May 23, 2011
Originally published in Sweden in 1999, the first in Dahl's acclaimed Intercrime trilogy focuses on the A-Unit, a freshly formed elite team of six mavericks and misfits from various police units. Typical is Paul Hjelm, who was about to lose his job for the unorthodox handling of a hostage situation. The author artfully fills in the disparate backgrounds of the other four men and one woman, each of whom emerges as a substantial, nuanced character. Plot, though, is not Dahl's strong suit. A less than compelling story line, full of Stockholm street names, leaves the reader floundering in clueless murders for too long, burdened with extended lists of possibilities that don't pan out and a lot of talk about corporations and their board members, some of whom are thought to be possible targets of the media-dubbed "Power Murderer." Eventually, clues come pouring in and the pace picks up.
Starred review from June 1, 2011
An elite team of misfit police officers band together to stop a serial killer.
Detective Inspector Paul Hjelm never intends to be a hero when he diffuses a hostage situation in his local precinct, but the media can't help but latch on to the story. Hjelm thinks the situation ironic, given the fact that his wife Cilla and their children look at him as if they could see right through him. Hjelm is on the verge of being dismissed from his post for acting outside protocol when Detective Superintendent Jan-Olov Hultin taps him to join a special targeted group which Hultin, for lack of a better term, has called the A-Unit. As Hjelm is introduced to his new colleagues, he sees his own overworked, outsider perspective reflected in their tired faces. Hultin tasks the team with investigating a series of murders of local businessmen, seemingly unrelated but all bearing the mark of cool and calculated executions. Hjelm thinks he's developed a promising lead by investigating the Order of the Mimir, a local group echoing the secrecy of the Freemasons, but his astute cohort brings in equally likely leads that implicate everyone from a young male-prostitution ring to the Russian Mafia. The investigation slowly devolves into a study not only of the facts of the case but of the characters of the investigators themselves; the darkness they face within the mystery has them all questioning their own reasons to be.
Thoughtfully haunting and sometimes beautifully written, the first of Hjelm's cases to be translated into English is likely to resonate with readers of the Stieg Larsson trilogy.
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May 15, 2011
This exciting debut in a three-book series follows Paul Hjelm, a Swedish detective considered a hero by the media and a loose cannon by Internal Affairs. After his mostly successful resolution of a hostage situation, Hjelm is told to clean out his office--but instead of losing his job, he is asked to join the A-Unit, a new, elite law enforcement group. Their first investigation is to solve the killings of Sweden's top business leaders. The clues are few but have the A-Unit questioning the Russian Mafia, booze smugglers, and their own xenophobic tendencies. VERDICT Nunnally has smoothly translated the novel from Swedish to English, although it is easy for a reader unfamiliar with Sweden and its capital, Stockholm, to get confused by city and business names. The intriguing plot can be complicated at times, but Dahl neatly ties up all of the loose ends in a symmetrical exposition. Fans of hard-boiled detective and Swedish crime novels will enjoy this. [See Prepub Alert, 1/21/11.]--Jennifer Funk, McKendree Univ. Lib., Lebanon, IL
Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Starred review from July 1, 2011
It's 1997, and a serial killer is methodically killing Sweden's wealthiest businessmen while listening to a tape of Thelonious Monk's haunting classic Misterioso. The National Police, still traumatized by the unsolved assassination of Prime Minister Olaf Palme a decade before, decide to create a special unit to hunt down the killer. Paul Hjelm, a detective in Stockholm's southern suburbs, is selected as one of the unit's six seemingly mismatched members. Hjelm is thunderstruck. Although he's the hero du jour in the newspapers, he's expecting to be fired for shooting a blackhead, a Kosovar Arab who had taken hostages in an immigration office. Dahl, who is hailed in northern Europe as Henning Mankell's successor, sets a full plate for himself in the first of a series about Hjelm and his colleagues. He introduces and fleshes out a baker's-dozen characters. He describes a once comfortable country fragmented by racial malaise; East European Mafias; a financial collapse brought on by greedy, reckless bankers and government deregulation; postindustrial capitalism; and a gnawing fear that Sweden has lost its way. Although this is also Mankell's turf, Dahl handles it differently but also very successfully. Mystery devotees who loved Mankell's Kurt Wallander, and crime-fiction lifers who still treasure Sjwall's and Wahl's Martin Beck, will want to add Paul Hjelm to their short lists of international favorites.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)