Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.27 AVERAGE
3.27 AVERAGE
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
BLUE BLOOD (aka CALL ME PRINCESS) is the debut novel in the Detective Louise Rick series from Danish writer Sara Blaedel. Blaedel is a million copy best-selling author, voted Denmark's most popular novelist three times since 2007, and an international success story.
BLUE BLOOD reads like a traditional police procedural, focused on who perpetrated the crime, and not a lot on why. The initial crime, the vicious beating and rape of a young woman, quickly becomes even more worrying with the sadly preventable death of a second victim, but it does provide the focus - an increasing number of cases that revolve around the internet dating world.
Given the police procedural styling, I was looking at three specific elements - plot / investigation and then characterisations. BLUE BLOOD takes the reader into the world of internet dating and the possible perils, and it uses many of those aspects to have a red hot go at raising some tension. Although, to be honest, the none too subtle way in which potential dangers are raised for Rick, as well as best friend, journalist Camilla did make this reader dubious. Whilst there is a team, and a hierarchy, and a bit of tension between teams chucked into the mix for reasons that I couldn't quite fathom, the main core of the investigation becomes a solo hand pretty quickly. Which didn't actually work that well, as it created a problem with interactions between Rick and the rest of the team that was never really resolved. In fact, most of the other police characters remained very much bit-parts, and somehow floated off to the side. Which leads therefore to characterisation. The focus is very much on the Rick, who is the sort of lead character that is either going to annoy or fascinate. She's an odd combination of intensity and vagueness. Her attempts at victim consolation weren't particularly convincing, and whilst she's obviously driven to resolve the case, there are some things that she seems almost criminally dumb about. Not the least of which is the rapid, and obvious collapse of her personal life, that on one hand she seems quite matter-of-fact about and on another devastated.
All of which makes it sound like I didn't really like the book. Which isn't exactly true. Cutting the requisite slack for a debut book in a series, and some heavy lifting in the character establishment phase as a result of that, there's more than enough in BLUE BLOOD that makes me want to get the next book in the series. The series doesn't feel like it's going to shape shift into the darker, more psychological stylings of my preferred Scandinavian material, but as a general, police procedural styled novel, I don't mind the occasional prickly, difficult, unpredictable female central protagonist at all. Especially as it would appear that the next book, FAREWELL TO FREEDOM is tackling human trafficking, a topic which is increasingly being explored in crime fiction worldwide.
http://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/blue-blood-sara-blaedel
BLUE BLOOD reads like a traditional police procedural, focused on who perpetrated the crime, and not a lot on why. The initial crime, the vicious beating and rape of a young woman, quickly becomes even more worrying with the sadly preventable death of a second victim, but it does provide the focus - an increasing number of cases that revolve around the internet dating world.
Given the police procedural styling, I was looking at three specific elements - plot / investigation and then characterisations. BLUE BLOOD takes the reader into the world of internet dating and the possible perils, and it uses many of those aspects to have a red hot go at raising some tension. Although, to be honest, the none too subtle way in which potential dangers are raised for Rick, as well as best friend, journalist Camilla did make this reader dubious. Whilst there is a team, and a hierarchy, and a bit of tension between teams chucked into the mix for reasons that I couldn't quite fathom, the main core of the investigation becomes a solo hand pretty quickly. Which didn't actually work that well, as it created a problem with interactions between Rick and the rest of the team that was never really resolved. In fact, most of the other police characters remained very much bit-parts, and somehow floated off to the side. Which leads therefore to characterisation. The focus is very much on the Rick, who is the sort of lead character that is either going to annoy or fascinate. She's an odd combination of intensity and vagueness. Her attempts at victim consolation weren't particularly convincing, and whilst she's obviously driven to resolve the case, there are some things that she seems almost criminally dumb about. Not the least of which is the rapid, and obvious collapse of her personal life, that on one hand she seems quite matter-of-fact about and on another devastated.
