Peter of Scandinavian Books reviews Ake Edwardson’s Sun and Shadow – part of a procedural series set in Gotland. It involves a staged murder scene, and as Peter describes it, “Erik Winter feels that the murderer is providing them with a riddle of nightmares, of good versus evil, of sun and shadow.” He recommends it as exciting and well-rounded.
I reviewed it for Mystery Scene back in 2005 (though, oddly, someone else’s name appears on the review. I wonder if he’d agree with my assessment?) In retrospect, it seems a very enthusiastic review for a book that I don’t remember liking quite as much as it sounds. At any rate, it didn’t make me seek out the rest, though Never End (2006) got a very favorable review in MS from another reviewer.
Maxine’s review at Euro Crime is more measured – lots of promise, interesting leads, but a forced motive and a denouement that’s a bit of a let-down. Fiona Walker’s Euro Crime review of Frozen Tracks, the third to be translated and also is ambivalent – very good in some respects, but with some narrative habits that make it less effective than top-ranked Scandinavian crime. Maybe that’s a burden for Scandinavian crime writers – there are so many that are so good, the comparisons are many and the bar is high.
Scandinavian Crime Fiction 
Hi – thanks for the mentioning and link. I actually liked the book – but to some extent because I like the Erik Winter-character. Is it possible that women likes him less than men – I notice that the other reviewers you refer to are female – and that this influences the evaluation of the books (and possibly all of Edwardsons books)? I just wonder.
Anyway, I wrote this comment to ask you if you would be willing to swap links with my blog, and possibly also with the site?
Regards,
Peter
I think the negatives for all of the reviews had to do with the plotting rather than the character – at least that was my impression. I liked Winter and the teamwork aspect that you mentioned. IIRC the crime seemed a tad preposterous. But it has been a long time since I read it.
And silly me, I follow your blog but hadn’t put it on my links – it’s there now. Cheers – Barbara
I have read a handful of Åke Edwardsons books and generally liked them, but I would not give them five stars. I think part of my reservation is that Erik Winter tends to think a lot before doing anything (wise perhaps before marrying or having a child, but is procrastination in the middle of a murder case really possible?)
Thanks. Have linked back to you 🙂
Peter
I’ve been reading Swedish crime fiction for awhile now (and before I had ever heard of Stieg Larsson, whom I still haven’t read). I recall picking up this book–it wasn’t great, but not bad. I think I picked it up because of the mentioning of death and/or black metal in the description on the cover (as I’m a fan of such).