I love Mons Kallentoft, OK this is only the second book but for me he's a very good author. His characters are believable and the storyline in this and the first book are excellent. It all comes together and in between we're given some peeks into Malin Fors life. I have to admit I thought when I read the first book Mons was a woman, because of the excellent characterisation. The book can be a little difficult to read with the 'dead voices', but you soon get used to it. I enjoyed it so much I rea...

As much as I enjoy Nordic Noir/Scandinavian crime fiction, I am not enjoying Mons Kallentoft's take on it. I did not find anything really "thrilling" about this thriller.His main character, Malin Fors, seems to always have her head screwed on a little sideways, and half the time she can't seem to keep herself together much less have the brains to solve a crime. This can work if the author can make you care about the protagonist and understand why s/he crawls into a bottle, has demons, etc. But,

I found this one a little bit offensive... The main character makes me upset from time to time and the whole investigation in this book is weird. Not a fan.

Missing the half stars used on other pages: it would be 3.5. Thanks to Ancestral's opinion I changed my view of this book. At the beginning, the switching from Ich- to Er-Erzählung was really bothering me as I didn't grasp who was speaking at certain moments. Once you get used to it, you'll (probably) enjoy the book. The plot is well constructed (although nothing new, but on the other hand, what is new in fiction/this world?). The author's style is quite specific: short elliptical sentences that...

This book attracted me because the author, Mons Kallentoft, is a young Swedish writer in the crime/thriller genre, and one reviewer compared him to Stieg Larsson. The action takes place in a small town in Sweden during an unusual heat wave. In a short span of days, a young girl turns up nearly dead, then two more girls are found dead, and the evidence points to a potential serial killer. The main detective, Malin Fors, gets the case. For one thing, I did not know that it could get that hot in Sw...

A good enough mystery but the author's writing style is just annoying. Almost but not really stream of consciousness. Voices of the dead endeavor to speak with Malin Fors, detective, main character, which should be cool but somehow is just trying so hard to be poetic that just meh. I felt no real connection with any of the main characters. Despite the crazy things happening there just seems to be a lack of emotion. This is the second in the Malin Fors series and once again the weather weighs in

I've said it before and I'm going to say it again - Mons Kallentoft is a true artist with words and he really makes an impact on you.That being said, I was kind of disappointed with this one.First of all, Malin Fors totally steals the show. Her inner struggle with herself, her thoughts, feelings, hopes and fears hook you in such a way that there is no space for anything else.That can be a good thing, but it also sucks. This is a thriller/mystery, after all, and you're supposed to be invested in

Didn't enjoy this as much as the first in the series, will still perservere with the rest, but hope there isn't the annoying victim/'s voice trying to communicate with Malin, irritating in the first book, more so in this. Also don't really understand why a flaking blue painted d**** had to feature so much, do painted ones actually exist?? Unnecessary Mons!!

Summer Death is the second book in the Scandinavian crime series written by Mons Kallentoft. I had not read the first book and didn't have any trouble following the story. I would have liked to have read the first to understand the main characters relationship with her ex-husband, Janne.Other than that one aspect, the story is good enough to stand on it's own.It takes place in the small town of Linkoping. It is a very hot summer and there are large forest fires raging making everything hotter. M...

I had the same problem with this book as I had with the previous one, I liked the story, but the writing style was deeply annoying and distracting. I assume some of it is translation but the constant shifts in narrative voice, particularly the invasive, existential voice of the victim really distracts from what, at its heart, is a pretty straightforward police procedural. I'd like to know what happened to Malin to make her the way she is, and I will continue with the series, but it's definitely

Mons Kallentoft, author of this interesting Swedish police procedural and thriller, has a very existential bent. His characters are self-aware and the protagonist seems to be searching for her center, her true north star. Malin Fors is a 34 year old police inspector working in Linkoping, Sweden, the city where she grew up. She has a 14 year old daughter named Tove who is her heart's love. She also remains attached to her ex, Janne, though they separated over ten years previously. She wonders oft...

Nowhere near as annoying as most other books I've given two stars. But between approx pp.150-400 the description that mostly sprang to mind was 'fundamentally unconvincing'. And as for the following denouement and revelations about the killer, that was of the order 'I'm reading the sort of sensationalist trash I've only heard about second hand', and also completely fucking ridiculous. I've sometimes heard people say they weren't fazed or disgusted by a violent fictional scene because it was too

Typical crime fiction and generally no better or worse than the average detective novel, but I found the writing really irritating. Characterisation is flat and makes it difficult to care about anyone involved, including the final victim. Will not be reading any more in this series.

This was one of those dark, Swedish mysteries, and I enjoyed it up to a point. The author’s recounting of the repetitive, often tedious nature of a homicide detective’s job was interesting and probably realistic. The story, however, took place in a summer that was brutally hot and dry; on every page (or so it seemed), the author had to comment on the weather in some way, I.e.: the car was an oven, the heat was shimmering over the road, her shirt stuck to her, etc. and etc. Too much. The plot, wh...

felt this one was slower to start off with the previous malin fors book but once the story got going was a page turner and using the same dead person dialect in the look, looking forward to number 3 in english now

Mons Kallentoft writes disturbing thrillers. For example, in this one, two young girls are discovered murdered with their bodies washed in bleach and, in one case, their wounds cleaned up with a scalpel. The other victim is cleaned up but not as painstakingly. Inspector Malin Fors and her partner, Zeke, head the investigation into the girls’ deaths while Malin’s daughter, Tove, goes off with Malin’s ex, Janne, to Bali for a vacation. Upon her return, not surprisingly, Tove, who fits the profile

Skim read most of this - it's weirdly poetic, and turns out that's not a good thing. Slips from first to third person constantly, repeats, monotones, muses. The dead speak in chorus (which could have been amazing but wasn't). This, combined with the fact that I hadn't realised this was the second in a series meant I didn't have a clue what was going on.I still don't exactly know what happened, but whatever is was was narrated like this:Janne, you're not there, your warm warmth.I want you both to...

He's an impressive writer, but I think I liked books 1 and 4 of the Malin Fors series better (this one's 2). I appreciate the suspense, the strong characterizations, the insight that child abuse may cause some children to grow up into truly whacko criminals if they don't off themselves first. But how much child abuse can one stand to read about? And although the author's descriptive powers are great, I did get tired of hearing how hot it was the summer the murders occurred -- every few sentences...

Yeah, ok. Very dark, great oppressive atmosphere... Seems to drag on a bit.

The second in this series. I do object to publishers trying to claim that a writer is better than another as they all have their strengths. Kallentoft has more in common with Henning Mankell than others cited on the cover.Again there is a touch of magical realism as the 'voice' of the murdered girl does give her perspective.The weather is also a character in its own right. 'Midwinter Sacrifice' highlighted the cold, here it is a freak summer heatwave that has the characters' brains melting as th...