Reviews

Jag hade en kort period av danska deckare nånstans tidigt 00-talet, men fastnade aldrig lika mycket som för de norska, eller för den delen isländska.
Vet inte riktigt om Lund Madsen är representativ för sitt land här, dels då jag upplever berättandet som lite ljusare (trots namnet) och dels för att den ju faktiskt utspelar sig på nämnda Island.
Island funkar som dramakuliss, det vet man ju. Och huvudkaraktären "avdankad författare" funkar också, i alla sin sterotypighet. Visserligen är man less på att alla ska vara så alkoholistiska, men det är väl en enkel "flawed human"-grej att ta till. (Och leder kanske till situationer som inte hade uppstått med nyktra personer?)
Anyway. Hannah är faktiskt lite rolig i sin hårda cynism, vilket räddar upp allt löjligt som händer och som hon gör (löjligt som i "vanlig deckarinnehåll"). Meta-tillägget om fin- och fulkultur är för on-the-nose för att funka för mig, men jag ser vad författarinnan försöker göra, och för någon kanske det tillför nåt?
Rimligt underhållande på rimligt många nivåer! (även om "Bästa danska deckare" på omslaget kanske inte får mig att vända mig över sundet för just deckare framöver)

thesapphiccelticbookworm's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Content Warnings

unnamur's review

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

2.5

texreader's review

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adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

A hoity-toity unlikeable Danish prose writer takes on a dare to write a simple mindless crime novel in 30 days. Her agent thinking this will sell more of her books finds a quiet place in Iceland to send her for a month to write the book. Surprise! Someone is promptly murdered. So this idiot, disagreeable woman decided she’d play detective. She’s so obnoxious I truly wanted to bail, but the writing was excellent and the mystery compelling. I learned about living in a frighteningly cold environment & what happens when a lengthy blizzard hits. I learned how difficult small towns in this environment can affect folks who are different. The book is too long, and the troublesome main character takes far too long to start developing some common sense and humanity (almost 300 pages into a 400-page book). But it’s still a good book and I’m not disappointed having read it.

jaymc's review

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fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I found this book and the deeply unlikable main character so annoying. It must have been doing something right as I read to the end, but generally I found it full of underdeveloped ideas and characters, lacking in the atmosphere the title and blurb promised, and not half as clever or funny as it thought it was.

It either leant into the supposed 'meta' element of a crime novel about writing a crime novel too much, and smacked you about the head with very obvious and superficial ideas/references - or not enough, and the ridiculous things the main character was doing just came off as poorly thought out writing/plotting choices.

I rolled my eyes so hard at the ending, which just seemed like a hasty way of wrapping things up because the crime part was done and they remembered there's supposed to be some sort of character development goes on in novels too. You know what, now I've written this out I'm mad again and I'm taking it down another star, I was too cowardly going in at 3.

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