Review of THE WIDOWS OF MALABAR HILL by Sujata Massey

3.5 Stars

I was looking for another mystery series and opted for this highly-rated first instalment in a series set in early 20^th-century India where the protagonist is Bombay’s first female solicitor.

Preveen Mistry is a member of a wealthy and well-respected Parsi family.  Oxford-educated, she works alongside her father in the family law firm.  A client has died and left the financial affairs of his three widows in the hands of Faisal Mukri, his household agent.  When Mukri writes to the law firm indicating that the widows want to relinquish their portions of their husband’s assets to an Islamic charitable trust, Preveen worries that the women, who live in strict seclusion, may not be aware of the full consequences of their decision.  Anxious to protect their interests, she meets with them and determines that tensions exist among the three women.  Then a murder occurs and several people in the household, including the widows, have motives.  Preveen is determined to uncover the truth. 

Interspersed with this mystery is Preveen’s backstory.  Via flashbacks to five years earlier, we learn of Preveen’s whirlwind romance with Cyrus Sodawalla, a relationship initially kept hidden from her family.  Though the details are revealed slowly, there are several hints that the results of that relationship were disastrous; for example, her best friend comments, “’Interesting, isn’t it, that neither you nor I can marry?’”  It becomes clear that Preveen’s experiences have made her the woman she is, a passionate defender of the rights of women. 

Preveen is an appealing heroine.  She is intelligent, determined and spirited.  Because of the personal struggles she has endured, she is compassionate and thoughtful.  Because she lives in a time and place where misogyny is part of the culture and even refusing to comply with a man’s request is dangerous, she has many constraints on her freedom.  Nonetheless, she manages to do what she feels she must do to protect the widows and pursue truth and justice.  Fortunately for her, her gender gives her access to the widows that official investigators do not have, and she has a very supportive family.  Preveen is likeable as well because her actions and words show she values gender equality, religious tolerance, and racial harmony. 

At first, I found myself getting impatient with the story of Preveen’s romance with Cyrus; it almost felt like the book was becoming more of a romance than a mystery or legal thriller.  However, I’m glad I persevered because that part of the narrative explains so much about Preveen and illuminates the treatment of women in India one hundred years ago, even those women who had the advantages of wealth.

I’ve always been fascinated by India and its diversity, and this novel depicts that diversity so well.  There is a great deal of information about food, cultural traditions and religious practices, but it is not given in a heavy-handed fashion but as an integral part of the narrative.  Reading the book is like breaking down the barriers between peoples, “The boundaries communities drew around themselves [that] seemed to narrow their lives – whether it was women and men, Hindus and Muslims, or Parsis and everyone else.”

The Widows of Malabar Hill is a perfect summer read.  A second book in the series was released in May; I will definitely be picking up The Satapur Moonstone. 

Review of ASYMMETRY by Lisa Halliday

3 Stars

This book has been on my to-read pile for a while.  Its description did not really appeal, but The New Yorker, my favourite magazine, called it a literary phenomenon (https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/why-asymmetry-has-become-a-literary-phenomenon) so I finally gave in and read it.  I’m afraid I don’t really agree with this assessment.

The novel is divided into three parts.  In the first section set in 2003, Alice, a book editor in her mid-20s, has a relationship with Ezra Blazer, a famous writer 45 years her senior.  Ezra basically takes over her life and though he heavily influences her reading, he does little to instil confidence in the fledgling writer.  In the second section set in 2008, the narrator is Amar Ala Jaafari.  He is an Iraqi-American economist flying to Kurdistan to find his brother Sami who has disappeared, but he is detained at Heathrow.  Between interrogations, he reminisces about his life and experiences as an immigrant with dual nationality.  In the third section set in 2011, Ezra, now a Nobel Prize laureate, is interviewed on BBC about what music he would want with him were he to be stranded on a deserted island.  In that interview he makes a comment that links the first two parts of Asymmetry.

The mystery is why the stories of Alice and Amar belong together despite their asymmetry.  It is not really difficult to solve the mystery.  Alice is a novice writer who lacks confidence in her ability.  She dreams of living “A life of seeing, really seeing the world, and of having something novel to say about the view,” but she worries that she cannot be cured of “the anxiety of self-doubt.”  She compares herself to Ezra and asks, “And, hadn’t he already said everything she wanted to say?”  It seems she has tentatively started a novel about “’War. Dictatorships. World affairs.’” and “’People more interesting than I am,’” but has misgivings:  “Alice was starting to consider really rather seriously whether a former choirgirl from Massachusetts might be capable of conjuring the consciousness of a Muslim man.”  Have you solved the mystery yet? 

