The Demon of Dakar

The Demon of Dakar was my introduction to the Ann Lindell series. I was surprised to get through the first CD before Ann came onstage, but the multiple third-person viewpoints sorted themselves out. The threads started to come together. I was sympathetic to the plight of Manuel, the only one of three Mexican brothers who had sense enough to turn down the offer to smuggle drugs. One of his brothers died fleeing arrest. The other is in a Swedish prison.

I had no sympathy for the partners who hired Manuel's brothers and was actively hoping they'd get theirs.

Eva, the divorced mother who has been laid off from her postmistress job and has two teenaged sons to support, was another appealing character in the case.

The reader knows who is doing show more what and gets to wonder if and how much Ann Lindell and the other police investigating will catch on, let alone catch the villains. It is a bit amusing when they come to incorrect conclusions.

The more I listened, the more I rooted for Manuel and his surviving brother. The manhunt scenes became intense.

Although I could have done without the epilogue, I enjoyed this book. Mr. Strozier's narration suited the tone. show less

The book jacket proclaims unanimous praise for Kjell Erickson, but I cannot join the chorus. 'The Demon of Dakar' is part-police procedural, part-psychological analysis, part social commentary and nearly always confusing and unconvincing.

A close friend and business associate of a restaurant owner turns up done to death. The reader knows who did it and thus can see the police try to connect the pieces. That the police struggle to do so and then look down seemingly logical, but wrong paths is one of the book's more interesting threads. Erickson introduces a veritable army of characters from within the police department, restaurants, the drug world, a prison escape, flight for the border, and so on and on.

Erickson's book contains enough show more characters, ideas for story lines, and themes to fill three books, but he tries to squeeze them all into one book. The result is unsatisfying confusion and half-told stories. And as another reviewer has pointed out, some of the stories are simply implausible. Moreover, the book suffers from a poor translation from Swedish to English. The translation uses clearly incorrect words in some places, stilted wording in others.

Smarter people than me have recommended Erickson's works, so you may want to take a look for yourself, but with all the excellent European crime writers (e.g. Andrea Camilleri, Leonard Sciascia, Sjowall and Wahloo, and Ian Rankin) out there I cannot recommend 'The Demon of Dakar'. show less

An enjoyable Swedish police procedural, not perhaps the best of the lot -- leave that for Mankell -- but solid. The characters, both police and criminals, are convincing and well-rounded, and there is lots of detail about how this that and the other (drug dealing, Swedish police work, etc.) proceeds. Too bleak to be a "cosy" -- this is after all Scandi noir -- but a good book for a long rainy afternoon.

While I was at the library picking up the book club book, I grabbed a few more by Eriksson, the author of The Princess of Burundi. This has the same team of police officers, this time led by Ann Lindell actively and takes place in Uppsala but includes a multi-national cast. The initial introduction of characters was very confusing but it soon settled in. Perhaps settled in too much because it began to drag out in the middle and then suddnely went on a roaring tear to the finish. When NOBODY figured out the crime. Then there was a truly strange epilouge. It was still a good read but not as good as Burundi. One more by him to see if he's worth hunting up more.

I like the chatty, almost family, murdering niceness that goes on here. Cozy and comfortable. Just right with a warm chocolate. Lots of people mingling and meeting and only one is killing much--but he has a great reason (the author lets us in on it early): some of the others are real rats. But most are OK type mystery folks.

And since I love Oaxaca it was nice to see it pop up--but it was hard to believe that a small landowner peasant, growing a tiny plot of coffee beans, could get the resources to fly to Sweden and then rent a car (details not discussed in the book)--but this is a Swedish version of the Mexicans that I know. Not the real thing.

I hope she researched the other characters from east Europe and Sweden a bit better. But I show more do learn about restaurant management, bicycling, illegal camping and throat slashing. But only a short bit about the last of these. A good mystery that you *can* put down and go to sleep on time. Not like some of those others that keep you up till you finish at 4AM. show less

I read this book for myself, and because it was part of the series we were reading for a RL book group. It is the 3rd and last book in the Ann Lindell series that has been translated into English. I had already started the series before my book group picked it.

