I would like to thank Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for an advance copy of The Axe Woman, the fifth and final novel in the DI Gunnar Barbarotti series, set in Stockholm county.

Barbarotti returns to work after a personal loss and is asked to look into a cold case. Five years ago electrician Arnold Morinder disappeared from his cabin and the only trace found of him was his moped. His partner thinks he went to Norway, but his partner is Ellen Bjarnebo and she is one a Sweden’s most notorious killers, having spent eleven years in prison for murdering her abusive first husband and hacking up his body with an axe. Now she isn’t answering Barbarotti’s calls and seems to have disappeared.

I have mixed feelings about The Axe Woman. Yes, it has an interesting story to tell, but, principally, it is a novel about grief. I recently and very unexpectedly lost my brother in his early fifties and found it difficult to wade through Barbarotti’s feelings and coping mechanisms, especially as they bear no relationship to mine. To be fair, everyone grieves differently and the author does a good job in some respects, the malaise, the sense of not being in control, the inability to concentrate and the general loss of previous priorities and self confidence. I’m less sure about the belief in messages, seeing a lost one and turning to the bible, although I must admit that the final words in the novel made me smile.

The novel switches timelines between 1989 and the events leading up to the murder of Bjarnebo’s husband and 2012 and Barbarotti’s re-investigation. Both are quite long and slow as they are more concerned with the protagonist (Bjarnebo and Barbarotti respectively) and their thoughts and feelings than the actual events, which tend to act as a catalyst for said reactions. Still, it manages to keep the reader on tenterhooks as it implies that all is not as it seems and there will be twists to come. I think this comes from Bjarnebo’s deliberate attempts to ghost Barbarotti. It builds the tension and anticipation, makes the reader question her motives and evokes mystery.

The resolution is neat. It turns the reader’s assumptions on their head and made me look at what I knew in a different light. The clues are all there, albeit difficult to discern in a cloud of distraction and emotion, so it’s simply a matter of deduction. Ok, simply might be an exaggeration as I failed miserably.

The Axe Woman is a good read that I can recommend.

He may be uncrowned but Hakan Nesser is undoubtedly the King of Scandinavian Noir. To call his crime novels police procedurals is an insult, ignoring his literary genius and storytelling intellect.
I love the Gunnar Barbarotti novels. They are every bit as good as the Van Veeteren series. I love Gunnar's relationship with his wife, Marianne, now deceased but still a major character, and with Our Lord.
Hakan Nesser writes about dark deeds and the darkness of the human psyche but with the lightest touch - and I don't mean Cozy! - and a great sense of humour.
I thank Our Lord that Barbarotti and Van Veeteren will return in The Left-handed Association.