The first Sebastian Bergmann novel started out with a bang. It set up the main characters, their relationships among each other, their flaws and strengths, and made me want to read more. So, months overdue- the next Bergmann review.
The second case of the team of Torkel and friends is set during a blistering hot summer. Somehow the weather seems to always be extreme in crime novels- I guess people don’t get murdered during mild weather. A serial murderer kills women around Stockholm, imitating the serial killer Edward Hinde. Edward Hinde however, is in prison, brought there by back ten police profiler Sebastian Bergmann. More and more women are getting killed, and they all have something in common: at one point or another have they slept with Sebastian Bergmann. This puts two women in particular in danger: Ursula, the team’s pathologist, with whom he had a relationship a long time ago, and who is now dating Torkel, the head of the team. The other woman in question is Vanya’s mother.
You guess what’s next: Sneaky and highly intelligent Edward Hinde figures out Sebastian’s secret, and demands to only talk to Vanya. If that sounds a little “Silence of the lambs” to you, then it’s because it is, with the exception that Vanya is no Clarice Sterling. She walks into every trap Hinde sets her. Billy, who was an almost faceless person in the previous book, now becomes a little more interesting- he gets more involved in the team’s work, develops ambition, much to Vanya’s chagrin, who is used to be top-bitch in the team. I liked the flash backs to Ursula and Sebastian’s shared past, and how they try to build a friendship of the broken pieces of their old relationship.
There are plot-twists that keep you going, and the characters become more interesting, but the story is kind of foreseeable. Ultimately, it is a good bridge between book 1 and book 3- but too weak to stand on its own.
The Morbus Crohnicles 