Pretty good. Either better than the others in the series, or I was in the right mood. I don't retain mysteries all that often so I'm not sure. ( )

Kjell Eriksson's police procedural is set in Uppsala, Sweden, where Inspector Ann Lindell's team are investigating the brutal murder of two old men. Meanwhile the local police have been informed of the disappearance of a local history professor.

Lindell's investigation plods along for about half the book, developing twin plot lines about the dead farmers and how Laura, the professor's daughter, is coping with her father's disappearance. Ericksson then reveals a plot twist, but takes his time developing it, which is a bit tedious.

The book has far too many elements of a soap opera in it, and the climax is brought about when Lindell makes one of the most dead ordinary, cliched mistakes in crime fiction, something which nobody can really credit in a character such as hers. It's clearly done solely for plot purposes, is at odds with her character, and it's a pretty facile and boring plot twist at that.

While I point out these disappointing areas, I did like Eriksson's prose style, which is quite lyrical and philosophical at times. I'm prepared to give him another go, by reading The Princess of Burundi, which appears to be the high water mark in the Lindell series. ( )

It is too bad that I didn't write about this book soon after I read it. I now only remember small bits. I remember liking it, thinking about the title, appreciating the complexity. But I don't remember details at all. ( )

I was surprised to learn that this was only Eriksson's second book about Ann Lindell (the chief investigator on the case). The police team characters seemed to have been together for awhile and the author does a great job conveying a sense of a long-standing team working well together. I was looking forward to finding earlier books of the series but I guess I have to be satisfied with there being only one.

I liked the book a lot despite the fact that, to me anyway, there was no mystery of who the killer had to be. The mystery was, why the obvious killer was the killer. It certainly wasn't obvious to the police who, except for Lindell, never made a connection between the old professor's disappearance and the murders of the old men.

I thought the bit with the chess pieces and the potential connection to an assassination attempt on the queen was a total distraction. It might have work better if the author had explained a bit better what the connection was. The old chess match history was interesting but I never did get the connection.

But that was only a minor complaint. On the whole I enjoyed the book quite a lot. I had a hard time putting it down. ( )

Overall, a good mystery but how no one but a few convience store clerks did not figure out that Laura was starking raving mad is beyond me. Esp. Ann Lindell, who fell (quite literally) into the most basic of mystery plot traps. Overall, the relationships between the police officers is more of a focus than the mystery, which is not bad but the balance needs to be much better. Another one I'm glad I took from the library rather than buying it.