The Long Shadow

February 3, 2014
Marklund’s busy eighth Annika Bengtzon novel finds the dogged Stockholm crime reporter still struggling with the personal and professional aftershocks of her deadly previous case in 2013’s Lifetime. Her latest assignment for her newspaper is hardly a sunny one: writing about the slaughter of former hockey star Sebastian Söderström and his family during the robbery of their Spanish villa. If that weren’t grim enough stuff for Annika to handle while trying to adapt to sharing custody of her two children with her ex (and his dim girlfriend), as well as having to suffer an equally clueless new editor, she’s soon uncovering money laundering, drug trafficking, and glimpses of a history of horrific abuse and murder stretching back decades. Despite the often confusing subplots, this installment in the Bengtzon chronicles offers plenty of suspense. Agent: Niclas Salomonsson, Salomonsson Agency (Sweden).

April 1, 2014
Her spirits dimmed but not quenched by her last round of collisions with violent death (Lifetime, 2013), Stockholm reporter Annika Bengtzon ventures abroad in search of more dragons to slay. That's not how it seems to her higher-ups. Anders Schyman, editor in chief at the Evening Post, wants to promote her to lead editor; Patrik, the subordinate who's promoted over her when she refuses the job, wants her to color within the lines and fill out all the right forms. The rumor that the victim of a robbery killed along with his family was retired Swedish hockey player Sebastian Soderstrom sends Annika off to his home on the Costa del Sol--or, as she soon learns to call it, the Costa del Crime. Drugs, contraband, illicit cash: Everything dirty seems to pass through this paradise, and Annika's soon filing story after story on criminal matters related to the robbery and the murders. She is not, however, pleasing her bosses. They're unhappy that an enterprising photographer has caught Annika kissing Jimmy Halenius, her ex-husband Thomas' highly placed boss at the Ministry of Justice, and that Lotta Bartholomeus, the photographer temporarily assigned to Annika, has complained of her high-handed treatment. And they seem utterly indifferent when Annika discovers that Soderstrom's daughter Suzette seems to have missed the slaughter that orphaned her, leaving Annika on her own to chase down leads to the teen's whereabouts. It doesn't help her credibility that Annika is susceptible to Jimmy Halenius, to the Norrland narcotics cop who shows her the ropes on the Costa del Crime, and even to Thomas, who phones from the corridor outside the home he shares with the mistress he dumped Annika for to tell her that their divorce was a terrible mistake. Against all odds, Annika eventually ties together all the felonies she's poked her nose into, but it's a thankless slog that will make you grateful you aren't a newspaper reporter yourself.

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February 15, 2014

True to many Scandinavian crime novels, the plot of Marklund's latest Annika Bengzton book (after Lifetime) is an intricate one involving politics, drugs, and murder. A large number of wealthy Swedish expats live in Costa del Sol, Spain, but the idyllic area is shaken when a former hockey player and his family die from gas poisoning--a familiar MO of break-ins in the area. Crime reporter Annika is sent to cover the event as well as follow up on drug-running leads for another story. She soon discovers that the teenage daughter of the slain family is missing. Now Annika has an entirely new story. VERDICT While the complex plot leads to an exciting climax, the multitude of story lines incorporate coincidences that can test readers' suspension of disbelief. Familiarizing yourself with previous books in the series is heavily suggested as it will provide a better understanding of Annika, the supporting characters, and some plotlines that have continued from the earlier books. Fans of Anne Holt will enjoy Marklund.--Frances Thorsen, Chronicles of Crime Bookshop, Victoria, BC

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from March 15, 2014
As Spain's Costa del Sol attracts wealthy residents, it becomes known as Costa del Crime, with a proliferation of home burglaries in which residents are temporarily gassed while their homes are stripped of valuables. Then a burglary in which a different gas is used results in the deaths of all five of the home's Swedish residents: former NHL player Sebastian Soderstrom, his solicitor wife, his two young children, and his mother-in-law. Stockholm crime reporter Annika Bengtzon, having just turned down an editorial job on the restructuring Evening Post, pursues the story with her trademark persistence, particularly when she learns that Soderstrom's teenage daughter from his first marriage was absent during the burglary and has disappeared. With Annika's personal life in a state of fluxher cop lover turns out to be married, and her ex-husband is making moves to reconnectshe has little patience for those who impede her progress as she finds a web of drug dealing and money laundering stretching from Sweden to Morocco and looping back to her previous outing in Lifetime (2013). In Marklund's eighth mystery in this series, she looks at society's strivers as she continues her tradition of superlative Scandinavian crime fiction with a tough but appealingly fallible protagonist who leaves readers wanting more.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)