Göteborg’s gangs are the focus of the final installment of the Irene Huss series. Irene and her chef husband Krister are empty nesters now that their twin daughters have moved out and launched their own careers. Krister is the new owner of the restaurant where he has worked for many years. A narrow escape from a car bomb sends Krister and the twins into hiding while Irene works with her police colleagues to prevent the gang warfare from spiraling out of control. Somehow the gangs seem to stay one step ahead of the police. Could there be an informer among them? Who can Irene trust?

I have enjoyed this series and I’m sorry to see it come to an end. Irene has grown both as a police officer and as a person through the series. Irene made some questionable decisions in the early books in the series, but she seems wiser by the end of the series. The mystery plotting has never been more than adequate in this series, but the characters and setting more than make up for that. ( )

Another in the Irene Huss police procedural series, pretty good although more violent than usual. Gangs, cocaine, protection rackets. ( )

Helene Tursten wraps up her Irene Huss series with "Protected by Shadows," translated from the Swedish by Marlaine Delargy. The plot deals with gang violence in Göteberg, Sweden, and the book opens with a horrific murder. Two thugs brutally pummel their victim and set him on fire while he is still alive. Irene and her colleagues in the Violent Crimes Unit join forces with their counterparts in the Organized Crimes Unit to identify key figures in the local gangs (the Gangster Lions and Gothia MC) and find evidence against them that will hold up in court. This undertaking becomes personal for Detective Inspector Huss when her family's safety is threatened.

Tursten overwhelms us with a large cast of characters, many of whom are one-dimensional and interchangeable. Quite a few of the gang members are tattooed; ride motorbikes; engage in drug trafficking, extortion, and other illegal activities; and have spent time in prison. The gangs' leaders are arrogant and remorseless brutes who enrich themselves at the expense of innocent citizens and dispatch foot soldiers to do their dirty work for them. Too often, there are insufficient grounds to arrest and convict gang members, especially since key witnesses are not willing to risk their lives by testifying. The suspense escalates when it appears that someone in the police force is leaking information to the criminals.

Irene is clever, courageous, and resourceful. She and her fellow cops do everything they can to undermine the gangs, but events play out in a way that the forces of law and order cannot control. When young men decide that it is more satisfying to earn their living and make a name for themselves by joining gangs than by holding conventional jobs, even skilled and determined detectives have their hands full devising strategies to stop them. Tursten's writing and Delargy's translation are adequate but not extraordinary. Overall, this novel is a downer—a disheartening, bloody, and cynical look at a Swedish city in which the most depraved elements of society battle one another for supremacy. ( )

I missed you Irene. ( )

Tursten's novels are well-organized, have good plots and characters with character. Irene is awesome!

Read this novel out of order. Hope to continue series in order.

Like the stories of Irene Huss' family as much as the mysteries. I will miss it if this is the last one. ( )

Very standard. Not impressed, but I guess it's not a bad book. Just not interesting. ( )

The biker gangs are back with a vengeance, to give this last (for the moment) Irene Huss story plenty of action, even if it lacks a bit of subtlety. There's an escalating gang war rocking Göteborg with shootings and car-bombings, and the Huss family somehow seem to have become _targets themselves. And the gangs always seem to be a step ahead of the cops - could there be a leak somewhere in the police team?

In the background of this story, we see some of the problems Tursten has made for herself by her commitment to avoid the "You're off the case" cliché - Irene is now on her second new boss, and we've been shown that she's the most experienced and competent member of the team and has never been in serious trouble with her superiors, so it is becoming rather implausible that she hasn't been promoted in the 25 years she's been on the team. Ah, but wait - Tursten forgot to mention in the previous nine books that Irene has dyslexia and has a hard time dealing with paperwork. So of course she's never been keen to accept a promotion. (I seem to remember that she identified a suspect in an earlier book when she spotted a consistent spelling error, so the dyslexia can't have been that bad...) ( )

If you've read any books in Helene Tursten's Irene Huss series, then you're familiar with the characters and settings. Protected by the Shadows is standards Irene Huss. A young man is seens running out of a house, his body on fire. Krister's car is bombed. A double murder occurs. Huss feels it's all related.

There's a lot of action and Huss puts herself in danger. The good thing is she can handle herself.

The Huss series is definitely enjoyable but I happen to like the TV series better. ( )

It's sad to see this series come to an end, but it certainly goes out on a strong note. Protected by the Shadows is filled with bodies, bombs, informants, and danger. Tursten keeps the level of suspense high from beginning to end. I was particularly happy to see that everything was handled intelligently. When Irene's family is forced into hiding, every detail is done the right way. Irene may be very frightened, but she keeps her head and keeps on working-- refusing to stop until the bad guys are caught and everyone is safe. It is such a treat to read a high-octane story like this and not witness any of the characters doing something stupid.

This series has been a favorite of mine from the first book, both for the investigations and for the characters and the insight into their daily lives. I will miss not reading new adventures for Irene Huss, but I have to admit that I'm wondering if Helene Tursten has something new up her sleeve. ( )