Viveca Sten's Sandhamn Series

Sometimes, the location plays a big role in how much I like a book.  Viveca Sten's Sandhamn series features Sandhamn Island, part of the Stockholm Archipelago.   I read Still Waters a couple of years ago and was impressed with the characters and the setting.

The island's population is only about 120 islanders, but each summer the population explodes with tourists and those who keep summer homes on the island.

Recently, NetGalley offered the third book in the series (so far, I think only three books in the series have been translated), and I realized I'd missed the second book.  I found Closed Circles offered by Kindle Unlimited.  :)

I was happy to renew my acquaintance of Nora Linde and her friend Thomas Andreasson.  Closed Circle has two major story lines going on. One deals with Nora and her husband and a disagreement about a house that Nora inherited; another deals with Thomas and the murder of a bankruptcy lawyer that takes place at the beginning of a famous regatta.  

Nora and Thomas' friendship allows Nora to discuss her dilemma with Thomas, and Thomas feels comfortable asking Nora, a lawyer, for information about what is involved in bankruptcy law.  

The characters are engaging, very human, imperfect, and believable.  The plot isn't quite as believable, but that didn't interfere with my enjoyment.

Kindle Unlimited.

Police Procedural.  2016.  Print length:  466 pages.  

And then on to the third translated book in the series--Guiltless.  The previous two books have taken place during the summer season when Sandhamn is crowded with tourists and summer people.  Guiltless is set during the winter, and the island is largely deserted except for the 120 or so people who live there year round. 

Nora Linde has taken her two boys to Sandhamn during their school break.  The problems in her marriage that have been building in the earlier books have come to a head, and although Nora has not mentioned anything to her sons, she needs this time away to evaluate her situation.

The boys settle in happily--until making a gruesome discovery.   

The book moves back and forth between present and distant past.  You know that the story from the past has influenced the current situation, but it is difficult to determine exactly how.  Nora's childhood friend, police detective Thomas Andreasson and his partner, are on the case.  

Although each of the books in the Sandhamn series can be read as stand-alones, there are interesting over-arching story lines that connect each book.  

I'm happy that there are more books in the series to be translated, but I hate having to wait!

I may check out the television series based on the books, but I already have so many images of the characters in my head--it might be difficult to adjust.

NetGalley/Amazon Crossing

Crime/Police Procedural.  May 23, 2017.  Print version:  370 pages.

The Lost Woman by Sara Blaedel

The Lost Woman is the sixth book in Sara Blaedel's Louise Rick series.  As with many good series, it is not imperative that you begin with the first book.  I had not read any of the previous books, but did not find that it hindered my enjoyment. 

  Shot with a hunting rifle through her kitchen window, the woman is dead before she hits the ground. Though murdered in England, it turns out that the woman, Sofie Parker, is a Danish citizen--one who's been missing for almost two decades--so Louise Rick is called on to the case.  (blurb

While the murder of a Danish woman in England might not justify involving the Danish police, Sofie Parker has been listed as missing for eighteen years and was, at the time, the girlfriend of Eik Nordstrom, Louise Rick's lover and colleague.  As events develop, Eik becomes a suspect.

Eventually, a connection is made to a group that supports assisted and accompanied dying.   As Louise begins seeking information, a woman she planned to speak to is murdered.  when Louise realizes that other members of the group have recently been murdered in similar fashion, her investigation narrows.

Louise's friend Camilla, a journalist, becomes interested in writing a story about the reasons for choosing assisted suicide, how people connect (it is illegal in Denmark, but Switzerland has a non-profit group that provides the means and support if an individual qualifies), and about the process of the procedure.  

Although I found several aspects of the plot too coincidental, I ended up enjoying the book and the characters and liked the way assisted dying was covered.  Whether you agree or disagree, it is a contemporary dilemma that needs more discussion.

NetGalley/Grand Central Publishing

Mystery/Detective.  2014; Feb. 7, 2017.  Print length:  304 pages.

