Thank you and sorry I took so longer to read and review.
I wasn't sure about this to start off with, but it was a very well written murder mystery with a good plot and good characters.
I do like a Scandi thriller and can highly recommend this one.
I look forward to reading more.

Loved this book! Excellent, intelligent political /detective thriller with memorable characters and a solid plot. One of my favourite hand-sells at the moment. Can’t recommend highly enough.

I was keen to read this as I thought the author did a good job finishing the Millennium series after the sad loss of Stieg Larsson. If you’re expecting it to be along similar lines then you’d be wrong, it is something completely different, as this book is inspired by Sherlock Holmes and it certainly lives up to it. The two main characters, Professor Hans Rekke and community police officer Micaela Vargas, couldn’t be more different but they make a great team. I understand this is the start of a series and, if so, I would definitely read the next one. Thank you to NetGalley and Querous Books, MacLehose Press for letting me read and review this book.

I was really looking forward to this as I have loved previous novels by the author, but I just couldn’t finish this one, nothing grabbed me.

Mixed feelings. While I love the 2 sleuths here - Sherlock-like male professor Hans Rekke a hard-working policewoman Micaela Vargas, toughened by her immigrant background - I do not like the political thrillers which are not set in the homeland of the heroes. Here we are solving the murder of football referee with the ties to Afghanistan and religious repressions there, peppered with the bad, bad American CIA and their dark torture practices (ah, and some historical links to Soviet Union, too). All is well with these subjects, if they were told and solved with the native persons! But Mr Lagercrantz is Swede and his novel is played out in Sweden. Why can not we have a Scandi noir, a Swedish crime? Then the author would be an authority on all things Swedish. I find the political references being a bother in general, but I would be willing to learn something new about the politics there.
But having said that, I would read the next novel based on the fact that I like the Micaela-Rekke duo. Hopefully they can get a good domestic crime case without all the ornaments of the author’s political leanings!

This was an intriguing read. It is well written and has engaging lead characters. The story was interesring and kept me engaged.

Well written murder mystery about the solving of a murder crime. Based in Sweden, the plot twists and turns and focuses on 2 characters a female police officer and a professor, an unusual story with a likeable detective duo. I am a super fan of Scandinavia crime, this book didn’t disappoint.

I was not overly impressed with David Lagercrantz's additions to the "Millenium" series perhaps because Stieg Larsson set such a high standard. However, now that he has embarked on what I hope will be a new series, he can perhaps develop his own style more. If so this was an excellent start with an embryo "Holmes & Watson" - the development of the relationship of the two main characters was intriguing and there must be scope for a most interesting partnership between Micaela Vargas and Professor Hans Rekke.

Swedish storyteller Lagercrantz has a clear fascination with mavericks, eccentrics, and visionaries. The former journalist wrote books about the likes of Alan Turing and Zlatan Ibrahimović before becoming a global bestseller when he deftly continued the escapades of Stieg Larsson’s goth hacker Lisbeth Salander.

Now in Dark Music he offers a detective duo that’s a modern twist on Sherlock Holmes: Hans Rekke is an upper class Swedish professor, gifted in many ways yet stricken by self-doubt and suicidal tendencies. Michaela Vargas is a young community cop forged in a tough neighbourhood whose parents were political refugees and who may one day have to arrest her own brothers. Thrust together by the troubling murder of an immigrant football referee, to find the killer Vargas and Rekke must uncover truths many powerful people want hidden, and battle themselves as well as others.

Lagercrantz delivers a riveting tale centred on an unusual duo, set in the aftermath of 9/11 when the world was realising the lengths those in power, on all sides, may go to when it came to maintaining order or ‘fighting terrorism’. A great series-starter.

[This review was first written for and published in the New Zealand Listener, September 2022]

A dark title and a dark story! Entirely believable in the light of current events and told in a very readable manner. As the story unfolds I was drawn more and more into the narrative until I could not put the book down until I had finished it. The end hinted at another book in the offing - I sincerely hope so because I would look forward to reading more from this author.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Quercus Books for an advance copy of Dark Music, a thriller set in Stockholm

I was initially introduced to David Lagercrantz when I read I Am Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
I have since then read the Dragon Tattoo books that continued on from Stieg Larsson and awaited this with bated breath.

I am hoping this is the start of a series of stories.

I felt this was a modern day Sherlock Holmes take on scani noir.

The two main prtagatists are a female police officer (Micaela), who gwets taken off the case and a past best Professor (Rekke)

Its a murder case set in the early 2000s when an immigrant is murdered in Stockholm

I loved how Micaela and Rekke worked together. I loved how Micaela found her way in the as it seemed very male dominant work place of hers. I love how Rekke did not care about people calling him unreliable due to his mental health and just moved on to solving the mystery.-

~I recommend this 5/5

#DarkMusic

@MacLehosePress

Complex And compelling story which manages x also to explore social issues: torture and prejudices of the 'other' .. I also learned a good deal about Taliban cultural sufferers (like banning certain music forms!) .. OK the main forensic detective Rekke is slightly clichéd as troubled (like sherlock Holmes) by drug abuse .. and his young female partner ..a new cliche in detective fiction of young, tough and rough female .. but that's OK (saves narrative time in a way) but the plot although driven did require me looking back often ..was intriguing .. I'm looking forward to next installment!

