nonna7's review against another edition
4.0
Reading Scandinavian fiction is nearly always an interesting change from American/British mysteries and police procedurals. For one thing, there is very little gun play. When a police officer shoots and/or kills a suspect, it is a big deal. Irene Huss is a complex character. A woman who comes from a working class family has been a police officer since she was a young woman. Her husband is a talented chef. They have two grown daughters. Irene is devoted to her family, but also to her job.
If the author is to be believed (and I have no doubt that she did her research), Sweden is something of a microcosm of crime throughout the western world: gangs, the usual day to day crime and internet sex crimes. Someone is targeting vulnerable young girls, chatting them up, telling them they love them, encouraging them to send pictures with their breasts exposed.
Two girls have been murdered. When the older sister of a young girl who has been targeted brings her to the police, the girl finally realizes that she has just barely escaped being raped and murdered. This is a long term investigation. As the year goes on the team takes their vacations and continues to investigate.
At the same time there is a cold case team investigating a body found walled up in the basement of a building that was being torn down. There is also a "treacherous net" involved in this murder as it turns out. It was a net of spies and counter spies from WWII.
These books are not for the reader who is looking for a lot of action. There are slow areas when the author wanders into personal territory. Personally I don't think the author is as good when she goes into more personal territory. There seems to be a disconnect in the writing except when the personal information concerns her job. Still, this is an excellent series. I've missed a few and am working to fix that. This has become one of my favorite series.
If the author is to be believed (and I have no doubt that she did her research), Sweden is something of a microcosm of crime throughout the western world: gangs, the usual day to day crime and internet sex crimes. Someone is targeting vulnerable young girls, chatting them up, telling them they love them, encouraging them to send pictures with their breasts exposed.
Two girls have been murdered. When the older sister of a young girl who has been targeted brings her to the police, the girl finally realizes that she has just barely escaped being raped and murdered. This is a long term investigation. As the year goes on the team takes their vacations and continues to investigate.
At the same time there is a cold case team investigating a body found walled up in the basement of a building that was being torn down. There is also a "treacherous net" involved in this murder as it turns out. It was a net of spies and counter spies from WWII.
These books are not for the reader who is looking for a lot of action. There are slow areas when the author wanders into personal territory. Personally I don't think the author is as good when she goes into more personal territory. There seems to be a disconnect in the writing except when the personal information concerns her job. Still, this is an excellent series. I've missed a few and am working to fix that. This has become one of my favorite series.
michaelnlibrarian's review
3.0
I have read several of the Helen Tursten "Inspector Huss" detective (police procedural) novels. They are uncomplicated examples of Scandanavian fiction of this type that had a surge in popularity a few years ago and thus is often translated into English (albeit with some delay).
This book was published in Swedish in 2009. It was published in English in 2015 and then I'm only getting around to reading it in 2020 - what is significant about all this is that the "net" is referencing the internet and some of what is described has already changed significantly, which makes a few aspects seem odd since I at least almost immediately forget the internet reality of a few years ago having acclimated to whatever my situation is with it now, so to speak.
Following the police procedural approach of the Swedish Martin Beck series of the 1960s (and others) there are two main crime story lines plus the usual story line of the relationships of the detectives to one another and the main character Huss with her family. It probably makes sense to read these in order but as is usually the case when getting copies from the public library, it hasn't been a problem to read them out of order.
The author and her main character are women. In this novel, she introduces a new boss who is also a woman, which is an interesting change.
If you like police procedurals, this is good. I didn't give it a higher score because I thought one of the two main story lines was presented in a somewhat clumsy fashion.
This book was published in Swedish in 2009. It was published in English in 2015 and then I'm only getting around to reading it in 2020 - what is significant about all this is that the "net" is referencing the internet and some of what is described has already changed significantly, which makes a few aspects seem odd since I at least almost immediately forget the internet reality of a few years ago having acclimated to whatever my situation is with it now, so to speak.
Following the police procedural approach of the Swedish Martin Beck series of the 1960s (and others) there are two main crime story lines plus the usual story line of the relationships of the detectives to one another and the main character Huss with her family. It probably makes sense to read these in order but as is usually the case when getting copies from the public library, it hasn't been a problem to read them out of order.
The author and her main character are women. In this novel, she introduces a new boss who is also a woman, which is an interesting change.
If you like police procedurals, this is good. I didn't give it a higher score because I thought one of the two main story lines was presented in a somewhat clumsy fashion.
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