added Frozen Moment to the mix, a book stocked with characters who buckle under a surfeit of back-story, a troubled lead detective backed up with a team of Scandi-Cop stereotypes and a tedious expository style which causes the plot to meander back and forth before the readers eyes. Suddenly delayed trains and inclement weather didn't seem so bad.
Admittedly, as a long time fan of Scandi-crime fiction, I wasn't fooled by the "move over Wallander" tag on the cover for a second but at the very least I expected a decent yarn; something readable and entertaining. Unfortunately, for me, Frozen Moment was a chore of a read which I struggled to finish; when I found myself absent-mindedly flicking to the back pages I knew it was time to throw in the towel.
March 17, 2019
Really enjoyed this book . Found it was better then her second book Babylon. Babylon was good but I preferred her first book.
I see so many similarities between our two countries,I am in Canada. I worked in social services. She really caught the reality of the foster care system,how the system often doesn't work for the vulnerable. She draws such a realistic portrait of some of her more vulnerable characters that you understand why they never seem to break the cycle of self destructive bhaviour and addiction. You also see why the vulnerable are such willing victims for predators.
How people can write their own fantasy of what they wanted to happen to escape the reality and guilt of what happened. How guilt can twist the soul so that some try to create new endings for their stories even if involves murder.
Good story telling and author does not get bogged down. A nice rhythm is kept throughout the story.
I see so many similarities between our two countries,I am in Canada. I worked in social services. She really caught the reality of the foster care system,how the system often doesn't work for the vulnerable. She draws such a realistic portrait of some of her more vulnerable characters that you understand why they never seem to break the cycle of self destructive bhaviour and addiction. You also see why the vulnerable are such willing victims for predators.
How people can write their own fantasy of what they wanted to happen to escape the reality and guilt of what happened. How guilt can twist the soul so that some try to create new endings for their stories even if involves murder.
Good story telling and author does not get bogged down. A nice rhythm is kept throughout the story.
August 12, 2019
This was a complex, slow-paced, and very interesting novel, combining the backstories of its characters almost as side studies, a little like reading a television series - Up the Downstairs Case or Downton Abbey. It's not meant to be a fast read. Although I did enjoy the characters' stories very much, I found myself forgetting where the actual main story was heading. There was a crime, yes. We're shown that right off the bat. But then there are all these people with various human problems and human elements to them that also deserve some pondering...
I wish I would have read it at a more quiet time when I could hold all the stories together in my head from reading to reading.
I'm looking forward to another one of Ceder's books, perhaps in the dead of winter when there's snow outside.
I wish I would have read it at a more quiet time when I could hold all the stories together in my head from reading to reading.
I'm looking forward to another one of Ceder's books, perhaps in the dead of winter when there's snow outside.
August 24, 2022
A new author in the Scandi noir genre. It was a good read, with 2 parallel stories in different time lines which link together in the end. A victim’s body is found in an isolated garage, he has been shot and run over repeatedly by a car. Inspector Christian Tell is the lead investigator on the case, and he and his team try to gather evidence and past history about the victim to find out why he was killed in this way. Then there is another murder and the victim killed in the case way, but there appears to be no relationship between the victims. Seja, is a trainee journalist and a witness to the first murder, and Tell is drawn into a relationship with her. She believes a link to an unsolved death many years ago maybe the key to these killings.
May 12, 2017
2.5 stars - was trying a, for me, new Nordic Noir author but was quite disappointed. It was an extremely slow start to the book and at no stage did I find myself getting close to the main characters (maybe there were too many?), getting absorbed into their lives I normally do. Story line definitely picks up in the second half of the book but not enough for me to make it a thrilling read.
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