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Read Unseen (2006)

Unseen (2006)

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Genre
Series
Rating
3.57 of 5 Votes: 3
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ISBN
0312351577 (ISBN13: 9780312351571)
Language
English
Publisher
minotaur books

Unseen (2006) - Plot & Excerpts

Mari Jungstedt is big news and extremely successful in Sweden. Now her books have been translated for the UK market. All books feature Inspector Anders Knutas, who is a straight forward ambitious detective, and reporter Johan Berg who I found a much more complex, interesting character.The first novel by any writer must be the hardest. I felt that Mari Jungstedt was feeling her way with this work. However, I did a get a real sense of place, there are definite opportunities for character and relationships to develop and I got the feeling that the writer can and will do better. The story was well-paced and interesting, and it was a pleasant change to be spared the usual maverick, angst-ridden detective.Like others of her ilk, Jungstedt prefers to set her crimes in the idyllic countryside rather than in the gritty capitals. There are many complaints about the rush and buzz and noise of Stockholm, and ruminations on how people can ever live in a big city. Here, in Gotland, things are not as idyllic anymore, though: a woman is found brutally slaughtered with her dog. The detective in charge wants to keep the press at bay, but finds that they seem to be able to do his investigative job better than him. I couldn't get any sense of what Inspector Knutas looked like. Luckily for him, he has a loving family, unlike most other investigators with their alcoholism, so he has some succour from the frustrations of his job.Soon yet another woman is murdered, and the island goes into a spin - it's high summer and the tourists are being scared off by tales of serial killers. Superior cops from Stockholm stomp in and are put in their place by our hero. There are frequently interspersed flashes into the mind of the killer; of course, there is a back story. How can there not be one? After all, serial killers all arise because they were mistreated in their childhood. Or their pet dogs were run over by a lawnmower. Or something. In true cinematic cliché, the climax has to occur just when the last potential victim goes up to an isolated cottage all by herself. Had it not been midsummer, there would have been a blizzard, and that would have been the icing on the cliché cake. I think Jungstedt probably writes well, but the book is weakened by a poor translation, which swings between UK and US English. Either is OK, but please be consistent.The ending feels a bit rushed - the final paragraph in particular reads like the conclusion of a school essay rather than the ending of a crime novel. This is not the best of Scandinavian fiction on offer, I confess. But it would very worthily fall somewhere above the middle. I will read more books by this author. A good effort, with enough promise to justify further reading.

Gotland, una pequeña isla de Suecia con apenas crímenes se ve sorprendida una mañana cuando un hombre encuentra el cadaver de una mujer en la playa.En ese mismo momento entran en acción el comisario Knutas y su equipo por un lado, mientras que por el otro un reportero, Johan, es mandado desde la capital para que averigue todo lo posible para el canal de televisión en el que trabaja.La historia está contada en tercera persona y cuenta con numerosos personajes y bastantes diálogos.Por un lado tenemos a Helena, una mujer guapa que tras una noche de fiesta con sus seres más cercanos aparece muerta en la playa, siendo encargado del caso de investigación de este asesinato el inspector Anders Knutas.Por otro lado tenemos a un guapo reportero de televisión llamado Johan que no para de atosigar a Knutas con preguntas sobre el asesinato específicas que se supone que no debería de saber.A parte de estos tres está Emma, mejor amiga de Helena, así como compañeros policíacas de Knutas y el cámara de Johan.El argumento destaca por estar lleno de giros imprevistos hasta poco antes del final cuando todas las incognitas son reveladas. El lenguaje utilizado es el adecuado para esta novela de misterio, ni muy complicado ni muy simple.Al igual que otros escritores nórdicos, Mari Jungstedt juega con mezclar los sentimientos de los personajes y su día a día con la investigación que se lleva a cabo dando, de esta forma, un toque mágico a la novela para que además de disfrutarla y engancharnos a ella, queramos leer el siguiente libro para saber como se llevará a cabo la evolución de éstos.La novela comienza casi con el asesinato y con la introducción rápida y suficiente de nuestros personajes. El desenlace muestra bastantes sorpresas y el final es increíble, lleno de acción y emoción.Una cosa que no me ha gustado mucho es que de vez en cuando se iban introduciendo fragmentos de la vida de alguien que al principio me parecían innecesarios y no tenía ni idea porque estaban ahí. Más tarde los fragmentos que iban apareciendo tenían mucho más sentido y estaban mejor hilados a la trama central haciendo un todo magnífico, por lo que desecharía las primeras veces que aparecen.Si a alguno de vosotros os ha gustado la escritora Camilla Läckberg con su saga de misterio, es un buen momento para que intentéis esta escritora también ya que su estilo se parece.Lo mejor: la elección de los personajes y el sitio en el que ocurre todo, además de un mapa en las primeras páginas en el que se muestra la isla de Gotland.Lo peor: el personaje de Johan debería de tener más fuerza en el libro, parece que le falta algo.

