Mystery Scene Review

Sun and Shadow by Ake Edwardson
Viking Press, June, 2005

For a nation with an enviably low crime rate, Sweden has an amazing crime fiction tradition. Those who have enjoyed the work of Henning Mankell and Karin Alvtegen will be pleased to meet Erik Winter, the youngest chief inspector in Sweden, who is awaiting the birth of his first child and dealing with aging parents while trying to solve a gruesome murder. As the book opens, a couple has been decapitated in a savage bloodbath. The killer leaves a heavy metal tape playing on auto-reverse at high volume, but two weeks pass before a paperboy finally raises the alarm. The story unfolds at a thoughtful pace, following the routines of two disaffected patrol officers, the troubled home life of the teen who discovered the bodies, and Erik Winter's attempt to find any information that will help them snare the killer. Clues in the case are scarce because the social fabric of the victim's lives was so threadbare. Though we get occasional glimpses of the disturbed thoughts of the killer, the focus is not so much on the horrific nature of the crime as on the context surrounding it as the city of Gothenburg gears up to celebrate the millennium.

The translation is smooth, with a decidedly British flavor. Two more in the series will be published in English in the next few years. Readers who enjoy thoughtful, sociologically acute crime fiction will appreciate an opportunity to discover yet another fine Swedish author. Välkommen till Amerika, Ake Edwardson!

- Richard Rayner

This review appeared in the Summer 2005 issue (#90) of the magazine