We Know You Remember

Finished October 9

We Know You Remember by Tove Alsterdal, translated by Alice Menzies

This book won the Swedish Crime Novel of the Year award and is the first of Alsterdal's books to be translated into English. Set in a more northern area of Sweden, this story begins with Olof Hagström, who is delivering a car back to Stockholm, stopping at the house he grew up in, impulsively.

Unfortunately, he walks into a situation. When he retrieves the key from the hiding place he knew, following the barking of a dog inside, he finds not only the dog, but his father dead in the bath. 

As police officer Eira Sjödin, follows the clues from this death, she also finds herself wondering about the investigation of the crime that Olof was accused of back when he was fourteen.

Olof was accused of raping and murdering a local girl a few years older than him, but her body was never found. Olof was forced out of his home by his family into an institution, and his life since then has been a sad and lonely one. 

The case was notable in the town, and although Eira was only nine at the time, she was aware of it, as well as noting the fear that it aroused. Her investigation also leads her to another old crime, one solved years ago, but one that has a long tail, as one of the men involved in the crime has been recognized recently and talk has started. 

I found it interesting that Alsterdal based that crime on a real one that happened in Sweden, one that resulted in legal changes as the crime in the novel did. 

Eira is a capable officer as sees that this case opens opportunities for her. But she has also seen how her area has become a training area for new officers, ones who spend a year or two there and move on, and she feels that she doesn't want to be like them. She wants to made a difference in her community. It is her knowledge of the community, both past and present, that makes the difference in this case, and she is aware of that. 

So in more than one way, memory plays a role in this novel, as does the idea of guilt. There are those that are fearful of discovery, and those who would protect those they care for. Alsterdal digs into this with the various cases at hand, in a way that is engaging and thought-provoking. 

Block 46

Finished April 4 

Block 46 by Johana Gustawsson, translated from the French by Maxim Jakubowski

This is the first book I've read by this author. It is also the first book in a series featuring profiler Emily Roy and true crime writer Alexis Castells. Emily Roy is an interesting character. She was trained at Quantico and worked for the RCMP, but now works for Scotland Yard. She has a past that is hinted at here, but offers a lot for further exploration in later books. She can be brusque and even harsh, but she knows how to use diplomacy and charm in certain situations. 

Alexis Castells, a French woman now living in England, whose own partner was killed by a serial killer, is friends with Linnea, a Swedish jewelry artist now living in England, who is found murdered near the beginning of this book. She has encountered Emily before when she was researching one of her books, and due to these two links, she gets drawn further into this case than is normal for someone outside of the police or supporting organizations.

The story moves back and forth between London and the west coast of Sweden, but the majority of the action is in Sweden. As the story begins, Linnea is supposed to be having her debut as the new jewelry artist for a major jeweller, but she does not show up. A couple of times a year, Linnea went on her own back to Sweden, spending time by herself and seeing friends there. That is where she has been, and was supposed to be flying in from. Shortly after being reported missing in England, her body is found in Sweden, strangely mutilated and in an outdoor hidden area near her home there.

The mutilation links her death to the bodies of two boys that have been recently found in England, buried in a public park. That is how Scotland Yard and Emily get brought into the case. Alexis accompanies Linnea's relatively new husband and her new boss to Sweden, and because she is a capable woman, takes on the task of inventorying Linnea's house there while they go back to England. Spending time with Emily, she soon gets seconded as another set of eyes and mind to Emily's research on the case. 

There is a second storyline here as well, one from World War II. A German medical student, is interned in Buchenwald where he is first working as a laborer and then gets seconded to a medical experimentation unit. We see him during this time and into his life after the war, when he moves to the coast of Sweden near where Linnea's body was found. We know there is a link, but we only gradually learn what that link is, and why Linnea was killed. 

I liked both Emily and Alexis and the way they interacted with each other. I liked the Canadian link here through Emily as well. There are also a lot of interesting secondary characters: Linnea's childhood friend who lives nearby her home in Sweden and some of the Swedish police. 

Unwanted

Finished May 3
Unwanted by Kristina Ohlsson, translated by Sarah Death

This is the first book in a series featuring civilian investigative analyst Fredrika Bergman and police inspector Alex Recht. Fredrika is a recent addition to the force and because she approaches cases in a different way, and because she is a woman, she recognizes that her opinions are not always valued and respected, but during this case, you see that change.
Alex has a reputation for solving cases, but he's been lucky too, and this case has its failures, which he must recognize and figure out how to learn from.
As the book opens, a young girl travelling with her mother on a train is kidnapped. The mother is distracted, and the opportunity is there for the girl to be taken when a number of things happen. The team works hard to follow the few leads they have, sometimes on their own, but very soon after the child is found in the north part of the country dead, and the word "unwanted" is written on her forehead. The mother clearly wanted the child, so what is the significance of this word. And is there any significance to the placement of the child.
When there are other deaths, the police realize that they may have been focusing on the wrong things and a wider look at the case is taken.
I liked the various police characters and their development over the course of the book (well, there was one guy I didn't like much as he seemed very self-centered) and I liked the way the case was described.

Swedish Mystery

Finished December 2
The Princess of Burundi by Kjell Eriksson
This started a bit slow, but got better as it went along. It begins with the murder of a man who had been involved in small-time crime when he was younger, but not for years. He had been unemployed lately and the police take some time to be able to track his final movements. This case becomes intertwined with that of a schizophrenic man who has begun attacking those he thinks have teased him in the past or are not helping him now.
The personal lives of some of the police officers are also brought in, including that of a single officer who is off on maternity leave. The stories are intertwined well and the human emotions are dealt with well. I enjoyed my first read by this author.

Foreign Mystery

Finished October 10
The Glass Devil by Helene Tursten
This Swedish mystery took me a while to warm up to. At first the story seemed unemotional, but it gradually came to sections where the characters seemed to gain depth and warmth. The main detective here is female, Irene Huss, and she is a member of the Goteborg police force. The police procedure is glossed over somewhat, so you don't get a detailed sense of how the force operates, but there is some discussion of regular meetings and shifts. Irene seems to have a comfortable yet formal relationship with her boss, and good relations with several of her colleagues, some of whom she respects more than others. The humour between the characters gradually takes shape, as does Irene's family. Her observations are described very factually, and yet with some intuition showing as well. I will try another one by this author to see if the sense I had by the end of the book remains with me.
As to the content of the mystery, it centers around a particular family with the father a minister, the mother with a history of depression, and the son seemingly interested in mission work, as well as teaching. With the son and parents murdered early in the book, the relationships they had with the sister in England becomes very important, and she stays a bit of an enigma as both the British police and Irene find it difficult to make headway with her.