Frozen Tracks
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Product Description
The Herald
`a welcome change from the pile-driver assault of some modern crime
novels'. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
novels'. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
The Sunday Telegraph
`The novel, which won the Swedish Crime Writers' Award, is a good
example of the country's crime fiction, thoughtful in its approach'
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
example of the country's crime fiction, thoughtful in its approach'
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A number of students have been attacked in Gothenburg. Inspector Winter and his team are puzzled, not only by the strange mark the weapon leaves, but also the sometimes evasive nature of the students themselves. Are they trying to hide something?
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to them, children are being abducted from playgrounds across the city. A man offering sweets is tempting them into his car, only to return them before anyone notices. The parents pick up on it from their children's stories, and report it. However, each incidence is reported to a different station. There's no system of co-ordination, and no connection is made. That is until the abduction results in the man assaulting a small boy and abandoning him in nearby woods. Then, the investigation must begin in earnest, if an escalated crime is to be prevented...
This is the third of these novels published in English, though several earlier ones remain to be translated (my current pet-peeve: translating novels from the centre of a series, and leaving the first untranslated). It is also the third of Edwardson's novels to have won the Swedish Crime Academy Prize for Best Crime Novel, though the first of those novels in English. Anyone who has read any of these before will probably have the measure of Edwardson's style by now: crimes come to be solved through conversation and discussion among colleagues, a slow accrual of thought and ideas, pensive examinations. There's little explosive action, or even blood: it's a habit of Edwardson's to turn his head away from violence, and merely describe its effects. We know a young boy is assaulted, but we have no idea of any specifics, the only clue we have is that his parents are told "he will see again". This is all the reader ever knows about the specifics of the assault. While I admire the flash-free nature of his style, I'm not sure about this habit of shying away from describing any kind of violence. In an earlier novel, Sun and Shadow, it irritated me greatly as I didn't really feel I knew what had gone on, I had an uncomfortable sense of there being important gaps in the story that I wasn't used to. The resulting crimes, and sometimes their investigation, can feel a little sketchy and amorphous. However in Frozen Tracks it isn't so important, as there's not a lot of violence anyway.
Edwardson's novels, I think, are the ones which most closely resemble the excellent procedurals by Sjowall and Wahloo. Those novels, too, had a heavy focus on crimes being solved through discussions among colleagues, and featured the rendering of an entire police team rather than a single investigator. As with their Martin Beck novels, Winter is only the figurehead, and the focus is often as much on other investigators as him. These are very much team novels. As a result, and due to their dialogue-heavy nature, they may be slow-paced but they paradoxically read quite quickly. Frozen Tracks is a long novel, but it didn't feel it.
Another odd habit of Edwardson's is that he seems, to me, to break things off - interrogations, discussions - at the point when they really seem to be getting somewhere. Though this may only seem odd given that - as there are passages from the criminals point of view - we know more than the police, which has the unfortunate effect of sometimes making them seem a little slow in their investigations, regardless of whether they are or not!
Overall, there are many things I admire about Edwardson's novels, but he has stylistic habits that I think I'm just not used to (rather than them being bad), which somewhat prevent me from putting him at the top of the tree of Scandinavian crime writers.
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to them, children are being abducted from playgrounds across the city. A man offering sweets is tempting them into his car, only to return them before anyone notices. The parents pick up on it from their children's stories, and report it. However, each incidence is reported to a different station. There's no system of co-ordination, and no connection is made. That is until the abduction results in the man assaulting a small boy and abandoning him in nearby woods. Then, the investigation must begin in earnest, if an escalated crime is to be prevented...
This is the third of these novels published in English, though several earlier ones remain to be translated (my current pet-peeve: translating novels from the centre of a series, and leaving the first untranslated). It is also the third of Edwardson's novels to have won the Swedish Crime Academy Prize for Best Crime Novel, though the first of those novels in English. Anyone who has read any of these before will probably have the measure of Edwardson's style by now: crimes come to be solved through conversation and discussion among colleagues, a slow accrual of thought and ideas, pensive examinations. There's little explosive action, or even blood: it's a habit of Edwardson's to turn his head away from violence, and merely describe its effects. We know a young boy is assaulted, but we have no idea of any specifics, the only clue we have is that his parents are told "he will see again". This is all the reader ever knows about the specifics of the assault. While I admire the flash-free nature of his style, I'm not sure about this habit of shying away from describing any kind of violence. In an earlier novel, Sun and Shadow, it irritated me greatly as I didn't really feel I knew what had gone on, I had an uncomfortable sense of there being important gaps in the story that I wasn't used to. The resulting crimes, and sometimes their investigation, can feel a little sketchy and amorphous. However in Frozen Tracks it isn't so important, as there's not a lot of violence anyway.
