Slowly We Die

April 2, 2018
Jana Berzelius has a lot on her plate in Swedish author Schepp’s hard-hitting third thriller featuring the Norrköping public prosecutor (after 2017’s Marked for Revenge). First, Jana’s adoptive mother dies of a sudden heart attack. Next, coworker Per Åström, “the only social company she allowed herself,” steps up his efforts to get close to the intensely private Jana. Meanwhile, her archnemesis, criminal suspect Danilo Peña, escapes from the private hospital room where he’s been under guard. Finally, a busy workload gets even more demanding when a serial killer begins torturing and dismembering seemingly random victims with a surgical scalpel. Schepp ably juggles a sizable cast of complex supporting characters as she drops subtle clues about the murders and to her enigmatic lead’s past; an open ending suggests that readers haven’t seen the last of Jana. Fans of Scandinavian noir will be well satisfied. Agent: Lena Stjernström, Grand Agency (Sweden).

April 15, 2018
Back for a third adventure, Swedish prosecutor Jana Berzelius is forced to harbor escaped murder suspect Danilo Peña--a childhood friend-turned-nemesis--as the city of Norrköping is terrorized by a second homicidal menace.Danilo is in possession of Jana's childhood diaries and notebooks, which she badly needs in order to penetrate blocked memories of her early years. She knows her birth parents were murdered by a child trafficking ring and--alongside Danilo, the only person with access to her past--she was trained by her captors as a child soldier. But the rest is mostly a blank. When Danilo, who grew up to be a drug smuggler, offers to turn over all her jottings in exchange for her letting him hide in her apartment, she can't refuse--especially if she wants to keep her reputation from being blemished by unseemly truths. Meanwhile, a serial killer is doing horrendous things to his victims, beginning with a female nurse who is found tied to a chair with her amputated hands on the floor. The obvious suspect is a pill-popping paramedic with connections to all the victims. Alternating and overlapping narratives with musical precision, Schepp may be the smoothest storyteller among the new crop of Nordic noir aces. While the gruesomeness of the murders seems imported from a nastier, more intense kind of thriller, the ingenious plot reveals and hidden connections keep you glued to the action. So, in a sad and subtle way, does the sense of helplessness that infects the relationships in the book, including the one between Jana and her father, a corrupt prosecutor left brain damaged by a recent suicide attempt.The final installment in an announced trilogy, following Marked for Life (2016) and Marked for Revenge (2017), this is Schepp's best effort yet in its deft blend of psychological suspense and procedural X's and O's.

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May 1, 2018
Schepp, the 2016 and 2017 Swedish Crime Writer of the Year, again immerses readers anew in the grisly cases and bleak social milieu facing Special Prosecutor Jana Berzelius (this is the last in the Berzelius trilogy, after Marked for Life (2016) and Marked for Revenge (2017)). This time out, Berzelius takes a back seat in the story, which focuses more on drug-addicted, careless paramedic Philip Engstr�m, who, along with his partner, attends tothe aftermath of a horrible amputation attack. Who is responsible, and who could be next? Berzelius' team struggles with these questions, as she also wrestles with personal demons related to her adoptive parents and her violent past as a trafficked child. Schepp's previous books in the trilogy were highly successful, and this fast-moving tale of intrigue and revenge will likely find a similarly large readership. Fans of Scandinavian crime novels will enjoy Schepp's work, which is a natural choice after Jo Nesb� and Anne Holt; Jana Berzelius will also be a hit with readers who enjoy a strong female lead.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)