Phantom and Police by Jo Nesbo

Jo Nesbo has a new book coming out in 2017, and I realized that I still had not read the last two in his Harry Hole series.  I was getting a little tired of Harry's frequent falls from grace and the increasing violence, red herrings, and misdirections and took a break after reading Snowman.

But last week's library trip found me placing Phantom (2012) and Police (2013) in my bag, and I read through both novels within a couple of days.  I will be prepared when Thirst comes out in 2017.

*The Harry Hole series can be best appreciated if you've read the earlier novels.  But fair warning, these are dark and brutal books.

Phantom brings Harry back to Oslo from Hong Kong because Rakel's son Oleg has been arrested for the murder of his junkie friend Gusto.  Much of the story is interspersed with Gusto's dying thoughts which explain some of the backstory required for this complicated plot.  

Harry has returned to find a way to prove Oleg's innocence--if he is innocent.  He is not terribly concerned with who killed Gusto, as long as it wasn't Oleg.

Parts of Phantom are engrossing, but it is a brutal story of vicious violence and corruption.  The book feels even longer than it actually is because of the number of characters and various subplots that are all intertwined--drugs and the mysterious drug lord called Dubai, police and political corruption, lots of murders.

The secondary characters that made up Harry's team in the previous novels are barely mentioned because Harry is no longer a policeman.  In previous books, the balance provided by the familiar team helped counteract some of the darker elements of the plots.  

As usual, Harry finds himself in a fine mess and struggles with commitment, but his character does show a change in Phantom.  The conclusion may come as a surprise.

Library copy.

Crime/Nordic Noir.  2012.  466 pages.

Police continues the misdirection Nesbo used in Phantom.  It is difficult to review this book as almost any comment on the plot becomes a spoiler.

At first, I was happy because the old team reunites to help with the murders of several policemen.  Seeing the team work together was initially rewarding, but Nesbo throws in some unpleasant surprises.  

To keep the reader off balance and prevent the reader from making any logical deductions, Nesbo uses "he" to refer to the actions of the bad guy, and the tangled schemes leave the guilty party ambiguous--makes it pretty difficult to have any insight into character or behavior when the villain could be almost any of the characters.  Nesbo puts more effort into keeping the reader in the dark and offering conflicting scenarios than anything else.

The novel turns out to be more complicated than complex, and the complicated manipulation of  plot elements annoyed me.  Gimmick after gimmick.  

And yet--having followed the series for several years (although I did begin to have reservations after Snowman, reviewed here), Nesbo does keep me reading.  Which is why I will read Thirst when it comes out--and hope that it will conclude the series.  Oh, and hope Mikael Bellman meets his downfall.  Of course, I've hoped for that for a long time, and the man survives.

Library copy.

Nordic Noir.  2013.  644 pages.

July Library Books

Redemption Road by John Hart has lots of good reviews, a high body count, a whole bunch of story lines (that unite, of course), hard to fathom motivations for most of the behavior, torture, dysfunctional families, AND MORE!   

I read the whole thing, sad to say, and only liked one character, a very minor one, and mostly because of his name:  Crybaby Faircloth Jones.

Library copy.

Crime.  2016.  433 pages.








Unwanted is the first in the Fredrika Bergman and Alex Recht series by Kristina Ohlsson.  I started this series with The Chosen, a NetGalley offering and the fifth in the series.  I liked it enough to want to read more.  

Unwanted, the first book, introduces the three main characters on the detective squad-- Fredrika, Alex, and Peder-- and provides a good sense of who they are and how each one contributes to the investigation.  If one of the three dominates, it is Fredrika, the lone female member of the team, but the roles of all three are important.  Unwanted is well-written and suspenseful, but just to warn you, the plot involves a character who abducts and murders children.  There are no graphic details and the author handles this well.

If you enjoy Scandinavian Crime, you might enjoy this series.

Library copy.

