I have had to skip an instalment in this series while my library tries to arrange an inter-library loan, so that didn't help, but I was disappointed in this one. It felt too long, and the way different agencies kept things from each other was frustrating. In some ways it fell between the two stools of police procedural and spy thriller.

SPOILERS

It also meant that at the end there was no living person who knew what had actually happened, which was unsatisfactory to me. The spy bits - the Paper Boy in Palestine and Efraim's involvement in the present day murders - felt a bit shoe-horned in: the narrator resorted to having Fred tell Eden all about the Palestine backstory and to simply telling the reader about it himself in the second case.

The Paper Boy story told on the kibbutz made no sense to me - how does a story about a boy who steals children while they sleep help to stop children going out and roaming dangerous streets at night? On the other hand, I thought the 'Fragments' did a good job of keeping the reader guessing about which woman carrying a violin was about to find her family massacred. ( )

Quite smart writing. ( )

This was a book club pick, and it’s always a little disconcerting when you’re starting in the middle of a series. This series really seems to build on characters’ histories and past events, so while the author did a good job of providing the necessary backstory, I still felt like I was missing a lot of context.

As far as the book itself, the pacing was a bit odd. Very little happened in the first half of the book and the second half was a breakneck sprint to the end, with a lot of twists and turns. And while twists and turns are what keep a reader interested, this series seems to fall into the trope of outrageous things constantly happening in a fairly crime-free area.

Overall I didn’t really enjoy this one, and I think I’ll give the author a pass in the future. ( )

Yes, this book is compulsively readable, but no, it doesn't maintain enough contact with reasonable probability. Several reviewers say they think this is the best book in the series, but I found it disappointing compared to the earlier books. That's not because it isn't suspenseful -- it's VERY suspenseful, because of a narrative device that works like a charm. But suspenseful isn't everything, even in a thriller. For me, the plot ran out of credibility about two-thirds of the way through the novel, and also ran out of coherence: too many possible murderers, too many motives, and too much improbability. I finished the book and look forward to the next, but I hope it is a bit more restrained. ( )

I really liked the next installment of the series. I like the way that Kristina Ohlsson keeps you informed but has Fredrika and Alex always guessing. It keeps you in the know while her characters are always guessing whats happening. They come close to what really happens but they will never know the truth. It was an enjoyable read. ( )