Characterization is interesting.  Alice remains very much a mystery.  Little insight into her thoughts and feelings is given.  She just seems to passively let Ezra take over her life.  It is Ezra who sets the rules for their relationship; she is at his beck and call.  He constantly tells her what to read; in fact, several long quotations from what she is reading are included so Alice almost seems to disappear.  Amar is really Alice’s foil.  He has much more experience in the world and his tone of voice shows none of Alice’s diffidence.  His section is really a monologue so the reader is privy to his thoughts and emotions.  And then there’s Ezra.  From Alice’s perspective in the novel’s first section, he is a controlling but generous figure; in the last section which reveals him only through his words, he is a much less appealing character.  Of course, once the truth is known, the reader’s impression of Alice also changes. 

The book examines the limits of creativity.  Students in creative writing classes are always taught to write about what they know.  Halliday, however, suggests that it is possible for a writer to imagine a life that overcomes the narrowness of one’s horizons, to “imagine a life, indeed a consciousness, that goes some way to reduce the blind spots in our own.”  (I could not but think of Emily Dickinson.)  Writers may suffer “the metaphysical claustrophobia and bleak fate of being always one person,” but the novel implies that the writer’s imagination can solve this problem.  Though there are limits, “someone who imagines for a living . . . can hold her mirror up to whatever subject she chooses, at whatever angle she likes.”

This book is very much a literary experiment.  I was rather underwhelmed by the reveal at the end since the clues are rather obvious.  Asymmetry is a book which I admired to some extent after I had read it but didn’t necessarily enjoy while reading.  Lengthy descriptions of the roles of adrenocorticotropic hormone and cortisol in congenital adrenal hyperplasia do not make for interesting reading.  Is it necessary to read over 50 names of people called to jury duty?  I don’t mind if a book is an intellectual puzzle but I want it also to be entertaining; I should like it while reading and not just on reflection afterwards.

Review of THE VANISHING ACT OF ESME LENNOX by Maggie O'Farrell

4 Stars

Not too long ago, when I posted reviews of books by Anna Burns and Bernard MacLaverty, two writers from Northern Ireland, a friend suggested I read something by Maggie O’Farrell, another Northern Irish novelist.  A bit of research led me to discover that she was nominated for a Costa Book Award three times and won it once.  Why have I not read her before?

Esme was born in India into a wealthy Scottish family.  After a tragic death in the family, Esme, her older sister Kitty, and their parents return to Scotland.  Esme is a high-spirited, imaginative, precocious, and irreverent child who often displeases her parents with her disregard for “rules, these ridiculous rules” of polite society.   She wants advanced education but is denied that so she reads every opportunity she can.  After a traumatic event, her behaviour is considered extreme and she is sent to a mental asylum.  There she stays for over 60 years.  Pending the closure of the asylum, Iris Lockhart, Esme’s great-niece is contacted.  Iris had never heard of Esme but reluctantly agrees to take her home for a weekend until other accommodation arrangements can be made.  During that weekend stay, Esme asks to visit Kitty though she is suffering from Alzheimer’s.

The novel reveals how psychiatry was once used to control women who did not conform.  Families were more concerned about propriety than anything, so women who did not behave demurely or correctly suffered.  Iris does some research and discovers some reasons why women were admitted to the asylum:  “Iris reads of refusals to speak, of unironed clothes, of arguments with neighbours, of hysteria, of unwashed dishes and unswept floors, of never wanting marital relations or wanting them too much or not enough or not in the right way or seeking them elsewhere.  Of husbands at the end of their tethers, of parents unable to understand the women their daughters have become, of fathers who insist, over and over again, that she used to be such a lovely little thing.  Daughters who just don’t listen.”  She learns that “’a man used to be able to admit his daughter or wife to an asylum with just a signature from a GP. . . . You could get rid of your wife if you got fed up with her.  You could get shot of your daughter if she wouldn’t do as she was told.’”  Esme’s admission form indicates her problematic behaviour:  “Insists on keeping her hair long . . . Parents report finding her dancing before a mirror, dressed in her mother’s clothes.” 

