Strange Bird

Strange Bird by Anna Jansson, set in Sweden on the island of Gotland, is Book One of the fourteen books in the Maria Wern series, translated into English by Paul Norlen (available September 17, 2013.)

Something deadly has landed on Gotland. Ruben Nilsson raises homing pigeons and has been preparing for an upcoming race when he discovers that a new pigeon has flown into his dovecote, a “sturdy, light brown speckled bird with a white head.... A truly powerful bird, although a bit worn out after the flight. Marked with a metal ring around the foot. A foreigner—in Sweden, the pigeons have plastic rings. A flying tourist on a visit?”

Nilsson believes the bird, which comes from Biaroza in Belarus, will prove to be a prize worthy treasure. show more Instead, like a Trojan Horse, it carries inside it a means of killing thousands. The foreign bird is the source of a deadly flu, which soon turns into a pandemic; deaths begin to mount, and panic spreads among the Island’s inhabitants.

A dead man is discovered on an abandoned farm. The man, who has no identity papers, has been murdered. An empty birdcage is found in his car. Detective Inspector Maria Wern is assigned to the case and soon learns that there is a link between the dead man and the pandemic.

Wern can’t solve the case fast enough. Just two days after first encountering the bird, Ruben Nilsson is dead. His neighbor, Berit Hoas, who nursed him through what she thought was a simple flu, falls ill, but not before making breakfast for kids at the soccer camp where she works as a cook. Peter Cederroth drives her to the hospital in his cab. Through these seemingly innocent and neighborly actions, the pandemic spreads quickly through the island from the children at the camp to the staff at the hospital.

A newly built health center, which has a vaccine for those who can pay, might be at the center of the case. Something about it makes Maria Wern uneasy. “She looked with disfavor at the pompous entryway and tried to explain to herself what it was that aroused such feelings of antipathy. The injustice in that someone can buy themselves a place before others in the line for healthcare, faster diagnosis, faster treatment. And yet. If you were in that position yourself and had the chance to pay to be rid of pain. . . .And yet you would hope that the public healthcare system could offer the optimal treatment, that solidarity would somehow find a way.”

Detective Maria Wern appears more concerned with the pandemic than the murders she has been charged with solving. Perhaps this is because her son is infected. Talking to a doctor at the hospital where her son is being treated for the flu, Maria says, “I read a book about the plague last summer . . . It sounded mostly like an exciting fairy tale. I never thought about it as the reality of living people. Maybe you can’t understand history without experiencing it. That’s why mistakes are repeated over and over. It’s not just about reason. The author had a theory that the plague spread so quickly because people fled from death. They didn’t know that they were infected themselves and so it spread like wildfire.”

The author is perhaps using the plague allegorically, saying to readers that Gotland and even Sweden are infected and ill prepared should disaster strike them as it has elsewhere in Europe. While I admire Jansson’s social conscience, I would have preferred more mystery and less pandemic.

As this is the first of Anna Jansson’s series to be translated into English, I am willing to suggest that her next book might well be worth reading. It can take two or three novels in a series to really get going. Some of the elements of a successful series are already in place: a detective with flaws and heart, an intriguing location, and a prolific author. show less

I had some difficulty following the real thread of the story. I think that may have actually been a matter of the translation. There are odd and abrupt breaks, at least to me.

A bird flu begins with the arrival of a "strange bird" in a pigeon-fancier's yard. The owner copies the information on the leg band and discovers that it came from Belarus. How did it get to the island of Gotland, in Sweden?

The bird dies. Then the rest of the birds die. It is the beginning of a pandemic of bird flu. Early on, however, Detective Inspector Maria Wern is called in for the murder of an unidentified man. She is shortly pulled between that investigation and the health of her son, who has contracted the virus.

The story weaves among a wide cast of show more characters, whose presence in the book makes sense toward the end. And thus we get to know DI Wern a bit in this first English translation of this series. show less

A pigeon lands on Gotland Island carrying a strange virus that kills one resident and spreads quickly, causing a widespread panic. Also, Detective Inspector Wern investigates must investigate a murder while her son is being quarantined.

With these two plots, the story is an interesting one and the characters are well developed and the story flows. Personally, I don’t know if I have a problem with translations but found this book to be okay, just not riveting.

Fremmed fugl af Anna Jansson

Det, alle frygter, er sket. Fugleinfluenzaen er en realitet på Gotland. Med sig fører den død, panik og kaos. En spændingsroman om et skræmmende aktuelt emne.
Glæden er stor, da dueejeren Ruben opdager en fremmed stor smuk due blandt sine egne. Duens ringmærkning viser, at pragteksemplaret er kommet til Gotland hele vejen fra Hviderusland. Glæden over duen bliver dog kort, for i løbet af få dage dør både duerne og Ruben. Naboen Berit, som flere gange har været i kontakt med Ruben, bliver efterfølgende syg. Hun bliver indlagt, og dør kort efter. Undersøgelser viser, at der er tale om et udbrud af fugleinfluenza. Uheldigvis har Berit været i kontakt med mange børn på en lokal fodboldlejr, hvor show more hun var kok. Frygten for smitte breder sig som ringe i vandet.

Børnene fra fodboldlejren isoleres, forældrene kræver at se deres børn, og panikken spreder sig, mens myndighederne prøver at mane til besindighed ved at tysse sagen ned. Under alt tumulten efterforsker kriminalkommissær Maria Wern et mord, men det er svært for hende at holde fokus, for hun er personligt berørt at fugleinfluenzaen, da hendes søn, som opholdte sig på fodboldlejren, bliver indlagt med influenzasymptomer. Som efterforskningen skrider frem, viser det sig, at mordet peger i retning af, at fugleinfluenzaen på Gotland måske ikke er helt tilfældig, og at der sidder folk med uhyggeligt kommercielle interesser i noget så grusomt som en fugleinfluenza, der fører død, panik og afmagt med sig.

"Fremmed fugl" er mere end bare en spændingsroman. Selv om handlingen til tider kan være lidt forvirrende, når man får beskrevet detaljer, som ikke rigtig fører nogle steder hen, så virker scenariet om fugleinfluenzaen skræmmende realistisk og giver stof til eftertanke. Romanen stiller relevante etiske spørgsmål, så som hvem skal prioriteres, når den sparsomme og meget dyre medicin skal uddeles? Man kan da heller ikke andet end at sidde tilbage med spørgsmålet: hvad sker der, hvis der kommer fugleinfluenza til Danmark? Vil myndighederne kunne kontrollere situationen, når panikken breder sig, og er der vaccine nok?

Anna Jansson er født på Gotland, hvor hun stadig bor og arbejder som sygeplejerske. "Fremmed fugl" er hendes tredje roman på dansk. show less

Skaplig deckare med ett aktuellt ämne. Ok skriven och ganska spännande. Personporträtten känns dock ganska slätstrukna.

> Un nouveau polar venu du froid : Anna Jansson est la nouvelle reine du crime, les Suédois s'arrachent ses romans et adorent son héroïne.
--France Loisirs