Crime/Police Procedural.  2009.  363 pages.

Silenced is the second in the Fedrika Bergman and Alex Recht series by Ohlsson.  The new case involves what appears to be a murder/suicide.  The investigation into the deaths of the couple lead to a much more involved situation than initially suspected.  I liked most of the book even better than Unwanted because the character development continued in interesting ways.  I was a little disappointed by the conclusion, however.

I will be getting the third in the series next time I go to the library.  :)

Library copy.

Crime/Police Procedural.  2010.  342 pages.

The Absent One and A Conspiracy of Faith by Jussi Adler-Olsen

To catch up on the Dept. Q series by Jussi Adler-Olsen, I went to the library and was fortunate to find the second and third in the series sitting on the shelf.  Just the two I needed! 

The Absent One 

When a twenty-year-old cold case concerning the murder of a young man and his sister leads to other old cases connected to a gang of wealthy prep school kids, Dept. Q's Carl Morck finds that someone doesn't want these cases re-opened.  The members of the prep school gang are now famous, influential, and powerful.

Eventually, Morck focuses on finding a street woman named Kimmie, a woman who has a cunning gift for survival and camouflage.  Kimmie has lots of experience at avoiding unwanted attention.  She appears as a bag lady most of the time, but when needed, she can transform her appearance into that of an expensive, well-dressed wife or business woman.  She needs these chameleon-like skills; the police are only a recent concern;  Kimmie has been hiding from something much more deadly for nearly twenty years.  

Rose is introduced in this second book in the series, but there is too little of Assad, and it is Assad who leavens this bread of good and evil.  The sly humor and comic relief added by Assad, that clever and mysterious man, keeps the viciousness of the crimes from becoming too much.  

I have to hesitate a bit on this one.  The bad guys were a little too depraved for me and the plot pretty far-fetched.  Yet, while I didn't like it as much as I hoped, the book was, nevertheless, riveting.  

Translator:  K.E. Semmel;  British title:  Disgrace

Library copy/Dutton

Nordic Crime/Police Procedural.  2012.  406 pages.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

A Conspiracy of Faith suited me better than The Absent One.  More Assad, more humor to contrast with the evil doings.  There are certainly plenty of detestable villains in most of Nordic crime novels, and they are present in the Dept. Q books as well. Fortunately, Adler-Olsen doesn't dwell on the graphic details of the crimes; his ability to create tension and dread works even better than lengthy, gory descriptions.

The books, however, are long and there are plenty of details--but they are details concerning Morck (his ex-wife, his friend Hardy, his romantic interest in Mona), Rose (and her sister, Yrsa), and Assad (where does he really live?).  There are also details concerning another crime concerning arson under investigation. 

As a result of these digressions, many readers find the books too slow and too long.  I'm not one of those.  I like them long.  I like most of the details about what goes on in the private lives of the Dept. Q team and about politics within the police department.  They are the real reason I love the series.

A Conspiracy of Faith begins with a message in a bottle--a long delayed cry for help.  When the message finally makes its way to Dept. Q, it is so damaged that determining much of the message is a difficult guessing game.  

This isn't a whodunit, a matter of having several suspects and determining which one is the killer.  We know who the killer is and have insight into his goals and his methods.  There is information about his childhood and dysfunctional family, and about his married life and the control he exerts over his wife and her behavior--but we don't know his real name, where he works, or how he conducts his life when he isn't involved in his murderous activities.

I am now all caught up on all 5 English translations of Dept. Q!

Translator:  Martin Aitken (I like his translations);  British title:  Redemption   

Library copy/Dutton

Nordic Crime/Police Procedural.  2013.  504 pages.

The Purity of Vengeance (a Department Q novel) by Jussi Adler-Olsen

For some reason, publishers in the UK and US have chosen different titles for these books.  Mercy (which I received as an ARC some years ago) is the first book in the Department Q series; when published in the US, the name was changed to The Keeper of Lost Causes.  

