Unspoken

Unspoken is the second novel in Mari Jungstedt's Inspector Knutas series, set on the island of Gotland. It opens with alcoholic photographer Henry Dahlstrom winning a packet on the races, and subsequently coming to a sticky end. Dahlstrom appears to have been murdered for his winnings; a pretty straightforward case. However there are some loose ends that cause Knutas to look further. As the investigation proceeds, fourteen year old Fanny Jansson is becoming deeply embroiled in a highly dubious relationship.

A warning: Jungstedt peppers her story with back-references to the first Knutas novel, Unseen. Nearly all of the main characters are introduced with a bit of back story from the earlier novel, to the point where you pretty much give show more up any inclination to read it, as she gives away almost all of its plot. She clearly expects you to read her novels in sequence, as the ending of Unspoken clearly demonstrates.

I found this novel irritating, in part because of its not standing independently of the earlier novel. Jungstedt should read the Martin Beck novels to see how to write a linked series without ruining it for people who come in part-way. I also thought that far too much of what went on was extraneous to the crime and the investigation. I like my detective novels to be more tautly written than this and to me a lot of this book seemed like padding for the sake of continuing story threads in the series. I won't be bothering with any more of these books. show less

I liked this book a little better than Unseen--I think the story was stronger. Again, Inspector Anders Knutas is investigating a murder. Reporter Johan Berg is also back in Gotland, and is still having an affair with Emma, whose best friend was the first victim in the earlier novel. See, I do remember some of the story. This time, there's a missing girl, a murdered photographer, and it's wintertime. The descriptions of the season really set the mood for the creepy mystery.

I got confused which is nothing, absolutely nothing, new. But one night, for some reason, I plucked THE INNER CIRCLE by Mari Jungstedt from the stacks, and started reading. Then I got quite convinced I'd already read the book. So I went to check and found UNSEEN, which I then re-read, ending up very struck by the similarities between the two plots. Which got me wondering if there were similarities in all of them, and as I had a number of the books to hand, I thought I'd read them in order and see what was going on.

Still managed to screw up the order completely. Sigh. Oh, and THE INNER CIRCLE was also published as UNKNOWN just to add to the confusion.

So, anyway, I read UNSEEN, then THE INNER CIRCLE / UNKNOWN, then THE KILLER'S ART and show more finally UNSPOKEN which got me to the end of the books that were here, waiting to be read. Having spread this little exercise out over a couple of months, I was still struck by the similarities - sometimes in plot elements, always in the ongoing personal elements, and overwhelmingly in the way that the journalistic aspects take precedence over the police investigation, although the last part does seem to moderate a little in the final book - UNSPOKEN.

It comes as absolutely no surprise that the author of these books has worked as a journalist as that viewpoint is undoubtedly the strongest in all of these books. Whilst that aspect is obviously written with authority, it does rather skew the investigative aspects of the various cases. The personal complications of this particular journalist's personal life, absolutely did not help this reader as the whole thing lurched too much into melodrama for my liking. Add to that a rather journalistic, rather than storytelling author style and I will admit I was struggling.

A struggle obviously not helped by the idea of reading all of the books in rapid succession. I could really see the similarities after the second book, and the increasing predictability, and to be frank, tediousness of the personal life was increasingly boring and vaguely irritating. I definitely remember reading UNSEEN the first time round (of course I do, the similarities between it and UNKNOWN were what sent me off on this quest after all), and whilst I was not overly impressed at the time, I wasn't put off completely either. By the end of all four books though I have to confess I was increasingly underwhelmed with the series. Not one that I'd avoid, but not one that I'd shunt to the top of the pile by default.

http://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/unspoken-mari-jungstedt show less

Publishers Blurb:
It is winter on Gotland, and fourteen-year-old Fanny is missing. She had no friends to speak of other than the horses she took care of at the local racing stable, and seems to have been an unhappy and isolated teenager, the daughter of an absent Jamaican musician and an instable Swedish mother. Is her disappearance somehow connected to the recent brutal murder of alcoholic photographer Henry Dahlström, who had won a large sum of money at the racetrack right before his death? Inspector Anders Knutas and his team investigate under pressure from the media.

#2 in Jungstedt's Anders Knutas series is at once a Swedish police procedural set on the island of Gotland, as was the first in the series UNSEEN, and at the same time show more an exploration of how little people often know about each other, even in situations when they should. It is a book I've had on my mental list for some time.

UNSPOKEN is a clever interweaving of three stories: firstly the disappearance of Henry Dahlstrom whose friends know almost nothing about him, and whose wife and daughter have long rejected. As is often the case it seems in modern murder mysteries Dahlstrom has sources of income that those closest to him knew nothing about.
Fanny Jannsom was not yet fifteen and yet already her mother was assuming that she could be left alone overnight or even for weekends. Again, here is a person with no real friends, and with a secret life well hidden from view. but it is a life that Fanny really wanted to be rescued from.

The third element was one that I had not expected. Reporter Johan Berg had a significant role in UNSEEN, and he became entangled with Emma, a friend of one of the victims. The continuing relationship between the two provides an interesting backdrop to the police investigation in UNSPOKEN, while Johan is constantly prompting Knutas for results.

Jungstedt's is a lighter, almost uncomplicated style when you compare it to other Swedish writers like Henning Mankell and Nesbo, whose novels seem much darker. That isn't to say that Jungstedt isn't dealing with dark situations. I am tempted to compare it with Helene Tursten's particularly in the treatment of the domestic life of the central police character. show less

This is a somewhat bland little novel. Not a lot of character development, and they didn't interest me a great deal. I found the ending to be not at all credible. Here it is 5 days after I finished the book and I can't recall why the killer committed the cime, only that he did and HE was a big surprise. The single biggest attraction for me was "discovering" Gotland, an island southeast of Stockholm.

There is another character that seems oddly placed in this novel. He is a TV journalist (as was the author, "write what you know") but he seems somewhat tangential to the story. He uncovers helpful information that contributes to the resolution of the case but he just seems to drop in for an occasional scene every so often. But he is having show more an affair with a married Mom of two kids who is now just pregnant again. More print seems devoted to his relationshiop with her than his time on the case; I guess this is to offset the somewhat dull private life of the hero cop.

Not sure that I will read other books in this series. I expected better. show less

Not nearly as good as Unseen. Lacked the strong sense of place the the other book had and the love story was just about irrelevant to the plot. The ending was off the planet!

The second of Ms. Jungstedt's Gotland mysteries, featuring Detective Knutas and the journalist Berg. The mystery this time invoves a missing 14 year old girl, who is found murdered. The lives of Berg (particularly) and Knutas are as much a draw as the plot, and the setting is of the first importance to the novel.