Svensk krimi, den syvende i serien om kriminalinspektør Irene Huss.To unge mænd stjæler en bil og ræser af sted; under deres vilde flugt dræber de en fodgænger. De smider bilen fra sig i en skov og stikker ild til den. Under eftersøgningen finder politiet liget af en teenage-pige i et udhus. Tilsyneladende var pigen død inden de unge nåede ud til huset, så hvad er sammenhængen – hvis der er nogen?
Da det viser sig, at offeret for flugtbilisten er pensioneret kriminalbetjent går det rutinerede politi-team i højeste gear. Undervejs får de opdateret deres viden om trafficking, som er et forholdsvist nyt fænomen i Göteborg. Den svenske del af denne krimi fungerer udmærket, men trafficking-sporet fører Irene Huss til Tenerife hvor hun kommer ud i et noget utroligt samarbejde med det spanske politi. Et mere kulørt end egentligt interessant afsnit af bogen, som efter min mening ville have stået stærkere uden.
Bogen giver også et nyt indblik i Irene Huss´ liv, både som travl kriminalinspektør, hvor hun er kompetent og ligevægtig, og i privatlivet som hustru til kokken Krister og mor til de nogenlunde voksne tvillinger Jenny og Katarina. Irene oplever som regel god opbakning på hjemmefronten, men familien har tidligere været igennem hele møllen med problemer omkring teenage-børn, to karrierer og samliv. Og netop som tilværelsen begynder at blive lidt mere overskuelig, fordi tvillingerne er på vej hjemmefra, begynder Irenes mor for alvor at blive gammel og skrøbelig.
Helene Tursten, The Man with the Little Face
This Swedish crime novel has not been translated into English, but may be so later. It is the seventh in the series about Detective Inspector Irene Huss.
Two young men steal a car and rush off, and during their mindless escape they kill a pedestrian. They abandon the car outside town and set fire to it. While searching for the hit-and-run thieves, the police find the body of a young teenage girl in an outbuilding. She must have been dead before the young men reached the place so what is the connection between these crimes – if there is any?
As it turns out that the pedestrian was a former member of the CID, the police work shifts into a higher gear. En route they learn quite a bit about trafficking which is still a relatively new phenomenon in Gothenburg. The Swedish part of this plot works well, but the trafficking link leads Irene Huss to Tenerife where she is involved in a somewhat amazing cooperation with the Spanish police. A more gaudy than really interesting part of the plot which – in my humble opinion – could very well have been left out.
Furthermore the story offers new insight in the life of Irene Huss, in her capacity as a busy, but competent and equable detective inspector, as well as her private life with Krister the cook and their just about grown twins Jenny and Katarina. As a rule the family support Irene and her career, but the family has been through the whole lot with teenagers, two careers and very little time together. And now when things seem to be changing for the better with the twins moving away from home, Irene´s mother shows sign of growing old and fragile.
.jpg)
