Publisher's Weekly Review
The reader stays perpetually ahead of the irritatingly slow detectives in Swedish crime writer Edwardson's third Erik Winter police procedural to be translated into English (after 2006's Never End). DCI Erik Winter and his team are baffled by a rash of beatings in Gothenburg that have nearly killed several young men, who are linked only by the distinctive mark left by the attacker's mysterious weapon. Meanwhile, nursery school children begin to report being lured to the car of a strange "mister," who gives them candy. The police brush off these incidents until one boy is found badly beaten in the woods. Soon Winter is thrown into a race to save a kidnapped boy from the clutches of a monster. Readers will connect the dots faster than Winter, whose investigation is jarringly interrupted by scenes from the abductor's point-of-view. The denouement leaves too many loose ends, making for an uninspired take on the tired topic of child abductions. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
Christmas is fast approaching, but life is anything but festive for Detective Chief Inspector Erik Winter. Days of dwindling daylight find the Swedish detective haunted by two puzzling and seemingly unconnected sets of crimes. Several university students have been viciously attacked at various points around the city. At the same time, children are being abducted from metropolitan nurseries, a situation that hits much too close to home for Winter, who dotes on the young daughter he shares with longtime live-in lover Angela. Leads followed by Winter and his colleagues take them to the parched prairies of rural Sweden, whose inhabitants are every bit as bleak and desperate as the landscape. Something sinister has happened out here, Winter tells his partner. He can feel it in his bones. Though his police procedurals lack the suspense of fellow Swede Asa Larsson's, Edwardson (Sun and Shadow, 2005) creates endlessly interesting characters, in particular Winter, who tackles crime after crime with a shrewd mind and a heavy heart. Recommend this one to readers of Henning Mankell.--Block, Allison Copyright 2007 Booklist
Library Journal Review
This third translation in Swedish author Edwardson's Erik Winter series (after Sun and Shadow and Never End) follows Winter and his colleagues at Gothenburg's police department as they follow two cases. The first is a series of violent assaults against college men-the other odd reports from young children about a "mister" who entices them with candy to sit in his car. Edwardson uses the daily musings of the supporting characters-Winter's girlfriend and his co-workers-to round out the narrative, and it is their personalities and reflections on work and parenting that make the narrative compelling. In addition to the intertwined cases, Edwardson also creates additional levels of suspense: a major concern is whether Winter will solve the cases in time to join his lover and daughter in Spain for at least a part of the Christmas holidays, and the mystery behind his colleague's family dispute is a page-turner as well. Recommended for all public libraries.-Julie Elliott, Indiana Univ. Lib., South Bend (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
