DESCRIPTION: 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.
An assault on a police officer and the discovery of a body found at an annual summer festival in a Swedish town makes for a heart pounding thriller in Ake Edwardson’s THE SHADOW WOMAN. In the fifth Inspector Erik Winter mystery, a woman’s body is found during the Gothenberg Party with the only clue being a red symbol on the tree above her. Not only does Winter have to solve this murder but also find the unidentified victim’s daughter before it is too late. This psychological thriller is dark and exciting but also has subtle humor. Winter’s search takes him from the tony mansions of the rich to the immigrant fringes of the northern suburbs. This exciting novel is reminiscent of P.D. James and Patricia Cornwell and keeps you hooked until the last page. The descriptive passages detailing the bleak and extraordinarily beautiful landscape reminded me of both Smila’s Sense of Snow and the writings of Minette Walters. THE SHADOW WOMAN is a beautifully rendered psychological thriller that is guaranteed to entertain.
