A brainy page-turner from a rising star in Scandinavian crime fiction.
A serial killer in the Swedish town of Tiarp eludes the cop trying to track him down, then the cop's policeman son—and, 30 years after the unsolved murders, a successful novelist investigating them.
It's 1986. The first victim, 20-year-old Stina Franzén, is found beaten and barely breathing in the back seat of an abandoned car by policeman Sven Jörgensson, who must live not only with his failure to find her killer, but also the accusation that he hastened her demise by improperly handling her body. Taunted on the phone by the so-called Tiarp Man—“I’m going to do it again”—Sven is further shaken by his inability to find the body of a second young murdered woman. Even as the killings are overshadowed by the shocking assassination of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme on the same night as Stina’s demise, Sven becomes obsessed with the local cases—an obsession that will lead him down the darkest paths. His neglected son, Vidar, having failed to heed his father’s warning that becoming a cop will make him cold and distant like his old man, discovers troublesome details about Sven’s pursuit of the killer. The novelist, who narrates Carlsson’s book, uncovers more disturbing secrets after meeting up with Vidar, a one-time schoolmate of his, and Evy Carlén, Sven’s one-time partner on the force and would-be lover. The plot unfolds slowly but masterfully, with serial surprises. But what makes Carlsson’s American debut so impressive is its close examination of “truth,” the way trauma is passed from one generation to the next, the distractions we create to avoid our contributions to the “rot” of our violent age. Pain can be so deep, Carlsson writes, “maybe it’s not even pain anymore. It’s a way of being.”
A brainy page-turner from a rising star in Scandinavian crime fiction.Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2023
ISBN: 9780593449356
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Hogarth
Review Posted Online: Nov. 28, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
Mystery and horror mix in a creepy novel whose suspenseful ending hints at a very special sequel.
In an insular town in Northern Minnesota, a series of crimes stretches two Bureau of Criminal Apprehension agents to their limits.
Harry Steinbeck is a rigid forensic scientist whose partner, Evangeline Reed, is intuitive and tends to bend rules. Both have pasts that haunt them. When Harry was a teenager, his sister vanished and was never found; Van grew up in a cult run by a charismatic grifter with an iron hand. Their latest assignment involves a cold case that’s turned hot since a body was found with a crushed skull and shotgun wounds—just like the earlier victims. Back in 1998, the entire Korhonen family was murdered while they slept in the town of Alku, where all the villagers are descendants of Finns originally driven out of their country under suspicion of witchcraft. Almost everyone in town works at the Carlton County Treatment Center, originally a hospital, then a psychiatric institution, and now basically a nursing home for serial killers. The dead man, Peter Weiss, was a nurse there. Harry usually avoids Duluth, where his mother still lives, because he blames himself for never having found his sister. The new, or old, case just adds to his guilt and stress. All the Alku families bear a strange resemblance to one another. That includes head psychiatrist Pekka Tervo, who’s married to a dead ringer for Nurse Ratched, and who can’t admit that the old and new cases are connected. The adult residents of Alku are keeping their secrets so closely guarded that only their children can help Harry and Van find the truth.
Mystery and horror mix in a creepy novel whose suspenseful ending hints at a very special sequel.Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2024
ISBN: 9781662513985
Page Count: 331
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
Once again, Muller combines a heartfelt but routine investigation with strong elements of a family reunion.
Just when you think things can’t get any worse for San Francisco, miscreants prowl the area determined to prove otherwise.
Someone has it in for several of the city’s privately owned roads. Now that vandals have dumped fertilizer, broken windows, spray-painted graffiti, and otherwise made life miserable for the residents of four different streets, a grassroots neighborhood coalition has hired private investigator Sharon McCone to keep an eye on Rowan Court, the most recent target, presumably so that she can report on the horse that’s already left the barn. A map that’s dropped off at the home of Ted Smalley, McCone’s office manager, sends her in a new direction, toward Herrera Terrace. Could that be the next spot the vandals have in mind? Why are they carrying out this campaign in the first place, and why are they tipping her off? McCone’s questioning of Theresa Segretti, her coalition contact at Rowan Court, and Sam Sage, an internet influencer/meth cooker on Bancroft Lane, comes up empty-handed. Meanwhile the latest casualties of the war on the streets are Sam’s meth lab and then Sam himself, whose flight to a cousin’s distant home extends his life by only a few hours. The motive for all this misbehavior is likely to puzzle readers a lot less than McCone and Hy Ripinsky, her husband and partner, but the identity of the perps is more surprising. Although you can see why Ripinsky announces at the end, “Well, McCone, this sure has been one of our more stressful experiences,” fans will probably nod in recognition rather than flinch under the stress.
Once again, Muller combines a heartfelt but routine investigation with strong elements of a family reunion.Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9781538724521
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
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