It is the coldest winter that anyone in Sweden can remember. ‘Winters here are the devil’s work’ is the phrase from her father’s repertoire dancing around the head of Malin Fors, a senior detective in the city of Linkoping. A body of a very heavy man is found hanging from a tree. There is no rush to cut him down. In this weather he is not about to thaw out anytime soon. When he does eventually make the drop he lands on top of one of the cops, given new meaning to having a crush on somebody.

The killing makes the third item on the national news even though it has not been ascertained that the man was murdered. It is not a supernatural story but Mons Kallentoft has pitched some of the dialogue of this novel so that that the dead person is narrating what is going on around him as the police and forensic workers gather beneath his feet: and then some. Although unusual it complements rather than complicates.

Investigations soon establish that the victim is a loner, someone who lived on the margins of society, known locally as Ball-Bengt, and who was frequently the subject of derision and abuse. The victim used to run after balls kicked over from the local soccer ground, hence the nick name. A harmless activity but not one in keeping with a more ‘normal’ adult mode of behaviour. Yet it didn’t make him harmful. That he had attacked his father with an axe at one point suggested he might not have been harmless either.  He might have been the victim of the Ljungsbro bullies, a couple of local teenagers given to throwing their weight about and perhaps tempted to use that weight against the weighty, often a source of satiation for bullies in need of placating their own pernicious form of gluttony.

Fors is perhaps a one glass of wine too many tippler but manages to see things something more clearly than an alcoholic haze would permit. Divorced from the father of her teenage daughter, Tove, she finds herself having to move faster than normal to keep up with adolescent demands and moods. Her husband’s past saw him work in Rwanda during the genocide and the suspicion lingers that events closer to Kigali than Stockholm might reveal a clue about Ball-Bengt’s fate.

The tight knit Murvall family, under the baleful eye of the strict matriarch, is determined to hold tight its secrets. It exudes total contempt for the police and strives to maintain an air of impenetrability. Unlike the cops of Hans Koppel these ones are active and on the job, never letting up, or failing to pursue a lead. A brutal rape in the forest from many years back and a traumatised woman provide vital leads. Did her relatives kill the fat man or is it a winter sacrifice, the residue of some ancient pagan ritual? A dead dog found strung up would suggest that it is the latter.

Literally something of a cold case without the historical connotations, it was initially as unyielding as the cold. Over time it failed to sustain its imperviousness, proving vulnerable to unpicking from dogged investigation as layer after protective layer is stripped from it.  Surrounded by an able team and overseen by a superintendant who is a cop’s cop, Malin like a snow plough drives through the obstacles that this case presents.

The story is methodical rather than pulsating. More akin to chess than boxing it grips for reasons other than excitative. The precision with which the detective work is fine tuned, the style of writing, and the inexorable closing in on the culprit holds the focus.

This is good Scandinavian crime fiction. There is a backdrop of moroseness to the narrative, which while helping to reinforce a stereotype of the melancholy Swede it seems the perfect setting for this type of story. The moodiness that permeates much Swedish crime fiction seems paradoxically to have created a mania around it.

The good news about this book is that it is the first in a series of Malin Fors stories. If what is to come is as good as the first they will be well worth waiting for.

Mons Kallentoft, 2011, Midwinter Sacrifice. Hodder and Stoughton: London. ISBN 978-1-444-75152-2

Midwinter Sacrifice

It is the coldest winter that anyone in Sweden can remember. ‘Winters here are the devil’s work’ is the phrase from her father’s repertoire dancing around the head of Malin Fors, a senior detective in the city of Linkoping. A body of a very heavy man is found hanging from a tree. There is no rush to cut him down. In this weather he is not about to thaw out anytime soon. When he does eventually make the drop he lands on top of one of the cops, given new meaning to having a crush on somebody.

The killing makes the third item on the national news even though it has not been ascertained that the man was murdered. It is not a supernatural story but Mons Kallentoft has pitched some of the dialogue of this novel so that that the dead person is narrating what is going on around him as the police and forensic workers gather beneath his feet: and then some. Although unusual it complements rather than complicates.

