The Viper

June 4, 2012
Östlundh’s U.S. debut, an engrossing thriller, upholds the fine Scandinavian literary tradition of using crime to peek into deep-rooted social malaises. When a cleaning lady discovers a gruesome double murder in an isolated farmhouse on the Swedish island of Gotland, the police assume that the disfigured male body next to Kristina Traneus, who’s been hacked to death, belongs to Kristina’s husband, Arvid. A few days earlier, Arvid returned home permanently from a decade spent working in Japan, where he made a fortune and left behind a lover. The eventual realization that the body is not Arvid’s prompts a manhunt that unearths long-buried family secrets about accidental and other untimely deaths without casting any light on the perpetrator of the crimes. Along the way, as various minor characters flit across the stage, the author delivers a thoughtful meditation on the nature of evil and what makes a person culpable. Agent: Lena Stjernström, Grand Agency.

August 1, 2012
Journalist ostlundh's first English-language translation provides sad proof that not every crime novel that takes root under the midnight sun blossoms equally brightly. Corporate consultant Arvid Traneus has been away from home for 10 years, spending longer and longer periods of time doing what he does best: driving his employer's closest competitor closer to extinction. Only a few days after he returns to the Swedish island of Gotland, it becomes clear that he didn't stay away long enough when his housecleaner arrives at work to find two blood-soaked bodies. The woman is obviously Arvid's wife, Kristina, whom he stole away from his cousin Anders many years ago. But the man has been so savagely attacked by a razor-sharp blade--the pathologist counts 30 wounds, half of them bad enough to have individually been the cause of death--that it's impossible to identify him. Attempting to figure out whether the corpse is that of Arvid or Anders or someone else, Fredrick Bowman and his colleagues in the Visby Police Department question Anders' father, ex-wife and daughter, as well as Arvid's son Rickard, a part-time accountant, and his daughter Elin, a university student in Stockholm. They pick up dark hints about the death of Arvid's eldest child, Stefania, who died 10 years ago at the age of 19. And in the fullness of time, they discover a third corpse that raises as many questions as it answers. The ruthless patriarch, the dysfunctional family, the mysterious earlier death and the pattern of domestic abuse all suggest that ostlundh has made a close study of Stieg Larsson's Millenium trilogy. But this procedural is altogether slower, less surprising and more routine than its high-flying sinners seem to promise.

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July 1, 2012

Joining a recent wave of newly translated Scandinavian crime novels, Ostlundh makes his U.S. debut with the fourth volume of his series featuring police detective Fredrik Broman and his colleagues on the Swedish island of Gotland. When the butchered remains of a woman and a man who'd been mutilated beyond recognition are discovered, the victims are initially thought to be business consultant Arvid Traneus and his wife, Katrina. But it is soon determined that the dead man is Arvid's cousin and Katrina's lover. Traneus has disappeared, and the police are anxious to find him. Nominated in 2008 for the Best Swedish Crime Novel, a literary prize awarded by the Swedish Crime Writers' Academy, this mystery resembles Karin Fossum's Inspector Sejer novels with its shifting points of view that share the thoughts and motives of the main players. VERDICT Though the translation of some idioms is a little rough, fans of international crime fiction, especially those who enjoy character study and isolated Scandinavian settings, will be interested in discovering a promising new author. [Previewed in Kristi Chadwick's Mystery Genre Spotlight feature, "Crime Travels," LJ 4/15/12.]--Deb West, Gannon Univ. Lib., Erie, PA

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2012
For the last 10 years, ruthless businessman Arvid has been living and working in Tokyo, leaving his wife and children alone to lead their own lives. Two days after he returns to the island of Gotland in Sweden, the bodies of a man and a woman are found in his house. Although the female is easily identified as Arvid's wife, the male body is so badly disfigured that no one is sure who it is. Whether the body turns out to be Arvid or his wife's lover, the police are confident it's a crime of passion; only investigator Fredrik Boman believes there is something more going on. Combining the viewpoints of police and local residents gives Ostlundh's first crime novel to appear in English an extra level of interest. This latest Swedish import is sure to please fans of Asa Larsson and Johan Theorin, who also sets his series on the island of Gotland.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)