The Princess of Burundi

Like most police procedurals, this one begins with a murder - in this case a man is found tortured and stabbed to death. The police are somewhat baffled with this one. When an old school chum is assaulted, they think it might have some connection but, then again, maybe not:-) I enjoyed this procedural set in Uppsala (north of Stockholm) and will certainly read more by this author, but I'm not terribly fond of a climax-as-book's-ending thing. I like a little denouement, if you know what I mean. The author seems to take great pains to make his characters, both the victims and the police, sympathetically credible, so points for that.

Not quite up to the standards of Mankell or Ake Edwardson, imo, but I'll keep reading this author's work and show more see if I change my mind. I did drag this book on four international flights, managing only to read half of it due to a lack of concentration. This could have affected my overall evaluation when I finally did finish it. show less

The book opens with the discovery at a snow dump of the body of John Jonsson, unemployed welder and authority on tropical fish. He’s been horribly mutilated and the police must work their way through a technical investigation to discover who killed him. There’s a whole cast of coppers doing the investigating including the compassionate senior officer an extreme germaphobe and a new mum who’s bored being on maternity leave. They’re an interesting bunch of people. They have insecurities and make mistakes and don’t immediately get all the answers right and are far more deeply philosophical about their horrid jobs than would be the case in American or English crime fiction.

At the same time as the investigation proceeds we’re show more introduced to Jonsson’s wife, son, brother and friends who are all equally unable to explain the murder. Or are they? Jonsson’s brother Lennart decides to carry out his own investigation into his much-loved brother’s death and stirs up a hornet’s nest or three in the process.

Early on we also meet Vincent and it’s immediately clear he has a few sheep loose in the top paddock (he writes hundreds of complaint letters about everything around him and keeps an old store mannequin in his bed). However watching Vincent’s deterioration into total madness was the highlight of the book for me. The best writing and most credible plot developments involve this aspect of the novel, although in the end quite a lot of this is irrelevant to the main plot which is odd.

The rest of the story is a little bit awkward and the ultimate resolution feels contrived. I don’t mind not predicting the outcome of a mystery (happens all the time) but when revealed there should be a 20-20 hindsight which makes the reader think “ahhhh…of course…I see it now” and this ending provoked more of a "what the...?"

I’ve never been to Sweden but I have certainly built a picture of this corner of it from reading this very evocative book. Alongside the police procedural element of the novel is a social commentary that basically says “life in Uppsala is bleak and if even if you’re not poor or foreign you’ll spend most of your spare moments being miserable and wishing you were somewhere else or some-time else”. All of which might be true but a joke here or a smile there would have provided some much needed balance to the book although I do wonder if my need for a bit of light and shade is my Aussie sensibility showing through. show less

Set in Uppsala, Sweden, as the story opens, the winter weather is terrible, and a son awaits the return of his father, John Harald Jonsson. However, John Jonsson isn't coming home that night, or any other night because he's been murdered. Not only that, but there is evidence that John has been tortured. His wife, Berit, can't think of anyone that would want to hurt him let alone want him dead. Enter the police department, with the investigation being led by Ola Haver, who has some personal issues of his own, and investigated on the sidelines by Ann Liddell, who's still on maternity leave and really wants to get back to her work on the force.

The book is not only a story of the investigation of John's murder, but focuses on the impact of show more this crime on not only those left behind, but on the police as individuals. Eriksson's skill here is in her ability to create characters who come off as being real, as well as her ability to create and sustain an incredibly somber atmosphere throughout the novel. The mystery is okay, but there's just something about this woman's writing and her ability to create that transcends the plot. Eriksson's skill here is in her ability to create characters who come off as being real, as well as her ability to create and sustain an incredibly somber atmosphere throughout the novel. The mystery is okay, but there's just something about this woman's writing and her ability to create that transcends the plot.

I would definitely recommend this novel to readers who want something different than what's currently out there. Readers of more mainstream-type mystery novels may be less likely to enjoy this one, but I find European mystery novels, for the most part, to be more to the point, less cutesy and more intense than what's available on most bookstore shelves. show less

Maybe a bit dry but very realistic crime story from Uppsala with greatly written characters. Some may find it slow pacing and lack of twists but this realism is what I like in it.

Dark and violent at times but very well-written. It's part of a series with the same detectives so I did struggle a bit to know which one was which but all the characters, suspects and detectives, are very well-drawn and there is a wonderful sense of place. My only complaint is that the solution appears quite suddenly and the ending is very good but quite abrupt. However, I would read more by him.

Very good, atmospheric, unusual story with well developed characters.

Set in Uppsala, the story does a nice job in highlighting that the city is definitely not just a traditional university town, but that it has been suffering from growth and instability -- not necessarily new themes. The crimes, however, did not really work for me that well, and the ending felt rather contrived.