Katja Ivar

I found Evil Things very interesting due to both it’s setting of Finnish Lapland and it’s timing which was the 1950s. It is the time of the Cold War and the western world is looking at the threat of Soviet Russia although when one the first female murder squad detectives is dispatched to the remote north to investigate a disappearance, it was simply considered a case of an elderly man wandering off into the forest. Policewoman Hella Mauzer is told to go and make a report on the missing man but return quickly, she defies her chauvinistic boss when she learns that this case is far more complex than she was told.

Hella is determined to solve the mystery and to prove that she is capable of handling an investigation. She is a prickly character, a loner who tends to act first and think later, she finds herself in Lapland after being accused of being “too emotional” to handle homicide. She stubbornly sticks to the evidence but as she goes through the formalities of the inquiry things suddenly start to escalate as a second body is discovered. Eventually Hella must make a choice between her own interests and justice.

I enjoyed Evil Things and as it appears to be the first in a series, I look forward to reading more about Hella, a flawed character that nevertheless is one I can admire.… (meer)

The year is 1951, and Hella is the first woman police officer in Helsinki. When she receives a note asking the police to investigate s missing man in Lapland, she is intrigued. She also wants to do some honest police work for a change. What she finds in Lapland is much more complicated than it first appears. Now she must figure out who she can trust, and how wide the corruption she uncovers has spread.

An unusual setting, plus an strange case, with an interesting premise makes this an intriguing read. Russia of course on Laplands border, rumors of spies crossing the border, make this a historical novel of the time period as well as a straightforward mystery. Extremely atmospheric, and s good look at how the trail blazers in police stations were often treated. Hellas personal life is a factor as are the past lives of the married Minister and his wife. Things in this novel are not as they first appear.

ARC from Edelweiss.… (meer)