A Skandi–noir novel, I guess. Well plotted especially toward the end, but I found the central characters totalling un-interesting.
Hanna, the policewoman who returns to this bit of Sweden after her father had murdered (allegedly) someone may years ago, is circumstantially quite interesting but characterless. Her colleague Erik is married to an Indian woman which creates some circumstantial interest, but again her was characterless.
His and Hanna’s many drives around the area to interview witnesses had the flattest dialogue you could come across. Rebecka, the adulterous mother of the transsexual victim was just a hysteric.
The plot was well set up for a successor novel as Hanna never got close to solving the mystery of her father’s crime. But this was written for TV and is not a great novel, despite its billing as ‘the international bestseller’ – maybe it is but undeservingly so.
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