Marked for Life

Starred review from April 4, 2016
Swedish author Schepp makes her U.S. debut with this stellar first in a crime trilogy. Prosecutor Jana Berzelius heads the investigation into the shooting murder of Hans Juhlén, the person in charge of asylum issues at the Swedish migration board, whose wife found his body at their home in Norrköping. Clues include a stash of threatening letters, large amounts of cash withdrawn monthly, and fingerprints belonging to a child whose body turns up a few days later. As the case evolves, it dredges up Jana’s long-repressed memories. She remembers nothing of her childhood before she was nine years old and woke up in a hospital room; soon a wealthy couple adopted her. Jana and her team get on the trail of a human-trafficking operation, which unleashes even more of her memories. Schepp couples an insightful look at the personal and professional lives of her characters with an unflinching multilayered plot loaded with surprises. Agent: Lena Stjernström, Grand Agency (Sweden).

June 15, 2016
The murder of a local official in charge of asylum issues sparks the resurgence of long-buried memories for the prosecutor on the case.In the opening of this first installment of a Swedish trilogy, Hans Juhlen is found shot to death in his Lindo home. When the squadron of traditionally gloomy Scandinavian detectives arrives, they discover a forensically uninteresting scene, save for a child's handprint smeared on a window. The Juhlens are childless. Enter the public prosecutor assigned to the case, Jana Berzelius, fond of smart skirts, winning cases, and not smiling. She's the adopted daughter of a former prosecutor, who's also fond of winning. According to Hans' wife, Kerstin, his work at the Migration Board was stressful but no more so than usual, so it's a shock to her when detectives show her Hans' stash of threatening letters. Soon after, the body of an adolescent boy, already scarred from heroin use, is found near the sea, with a gun that matches the weapon that killed Hans. During the autopsy, a strange tattoo on the back of the boy's neck sends the prosecutor reeling and ensures that the reader sees connections with earlier italicized sections about a young immigrant girl ripped from her parents and trained to kill, a link the character makes frustratingly late. As the case progresses and morphs, Jana tries to dig into the hidden past. An intriguing if bumpy start to a new series; the challenging, multilayered heroine makes it worth the read.

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May 1, 2016
Originally self-published in the author's native Sweden, this first book in a trilogy introduces public prosecutor Jana Berzelius. Investigating the murder of Hans Juhlen, an accountant at the Migration Board, Jana and her Norrkoping colleagues are perplexed by a child's handprint at the crime scene. Juhlen and his wife had no children. As Jana and her team dig deeper, it's Jana's own background that emerges as the possible key to the case. Ever since she can remember, Jana has been plagued by images and dreams of a violent childhood. The only link she has to who she was before she was adopted is a name carved into the back of her neck. When a corpse with a similar carving is discovered, Jana realizes that her nightmares are based in a sick reality. Schepp's fast-paced thriller, with a good blend of police procedure and the draw of a ninja-strong female lead, has enough adrenaline to make a good night's sleep a near impossibility.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)