What do You think about Unseen (2006)?

Review via Crime Beat by N. P. Statham. Killers are made, not born. In Unseen, Mari Jungstedt explores the psyche of a killer. What is it that makes a seemingly normal person commit unspeakable acts of violence?In the tradition of the best European crime writers, Unseens opens with a gruesome murder scene. A young woman and her faithful watchdog are killed in a foggy morning, on a deserted beach in Gotland. The body is found nude, with several cuts and wounds. But the most appalling touch is the pair of panties stuffed on the victim's mouth.Soon the police is alerted and not long after the media is on the case. The brutal and sensational murder creates panic among the population in Gotland, who are both in fear for their lives, and also concerned that the upcoming tourist season might be ruined.The investigative team under Inspector Anders Knutas is under pressure to find the killer before the tourist season starts in earnest, and in the meantime more bodies keep piling up. But is there a connection between the victims? And what's the meaning of the panties?Unseen is the first book from Mari Jungstedt I've read, and it's a solid example of the psychological mystery so characteristic of European writers. At the same time that our characters fight to solve the crime at hand, they also must face their own inner demons and conflicts, which can be just as engaging and dramatic.The setting in the beautiful and idyllic holiday island of Gotland gives this procedural novel a touch of the cozy mystery. We're guided through a series of tightly interwoven lives and dramatic backgrounds while slowly unravelling the underlying plot under the gentle but firm guiding hand of the writer.An added bonus for me was reading about so many familiar locations in my own adopted homeland of Gotland, which Mari Jungstedt describes to perfection, from the foggy mornings, to the beauty of the historical town and the windy evenings.If you appreciate a slow paced mystery and psychological drama, I recommend Unseen, by Mari Jungstedt.
—N.P. Statham

Petit voyage vers les contrées nordiques. Ce polar made in Suède nous propose un nouveau commissaire, Anders Knutas, que l'on va certainement retrouver dans d'autres enquêtes. Résumé : Après s'être disputée avec son compagnon lors d'une fête dans leur maison de campagne, Helena Hillerström sort promener son chien le long de la plage. Bientôt, cernée par un épais brouillard, elle sent qu'on la suit. Quelques heures plus tard, elle est retrouvée morte, tuée à coups de hache. Frida Lindh, une jeune mère de trois enfants, quitte le bar où ses amies et elle se rencontrent régulièrement. Malgré la nuit et les quelques verres de vin qu'elle a bus, elle prend son vélo pour rentrer à la maison. Les rues sont désertes. Elle est seule. Non. Pas seule. Une ombre la suit. Celui qu'on ne voit pas. Le commissaire Anders Knutas et son équipe mènent une longue et difficile enquête sous la pression des médias. Quel est le lien entre ces deux jeunes femmes ? Knutas doit au plus vite découvrir le mobile du meurtrier avant que celui-ci ne frappe de nouveau. Et j'en pense quoi?:Avec la série Millenium, j'ai découvert le polar suédois (pardon pour les prédécesseurs que je vais tenter de découvrir aussi). Mari Jungstedt propose un roman dont le style est assez agréable à lire. Découpé selon les jours couverts par l'histoire, l'histoire connaît pas mal de rebondissements et le suspense est maintenu jusqu'au bout. L'auteur donne à voir un coin de Suède en période pré-estivale, une description qui donne envie de faire le voyage. L'histoire n'est pas vraiment originale, l'intrigue n'est pas vraiment tordue. Je n'ai pas été "bousculée" dans ma lecture, mais j'ai passé un agréable moment. Il se lit assez vite et je n'ai pas été déçue de ma lecture quand je suis arrivée à la fin. L'auteur sait donner envie de revenir vers la suite des aventures de Knutas.
—Valeriane

I always look forward to starting a new mystery series, but in this case my anticipation was followed by a tangible let-down. A central problem is I found Inspector Anders Knutas colorless and a character I am not interested in experiencing again. That's unusual in Scandinavian mysteries, where the police presence is usually depressed and dyspeptic, and I found myself missing that approach here.The plot frequently annoyed me. Rather than tracing procedural steps where the perpetrator gradually comes into view, I felt toyed with by frequent red herrings and coincidences which seemed contrived, and the story has an ending which one cannot guess in advance. And some of my neutral response to this book is just personal preference. I dislike excessive violence, stalking and psychopathic predators, and this book has all three.The characters here are almost all difficult to like. Almost all come from dysfunctional families, mostly financially well-off. There is an atmosphere of ennui and marital infidelity with a distressing casualness. I got bored with Jungstedt's obsession with physical attractiveness (for both women and men), and her tendency to have her characters pee with surprising frequency.It's difficult to judge the quality of writing for a book read in translation, but the prose here seems bland and flat, generally simple and style-less. But I suppose this is not exactly a bad book, and can imagine that people who enjoy thrillers will like it more than people thinking they have purchased a police procedural. It just was not very much to my taste.
—William

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