Mons Kallentoft

* I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review an advance copy of this book. *

Zack Herry lives a double life; Detective Inspector in the Special Crimes Unit by day, and club-hopping drug-taker by night. He is haunted by the memory of his dead mother and the chronically-ill father that he had to care for as a child instead of a normal childhood.

Zack and his colleagues are called in when four Asian prostitutes are brutally murdered in a quite gruesome way. Evidence seems to point towards either a racist extremist motive, or some kind of gang warfare that could be going on. Things get worse very quickly, and Zack, his partner Deniz and the rest of the Unit struggle to keep up with a killing spree, making almost no progress as the body count grows. A horrifically brutal attack on a witness sets the clock ticking quickly as the pressure mounts. It's a taut, pacy plot, but it does get violent.

Zack is a very unlikely character but one that you can get behind if you suspend disbelief a bit. Mons Kallentoft does a good job of fleshing out some other characters such as Deniz, Rudolf and Sirpa, but the other members of the Unit are fairly stock characters, mostly with little to do with the plot. A couple of them could probably have been cut without impact.

I have to confess that I couldn't figure out what Kallentoft intended with his beginning of the boy lying in the grass, and how that tied in with the main plot. Either I missed something basic, or perhaps that will be explored in a future book.

This is the first in a series called Hercules, based around the myth of the Twelve Labours. It seems that this entrant is inspired by the first labour, the killing of the Nemean lion. It will be interesting to see where Kallentoft takes this.… (més)

Midwinter Sacrifice is the first of a series of books featuring detective Malin Fors, set in the freezing environs of Linkoping, Sweden. Fors is investigating the case of a man found dead, hanging from a tree in the forest. In the process she tangles with a local family of outsiders whose daughter was raped and murdered, potentially by the victim.

As with all Scandinavian detectives, Malin's home life is portrayed as a mess. She is separated from her husband and her 13 year old daughter is blossoming into womanhood, something Malin is not ready for.

A strength of this novel is Kallentoft's description of the bleakness of the Swedish countryside in mid-winter. But the similarities between Malin and The Killing's Sarah Lund are unmistakeable, and that doesn't help the book. The plot is slow to develop and gets pretty clumsy towards the end. I thought Kallentoft's practice of inserting commentary by the victim from betond the grave did nothing for the book either.

On the whole, this is a mostly unexceptional Scandinavian crime novel.… (més)

En la pequeña ciudad sueca de Linköping, Malin Fors, una joven comisaria de policía, debe hacerse cargo de un espantoso caso de asesinato. Un hombre ha aparecido colgado de un árbol, con signos evidentes de haber sufrido una terrible tortura. La identificación del cadáver permite revelar que la víctima es Bengt Andersson, un personaje marginal que sobrevivía gracias a las ayudas sociales. Malin Fors descubre que la víctima sufría el acoso y las burlas de sus vecinos en una de las zonas más deprimidas de la ciudad. Bengt Andersson no contaba con ningún apoyo familiar ya que su madre murió, su hermana Rebecka fue dada en adopción y él mismo atacó a su padre con un hacha tras años de maltrato. A lo largo de su investigación, la joven comisaria tendrá que barajar varias pistas: la de un antiguo y cruel ritual vikingo, la de dos adolescentes conflictivos que maltrataban a Bengt Andersson y la de la familia Murvall, cuya familia fue presuntamente violada por el primero.… (més)

SWEDISH REVIEW

Djävulsdoften är den första boken jag har läst utav Mons Kallentoft. Jag var nyfiken på hans serie om Malin Fors och tycke att denna bok verkade spännande. Det är alltid lite vanskligt att börja läsa en bok mitt i en serie, om man har tur så känns det som om man snabbt kommer in i handlingen ibland är det tuffare. När det gäller Djävulsdoften så kan jag säga att det både funkade och inte funkade att läsa denna som fristående bok.

Jag tyckte inte att det var så krångligt att sätta mig i Malins liv, jag förstod till stor del henne problem, både med det olösta fallet och hennes alkohol problem. Men jag fann även att jag inte direkt sympatiserade med henne, och jag tror att det är lättare att känna medlidande med henne om man har läst de tidigare böckerna genom att man då har lärt känna henne och på djupet innan allting gick åt skogen. Nu istället fick jag läsa om en människa som har nått botten och håller på att gå under totalt. Och det funkar inte i längden, oavsett hur intressant fallet var så kände jag att Malin's drickande och de problem det förde mig sig gjorde boken en björntjänst. Det kändes som i alkoholens dimma så fanns det en intressant handlingen, men jag tröttande snart på att läsa om Malin's försök att självförstöra. För att vara fullständigt ärlig, jag tröttnade på henne. Jag tycker om att läsa om trasiga karaktärer, men det finns en gräns även för mig.

På plus sidan så verkar det som om hon tog sig i kragen mot slutet och jag hoppas att nästa bok är bättre och att Malin kommer tillbringa mindre tid att supa.

Tack Bokförlaget Forum for recensionsexemplaret!

ENGLISH REVIEW

Malin Fors continues the fight against evil - now in Bangkok

Following the success of seasonal and elements series, is Mons Kallentoft back with a new suite inspired by the five senses. In the first part, The Devil Scent, has Inspector Malin Fors left Linkoping for the swarming megacity of Bangkok. A city full of scents, colors, sounds and tastes. But also of corruption, violence, and death.

Malin Fors is on the run. An unsolved case and a personal crisis have led her to fall there again. She has been drinking through the evenings and nights, and she is approaching the bottom fast. As a last chance, she got time off and offered a temporary position as a liaison officer in Bangkok.

Breaking with everything appears to be the only sensible. But the solitude of the new city is difficult to handle and the temptations are everywhere. The work will be as usual Malin's salvation, and her hunting instincts are awakened when a Swedish woman is found murdered. Who was the woman? Why was she killed in such a brutal way? And what's the connection with the Thai man who will be the next victim?

Malin becomes entangle in a case that baffles both the Thai and Swedish police while she is fighting her demons, and she had to dig deep into the past to find answers and a ruthless killer who is looking for vindication and revenge.

**********

Devil's scent is the first book I have read out Mons Kallentoft. I was curious about his series about Malin Fors and liking that this book seemed exciting. It is always a bit risky to start reading a book in the middle of a series if you're lucky, it feels as if it will quickly into the action sometimes it's tougher. As for the Devil scent, I can say that both worked and did not work to read this as a standalone book.

I did not think it was so difficult to get into the book and understand Malin. I realized that she did have some personal problem, both with the unsolved case from a previous book and her drinking problem. But I also found that I did not sympathize with her, and I think it is easier to feel compassion for her if you have read the previous books because by then you have come to know her before it all went wrong. Now, instead, I had read about a woman who has reached the bottom and is about to go under completely. And it does not work in the long run, no matter how interesting the case is. I felt that Malin's drinking and the problems it brought her did the book a disservice. It felt like outside the fog of alcohol, there was an interesting plot, but I soon got tired of reading about Malin's attempts to destroy herself. To be completely honest, I got tired of her. I like to read about broken characters, but there is a limit even to me.

On the plus side, it seems as if she got her drinking under control toward the end of the book and hope that the next book is better and that Malin will spend less time drinking.

Thanks Bokförlaget Forum for the review copy!… (més)