Having read the other two books in this series I had high hopes for this one but sadly I didn’t find this one to be quite as good as its predecessors and it took me almost a week to finish, whereas the others only took days to read.

I don’t know if it was because the format of the writing structure changed slightly or that it was due to the fact this one is more of a slow burner I’m not sure. But saying all that I would still read this one again!

The book has 2 storylines running through it which at first seem completely unrelated but as you get deeper into the book lines started to become crossed. When a homeless man is brutally beaten to death, Dunja can’t stop herself from starting an investigation of her own. Before long the clues take her to Sweden and Helsingborg, where Risk is investigating the peculiar case of the frozen millionaire.

Risk’s family play a big part of this one and it certainly takes the story down a path I wasn’t expecting! Fabian’s young daughter explores the supernatural with the help of a friend and Ouija board whilst his son finds himself entangled in a group of youths playing their own version of happy slapping. Onto of that Risk’s marriage seems to be coming to an end as his wife Sonja is commissioned by a wealthy art collector to produce an installation for his home.

All in all this book has a lot going on, all separate but interconnecting in a rather unique way. As i said earlier it is a fairly slow burner of a book but it is worth a read.

It can be read as a stand alone novel but I would recommend reading the other 2 books as it fills in the details of the bits of back story that come up but there are enough details for this to all make sense by itself.

It ends with a few unanswered questions which I am hoping will all be answered in his next book. I cant wait to see what the future holds for Fabian, the Risk family and Dunja. ( )

Having read the other two books in this series I had high hopes for this one but sadly I didn’t find this one to be quite as good as its predecessors and it took me almost a week to finish, whereas the others only took days to read.

I don’t know if it was because the format of the writing structure changed slightly or that it was due to the fact this one is more of a slow burner I’m not sure. But saying all that I would still read this one again!

The book has 2 storylines running through it which at first seem completely unrelated but as you get deeper into the book lines started to become crossed. When a homeless man is brutally beaten to death, Dunja can’t stop herself from starting an investigation of her own. Before long the clues take her to Sweden and Helsingborg, where Risk is investigating the peculiar case of the frozen millionaire.

Risk’s family play a big part of this one and it certainly takes the story down a path I wasn’t expecting! Fabian’s young daughter explores the supernatural with the help of a friend and Ouija board whilst his son finds himself entangled in a group of youths playing their own version of happy slapping. Onto of that Risk’s marriage seems to be coming to an end as his wife Sonja is commissioned by a wealthy art collector to produce an installation for his home.

All in all this book has a lot going on, all separate but interconnecting in a rather unique way. As i said earlier it is a fairly slow burner of a book but it is worth a read.

It can be read as a stand alone novel but I would recommend reading the other 2 books as it fills in the details of the bits of back story that come up but there are enough details for this to all make sense by itself.

It ends with a few unanswered questions which I am hoping will all be answered in his next book. I cant wait to see what the future holds for Fabian, the Risk family and Dunja. ( )

A high-speed chase ends in tragedy when a car crashes into Helsingborg harbour. In the front seat is one of Sweden’s most affluent IT entrepreneurs. Initially all signs point to an accident, but a closer examination of the body shows that it has been frozen. Stranger yet is the time of death: two months before the crash.

Two years have passed since the events of Victim Without a Face. Fabian Risk has taken advantage of the quiet at work to focus on patching things up with his family, while across the strait Dunja Hougaard has donned the uniform once more, this time as a police officer. When a homeless man is brutally beaten to death, Dunja can’t stop herself from starting an investigation of her own. Before long the clues take her to Sweden and Helsingborg, where Risk is investigating the peculiar case of the frozen millionaire.

Gritty and chilling, Eighteen Below Zero is the third stand-alone thriller in the internationally bestselling Fabian Risk series.

SWEDISH REVIEW

Arton grader minus är den första boken jag har läst i Fabian Risk serien, men jag har hört mycket gott om serien. Nu är det alltid lite vanskligt att börja läsa mitt i en serie, men har man tur så är boken lätt att komma in i och man blir intresserad av att läsa föregående böcker. Arton grader minus handling var intressant i och med att det första offret de hittar har varit död i 2 månader men att någon har använt sig av hans identitet under den tiden. Frågan är har detta hänt tidigare och kommer det hända igen? I Danmark kämpar Dunja Hougaard med att anpassa sig till sitt nya jobb. Efter att ha förfalskad sin chefs namnteckning miste hon sitt jobb och blev degraderad. Men, kanske kan hennes nya fall få henne på fötter igen?