This book is actually the 7th in the series, the other books in English are #4 and # 6. I don't know why publishers do that, publish books out of order. Its not helpful for recurring character development and the overall story arc.

This is a mystery set in modern day Sweden, in the city of Uppsala. It is for me, the best of the 3 It is still bleak, slow and features recurring characters full of ennui, but the addition of the Mexicans make it almost normal.

The Dakar in the title show more refers to a restaurant. It is one of two that are run by drug dealers, Armas and Slobodan as a front. They import drugs from around the world, break them down into smaller packs and then have local dealers push the drugs in Uppsala's neighborhoods. The police are unaware of the operation.

The Mexicans are 3 brothers, simple, poor, farmers, 2 of whom were fooled into carrying drugs - thinking they were packages of important papers. Angel died in Germany when the police chased him and he ended up in front of a train. Patricio was caught at the airport in Sweden and is in prison serving a 7 year sentence - since he did not talk about who paid him to carry the drugs.

Manual who didn't participate, comes to Sweden to see his brother in prison and to find out what happened to Angel. Manual is told about Armas, Slobodan and Dakar by his brother and he goes in search of these men. He feels they owe money to Patricio and Manual can use it to make his time in prison better, or for their mother. Manual is a POV character, and very concrete in what he wants, and what he thinks.

Eriksson uses the Mexicans to show the poverty, oppression, and hopelessness that makes the offer attractive to the 2 brothers. The older brother, Manual doesn't trust the men, but can't provide specifics about what he thinks is wrong. He doesn't participate, but the others do.

The other POV character is Eva. She is Swedish and a divorced mother of 2 teenagers. She has been laid off from her job at the Post Office and is not working. She hears about a job as a waitress at Dakar, which she gets. She has 2 perspectives on the story.

As a mother of 2 teen boys, she is worried about drugs, and violence in her neighborhood. One of her sons gets involved in it and she is terrified of the police, and of what his life will become. We get to see the destruction of innocent lives when they are lured into something from which there may be no way back.

Her other perspective is as an employee at Dakar. Even though it is a front,it is also a good, working restaurant. Through her we get to see the staff, who are not involved in drugs. They have lives, and dreams and pride in their food and service, but it can all be swept away by the criminality of the owners. Co-workers and friends have their lives and relationships wrenched and ruined since they are not important to the owners, and are mere bystanders to the police.

Then we get Ann Lindell, Police Officer as a POV. She is more concerned with her personal life, her ex-lover, her son, her recent love affair, and her relationship with friend, neighbor and babysitter, than anything else. I have no idea why she seems full of doubts and in search of misery, but she is. She and her co-workers are trying to unravel the mystery and make adjustments for each other and their likes, dislikes, and personal/professional needs.

Various interesting events happen and there is murder and mystery. The books don't end how you would expect them to, but often you are just glad they are over. In this case I was happy with the ending.

The writing is good, but some how the stories are very slow. I liked Eva and the Mexicans, but often feel the desire to slap Ann and the other police officers. Eriksson has very ordinary characters, and the stories are very intimate trips into their lives. show less

So ich bin durch, ich hatte zwischendrin in dem Buch einen Hänger, irgendwie war da nichts los oder zuviel oder einfach nur zäh.
So richtig überzeugt hat mich das Buch nicht, aber ich bin sehr froh dass die beiden Brüder den Schwedenurlaub gut überstehen. Das Gesetz muss ja nicht immer siegen.
Im Mittelpunkt des Krimis steht der Mexikaner Manuel der mal nach seinem Bruder in Schweden gucken will. Der Bruder sitzt wegen Drogenhandels im Gefängnis. Und es gibt Tote - naja ist ja nen Krimi. Die Kommissarin Lindell und ihr Team bleibt eigentlich ziemlich blass. Henning Mankell Kommentar Kjells Erikkson Krimis gehören zu den Besten, kann sich nur darauf bezeiehn ,dass auch Eriksson sich sozialer Themen annimmt und aufnimmt im Krimi. show more Schweden als Tummelplatz für das Soziale, das Gerechte etc. und doch läuft es schief. show less