The Fire Dance

When the young choreographer Sophie disappears after a Göteborg Book Festival party, it gives Tursten plenty of opportunities to make gentle fun of her fellow-writers. But Inspector Huss finds herself suffering from Chronic Flashback Syndrome - fifteen years ago, she had suspected little Sophie (who obviously had dreams of becoming a Stieg Larsson heroine) of starting the fire that killed her stepfather. Could it be that Sophie's shortly-to-be-premiered work "Fire Dance" will hold a clue as to what really happened all those years ago? Well, we'd be awfully disappointed if it didn't, wouldn't we?

This one works surprisingly well - the plot manages to steer clear of the tram rails lying in wait for it, and keeps us reasonably puzzled show more until quite late in the book. show less

Once again Helene Tursten has crafted a story in which the personal relationships of the characters blend seamlessly with the police investigation. The Fire Dance allows us to see Huss as a police officer who's still finding her way through the political dynamics of her job, and as a new wife and mother as well. The new perspective adds depth to the story, as does the cold case.

Sophie Malmborg is one of the most interesting characters I've come across in a long time: prickly, almost totally uncommunicative, she sees life through the prism of her passion for dance, and she refuses to bow to anyone else's demands that she change. A reader can't help but want to know what makes her tick.

Although we get an honest picture of why it can take show more so long to solve a crime in any large city, Huss's family life still plays an important role in the book. Her twin daughters are both about to fly the nest, and her husband is still Irene's rock. Between a heavy caseload and two girls willfully expressing their independence, Irene definitely needs a devoted and loving husband like Krister.

For the first time in this series (I've read all the books as they've been translated into English), I felt let down by the solution to the crime. It was just way too obvious to me and took away some of my enjoyment of the book. Is The Fire Dance still good? You bet it is, especially due to the strong cast of characters Tursten has created-- and those characters have more than one surprise in store for readers like me who have followed this series from the start. show less

this kind of police procedural is always a welcome read. Irene Huss and her chef husband and her twins are on one side of this story, and a disturbed family and serial arsonist at the other. It has a touch of neuro-atypical personalities, and a long historical arc. Nice.

When a dancer/choreographer disappears and her body is later found in the charred ruins of a fire, Goteborg detective Irene Huss is taken back fifteen years to one of her earlier cases. The current fire victim was eleven years old then, and she was the last person to leave the house where her stepfather died in a fire. Irene and her colleagues were never able to get the neuro diverse Sophie Malmborg to speak about the fire or what she witnessed. Is her death in a fire related to her stepfather’s death fifteen years ago?

Irene investigates largely on her own in this case because most of her colleagues are tied up with a gang-related murder. In some ways this made the plot tighter. Irene’s daughter, Jenny, has been featured in a couple show more of the earlier novels. This time around it’s Jenny’s twin, Katarina, who spends more time with Irene. Many readers will figure out the answer to the fifteen-year-old fire from the description of the dance that Sophie choreographed. The symbolism is obvious to the reader, and it should have been immediately obvious to Irene. show less

I love when the title of a novel is actually indicative of what one will find in the book, so many of them are not. This case takes Irene Huss back fifteen years to one of her first cases, a case that involved a fire. Go figure. In the present, the person they questioned as a possible suspect back than is now found dead.

Although I felt Irene was not quite as sharp as in her previous novels, this one is still very entertaining. I loved all the information on dance and learned a new term, which is also a type of dance called capoeira. There are a few secondary plots, including one involving a Hell's Angel that had once put Irene in the hospital. Her personal ;life takes a scary turn as well. Good, solid and entertaining read.

Inspector Irene Huss is one of my favorite cops, and the series of novels about her is one of my favorite mystery series. This entry, however, was a disappointment. The plot is intriguing enough, if one is willing to suspend disbelief yet again on the prevalence of criminal mania in Scandinavia. But in an incident just beyond the middle of the story, the solution to the mystery is presented to us, which takes away from the suspense of the rest of the book. Also, as another reviewer notes, Irene seems unaccountably careless in this outing, exposing herself and her daughter to unnecessary risks. On the plus side, Irene remains charmingly un-neurotic; no angst here, which is refreshing to a devotee of this genre. I will stick with show more Inspector Huss, but I hope the next installment moves back to the pre-"Fire Dance" level. show less

Rather frustratingly we are once again playing catch-up with quality Danish crime fiction. THE FIRE DANCER was first published in Swedish in 2005, and has only made it into English nearly a decade later.

The case spans Detective Inspector Irene Huss's career with the the Goteborg crime unit. She had been newly appointed when her boss asked her to take over the questioning of eleven year old Sophie Malmborg with regard to a house fire that killed her step-father Magnus Eriksson. Fifteen years later the details of the earlier case come flooding back to Irene when she learns of the death of Sophie also in an arson attack.

What I've enjoyed about this series is Irene's determination to get to the bottom of the cases. She has a very practical show more attitude to her work. Throughout the books there have been glimpses of her home life, and in the background in THE FIRE DANCE are her twin teenage daughters making their own ways in life, and her husband chef Krister who is suffering from burnout.

A satisfying read. show less