Rating: 4/5
Review:
A good, involving crime novel
This turned out to be a very good thriller/crime novel. I had some reservations, particularly in the early part of the book, but in the end I found it enthralling, exciting and very well done.
The story begins with a brutal and very cruel kidnapping, but there are genuinely surprising, intriguing and just about plausible plot developments which take the book in unexpected directions. The narrative alternates between the activities of the criminal and those of the police which I found extremely effective, giving drive and mystery to the story. The characters of the small police team were very well drawn and I hope to meet them again in future books. The dénouement is excellent, avoiding the now tedious cliché of a Tense One-To-One Stand Off With A Cornered Killer, but with things emerging cleverly in police interviews which for me were some of the most gripping scenes in the book. Whether or not you accept the explanation for the killer's actions, it was depicted and drawn out with a great deal more ingenuity and subtlety than the sort of facile psychobabble which we quite often get in crime novels.
I had two reservations. One was a minor one about the translation which was a little clunky in places and often couldn't quite make up it's mind whether it was in UK or US English. The juxtaposition of distinctively UK usages with those unmistakeably from the US was a little disconcerting - especially at the start - but certainly not enough to spoil the book. My other problem is the level of cruelty and violence. There is a thin line between realistic depiction for the sake of the plot and gratuitous torture-porn. At times I thought this book strayed over the line, and despite finding the book as a whole very good this made me uneasy. Certainly you should be warned that this isn't for the faint of heart.
That said, I thought this a good, exciting and gripping book and can recommend it as a very involving read.
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