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alicea's review against another edition
relaxing
slow-paced
The whole section about the supply department bureaucracy and how the orders are unintelligible was TOO relatable (and hilarious). Gotta say I'm really digging this series!
fuelscience's review against another edition
4.0
This is the second in McCall Smith’s Detective Varg series. Detective Ulf Varg (translated into English—Wolf Wolf) heads The Department of Sensitive Crimes in Malmo, Sweden. He is very decent and ethical man who is also very Swedish and introspective. In this book he deals with the possible adultery of his colleague’s husband, along with accusations of blackmail and export fraud while trying to help a young policeman become integrated into his unit. Varg’s internal ethical struggles occupy much of the book. As the author says, “Ångest—angst—was everywhere. Every Swede carried it in his or her soul, people said.”
asuph's review against another edition
4.0
This is quickly turning out to be another one of my favorite series, and it's Alexander McCall Smith, with quirky, but well-meaning characters, light discourses on humanity, relationships, crimes, virtues, politics, culture ...
Effortless read. Funny. Touching. Turning the whole Swedish crime-noir on its head. The kind of stuff you want to read while stuck at home.
Effortless read. Funny. Touching. Turning the whole Swedish crime-noir on its head. The kind of stuff you want to read while stuck at home.
michaelnlibrarian's review against another edition
1.0
I got somewhere over halfway through this, reading a Kindle copy from the public library. I read the first book in the series and liked it reasonably well, but I found this unpleasant reading. The main characters are largely the same as the first book in the series, but I concluded I did not find any of them particularly pleasant to read about. It seemed fairly obvious where the story lines were going and I had had enough.
I don't understand the thinking behind having a series set in southern Sweden. I assumed the notion was to set of the stories in this series with those in the many different successful Swedish detective novels from Martin Beck to Kurt Wallander, but perhaps not. Perhaps in this case the fact that McCall Smith is from Scotland and Scots may have certain stereotyped views of Sweden that are quite different than those of Americans plays a role?
Oh well. Too bad.
I don't understand the thinking behind having a series set in southern Sweden. I assumed the notion was to set of the stories in this series with those in the many different successful Swedish detective novels from Martin Beck to Kurt Wallander, but perhaps not. Perhaps in this case the fact that McCall Smith is from Scotland and Scots may have certain stereotyped views of Sweden that are quite different than those of Americans plays a role?
Oh well. Too bad.
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