Recently, Librarian Jean King read new mysteries by two Swedish writers and two mysteries by a Scottish author. Here are her reviews:
“The Return,” by Swedish writer Hakan Nesser, is his second novel published in English. I also read his first book, “Borkmann’s Point” published in English in 2006. Nesser won the Swedish Crime Writers’ Academy Prize Best Novel Award in 1994 for "Borkmann’s Point." The main character in the books is Chief Inspector Van Veeteren.
In “The Return,” Van Veeteren is summoned to a small seaside town to track down the link between a series of murders. A recently released ex-con is murdered with an axe and then the body of a wealthy real estate mogul is found, also violently attacked.
“Never End,” by Swedish writer Ake Edwardson, is also his second mystery translated into English. His 12 Chief Inspector Erik Winter novels have been published in such countries as Italy, Norway, France, Japan, Spain, and Germany, where the series has sold more than 700,000 copies. I also read his first book translated into English, “Sun and Shadow.” His third translated novel, “Frozen Tracks,” will be published in August.
In “Never End,” a serious of unsolved rape/murders casts a disturbing shadow on the summer. Winter assembles the details of the crimes, and begins to see a connection to a five-year-old unsolved rape/murder. Has the same rapist reemerged to taunt the police or are these copycat crimes? Winter hunts for a link bridging the victims, convinced that each crime holds the key to the others.
Stuart MacBride, a Scottish writer, has written two mysteries set in Aberdeen: “Cold Granite” and “Dying Light.”
In “Cold Granite," on the day Detective Sergeant Logan McRae returns to work after a year off on sick leave, four-year-old David Reid's body is discovered in a ditch, strangled and mutilated. And he’s only the first. Logan also has to contend with a new boss and his own ex-girlfriend who now is the chief pathologist.
In “Dying Light,” MacRae is assigned to a case dealing with the deaths of prostitutes in Aberdeen’s red light district and is also working on a series of arsons where doors and windows are screwed shut from the outside right before the fire is set.