Book3, in the Erik Winter seriesThis author is slowly growing on me or is it that I am now becoming more accustomed to his style, a style that is haunting and psychologically shrewd. “Frozen Tracks” is a superbly crafted crime novel, a compelling and dark thriller, definitely the best I have read from this author so far. A glimpse into the story: DCI Erik Winter and his team are baffled by a rash of beatings in Gothenburg that have nearly killed several young men, a distinctive mark left by the attacker's mysterious weapon leads them to believe they have a serial offender on their hands. The mystery is: why is someone doing this and how far will he go……At the same time, the police force is faced with another high priority that is also escalating. At first, police treat reports of nursery school children being lured to a car of a strange “mister” offering candy with importance but when a boy is found badly beaten in the woods and another is kidnapped from a school yard the s..t hits the fan … One of the children at the school is Winter’s daughter, without question he wants in on the investigation and his first instinct tells him there might be a connection between these two major cases. Gradually the plot lines converge and the suspense and intrigue rapidly intensifies when the monster the police are hunting for targets Winter’s family in order to fulfill his sadistic needs. The story highlights the importance of team work and good leadership, the dialogue is heavy in nature and many facts are revealed through a free flow of vital and trivial information among team members. Once I became tuned in to the names and the culture differences I didn’t mind the slow pacing of the plot’s rhythm, it created the perfect tempo to divulge all the sordid secrets behind the crimes. Although the author stays away from graphically detailing violence he never shies from describing its effects or the emotions it leaves behind. The plotting is well-constructed and carefully developed from start to finish resulting in a gripping police procedural saga populated with a very engaging and well-drawn cast. Although the ending is rather gloomy there are no loose ends and the mystery is played out full circle.
This book was a typical crime thriller which forms part of the Inspector Winter series. I have never read any Inspecter Winter books before but I will certainly look out for them. He is a likeable chap (unlike his fellow cantakerous literary detectives comme Morse and Wallender) and he seems to be affected quite deeply by the circumstances of the case (which is often poorly done in crime writing). I thought it was an interesting and slightly different story and I had no idea what the twist/who the bad guy actually was - despite being introduced to him in the first few chapters. My criticism is limited to 2 matters. 1, it ended far too abruptly for my tastes, almost like the author ran out of steam. DONT READ THE LAST PAGE FIRST WHATEVER YOU DO! Secondly the translation was fairly dire. I've now read a number of swedish crime books which have been poorly translated (for example poofter is spelt thus not pooftah nor would a child refer to a man as a mister or the mister). Such is the nature of the book (hardly great work of literature) that it doesnt really detract from the stories, however, it is sad that publishers are so keen to make a fast buck with a ripping yarn that they compromise on the translation. Nevertheless a good read and I highly recommend it for some thrilling late night pageturning.
Edwardson excels here, much better than Death Angels in its pace, suspense, character development, humanity towards his protagonist, much abused in childhood. He has eliminated the excessive chatter that was in Death Angels, but left enough to convey the humor and personal lives of the several detectives. Brings together the 2 seemingly unconnected crimes against small kidnappings of the children and the brutal attacks on young men. Very compelling writing. Too bad more of his novels aren't translated from the Swedish. He has been a journalist and teacher.
—Linny
I am trying out different Scandinavian detective story authors. This story was "3-stars good." I liked Erik Winter and the other detectives on his team involved in the cases. There were 2 cases happening at the same time which ended up being related. That means there were many characters (with Swedish names) being introduced. There is a lot of dialogue in this book; so with all those people being interviewed, it did make for pages and pages of dialogue. But some of it I really enjoyed because of the dry wit of those Gothenburger police officers. Also the stories took place during winter and Christmas time, and I enjoyed reading about how the Swedish celebrate. The plot was pretty good, too. But this was definitely it for me and Edwardson. I am reading another Mankell, then my first Karin Fossum.
—Chris
This story held me just captivated enough to keep reading, even though something about Edwardson's writing style really annoyed me. There were things I liked about this book: the personal lives of the detectives; the role of the cold, gray climate; the whole Christmas factor...made it a cozy read. I held out for what I thought was sure to be a great suspenseful ending, and the payoff wasn't entirely satisfactory. The last 30 or so pages of this book are so ambiguous and convoluted that I had to keep going back and rereading. Then it ended so abruptly that I was afraid I'd missed something. Edwardson may pride himself on his style of writing, but this reader wasn't terribly impressed.
—Kevin
