Arne Dahl, Misterioso

The first in the A-team series which is written in the best Swedish tradition: a story about a fairly peaceful, affluent society with a tendency to put the system and the rules above common sense and the individual human being.

In a kind of prologue, we meet a quiet banker who is an expert dart player, and a huge bank robber who disturbs the banker´s usual morning routine.

Soon after, someone begins to kill off some of Stockholm´s most successful businessmen. He shoots them through the head in the middle of the night, and though he takes his time on the crime scene, he leaves no traces whatsoever. The A team is on their first case, and over 330 pages their investigation leads them to the mafia in Tallin, an idyllic golf course, and a very special jazz recording. Hence the title which refers to a classic jazz number.

A well-written crime debut with lots of drama and action, but also quiet sections about the lives and interrelationships among the team.

I bought the book myself.

May - Scandinavian Month

Have you noticed I have been on a binge of Scandinavian crime fiction in May?

Early in May I went to the library and discovered that they had expanded the crime section noticeably. And around the same time I found Amy´s Scandinavian Reading Challenge. So I decided to challenge myself by finishing it within a month - and four of the writers (five, really, as there are two for Drengen i kufferten) are new to me.

NB: to a Scandinavian, Scandinavia is Norway, Sweden, Denmark. What English readers call Scandinavia is the Nordic countries in my part of the world.

Scandinavian Reading Challenge 2010
1. Camilla Läckberg, Tyskungen (Swedish, 2007)
2. Kaaberbøl & Friis, Drengen i kufferten (Danish, crime debut 2008)
3. Anna Grue, Judaskysset (Danish, 2008)
4. Karin Fossum, Den onde vilje (Norwegian, 2009)
5. Camilla Ceder, Frosne øjeblikke (Swedish debut, 2009)
6. Knut Faldbakken, Grænsen (Norwegian, 2008)



Besides I have read

7. Anna Grue, Kunsten at dø (Danish, 2009)
8. Åke Edwardson, Næsten død mand (Swedish, 2009)
9. Arne Dahl, Misterioso (Swedish, 2001) – will be reviewed soon.

So on the whole I feel somewhat better informed on recent Scandinavian crime fiction today than one month ago.

And June? - a busy exam month, but I hope there will be a few exciting guest posts for you.
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Knut Faldbakken, Grænsen (2008)

Den norske forfatter har en lang række andre romaner bag sig, men Grænsen er hans tredje krimi, og den første i serien om overbetjent Jonfinn Valmann i Hamar, tæt på den svenske grænse.

Temaet er prostituerede fra Rusland, eller egentlig prostitution i det hele taget, og ligesom Karin Fossum forsøger Faldbakken at se emnet fra flere forskellige vinkler. Plottet begynder, da snedkeren Arne Vatne træffer en ung, russisk kvinde ved et tilfælde. Han føler sig kikset og alene, og selv om han forstår, at hun er ´russerluder´, forelsker han sig over hals og hoved i den kønne pige. Hun opholder sig midlertidigt på en campingplads i Norge, fordi prostitution er ulovlig i Sverige, og da hun efter et par dage forlader campingvognen uden varsel, bliver Vatne så vred og frustreret, at han er klar til at bryde sine normale grænser for, hvad der er rigtigt og forkert.

Samtidig er Vatne bekymret for sin unge datter Anne, som har en udenlandsk kæreste med hjem. Vatne er på forhånd skeptisk overfor indvandreren med guldkæderne, og da parret forsvinder sent om aftenen, hvorefter en ukendt mand ringer på Annes mobil og spørger efter ´Diana´, venter han det værste.

Politiarbejdet står nordmanden Jonfinn Valmann og finnen Jan Timonen. Det er velsagtens meningen, læseren skal fatte stor sympati for den regelrette, forelskede Valmann, men efter mange års politiarbejde i grænseområdet virker han temmelig naiv.

Godt forsøgt og personerne er i det store og hele udmærkede, men den midterste tredjedel er langtrukket og ikke særlig dramatisk, da politiets arbejde med at opklare et dødsfald og smugleri af stoffer og kvinder over grænsen ofte skæres ud i unødvendige detaljer.

Bogen er lånt på biblioteket.

Knut Faldbakken, The Border
Not translated into English.

The Norwegian author has several novels behind him, but The Border is his third crime novel and the first in the series about Sergeant Jonfinn Valmann from Hamar, near the Swedish border.

The theme is prostitutes from Russia, or perhaps prostitution as such, and just like Karin Fossum Faldbakken tries to look at it from different angles. (So the title plays on borders, boundaries and limits.) The plot begins when the joiner Arne Vatne meets a young, Russian woman by accident. He feels unsuccessful and alone, and even though he understands that she is a “Russian whore”, he falls headlong in love with the pretty girl. She is staying at a camping site in Norway because prostitution is illegal in Sweden, and when she leaves the caravan without notice a few days later, Vatne is so angry and frustrated that he is ready to break his own rules for what is right and wrong.

