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World Hotels - The Black Path
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List Price: $12.00
Our Price: $9.60
Your Save: $ 2.40 ( 20% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Delta
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 839.738
EAN: 9780385341011
ISBN: 0385341016
Label: Delta
Manufacturer: Delta
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 400
Publication Date: 2008-07-29
Publisher: Delta
Release Date: 2008-07-29
Studio: Delta
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Editorial Reviews:
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A grisly torture-murder, a haunting northern Sweden backdrop, and a dark drama of twisted sexuality collide memorably in Åsa Larsson’s masterpiece of suspense—a tale of menace, hope, longing, and darkness beyond imagining.
The dead woman was found on a frozen lake, her body riddled with evidence of torture. Instantly, Inspector Anna-Maria Mella knows she needs help. Because the dead woman—found in workout clothes with lacy underwear beneath them—was a key player in a mining company whose tentacles reach across the globe. Anna-Maria needs a lawyer to help explain some things—and she knows one of the best.
Attorney Rebecka Martinsson is desperate to get back to work, to feel alive again after a case that almost destroyed her. Soon Rebecka is prying into the affairs of the dead woman’s boss, the founder of Kallis Mining, whose relationship with his star employee was both complex and ominous. But what Rebecka and Anna-Maria are about to uncover—a tangled drama of secrets, perversion, and criminality—will lay bare a tale as shocking as it is sad…about a man’s obsession, a woman’s lonely death, and a killer’s cold, cold heart.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Didn't draw me in
Comment: I think this is a book you will enjoy if you find the plot summary on the back intriguing. Based on reviews, I decided to read it even though I was not excited by the description and I am so bored that I will not be finishing the book (made it a bit over halfway through). For the first quarter of the book I found the characters interesting enough, but soon after I no longer felt any connection with any of them. Maybe part of the problem is that I didn't read the preceding books first (I didn't realize this was part of a series). Another problem for me is that I am not interested in business and investing, which is the basis for much of the plot.
Customer Rating:
Summary: An amazing series of novels -- but I wouldn't call them police procedurals
Comment: This is the third book in a series of novels set in northern Sweden. I originally found the first one, Sun Storm, while looking for foreign police procedurals, which I consume voraciously. However, I wouldn't really put these books into that genre -- which might be why some people gave them low ratings.
Yes, there is a central mystery. Yes, there are police people searching out clues. Yes, there is CSI-like pathology stuff. But, by the third book, The Black Path, it is almost secondary.
Asa Larsson and her interpreter have an AMAZING way with words! The images conjured up are amazing and breathtaking. And she builds incredibly rich characters that you watch grow and change and evolve throughout the story. And they are so unforgettable! Rebecka and Sivving and Nalle and Mans and Swen-Erik....
There is a distinct structure to the novels that I am really enjoying, but that is very different from other police procedurals (like those of Mankell) -- so be warned.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Tangled Web
Comment: This dark thriller continues the series featuring Rebecka Martinsson, the protagonist of the highly acclaimed "The Blood Spilt." At the start of this complicated tale, Rebecka is being treated for psychotic episodes which resulted from her being stabbed and killing three persons. She leaves her high-paying job in Stockholm to return to Kiruna where she grew up in her grandmother's house. After a short while she is induced to become a Special Prosecutor, a position she accepts.
A dead woman is found on a frozen lake, and the investigating detective asks Rebecka to use her background in corporate finance to check into the victim's background, which leads to uncovering various aspects of insider trading and corporate shenanigans. Expertly translated by Marlaine Delargy, the novel delves deeply into the lives of the several main characters, especially reflecting on Rebecka's insecurities.
The complexity of the characters is matched only by the elaborateness of the story itself. The dark, cold, snowy Swedish north adds to the gloomy mood prevailing throughout. Essentially, the yarn is disturbing and macabre, but hopefully the seeds for a follow-up are sewn. An excellent read, and highly recommended.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Atmospheric but ends in an incomprehensible welter of blood
Comment: There's a lot to admire in this procedural set in the far north of Sweden -- the local atmosphere, a wide range of well-realized characters, an intriguing plot -- but it was spoiled for me by the bloodbath at the end which did not tie up the plot in a satisfying way and tried to do too much.
The two leading female protagonists -- a police detective and a recovering rape and attempted murder victim -- are appealing. The detective reminded me of the character from the movie "Fargo" -- she's sweet and capable all at once. But the book veers off course when it gets into international finance, mining, insider trading and hired killers. I wish the author had stuck more to what she evidently knows very well which is the unique setting above the Arctic Circle where Swedes, Finns and Lapps wage a hard battle against the elements.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Boring beyond belief
Comment: The storyline in this book moves a glacial pace that will have you flipping pages ahead to see if anything of interest happens. It's one thing to touch upon the motivation of the antagonist, but it's an entirely new depth of mind numbing boredom to go back to the birth and childhood of one of the characters.
The author states in an afterword that "Half the series has been written". Well big whoop because this book is so plodding and dull that one would be hard pressed to be interested in any of the past or future works by this author.
I would recommend that readers seeking out interesting Scandinavian police procedurals read the works of Mari Jungstedt, Arnaldur Indridason or Henning Mankell, but skip any works by Asa Larsson.
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