Sara Blædel

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

This did not start off well for me: junior detective Nassrin's first task in the book is updating intelligence about hundreds of people of 'Arab roots' in the area. It wasn't clear to me if this was because they were Arab, or because they also happened to be criminals, or if it was the position of the Danish police that all Arabs were likely to be criminals. Next Nassrin witnesses a woman being sexually assaulted, and steps in (so far, so good) only to take the perpetrator home to sober up, telling him he has been making a nuisance of himself.

I also struggled with the translation - presumably there is more work to be done before publication, since surely even spellcheck would have caught 'shined' for 'shone', but what on earth does 'a hippie pastor with spaghetti in her pockets' even mean? Also, the term 'residential school' has a specific meaning here in Canada. If the translator just meant boarding school, they should have said that.

As for the plot itself, I thought it was pretty good. The peril of the situation of the people who disappeared was well-described, and things moved along at a good pace. However, the female detectives spent the entire book squabbling with each other in a very immature fashion, which was tiresome, and I was left with a few unanswered questions at the end. Also, it was pretty obvious who the baddie was - apart from anything else there was no one else left to suspect after a certain point in the story.… (mais)