John Jonsson, an unemployed welder, small-time crook, and expert on tropical fish, is found tortured and beaten to death at the beginning of The Princess of Burundi by Kjell Eriksson. A deranged man is roaming the town, his behavior escalating in violence. He has attacked one of his former classmates, and Jonsson is another. The attacks seem to be related.
Ann Lindell is on maternity leave while her colleage Ola Haver runs the investigation. But Ann is so interested, she returns from leave to help. Although the police think that the demented man, a victim of bullying years ago in school, is a likely suspect, they cannot find any proof that he is the murderer and begin wondering if they are off base. Does the murder have to do with Jonsson’s school days, the tangled relationships in the Jonsson family, or perhaps the tropical fish?
Although this was the second Ann Lindell mystery I read, I had the same difficulty I reported before in keeping the various police officers straight. However, I am still interested and want to get to know them better. The crime story was complex, and I was unable to tell where the novel was going until the very end.
What? Me Read? 