The Purity of Vengeance was published as Guilt in the UK, but I also found it on Goodreads with its original Danish title--Journal 64.  Titles are important, of course, but  all you really need to know is that if it is a Department Q novel by Jussi Adler-Olsen, it is going to be good.

One other minor complaint is that Amazon doesn't always include the name of the translator.  It is a hit or miss kind of thing, and any work of translation should include the name of the translator.  I don't believe the humor in Adler-Olsen's books could be as successful without a skillful, an artful translation, and it is the humor in the books that truly sets them apart.  The books are all great crime books with loads of tension, but the humanity of the characters and the humorous bits of comic relief make the tension bearable and lift the books above the typical Nordic Noir/Scandinavian Crime novel.

Back to the book.  The Purity of Vengeance (or Guilt, or Journal 64, whichever name you choose) was inspired by actual events on the island of Sprogo, where young women deemed unfit to reproduce were given abortions or sterilized without their consent and often without their knowledge.  From 1923-1961, the "pathologically promiscuous" were sent to Sprogo in an attempt to keep them from breeding more degenerates. (! Hard to believe, isn't it?) The picture below is from the 1950's.

When Department Q (the cold case department in Copenhagen) gets involved in a number of old missing persons cases that occurred on the same day,  similarities begin to appear.  Piecing together the connections of five missing individuals who, on the surface, have no connections, keeps the members of the team relying on their feelings as well as the few facts they gather, and they dig deeper in their efforts to discover what happened.  There are numerous sub-plots that the author skillfully manages and that keep the reader darting from situation to situation, from present to past and back again.  And things aren't always as they seem.

The humor is inserted in the relationships among the Department Q members (Carl Morck, Rose, and Assad), friends, and family.  The balance between evil and comic relief is so adept, so perfectly timed and deftly handled, that what could easily be overwhelmingly discouraging about human behavior is remedied by the humor the author uses to break the tension.

As expected, I was involved from beginning to end, appreciating all aspects of the novel:  anger,  apprehension,  horror of what happened to the women considered unworthy of reproducing--and the eccentric, kind, mysterious, and amusing behavior and remarks of the cold case team.  

The Department Q novels are the very best of Scandinavian crime fiction.  Highly recommended.  (I ordered The Keeper of Lost Causes, the first in the series, for each of my daughters, and I hope they will continue the series.)

Crime/Police Procedural.  2013.  512 pages.

ARCs in the Mail

Bitter River   was an ARC that arrived in the mail and gave me another author to follow.

Publishers Weekly:        The murder of 16-year-old Lucinda Trimble, whose strangled body is found in a car in the Bitter River, propels Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Keller's worthy sequel to her well-received adult fiction debut, A Killing in the Hills (2012). As West Virginia prosecutor Bell Elkins and the rest of closely knit Acker's Gap struggle to fathom who could have wanted to kill the popular high school honor student, a sniper fires at the county courthouse, almost killing Bell's assistant. Days later, a devastating explosion levels Ike's diner, moments after the divorced attorney finished breakfast with her much younger lover, Clay Meckling. Suddenly, remote Acker's Gap seems under siege, with Bell, stalwart sheriff Nick Fogelsong, and their team scrambling to find answers before the next attack. Ultimately, some of them prove less interesting than the questions Keller, a native West Virginian, poses about the nature of friendship and family—as well as the engaging, unsentimentalized Appalachian community she has created.  

Keller is a skillful author, and I thoroughly enjoyed this novel.  I will be reading more of Julia Keller in the future, including the first one in the series.

Read in July

Mystery/Crime.  Sept. 3, 2013.  397 pages.

