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bucherca49's review against another edition
4.0
This book was hard to put down. I especially liked the twist at the very end, which I was not expecting. Anna Fekete is an interesting detective, an immigrant, who is paired with a partner, Esko, who is both racist and sexist. The plot has to do with immigrants to Finland, and Anna is herself an immigrant, who came to Finland as a young child, fleeing the wars in the Balkans.
aliceofbattenberg's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Violence, and Murder
lostinthelibrary's review
3.0
A pretty standard thriller/crime novel. The identity of both the killer and the person sending the texts was a bit of a cop out in my opinion but I liked the protagonist so I'll probably give this series another shot.
keeperofpages's review against another edition
4.0
A lovely dose of Scandinavian crime fiction – set in Finland, this is the first book in Hiekkapelto’s Anna Fekete series.
This is one of those books that gets better as the story progresses, the pace is not particularly fast; we’re not given any massive clues regarding the case along the way, with several red herrings thown in, this case really does seem unsolvable. The pace picked up in the last third and I found this to be the most gripping part of the book, although after a slow build up, I do think things came to a head pretty quickly at the end.
More interesting than the case itself, for me, was the personalities of the detectives. They were all well-developed characters and I enjoyed getting to know their individual personalities, reading their interactions with each other and learning about their personal lives. I absolutely loved Anna’s backstory, fleeing to Finland from a war-torn Yugoslavia as a young girl, she has a complex backstory which we are given an insight into. Throughout this case, Anna has to deal with the comments and actions of her openly racist partner, Esko. I really like Anna but at times during the read I would get so frustrated with her, if I was the kind of person to shout at fictional characters, she would have gotten an earful from me about standing up for herself and not taking any of Esko’s rubbish. New to the job or not, somethings you just don’t tolerate, and urgh, Esko, what a despicable man!
Alongside the main case, Anna is increasingly concerned about Bihar, a Kurdish refugee, whom she believes is at risk from her family of becoming a victim of an honour killing. The voice of Bihar is interspersed throughout the book as she tells her story in her own voice. These were my favourite parts of the book, this first-person account gives the book an additional chill factor and I too became increasing worried about Bihar. Without giving anything away, I really like the way this subplot concluded.
Overall, this is a good start to a crime series and I’m looking forward to reading book 2: The Defenceless. As always, credit to David Hackston for a wonderful job translating this book.
This is one of those books that gets better as the story progresses, the pace is not particularly fast; we’re not given any massive clues regarding the case along the way, with several red herrings thown in, this case really does seem unsolvable. The pace picked up in the last third and I found this to be the most gripping part of the book, although after a slow build up, I do think things came to a head pretty quickly at the end.
More interesting than the case itself, for me, was the personalities of the detectives. They were all well-developed characters and I enjoyed getting to know their individual personalities, reading their interactions with each other and learning about their personal lives. I absolutely loved Anna’s backstory, fleeing to Finland from a war-torn Yugoslavia as a young girl, she has a complex backstory which we are given an insight into. Throughout this case, Anna has to deal with the comments and actions of her openly racist partner, Esko. I really like Anna but at times during the read I would get so frustrated with her, if I was the kind of person to shout at fictional characters, she would have gotten an earful from me about standing up for herself and not taking any of Esko’s rubbish. New to the job or not, somethings you just don’t tolerate, and urgh, Esko, what a despicable man!
Alongside the main case, Anna is increasingly concerned about Bihar, a Kurdish refugee, whom she believes is at risk from her family of becoming a victim of an honour killing. The voice of Bihar is interspersed throughout the book as she tells her story in her own voice. These were my favourite parts of the book, this first-person account gives the book an additional chill factor and I too became increasing worried about Bihar. Without giving anything away, I really like the way this subplot concluded.
Overall, this is a good start to a crime series and I’m looking forward to reading book 2: The Defenceless. As always, credit to David Hackston for a wonderful job translating this book.
sookieskipper's review
While the characterization is fascinating, the actual crime part stumbles and the dual story lines don't really converge well. The main character provides an interesting point of view, being an immigrant in a fairly homogeneous society like Finland. The readers observe the society around her - the way her coworkers react and interact, and how the crime in itself is perceived.
Its an interesting read thought the crime part of it crumbles.
Its an interesting read thought the crime part of it crumbles.
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