Edwardson's novels, I think, are the ones which most closely resemble the excellent procedurals by Sjowall and Wahloo. Those novels, too, had a heavy focus on crimes being solved through discussions among colleagues, and featured the rendering of an entire police team rather than a single investigator. As with their Martin Beck novels, Winter is only the figurehead, and the focus is often as much on other investigators as him. These are very much team novels. As a result, and due to their dialogue-heavy nature, they may be slow-paced but they paradoxically read quite quickly. Frozen Tracks is a long novel, but it didn't feel it.
Another odd habit of Edwardson's is that he seems, to me, to break things off - interrogations, discussions - at the point when they really seem to be getting somewhere. Though this may only seem odd given that - as there are passages from the criminals point of view - we know more than the police, which has the unfortunate effect of sometimes making them seem a little slow in their investigations, regardless of whether they are or not!
Overall, there are many things I admire about Edwardson's novels, but he has stylistic habits that I think I'm just not used to (rather than them being bad), which somewhat prevent me from putting him at the top of the tree of Scandinavian crime writers.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Book3, in the Erik Winter series
This author is slowly growing on me or is it that I am now becoming more accustomed to his style, a style that is haunting and psychologically shrewd. "Frozen Tracks" is a superbly crafted crime novel, a compelling and dark thriller, definitely the best I have read from this author so far.
A glimpse into the story:
DCI Erik Winter and his team are baffled by a rash of beatings in Gothenburg that have nearly killed several young men, a distinctive mark left by the attacker's mysterious weapon leads them to believe they have a serial offender on their hands. The mystery is: why is someone doing this and how far will he go...
...
At the same time, the police force is faced with another high priority that is also escalating. At first, police treat reports of nursery school children being lured to a car of a strange "mister" offering candy with importance but when a boy is found badly beaten in the woods and another is kidnapped from a school yard the s..t hits the fan ... One of the children at the school is Winter's daughter, without question he wants in on the investigation and his first instinct tells him there might be a connection between these two major cases. Gradually the plot lines converge and the suspense and intrigue rapidly intensifies when the monster the police are hunting for targets Winter's family in order to fulfill his sadistic needs.
The story highlights the importance of team work and good leadership, the dialogue is heavy in nature and many facts are revealed through a free flow of vital and trivial information among team members. Once I became tuned in to the names and the culture differences I didn't mind the slow pacing of the plot's rhythm, it created the perfect tempo to divulge all the sordid secrets behind the crimes. Although the author stays away from graphically detailing violence he never shies from describing its effects or the emotions it leaves behind. The plotting is well-constructed and carefully developed from start to finish resulting in a gripping police procedural saga populated with a very engaging and well-drawn cast. Although the ending is rather gloomy there are no loose ends and the mystery is played out full circle.
This author is slowly growing on me or is it that I am now becoming more accustomed to his style, a style that is haunting and psychologically shrewd. "Frozen Tracks" is a superbly crafted crime novel, a compelling and dark thriller, definitely the best I have read from this author so far.
A glimpse into the story:
DCI Erik Winter and his team are baffled by a rash of beatings in Gothenburg that have nearly killed several young men, a distinctive mark left by the attacker's mysterious weapon leads them to believe they have a serial offender on their hands. The mystery is: why is someone doing this and how far will he go...
...
At the same time, the police force is faced with another high priority that is also escalating. At first, police treat reports of nursery school children being lured to a car of a strange "mister" offering candy with importance but when a boy is found badly beaten in the woods and another is kidnapped from a school yard the s..t hits the fan ... One of the children at the school is Winter's daughter, without question he wants in on the investigation and his first instinct tells him there might be a connection between these two major cases. Gradually the plot lines converge and the suspense and intrigue rapidly intensifies when the monster the police are hunting for targets Winter's family in order to fulfill his sadistic needs.
The story highlights the importance of team work and good leadership, the dialogue is heavy in nature and many facts are revealed through a free flow of vital and trivial information among team members. Once I became tuned in to the names and the culture differences I didn't mind the slow pacing of the plot's rhythm, it created the perfect tempo to divulge all the sordid secrets behind the crimes. Although the author stays away from graphically detailing violence he never shies from describing its effects or the emotions it leaves behind. The plotting is well-constructed and carefully developed from start to finish resulting in a gripping police procedural saga populated with a very engaging and well-drawn cast. Although the ending is rather gloomy there are no loose ends and the mystery is played out full circle.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Another excellent crime writer from sweden . Main character a complex man {not the usual drunk/depressed detective of many swedish crime novels } and the plots are realistic and well developed without the crimes being too horrific. A great read for crime fans who do not care for gory detail, but enjoy and good plot with interesting characters . All his book are good . have read five and they all have very indivdual plots {not formulaic writing and they get better as he has matured as a writer / Highly recommended
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
only halfway through........now finished
Ok I've read the Wallander series,Henning Mankell ( and on BBC3 or 4 you can watch the Swedish series... Read more
Published on 22 Sep 2009 by Mr. J. A. Wadkin
Very pedestrian
Got about a third of way through this and had to stop. The detective has no character, and the story dots about apparently aimlessly. Read more
Published on 9 Oct 2008 by Johannsen
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