MYSTERY

Night Rounds

Soho Crime. Feb. 2012. c.336p. tr. from Swedish by Laura A. Wideburg. ISBN 9781616950064. $25. M
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OrangeReviewStarAt a tiny, private Swedish hospital one fateful night, someone cuts the power, disengages the backup generator, and murders a nurse. Eerily, the other nurse on duty is convinced she saw the hospital's resident ghost that evening. Back in the late 1940s, a nurse died there, hanged in the attic; many feel she continues to haunt the facility. A few days after the power failure, another nurse who has gone missing is found hanged in the same place. Insp. Irene Huss realizes that the killer is intimately familiar with the hospital's history. And that means she and her team will have to immerse themselves in both the current evidence and with the building's genealogy. Diagnosis: Revenge.
VERDICT I couldn't put down this finely crafted, Swedish procedural with its complex story line and heart-stopping climax. In her fourth outing (after The Glass Devil), Huss works intuitively, and her family interactions add extra depth to the novel. This series will appeal to those who like Michael Genelin and Quentin Bates. [See Prepub Alert, 11/11/11; for more Scandinavian crime fiction, see "Nordic Crime Fiction" on p. 58.
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