Hunting Game
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4.3 • 8 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Helene Tursten’s explosive new series features Detective Inspector Embla Nyström, a sharp, unforgiving woman working in a man’s world. When one of her peers is murdered during a routine hunting trip, Embla must track down the killer while confronting a dark incident from her past.
Helene Tursten was a nurse and a dentist before she turned to writing. She is the author of the Irene Huss series and the short story collection An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good. Her books have been translated into eighteen languages and made into a television series. She lives in Gothenburg, Sweden, with her husband.
‘As good as Louise Welsh's similarly creepy tour of Glasgow.’ Gillian Flynn
‘[An] outstanding series launch…Embla is a refreshingly capable lead, whose situational ethics means that she doesn’t feel she must do everything by the book.’ Publishers Weekly
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Det. Insp. Embla Nystr m, who appeared as a police intern in Tursten's 2015 Irene Huss mystery, The Treacherous Net, is now with the V stra G taland County Bureau of Investigation's mobile police unit in this outstanding series launch. The line between Embla's professional and personal life blurs during an annual family moose hunt, when she feels drawn to a new participant, Peter Hansson, who has just returned to the area. But the prospect of a relationship is threatened by the disappearance of two fellow hunters, Jan-Eric Cahneborg and Anders von Beehn. Shortly before, Cahneborg received a letter containing a bandanna and a slip of paper on which the words "I remember. M." were printed, a message that sent him into shock. The reader is also aware that the identical message was sent to von Beehn, accompanied, in his case, by an empty BMW key ring. Murder follows. Embla is a refreshingly capable lead, whose situational ethics means that she doesn't feel she must do everything by the book.
Customer Reviews
Meh
Author
Swedish. Nurse then a dentist before she had to retire on medical grounds. Did some medical translating then started writing crime fiction. (About 50% of the population of Gothenburg writes crime fiction, I believe.) Her most frequent protagonist is Detective Inspector Irene Huss. This was the first of a new series with a younger protagonist, also female.
In brief
It's contemporary Sweden. A late twenties female DI, who is also a talented hunter (of game, by which I mean animals, not 'she's got game'), prize-winning welterweight boxer, and de facto parent to her ex's kid, has taken the aforementioned kid to her uncle's place in the country for his his first hunting expedition. Foxes will have to do. It's not moose season. Despite the usual array of nightmares and troubling thoughts, our gal is good at her job but tends to be impetuous (typical fictional detective in other words). She's just received a mysterious phone call from her bestie who disappeared into the hands of Nordic mafiosi when they were out clubbing illegally 10 years earlier. Another rellie who runs a rural guesthouse a few clicks down the road calls because a guy got snuffed in one of the rooms (double tap to the head and heart so suicide seems unlikely), and the local coppers are busy with other violent deaths. (That's Sweden for you. Who needs Covid?) Our gal investigates. Surprise, surprise, there's a tie-up with her old bestie. The end.
Writing
Third person narrative, mostly from POV of the protagonist. Good translation, well paced, lots of ice and snow. Embla left me a bit cold too (sorry).
Bottom line
Boilerplate Nordic noir, or is it Scandi noir? Does it matter? Discuss.