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bookgardendc's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
lori85's review against another edition
4.0
My first venture into Sweden's celebrated mystery scene. Sun and Shadow is set in September 1999 through January 2000. Anyone old enough will remember the excitement for the approaching millennium tinged with fear of a Y2K disaster. Although the latter is never mentioned, a sense of disquiet underlies the city of Göteborg (Gothenburg) that is further heightened by a horrifying double murder. A couple has been found dead in their apartment, their heads removed and switched, with the proverbial message in blood on the wall. Enter the appropriately-named Erik Winter, the youngest police chief in Sweden, currently dealing with his father's death and girlfriend Angela's pregnancy.
Sun and Shadow is distinctively northern in mood: cool and stark. Walking the line between contemporary and historical fiction, it has the feel of another era when the world stood waiting with both dread and anticipation. The murders and the ominous events surrounding them play off one another as a series of doubles: the Scandinavian cold and Spanish heat, Winter's hopefulness and another's despondence, family happiness and family dysfunction, birth and death. While daily life goes on, Göteborg has its seamy side as well: alcoholism, swingers, and expressions of violence in morbid fashion shoots and that characteristic Scandinavian metal, which by the way I love. The killer apparently has a fetish some obscure band described as "[sounding] like something from another world" with a drummer "having an epileptic fit" and a cement mixer thrown in.
Those wondering how a peaceful land like Sweden ever produced such music may also wonder at the explosion of Scandinavian crime/detective fiction (thanks in no small part to Stieg Larsson). Critics have pointed to the perceived failure of the welfare state and immigration as popular inspiration, evoking wealthy, progressive countries floating atop turbulent undercurrents. Despite its cast of middle-class native Swedes, Sun and Shadow reveals these tensions as well. A good snowy day book, but a literary one.
Original Review
Sun and Shadow is distinctively northern in mood: cool and stark. Walking the line between contemporary and historical fiction, it has the feel of another era when the world stood waiting with both dread and anticipation. The murders and the ominous events surrounding them play off one another as a series of doubles: the Scandinavian cold and Spanish heat, Winter's hopefulness and another's despondence, family happiness and family dysfunction, birth and death. While daily life goes on, Göteborg has its seamy side as well: alcoholism, swingers, and expressions of violence in morbid fashion shoots and that characteristic Scandinavian metal, which by the way I love. The killer apparently has a fetish some obscure band described as "[sounding] like something from another world" with a drummer "having an epileptic fit" and a cement mixer thrown in.
Those wondering how a peaceful land like Sweden ever produced such music may also wonder at the explosion of Scandinavian crime/detective fiction (thanks in no small part to Stieg Larsson). Critics have pointed to the perceived failure of the welfare state and immigration as popular inspiration, evoking wealthy, progressive countries floating atop turbulent undercurrents. Despite its cast of middle-class native Swedes, Sun and Shadow reveals these tensions as well. A good snowy day book, but a literary one.
Original Review
nokisuu's review against another edition
3.0
I tried to read this book in order to find out if I still dislike Swedish detective stories and yes, I do. I found it boring but it may be the Finnish translation which was pretty poor (I begun to translate the text back to Swedish in my head just to understand what they meant). It was good read for public transportation which was what I needed it for.
krobart's review against another edition
3.0
Erik Winter investigates a case where two people were murdered and their heads exchanged. Edwardson's mysteries are different because they attempt to show the actual time and work it takes to close these types of cases.
See my complete review here:
http://whatmeread.wordpress.com/tag/sun-and-shadow/
See my complete review here:
http://whatmeread.wordpress.com/tag/sun-and-shadow/
deborahmaryrose's review against another edition
5.0
A wonderful first book by this author with compelling characters and a complicated, many layered plot. I look forward to reading the subsequent novels featuring the same character(s).
kcfromaustcrime's review against another edition
3.0
Erik Winter is the youngest chief inspector in Sweden. He's quite the snappy dresser, an intuitive if slightly moody cop, consumed with his job and with his very pregnant girlfriend. When his father has a massive heart attack in Spain, he is pulled away from his job to spend a little time with him before he dies. His time in Spain is very conflicted, a completely different culture and experience which his parents have embraced totally, away from his girlfriend and his job, he's lost and uncomfortable. When he returns, a particularly gruesome double murder, almost on his doorstep drags Winter and his team into the cult world of Gothic music and ultimately, adult games.
At the same time, his girlfriend has moved in and they are preparing for the birth of their baby when anonymous phone calls and strange noises outside their apartment late at night start to worry both of them.
This is an intricate, complicated, layered book which builds slowly to an intense and rapid conclusion. There are many contrasts between the characters in the book, with a rich cast of supporting characters - both from the police and Winter's own family, as well as witnesses that are drawn into the story as the investigation proceeds.
Classic Scandinavian crime fiction, well-paced, textured, thoughtful and compelling.
At the same time, his girlfriend has moved in and they are preparing for the birth of their baby when anonymous phone calls and strange noises outside their apartment late at night start to worry both of them.
This is an intricate, complicated, layered book which builds slowly to an intense and rapid conclusion. There are many contrasts between the characters in the book, with a rich cast of supporting characters - both from the police and Winter's own family, as well as witnesses that are drawn into the story as the investigation proceeds.
