The Dead of Summer, by Mari Jungstedt

Construction form boss Peter Bovide is holidaying with his family on the Swedish island of Fårö. As always he goes for an early morning run. Hours later his body is found Sudersand beach, shot once in the head, then many more times in the stomach.

It soon becomes clear that Bovide's firm employs illegal workers, there a financial worries and late payments, and the gun is Russian...

The Dead of Summer is the fifth of Mari Jungstedt's crime novels set in Gotland; if you have read the earlier ones you will know what to expect, if you haven't it is probably not the best starting point!

Jungstedt has created an engaging (if undemanding), cast of characters, and paints a picture of Gotland that makes you want to visit, explore... and meet friends (video). She is a journalist, and probably tells a lets a little too much of her professional experience seep into her portayal of reporter Johan Berg.

And she writes like a journalist, good for readability, but light on literary insight.

Here, police chief Anders Knutas has cut short his holiday to interfere with his deputy Karin Jacobssen's investigation.

Karin got up and went to stand at the window. He looked out at the idyllic summer scene, or at least as much of it as was visible on either side of the big customer car park at Östercentrum outside the Co-op forum.

Later a few pages later, Kihlgård comes over to talk to Knutas.

"What on earth is going on? This so-called summer paradise is turning out to be another Sicily."

Jungstedt is good at rooting her narrative in the ordinary - anyone who has visited Sweden knows the Co-op scene - but does anyone really speak like Kihlgård does here?

As before, The Dead of Summer ends with a question that ensures I will be reading the sixth instalment Den mörka ängeln (The Dark Angel?) as soon as it is translated into English (hopefully by Tiina Nunnally who does a typically good job here).

 

Comments

[Dorte H]

A good - and fair - review of a Jungstedt crime story. I have not read this one yet, but I think she has progressed since her debut where the police work was so slow they almost moved backwards.

[Maxine]

Nice review, Philip. I finished this book yesterday and have drafted a review to submit to Euro Crime (source of my copy!). I like this series, though I think #3 (the religious sect one) was weak. Unlike Dorte I don't find the police work slow, though in this particular case they need the cliche of the second murder to work it out. I agree undemanding but somehow you always want to read the next one! (She reminds me a bit of Lackberg but think she's better.)