Sun and Shadow

I liked this book better than the first book by Edwardson. It was a bit more fluent.
It had more fluent conversations, not so much holes between what was said and what was thought (and not explained). I could follow the story lines better, had not so much trouble following the who-dunnit-and-why.

Fact is, that I do not particularly like the writings of this author. He has created a main character that is okay to me, but his way of telling the story of the investigation does not really appeal to me.

A page turner but somewhat disruptive in the manner it jumps from one person to another - can't blame the translator as he is done a number of Henning Mankell's, Wallander series and these are better by far than the Ake Edwardson. Worth persevering with for a quick read and interesting plot lines. ( )

Another police procedural from Sweden's Ake Edwardson, featuring Erik Winter -- the youngest chief inspector in Sweden, and perhaps the buzziest in Swedish crime fiction. This is a good read, suspenseful enough to keep the pages turning, with enough "personal stuff" to add interest. Still, I find Winter less interesting than several other Scandinavian cops -- as an old person, I prefer the more complex and less self-confident types. ( )

The murderplot of this Swedish police crime is badly constructed and nearly useless.
The novel has too many side stories to ever become truly thrilling, and the similarities to Arne Dahl's Misterioso makes it seem unoriginal.
The police investigation into a gruesome double murder continuously takes a backseat to the personal troubles of too many peripheral characters to care about. Yet the superficial way they are described makes them seem incidental and two dimensional and the narrative conventions unfulfilled in an uninteresting way.
The short sentences tries to whip up a tension that the actual plot doesn't support. The actual solving of the case seems abrupt and deus ex machina - as if the author just lost interest in the story - and neither it no the epilogue provide any closure.
The story earns some points for the protagonist - I am getting bored with the Beck, Wallander, Erlender of scandinavian crime series and their life-ineptitude melancholy. Although Winter almost fits the mold, he does have a family and a life away from his policework, making him more faceted and interesting. ( )

http://www.austcrimefiction.org/node/3324 ( )