Review by Booklist Review
Tursten's second Detective Inspector Irene Huss novel will send your gore barometer well into the red zone with its occasionally stomach--turning tale of necrosadism (that's murder combined with mutilation and dismemberment of the victim's parts and organs, all for the sexual satisfaction of the perpetrator). No, this isn't a gentle read, but it isn't an exploitive splatterfest, either. Tursten's heroine, a 40-year-old, hardworking cop in Goteborg, Sweden, attempts to juggle the horrors of modern life, which she faces on the job, with the challenges of a demanding family, which includes twin teenage daughters, a chef husband, and a persnickety terrier. In juxtaposing dismemberment and domesticity, Tursten brings into high relief the toll police work takes on the psyche and the difficulty of moving between dramatically different worlds on a daily basis. The case itself, jumping between Goteborg and Copenhagen, unfolds in classic procedural style, leading to an oddly unsatisfying ending that, nevertheless, has the uncertain feel of real life. Make sure Tursten is on your short list of Henning Mankell read-alikes. --Bill Ott Copyright 2006 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In Swedish author Tursten's outstanding second police procedural to feature Irene Huss of the G?teborg Violent Crimes Unit (after 2003's Detective Inspector Huss), the discovery of a dismembered corpse initiates a frustrating chase for a wily serial killer. The trail leads to Copenhagen, where Huss realizes the same murderer committed a similar horrific crime. After several more deaths, the complex investigation reaches a frightening climax and stunning conclusion. Smart and intuitive, Huss is a fully realized character, whose demanding job often collides with obligations to her chef husband, twin teenage daughters and wandering terrier. While the locales and sensibilities resemble those of such other Scandinavian writers as Henning Mankell and Karin Fossum, the private lives, work habits and personal quirks of Huss's colleagues are as individual as those of the cops in Ed McBain's 87th Precinct. Some readers may be put off by the gruesome crime scene descriptions, but all will relish the vivid writing, strong sense of place, distinctive characters and steady pace. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
When the upper part of a torso, its pectoral muscles carved out, washes up in a trash bag on a Swedish beach, the Violent Crimes Unit of the Göteborg police is faced with a serial mutilation murderer. For Irene Huss (introduced in Detective Inspector Huss), the search becomes personal when the killer not only targets a family friend but signals the detective about it. Similarities between the Göteborg case and one in Copenhagen have Huss traveling between the two cities, using a source whom she trusts but withholds revealing the identity, thus raising the ire of her supervisor, damaging her relationship with her Danish counterparts, and leading to a just as unsettling conclusion. Tursten evokes not only her native land but Copenhagen, particularly its lurid side, as she graphically details murders gruesome enough to nauseate experienced cops. Despite her pedestrian prose, the writer spins a good story with an attractive protagonist; this is a solid police procedural similar to those by fellow Swedes Åke Edwardson (Sun and Shadow) and Kjell Eriksson (The Princess of Burundi) in detailing officers lives as well as their work. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ 12/05.] (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The eponymous heroine of Tursten's debut mystery, Detective Inspector Huss (2003), and her beset colleagues of the Goteborg Violent Crimes Unit are up to their necks in mutilated corpses. The torso discovered on a lovely local Swedish beach is so horribly cut and slashed that it extends only from the neck to the waist. On one shoulder, however, there's a possible identifying mark: a skillfully rendered dragon tattoo. It's this that provides DI Huss with her first worthwhile lead, directing her to Copenhagen, where the Danish cops point her to a sex-shop proprietor who's appropriated the gorgeous dragon for his own purposes. The Danish police are only too happy to participate as the investigation intensifies. Soon there's a cluster of mutilated corpses in both cities, obviously the work of a particularly sadistic serial killer. And soon enough, it becomes equally clear to Huss that she's been singled out for special attention. So she's worried. But 40-something Huss, a career woman in a man's world and the hard-pressed mother of adolescent twin daughters, is used to feeling worried while getting on with the business at hand. Though they take dietary issues much more seriously than their U.S. counterparts--Irene is married to a master chef--these brisk, professional and entertaining Scandinavians would feel right at home in Ed McBain's 87th Precinct. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
