Am conflicted - wonderful characters and great plot, but the delivery and conclusion fell a little short (3.5 stars)My library branch is closing down due to renovations and I found Death Angels as I was raiding the shelves - all in a selfless attempt to help them and make it so that they had less books to move, of course ;-). I was intrigued, since I've been wanting to read more mysteries and thrillers, and what with the recent rage for Swedish writers I thought Åke Edwardson would be interesting to try.PraiseThe mystery itself - as in the actual plot - was good and engaging. The crimes are horrid (though in some things we're not given details, but re: below) and as the murders pile up you're increasingly anxious to figure it all out and have the murderer unmasked.The characters were the second strength of the book, and in some ways may have outshone the plot. Erik Winter, who is our main copper and the man whom the series follows, is very complex and interesting. He's a player, a little disengaged emotionally, and in some ways of a snob, but he's oddly likable and I ended up becoming very fond of him. I also loved Macdonald, his counterpart in England, and thought the juxtaposition between the two of them was great.The other characters, including Winter's team, are equally compelling, though I'll admit I got very confused between Beckman / Bolger / Bergenhem / Birgersson and Malmström / Möllerström and Helander / Halder and etc. I love how the author gave the easiest name to remember (Winter) to the one character whom we're not going to get confused about anyway - the hero!! I read a Japanese novel recently and while I had no problems keeping those foreign (to me) names straight, I was embarrassingly confused here.CriticismI always felt like I was missing something - like there were passages or pages that had somehow been left out, or characters were having conversations or making discoveries while I was "out of the room." It was like I was always a few steps behind and while the characters were making these jumps and assumptions, I had no idea where they were coming from and what was leading them to this place or that place. Also, while we're given certain hints as to what the murders entail, there is not a lot of detail - either about what exactly is being done or for what possible psychological purpose (besides for the obvious).In some ways, this worked out well because it is a mystery book, so there were some points where the confusion added - positively - to my experience as a reader. One example of this is how the POV of some of the victims and the killer are interwoven into the plot, but very subtly (obviously not referring to the blatant killing scene which starts the book) so that you'll be a few paragraphs and realize, 'Woah, this isn't Winter (or Macdonald or whoever), I'm on the other side of the story here!' Many times, however, it left me feeling lost, and not in a good mystery-reading way. I'm definitely no Albert Einstein, but I'm reasonably intelligent and pretty quick, so I don't think it was all me. Maybe this is just Edwardson's style - I don't know, I guess I'll find that out when I read his next book - but either way it didn't work for me. It left me feeling very unsatisfied at the end, as if I had been five steps behind, just chasing a shadow around bends and curves, and then when I finally caught up everything was out to see and had been fully discovered ... leaving me floundering and disappointed. Especially because even after that - even in the end! - there were still things left unexplained that I was confused about.Lovely PoemInscribed on an obelisk seen by Winter at the end of the book: Wild birds plow their way through the far reaches of space.How many never reach their final destination.But what difference does that make?They die free.Bottom LineI would recommend this book, but get it from the library. Edwardson definitely has potential and there were so many things I did like about Death Angels that I already have a hold on the next one in the series ... I'm just hoping I don't have the same "left behind" feeling that I did here.Chief Inspector Erik Winter Series(As of May 2011, only books 1-5 have been translated into English)Book 1 - Death AngelsBook 2 - The Shadow WomanBook 3 - Sun and ShadowBook 4 - Never EndBook 5 - Frozen TracksBook 6 - Segel aus SteinBook 7 - Zimmer Nr. 10.Book 8 - Vänaste landBook 9 - Nästan död manBook 10 - Den sista vintern
Åke Edwardson is one of our favorite Swedish novelists and we have reviewed some of the books from his Chief Inspector Winter series in the past (Go here for review of Sun and Shadow and here for Frozen Tracks). Death Angels is another novel in this series and has won the Best Swedish Crime Fiction Award in 1997.A Brief Summary: The main plot of "Death Angels" spins around some strange murders of teenage boys that are being committed in both Sweden and London.Young Swedish men are being tortured and murdered in a similar pattern in both Gothenburg and London. And in all crime scenes, markings of a tripod have been found in the dried blood, as if the murder was filmed.Inspector Winter flies to London to collaborate with his equivalent lead on the case, Steve Macdonald. They both agree that the murderer is not a typical sociopath and one key question in their mind is why on earth the murderer is committing the crimes. They are both willing to break the rules and do a little illegal activity in search of a clue.Our Take: If you want to read the series chronologically, "Death Angels" is the place to start. This crime story has a very formulaic plot but Edwardson provides a lot of richness to it through strong character development which takes us through the mind of a confident, thirty-something homicide detective. Edwardson writes pure police procedurals, so we should expect large sections dedicated to investigation procedures which might not necessarily provide clues to the main plot in hand. Having said that, the reader shouldn't be discouraged by the pace and the details as the twists and surprises are yet to come in later stages of the book.Once the the reader thinks everything is figured out, the author provides some nice surprises in the story. The twists come at the right time and leave the reader satisfied with the novel. Overall, this is a solid foundation for a favorite police procedural series and definitely an entertaining read for the fans of Scandinavian Crime fictions. The right order of reading Inspector Winter series is according to the following (unfortunately Death Angels was not the first novel from the series translated into English):Book 1 – Death Angels Book 2 – The Shadow WomanBook 3 – Sun and ShadowBook 4 – Never EndBook 5 – Frozen TracksMore at http://www.mysterytribune.com or @mysterytribune
What do You think about Death Angels (2009)?
