Review by Booklist Review
So-called honor killings have become disturbingly common among Denmark's immigrant population, but there's nothing honorable about these heinous crimes committed against family members thought to have brought shame upon their kin. In Danish crime novelist Blaedel's second entry featuring Detective Louise Rick, the shrewd policewoman investigates the suspicious drowning of a young Jordanian girl. Teenager Samra al-Abd met her watery end with a concrete slab chained around her waist and strange circular patches on the back of her neck. What kind of monster would have killed a young woman just beginning to make her way in her new Danish homeland? Samra's father, who has a history of domestic violence, is immediately a suspect. After one of Samra's friends, an aspiring model, is found bludgeoned to death, the list soon grows to include a high-fashion photographer. Meanwhile, romance blossoms between Detective Rick and Mik, her partner on the case it's very nice (she must admit) but also complicated. This is a solid entry in an appealing series, though perhaps a bit mild for readers who like their mysteries with more sizzle.--Block, Allison Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In Blaedel's earnest second police procedural to be published in the U.S. (after 2011's Call Me Princess), Copenhagen cop Louise Rick looks into the death of 15-year-old Samra al-Abd, a member of the city's close-knit community of Jordanian immigrants, found in shallow water of a nearby fjord weighed down with concrete. Is this an unfortunate but mundane murder, or an honor killing, a family turning on one of its own? The subsequent fatal bludgeoning of Samra's best friend, Dicta Moller, confuses the issue. Hostile, judgmental Danish media spotlight Samra's violent family history as Rick and her colleagues struggle to find the truth behind the two girls' murders. The novel presents a nuanced and compassionate view of modern Copenhagen's immigrants, eschewing a simple-minded demonization of outsiders or of the Danes themselves, but the workmanlike prose and flat depiction of the investigation make the story less engaging than it should be. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
In her second outing (after Call Me Princess), Inspector Louise Rick, assigned to the Unit One Mobile Task Force, is called out to Holbraek Fjord where a Jordanian teenager, Samra al-Abd, has been found in the water with concrete tied around her waist. The task torce members believe it was an honor killing and so does the girl's best friend, Dicta. A few days later, Dicta is also murdered. Then, in a strange turn of events, Samra's younger sister disappears. Rick's best friend, Camilla Lind, a newspaper crime reporter, is also on the scene trying to get close to Samra's family and find out what would drive one family member to kill another. Verdict Blaedel has written a compelling and fast-paced mystery that also offers an insightful commentary on the life of immigrants living in Denmark and what happens when cultures clash. Recommended for lovers of Scandinavian fiction, especially for fans of Camilla Lackberg, Hakan Nesser, and Kjell Eriksson. [Publication date was pushed up from September.-Ed.].-Jean King, West Hempstead P.L., NY (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
What looks depressingly like the honor killing of a young Jordanian immigrant takes Louise Rick from the Copenhagen Police Department to a special assignment in the town of Holbk. Why would someone strangle a ninth-grade student and sink her body in Udby Cove? At 15, Samra al-Abd wasn't old enough to have serious enemies; according to her protective parents Ibrahim and Sada, she wasn't even old enough to have a boyfriend. And surely Benedicta Mller, the friend who reported her missing, couldn't possibly have hated her enough to kill her or gotten access to the boat that must have been used to dispose of her body. In the absence of any other leads, the Mobile Task Force to which Louise (Call Me Princess, 2011) has been assigned looks inside her family for suspects, even though that's the last place they'd look if the victim weren't Muslim. So does Louise's friend, crime reporter Camilla Lind, whose editor ups the ante further by slapping an incendiary headline on the story she's struggled to make evenhanded. The only thing that could possibly undermine the assumption that someone in Samra's family killed her to protect their reputation after she committed some unforgivable sin that Louise has yet to discover is another murder, and that's exactly what happens when Dicta Mller is found dead. Given the dramatically different crime scenes, it's hard to believe that the same killer is responsible for both. Yet what are the odds that two murderers are walking the streets of Holbk targeting schoolgirls? Conventionally shaped and a bit slow-moving, but distinguished from the increasingly crowded pack of Scandinavian imports by its open-mindedness in handling sensitive material and its respect for the dignity of every single character and viewpoint.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