Investigations soon establish that the victim is a loner, someone who lived on the margins of society, known locally as Ball-Bengt, and who was frequently the subject of derision and abuse. The victim used to run after balls kicked over from the local soccer ground, hence the nick name. A harmless activity but not one in keeping with a more ‘normal’ adult mode of behaviour. Yet it didn’t make him harmful. That he had attacked his father with an axe at one point suggested he might not have been harmless either.  He might have been the victim of the Ljungsbro bullies, a couple of local teenagers given to throwing their weight about and perhaps tempted to use that weight against the weighty, often a source of satiation for bullies in need of placating their own pernicious form of gluttony.

Fors is perhaps a one glass of wine too many tippler but manages to see things something more clearly than an alcoholic haze would permit. Divorced from the father of her teenage daughter, Tove, she finds herself having to move faster than normal to keep up with adolescent demands and moods. Her husband’s past saw him work in Rwanda during the genocide and the suspicion lingers that events closer to Kigali than Stockholm might reveal a clue about Ball-Bengt’s fate.

The tight knit Murvall family, under the baleful eye of the strict matriarch, is determined to hold tight its secrets. It exudes total contempt for the police and strives to maintain an air of impenetrability. Unlike the cops of Hans Koppel these ones are active and on the job, never letting up, or failing to pursue a lead. A brutal rape in the forest from many years back and a traumatised woman provide vital leads. Did her relatives kill the fat man or is it a winter sacrifice, the residue of some ancient pagan ritual? A dead dog found strung up would suggest that it is the latter.

Literally something of a cold case without the historical connotations, it was initially as unyielding as the cold. Over time it failed to sustain its imperviousness, proving vulnerable to unpicking from dogged investigation as layer after protective layer is stripped from it.  Surrounded by an able team and overseen by a superintendant who is a cop’s cop, Malin like a snow plough drives through the obstacles that this case presents.

The story is methodical rather than pulsating. More akin to chess than boxing it grips for reasons other than excitative. The precision with which the detective work is fine tuned, the style of writing, and the inexorable closing in on the culprit holds the focus.

This is good Scandinavian crime fiction. There is a backdrop of moroseness to the narrative, which while helping to reinforce a stereotype of the melancholy Swede it seems the perfect setting for this type of story. The moodiness that permeates much Swedish crime fiction seems paradoxically to have created a mania around it.

The good news about this book is that it is the first in a series of Malin Fors stories. If what is to come is as good as the first they will be well worth waiting for.

Mons Kallentoft, 2011, Midwinter Sacrifice. Hodder and Stoughton: London. ISBN 978-1-444-75152-2

14 comments:

  1. AM-

    Sounds interesting-

    You do like the swede novels-

    I got Argo [ the book ] yesterday
    for a quid-its about the rescue in
    1979 of American hostages-looking forward to reading it-have not seen the film yet either-

    ReplyDelete
  2. Michaelhenry,

    I love it. The Scandinavian in general and not just the Swedish. It is so refreshing. Haven't read Argo but if you fancy a review when you read it we will carry it. Maybe reviewing is not your thing.

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  3. Mackers,
    Hopefully MH will do the review, keep him quiet for a while.
    Really enjoyed this one!

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  4. I enjoyed the book Nuala. The Scandinavians are producing a very high output of quality crime fiction. I would like Michaelhenery to review his stuff - even if to keep him quiet! I have so much here to review. If I reviewed one a week for the next year and read nothing in between times I still would not be finished.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Mackers,
    Anything you have reviewed to date sounds great reading.
    I would say MH would provide an enjoyable review.

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  6. Nuala,

    it is just what interests me but I am not sure anybody else is interested in what I read!! Our old friend Bangers read Stieg Larrson and said he couldn't understand the fuss. It didn't do it for him. Each to their own I guess.

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  7. I'm sure Stieg will recover from the insult.
    Danny probably thinks he could do better, soon he'll be wearing a ten gallon hat.