At the same time Vatne is worried about his young daughter Anne who brings a foreign boyfriend with her home. He is skeptical of the immigrant with the gold chains beforehand, and when the couple disappear late at night and a stranger calls on Anne´s mobile, asking for ´Diana´, Vatne expects the worst.

The Norwegian Jonfinn Valmann and the Finn Jan Timonen (male! member of the Finnish minority) are in charge of the police work. I think the reader is supposed to feel sympathy for the regular Valmann, but after many years´ police work in the border region he seems rather naïve.

A good effort and the characters are well-drawn on the whole, but the middle third is lengthy and not very dramatic as the police work on a death and the smuggling of drugs and women is often described in unnecessary detail.

This was a librarybook and I read it for the Scandinavian Reading Challenge 2010 # 6.

Swedish Crime News

Arne Dahl and the A-team

In the mid 90s a Swedish writer planned a series of ten volumes about the special elite force, the A team. The first books were published under the pen name Arne Dahl, but when the success was well established, the author and literary critic Jan Arnald confessed that he had played with the letters of his name.

Now when eleven volumes of ten have been published in Scandinavia, the “Intercrime series” is on its way to English readers, hence this introduction.

Officially, the group is under the command of the quiet judge of character Jan-Olov Hultin who shows unexpected sides to his personality as the series progresses. Their base is in Stockholm, but they operate all over Sweden.

Paul Hjelm, the day-to-day leader, is around forty years old, married to Cilla whom he has two teenage children with. He is a first-class policeman but not quite as good at handling marriage and family.

Kerstin Holm from Göteborg makes up the female minority. For the time being, she and her husband´s first ex-wife live together and hit it off much better than with him.

Viggo Norlander from Stockholm is a balding and stout policeman who believes in following the rules.

Arto Söderstedt, an intellectual ex-lawyer, is the pale, Finnish minority from Västerås.

Gunnar Nyberg from Nacka, is a huge, slovenly dressed ex-boxer and steroid user.

Jorge Chavez from Sundsvall – represents the immigrant minority and is an expert on jazz.

A well-written, literary crime series with interesting and intelligent characters.

As an afterthought I can tell you that I find it very easy to read Camilla Läckberg and Mari Jungstedt in Swedish, but Arne Dahl is quite another matter.

Thy´s Day # 17

These May days are so bitterly cold that I prefer to curl up in an armchair with a good crime novel and show you some pictures from last year.

What Do You Want

I just came home from the local library. They had numerous temptations, but I succeeded in limiting myself to ten crime novels.

1. Knut Faldbakken, Grænsen (Norwegian)
2. Jogvan Isaksen, Korsmesse (Faroe Islands) - 2 votes
3. Pia Juul, Mordet på Halland (Danish)
4. Jonas T. Bengtsson, Sub Marino (Danish)

5. Camilla Grebe & Åsa Träff (Swedish debut) - 2 votes
6. Mari Jungstedt, Den døende dandy (Swedish, the fourth Gotland novel) - 1 vote
7. Viveca Sten, Stille nu (Swedish debut - takes place in the archipelago)

8. Eli Gottlieb, Opgøret (American: Now You See Him) - 1 vote
9. Phillip Margolin, Sortekunster (American: Heartstone) - 1 vote
10. Joanne Harris, Dobbeltspil (British: Gentlemen & Players) - 2 votes

I am going to review the one by Knut Faldbakken first because I need a Norwegian book for a challenge.

But which one do you want me to read and review after that?

Elly Griffiths, The Janus Stone (2010)

This crime novel is the second in the British Ruth Galloway series.

I had great expectations to this one as The Crossing Places was a wonderful read. And just as in her crime debut, Griffiths dishes up a wonderful Norfolk environment and the most compelling characters. Ruth Galloway is not your typical smart or slim detective but a competent and intelligent forensic archaeologist (a role model for female readers who are not exactly Hollywood material?) DCI Harry Nelson may seem taciturn and gruff, yet he is a sensible and likeable family father in his own way. These characters are not heroes or stars, but very real people you enjoy getting to know.

The story begins when Ruth visits a local archaeological site, and she is excited when Dr Max Grey, expert on Roman Britain and leader of the dig, shows her they have found some bones. Soon the body of a child is found beneath the walls of a nearby Victorian mansion, a former children´s home, which is being torn down to give way to modern flats. The plot has probably been a sacred place in the past so are the human remains old or new? Besides, the head is missing which makes Dr Grey suspect that the child may have been sacrificed.

As readers of the debut will know, Ruth is pregnant but determined to keep her baby even if she expects she will have to raise it alone. She thrives in her isolated house in the Saltmarsh though her pregnancy makes her more vulnerable than usual, a fact that the murderer exploits ruthlessly.

No need to spoil your fun by telling you more about the fine plot. I want more of this series – the sooner the better!

This ARC was kindly sent to me by Maxine of Petrona.