Review & Giveaway: The Swedish Girl by Alex Gray

The Swedish Girl (DCI Lorimer, Book #10)
by Alex Gray
Release Date: January 9th, 2018 (first published January 1st, 2013)
2018 Witness Impulse
Kindle Edition; 368 Pages
ISBN: 978-0062659255
ASIN: B062ZYG3XK2
Genre: Fiction / Mystery
Source: Review copy from Partners in Crime Tours

3 / 5 Stars

Summary
Eighteen-year-old Kirsty Wilson can't believe her luck when she lands a room in a luxury Glasgow flat owned by the beautiful Eva Magnusson, a wealthy fellow student from Stockholm. But her initial delight turns to terror when Kirsty finds the Swedish girl lying dead in their home and their male flatmate accused of her murder. Kirsty refuses to accept that he is guilty and, inspired by family friend Detective Superintendent Lorimer, sets out to clear his name.

Meanwhile, Lorimer calls on his trusted colleague, psychologist Solly Brightman, to help unravel the truth behind the enigmatic Eva's life and death. But it is not long until another woman, bearing a marked resemblance to Eva, is brutally murdered in Glasgow. Horrified, Lorimer and his team realise that Kirsty could be right. Is it possible that Glasgow's finest detective has put the wrong man behind bars? And is there a cold-blooded killer out there orchestrating the death of their next innocent victim?

My Thoughts
The Swedish Girl is the tenth entry in the DCI Lorimer series and was originally published in January 2013. Although I had read most of the other books in this series, for whatever reasons that I can't think of at the moment, this one fell through the reading cracks for me, so I was happy to have a chance to review it. It is written in true Alex Gray style which means that it was enjoyable, easy to read, has a few twists and turns that are easy to see through if you are familiar with her work, but with an ending that I wasn't overly crazy about, and characters who were much blander than I remember.

What I really enjoyed about this book are the main characters, except one, as they are comfortable without this drive to be dramatic or overly histrionic.  Don't get me wrong, I do like my characters to be somewhat flawed as it makes the story that much more interesting, but sometimes it's nice to have a msin character, like DCI Lorimier, who is comfortable, happy with his life, and always eager to return home to a loving wife.   In this book, he has been promoted to Detective Superintendent and I do have to admit I kind of miss his major involvement in following up crime incidents rather than just delegating his officers to do what he used to do.  I think he misses it too as he was always looking for an excuse to go out and interview people, sometimes getting involved in things he should have let his detectives do for themselves.  I definitely get it, and it was nice to see him out and about, but I did wonder how that would play out with his team.

I thought the story was interesting, and I really wanted to find out more about Eva Magnusson, as when a person is described as being 'perfect', it really makes you wonder what is going on insider her head. And when other similar murders occurred, there was the question of a deranged serial killer on the loose. There were some entertaining twists and turns, but if you are already familiar with Gray's work, it is easy to spot the red herrings and see what is going on. That being said, I could tell where the story was going with regards to the murderer, and I was really hoping it wouldn't go in that direction, but alas, it did, and I was really disappointed. For all the build-up, it was a bit of a let down. And to be honest, although I really enjoyed Kirsty Wilson as a character and liked the big decision she made in the end (although it was not a surprise), I did question the fact that Kirsty was used to search and discover information for Lorimer. I am not a police officer, but I do question it when a civilian is used to do searches and interviews as I thought it would compromise the evidence.  I just didn't buy her involvement in the case, and I didn't buy Lorimer's instincts to use her as it went completely against character; he seemed a lot more indecisive that the Lorimer that I remember. Who I really didn't like though, was DI Jo Grant, and it's not her fault, it's the author's. She is the stereotypical female cop, arresting people even when the evidence is scarce, and getting upset when her decisions turn out to be wrong.  Haven't we come a lot further than this? To arrest someone because he cried in the interviewing room seems like a lousy excuse, and I was really disappointed by her character. Any good lawyer would have had Colin released ASAP, but for some reason that didn't quite happen. She is also quite insubordinate and bland, and I just couldn't warm up to her.  She is someone I would be happy to see gone from these books.