The narrative structure is interesting.  We learn about Iris and her life – a life which could certainly have had her placed into an asylum if she had lived sixty years earlier.  Then there are flashbacks to Esme’s childhood and adolescence where the events that led to her admission are revealed.  Then there is another voice, that of Kitty, who speaks in rambling, disjointed passages which show a mind ravaged by Alzheimer’s and torn by guilt.  Her continual self-justifications suggest that the Edith Wharton quotation in the epigraph applies to Kitty:  “I couldn’t have my happiness made out of a wrong – an unfairness – to somebody else . . . What sort of life could we build on such foundations?” 

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It has well-developed characters and an interesting plot, questions the nature of madness, and shows how propriety hid a number of crimes.  Anyone who liked The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry should read this one.  Esme Lennox is a character who will not soon vanish from my memory. 

Review of NECESSARY PEOPLE by Anna Pitoniak

2.5 Stars

This is a novel about friendship and ambition.

Violet Trapp comes from an impoverished, dysfunctional family in Florida.  Through hard work, she manages to get into college where she meets Stella Bradley who is her opposite:  gorgeous, pampered and wealthy.  They become best friends.  After graduation, Stella sets off to tour the world while Violet gets a job in cable news in New York, a job in which, by dint of hard work and talent, she achieves success and promotions.  When Stella returns from her jaunts, she uses her family connections to also get a job with the same cable news network.  Soon she overshadows Violet’s hard-earned accomplishments by becoming a star anchor.  Will ambition bring their friendship to an end?

Neither of the two women is likeable.  Violet works hard but she allows herself to be abused by both Stella and her family; in her desire to be accepted by the Bradleys, she allows them to treat her like a servant.  For most of the book, Violet is totally passive and never hesitates to rescue Stella from her poor choices.  Of course, she is ambitious; she uses people and sacrifices everything for her ambition.  Stella is charming but narcissistic, a spoiled rich girl.  Only when she sees Violet’s success does she stop being frivolous, but she is motivated by jealousy.  Stella means star and she certainly does not want to be overshadowed by anyone.

The pivotal event, where Violet finally reacts to Stella’s manipulations and abuse, is far-fetched.  Considering her previous behaviour, it is totally inconsistent. There is a big difference between using people to advance one’s agenda and doing what she does.  She can’t ever bring herself to be honest with Stella and express her frustrations, but she can do this and risk losing everything?   She goes from being a shrinking violet to being Iago?   And then there are her confused emotions.  At the beginning, she often speaks of her love for Stella.  Later she says that she is “pretending to love” Stella.  But then she confesses that no one would be an adequate replacement for Stella:  “I’d never love him the way I loved her.”

Another issue with the book is that some events are just thrown in for no reason.  For instance, Violet is told that her parents, with whom she has had no contact for years, might contact the media and ruin her reputation.  That threat is never mentioned again. 

The novel is very slow-paced.  It is not until two-thirds of the way through the book that something actually happens.  Until then, the only interest lies in determining whom to dislike more:  the manipulative, self-centered Stella or Violet whom her friend aptly describes as “’a leech . . . a suck-up’”?  Violet is the narrator so her opinions about herself and Stella may be motivated by self-interest but her actions reveal her true personality. 

This novel was just not for me.  There is nothing wrong with ambitious women, but both Violet and Stella and most of the other people in the novel show only the dark side of ambition. 

A more balanced perspective would have been more realistic. 

Review of THIS LITTLE LIGHT by Lori Lansens (New Release)

4.5 Stars

Lori Lansens is one of my favourite Canadian writers; I’ve read and loved all of her books so I was anxious to read This Little Light, her latest novel.  It is an intense, compelling read.

Events are set in Calabasas, California, over a period of 48 hours in November of 2024.  Sixteen-year-old Rory Miller and her best friend, Fee (Feliza) Lopez, are hunted fugitives hiding in a shed.  They are accused of bombing their Christian high school during an American Virtue Ball after they took virginity oaths.  As they hide, Rory writes for her blog, This Little Light, explaining what is happening in the present and what lead to their being outlaws:  “In order to remain calm-ish, I’m going to write our side of the story.  I’m afraid we’ll be tracked to the shed if I post entries in real time, so I won’t submit until I know we’re safe.”