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  8. AM-

    Don't think I could do a good review-but this is from the last book I read-

    Traitors Gate by Michael Ridpath would be a great read apart from the main character always questioning himself and every one else-but its about ordinary people who take on the Nazi's in the 30s who I think were the bravest people who ever walked-sure a lot of Germans went against the Nazi's in the 40s when they were losing but the true heros are those that opposed them when they were winning-here are a few lines from that book-

    The Jehovah Witness people were opposed to the Nazi's from day one
    in Germany because they thought their salutes
    and uniforms were devil like-[ they weren't far wrong ]-there was only a few hundred Jehovah witness but they pointed and shouted at the Nazi's on the streets-they caused that much embarrassment that the Nazi party banned them in 1935 and threw them into the camps but they could not beat those people who defied them to the last so they killed them-that is believe-

    I don't believe in any religious group but I believe in hero's who step up when I would hide-

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  9. Michael Henry,
    You certainly made it sound like an interesting book and that's I judge any review .

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  10. Thnaks Anthony for keeping us up-to-date on scandinavian crime novel. I am presently reading Sorj Chalandon (french writer and journalist) novel "Mon traitre" (My traitor) a fiction based on the story of Denis Donaldson. This one iis on betrayal. He also wrote Retour à Killybegs, (return to Killybegs, telling this time the story from the standpoint of Donaldson. Did someone of the PQ read this book, they are available in english.

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  11. Fionnuala-

    That was only about one chapter in the book-I think the story about the Jehovah witness struggle against the Nazi's would be a good book-

    There was also a bit about how/why the first world war started that I never knew about-

    The Archduke-heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary was visiting Sarajevo with his wife Sophie-

    Seven members of young Bosnia armed with weapons provided by the black hand a Serbian secret society planned to assassinate him-but the attack failed and the seven members got away-

    Later on that same day one of the seven-Gavrilo Princip went into a shop to buy some lunch-[some say it was a ham sandwich but that's a hotly debated point ]-as Princip
    came out of the shop he was astonished to see the archdukes car reversing up the street having taken a wrong turn-Princip dropped his lunch-[ my money is on the ham sandwich theory ]-and
    promptly shot the archduke-killing the poor sod and starting a world war into the bargain-

    Princip then swallowed a cyanide pill but he vomited it straight up
    and was restrained moments later-

    Millions died because of that bit of good luck-or bad luck as it turned out-

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  12. André,

    my wife has My Traitor but neirher of us has read it yet.

    Michaelhenry,

    this is very interesting. I think you could do quite a good review.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Michael Henry,
    When you initially wrote about having the book I thought it sounded a good read, now it's more convincing.
    I agree Mackers about you doing a good review and it will keep out of mischief.

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  14. Thats some story about the Jehovah Witnesses Michael. What did the British army do to those they considered as cowards during the first world war and what does any country do to its citizens who refuse military service in a time of war ?

    Germany was already at war in 1933 long before Hitler was in control of Germanys armed forces, he was just a major figure in a coalition government, those who effectively fired the first shots of the second world war were the same people who created his persona.

    Its hard to believe that Israel was the catalist that caused a world war -

    The Daily Express of London of March 24, 1933,

    "The whole of Israel throughout the world is uniting to declare an economic and financial war on Germany. The appearance of the Swastika as the symbol of the new Germany has revived the old war symbol of Judas to new life. Fourteen million Jews scattered over the entire world are tight to each other as if one man, in order to declare war against the German persecutors of their fellow believers. The Jewish wholesaler will quit his house, the banker his stock exchange, the merchant his business, and the beggar his humble hut, in order to join the holy war against Hitler's people"

    the Jewish newspaper Natscha Retsch wrote:

    "The war against Germany will be waged by all Jewish communities, conferences, congresses... by every individual Jew. Thereby the war against Germany will ideologically enliven and promote our interests, which require that Germany be wholly destroyed. The danger for us Jews lies in the whole German people, in Germany as a whole as well as individually. It must be rendered harmless for all time.... In this war we Jews have to participate, and this with all the strength and might we have at our disposal"

    The truth is always hidden in plain sight.

    ReplyDelete