Claire Foy as Lisbeth Salander
In this continuation of Stieg Larsson's 'Millenium' series by David Lagercrantz, computer hacker Lisbeth Salander protects a young boy while she investigates a conspiracy and contends with murderers. It's best to read the series in order to get a handle on the characters and their convoluted lives.
*****
Frans Balder, a brilliant Swedish computer scientist, created a revolutionary artificial intelligence (AI) program when he worked at the Solifon company in the United States.
He then suddenly quit his job, took his program, and returned to Sweden. Balder proceeded to remove his autistic 8-year-old son August from the abusive home of his ex-wife and her boyfriend and holed up at home with the boy. It seems that Balder had discovered a conspiracy involving Solifon, the National Security Agency (NSA), and Russian mobsters - and now feared for his life and his program.
Meanwhile, Mikael Blomkvist - famous investigative journalist for the magazine Millenium - is having problems.
The magazine has been bought by a conglomerate that wants to remove Mikael from the editorial board and 'lighten' the magazine's features. Mikael could use a juicy story to buck up his career. This seems to be on the horizon when Frans Balder contacts Mikael to tell him he has a big, important story to tell.
Before Balder can meet with Blomkvist the computer scientist is murdered in front of his son August, who can't speak and doesn't seem to connect with what's going on around him. It turns out, though, that August is an artistic savant who might be able to draw a picture of the murderer. This makes him a target for the bad guys who, of course, don't want to be identified.
While all this is going on Lisbeth Salander - computer hacker extraordinaire - has been infiltrating computers around the world, including those of the NSA. Thus, she's discovered top secret information that's connected to the conspiracy Balder uncovered. Some of the NSA files, though, are super-encrypted and Lisbeth can't figure out the mathematical keys needed to open them.
As the story unfolds, Lisbeth rescues August from an assassination attempt and - while hiding the child - learns that he's also a math savant. Lisbeth uses the boy's math skills to try to crack the super-encrypted NSA files she's uncovered.
The basic premise of the story is that criminals are hunting August while Blomkvist tries to uncover the conspiracy Balder was going to reveal. Meanwhile, Lisbeth does her thing. She protects August, beats up men who abuse children and women, and infuriates people whose computers she's hacked.
If you abuse women, Lisbeth is your worst enemy
Lisbeth also must (once again) deal with a demented family member - this time her murderous fraternal twin sister Camilla. (Readers familiar with the trilogy know that Lisbeth is cursed with one of the worst families in the world.)
I'm a big fan of the Millenium Trilogy and was looking forward to this addition to the series. Sadly, in my opinion this book isn't as good as the previous ones. My main problems with the book:
There are intimations in the story that Frans Balder's AI program could potentially allow computers to take over the world and dispense with humans. I thought this thread might be important to the story but it went essentially nowhere.
To 'round out' the Camilla character the author resorts to a long expository chapter. In this section Hoger Palmgren (Lisbeth's former guardian) tells Mikael about Camilla - her history and relationship with her family - in great detail. This is an indelicate and tedious technique to familiarize the reader with a character. In addition, Camilla seems more like a comic book woman than a real person. She's so over-the-top gorgeous and manipulative that everyone seems to lose their senses around her. Because of this, the behavior of other characters around Camilla is simply not believable.
The conspiracy at the center of the story is too twisty and confusing. It's not until the very end of the book that I more or less understood what it was about - and then it didn't make much sense and I didn't believe it.
Though I wasn't satisfied with the story, I admire David Lagercrantz for taking on a difficult task. It's hard to add books to a popular series after the death of the original author. If Lagercrantz writes another Millenium book I'd probably read it to see if he's able to get the correct 'vibe'.
All in all, I'd recommend this book to fans of the series, but warn them to temper their expectations.
In this 4th book in the 'Tracy Crosswhite' series, the detective investigates two mysterious deaths. The book can be read as a standalone, but familiarity with the characters is a bonus.
*****
While indulging in a spot of illicit crabbing in Seattle's Puget Sound, teenager Kurt Schill finds a dead woman in a crab pot.
Detective Tracy Crosswhite and her team from the Seattle Police Department's Violent Crimes Section get the case.
Having been noshed on by crabs the woman is unidentifiable by ordinary means. However implants from facial surgery lead the detectives to identify her as Andrea Strickland, a woman who disappeared months before while climbing Mount Rainier with her husband Graham.
Since Mount Rainier is in Pierce County, the missing woman case was investigated by Detective Stan Fields from that region.
Detective Fields thought Andrea Strickland was dead, perhaps pushed off the mountain by her husband. So when Andrea's body turns up in Puget Sound months later, Fields - angry that Andrea might have committed insurance fraud or other hijinks - demands the case back.
Tracy - whose sister was murdered twenty years ago - hates to give up any case, especially if it involves a young woman. And Tracy is especially reluctant to yield the investigation to Detective Fields, a cocky lout who ogles women. So Tracy's pleased when the disappearance of another woman eventually returns the case to the Seattle P.D. As their inquiries proceed Tracy and her team learn that at least one person has acquired a new identity and a lot of money has disappeared.
The story switches back and forth between two points of view: the detectives investigating the crimes......
…...and excerpts from Andrea's journal. In her diary Andrea, who worked for an insurance company, talks a lot about her love of books. Andrea also describes meeting and marrying Graham, a handsome show-offy lawyer who wears designer suits and drives a red Porsche.
Soon after Andrea and Graham marry, the lawyer - who has big ideas - insists that they quit their jobs and open a marijuana dispensary (which is legal in Washington).
This requires a big wad of startup money that Andrea and Graham don't have. As it happens Andrea has a trust fund, but it's strictly for her personal needs and CAN'T be used for a business. So Graham - angry about the trust fund - commits fraud to get a bank loan. And since Graham knows nothing about business, things go downhill from there.
As the story unfolds the plot gets quite complicated because there are a number of potential 'bad guys.' To keep things straight, the detectives repeatedly discuss who might have done what to whom - which includes a number of different scenarios. I found this confusing and hard to follow. I also thought the perp putting the body in a crab pot was a bad idea. If you don't want a body found you should tie it to cement blocks and drop it in deep water (just my opinion). I was also put off by the repeated references to Andrea's obsessive reading, which had a whiff of hyperbole.
On the upside, there are interesting twists in the story and Detective Tracy Crosswhite - as well as her partner Kins and fellow detectives Faz and Del - are likable characters that have a strong bond with each other. At one point - to commemorate a happy occasion for Tracy - Del's wife Vera prepares a delicious meal of lasagna, salad, garlic bread, and homemade cannoli....accompanied by good wine. (Yummy!)
I also like the book's setting, Washington and Mount Rainier, which provides a nice ambiance to the story.
The book's climax is dangerous and exciting, and reveals exactly what happened and why. I predicted some bends in the story but the ending surprised me. Overall this is an enjoyable book that I'd recommend to mystery lovers, especially fans of the Tracy Crosswhite series.
Thanks to Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for a copy of the book.
Rating: 3.5 stars
In this book the law enforcement officials in J.A. Jance's two mystery series, Arizona Sheriff Joanna Brady.....
…...and Seattle homicide investigator J.P. Beaumont (Beau), work together (via phone) to solve some baffling crimes.
The book (J.P. Beaumont #19/Joanna Brady #14) can be read as a standalone, but familiarity with the characters is a bonus.
*****
As the story opens six dead women have been found in the Seattle area. Each body is wrapped in a tarp and burned up, and all but one has no teeth and no identification.
Dental records identify the last body as Marina Aquirre, a woman who was reported missing by her fiancé several months before. However Marina was using a false name and is really Marcella Andramade, a woman who has connections to Arizona.
So Beau calls Joanna to ask for assistance. This is a bit awkward because when Beau and Joanna met on a previous case sparks flew event though this was inappropriate. However both Joanna and Beau quickly moved past this and each is now happily married - so no real problem there.
In addition to assisting with the Seattle homicide investigation Joanna and her deputies also have two local cases: the brutal murder of an employee at an ATV park and a criminally neglectful nursing home for Alzheimer's patients.
While working these cases Joanna is also "best man" at her former deputy's wedding - which involves partying, dressing up, and attending the nuptials.
These activities - along with Joanna's home life with her husband, teenage daughter, and new toddler - helps round out her character.
Beau, who inherited wealth, is contentedly working with his new wife (who is also his detective partner), driving expensive cars, and living well.
So not much angst involving either Beau or Joanna in this story.
The ATV park murder in Arizona and the Seattle homicides kind of braid together and even come to involve the family of Joanna's deputy, Jaime Carbajal. Eventually, there's a rather dramatic resolution to some of the homicide cases and steps are taken to deal with the owners of the feckless nursing home. The problem is that the reasons/outcomes for some of the criminal activity is murky (to me, at least) and I was unsatisfied at the end of the book.
