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3.78 AVERAGE
3.78 AVERAGE
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It could have been shorter, everything was very predictable since the beginning.
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
I ❤ this series and am so glad my library has all of them. Now I just need to figure out the order of the books : )
The translation makes a few passages a little hard to read and Sweden's police procedures are very different from ours but the story/mystery is excellent.
The translation makes a few passages a little hard to read and Sweden's police procedures are very different from ours but the story/mystery is excellent.
I continue to like this series. Although this particular story started a bit slowly and I began to wonder if anything was really going to happen, it eventually did get more interesting. I suspected the outcome, but it really wasn't until the end that it became clear. I think that is one criticism of this author - as a reader, you aren't given information as it's uncovered. Instead, Erica, the protagonist keeps her discoveries to herself, even to the extent that she doesn't share her knowledge with her police officer husband. It can be a bit annoying to be always kept in the dark, but ultimately, I still enjoy the series despite this.
The writing in these books is excellent, but they are often too wordy. Not much happens until everything happens. There is too much emphasis on the protagonists' personal situations that often seems to have little to do with the actual story. The artifice of the wife of the police inspector having the means and gall to solve these crimes is too trite, and too boring. This is the third of these I've read and will be the last.
Wow! I've always thought that Laeckberg was good, but this is truly one of the very best books in Scandinavian crime thriller literature. Why haven't ALL the Patrik Hedstroem books been translated yet??
Njä.... det var okej antar jag, men inget imponerande. Det är sjätte boken i serien, och första jag har läst. Jag undrar om det är en del av problemet. Det tog ett tag innan jag fattade vem alla slumpmässiga figurerna var, och deras förhållande med varann. Kanske om jag hade läst andra fem böckerna skulle jag vara inne deras historia, och inte bara mordutredningen för denna bok. Men för min del kändes det väldigt seg, och började komma igång 200 sidor in.... som är en lång tid att vänta.
Den utspelar sig i Bohuslän, och polisen i Tanumshede, någonstans vi besökte i fjöl. Dock det finns ingen känsla av plats i denna boken. Christian har släppt sina första bok, som är succee. Hans vän Magnus har varit försvunnen i några månader, sedan dyker han upp, fastfrusen i isen. Då får vi redo på att Christian har fått hotbrev i över ett år. Kan det vara en koppling??
Det verkar som om huvudfigurerna är Patrik, polismupp, och Erica, som är hans hustru och någonslags skribent-journalist-scooby-doo-wannabe. Hon är inte polis som jag fattar det. Hon blev alltmer irriterande, att snoka i polis filer, att åka ut själv för att intervjuar vittnar i fallet utan att berätta för någon.... vem tror hon att hon är?? Hon behandlar sina vänner som bebisar. När hon får redo på att Christian har fått hotbrev, ignorerar hon honom när han säger att han inte vill göra något åt det. Han är vuxen, jo, han gör misstag kanske, men han har rätt att göra sina misstager. Istället snor Erica breven, ringa och babbla allt till hans literäragent (och är överraskad när det finns i tidning nästa dag!!!) och rapportera det till polisen.
Boken slutar på en cliffhanger, och jag märkte att jag faktiskt har bok sju någonstans i huset. Men jag vet inte om jag bryr mig. Får se om jag läser den.
SPOILERS SPOILERS
Okej, jag måste gnälla lite nu, men hur dum är polisen i hennes bok? Jag vet att de måste missa grejer eller bli lite seg så att det blir spänning i boken. Men att i båda sjöjungfru- och tidigare göteborgsfall blir Christian aldrig misstänkt... jag fattar inte. Det var självklart tidigt att han var en som kunde ha gjort det, eller egentligen den enda som kunde, men de tänker aldrig på det. Den enklaste förklaring är oftast den rätta som de säger. Också säger de ingen eld utan rök.
