The Blood Spilt

November 20, 2006
Larsson's second novel (after 2006's Sun Storm
) takes a riveting look at religious mania, the practice of law in Sweden and crimes as dark and bloody as those in supposedly less progressive countries. Rebecka Martinsson, a tax attorney (as Larsson was before she turned to full-time writing) in Stockholm, had to perform some seriously bloody deeds in the town of Kiruna (Larsson's own birthplace) at the end of Sun Storm
. Now she's back at work after some time to recover, and her large law firm is even using her hard-won notoriety for its own publicity. But when a female priest is savagely murdered in Kiruna, Rebecka interrupts her rehab to return there, to help solve a crime much like the one that caused her so much damage. Luckily, she also gets to work again with a sharp and sympathetic local female police inspector, who proves that not every Scandinavian cop or crime solver is a depressive. Fans of Henning Mankell, Karin Fossum and Arnaldur Indridason will be rewarded.

March 26, 2007
Huber's slightly nasal, vaguely Middle-American drawl is a strange fit for a murder mystery set in northern Sweden. I The strategy is mostly effective, though, rendering Larsson's novel about the puzzling death of a priest more familiar to American listeners than it might otherwise appear. In her reading, Sweden is just next door to Michigan, and the aggressive normalcy of Huber's no-nonsense voice brings the terrible conundrum of lawyer Rebecka Martinsson, embroiled in guilt and anger and a desire to understand after an accidental death, to life. Huber makes no effort to sound Swedish, other than pronouncing names and places properly, and in the end, this gives Larsson's mystery a familiar, well-worn feel it might otherwise lack. Simultaneous release with the Delacorte hardcover (Reviews, Nov. 20).

Though this murder takes place in the endless summer of northern Sweden, the plot is as dark as a winter solstice. Larsson's genius is her ability to enter the deranged criminal mind. Rebecka Martinsson, a tax attorney who has certain mental problems of her own, returns to her hometown of Kiruna to assist her friend, policewoman Anna Maria Mella, in the investigation of the brutal murder of the local priest. Hillary Huber narrates this Scandinavian story in perfect English. In fact, no one has any accent at all--which is a bit of a disappointment. The bleakness of the Swedish psyche is laid bare, and it is not a pretty thing. B.H.B. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine