Category Archives: Liza Marklund

Can there be four winners?

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As someone who was loudly sceptical of the recent trend in children’s sport to not have winners and losers (just competitors) I am about to be something of a hypocrite but at least I recognise the fact. At next week’s CrimeFest the winner of the inaugural Petrona Award, named in honour of Maxine Clarke, will be announced. I think the award is a great idea but in a way I will be sad to hear the winner announced…I’ve thoroughly enjoyed each of the books on the shortlist and would be just as happy if they all got a trophy.

The shortlist is made up of

There are two polls still open for another few days at Euro Crime (check out the right hand side-bar) and after much thought and many changes of mind I voted for

Which book do you want to win: At the moment my personal favourite of the four is ANOTHER TIME, ANOTHER LIFE which I enjoyed immensely despite the fact it broke many of my personal rules for what makes good fiction. I loved its breadth and structure and the delicate way it showed the changes in Swedish society over time. So, edging out the other three books by the tiniest of margins, this is the book I shall barrack for (though it will be a half-hearted kind of barracking as I genuinely think all the others are equally worthy winners).

Which book do you think should win: I think Norman Price is probably right in thinking it would be particularly fitting if LAST WILL were to win the award given Liza Marklund was one of the Scandinavian writers Maxine championed early on and that this novel concerns another of her keen interests: the depiction of science in fiction. And it is a bloody good read.

But even if one of the others wins I really will be just as happy and so it simply remains to say good luck to all the authors and translators and thank you for many hours of great reading between you.

Pierced - Enger, Thomas15785fBlackSkiesIndridasonLastWillMarklundLiza15232_fAnother Time, Another Life - P19960f

 

Review: LAST WILL by Liza Marklund

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In her sixth adventure to be translated into English journalist-cum-sleuth Annika Bengtzon is, on behalf of her newspaper the Evening Standard, attending a lavish banquet for the year’s Nobel Prize winners. She is dancing with a reporter from a rival publication when shots are fired and a woman dies in front of her. Although moved by what she has witnessed Annika’s thoughts turn to making a report for the paper but before she can contact her newsroom she is whisked away for questioning and immediately placed under a Disclosure Ban which prevents her from revealing anything she has seen.

Annika’s bosses at the paper treat her as if the ban is somehow her fault and use it as an excuse to send her on extended leave, ostensibly so other staff can report on the events without having to worry that they will inadvertently break the ban. But Annika’s interest in finding out the reason for the shootings doesn’t diminish, and she is able to keep up with the official investigation due to her long-standing connection to the Hawaiian shirt-wearing senior policeman known only as ‘Q’ who feeds her snippets of information she cannot report. She finds other leads too in the scientific community which surrounds the Nobel selection process which indicate the shootings have something to do with the Prize and its history. This is at odds with official version of events which blame an Islamic terrorist group for the shootings, though Annika learns from her newspaper colleague that this is surrounded by very disturbing practices on behalf of the government.

As I have come to expect from Marklund, LAST WILL is an above average combination of criminal investigation, exploration of intriguing political themes and salient observation on modern domestic life and its hard to know what to highlight first. Though I think because it is done so deftly I ought to discuss the way Marklund weaves small-p politics into her writing without making me feel like I’m attending a lecture. Here she tackles some genuinely weighty issues including the influence of America on its allies in a post-September 11 world, the seeming ease with which alarming legislation designed to restrict individual freedoms can be shoved through a supposedly democratic Parliament and the astonishing competitiveness of scientific endeavours in general and the medical field in particular. Apart from being engaging from a storytelling perspective (who knew medical research was quite that cut-throat?) what impressed me most was that although it’s not difficult to sense where Marklund’s own beliefs on these issues lie she does manage to present a reasonably rounded argument in most instances. I was struck more than once by how different this was to a book which I stopped reading earlier this year because it failed to even try to depict more than one side to any argument and was demanding readers to think a certain way. I much prefer my crime fiction like this because it makes me think and and draw my own conclusions about the world around me.

Another strong element of LAST WILL is its characters especially the frustrating but entirely believable Annika. She’s a fully-rounded person with an equal amount of admirable traits and foibles and she seems to lurch through life from crisis to crisis in a way that it is much more fun to read about than be part of I’m sure. Here she has become more financially secure but her relationship with her husband is strained to say the least. This is mostly because Thomas is an insufferable, philandering bore though it’s not quite that simple of course. Annika’s self confidence is low enough that she allows herself to be poorly treated by him and her supposed best friend who is just the worst kind of leech. But while I occasionally want to grab her by the shoulders and shake some sense into her I can’t help but admire the way she works her way through things. And sometimes she does fight back though the most memorable cases were against an elderly neighbour and two very nasty children. I can’t say that I like Annika but I like reading about her and find her a hundred percent credible. We humans don’t always make smart choices, even when someone else is writing our lines.

Although not a major element of this book Marklund has continued to depict the ever-changing world of journalism which, given her own background as a journalist, is both authentic and extremely sad. The book provides real insight into the chaotic race to the bottom that mainstream media seem to have become engaged in over the past few years and, as I do with each new book in this series, I wonder how low things will go.

My only very minor criticism of this book is its depiction of the perpetrator of the shootings who we meet sporadically throughout the book (we know who has committed the crime but not who has hired them). The super-human assassin with no ties and homes in all the best exotic locations are a little bit clichéd for my taste but this really is a minor gripe about an otherwise excellent book. Aided ably by a very readable translation from Neil Smith,Marklund has delivered a ripping yarn with loads of food for thought, a dash of humour and some delicate imagery. Highly recommended.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

LAST WILL has been reviewed at Petrona

I have reviewed three of Marklund’s earlier books, Studio 69, Prime Time and Red Wolf

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My rating 4.5/5
Translator Neil Smith
Publisher Emily Bestler Books [2012, original edition 2006]
ISBN 9781451606928
Length 404 pages
Format hardback
Book Series #6 in the Annika Bengtzon series
Source Borrowed from the library

Annika Bengtzon: Journalist Sleuth

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Thanks to the tirelessly enthusiastic Jen Forbus of Jen’s Book Thoughts for hosting Moonlighting for Murder as this year’s crime fiction theme week and for offering me the chance to participate in festivities.

My favourite amateur sleuths are journalists. It’s partly because they’re really the only category of amateur sleuths who I can imagine living in the real world (much as I love some of the other great amateur sleuths it’s stretching credibility to imagine a bookseller or caterer really stumbling across so many dead bodies in one life time). And it’s partly because I am a news junkie. When two things I love – news and crime fiction – converge I do a happy dance.

A fictional journalist I have recently enjoyed getting to know is Annika Bengtzon, the creation of Swedish crime writer Liza Marklund, who named the character after her own daughter. Annika began her journalism career at a local paper in rural Sweden before moving to the national daily Kvällspressen in Stockholm. As a summer intern she answers her paper’s tip line and learns of the death of a young woman who Annika later learns was a dancer at a club. This is her first major investigation (depicted in Studio 69) and sets the tone for Annika’s future work as she becomes obsessed with finding out the truth behind the woman’s death, regardless of the risk to herself. In this story too we are introduced to the very nasty domestic situation in which Annika finds herself and this story thread has a dramatic conclusion which impacts Annika materially and mentally in subsequent books.

In the most recently published book in English in which she features, Red Wolf, Annika is described in some detail through other people’s eyes. I was struck by how well these brief snippets of other people’s thoughts built up a picture of Annika which really helped bring her to life for me. Firstly her boss thinks

She gets herself into all sorts of situations, things normal people would never dream of doing, because there’s something missing there. Something got lost long ago, yanked out, roots and all, the scar fading over the years, leaving her exposed to the world, and to herself. All she’s got left is her sense of justice, the truth like a beacon in a world full of darkness, she can’t do anything else

Then her husband compares her to the other women in his life

Eleanor [his ex-wife] and Sophia [his mistress] moved effortlessly through office corridors and meeting rooms, glamorous salons and international hotel bars. Annika just got clumsy in situations like that, her clothes more dishevelled than usual, looking incredibly uncomfortable in her own skin. Whenever they went anywhere she just wanted to talk to the locals and eat in the bars where the locals ate, and wasn’t remotely interested in culture or the exclusive hotel pool.

And finally, Annika’s view of herself

Annika saw [the news boards] flash past from the window of the bus and felt the same strange effect as usual – a fascination at having put something into the world that goes on and lives its own life. Her articles could be read by hundreds of thousands of people whom she would never meet; her words could generate emotions and reactions that she would never know about.

Annika's creator is Liza Marklund, herself a journalist, mother and now UNICEF Ambassador

Annika’s investigations all see her delving into some aspect of society or politics or a combination of both and it is this aspect of the novels that really draws me in. In Prime Time a TV star is murdered and the depiction of her world is a very unflattering one that makes the reader wonder if real-world news programs are staffed and handled in a similar manner.  Other books tackle the Swedish political landscape (both contemporary and historical) in a way that has helped me learn loads about this fascinating country.

The other thing I enjoy about Annika is that she is credible. Far from the all-knowing, super-confident protagonist we see so frequently in crime fiction Annika makes mistakes and has grappled with a range of personal and professional issues (domestic abuse, sexism in the workplace, a philandering husband, almost crippling worry about her parenting skills…). All of this makes her one of the most complete and believable characters in crime fiction. I have found her behaviour at times appalling, insipid or downright silly but always she is realistic too. Who among us hasn’t done something nasty, lacking in courage or stupid? Annika muddles her way through life, with it’s small dramas and big ones, like most of us do but she maintains an admirable desire to see justice done. The fact that she’s a bit clumsy and is more interested in meeting locals than lazing about exclusive hotel pools when she travels makes her all the more endearing to me.

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In English translation the books featuring Annika are listed here (the dates in brackets are their original publication dates in Swedish)

  1. Studio 69 (1999) – takes place eight years before the action of The Bomber
  2. Paradise (2000) – a direct continuation of Studio 69
  3. Prime time (2002) – the action occurs between Paradise and The Bomber
  4. The Bomber (the first book published, in 1998)
  5. Red Wolf (2003) – an independent story which picks up from the end of The Bomber

There are another three books which have yet to be translated to English, though Neil Smith stopped by one of my reviews of Marklund’s books to say he has been commissioned to undertake a translation of Nobels testamente (in addition to a new translation of The Bomber which will be released in 2012)

  • Nobels testamente (2006) – takes place some months after Red Wolf
  • Livstid (2007) – a direct sequel to “Nobels testamente”
  • En plats i solen (2008) – a direct sequel to Livstid

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Do check out all the blogs participating in Moonlighting for Murder. In addition to possibly finding a new series to try you’ll go into the draw to win a prize pack from Jen if you leave a comment at any of the participating posts.

If your own sleuthing skills are up to the task you might also have a go at the Positions Wanted competition that Jen is hosting. Each of the amateur sleuths being featured this week has prepared a position wanted add and all you have to do is match the sleuth with their add to be in the running.

Review: Red Wolf by Liza Marklund

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My sixth book for this year’s Nordic challenge is the third Liza Marklund book I’ve read so far this year. I have become quite transfixed by the insight the books offer into the Swedish political and social history as well as the character of Annika Bengtzon, whom I don’t always like but do find compelling.

Newspaper journalist Annika Bengtzon has turned down a senior editor’s job so that she can continue investigative journalism. Having prepared a series of articles on terrorism she plans another on the anniversary of an attack during which a man died which happened in 1969 at an air force base in the far north of the country. No one has ever been convicted over the attack but local journalist Benny Ekland seems to have some new information so Annika flies to Luleå to meet with him. When she arrives she discovers he has died and she learns from speaking to an eye witness the police have not found that his death was the result of a deliberate hit and run. Through her connections at the highest levels of the police she also learns that their suspect for the ’69 attack was a local left-wing activist known as Ragnwald who, they believe, went on to become a ‘terrorist for hire’ in Spain and France. When Ekland is killed and other deaths follow everyone wonders if Ragnwald has returned and if so, why? It is Annika who joins the dots in this fast-paced story.

I have to admit that this book isn’t really the best work of crime fiction you’ll read, in that the crime does not always take centre stage. Marklund is at least equally, if not more, concerned with using the crime and its investigation as a backdrop for the exploration of a range of social and political issues. Fortunately for me I found these utterly fascinating and so did not mind terribly that the crime was dealt with in a more perfunctory way than I might normally look for.

One of Marklund’s ongoing themes, modern journalism and what’s happening to it, is explored in great depth here. As a news junkie who feels like her drug of choice has been almost eradicated these days I found myself nodding along with Annika when she lamented to her boss

Anne Nicole Smith on the front page three days in a row last week…A boy who masturbated on a reality show on Saturday. The Crown Princess kissing her boyfriend on Sunday…Can’t you see what you’ve done to this paper?”

And when he responds that there is investigative work still going on she continues

That doesn’t stop me from regretting the way journalism is going. Along with the other tabloids we’re writing about reality television as if it was the most important thing going on right now. Now that can’t be right, can it?

If it hurts me as a reader to see the drivel that a significant percentage of news media content has turned into, I can only imagine how deeply it must affect a journalist like Annika (and Marklund who is herself a journalist).

The other aspect of this novel that had me gripped was its insight into Swedish political history, a subject about which I am woefully ignorant (now maybe slightly less so). I had always known vaguely that Sweden’s political environment was a more left-leaning one than I am familiar with, but I had no idea just how this had played out over time. The use of an attack in the 60′s gives Marklund the chance to explore her country’s political environment at that time, something done deftly via the character of Berit who is Annika’s mentor at the newspaper. She has been involved with left-wing politics for much of her life so able to provide interesting background. Australia’s political scene is largely tame and centrist so I am always intrigued by societies that have a different kind of political history.