Arton grader minus är en intressant bok, men jag hade vissa svårigheter med boken, och det allra största var att jag fann karaktärerna en aning flata och ointressanta. Hela delen med Dunja Hougaard kändes i stort sett som en helt annan bok och det var första på slutet som en viss koppling anknöts till fallet i Sverige, eller snarare till Fabian Risk. Och sorry, men Dunja och hennes ex-chefs vendetta mot henne känns som gammal skåpsmat och ett till synes ointressant sådant. Då var fallet med den nedfrysta kroppen mer intressant, men den delen av boken förstördes också en aning av det tråkiga sidospåret med Fabians son Theodore som till sår dela ömkade sig.

Allt i allt, inte en helt perfekt bok, men jag gillar sista delen av boken när allting började dra ihop sig och intressant vändningar i handlingen uppstod.

Tack Bokförlaget Forum for recensionsexemplaret!

ENGLISH REVIEW

A car drives out of the quayside in the port of Helsingborg after a violent car chase. Everything indicates that it was an accident, but when the driver, an IT entrepreneur who made a fortune in mobile games, is autopsied is it revealed that he had already been dead for two months and that he has been kept frozen.

It is spring and almost two years have passed since the events in Victim Without a Face. In Helsingborg, the criminological department has been unusually quiet. Fabian Risk has been able to devote most of his energy to patch up things with his family. But even if neither he nor any of his colleagues would say it out loud, are they starting to get bored, and when the strange case of the frozen millionaire lands on their table they all feel the same thing: At last something is happening.

Straight across the strait in Denmark have Dunja Hougaard put on her uniform again in her new job as a community police in Elsinore. But when a homeless person is subjected to such a brutal beating that he dies, can she not stop herself from launching her own investigation where the tracks soon lead to Helsingborg.

Fabian and his team must race against the time in an investigation where nothing turns out to be as it looks. Soon, he dares no longer trust their own judgment, and if they don't find a solution soon will the next victim soon end up in a freezer.

**********

Eighteen Degrees Minus is the first book I have read in the Fabian Risk series, but I have heard very good things about the series. Now, it is always a bit risky to start reading in the middle of a series, but if you're lucky, is the book easy to get into and you become interested to read the previous books. The story was interesting in that the first victim they find have been dead for two months, but that someone has used his identity during that time. The question is has this happened before and will it happen again? In Denmark, is Dunja Hougaard struggling to adapt to her new job. She lost her job and was demoted after forging her boss's signature. But, perhaps her new case will get her on her feet again?

Eighteen degrees minus is an interesting book, but I had some difficulties with the book, and the biggest was that I found the characters a little too flat and uninteresting. The storyline with Dunja Hougaard felt almost like a completely different book and it was the first at the end as the storyline was linked to the case in Sweden, or rather to Fabian Risk. And sorry, but Dunya and her ex-boss vendetta against her feel like it's been done so many times before and it was pretty uninteresting to read about. The case with the frozen body was much more interesting, but not even that storyline was perfect as it contained a tedious side track with Fabian's son Theodore who spent his time moaning about his awful life.

All in all, not a perfect book, but I like the last part of the book when everything began to come together and interesting twists in the plot occurred.

Thanks Bokförlaget Forum for the review copy! ( )

A curious accident turns out to be the beginning of an incredible series of murder. On a hot summer day, a car speeds through Helsingborg and is only stopped by the water front. The autopsy of the body reveals that he has been dead for at least two months, the body frozen. When Fabian Risk and his colleagues investigate the victim’s life, they come across a case of not just stolen identity, but also stolen millions from the rich man. Obviously a doppelgänger has taken over his life and transferred all his money. A great strategy and as it turns out, it has been working for quite some time already. While Fabian’s full attention is demanded at work, his marriage comes to an end. His wife seems to eventually make a big with her art work and his kids are immersed in other things. No one in the family pays attention to the other anymore which turns out to be a serious mistake, since all of them get in danger, again.

Part two of the Fabian Risk series is a psychological thriller that cleverly combines the detective’s police work with the developments in his private life. I liked the protagonist in this second novel a lot more than in the first since he now has become a real team player and not the single cop who can do all on his own. What I also liked is that his Danish colleague reappears and that her story, too, is continued.

At the beginning, the thriller starts with quite a strange case of murder and does not seem to turn out too complicated. Admittedly, for me having the two cases, one on the Swedish and one on the Danish side of the Øresund, seemed to be a classic setting with enough to solve for the two teams. Yet, Stefan Ahnhem could really surprise me with what a net of crime he has woven here. The more the novel advances the more you can just read and stare and admire the complexity of the plot. The action accelerates increasingly and this the further you get the harder it becomes to put it away. A great read and surely makes you eager to read more of Stefan Ahnhem. ( )