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Product Description
Review
"Gripping...An expert melding of sociological observation and psychological acuity."
-Kirkus
"An extremely accomplished cross between crime fiction and psychological thriller...on par with P. D. James."
-Helsingsborgs Dagblad (Sweden)
"Masterful...While +ke Edwardson possesses an undertone of humor, his work is full of darkness...With The Shadow Woman [he] establishes himself among the most exciting crime thriller writers in the country."
-Motala & Vadstena Tidning (Sweden)
"Erik Winter could be related to Elizabeth George's Sir Thomas Lynley, and the almost clinical descriptions might evoke pathologist Kay Scarpetta in Patricia Cornwell's books, while the social ambience could well be inspired by both P. D. James and Minette Walters."
-SmslSnningen (Sweden)
"A dramatic crime chase in Gothenburg, intelligently and excitingly told."
-Der Spiegel (Germany)
"[Here is] the opportunity to discover a Swede well removed from the 'Swedish model' and enter into the world of +ke Edwardson. Try this voyage, and you will return to it."
-Marianne (France)
-Kirkus
"An extremely accomplished cross between crime fiction and psychological thriller...on par with P. D. James."
-Helsingsborgs Dagblad (Sweden)
"Masterful...While +ke Edwardson possesses an undertone of humor, his work is full of darkness...With The Shadow Woman [he] establishes himself among the most exciting crime thriller writers in the country."
-Motala & Vadstena Tidning (Sweden)
"Erik Winter could be related to Elizabeth George's Sir Thomas Lynley, and the almost clinical descriptions might evoke pathologist Kay Scarpetta in Patricia Cornwell's books, while the social ambience could well be inspired by both P. D. James and Minette Walters."
-SmslSnningen (Sweden)
"A dramatic crime chase in Gothenburg, intelligently and excitingly told."
-Der Spiegel (Germany)
"[Here is] the opportunity to discover a Swede well removed from the 'Swedish model' and enter into the world of +ke Edwardson. Try this voyage, and you will return to it."
-Marianne (France)
Book Description
The second installment of the internationally best selling Erik Winter series
It's August and the annual Gothenburg Party is in full swing. But this year the bacchanalian blowout is simmering with ethnic discord spurred by nativist gangs. When a woman is found murdered in the park-her identity as inscrutable as the blood-red symbol on the tree above her body-Winter's search for her missing child leads him from sleek McMansions to the Gothenburg fringes, where "northern suburbs" is code for "outsider" and the past is inescapable-even for Sweden's youngest chief inspector. Psychologically gripping and socially astute, The Shadow Woman puts this master of Swedish noir on track to build an American audience on par with his international fame.
It's August and the annual Gothenburg Party is in full swing. But this year the bacchanalian blowout is simmering with ethnic discord spurred by nativist gangs. When a woman is found murdered in the park-her identity as inscrutable as the blood-red symbol on the tree above her body-Winter's search for her missing child leads him from sleek McMansions to the Gothenburg fringes, where "northern suburbs" is code for "outsider" and the past is inescapable-even for Sweden's youngest chief inspector. Psychologically gripping and socially astute, The Shadow Woman puts this master of Swedish noir on track to build an American audience on par with his international fame.
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Most helpful customer reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Elusive Leads,
By
This review is from: The Shadow Woman: A Chief Inspector Erik Winter Novel (Paperback)
Slow and steady: Sweden's youngest Detective Inspector seeks elusive clues in this slow, plodding police procedural about a murder victim that takes half the book to identify. Erik Winter, the dapper inspector who likes expensive clothing and cars, and finds it difficult to grow up to a maturity in relation to his girlfriend's desire for more permanence, is an intuitive, careful thinker confronted, in this second installment in a Swedish noir series, with almost no clues about the victim or murderer, other than that she has borne a child.The plot switches back and forth between the present-day investigation and flashbacks, so the reader ' this reader, at least - is at a loss as to where the story is at. It is confusing at best, yet interesting, from a psychological point of view. There are some idioms the translator obviously inserted into the text which have no obvious counterpart in Swedish. Having struggled over a longer period of time to read the novel than would be devoted ordinarily to a book of this length, it is with ambivalence that it is recommended, solely on the basis that it is an interesting work.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
3.8 out of 5 stars (13 customer reviews) 31 of 31 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Somewhat mystical police procedural,
By Patto - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Shadow Woman: A Chief Inspector Erik Winter Novel (Paperback)