Christian hade tuff uppväxt, och det blev obekvämt läsning i vissa ögonblick. I särskilt försökte bebismord, och sedan när hans biologiska mor dog och han var, som treåring, fast i huset med liket. Vi har nyss haft ett liknande fall här i Storbritannien i nyheterna, med en två åring och sin pappa som dog av hjärtinfakt under julperioden. Men tyvärr slutade denna historia helt sorgligt.
Den utspelar sig i Bohuslän, och polisen i Tanumshede, någonstans vi besökte i fjöl. Dock det finns ingen känsla av plats i denna boken. Christian har släppt sina första bok, som är succee. Hans vän Magnus har varit försvunnen i några månader, sedan dyker han upp, fastfrusen i isen. Då får vi redo på att Christian har fått hotbrev i över ett år. Kan det vara en koppling??
Det verkar som om huvudfigurerna är Patrik, polismupp, och Erica, som är hans hustru och någonslags skribent-journalist-scooby-doo-wannabe. Hon är inte polis som jag fattar det. Hon blev alltmer irriterande, att snoka i polis filer, att åka ut själv för att intervjuar vittnar i fallet utan att berätta för någon.... vem tror hon att hon är?? Hon behandlar sina vänner som bebisar. När hon får redo på att Christian har fått hotbrev, ignorerar hon honom när han säger att han inte vill göra något åt det. Han är vuxen, jo, han gör misstag kanske, men han har rätt att göra sina misstager. Istället snor Erica breven, ringa och babbla allt till hans literäragent (och är överraskad när det finns i tidning nästa dag!!!) och rapportera det till polisen.
Boken slutar på en cliffhanger, och jag märkte att jag faktiskt har bok sju någonstans i huset. Men jag vet inte om jag bryr mig. Får se om jag läser den.
SPOILERS SPOILERS
Okej, jag måste gnälla lite nu, men hur dum är polisen i hennes bok? Jag vet att de måste missa grejer eller bli lite seg så att det blir spänning i boken. Men att i båda sjöjungfru- och tidigare göteborgsfall blir Christian aldrig misstänkt... jag fattar inte. Det var självklart tidigt att han var en som kunde ha gjort det, eller egentligen den enda som kunde, men de tänker aldrig på det. Den enklaste förklaring är oftast den rätta som de säger. Också säger de ingen eld utan rök.
Christian hade tuff uppväxt, och det blev obekvämt läsning i vissa ögonblick. I särskilt försökte bebismord, och sedan när hans biologiska mor dog och han var, som treåring, fast i huset med liket. Vi har nyss haft ett liknande fall här i Storbritannien i nyheterna, med en två åring och sin pappa som dog av hjärtinfakt under julperioden. Men tyvärr slutade denna historia helt sorgligt.
3.5 stars
*Contains spoilers*
Christian Thydell has just published his first novel to great acclaim, but he doesn’t seem particularly happy about it. His friend Erica Falck discovers he’s been receiving threatening letters for the past 18 months, and quickly tells her husband Patrik Hedström about it, and Patrik eventually links them to the recent murder or Christian’s friends Magnuss. Soon others of Christian’s friends are threatened or hurt, and Patrik and Erica have to work quickly to unravel Christian’s past to find the culprit.
This is the first one in the series I read, #6, so understandably there were lots of characters to keep track of and inside stories they talked about as if the reader already knew about, but this was my own fault for not starting at the beginning. And everything important was explained just enough that I never felt lost. I wonder how much of it was summarizing the last books and how annoying that is when you’ve already read them.
The mystery was quite good, I actually didn’t guess who it was until near the end. I’d guessed the bit of text in italics we were getting between chapters weren’t parts of Christian’s novel but actual flashbacks. Maybe that wasn’t supposed to be a secret though.
I quickly got annoyed at all the cliffhangers though. On the one hand it makes for a quick read because you never want to stop, but on the other you just want to scream at the characters to SPIT IT OUT ALREADY! The chapters are constructed of bits of POV of a bunch of different characters, and it feels like every one of them finishes on a cliffhanger that won’t get resolved until the next time that character’s POV appears. If then. Because there’s a lot of narration to cover up dialogues. “Christian spent hours telling Sanna his secret.” And then Sanna tells Erica, Erica tells Patrik, and nobody tells the reader until the conclusion when it doesn’t matter anymore.
