Absorbing Investigation

Having read the Bomber and Red Wolf I wanted to go back to the first novel in the series and I'm glad I hadn't read this one first. The young reporter is not particularly engaging or sympathetic as she is inclined to be arrogant, thoughtless, rude, self-righteous, sentimental and snivelling. What makes the book absorbing and where it rings true is in the quality of investigative reporting. The saving grace of the reporter is her intelligence and quality of reflection and the fact that she never gives up. She stumbles across a corpse in a cemetery of a young girl brutally murdered which becomes embroiled in another deeper political scandal. It is the uncovering of the scandal which carries the book for me. The faults of the novel and its many improbable elements such as the stripper's best friend moving in with the reporter or the end of Anneker's relationship with Sven - to my mind really stretching the suspension of disbelief to its limits - can be overlooked in the light of the better writing. Glad to say that the author did correct some of the flaws of the heroine so that in later books she does not 'gulp' or 'cry' at such a frequent rate. Not one for bouts of tears myself I found her constant emotional outbursts rather trying to be honest.
As I am enjoying the later books I don't regret reading this just to find out the starting point and the background of various characters who appear in later books.

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