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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An action heroine with a personality solves a racy intrigue, 5 Jul 2001
By A Customer
In the early morning a week before Christmas a bomb ravages the Olympic Stadium in Stockholm. Annika Bengtzon, a young mother, who has recently become crime editor on the newspaper Kvällspressen, has to leave her rather strange dream about sex in space to investigate the cause and damage. The remains of the dynamic OS-boss Christina Furhage is found on the destroyed stand, which puts Annika in the middle of a murder hunt. To find the answer Annika starts to explore the life behind the perfect front, which Christina Furhage has managed to create. The bomber has to be found quickly since the Olympic Games in Stockholm is only six months away but when Annika digs deeper into to mystery it puts her and her family in danger.It is the first time we meet Annika and she is a refreshing change to the usual rather corpulent and arrogant male detective, who features in too many crime novels. The snoopy journalist in her drives her to write - not to solve crimes but a detective and a journalist work after the same pattern. This is a pattern the author knows exceptionally well since Liza Marklund is a successful Swedish journalist. Annika is named after Marklund's daughter Annika and her favorite editor from her time as a journalist on the Swedish national newspaper Expressen Bengt Bengtzon. Marklund says she longed for a heroine, who reminded her about herself and her friends. A career woman, who has a husband, kids, mortgage and paranoia regarding food and health but on the same time an insatiable appetite on life. Annika is brought to life in a lively but loving manner. She is not a super woman or a Lara Croft but someone closer to human dimensions with a lot of courage combined with a huge curiosity. While the characters only exist in Marklund's imagination the descriptions of the milieu are bringing you a piece of the real Stockholm. She has down her homework and the environment is well described. The newspaper's office is intense and sometimes hostile while you can relax the minute you get inside the friendly family home. Or can you? This is not a book you will be able to put down and get on with your life. The action grips you from the first page, which boldly starts: "The woman, who was about to die..." and it is impossible to stop reading until you know how the last page finishes. And that is for me to know and for you to find out!
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