Dark Secrets

oyed Hans Rosenfeldt’s novel ‘Cry Wolf‘ and his Nordic Noir TV series ‘The Bridge‘ so I was expecting good things of ‘Sebastian Bergman’ and I wasn’t disappointed.

The plot was a marvelous construction: dark, twisty, surprising and revealed at a pace that maximised the tension. All of that wasamplified by the well-defined characters of the police officers investigating the murders and by a deep understanding of what grief does to people.

The character of Sebastian Bergman, was the icing on the cake. He’s an easy man to dislike: arrogant, transactional, sociopathic. Not surprisingly perhaps, he’s also an easy man to believe in. I admired that the authors didn’t let him become any more likeable as the book went on show more but they did help me understand how he came to be who is.

Sometimes, Swedish books translated into English have a muted feel to them, as if I’m seperated from the story by a thin sheet of glass. ‘Sebastian Bergman’ wasn’t like that. It was engaging, nuanced and fluent.

The title of the original Swedish version of this book was ‘Det fördolda‘ which translates as ‘The Hidden‘. In the US, it was released as ‘Dark Secrets’. I think both titles are a better fit for the story than ‘Sebastian Begrman‘. Bergman is a key character in the story but the power of the story comes from an ensemble cast and from the depth and complexity of the deceptions that the investigating team have to tackle to solve the murders.

I suspect that this book was retitled to match the name of the TV Swedish TV adaption. Here's the trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wACEt7Eijlg

There are another seven books in this series and I’m looking forward to reading them. show less

Série Sebastian Bergman #1.

Tudo começa com uma chamada para a polícia. Um rapaz de 16 anos de idade desapareceu. É organizada uma busca e um grupo de jovens escuteiros faz uma terrível descoberta. As questões começam a desenrolar-se a partir daí.

A polícia local em Västeräs (cidade onde a cena se desenvolve) tem os seus próprios problemas. Isso dificulta a tarefa da equipa especialista (liderada por Torkel), chamada para auxiliar a polícia local.

Sebastian Bergman é relutantemente designado pelo seu antigo chefe Torkel para ajudar a localizar o assassino do rapaz.
Sebastian agarra-se à equipa de investigação por razões totalmente egoístas. O conteúdo de uma carta antiga descoberta entre os pertences da casa dos seus show more pais é a razão. Descobre-a, pois tem como objetivo vender a casa o mais rapidamente possível, depois da morte da mãe, com quem não falava há muito.

Sebastian é especialista em traçar perfis, formado como psicólogo criminal.
Está emocionalmente despojado; não quer saber o que os outros pensam dele; um solitário que não deixa ninguém entrar no seu espaço interior; procura conquistas sexuais como um vício e abriga um profundo luto não resolvido (que influencia em muito a sua atual personalidade).
Sabe tudo sobre as suas fraquezas, mas não está disposto a mudar e é incapaz de o fazer. Mas, como afirma perante todos, é excelente no que faz.

Os diferentes pontos de vista facilitam conhecer um pouco todos os personagens. Encontramos capítulos sobre o criminoso. Ele intitula-se, "O homem que não é um assassino".

"ʜᴇ ʀᴇᴘᴇᴀᴛᴇᴅ ᴛʜɪꜱ ᴛᴏ ʜɪᴍꜱᴇʟꜰ ᴀꜱ ʜᴇ ᴅʀᴀɢɢᴇᴅ ᴛʜᴇ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ʙᴏʏ ᴅᴏᴡɴ ᴛʜᴇ ꜱʟᴏᴘᴇ: ɪ ᴀᴍ ɴᴏᴛ ᴀ ᴍᴜʀᴅᴇʀᴇʀ."

O que faz com que este livro se destaque dos outros do género são as personagens. Todos têm os seus pequenos segredos e peculiaridades, também razão pela qual a leitura deste livro foi tão intrigante.

Este é um romance cativante, um belo mistério que é dominado por personagens convincentes e credíveis. O tema que permeia toda a história é a dor, a felicidade e a importância dos laços entre pais e filhos.
Os autores constroem com mestria suspense. Conseguem criar múltiplas teorias lógicas.
E para além do enredo principal, existe um momento explosivo na última página. show less

As with all of the best Nordic Noir heroes, Sebastian Bergman is a complex character carrying a truckload of emotional baggage into his work life. In Sebastian’s case, he is a criminal psychologist who lost his wife and daughter, and seems only able to subsume his pain by indulging in compulsive sexual behaviour. Even prior to his personal loss, he seems to have been a pretty unlikeable colleague anyway.

