{"id":16,"date":"2010-12-13T11:31:00","date_gmt":"2010-12-13T16:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/2010\/12\/book-review-the-shadow-woman.html"},"modified":"2013-04-26T16:45:34","modified_gmt":"2013-04-26T20:45:34","slug":"book-review-the-shadow-woman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/2010\/12\/book-review-the-shadow-woman.html","title":{"rendered":"Book Review : The Shadow Woman"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/a>\"\"Title : The Shadow Woman<\/b>
Author : Ake Edwardson<\/b>
Genre : Crime \/ Thriller<\/b>
Publisher : Penguin<\/b>
Pages : 352<\/b>
Rating 6.5\/10<\/b>
Source : Publisher ARC<\/b><\/p>\n

What with the success of Steig Larsson\u2019s trilogy, translated Swedish thrillers seem to be coming out in full force. Ake Edwardson\u2019s \u201cThe Shadow Woman\u201d is one such book, translated by Per Carlson. This novel is the second book of the \u201cInspector Winter\u201d series by Edwardson, but the fifth book to be translated into English and published in the US.<\/p>\n

The Shadow Woman is a police-work-heavy novel. The story is built around the unidentified body of a young woman found in the densely wooded Gothenburg area during the annual Gothenburg party. The police have not much to go on except a mysterious mark on the tree near which the woman is found. Inspector Eric Winter, just back from vacation, is assigned to the case. Initially we read of a mysterious female character, and a scared child (events told from the child\u2019s perspective) involved in some sort of heist. The woman later ends up dead and that triggers the investigation. As Winters searches for the woman\u2019s identity, he finds several \u2013 which one those several personalities was real and who wanted her dead?<\/p>\n

There are also some sub-plots, such as the ongoing gang wars, and a policewoman getting her jaw smashed in, which do not have much to do with the story except maybe build character and tone. The reader is lead through the action via third person descriptions of the events which might have been done to heighten suspense, but also serves to make them detached.<\/p>\n

The style of writing is very brooding and introspective. The author describes Chief Inspector Winter\u2019s state of mind (Winter has a rocky personal life) but it is done is such a dry and \u201csideways\u201d manner that I could not get involved in Winter\u2019s struggles. Thus Winter for me remained a rather shadowy character, great at his work, but lacking in the appeal that would make him a strong protagonist. The author also seems to jump back and forth in time, and between personal points of view, creating a relatively broken pace.<\/p>\n

Like the Larsson trilogy, this one also has a Swedish setting and sensibility. \u201cThe Shadow Woman\u201d was better translated than \u201cThe girl with the dragon tattoo\u201d had, but like it, I wish the style had been edited to appeal to world-wide audiences. Some of the language seemed odd and artificial, and some descriptions superfluous, and I was not able to tell whether that was a result of the translation or if it was author intended.<\/p>\n

Folks who enjoy meticulous police procedurals will probably enjoy this one.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Title : The Shadow WomanAuthor : Ake EdwardsonGenre : Crime \/ ThrillerPublisher : PenguinPages : 352Rating 6.5\/10Source : Publisher ARC What with the success of Steig Larsson\u2019s trilogy, translated Swedish thrillers seem to be coming out in full force. Ake Edwardson\u2019s \u201cThe Shadow Woman\u201d is one such book, translated by Per Carlson. This novel is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"twitter_17000648_17000648":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[49,72,53,3,45,97,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-49","category-3_star_rating","category-arc","category-books","category-mystery","category-penguin_books","category-review"],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"post-thumbnail":false,"sow-carousel-default":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"amodini","author_link":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/author\/admin"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Title : The Shadow WomanAuthor : Ake EdwardsonGenre : Crime \/ ThrillerPublisher : PenguinPages : 352Rating 6.5\/10Source : Publisher ARC What with the success of Steig Larsson\u2019s trilogy, translated Swedish thrillers seem to be coming out in full force. Ake Edwardson\u2019s \u201cThe Shadow Woman\u201d is one such book, translated by Per Carlson. This novel is…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2637,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16\/revisions\/2637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}