I do not really know where to start here. The premise was good, but also flawed, and I think there may have been some of this story, lost in translation. It is the first book in the series, maybe things will improve in the second. I had to keep going back and re-reading, because I thought I was missing or skipping over parts of the story. The murder scene was not fully described and I found it frustrating that these details were omitted. Some of the dialogue and descriptive script was just plain crazy. I am willing to give this author another chance, as there is certainly potential, but I just hope he tries not to be too clever and abstract and sticks to writing a good crime story. With all the details included, please.
—Mary Gilligan-Nolan
3.5 starsThis was a pretty good start to a series. I found the mystery interesting and I liked Winter. My biggest complaint would be that I couldn't tell Winter from Macdonald, their voices on the page were so alike, I frequently had to refer to other passages to remember whose point of view I was seeing. I am not sure if that is a translation issue or not, but it did detract from my enjoyment of the book. The prose was also a bit flat ion places, and that may well be the translator's fault as well.Still, it was a good enough beginning, I'm interested to read further.
—Minty McBunny
Klappentext:Ein junger schwedischer Tourist wird in einem Hotelzimmer im Londoner Süden brutal ermordet. Kurz darauf geschieht ein weiterer Mord auf dieselbe sadistische Weise in Göteborg. Diesmal ist ein junger Engländer das Opfer. Besteht eine Verbindung zwischen den beiden Verbrechen? Und warum fand an beiden Tatorten eine Art Ritualtanz statt? Spuren eines Kamerastativs deuten auf eine Verbindung zur Real-Hardcore-Pornoszene hin.Der erfolgsverwöhnte Erik Winter, durchgestylter und zigarillorauchender Göteborger Hauptkommissar, arbeitet zusammen mit seinem Londoner Kollegen Macdonald an der Aufklärung der grausamen Verbrechen. Sehr bald muss er feststellen, dass der Mann, der den tödlichen Tanz mit dem Engel perfekt beherrscht, ihm viel näher steht, als erwartet.Inhalt:Erik Winter, siebenunddreißig Jahre alter Kommissar aus Göteborg ermittelt in einer delikaten Angelegenheit. Der Sohn seiner früheren Nachbarn ist in London ermordet worden und auch in seiner Heimatstadt sind zwei britische Jungen ermordet. Alle drei auf eine grausame Art und Weise. Winter und sein Team ermitteln. Die Ermittlung gestaltet sich schwierig, denn sowohl in Göteborg als auch der in London ermittelnde englische Kollege Macdonald stehen vor einer Mauer des Schweigens. Winter entschließt sich den jungen Polizisten Bergenhem in die Unterwelt einzuschleusen unterstützt von seinem alten Schulkameraden Bolger. Unter dessen macht sich Winter auf nach London zu Macdonald um vielleicht dort etwas über die Beweggründe der zwei jungen englischen Männer zu erfahren, warum sie in Göteborg waren und mit wem sein Nachbarsjunge Kontakt hatte. Nach einiger Recherche finden sie einen Verdächtigen, der zwischen beiden Städten unterwegs ist. Ist er der Täter? Macdonald und Winter ermitteln weiter und die Lage spitzt sich vor allem für den jungen Polizisten Bergenhem in Göteborg immer mehr zu. Bis es zum Showdown zwischen Winter und den Mörder kommt.Meinung:Edwardsons „Tanz mit dem Engel“ ist der erste Teil der Krimi-Serie um den Göteborger Kommissar Erik Winter. Winter ist ein unverheirateter, modebewusster, zigarillorauchender Jazzliebhaber mit einem Hang zu mehreren Freundinnen. Gerade die Beschreibungen der beteiligten Charaktere ist Edwardson sehr gut gelungen.Er führt auch direkt mehrere Akteure in die Handlung ein, die wohl auch in den kommenden Büchern der Reihe noch eine Rolle spielen werden. Sei es die Pastorin Hanna, der junge Polizist Bergenhem, Winters Chef Sture (mit einem sehr starkem Charakter) oder Ringmark. Bei jedem dieser Akteure gibt es einen kurzen Einblick ins Private, so kommt der Leser ihnen näher.Der Verlauf der Handlung ist hingegen etwas schwerfällig. Denn zu Beginn passiert nicht viel und man ist schon geneigt das Buch zuzuklappen. Aber irgendwie fesselt einen das Buch doch und dies liegt an den Charakteren. Gegen Ende des Buches nimmt die Geschichte an Fahrt auf und gerade bei den Verhören hat man das Gefühl, dass einem die Handlung nur so fort fliegt.„Tanz mit dem Engel“ war mein erster Krimi von Ake Edwardson und wird auch nicht mein letzter gewesen sein.
—Woerterkatze Wörterkatze