Though it's pleasant to visit with familiar, well-liked characters like Joanna and Beau this is a mystery novel and on that score it falls short. Just an okay book.
Rating: 3 stars
Val McDermid
In "Forensics" popular mystery writer Val McDermid outlines the development of modern forensics (scientific analysis of evidence) - a discipline that has literally made it much harder to 'get away with murder.' Rudimentary forensic investigations began long ago: a Chinese coroner's handbook from the 1200s records the story of a murderer caught when flies were attracted to traces of blood on his scythe. Nevertheless, it's likely that many criminals went undiscovered before modern investigative techniques were formulated.
Each section of the book covers a different topic related to criminal investigations such as: the crime scene, fire, insects, pathology, poisons, blood spatter, fingerprints, DNA, bullet markings, and so on. A brief review can't cover the wide array of subjects addressed in the book but I'll give a few examples to provide a 'taste' of the material.
Crime Scene:Modern cameras/photography techniques can record a crime scene in 3-D. Thus experts can determine where a shooter was standing, the trajectory of the bullet(s), how the victim fell, how the blood sprayed, and so on. And the photos can help a jury visualize the crime.
Arson: Additives in accelerants can be used to learn where the fuel was obtained and microbes (diatoms) in the the match heads can be used to trace the matches. One anecdote in this section was distressing: A fire in Ireland's 'Stardust' nightclub in 1981 caused many deaths and injuries because the club owner had locked or blocked most of the fire exits. Arson experts found that the owner didn't start the fire (it was apparently electrical) but he clearly caused the mass carnage. Still, the owner wasn't held legally responsible and even got a big insurance settlement. (I hope Ireland has changed some laws since then.)
Stardust Disco
Fire inside the disco
Firefighters at the disco
Aftermath of the disco fire
Insects: Different kinds of insects attack a dead body in a specific order - so the bug population on a corpse can help determine the time of death. Moreover, the insects consuming the corpse can be ground up and analysed for poisons that were in the body. That's a 'twofer.' 🙂
Insect life cycle
Flies and maggots on a corpse
Decomposition is sped up by insects
Forensic scientist observing insects
Pathology: Medical examiners study the body to determine cause of death. Stab wounds can help identify the murder weapon; contaminated body parts can reveal poisons; bullets can point to the gun used; etc. If the knife is sticking out of the victim, of course, that's a huge clue.
Blood spatter: One expert McDermid interviewed noted that she needed to study the entire crime scene in detail to make sense of the blood splatter evidence. She didn't like detectives telling her 'just look at that section of wall beside the victim'... because tiny drops of blood can spray far and wide.
Poisons: Arsenic and other poisons were apparently the murder weapon of choice for royalty (as well as the common folk) for centuries - since there was no way to prove that corpses contained toxins. Once scientists learned how to test for toxins, however, poisoners were regularly caught. Nevertheless it's daunting to think how many people got away with murder over the course of history.
DNA: This is the 'gold standard' of forensic analysis. If someone's DNA is on/in the victim or at the crime scene that person was almost certainly there. This isn't always 100% accurate though, because of human error. McDermid relates an anecdote about a lab tech who used an improperly cleaned tray (someone's saliva was already on it) to analyze DNA...so the spitter was initally accused. Another possible problem here is deliberate contamination of the crime scene by the perp. (Some murder mysteries I've read use this plot device. The perp brings a condom with someone else's sperm and sprinkles it on the victim.)
I was reassured though, when one forensic expert noted that it would be almost impossible for a perp to purposely plant evidence/set up a crime scene to implicate someone else. The analyst noted that the perp would tend to overdo it or do it wrong. For example: leave too much blood; leave the wrong pattern of blood; plant too many glass shards; put evidence in the wrong places; and so on.
At the end of the book I was dismayed to read that attorneys (usually on the defense side) routinely try to intimidate/manipulate expert witnesses to spin things in a certain direction rather than to discover the truth. In some ways vigorous cross-examination is good: One section of the book tells the story of an 'expert witness' physician who insisted that - if several children in a family succumbed to crib death - the parents were definitely murderers. In one afflicted family, crib death turned out to be a genetic predisposition...but the mom, wrongly imprisoned then exonerated, committed suicide. And the 'expert doctor' had his license revoked. Still, I would wish the facts could be brought out without 'politics'.
This is a fascinating book, highly recommended - especially to readers interested in true crime.
Rating: 5 stars