All of which makes it sound like I didn't really like the book. Which isn't exactly true. Cutting the requisite slack for a debut book in a series, and some heavy lifting in the character establishment phase as a result of that, there's more than enough in BLUE BLOOD that makes me want to get the next book in the series. The series doesn't feel like it's going to shape shift into the darker, more psychological stylings of my preferred Scandinavian material, but as a general, police procedural styled novel, I don't mind the occasional prickly, difficult, unpredictable female central protagonist at all. Especially as it would appear that the next book, FAREWELL TO FREEDOM is tackling human trafficking, a topic which is increasingly being explored in crime fiction worldwide.
http://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/blue-blood-sara-blaedel
Call Me Princess is the first book in Sara Blaedel's Scandinavian series to be translated for the US market. Set in Copenhagen, Denmark, the female lead, (Louise Rick, homicide detective),catches a case involving a date rape from an online dating site. The action begins quickly in this sometimes graphic police procedural. I enjoyed this book and am moving on to the next one.
slow-paced
I kinda want to see more of Camilla ad Louise's friendship. Too many important things are presented in summaries BUT this is a cliffhanger no doubt!!
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The fact I have been reading this for months and am still not done gives you my answer. I really don't care at this point who did it and why. The victim (I can't even remember her name) is a whiny, unsympathetic figure. I'm disappointed, the first Scandinavian crime novel I have not liked and have decided to abandon unfinished.
Interesting plot but I wonder if the writing suffered due to translation? Some parts were repetitive while others skipped ahead quite quickly and I wondered if I missed something. And then it ended super abruptly. To be continued I guess?
Already a firmly established author in her native Denmark with a million plus sales, ‘Blue Blood’ is Sara Blaedel’s debut crime thriller in the UK market. I have to say that I wasn’t completely blown away by it, but would quickly add that there is nothing inherently wrong with it either. Revolving around the investigation of a series of internet dating related rapes ‘Blue Blood’ introduces us to DI Louise Rick, a professional and focused police officer who is portrayed as exactly what she is, a good solid detective. With only a small dose of emotional baggage, that to me didn’t really add anything to the plot, Louise embarks on her search for a particularly sadistic rapist in a clear-sighted and methodical way, and as is usual in most crime thrillers ends up with her facing down the perpetrator with little thought to her own personal safety. I think as a character she probably lacks a certain personal intensity bordering on dull, and even in her relationship with her colleagues there does not seem to be much spark or interesting interaction between them. The only character that really illuminates Louise is her friend Camilla Lind, who for me lit up the book and added a bit of feistiness to the whole proceedings. With her role as a journalist and single mother, Camilla seemed a more vital and interesting character within the story and I enjoyed the interplay between her and the starchy Louise.
The central premise of the plot, centred on the inherent dangers of internet dating, was a trifle pedestrian, but I would counterblance that by saying that due to my reading of an inordinate amount of crime, I have encountered very similar storylines before so it held no great surprises for me personally. However, the plot was solid enough in terms of the police procedural with enough twists to satisfy most. I would probably liken the book to Camilla Lackberg in terms of overall style and characterisation, but would hesitate to draw comparisons with the darker psychological writers of the Scandinavian crime genre which generally appeal to me more.
Despite my reservations I would certainly read Blaedel again, having already acquired a copy of ‘Farewell To Freedom’, again featuring DI Louise Rick and Camilla Lind and focusing on the exploitative world of human trafficking, so will be interested to see how the character of Louise develops in this next book.
The central premise of the plot, centred on the inherent dangers of internet dating, was a trifle pedestrian, but I would counterblance that by saying that due to my reading of an inordinate amount of crime, I have encountered very similar storylines before so it held no great surprises for me personally. However, the plot was solid enough in terms of the police procedural with enough twists to satisfy most. I would probably liken the book to Camilla Lackberg in terms of overall style and characterisation, but would hesitate to draw comparisons with the darker psychological writers of the Scandinavian crime genre which generally appeal to me more.
Despite my reservations I would certainly read Blaedel again, having already acquired a copy of ‘Farewell To Freedom’, again featuring DI Louise Rick and Camilla Lind and focusing on the exploitative world of human trafficking, so will be interested to see how the character of Louise develops in this next book.
challenging
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated