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The Princess of Burundi (Ann Lindell Mysteries) | 
 enlarge | Author: Kjell Eriksson
Creator: Ebba Segerberg
Publisher: St. Martin's Minotaur
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
Buy Used: $3.09
You Save: $10.86 (78%)
New (32) Used (36) from $3.09
Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 60030
Media: Paperback
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.9
ISBN: 0312327684
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780312327682
ASIN: 0312327684
Publication Date: February 6, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Winner of the Swedish Crime Academy Award for Best Crime Novel, The Princess of Burundi introduces American readers to a crime writer who has quickly become an international sensation. This spellbinding new thriller opens when a young father fails to show up for supper on a snowy night just before Christmas. His is not the only sinister disappearance, and before the final breathtaking climax, a secret killer terrorizes an entire frightened town.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 excellent Swedish police procedural February 8, 2006
Harriet Klausner
34 out of 41 found this review helpful
In Libro, Sweden, everyone is stunned when the mutilated corpse body of husband and father John Harald Jonsson, out on a job, is found in the snow. Based on the disfigurement, whoever killed the renowned cichlids tropical fish expert, passionately hated John. Death had to be a relief for the obvious evidence like three cut off fingers that shows he suffered while alive. Thus, homicide detectives Ola Haver and Ann Lindell, who comes off maternity leave to work the case, hone in on a forty-two year old troubled person, his family, and especially an acrimonious nutcase who apparently had a run in with John.
However, proof proves difficult to come by making the two sleuths wonder if they are going down a wrong path. Reassessing what they know and suspect, Ola and Anna continue to search for the motive by someone who obviously detested the victim, but could it have to with his personal life or his work at the aquarium that led to this vicious homicide.
This tranlastion of an award winning Swedish police procedural reads in many ways more like a deep insightful psychological thriller though the detectives diligently work the homicide. The characterization is top rate as the audicne undertsnads what motivates several key players while the support cast enhances that perception. Fans will enjoy the excitng tale and look forward to hopefully more translations of the works of Kjell Eriksson, perhaps THE ILLUMINATED PATH.
Harriet Klausner
 Princess of Burundi April 8, 2007
Driver9 (New York, NY USA)
20 out of 21 found this review helpful
Well written and toward the end, the suspense really does begin to build. But I found the first two thirds of the novel to be arduous to navigate. There did not seem to be any suspense at all for much of the novel, rather a delving into the dark side of this Swedish University town. It was well written, in a spare and elegant style. It's just that I was expecting something a little more entertaining and suspenseful. Perhaps that is my own fault and I am not willing to give too low a rating for this novel. But it is no page turner if that is what you are looking for, which I was.
Atypical wintertime Swedish crime wave January 12, 2007
Cory D. Slipman (Rockville Centre, N.Y.)
11 out of 13 found this review helpful
Just prior to the Christmas holidays, the peace and quiet of the town of Libro in the Swedish region of Uppsala is shattered by the discovery of a corpse murdered and tossed into a snow drift in a remote county storage facility. The victim a one time petty hoodlum "Little John" Jonsson had straightened out his life, had a loving family, worked as an accomplished welder and was an expert in aquariums and African tropical fish. His body showed evidence of mutilation and torture and local police were baffled.
Police detectives Ola Haver and his partner Ann Lindell, a single parent out on maternity leave spearheaded the investigation, aided by other colleagues. They focused attention on Little John's older brother Lennart, a well known hard core criminal and sot, suspected as being a motivating factor in his brother's death. Lennart himself, devastated by his brother's demise, was conducting his own investigation with murderous intent.
Concurrently the entire police force was also alerted to a local sociopath named Vincent Hahn, coincidently a former classmate of Little John, who is seeking retribution for the torment exacted upon him by his old schoolmates. Several violent confrontations make him a prime suspect in Little John's murder. As the police and Lennart continue to investigate they discover than Little John had come into a large sum of money, a result of winnings in a high stakes poker match. His windfall was a secret from his wife Berit but his young teenaged son Justus was aware of his father's plan to rise above their blue collar existence, using his gambling proceeds.
Author Eriksson, as many of his translated predecessors of Swedish crime drama paints a sometimes bleak portrait of the sociologic landscape of his native country and it's inhabitants. He provides a snowy, bucolic setting studded with a myriad of clues as to the solution to Little John's mysterious death and a slew of characters that must overcome their shortcomings and inhibitions to enable them to crack this case.
The title, "The Princess of Burundi" is the name given to a type of African tropical fish, the cichlids, about which Jonsson was an expert. It also metaphorically represented the dreams and aspirations of Little John and his family for a brighter future.
Emotional, Mysterious Swedish Police Procedural May 31, 2006
Kathy Kohl (Belleville, IL)
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
The Princess of Burundi is not only unique in it's title but also in its emotional content. Uppsala police detectives are involved in solving the murder of John Jonsson, an expert in tropical fish and fish aquariums and former thug. The story unfolds with the secrets father and son kept from John's wife and it is also a few days before Christmas which adds to the longing and loneliness of the holidays. Princess is an excelent 87th-Precinct-like novel. The cultural differences are fascinating. Highly recommended.
 Uneven Swedish Crime Novel July 2, 2006
A Discerning Reader (Cedar Rapids, Iowa)
8 out of 11 found this review helpful
Eriksson does a very nice job of painting a grim picture of northern Sweden (Uppsala) in winter. A man is tortured and murdered in the snow; all who know him are shocked that someone could have formed such an anger against him that would prompt this vicious murder. The victim's teenage son knows enough of his father's secrets that he could put the police on the trail of his father's murderer, but he chooses to confide in no one.
Our police team assigned to this case is concerned and human, and they work their way toward the solution of this crime--all the while being distracted by a psychotic man murdering Uppsala citizens at seeming random. We are introduced to Ann, the now common figure in many police procedurals, the single detective-mother. Eriksson pulls no punches as he lets us know that Ann would love to have an hour a day or so with her son, but no more. She loves her work and her interaction with colleagues too much to really love her son. Ann shows little consideration for others, including her parents and infant son, and this makes it difficult for us to sympathize or even like her. We are to understand that it is either the job (homicide detective) or the people this job attracts that makes a stable relationship untenable.
This is an uneven book with boring sections interspersed with meaninful dialogue and insights into human nature. By the time the villain is revealed, means and motives are quite anticlimactic. The crime that led someone to murder the victim is pretty unimaginative and lackluster. Eriksson has ability, and perhaps I've just caught him after a ho-hum effort. I would definitely consider tyring his work again.
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