Cathy C. (cathyskye) - , reviewed on 5/6/2009 + 2266 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 5

First Line: The plate trembled, knocking over the glass.

Former small-time crook John Jonsson is found brutally murdered with clear evidence of torture in a small town in Uppsala, Sweden. With Ann Lindell on maternity leave, it is up to her partner, Ola Haver, to find the killer.

First of all, I'd like to pick a bone with publishers in general. According to Stop, You're Killing Me!, this is the fourth book in this series that Eriksson has written, but it's the first to be translated into English. The Princess of Burundi won the Swedish Crime Academy Award for Best Crime Novel, and the publisher obviously thought it stood the best chance of selling well here. Although the book stands on its own merits fairly well, I often felt as though I walked in halfway through the movie as far as the series characters went. Please publish series books in order!

In this book, Eriksson delineates each of his characters very carefully except for those who have already appeared in previous books. Ola Haver is a police officer whose marriage is ossifying, and I never did feel as though he was any great shakes as an investigator. He was mired in his worries about his home life. Ann Lindell is on maternity leave in this book, and there were too many references made to a relationship she'd had in a previous book. She didn't have all that much to do with solving this case, and what small glimpses of her that I was allowed made me want to know more:

"I'm certainly not sophisticated," she said quietly to herself. "Not like detectives on TV, the ones who listen to opera, know Greek mythology, and know if a wine is right for fish or a white meat. I just am. A normal gal who happened to become a police officer, the way other people become chefs, gardeners, or bus drivers. I want there to be justice, and I want it so much I forget to live my life."


It was page 126 before I learned what "Princess of Burundi" had to do with anything. (The victim raised tropical fish and Princess of Burundi is the popular name of one of the species.) I found the plot to be a bit too circuitous, and it seemed that the bad guys just kept right on going until they did something so blatantly stupid that the police couldn't help but catch them.

All this makes it sound as though I found the book to be a waste of time. I didn't. There was just enough of main character Ann Lindell there for me to know that she's someone special that I would like to get to know better. (I would suggest that, if she has any more children, her maternity leave occurs between books and not right in the middle of one!)

I also found Eriksson's descriptions of Sweden and Swedish society to be very good. As I was reading, I felt as though I were there crunching through the endless snow and becoming better acquainted with the people. I will be keeping an eye out for books by this author. If earlier books in the series are published, I will definitely read them.

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