Verdict
The Swedish Girl was an okay story, and although I really enjoyed the previous novels in this series, I am wondering if maybe, after reading countless other crime novels, that I may have lost interest in DCI Lorimer and his crew as I found him boring.  I would have to go back and read her first novel to see if there is a difference in the writing, but perhaps I've just outgrown them? Anyways, I would suggest you read it for yourself as you may have a different opinion that I do, and I do think fans of her work will be happy with this one. It just wasn't for me although I am willing to give another book a shot. We'll see!!


 




Giveaway

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Excerpt | The Swedish Girl by Alex Gray

From Chapter 9

December

Kirsty turned the key in the door and closed it behind her with a sigh. The hall was in darkness and there

was no sound coming from the living room. Her shoulders moved up and down in a shrug of resignation; she was alone in the flat again. Then she remembered. Wasn’t there some party that Eva had mentioned? They’d all be there, wouldn’t they? Pulling off her thin raincoat and hanging it on the old-fashioned wooden coat stand, Kirsty sauntered into the bedroom next to the front door, unbuttoning her jacket. It was fair handy having this big room to herself, especially when she was working late shift at the hotel. Nobody would be disturbed by her comings and goings. She took off her shoes and tossed her jacket, bag and mobile phone onto the bed. Oh, it was good to be home. A wee cup of hot chocolate and some of her own gingerbread would go down well, she thought, already imagining her teeth sinking into a thick slab of treacly cake.

She stopped for a moment, listening. There was a swish then a click as the front door opened and closed again. Then, nothing.

‘Colin? Is that you back already?’ Kirsty wandered out into the hall, her bare feet sinking into the pile of the hall carpet, still thick and soft despite all their winter boots tramping back and forth. Eva’s father had spared no expense in doing up this flat for his daughter and Kirsty Wilson was grateful for those small luxuries that were absent from most of her friends’ student flats.

Frowning slightly, Kirsty padded down the unlit corridor, one hand out ready to flick on the light switch as she reached the kitchen. But something made her turn left into the living room instead, just to see if anyone was at home after all.

At first she imagined the girl had fallen asleep, sprawled out in front of the television.

‘Eva?’

Kirsty moved forward and bent down, expecting the girl to sit up and yawn. One hand reached out to touch the back of her head but then she drew back as though guided by some inner instinct.

She stood up again and stepped around the recumbent figure, unaware that she was holding her breath.

Then, as Kirsty saw the expression in the dead girl’s eyes, the thin wail escaping from her open mouth turned into a scream of terror.

* * *

Detective Superintendent Lorimer crouched over the body, aware of the sounds of voices coming from the hall. The dead girl was lying on her back, one arm flung out, the fist curled tightly in the moment of death. Her head was bent to one side, blond hair partly obscuring her features, but Lorimer could see enough to make him wonder about the cause of death.

‘Manual strangulation?’ he asked, glancing up at the consultant pathologist who was kneeling on the other side of the girl’s body. The on-duty pathologist tonight was his friend, Dr Rosie Fergusson. He glanced at her with his usual admiration for her calm efficiency, knowing how different she could be at home as a doting mother and as the wife of Professor Brightman, an eminent psychologist and sometime criminal profiler who had worked with Lorimer in the past.

‘Looks like it,’ Rosie murmured, her gloved hands smoothing the hair from the victim’s face, letting Lorimer see for the first time what Kirsty Wilson had found earlier that night.

Eva Magnusson still had that ethereal quality in death that had captivated those who had gazed upon her: Lorimer saw the perfect oval face with flawless skin and bow-shaped lips that were slightly parted as though she had been taken by surprise. He watched as Rosie reached out to close the dead girl’s eyelids, seeing for the final time those pale blue Scandinavian eyes staring out at a world that had proved less than kind.

***

Excerpt from Swedish Girl by Alex Gray. Copyright © 2018 by Alex Gray. Reprinted by permission of Witness Impulse, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.