Rory’s world is a dystopian near-future which was obviously inspired by current events.  Her world is that of double- and triple-gated communities outside of which there are “dozens of tent cities and homeless encampments” inhabited by illegal immigrants.  Because of drought, finding safe drinking water is difficult:  “now irrigation water’s reclaimed so not potable, and you can only drink bottled or tap, but only if the tap has a filtration system, which many poor people still don’t have.”  And “it’s always fire season now.”

Christian fundamentalists have gained political power so abortion has been re-criminalized:  “we girls hung on all the celebrity accusations and #MeToo confessions just like everyone else.  Then came all the abortion stuff.  Fetal heartbeat restrictions.  Counseling restrictions.  Ultrasound requirements.  Near bans and outright prohibitions.”  Teenaged girls are pressured to make chastity oaths,  but there does exist a Pink Market “helping minors access birth control, and morning-after pills, and getting them to underground clinics.” 

Rory and Fee are branded “Villains in Versace” but Rory is not a typical privileged girl.  Though she has typical adolescent concerns (“fear of missing out” and “fear of losing my best friends” to a new girl and getting “a lot of likes” on social media), she cares about others.  During a fire evacuation, she worries about “Mrs. Shea at the end of our street because she’s deaf and takes too many pills.”  She knows that “not everybody starts life with the same degree of privilege” and wonders “Wouldn’t it be better for everyone to, like, find a way to get everybody in the game?”  Her mother’s description of Rory is the most accurate:  someone believing “in truth, and honesty, humility and humanity. . . . relentless in her questioning of herself, and of our world.”

More than once, Rory is described as “Relentless.  Too true.  I never shut up.  I never give up.  I ask too many questions.  I’m a contrarian.”  It is her intelligent and independent thinking that stands out.  She calls out a friend who refuses to give money to a beggar by saying, “’That’s straight-up unchristian, Jinny.’”  She makes observations like “when you mix wealth and privilege and religion, and isolation from the real world, I mean, when people actually believe they deserve their shit, they’re gonna tend to skew dickish.”  She asks, “Shouldn’t actual evidence decide guilt or innocence, not freaking polls?”  She expresses disgust with immigration policy when one woman is deported, “being sent to a place she hasn’t seen in twenty-five years, where she has no family or friends.  Jesus fucking Christ.”  She is not afraid of self-examination either:  “all the things I’ve taken for granted.  The sense of entitlement . . . My house.  My ensuite bathroom.  My filtered water.  Agua.  Not just  clean water to drink and cook with, but clean water to wash myself with.”

Rory has an authentic teenage voice.  She tends to end words with y like “corpse-y” and “spectrum-y” and “pose-y” and “desert-y”.  She says “prolly” for probably and overuses “whatever”.  In her sentences, she leaves out words:  a father is “hardly home because work”; Calabasas “is famous because Kardashians”; teenage girls eat little “of the food because thin”; and “My parents, because Canadian, but also because statistics, hated guns, and brought me up to fear and loathe them too.”

The novel certainly maintains the reader’s interest throughout.  There is suspense because of the danger which the girls face.  Rory and Fee are being chased by the police but also by fundamentalist Christians known as Crusaders and by bounty hunters seeking the million dollar reward for finding them.  Dogs, drones and helicopters are being used.  Hate against them is being inflamed on television and online.  Of course, the reader also wants to know what happened to bring the girls into this situation.  Rory flashes back to earlier events and gradually reveals the sequence of events that lead to their being fugitives.

The message of the book is that people must question and work to find the truth.  Rory calls out someone who uses graphic images “to emotionally manipulate . . . and confuse” in an argument against a woman’s right to make decisions about her body.  Rory realizes that her and Fee’s hope lies in “journalists, and regular people, . . . starting to question.”  She even wants to have children and teach them about resistance:  “I wanna raise the kind of people who speak up, and ask questions, and call themselves out as well as others, and dig deeper.” 

This novel touches on so many subjects:  women’s rights, economic disparity, immigration, religion, sexuality, climate change, and parenting.  Of course, I could not but think of The Handmaid’s Tale.  Like Atwood’s book, This Little Light offers so much to ponder.  Though the novel is set in 2024, the world described is much more present than future. 

Note:  In return for an honest review, I received a digital galley from the publisher via NetGalley.

Review of THE TEA GIRL OF HUMMINGBIRD LANE by Lisa See

3 Stars

I recently read Lisa See’s The Island of Sea Women and enjoyed it very much, so I decided to read another of her books.  Though interesting enough, I didn’t find that The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane matched the former in terms of quality.

