Woman with a Birthmark: An Inspector Van Veeteren Mystery
by: Hakan Nesser; translated from Swedish by Laurie Thompson
Published by: Pantheon Books
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Reviewed by Julie Failla Earhart
First there was the British Invasion back in the 1960s when rock bands flooded the U.S. Now it seems that Swedish crime writers have taken the country by storm. First I discovered Henning Mankell (through PBS’ “Masterpiece Mystery!”) and now thanks to my local library, I have stumbled upon Hakan Nesser and his Inspector Van Veeteren mysteries.
In this fourth outing, Woman with a Birthmark, the way the murders occur makes the Inspector cringe. Each dead man suffers two shots to the chest and two shots to the groin. As the body count piles up, Van Veeteren and his colleagues have little to go on. There are no witnesses and no one near the scene has heard or seen anything that could be useful.
The only thing the Inspector has to go on is a thirty-year-old connection between the victims. Still, it’s a lead, and the other inspectors diligently do the necessary investigating to tie the pieces together. One thing that most of the detectives agree on is that the killer is mostly likely–a woman. That would explain the non-life threatening bullets to the groin. But why? What could make a woman turn into a cold-blooded killer who leaves no trace evidence; a skilled killer who makes the two chest shots fatal.
Meanwhile, the reader knows who the killer is, but not why. As the detectives scour the countryside, the woman, mousy Maria Adler, makes her way through a succession of men, outwitting the Inspector and the entire Swedish Police Force.
Watching the Inspector work, readers who have no knowledge of Sweden and its laws soon learn that murder is murder and an investigation is an investigation. There isn’t much difference whether is occurs in the United States or another country. The main variation is that the character names and location are hard to pronounce.
Armchair Interviews says: A 5-star read from this Swedish writer.
Author’s Web site: http://www.HakanNesser.com
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