Studio 6 (original 2006; edition 2001)

Very, very good. This topped four stars actually but not enough to round it up. Annika and rest of the cast and the entire novel were so real for me that I would hesitate to recommend it without knowing the person I was recommending it to. It was very real - not a happy read. It was plenty suspenseful and I liked the story a lot but if you're in the mood to escape the harsh realities of life this is not the place to do it.

The strongest theme through the novel was abusive relationships, brought to the forefront at the beginning of each chapter by an short, progressing, italicized narration that was independent of the main story, but also an important part of the central murder investigation as well as Annika's personal life. But that extensively shared the spotlight with quite a number of other issues and plot lines that Ms. Marklund presented - all of which were very smoothly integrated into the story and didn't bog it down at all for me. And don't expect everything to be any more pleasantly wrapped up at the end than things typically are in real life. Your hopes will be dashed and you'll be left depressed.

I thought this was very well written, much more to my liking then Angels and Demons which I just finished before this, and very exciting. I intend to read any of her other books that I can get my hands on - interspersed with a healthy dose of fantasy and the like as too much reality is not good for my mental well-being.

Oh, one more thing. The cover and title had to be from a marketing department. If I were browsing books, based on the cover and title I would never even have bothered to pick it up to look at a blurb. And yet it turned out to be such a worthwhile read. Just goes to show ya... ( )

When young journalist Annika Bengtzon answers her newspaper’s tip line and hears that a woman’s body has been found behind a gravestone at a nearby cemetery she fights for the opportunity to be able to report the story which will, hopefully, lead to a permanent job with the paper. Over what sounds more like the average Australian summer than a Swedish one in terms of temperature, Annika follows leads, becomes personally involved in some aspects of the case and uncovers a link to high-level political corruption in an effort to solve the murder of Josefin.

I doubt I’d have read this book based on its blurb which says Annika is a combination of Peter Hoeg’s Miss Smilla and Thomas Harris’ Clarice Starling. What the…? Fortunately I didn’t read any of that nonsense until I’d finished this remarkably good book. The plot manages to be complex but not hard to follow as we are introduced to various potential suspects including a sleazy boyfriend, a client at the seedy club where she worked and a Minister of the government. What I liked most was that even though Annika’s actions were driving most of the plot advancements there wasn’t a single point at which I thought “someone who isn’t with the police wouldn’t be able to do that or have access to that information” which can be a real problem with the ‘amateur’ sleuth in crime fiction. When we moved into the political arena I was absolutely enthralled with the tidbits I gleaned about the recent history of Swedish politics.

Annika is a fascinating character. Her inexperience hampers her at times but she does good work too as is evidenced in the way she gains people’s confidence and trust during interviews and it is obvious that she really cares about the plight of Josefin, and perhaps even identifies with her a little too much. She faces various struggles in her workplace being both young and female so automatically not to be taken seriously by many. Actually the workplace issues were really credibly depicted with both the good and bad aspects of any office on display. There were petty squabbles and nasty back-stabbing but also genuine friendships and mentoring of our young protagonist to even things out. Annika’s personal life is not smooth-sailing either as she has a fairly poor relationship with her mother and a controlling boyfriend. However her grandmother loves her to bits and the feeling is mutual so all is not gloom and doom on that score.

Marklund has created a terrifically believable story here full of well drawn characters, many of whom are not as sympathetic as I found Annika to be but are still highly credible. The picture of Sweden on show is remarkably normal, and not any more dour or grim than any other part of the world which flies in the fact of accepted wisdom about Scandinavian crime fiction. Clearly Marklund had issues she wanted to explore such as the shenanigans of the Social Democrats, domestic violence and even the relatively recent phenomenon of the mass hysteria that wallowing in these kinds of events can sometimes generate, but all of this is done as part of the story not with lecturing or preaching for which I am profoundly grateful. I found the book so compelling I already have moved another in the series to my ‘read soon’ pile. ( )

This book was already a year on my 'to read soon' list, and I finally read it. It's a good book, exciting untill the end and some things are unexpected (at least for me). A young temporary journalist got the task to describe a murder. She finds a lot of information, but can she stay at the newspaper? And is she right about the murderer?

Nicely written, good story -> recommended.

http://boekenwijs.blogspot.com/2009/11/studio-zes.html ( )

Very surprise ending, excellent character/story ( )

By Swedish author, Liza Marklund, this mystery introduces another reporter/crime solver, Annika Bengtzon. It’s a hot summer in Stockholm, and contract cub reporter Annika is hoping to snag a permanent position at the Kvällpressen newspaper. She doesn’t want to have to move back home to the sticks of Flen. She is tired of her boyfriend Sven and her mother’s poor lifestyle choices. The only bright side of life in the hinterlands is spending time looking for mushrooms in the woods with her grandmother. When Annika finds out about a dead body in the cemetery near her pad in Stockholm, she seizes the opportunity for a scoop for the Kvällpressen. ( )