I’d like to thank the author for now confusing schizophrenia and dissociative personality disorder, though. I learned recently that they don’t necessarily go together, so when I saw where the ending was going to be I got a bit scared, but it was well done (to my non-psychiatric-but-knows-the-difference-kinda eyes at least!)
One thing I’m not 100% clear about though is whether Christian knew he was The Mermaid or seriously thought it was somebody else?
I did enjoy it overall enough that I'll probably eventually go back to the start of the series.
*Contains spoilers*
Christian Thydell has just published his first novel to great acclaim, but he doesn’t seem particularly happy about it. His friend Erica Falck discovers he’s been receiving threatening letters for the past 18 months, and quickly tells her husband Patrik Hedström about it, and Patrik eventually links them to the recent murder or Christian’s friends Magnuss. Soon others of Christian’s friends are threatened or hurt, and Patrik and Erica have to work quickly to unravel Christian’s past to find the culprit.
This is the first one in the series I read, #6, so understandably there were lots of characters to keep track of and inside stories they talked about as if the reader already knew about, but this was my own fault for not starting at the beginning. And everything important was explained just enough that I never felt lost. I wonder how much of it was summarizing the last books and how annoying that is when you’ve already read them.
The mystery was quite good, I actually didn’t guess who it was until near the end. I’d guessed the bit of text in italics we were getting between chapters weren’t parts of Christian’s novel but actual flashbacks. Maybe that wasn’t supposed to be a secret though.
I quickly got annoyed at all the cliffhangers though. On the one hand it makes for a quick read because you never want to stop, but on the other you just want to scream at the characters to SPIT IT OUT ALREADY! The chapters are constructed of bits of POV of a bunch of different characters, and it feels like every one of them finishes on a cliffhanger that won’t get resolved until the next time that character’s POV appears. If then. Because there’s a lot of narration to cover up dialogues. “Christian spent hours telling Sanna his secret.” And then Sanna tells Erica, Erica tells Patrik, and nobody tells the reader until the conclusion when it doesn’t matter anymore.
I’d like to thank the author for now confusing schizophrenia and dissociative personality disorder, though. I learned recently that they don’t necessarily go together, so when I saw where the ending was going to be I got a bit scared, but it was well done (to my non-psychiatric-but-knows-the-difference-kinda eyes at least!)
One thing I’m not 100% clear about though is whether Christian knew he was The Mermaid or seriously thought it was somebody else?
I did enjoy it overall enough that I'll probably eventually go back to the start of the series.
Are you KIDDING me????? I've heard rave reviews of this author, that her books are "so much different than all the rest out there" and "she really gives you a twist you're not expecting". Um, no. Not at all. Not even a little bit. This book is exactly like all the rest of the thriller/suspense bestsellers out there. Oh, wait, one thing is different - there are 2 pregnant women in the book, one pregnant with twins. But you know what? Both act like EVERY OTHER pregnant book character - complain endlessly about the discomfort, the pain, blah blah blah - just shut up, ok?
I figured out the 'mystery' about half through - I listened to the audio, which was narrated by one of the WORST narrators, and he regularly mis-pronounced the different characters names, so it seemed like there were twice as many characters, all with similar sounding names. Not being familiar with Swedish names, I didn't catch on quick enough.
Then the big reveal! Yeah, saw that coming from, you know, chapter 3.
I didn't have to PAY for the book - so that's good. But I wasted a lot of time on this, and it makes me angry.
I figured out the 'mystery' about half through - I listened to the audio, which was narrated by one of the WORST narrators, and he regularly mis-pronounced the different characters names, so it seemed like there were twice as many characters, all with similar sounding names. Not being familiar with Swedish names, I didn't catch on quick enough.
Then the big reveal! Yeah, saw that coming from, you know, chapter 3.
I didn't have to PAY for the book - so that's good. But I wasted a lot of time on this, and it makes me angry.