Synopsis: A mother’s dying wish sealed with a deadly promise. Four men with a secret they thought they’d buried decades ago. A detective in love. A man desperate to live despite the shadow of his guilty past.
After hearing her mother’s deathbed confession and following the dreary funeral, Maria Adler realizes she has no other option but to seize upon her mother’s imperative to do something. Dissolving the life she loathes, Maria changes her appearance and disappears. When she emerges, revenge is her sole occupation.
Inspector Van Veeteren and his associates are left bewildered by the curious murder of a man shot twice in the heart and twice below the belt. He was a quiet, utterly dull man, and the only suspicious activity his surviving wife can recall is a series of peculiar phone calls. Repeatedly the telephone would ring, offering nothing but the words of an obscure pop song from the 1960s. This siren song is linked to an identical murder, but the true link between these heinous crimes remains unknown, while a daughter’s pride grows with the satisfaction of vengeance and another detective’s lover offers telling insights that only an outsider could deduce.
With the critical eye and cool observation necessary for a successful chess match, Van Veeteren pursues his subject across the country, wading through outrageous leads and fruitless tips. A breathless thriller full of deception, blackmail, and cold murder, Woman with Birthmark is a chilling read.
Links:
Amazon US: Woman with Birthmark: An Inspector Van Veeteren Mystery
Amazon UK: Woman with Birthmark: An Inspector Van Veeteren Mystery
Amazon Germany: Die Frau mit dem Muttermal
Review:
Kirkus Reviews:
Sweden’s Chief Inspector Van Veeteren and his squad seek a serial killer avenging a terrible crime. The woman calling herself Maria Adler remembers well her mother’s weary expression in the months before her premature and unlamented demise. Now she’s determined to seek revenge for the crime that drove her mother to a life so marginal that her death created scarcely a ripple. Soon she’s claimed her first victim: Ryszard Malik, a dealer in restaurant equipment. The unusually emphatic method of execution-two bullets in the chest, two more below the belt-naturally calls forth comment from Maardam’s Inspector Reinhart and Chief Inspector Van Veeteren. But it’s not until bullying schoolteacher Rickard Maasleitner is dispatched in exactly the same way that the police realize they have a serial murderer on their hands, and that, defying the odds, this one may just be a woman. Although they manage to keep most of the details out of the papers, they aren’t the only ones to connect both victims to the United Service Staff College class of 1965. Two other members of the class, seeing the pattern that’s developing, take steps to stop the one-woman crime wave themselves, either by defending themselves forcefully at the point of possible attack or by taking the battle preemptively to the woman who’s made them fear for their lives. Van Veeteren’s fourth English-language appearance (Mind’s Eye, 2008, etc.) produces the amalgam all procedures seek: a distillation of commonplace crime and detection into something altogether more intense and humane.
See also: Times: Crime fiction roundup, May 9, 2009 (short review of Woman with Birthmark)