The narrator is Li-yan, the only daughter of an indigenous hill tribe family living in the tea mountains of China’s Yunnan province.  She and the other residents of Spring Well Village are Akha, members of an ethnic minority living in southeastern China and adjacent countries.  As a child, Li-yan learns the many beliefs, rituals and taboos of her culture.  For example, “Boys and girls are encouraged to do the intercourse before marriage, but a girl is forbidden to come to a head.”  When Li-yan does become pregnant, she leaves her daughter Yan-yeh at an orphanage.  That daughter is adopted by an American couple and becomes Haley Davis.  Li-yan leaves her village, becomes a tea master, and begins a new life, but she never forgets her daughter, just as Haley always yearns to find her biological mother.

One of the most interesting aspects of the book is learning about the Akha and their traditions.  The number of rituals in everyday life is almost overwhelming, and there are many rules governing birth, life, marriage, and death.  They are many taboos for which cleansing rituals and sacrifices must be performed.  For instance, “if a husband sees his wife give birth, he might die from it” and “Twins are the absolute worst taboo in our culture, for only animals, demons, and spirits give birth to litters” and accidentally touching the spirit gate that guards the village is “the worst omen possible and strictly taboo.”  Certain types of death, like that caused by a tiger, are considered particularly bad.  The initial impression is that the novel is set in the distant past, when it is actually a contemporary novel; its duration is the last three decades.

There is also a great deal of information about tea.  I knew virtually nothing about tea production and had never heard of pu’er, a variety of aged, fermented tea from Yunnan, production of which involves microbial fermentation and oxidation of tea leaves, after they have been dried and rolled.  It’s not that the information is uninteresting, but there is so much tea arcana.  Sometimes the amount of information about tea almost overwhelms the narrative. 

My interest in the middle section of the novel waned.  It is this part in which Li-yan studies tea and opens a tea business.  Here there are also glimpses of Haley’s life given through letters, reports and emails.  Seeing Haley’s struggles with identity are interesting but the author’s attempts to include the experiences and feelings of other adoptees are superfluous.  A group therapy session including a number of Chinese girls adopted by wealthy American families is just tedious and adds nothing to the main story. 

I had difficulty with the characterization of A-ma, Li-yan’s mother.  She is a medicine woman and midwife, “ranked first among women not only in our village but on the entire mountain,” so she actively supports the horrific treatment of a couple who become parents of twins.  But then, though there is a taboo against a woman being present at the birth of her grandchild (“If I were to give birth here attended by A-ma, then the men in my family would die for three generations and the rest of the family would suffer tragedies for nine generations”), A-ma acts as midwife when Li-yan goes into labour.  And she never expresses any concern for future generations!  She is more concerned that a man never sees a certain grove of ancient tea trees!

I also had a couple of other issues with the book.  One is that there are several too-good-to-be-true characters (Mrs. Chang, Tea Master Sun, Teacher Zhang, Mr. Huang) who are unfailingly supportive of Li-yan.  Haley too has her fair share of supportive people.  In addition, the number of coincidences stretches credibility.  Of course, the author addresses this issue by having A-ma open the novel by stating “’No coincidence, no story,’” introducing the idea that “every story, every dream, every waking minute of our lives is filled with one fateful coincidence after another.”  Still . . .

Lisa See has obviously done her research and that is commendable.  Not only is there information about the Akha and tea production, she also casts light on the repercussions of China’s one-child policy and international Chinese adoptees.  Unfortunately, the narrative is often overshadowed by the research and that makes the book a much less compelling read.

Review of MR. MERCEDES by Stephen King

3 Stars

I recently posted a review of my first Stephen King novel, 11/22/63, in which I mentioned that I was not overly impressed.  A friend who loves King’s books suggested I read Mr. Mercedes because I enjoy detective stories.  I took up the challenge and downloaded the audiobook version to listen to on my daily evening walks. 

While queuing up for a job fair, eight people are killed by a man driving a stolen Mercedes.  That driver, Brady Hartfield, escapes.  Bill Hodges is a policeman who worked on the Mercedes killer case; now retired with nothing to do, he is depressed and even contemplates suicide.  Then he receives a taunting letter from Brady, a letter which gives Bill a reason to live:  he sets out to find the Mercedes killer.  Bill suffers a loss which makes the chase more personal; fortunately, he is joined by two sidekicks who help him in his search to ensure more innocents do not suffer.