As always Annika Bengtzon is a troubled character and, as always, I spent a good portion of the book not liking her actions. I have never found her dull or unbelievable though, even when I’ve been disappointed in her behaviour. She is still dealing with the mental fallout from the events in the previous book in the series* which manifests itself in a variety of ways including anxiety attacks and the voices of kind angels in her head. Now there are rumblings from her boss that she may not be able to continue working on the kinds of stories she wants to do. On top of that she encounters yet more marital problems and it was her handling of this aspect of her life that I found objectionable, though I repeat it was entirely credible. The author’s note at the end of the copy of the book I read made particular mention of this in that Marklund was widely exploring the theme of people abusing their power and she wondered if Annika would also do so in the right circumstances. Would we all?

For me the best crime fiction does what Marklund has done here: combine a compelling plot with insight into some aspect of politics, history or society in general. While finding out ‘whodunnit’ is interesting, it is never as satisfying as finding out why. When this is played out against a backdrop of general social commentary it is the most satisfying of all.

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Red Wolf has been reviewed all over the place including at Crime Scraps, Euro Crime (where Norman and Maxine both enjoyed the novel very much) and The Game’s Afoot (where Jose Ignacio was not so taken with the adventure).

I have reviewed two of Marklund’s earlier books, Studio 69 and Prime Time.

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My rating 4.5/5
Author website
Translator Neil Smith
Publisher Bantam Press [this translation 2010, original edition 2003]
ISBN 9780593065525
Length 508 pages
Format trade paperback
Book Series #1 in…
Source Borrowed from the library

*A book called The Bomber which has already been published in English in Australia and the UK (possibly also the US?) some years ago but which in my copy of Red Wolf is spruiked at the end as “The next Annika Bengtzon thriller”. Make of that whatever you like.

Review: Prime Time by Liza Marklund

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I’m having a Marklund-fest at the moment, this being my second book of hers in 2 months and I have another to read before the end of March in preparation for incorporating Marklund’s protagonist, journalist Annika Bengtzon, in an upcoming theme week focusing on amateur sleuths at Jen’s Book Thoughts. I am also counting this book towards my Nordic Reading Challenge.

In something of a nod to old-fashioned whodunnits the mystery at the heart of Prime Time concerns the murder of a popular Swedish television presenter, Michelle Carlsson, while she and a dozen other people are staying at remote Yxtaholm Castle for a week of filming. Newspaper journalist Annika Bengtzon is getting ready for a holiday weekend away with her partner Thomas and their two young children when she is called to attend the castle instead. This puts a strain on her relationship with Thomas (who is pathetically distraught at the prospect of having to look after his children on his own) but Annika is not in a position to knock back the assignment. Given that one of her best friends, Anne, is one of the 12 witness/suspects who was at the castle at the time of the murder Annika has a bit of a head start on the story and her resourcefulness as a a journalist does the rest, easily keeping her in-step if not ahead of the police investigation.

Prime Time is not the most taut piece of crime fiction you’ll find. At several points along the way the crime takes a back seat to other activities including political machinations at the pointy end of the news room in which Annika works and an almost microscopic look at the world of media which, if the book is even vaguely accurate, is not one I’d work in if it was the last occupation on earth. Even the resolution to the mystery is almost a non-event, though as is discussed at this excellent review, that can be a blessing when compared to the ‘that beggars belief’ kind of ending we see a lot of. However I thoroughly enjoyed the non-crime-y threads of the novel as it really did give me a sense of a world I don’t know much about. The various players with a role in Carlsson’s life, agent, boss, friend, competitor, were all with her at the Castle and it’s not long before they’re fighting with each other at first to prove how close they were to her and, when that doesn’t work, to dish the dirt as fast as they could. It’s a grim picture that makes my workplace look like a children’s tea party in comparison.

Annika is a complex character who I don’t always like but who is invariably credible. Her personal life is at something of a cross-roads here as her relationship with Thomas (whining SOB that he is) is put to the test and she struggles to overcome her innate tendency to blame herself whenever things go wrong. In Studio 69, which is set several years prior to this novel, Annika is experiencing an abusive relationship and some of the same characteristics are carried over into her current one. Part of the time I felt like wringing her neck for being so insipid but her behaviour is entirely consistent with people who have long experience of such relationships and it’s to Marklund’s credit that she doesn’t ‘fix’ Annika in one fell swoop. And even though she is at times falling apart personally Annika does manage to get her job done despite working in a male-dominated environment where many people view her as having not much more value than pond scum. Her immediate boss is a welcome exception to the rule, though he is undergoing his own crisis involving the ethics, or lack thereof, of his paper’s Publisher.