Classic Scandinavian crime fiction, well-paced, textured, thoughtful and compelling.
jacqui_des's review against another edition
2.0
Memorable Quotes
"The hell that is Christmas is once more upon us."
samarazhl's review against another edition
1.0
THE WORST BOOK I‘VE EVER READ. Tbh, I just picked it from my bookshelf because of the cover, I still love it. But wtf was that. I can’t even remember the crime, not a good sign, right ? BUT I remember how f*cking stupid the end was. What the hell was the motive ??? How the hell did they found out ??? WHO IS HE??? Honestly I. Hate. It. I‘m so sorry :((( Still, I got the other parts of the series on my bookshelf ( I found them in somewhere in our house ) but I don’t think I will ever read them. Well maybe one, everybody, even authors, deserve a second chance. But please, if you liked this book, don’t ever dare to talk or even DISCUSS with me about it.
plantbirdwoman's review against another edition
2.0
This is apparently the third book in Ake Edwardson's Erik Winter series, but it was the first one to be translated into English from the original Swedish and so was the first one I was able to read. This put me a bit at sea as a reader because there were frequent references throughout the book to events that had happened earlier and that were, I suppose, covered in the other books. I had to guess at their significance.
Another problem that I had with the book was its formatting in Kindle. Edwardson switches back and forth with the voice in which the story is told, almost from paragraph to paragraph at times. We'll get a few paragraphs of things from Erik Winter's perspective. Then we may hear from his girlfriend, Angela, or from one of the policemen with whom he works. That's not a problem except that there is almost always no break to show the change in voice. So I'm reading along thinking that I'm still hearing Erik Winter's thoughts and suddenly I realize that the perspective has changed and this is someone else's mind that I'm in. Really, would it have killed them to put a double space between paragraphs that represent a change in perspective? It certainly would have lessened my confusion.
And, as long as I'm putting my quibbles with the book up front, Edwardson's narrative style seems passive in the extreme. I'm not one who glories in reading the minute blood and guts details of horrible murders, but it does help the reader, I think, to at least be told in the most matter of fact way possible just what has happened to the victim(s). Here, we have a couple, murdered in their home, who apparently had their heads cut off and stuck on the top of each others' bodies, but this comes out ever so slowly and haltingly in the narrative. When the police arrive on the scene, it is merely hinted at but never stated. Later, another couple is attacked in their home and the man is killed, but, for some unknown reason, the murderer doesn't finish the job on the woman. She is grievously injured - apparently - but we are never told what her injuries are.
And in the ending of the story, we have the hero's pregnant girlfriend kidnapped and held captive for days and (Spoiler alert!) finally rescued unharmed, but we get no details of that kidnapping or the rescue. We are simply told that it happened. Very frustrating for the reader. At least for this reader.
In addition, the story goes a bit off track early on with a subplot concerning Erik Winter's parents who have retired to Costa del Sol in Spain. His father suffers a health emergency and Erik goes there to be with them and the story just seems to meander along without any real purpose. I assume this was intended to more fully flesh out the character of Erik in the reader's mind. But the digression goes on too long for my taste and didn't add much to the story.
When Erik returns to Sweden, he has the further personal complications of his doctor girlfriend, who is pregnant with their first child, getting ready to move in with him, even though she obviously has reservations. And then almost immediately he is plunged into the investigation of the gruesome murders.
This is certainly very different from every other Swedish or Scandinavian murder mystery/thriller that I've read in that it is told in such a passive voice. While that isn't necessarily a bad thing, Edwardson's iteration of it didn't catch my imagination. The book was okay, but just that.
Another problem that I had with the book was its formatting in Kindle. Edwardson switches back and forth with the voice in which the story is told, almost from paragraph to paragraph at times. We'll get a few paragraphs of things from Erik Winter's perspective. Then we may hear from his girlfriend, Angela, or from one of the policemen with whom he works. That's not a problem except that there is almost always no break to show the change in voice. So I'm reading along thinking that I'm still hearing Erik Winter's thoughts and suddenly I realize that the perspective has changed and this is someone else's mind that I'm in. Really, would it have killed them to put a double space between paragraphs that represent a change in perspective? It certainly would have lessened my confusion.
And, as long as I'm putting my quibbles with the book up front, Edwardson's narrative style seems passive in the extreme. I'm not one who glories in reading the minute blood and guts details of horrible murders, but it does help the reader, I think, to at least be told in the most matter of fact way possible just what has happened to the victim(s). Here, we have a couple, murdered in their home, who apparently had their heads cut off and stuck on the top of each others' bodies, but this comes out ever so slowly and haltingly in the narrative. When the police arrive on the scene, it is merely hinted at but never stated. Later, another couple is attacked in their home and the man is killed, but, for some unknown reason, the murderer doesn't finish the job on the woman. She is grievously injured - apparently - but we are never told what her injuries are.
And in the ending of the story, we have the hero's pregnant girlfriend kidnapped and held captive for days and (Spoiler alert!) finally rescued unharmed, but we get no details of that kidnapping or the rescue. We are simply told that it happened. Very frustrating for the reader. At least for this reader.
In addition, the story goes a bit off track early on with a subplot concerning Erik Winter's parents who have retired to Costa del Sol in Spain. His father suffers a health emergency and Erik goes there to be with them and the story just seems to meander along without any real purpose. I assume this was intended to more fully flesh out the character of Erik in the reader's mind. But the digression goes on too long for my taste and didn't add much to the story.
When Erik returns to Sweden, he has the further personal complications of his doctor girlfriend, who is pregnant with their first child, getting ready to move in with him, even though she obviously has reservations. And then almost immediately he is plunged into the investigation of the gruesome murders.
This is certainly very different from every other Swedish or Scandinavian murder mystery/thriller that I've read in that it is told in such a passive voice. While that isn't necessarily a bad thing, Edwardson's iteration of it didn't catch my imagination. The book was okay, but just that.