Mr. Mercedes is a fairly traditional detective story and that’s the problem; there is very little original in it.  There’s a renegade cop who works outside the confines of the law.  I just finished reading an instalment in the Harry Hole series by Jo Nesbø and there are many similarities between Bill and Harry.  Both are depressives and both carry on their investigations without too much concern about legalities.  Despite their many shortcomings, both manage to attract women.  The relationship between Bill and Janey Patterson does not ring true; it seems an unlikely liaison, just like Harry’s encounters with various women. 

Bill has his sidekicks, one of whom, Holly Gibney, proves to be a computer genius.  Holly is quirky but always manages to find crucial information.  How many television detective shows are there with similar characters?  How about Spencer Reid in Criminal Minds?  How about Abby Sciuto in NCIS?

Then there’s Brady Hartfield, the killer whose identity is known from the beginning.  Am I the only one who sees so many similarities between Brady and Norman Bates in Psycho?  Certainly the mother-son relationships are similar.  There is little to distinguish Brady from so many generic bad guys who have a personal vendetta. 

The pacing is uneven.  The novel begins dramatically with a mass killing but then things slow down considerably.  The middle, in fact, tends to be almost glacial in places.  The climax, however, is very fast-paced. 

Bill is an unconvincing retired police officer.  He has the opportunity to call the police, including his former partner who is still working, but he keeps coming up with excuses not to do so.  He wants to be the one to catch the Mercedes killer.  This is just selfish and reckless; he endangers so many people by not being upfront.  As a former police detective, he would be aware of the problems caused by people not being forthcoming.  The excuse used at the end – the police being busy with another case – just doesn’t make sense. 

I can’t say that the book is not entertaining.  I did enjoy the alternating points of view (Bill and Brady).  Will Patton, the narrator of the audiobook, is excellent, so I can even imagine I will download the second book in the trilogy.  However, I repeat that I’m not overly impressed with Stephen King.  Once again, he doesn’t offer something fresh and original. 

Review of KNIFE by Jo Nesbo

4 Stars

I always look forward to the latest instalment in the Harry Hole series by Jo Nesbø.  He is an author whose books I will purchase in hardcover as soon as they are published.  Knife is the 12^th book and it does not disappoint.

Rakel, Harry’s wife, has thrown him out of the house so Harry has returned to drinking.  One morning he wakes up with blood on his clothes but with no memory of the night before; this amnesia is problematic because during that night a loved one was murdered.  Harry sobers up and sets out to find the person responsible. 

Throughout the novel, there are a number of plausible suspects.  For instance, one suspect is Svein Finne, a serial rapist who has recently been released and wants revenge on Harry who killed his son.   Just when the reader is convinced as to the identity of the killer, he/she proves to have an alibi.  I was certain I knew the murderer but I was wrong. 

The revelation which comes at the end is shocking.  I never suspected this person at all.  What is great about the book is that all the clues are there.  It’s not that Nesbø withholds information; it’s just that the reader may not pick up on the clues because they are so subtly mentioned. 

The book is layered in that there are several subplots.  Besides the main case, there’s the background of Rakel’s boss whom Harry comes to know, a man suffering from PTSD.  We learn about his experiences as a member of the Special Operations Forces in Afghanistan.  There’s a sub-plot involving Dagney Jensen who is raped by Svein Finne.  There’s a sub-plot involving Johan Krohn, Finne’s lawyer.  In the end, all the stories connect in a very satisfying way.

Nesbø writes in such a way that passages can be interpreted in more than one way.  For instance, one character says to another, “’You shouldn’t have told anyone what you saw . . . That’s why I have to kill you.  You wouldn’t forget.  I wouldn’t forget’” (236).  The impression is that the speaker is going to kill someone to protect himself from further revelations that might implicate him in some crime.  But that is not the case.  This technique is used several times.

The one issue I have is the number of women who fall in love with Harry.  He’s a troubled alcoholic depressive and is notorious for self-destructive behaviour, yet women keep falling in love with him.  There’s Rakel, of course, but there are three other women in the novel who have romantic feelings for this emotionally damaged man. 

This book can be read as a standalone, but reading previous novels gives a lot of important background which gives an added dimension to this book.  Several of the characters who appear are introduced much earlier in the series. 

A mystery or police procedural is not a book I would normally re-read, but this is one that is worth re-reading.