Pun Salad

This book made Tom Nolan's list in the WSJ of the The Best Mystery Books of 2022. The author, David Lagercrantz, is known for his continuation of Stieg Larsson’s "The Girl Who…" novels.

As sometimes happens, I was not as impressed as Nolan was. In fact, my initial impression from wading through the first couple dozen pages was similar to watching a poorly-dubbed Japanese monster movie. It's translated from the original Swedish, so maybe that could explain at least part of it: an over-literal translation of Swedish idioms? Anyway, it eventually got easier, either because I got adjusted to the style, or the translation got better. I don't know.

There are apparently conscious parallels to the Holmes/Watson stories. In this case, "Holmes" is Hans Rekke, a reclusive ex-professor with psychological and substance abuse issues. "Watson" is a Swedish cop, Micaela Vargas, daughter of Chilean refugees who apparently ran afoul of the Pinochet regime. She has two criminal brothers, and chafes under police bureaucracy.

The case in question is the murder of a soccer referee after a match. The obvious suspect is a livid parent upset at a call that went against his kid. In fact, the cops view it as such an open-and-shut case, the only issue is how to get that parent to confess. Vargas has doubts, but the investigative team goes to Rekke for advice on how best to get a confession; instead, Rekke claims that it's pretty clear the guy is innocent, drawing the contempt of all the cops except Vargas.

But of course Rekke's right. Vargas, after saving him from an apparent suicide attempt (!) tries to enlist him in futher investigation, but she's shortly dismissed from the case herself. It seems there's political pressure involved. The victim was an Afghan refugee with an iffy past involving some nasty American torture at Abu Ghraib.

I think Holmes and Watson could have solved this case in about a couple dozen pages. But Rekke and Vargas have to deal with the previously mentioned problems too. (Is it my fault I didn't find that particularly interesting?)