Strange Shores by Arnaldur Indridason.  Another ARC in the mail.  I've only read one other book by Indridason, and I didn't like it at all.  This one was better, but still not something I'd have read if it hadn't just arrived in the mail.  He has many devoted fans, but I don't happen to be one.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Erlendur, the doleful Reykjavik police inspector (Outrage, 2012), has taken leave from his job to return to Iceland’s remote Eastern Fjords. He is camping very rough in the collapsing remains of the farmhouse his family abandoned after his younger brother, Bergur, disappeared in a savage blizzard that Erlendur barely survived. Walking the moors, Erlendur meets an old man named Boas who took part in the search for Bergur, and the voluble Boas tells him of another disappearance. A woman named Matthildur set out for her mother’s house in 1942 and disappeared in another blizzard. Erlendur begins to visit surviving people who knew Matthildur, and he ultimately stitches together a tale of lies, betrayals, and murder. But all the while, it is Bergur’s disappearance—and Erlendur’s guilt—that obsesses him. His interviews with people who knew Matthildur, all in their eighties and nineties, recall the voices of Norse sagas: pithy, concise, and very matter-of-fact about everything, including their own impending deaths. These encounters are brilliantly written, and the Matthildur “case” is wonderfully convoluted. The dour detective courts hypothermia each night in the farmhouse, has ethereal encounters with an augur from his youth, and finds some respite from his lifelong grief. Strange Shores reads as if it could be the last entry in the Erlendur cycle. If so, it’s a superb end to a haunting series. --Thomas Gaughan

There were elements in this one that interested me, but overall I found it slow and not "brilliantly written or "wonderfully convoluted."  That's just me, you might love it and many other readers did, indeed, love it.

Read in Aug.

Scandinavian/Crime/Mystery.  Aug. 26, 2014.  305 pages.

The Cat Sitter's Nine Lives by Blaize & John Clement is a cozy mystery.  I'm not always satisfied with cozies, but I did enjoy this one.  Publishers Weekly about the Dixie Hemingway Mysteries:  "...blends elements of cozy and thriller to produce an unusual and enjoyable hybrid."

What I liked:

The setting and Dixie's "profession."  Dixie is a former Sarasota, Florida deputy sheriff and current pet sitter on Siesta Key, a barrier island in the Gulf of Mexico, just off of Sarasota.  Most of her clients are cats.

A bookstore, a missing cat named Cosmo, a crumbling mansion.

It is a light read, not to be taken too seriously, but I enjoyed it.  This one was written by John Clement after the death of his mother, and evidently some devoted fans of the series are disappointed with this novel; others appear to like it just fine.

Since I haven't read any others in the series, I have no opinion on that score.  It provided me with a few hours of entertainment while I imagined myself sipping margaritas under a beach umbrella on Siesta Key.

Read in July

Cozy Myster.  July 8, 2014.  318 pages.

The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic by Emily Croy Barker is described as "Fun, Seductive, and Utterly Engrossing" by Deborah Harkness in a blurb.  Huh?  In fact, the book has garnered quite a few glowing descriptions, but I'm at a loss to see why.

It is long and slow and did not have much to do with the title.  There were a few interesting sections interspersed with the tedium.  Remember this is just my opinion.  I read the entire thing, but had to read other books in between, only coming back to it when I had nothing much else to read.

In spite of positive blurbs from many sources including Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and Library Journal, I was glad to see that many actual readers found it as disappointing as I did.  You can check Goodread Reviews to see the wide variety of opinions. 

Read in Aug.

Fantasy.  Aug. 1, 2014.  577 (endless) pages.

The Marco Effect by Jussi Adler-Olsen

The Marco Effect 

In 2011, I received Mercy an ARC by Jussi Adler-Olsen, (title later changed to The Keeper of Lost Causes). 
 I reviewed it here.  It was the first in the series about Department Q, Detective Carl Morck, and his assistant Assad.  The book is an excellent example of Nordic Noir, but with some very humorous twists.

The first book gives the background of Department Q and  Carl Morck.  Morck is a troublesome policeman at best, and in the first novel, he is far from his best.  A recent murder investigation left one of his team members dead, another paralyzed, and Morck himself  wounded.  His former enthusiasm for his job has vanished.

