Helpful Score: 1
Why the hype? (Review from Advanced Reading Copy, ARC)
I found this book to be fairly typical of Scandinavian crime fiction (Mankell, Wahloo, Sjowall). I did enjoy aspects of the book that addressed various issues of illegal drug usage in prisons. One half of this writing duo is an ex-criminal and he lends a certain factual credibility to the story.
Character development wasn't enough to cause any real emotional attachment. I never felt that I cared one way or the other about them. Prose was very "dry" and lacked any humor and dragged a lot.
Given a choice of only one word, I would choose "confusion". Sometimes I just felt like I "missed" something. The chapters bounce back and forth between story lines, as many novels do. However it didn't work here because of the lack of clarity at times. The details needed to be tightened up or maybe it is an editing issue. I found myself editing as I read. That's pretty distracting.
All in all, I have to say I can't figure out the basis for the major award this won in Sweden. The hype on this is tremendous so I am sure there will be readers aplenty. But chances are they will be asking themselves the same question that I did: "What did I miss?"
I found this book to be fairly typical of Scandinavian crime fiction (Mankell, Wahloo, Sjowall). I did enjoy aspects of the book that addressed various issues of illegal drug usage in prisons. One half of this writing duo is an ex-criminal and he lends a certain factual credibility to the story.
Character development wasn't enough to cause any real emotional attachment. I never felt that I cared one way or the other about them. Prose was very "dry" and lacked any humor and dragged a lot.
Given a choice of only one word, I would choose "confusion". Sometimes I just felt like I "missed" something. The chapters bounce back and forth between story lines, as many novels do. However it didn't work here because of the lack of clarity at times. The details needed to be tightened up or maybe it is an editing issue. I found myself editing as I read. That's pretty distracting.
All in all, I have to say I can't figure out the basis for the major award this won in Sweden. The hype on this is tremendous so I am sure there will be readers aplenty. But chances are they will be asking themselves the same question that I did: "What did I miss?"
Back to all reviews by this member
Back to all reviews of this book
Back to Book Reviews
Back to Book Details
Back to all reviews of this book
Back to Book Reviews
Back to Book Details
