Call Me Princess by Sara Blaedel is the first book in her Louise Rick police procedural crime series. Set in Copenhagen, this first entry involves the case of a serial rapist who meets and sets up his victims by meeting them at on-line dating sites. I listened to an audio version of the book as read by Alice Barrett Mitchell who I thought did a very good job with the vocals.

While there was nothing particularly outstanding in this story, it was a good solid procedural that came across in the audio version well. There is a good balance between the police work and the main characters’ home life with her friends and co-workers. The rape/violence towards woman angle was handled well and the author’s descriptions of the on-line world seemed accurate. As it lent itself so well to the audio medium I fully intend to continue listening rather than reading this series. ( )

This is the second book I've read in the series regarding a Danish crime detective, Louise Rick.

I'm hooked on this series. Mystery books are usually not my genre, but increasingly, I'm embracing this field.

When women who are using online dating sites for meeting men, unfortunately, some obtain more than they thought, including rape and bodies that are badly beaten. When one of the victims dies, the stakes are higher for Louis and her team mates to quickly find this brutal sociopath.

Surprised at the information, people readily post on dating sites, there is an in depth look at the safety of posting your photo and personal information which can possibly draw the wrong kind of person.

Fast paced, interesting, well written, I plan to continue to as many of the books I can obtain that are on the market and translated from Dutch to English. ( )

BLUE BLOOD (aka CALL ME PRINCESS) is the debut novel in the Detective Louise Rick series from Danish writer Sara Blaedel. Blaedel is a million copy best-selling author, voted Denmark's most popular novelist three times since 2007, and an international success story.

BLUE BLOOD reads like a traditional police procedural, focused on who perpetrated the crime, and not a lot on why. The initial crime, the vicious beating and rape of a young woman, quickly becomes even more worrying with the sadly preventable death of a second victim, but it does provide the focus - an increasing number of cases that revolve around the internet dating world.

Given the police procedural styling, I was looking at three specific elements - plot / investigation and then characterisations. BLUE BLOOD takes the reader into the world of internet dating and the possible perils, and it uses many of those aspects to have a red hot go at raising some tension. Although, to be honest, the none too subtle way in which potential dangers are raised for Rick, as well as best friend, journalist Camilla did make this reader dubious. Whilst there is a team, and a hierarchy, and a bit of tension between teams chucked into the mix for reasons that I couldn't quite fathom, the main core of the investigation becomes a solo hand pretty quickly. Which didn't actually work that well, as it created a problem with interactions between Rick and the rest of the team that was never really resolved. In fact, most of the other police characters remained very much bit-parts, and somehow floated off to the side. Which leads therefore to characterisation. The focus is very much on the Rick, who is the sort of lead character that is either going to annoy or fascinate. She's an odd combination of intensity and vagueness. Her attempts at victim consolation weren't particularly convincing, and whilst she's obviously driven to resolve the case, there are some things that she seems almost criminally dumb about. Not the least of which is the rapid, and obvious collapse of her personal life, that on one hand she seems quite matter-of-fact about and on another devastated.

All of which makes it sound like I didn't really like the book. Which isn't exactly true. Cutting the requisite slack for a debut book in a series, and some heavy lifting in the character establishment phase as a result of that, there's more than enough in BLUE BLOOD that makes me want to get the next book in the series. The series doesn't feel like it's going to shape shift into the darker, more psychological stylings of my preferred Scandinavian material, but as a general, police procedural styled novel, I don't mind the occasional prickly, difficult, unpredictable female central protagonist at all. Especially as it would appear that the next book, FAREWELL TO FREEDOM is tackling human trafficking, a topic which is increasingly being explored in crime fiction worldwide.

http://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/blue-blood-sara-blaedel ( )

The Good: This book starts off intense and holds on to that intensity all the way through. There were some scenes that had me on the seat of my pants. I really liked the mixture of work versus home life with Louise. Each chapter rolled seamlessly from the crimes at hand and Louise's personal life. I actually really liked the relationship between Louise, her partner and her best friend's son. She's like a surrogate aunt for him. Overall, this is a good police procedural. It's actually set in Denmark but really it could be set anywhere. The book really brought out the vividness of violent sexual crimes by online trollers.

The Bad: I really did not relate to the main character Louise. She is supposed to be the "hero" of the novel and I just didn't feel like she was a character I cared enough about. Her personality towards the rape victims was not one of understanding or gentleness in my opinion. It almost seemed as if she were more annoyed at the victims than anything. Also, the negative presence of online dating really annoyed me. I met my fiance that way so it obviously worked out amazingly for me. I know that it always doesn't, but this book was almost preaching against online dating. There was a part of the book that deals with Louise's personal life that really dissapointed me. I felt like the story did not benefit from this particular event except for making the readers feel bad for Louise and even then I did not.

Overall this book was a pretty quick and interesting read, but not as amazing as I was hoping for Sarah Blaedel's debut American novel. She is quite a hit in Denmark, but I don't think she will be as popular in the U.S. if she doesn't improve on her characters and writing a little bit. I would give this book a solid C.

**I received this book free from the publisher through www.netgalley.com. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. ( )

This is Blædel's American (or English-language) debut, which is unfortunate, because this novel is the second in Blædel's series featuring Danish detective Louise Rick. By page 44, I noted on GoodReads that I was feeling a disconnect with the characters and I wondered if it was because I was coming in midseries -- so I feel slightly vindicated that is, indeed, the case.

The novel opens with a graphic, detailed rape so I knew immediately that this wasn't going to be my kind of book. I was expecting a little more nuanced plot, but instead, the crime is straight-forward: a man is raping women he meets online. I wasn't wild about the writing style (or translation, I'm not sure which): despite the detailed scenes of violence, the rest of the book detailing the investigation felt very vague and aloof. I didn't connect with the lead character, Detective Louise Rick, her bestie Camille, or anyone else in the story. Louise had interesting potential: she displayed a mixture of empathy and impatience with the victims, which felt real to me, and I would have liked to learn more about her. Sadly, despite the foreign locale, so much of the story felt familiar, from our heroine's failing romantic life to her tension with her supervisor. I didn't get a sense of Copenhagen or Denmark, either: the story really could have been set anywhere in the US.

In the end, not a favorite for me, but something must have grabbed because now, about a week or so later, I'm still wondering about some parts of Louise's life and I've been searching for info about the possible next English-language translation in the series. ( )