After 10 novels that have attracted millions of readers over 11 years, Chief Inspector Erik Winter takes on his final case. Åke Edwardson’s timeless champion of truth and justice is a conflicted soul, both devoted to and plagued by the demands of his ...
After 10 novels that have attracted millions of readers over 11 years, Chief Inspector Erik Winter takes on his final case. Åke Edwardson’s timeless champion of truth and justice is a conflicted soul, both devoted to and plagued by the demands of his profession.
It’s an achingly beautiful December in Gothenburg. Early one morning a police patrol is summoned to an apartment in the heart of the city. Once there, they find a man in deep shock. His girlfriend lies strangled in their double bed and everything points to his being the culprit.
An identical scene unfolds several days later: police summoned in the early morning, a strangled woman, her husband standing by in horror, a lovely apartment in the same part of the city. The man pleads his innocence but is arrested as well. Now the question is how to conduct the interrogations so that the truth will come out.
Meanwhile, a young police constable has seen something in both apartments that she can’t get out of her mind. Something that doesn’t make sense, that muddles the cut-and-dried narrative of perpetrator and victim. She goes back, straight into the harrowing nightmare.
Winter’s last case confronts him once again with the darkest secrets of the human soul. Nothing is what it appears to be. As usual, he tries to understand the meaning of life but must first decode the message of death.
Having been his constant companion, death comes closer to home than ever before. A corpse floats ashore as he and his young daughter throw bread crumbs into the water bordering their property. Suddenly he no longer has anywhere to hide.
Edwardson is a unique figure among contemporary Swedish mystery writers. The suspense in his novels stems just as much from his language as from the plot. His precise dialogue and stylistic finesse, along with the merciless beauty of his descriptions, fascinate both his wide readership and the hard-to-please critics.
Now Winter takes his final bow and the curtain falls on an unforgettable era.
Rights sold to:
Rosinante, Denmark
Like, Finland
Lattès, France
Bruna, the Netherlands
Praise for Åke Edwardson:
“Åke Edwardson has a sharp writing style that is uniquely his own. In addition, Åke Edwardson is an exceptionally gifted storyteller. No wonder his books are attracting an ever-growing readership in an ever-growing variety of languages.”
Henning Mankell
“If you were to make a list of the top-ten contemporary Swedish authors, then Åke Edwardson would have no trouble getting a place there.”
“It is beautiful. When you read Åke Edwardson, it makes you a little happy to be human.”
“It is unusual for the tenth book in a series to be the best one. It tends to be empty and bombastic. But Edwardson is in his element: he jokes, he plays, it is as if the very relief of having reached number ten makes him better than ever before.”
Dagens Nyheter