Located in the basement, Dept. Q has (ostensibly) been created to deal with cold cases, but actually the creation of Dept. Q provides an excuse to keep Morck out of the way and gain funds for the department.  Morck is happy with this arrangement and fully intends to take advantage of the situation and do as little as possible.  Problem:  Assad just won't leave those case files alone.  It was a great book, sad and terrifying in places and laugh-out-loud or chuckle quietly in others.  

I was delighted to receive The Marco Effect through NetGalley and to continue the adventures of Morck and Assad (and I still have to catch up on several more Dept. Q books that I've missed.)  In this fifth book, he has another assistant:  Rosie, who joins the freaks in the basement and fits right in.

The plot:  Marco is fifteen and part of a Rom family of thieves, but he has been unhappy with his situation for some time.  The cruelties of his uncle bother him, and when he runs afoul of his Uncle Zola, discovering some terrible secrets, Marco goes on the run to prevent...well, I'd better not say.  At any rate, Zola wants Marco silenced at all costs, but Zola isn't the only one who wants Marco dead.

Morck, Assad, and Rosie are working on the cold case of a missing civil servant, and eventually it turns out that Marco knows something about the case.  Corruption, embezzlement, and murder--and a fifteen-year-old kid running for his life.

What I liked:  I really liked the characters.  Adler-Olsen runs the gamut with his characters from the good guys to the bad guys.   I love Adler-Olsen's style--he really draws me into both characters and plot.  The humor in this one is somewhat less than in the first in the series, but Assad still trumps in this department.  Plenty of suspenseful situations.

My only (tiny) complaint concerns Marco's ability to outwit all the forces against him, again and again.  It was great for awhile, and I was cheering him on, but an awful lot of the novel focuses on his evasions--of not only Zola's gang, but everyone else who is searching for him, and it is hard to believe that even a brilliant youngster could escape all the evil forces hunting him for so long.  The scenes were remarkably suspenseful, but there were too many of them.

Highly recommended.  If you like great crime fiction you really should give Jussi Adler-Olsen a try.  I'm fixin' to add the ones I've missed to my list y'all--even if I have to pay for them.  And you know I don't like to pay for books.  I read too many and can't afford it.  

Read in Aug.; blog post scheduled for September.

NetGalley/Penguin Group/Dutton

Scandinavian Crime.  Sept. 9, 2014.  Print length:  496 pages

Bad Wolf by Nele Neuhause

I haven't read Snow White Must Die, so I didn't know what to expect in Bad Wolf.  The novels are being translated into English out of sequence, and Snow White Must Die was the first in the series to be translated.  Bad Wolf is the second.  I always wonder how the publishers decide the order in which to translate and release a series of foreign novels....

Bad Wolf is one of those crime/police procedural novels that deal with a horrific topic--the sexual and physical abuse of children.   In this case, although detailed descriptions are quickly glossed over, the level of abuse disgusts and dismays the reader.  The violence to adult women, however, is much more detailed and just as disturbing.  My usual complaint about graphic violence remains in state.

The novel does have a complex plot that ties together a great many different characters and their often unknowing connections to the international porn ring; however, there is a disjointed feeling in the quick changes from character to character that may be a result of translation...or not.

The clues to those responsible are given early, so the reader has a good idea of at least a portion of the resolution, but the novel feels too long, occasionally losing intensity.

I still intend to read Snow White Must Die at some point and then decide whether or not I want to continue with the series.  Perhaps it is just the treatment of children and the feeling of dragging out the situation that made this novel less appealing to me.  

------------
Note: 
I read wrote this review in November, 2013, and on Dec. 14-- read Iliana's review of Snow White Must Die; second thoughts about reading it.

NetGalley/St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books

Crime.  Jan. 21, 2014.  Print version:  416 pages.