Prime Time isn’t always the easiest read and not only because it could have done with a little editing but because it tackles some difficult subjects that don’t always have a neat resolution by the end of the novel. Overall though it’s a highly credible and insightful novel about life as a woman who wants a career and family as well as the sort of things that’ll get you killed if you work in television (I’m seriously surprised anyone survives to age fifty).

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Prime Time has been reviewed at Euro Crime and Reading Matters

I reviewed Studio 69 earlier this year.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
My rating 3.5/5
Author website http://www.lizamarklund.com/
Translator Ingrid Eng-Rundlow
Publisher Pocket Books [this translation 2006, original edition 2002]
ISBN 0743469089
Length 422
Format mass market paperback
Book Series #3 or #4 (depending on how you look at things) in the Annika Bengtzon series
Source borrowed from the library

Review: Studio 69 by Liza Marklund

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I am normally a fan of reading series in order wherever possible but I have given up trying to work out the correct order for this series. The books do not follow each other chronologically and also seem to have been translated out of the order they were written. This one has also been published under several titles including Studio Sex and more recently Exposed, but whatever it’s called I’m counting it towards my Nordic book challenge.

When young journalist Annika Bengtzon answers her newspaper’s tip line and hears that a woman’s body has been found behind a gravestone at a nearby cemetery she fights for the opportunity to be able to report the story which will, hopefully, lead to a permanent job with the paper. Over what sounds more like the average Australian summer than a Swedish one in terms of temperature, Annika follows leads, becomes personally involved in some aspects of the case and uncovers a link to high-level political corruption in an effort to solve the murder of Josefin.

I doubt I’d have read this book based on its blurb which says Annika is a combination of Peter Hoeg’s Miss Smilla and Thomas Harris’ Clarice Starling. What the…? Fortunately I didn’t read any of that nonsense until I’d finished this remarkably good book. The plot manages to be complex but not hard to follow as we are introduced to various potential suspects including a sleazy boyfriend, a client at the seedy club where she worked and a Minister of the government. What I liked most was that even though Annika’s actions were driving most of the plot advancements there wasn’t a single point at which I thought “someone who isn’t with the police wouldn’t be able to do that or have access to that information” which can be a real problem with the ‘amateur’ sleuth in crime fiction. When we moved into the political arena I was absolutely enthralled with the tidbits I gleaned about the recent history of Swedish politics.

Annika is a fascinating character. Her inexperience hampers her at times but she does good work too as is evidenced in the way she gains people’s confidence and trust during interviews and it is obvious that she really cares about the plight of Josefin, and perhaps even identifies with her a little too much. She faces various struggles in her workplace being both young and female so automatically not to be taken seriously by many. Actually the workplace issues were really credibly depicted with both the good and bad aspects of any office on display. There were petty squabbles and nasty back-stabbing but also genuine friendships and mentoring of our young protagonist to even things out. Annika’s personal life is not smooth-sailing either as she has a fairly poor relationship with her mother and a controlling boyfriend. However her grandmother loves her to bits and the feeling is mutual so all is not gloom and doom on that score.

Marklund has created a terrifically believable story here full of well drawn characters, many of whom are not as sympathetic as I found Annika to be but are still highly credible. The picture of Sweden on show is remarkably normal, and not any more dour or grim than any other part of the world which flies in the fact of accepted wisdom about Scandinavian crime fiction. Clearly Marklund had issues she wanted to explore such as the shenanigans of the Social Democrats, domestic violence and even the relatively recent phenomenon of the mass hysteria that wallowing in these kinds of events can sometimes generate, but all of this is done as part of the story not with lecturing or preaching for which I am profoundly grateful. I found the book so compelling I already have moved another in the series to my ‘read soon’ pile.

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Studio 69 has been reviewed at DJ’s Krimiblog, Nordic Bookblog and if you are at all interested in this author you should check out this excellent post about the books and the character of Annika

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My rating 4.5/5
Author website http://www.lizamarklund.com/
Translator Kajsa von Hofsten
Publisher Pocket Books [This translation 2002, original edition 1999]
ISBN N/A (downloaded from audible.com)
Length 431 pages
Format mass market paperback
Book Series Number 1 or 4 in the Annika Bengtzon series
Source I bought it second hand