Product Description

Scandinavian crime at its best and most commercial. For all fans of Henning Mankell.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #167326 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Synopsis
The first body they found was the dog. The poor creature's throat has been cut, and one paw severed completely. Then they found the body of the woman. She had been stabbed, again and again; she was naked, a piece of cloth had been stuffed into her mouth. The picturesque holiday island of Gotland is in the middle of a busy tourist season when the young woman is discovered murdered. Suspicion falls on her husband - the couple had been seen fighting the evening before. Inspector Anders Knutas is hoping it will be a straight-forward case; the local authorities are hoping so too, but more out of an interest in protecting the tourist trade than any desire to see justice served. Then another victim is discovered, again she is a young woman and she has been murdered in the same chilling manner. Inspector Knutas must face up to the horrifying prospect that there is a serial killer loose on the island. Knutas, aided by investigative journalist Johan Berg, begins to piece together the tragic history that unites the two victims, and alarmingly points to more murders to come. The killer remains unknown, moving freely, unseen, on the island.

All that is clear is that the two victims are just the beginning, unless Knutas and Berg find the killer before he strikes again.

From the Publisher
`Just when I thought that the flow of impressive crime writers
from the Nordic countries was slowing down, up pops another. Unseen is the
Swede Mari Jungstedt's first novel, but it doesn't feel like it. She is in
total control of plot and pace, conveys chilling atmosphere and her
characters are well above average for believability' Marcel Berlins, The
Times.

From the Back Cover
The first body they found was the dog. The poor creature’s throat has been cut, and one paw severed completely. Then they found the body of the woman. She had been stabbed, again and again; she was naked, a piece of cloth had been stuffed into her mouth.

The picturesque holiday island of Gotland is in the middle of a busy tourist season when the young woman is discovered murdered. Suspicion falls on her husband – the couple had been seen fighting the evening before. Inspector Anders Knutas is hoping it will be a straight-forward case; the local authorities are hoping so too, but more out of an interest in protecting the tourist trade than any desire to see justice served. Then another victim is discovered, again she is a young woman and she has been murdered in the same chilling manner. Inspector Knutas must face up to the horrifying prospect that there is a serial killer loose on the island.

Knutas, aided by investigative journalist Johan Berg, begins to piece together the tragic history that unites the two victims, and alarmingly points to more murders to come. The killer remains unknown, moving freely, unseen, on the island. All that is clear is that the two victims are just the beginning, unless Knutas and Berg find the killer before he strikes again.

Customer Reviews

Rather disappointing
I had high hopes for this book. I thought that with its island setting it couldn't fail to be atmospheric.

Unfortunately, i was wrong: the book is bland, cliched and poorly plotted. The killer seems to be plucked up out of the air at the end of the book - at which point Jungstedt tries frantically to backfill his characterisation and motivation. And the island setting is almost entirely wasted. This story could be set just about anywhere. There's no real sense of place at all.

The main problem however is her attempt to develop both the detective and the journalist as lead characters. Both end up weak and poorly delineated.

The policeman is just a cipher. It's as though she knows she needs an "inspector" character and is producing one to order.

The journalist on the other hand, a character she does seem to connect with, is over-idealised. It feels at times as if the author is trying to redeem journalists and journalism through him. Every time she portrays him (or indeed any other journalist) acting ruthlessly she accompanies it by something that implies that beneath their ruthlessness journalists are good and noble. The romantic sideplot seems to serve the same end and bogs down the story rather than adding to it.

It's also clear that she is far more confident in her ability to describe this side of the divide accurately, but the very fact that she is so detailed when focusing on the world of journalism only seems to emphasise the lack of vividness elsewhere.

Very disappointing.

Bought on a whim - but really enjoyable!
I was looking for something differnt to read and came across Unseen. It was quite an interesting story, and I did not quite work out who the "perp" was!

I will be buying more of her work I suspect.

A great Swedish thriller
Just when you thought that Scandinavian take-over of the crime novel had weaned slightly, there is Mari Jungstedt to take it onto the next level. Her sensitive, atmospheric take on life in Sweden, i.e. really giving you a flavour of everyday life and ordinary people (not just jaded policemen, but women, families and young people), the description of customs, weather and landscape in the province of Gotland, all this gives an atmospheric backdrop to the gruesome murders of women in the novel. I loved the book and I think many people will enjoy it.