Where Monsters Dwell by Jorgen Brekke

Where Monsters Dwell is another dark Scandanavian crime novel.  I almost abandoned this one because the beginning was both violent and disjointed, moving back and forth from past to present, from country to country, and from character to character feeling interrupted again and again.

Before I abandoned it, however, I checked some reviews and saw that many readers commented that the book got better and picked up speed.

Glad I checked, because there was, indeed, an improvement when the story settled in Norway.  From that point, the characterization developed and the murder investigation became more cohesive.  

Nevertheless, some of the violence falls into that "what can be more shocking than a simple murder?" zone.  Part of the graphic violence is necessary to the basic plot, I admit, but I do hope this author will refrain from this kind of unnecessary shock effect in the future because he does have the ability to create interesting characters and to tell a good story after he settles down to the current murder investigation.  The bits thrown in to meet certain current expectations of sensational crime novels (over-the-top murders and sexual content) are more distracting than compelling.

His best success lies in the characterization of the Norwegian detective Odd Singsaker and suspect Jon Vatten.  These two characters pretty much steal the show.  He also succeeds in the addition of literary elements including rare book collections and libraries.  Well, of course, authors, books, and libraries are always a high point for me.

The role of American detective Felicia Stone feels somewhat incidental.  Her purpose is to unite the two countries in their investigation of two sensational murders, but she never comes fully realized as a character.  The bit about her personal background is one of those elements that is digressive, unpleasant, and distracting.

Something I really liked is the development of detective Odd Singsaker; he is, despite a recent brain tumor, separation from his wife, and a job that can be depressing, not a Harry Hole.  In fact, one of my favorite parts is the reference to a drunken detective who solved a serial murder case in Australia.  Always fun to see authors acknowledge other authors and characters.

One event especially bothered me and felt dropped in and unresolved.  The suicide of the book conservator....  Noted, not really explained and in no way developed the plot.

Final evaluation:  After a poor and violent beginning, the novel began to move swiftly and my interest increased, and I felt more involved with both characters and plot.  

Where Monsters Dwell has also been published under the title Where Evil Lies.

NetGalley/St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books

Crime/Police Procedural.  Feb. 11, 2014.  Print version:  368 pages.  

Strange Bird by Anna Jansson

Strange Bird  is an ARC sent by Meryl Zegarek.  The book is the first in Jansson's series featuring detective Maria Wern to be translated to English.  (Translation by Paul Norlen.)  

I'm already a great fan of Scandinavian crime novels, and more than happy to add a new author to my list.

Opening lines:
"Ruben Nilsson stepped into the summer twilight to tap his pipe out against the railing of the porch.  If he had known how few hours he had left to live, perhaps his priorities would have been different."

Gotland, Sweden's largest island, is about to feel the effects of a pandemic.  Ruben Nilsson raises homing pigeons and has been preparing for an upcoming race, but when he discovers a strange pigeon, Ruben includes it in his flock.

Bird flu has found its way onto the island and the deaths will begin to mount.  Ruben's neighbor is a cook at a soccer camp, soon the children and their coach will be at risk.  A friend of Ruben's is a taxi driver--and a busy one.  The threat expands.  

In addition to the panic inspired by the flu, Maria has a murder case to pursue.  Both the effects of bird flu on the island and the murder investigation are riveting.  The book is certainly a suspenseful page turner.

The characters are well-rounded and believable.  The plot has implications for both national and local governments concerning the possibility of a flu pandemic of any kind.  The Spanish flu of 1918 infected 500 million people world wide and killed 50-100 million of them; it is considered one of the deadliest natural disasters in human history. In a world where travel is so easy and so frequent, a flu virus would have easy access to world populations.  And flu viruses mutate so vaccines present a problem.

I found this quote one a crime website:   
"It is well written, well thought out and unpleasantly believable. One of my favorite Swedish crime novels."     Dagens Nyheter

That pretty much sums up my feelings.  Highly recommended!

Scandinavian Crime.  Sept. 10, 2013.  334 pages.
ISBN-10: 9187173956