The Crow Girl: A novel Hardcover – Deckle Edge, June 14, 2016

Great book. I think this was 3 books combined into one book - which is fine with me. It is a bit dark for those who do not like reading about child sexual abuse. Having worked on a crisis team with child protective services for 21 years - I understand, and witnessed, the depravity that happens to children because I saw a lot of it first hand. I also have a degree in psychology, so I found a lot of the "thinking" and description of the psychological impacts very interesting.This book is probably not for everyone - many people don;t want to know what happens to some children.Having said that, the main character is a police Detective Superintendent Jeanette Kihlberg who is investigating the killing and mutilation of little boys, Sofia Zetterlund, a psychologist who helps her develop a profile of the killer. Other murders begin to occur - and they all seem to be related and connected somehow... but how?The story does jump around a lot from person to person - and between times. SO be sure and read the heading to know which time frame you are in !

If you favor mysteries and thrillers full of surprises, you’ll love The Crow Girl by the Swedish writing team that publishes under the name Erik Axl Sund. No matter how shrewd and analytical you might be, I predict that you won’t figure out who’s who and what’s what until at least close to the end of this staggeringly complex novel. And, unless you read at a blistering pace, this is not a book you’ll finish at one sitting: the hardcover edition runs to 784 pages.To say that I enjoyed this novel would be misleading. At times it’s gruesome beyond belief. And I found the constant use of long Swedish place names distracting. Yet the writing is devilishly clever. It’s difficult to put the book down. In fact, I found it impossible.It’s difficult to exaggerate just how complicated this story is. It’s a tale about pedophilia, serial murder, unhappy marriages, dissociative identity disorder, a fundamentalist Christian sect in Lapland, the Great Famine in the Ukraine, the Holocaust, and Swedish police procedures. Got that? No? I understand. I could never have imagined a single story linking all these themes.The Crow Girl opens like so many other crime stories. The mutilated body of a young immigrant boy is discovered, and Detective Superintendent Jeanette Kihlberg from the Stockholm police is assigned to the case. But neither the police chief nor the prosecutor who both have authority over her will provide her with the necessary resources. Then the bodies of two other young boys are found nearby. Evidence links the three murders, so Kihlberg is faced with tracking down a serial killer, on her own time when necessary.To gain insight into the psychopathology of serial murderers, the Superintendent enlists the help of a brilliant psychologist, Sofia Zetterlund. It soon develops that both women are stuck in unhappy marriages, so you’ll quickly begin to wonder where that will lead. And that’s only the first of a long list of complications and surprises that come to light again and again in this masterful tale.

Part of this book's experience felt like a needed education for me on the horrible things that go on in our world - as frequently told from a first-person perspective, but supported with solid research by the authors. I feel like a better person for what parts of this book I was able to make it through, better able to viscerally empathize with abuse victims. I'd Like to give it a higher score. It's well written, and I WAS warned up front it would be quite dark. It just bit too large and ragged a chunk out of me :( If you're OK with VERY DARK, and maybe more Reality than you might have bargained for, it is a well-written and compelling novel! If you're a wimpy tourist like me, maybe pass on this one :(

Wow! What a dark, wild ride. It definitely has gut wrenching images and content, but that is not withheld information to someone who hasn’t read this book yet. It literally says on the cover that is the most disturbing book you’ll read this year. So seeing that before you even begin the story kind of prepares you for being grossed out, and also should warn off readers who don’t have a strong stomach. I loved the story and in the end it all came together, but I have a few pros and cons I wanted to list out so that other readers are aware when they pick this book up.Cons -This book is LONG! It was originally 3 books (I think?) combined into one. Not a quick read, folks! It took me about a month to finish it, and I try to read a little bit each day, some times a lot in one day if I have the time.It was translated from another language. The translation was done VERY well, BUT they kept the original location names, which are very long and not familiar to me so it was very distracting to me when I was reading. I couldn’t pronounce any of them and some of the names were so long that I would actually just skip over them entirely and when the location would crop up again I wouldn’t realize the significance (if there was meant to be one). I’m sure this won’t be a problem for someone who is familiar with Sweden, but I am not.I was frustrated in the middle. A bit. It seemed like the tangled web just kept getting more and more tangled and I couldn’t keep up and it felt like it was dragging on. But I was determined to finish it! I had already invested so much time.Pros -It paid off! The end brought everything together, and the web in my head was untangled.It was an incredible, dark story. I would be curious to see this as a movie! Maybe there already is one, who knows!Enjoy!

Be prepared.....this was very dark......have never read anything like this....but you will have to finish it to get the full story...sometimes I just had to put it down...and read something else.....but then I would pick it up again....just had to know how it was going to finish off...much more intense then "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo".....MUCH more graphic and many, many gasps, and "OMG"s from the reader......go for it.....I DARE you !!

Loved it

Extraordinary, extreme, and true noir matched only by the master, Jo Nesbo. The subject matter is very difficult but handled well, and the plot lines of the characters are interwoven brilliantly.Of course the translator is Neil Smith! The best I have encountered! He seems always to work Scandinavian writing into the form that English readers understand without some of the traditions of Nordic writing that have, for example, made me indifferent to such acclaimed writers as Henning Mankell.This book is riveting, if you can handle the grotesque scenes.I was glued to it from the very beginning.

When you compare Erik Axl Sund to Jo Nesbo, you insult Nesbo. I thought about giving it a 3 star rating but that would imply that I enjoyed reading it. Did I finish it? Yes. I kept hoping for something it never turned out to be. Having said that, there was something intriguing in the writing. Perhaps a more deft hand editing would have helped. I found the story disjointed. The characters never developed or believable. The start, stop and forward, reverse of the story was too much. Too much filler and not enough story related substance. With Nesbo's first novels, The Bat and Cockroaches, Harry was a developed, evolving character. Everything Nesbo sets in the background makes sense and supports the novel. Just my opinion.

Wow, what a premise. The story never ceases to keep you very interested. Some of the family life aspects of the police detective were a little too predictable to the point where they were reminiscent of network TV shows. That said, a very good Silence of the Lambs vibe in a well told story.

WOW...a hard hitting story that comes close to Jo Nesbo...a new and good alternative to hard hitting Noir Writers from Scandinavia. Keep an eye on this writier...I have been looking for some new Scandinavian writers who might compete with Nesbo.