Protected by the Shadows

September 15, 2017
Gang warfare erupts in Goteborg, catching DI Irene Huss (Who Watcheth, 2016, etc.), her family, and her Violent Crimes Unit in the crossfire.There's never been any love lost between Gothia MC and the Gangster Lions, but the new round of outrages kicked off when Gothia member Patrik Karlsson is doused with gasoline and set afire inside a former Gothia stronghold seems more horrifying than ever. Maybe that's because it's not such a new round after all. Shortly after Jan-Erik Mansson, the old friend whose gambling debts forced him to sell Glady's restaurant to Irene's husband, Krister, disappears and Anton Fritzell, Glady's hardworking new fish chef, is nearly killed by a car bomb clearly intended for Krister, the forensics team identifies the explosive as the same stuff that blew up Soran Siljac, a refugee from the former Yugoslavia and restaurant worker who refused to pay the gangs for protection last year. After a pregnant and extended silence between Irene and her husband, he acknowledges that he's been approached by a pair of Gothia members who insist that with the purchase of Glady's comes the responsibility for assuming Jan-Erik's unpaid debts. Irene announces her terms for dealing with the situation: "They had to vanish without a trace." Krister and their twin daughters leave town and go into hiding; Irene goes to ground uninvited in Superintendent Tommy Persson's home so that she can continue to work the case. You have to wonder how safe she is even there, though, once evidence mounts that at least one of the gangs has infiltrated the Violent Crimes Unit itself. Middling, professional work notable for its high body count, its number of guilty parties, and its understandable and contagious lack of interest in arousing much curiosity about which gang members killed exactly which others.

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October 9, 2017
Set in Göteborg, Sweden, Tursten’s lackluster 10th novel featuring Insp. Irene Huss (after 2016’s Who Watcheth) opens with a burning man staggering out of a building and dying in agony in the front yard. The ensuing investigation reveals that the man was a victim of a turf war between two gangs—Gothia MC and the Gangster Lions—and Huss’s involvement isn’t just professional. Her husband Krister’s car is bombed, a warning from Gothia MC: they believe Krister owes them for a debt incurred by his former business partner who has disappeared. The threat is real enough that the Huss family goes into hiding. Meanwhile, an apparent informant is working inside the police department. The book’s subject—the insidious, ruthless nature of the gangster underworld (the “shadows” of the title)—is a worthy one, but the prose is frustratingly simplistic, perhaps a fault of the translation. And Tursten doesn’t do Huss or her story any favors by larding it with domestic details.

October 15, 2017
In Irene Huss' tenth episode (after Who Watcheth, 2016), Goteborg's Violent Crimes Unit investigates the murder of a Gothia MC biker doused in flames at the gang's former headquarters. Gothia MC's leaders stonewall investigators, leaving them guessing about whether the killing is an in-house execution or a revival of Goteborg's recently quelled gang wars. Hoping to head off catastrophe, Huss' unit partners with the Organized Crime Unit. But, when a crucial witness is attacked, a raid of the gang's new headquarters reveals only evidence of a deep cleaning, and a rival biker boss is murdered while under police surveillance, Irene becomes convinced there is a traitor on the team. The case, already the city's top priority, becomes personal for Irene when Gothia MC puts a price on her family's head unless her husband pays for protection for his new restaurant. Driven, confident, and unflappable, Irene is the kind of detective readers will happily follow into gangland battles. An exciting procedural that pairs well with Anne Holt's Hanne Wilhelmsen series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

October 1, 2017

When Goteburg detective Irene Huss answers the phone the morning after her silver wedding anniversary celebration, she has no idea it will be the final case of her career. Irene's husband, Krister, has finally fulfilled his dream of opening his own restaurant. But when an employee is killed by a car bomb that was meant for Krister, Irene connects it to a gang-related case that she is working on. She realizes that her daughters are in danger, too. She hides her family in a secret location, but how can she be sure that they are truly safe? With stubborn determination and the help of longtime partner and friend Tommy, Irene finds clues that lead not only to a huge shipment of heroin and two notorious gangs but also the presence of a mysterious rival gang. And now Irene feels like someone is stalking her. VERDICT Tursten fans will be excited to read this satisfying tenth and final book in her Swedish procedural series. A rarity for Scandinavian crime fiction, this sleuth has a family who loves her and a happy ending. [See Prepub Alert, 6/12/17.]--Susanne Lohkamp, Multnomah Cty. Lib., Portland, OR

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2017

In this tenth outing, Tursten wraps up the internationally proclaimed Inspector Irene Huss series with Irene consumed by the live burning of a biker gang member. Even as Irene's unit joins with the Organized Crimes Unit to investigate and make sure that no retaliatory murders occur, a bomb is found beneath the car of Irene's husband, and Irene scurries her family to safety while putting herself on the line.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.