This, of course, makes him the perfect candidate for a series of Scandinavian crime novels.

Dark Secrets is the first in the series. Bergman involves himself in the case of the gruesome murder of a teenage boy for ulterior motives of his own. He convinces his old boss to add him to the investigative team, which stirs up resentment show more amongst his colleagues. Bergman cannot help himself from fanning the flames by baiting and putting down his team-mates, being indiscreet during interviews and generally choosing his own eccentric course, despite orders to the contrary.

Hjorth and Rosenfeldt have created a gem of a character, a very flawed man who still attracts our sympathies, and deliver a twisting and hard to predict story line. The authors feint in several directions and keep you guessing right up to the end, in both the main plot of the investigation and the secondary story line of Bergman’s personal search. There is certainly enough interest to make me want to come back for a second helping.

I would probably have enjoyed this book a lot more if I hadn’t chanced upon the Sebastian Bergman TV series on Amazon. In a one-line summary of this episode, they managed to give away one of the biggest plot developments in the entire book. Thanks Amazon. show less

Genial. Desde a trilogia Millennium que tinha saudades de ler um livro que me agarrasse da mesma forma. Sebastian Bergman é um homem intratável, insociável mas um psicólogo criminal genial que ao voltar à terra natal pela morte da mãe se vê assombrado pelo passado e volta a ajudar a equipa com quem trabalhou no passado. É uma personagem que vou querer continuar atento pois está construída uma lógica de dedução notável, juntamente com a total falta de caráter que torna o livro tão fascinante. O primeiro livro com a morte brutal de um jovem também está muito bem urdido com um suspense até à última página. Absolutamente imperdível.

Wow. One of the best detective stories I have read (of course, not counting Agatha, but that is no surprise). Real characters, natural dialogues, mystery which the reader is able to solve on his/her own, fast-paced action and, generally, really really well-written book. I enjoyed it immensely and recommend it wholeheartedly.

oder er ist doch einer??aktualisiert


Egal es wird nicht besser: nicht für ihn und nicht für den, der getötet hat.

Der Krimi fängt ziemlich zackig an, der Mann der kein Mörder war, die Mutter, die ihren Sohn vermisst, der Polizist, der Vater werden soll und der Scheißkerl Sebastian Bergman, der Psychologe und am Ende ist, werden vorgestellt.

Dann wird der Fall des toten Rogr Eriksson beschrieben, die Leiche wurde in einem Waldtümpel gefunden, das Herz herausgeschnitten. Was ist passiert?

Die Reichsmordkommission wird gerufen. Dann passiert erstmal nichts. Das Team wird vorgestellt, die Verflechtungen miteinander und wieso Bergman, der "zufällig" in der Gegend ist nicht ins Team passt und ihn keiner haben will. Hier spürt man, show more dass es wie im Klappentext heißt um die "Fälle des Sebastian Bergman" geht, es wird eine Serie aufgebaut und der aktuelle Fall tritt in den Hintergrund.

Aber es werden auch Spuren gelegt, alle Bekannten des Jungs wissen mehr als sie zugeben wollen und die Auflösung wird kompliziert. Viele Verdächtigte, viele Verstrickungen und viele Wendungen -bis zum Schluss.

Es geht um Familie den Begriff die Interpretation. Was ist das? Was darf sie, was kann sie? Gibt es sie noch?

Sebastian Bergman gibt sich als Scheißkerl, als Ekelpaket und doch werden Risse sichtbar und man beginnt ihn verstehen zu wollen aber ich würde nicht so weit gehen behaupten zu wollen, es "zu lieben ihn zu hassen". Auch der Vergleich zu Larsson halt ich für übertrieben.

ABER nach dem Klopper am Schluss hat man große Lust, das ganze Buch nochmal zu lesen!!
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Sebastian Bergman, Kriminalpsychologe: Hochintelligent. Unausstehlich. In einem Waldstück bei Västerås wird die Leiche eines Jungen entdeckt – brutal ermordet, mit herausgerissenem Herzen. Roger war Schüler eines Elitegymnasiums, ein sensibler Junge. Die Polizei vor Ort ist überfordert, und so reist Kommissar Höglund mit seinem Team aus Stockholm in die Provinz. Dort trifft er überraschend einen alten Bekannten: Sebastian Bergman, ein brillanter Kriminalpsychologe und berüchtigter Kotzbrocken. Er bietet Höglund seine Hilfe an. Das Team ist wenig begeistert, doch schon bald wird der hochintelligente Bergman unverzichtbar. Denn in Västerås gibt es mehr als eine zerstörte Seele ...