Very different from the Wallander series. It was easy reading and was interesting until the chapters on Communism and the future of China. That got a bit boring, for me, although it was integral to the story. Even though the story didn't have our depressed Detective Wallander in it, I still ended up with thoughts like, 'are all leaders psychopaths?' 'are all countries doomed?' I guess those boring chapters seeped into my tired brain, mixed with the knowledge that Mr. Trump is our (the U.S.) President, and made a toxic cocktail. That is pretty accurate; this book made me feel hungover. In the book's defense, I did like the main character, Judge Birgitta Roslin. And I loved the way the author tied the story together with the Epitaph and the Epilogue. Even though, more depressed thoughts, 'will all wolves be shot?' 'is the world of our childhood gone forever?'
Some of the imagery is so powerful. That peaceful Swedish village of a dozen or so houses in the deep snow.....but no smoke coming from the chimneys. Old rural Sweden - dead -
The thing is though, is it dead for our children as well? Their future will be different than ours but that is the ending of one generation and the beginning of another.

"There's always an end, ..., but the end is always the beginning of something else. The periods we write into our lives are always provisional, in one way or another."

What is the book about you ask? All the inhabitants of a small Swedish village are massacred. Police haven't a clue. Judge Birgitta Roslin realizes that her mother was fostered by one of the old couples killed in the massacre. She drives up to investigate. Through a series of serendipitous events, and good intuition, she follows the trail to China and back to Sweden. She is in mortal danger.

LFL on the corner of 36th Ave NE and NE 77th St.