Camilla Ceder

The first in the Christian Tell series, Frozen Moment brings to readers the work of a newcomer on the Scandinavian crime writer front. Ceder's story takes place in and around the desolate areas surrounding the town of Gothenburg, Sweden. It begins, characteristically with a crime. But, this is so much more than a crime novel. This is a story of social breakdown. Undeniably, Scandinavian writers are obsessed with the meltdown that occurs between parents and their children, and consequently the horrors that take place between these lost children who are given a welfare state as parents. It is a story of psychopaths that emerge from state sponsorship and deviant fathers and mothers. It is a story of jealousy, cowardice, and hapless neglect and you give it the name Sebastian. It is a story of utter loneliness in a frozen landscape patrolled by Christian Tell, our enigmatic detective called out to the initial crime scene. What he discovers is the body of a man shot in the head and then flattened repeatedly by an overweight automobile until every bone in the victim's body is crushed. And the first thing Tell asks himself is: why? And so we enter the realm of Camilla Ceder. Asking why, is the reason she became a crime author.

If you are comfortable with a slow burn. If you are patient and enjoy reading people, and find yourself interested in the means to an end, than this book is for you.… (more)

In the countryside of western Sweden an elderly man, Åke Melkersson, is looking for a mechanic to carry out emergency repairs to his car when he discovers the body of a man who has been shot and, for good measure, run over. Melkersson is so shocked he drives away but then calls police and asks his young neighbour Seja Lundberg to take him back to the site. The investigation team is led by Inspector Christian Tell, a complex character who is troubled by the lack of evidence available to progress the investigation which stalls until a second murder is linked to it. Alongside this narrative there are chapters from 1993 which tell a story about troubled young girl called Maya who left home at 15 due in part to the mental illness and drug addiction of her mother. Although readers assume Maya’s story is something to do with the present-day murders, Ceder does a great job of drawing us into the initially unconnected story

Ceder is very good at depicting characters. From the very first one we meet, Åke Melkersson who is driving to work for the last time before his retirement, she shows us a very realistic and complete picture, even though we see virtually nothing of this character again. The central characters are drawn with the same care, though obviously fleshed out more fully. In some ways Christian Tell offers nothing terribly unique, he is something of a loner and very introspective, but I like the way Ceder explores his working relationships alongside his personal ones and admire the fact she resisted the temptation to give him any extreme characteristics. There are memorable and interesting characters among Tell’s team who I’m sure I will enjoy getting to know further in future installments of the series. I also thought the characters in the second thread were compelling, especially Maya’s mother.

Overall the plot of Frozen Moment is intriguing, though after the initial chapters it did drag for a little while as the introductions all took place and the investigation seemed to go in circles for a little while. However once it picked up again there was a good build up of suspense and a genuinely engaging and layered story was revealed. I’m not sure that the ‘move over Wallander’ tag prominently displayed on the front cover of the book applies, or even needs to apply for that matter, but I enjoyed this series debut and will be keen to read the second novel, Babylon, when it is translated into English.… (more)

#2 in a police procedural series with central character Inspector Christian Tell. I reviewed the first, FROZEN MOMENT, in March 2011.

While this was a very readable book, it is not a stand-out for me, sharing many characteristics with the current batch of translated police procedurals: a middle aged police inspector who is a bit of a loner and whose team solves crimes more by intuition than by method. There's a new superintendent who puts the team offside right from the start and Inspector Tell feels challenged by him. Part of the book focusses on Tell's relationship with his younger girlfriend and a little of that went a long way.

The structure of the story is clever. At first the solution to the crime looks very straightforward but then the investigation turns up new evidence and it becomes obvious that the suspect could not have killed them. Other solutions are proposed and seem very plausible but don't quite fit the facts. Rebecca's flat is burgled, so then it seems that her dead partner Henrik holds the key.

For me, while I enjoyed the book, I had the feeling of being patiently led to the right answer.… (more)