It's the height of the Gothenburg Party, Sweden's biggest outdoor festival. August is murderously hot, violence is erupting among biker gangs - and the body of a young woman turns up in a ditch. .Erik Winter, Chief Inspector of Gothenburg, must first figure out who she is - and this takes almost half the book. He knows from the autopsy report that she's had a child. Otherwise she seems to have no relatives, friends, contacts or occupation. Winter begins to think of her as the loneliest person in Sweden. He wonders what happened to her child. This is very much a police procedural, with Winter pushing his team and the evidence lab to dig into every little detail. But he also has visionary flashes of intuition. I prefer the investigative nitty-gritty to the visions. But other readers might feel differently. The mystery has its roots in the past. The flashbacks are a bit too artistic for me to follow easily. But Åke Edwardson is doing his best to blend crime writing with a literary style. A commendable ambition. Chief Inspector Winter is thirty-seven in this book and going through changes. Normally he wears high-end designer suits, but the heat has reduced him to cut-off jeans. And lately he's listening to The Clash as well as Coltrane. His family is upset that he never calls, and his girlfriend wants a commitment. Winter's personal conflicts contrast nicely with his brilliance and dedication on the job. Åke Edwardson is not a perfect writer, yet I find his books quite absorbing and recommend them to fans of Scandinavian noir. There are supposedly a dozen Erik Winter mysteries, and I look forward to reading more of them as they trickle through the translation process. 3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Murder in a Swedish heat wave,
By Lynn Harnett - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Shadow Woman: A Chief Inspector Erik Winter Novel (Paperback)
Sweden's youngest ever chief inspector (37) cuts his vacation short when one of his team - a black, Swedish-born woman - has her jaw broken at the annual Gothenburg party, an outdoor late-summer festival at which nativist thugs get drunk and run amok, often in motorcycle gangs.Gothenburg is sweltering in an August heat wave and Winter shows up for work in cut-offs, a rock band tee shirt and uncut hair - quite a contrast to his usual designer suits and perfect grooming. The attack on his officer has provoked an unaccustomed rage and he unleashes it on his ex-brother-in-law, a criminal with racist ties. "Winter opened his eyes again and looked at his hands. Were they his? It had felt good clenching his fingers around Vennerhag's jaw." It doesn't take long to round up the attackers, but a murdered woman found in a lakeside ditch effectively ends Winter's vacation. She has no id or identifying marks; her fingerprints aren't in any database and no one has reported her missing, though the autopsy shows she's had a child. Winter, who finds himself musing on the nature of evil and the urge to fight violence with violence, sets his team in motion, chasing down every lead they can think of, no matter how thin: "An investigation is a great big vacuum cleaner that sucks in everything: witness statements and forensic evidence, sound ideas and crazy hunches, most of it completely irrelevant to the case. Eventually you find things that fit together. Then you can formulate a hypothesis." It takes almost half the book to trace the woman's identity. Meanwhile the narrative breaks for interludes with a child held captive and missing her mother and a lonely old lady growing anxious about her missing neighbors. A police procedural with a strong psychological bent, Gothenburg author Edwardson's series (Death Angels) stays primarily on Winter, while branching out to include details of his team's private lives and aspirations. Winter himself is on the brink of a life choice, spurred by his girlfriend Angela's ultimatum. The prose is Scandinavian spare with a vivid sense of place only occasionally confusing to an American audience. Fans of Scandinavian crime fiction will love Edwardson. 5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Present and Past,
By Condorena "Condorena" - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Shadow Woman: A Chief Inspector Erik Winter Novel (Paperback)
THE SHADOW WOMAN by Åke EdwardsonWinter is winding up his summer vacation and he has traded in his designer suits and stylish look for cutoff and hair to match the very hot weather that will go down in people's memories and will make it easier to recall what they were doing at that time of the year. Eric himself has a few other reasons that make him cut his vacation short. One of his investigating team has been viciously attacked in racially motivated violence, and this has driven him to uncharacteristic violence himself. Secondly a young unknown woman's body has been found dumped at the edge of a lake and he feels and he feels an unusual connection to her. Lastly his long time girl friend has given him an ultimatum and told him to grow up and show some maturity. A cut to the quick for Sweden's youngest ever Chief Inspector. A massive drug war between biker gangs is ripping through Scandinavia. It is late August and the annual Gotenburg party is in full swing. The heat is exacerbated by the ethnic discord stirred by the nativist gangs. Sweden has its problems with immigrants as do much country. Winter call these unfortunates Space refugees. They are those who journey from country to country with out ever being allowed into any of the paradises. But the problem is closer to home in that Aneta Djanali, who was attacked was born in Sweden and considers herself Swedish but does not look Swedish. This is the second of Edwardson's books although it is the most recently translated. In it we see an early Erik Winter just settling into his job as Chief Inspector. It is somewhat of a departure because there is a small mystical element as Winter has significant dreams in this book, which is something that is no repeated much in future books. There is also a little more of a hint about his relationship with his family. There are few clues about the body in the lake and the story shifts gently from one point of view to another and from one place and time to another. So it is with insight and determination that the police finally get a grip on the body in the lake and bring the murder to a satisfying conclusion. Like many fictional detectives Winter has musical preferences, in this case jazz. However after visiting London on a previous case he was turned onto a group called The Clash, which he listened to throughout the book. But he does shave and get back into his designer suits although we don't know whether he has become mature. |
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