The first in a planned series of crime novels that are set in Sweden. A murder investigation is launched into the murder of an Afghan refugee, and football referee, Jamal Kabir, who was found after a contentious match with his skull smashed in . The clear suspect is Giuseppe Costa, whose son plays football for the team, Costa was seen running onto the pitch after the match, so is arrested and questioned. The Police investigate his past, Jamal had been tortured in his homeland, escaped to Sweden, and set up the football club to repay his adopted country.
A professor who specialises in interrogation techniques, Hans Rekke can find no evidence of Costa’s guilt, and the case is shelved until further information comes to light.
Micaela Vargas works as a police officer. She is Chilean, and has a tough background. Her father was tortured by the regime, she has two brothers on the edge of criminal activity, with dubious ways of earning money, she has an innate sense of right and wrong, possibly in light of her brothers attitude to law and order. She is teamed with Rekke to carry on this stalled investigation.
Both Vargas and Rekke are obsessed with facts and meticulous details. Their relationship is excellently portrayed, they support and bounce off each other, Hans is compared to Sherlock Holmes due to his ability to study and read a persons body language, their behaviour, his deductions and observations make them the perfect investigative team. Hans may come from a privileged background, but he has demons to contend with, depression, BiPolar disorder and drug addiction, these combined make him vulnerable to self doubt, Micaela provides the active support to assist with this case.
It’s a fascinating novel, very forensically detailed, and intriguing, it turns the detective genre on its head, it questions why Jamal was targeted and what events from his past contributed to his demise. Half way through this novel, the penny dropped as to the meaning of the Dark Music title, and it introduced me to aspects of the Taliban regime, that made elements of this novel all come together. Not a quick or easy read, but a rewarding one, and hopefully, Vargas and Rekke will return.
My thanks to Netgalley and Quercus the publishers for my digital copy in exchange for my unbiased review. A five star rating.

Having read his sequels to 'The Girl with the Dradon Tattoo' Millenium series I was excited to read his interpretation of the Sherlock Holmes/Watson dynamic. Other authors have also paid homage to the Holmes stories, notably Anthony Horowitz, but although his books are well written there isn't the same spart as here. This book for me deid however start a little slowly as the characters were drawn, but after reading about 20% of the book the writing came together and I was engrossed in the plot.

His 'Sherlock' is a privileged upper-middle class expert on interrogation techniques with a difficult past and a drug problem who becomes drawn into solving a murder with an intuitive and bright female working-class detective named Michaela Vargas, whose parents were refugees from Chile, and saved his life.

As the plot develops they develop a connection which works in their favour both proffesionally in solving the crime, and personally in helping them both start to come to terms with their personal demons. I very much enjoyed the story, and think that this will be book 1 of the series (I hope!), as was suggested by using Conan Doyle's device of starting a new crime to be solved in an intriguing way at the end of the book.

Dark Music by David Lagercrantz

I received an advance review copy for free thanks to NetGalley and Quercus Books and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Blurb

Professor Hans Rekke is a world authority on interrogation techniques, capable of dizzying feats of logic and observation. He was born into wealth and power and has a picture-perfect wife and daughter. But he also has a fragile psyche that falls apart under pressure.

Micaela Vargas is a street-smart police officer, daughter of Chilean political refugees, who grew up in the projects on the outskirts of Stockholm and has two brothers on the wrong side of the law. She is tenacious and uncompromising, and desperate to prove herself to her fellow cops.

Micaela needs Hans's unique mind to help her solve the case of a murdered asylum-seeker from Afghanistan. Hans needs Micaela to save him from himself. Together, they need to find the killer before they're both silenced for good.

My Opinion

A couple of years ago I read and enjoyed 'The Girl in the Spider's Web', so I was looking forward to seeing what Lagercrantz would do with his own series. Dark Music has an intriguing plot that to me seemed to be unpredictable. In places I found it difficult to follow the plot and found myself having to re-read sections, but overall this is an enjoyable thriller and I am looking forward to seeing what happens next with this series.

Rating 4/5

David Lagercrantz, one of the most celebrated Swedish journalists and fiction authors, known to the masses from the continuation of the infamous "Millenium" trilogy written by the late Stieg Larsson and the best-selling biography of the legendary Swedish football player Zlatan Ibrahimovic (I Am Zlatan Ibrahimovic/2011), returns with the first installment in a new series of crime novels, featuring detective Micaela Vargas and the mercurial professor Hans Rekke as the protagonists. The readership had already the chance to assess the author's writing style through the fourth, fifth, and sixth volume of the "Millenium" saga, while those who are older will remember him from his work as a crime journalist in one of the country's biggest newspapers, "Expressen", during the decades of 1980s and 1990s. Lagercrantz's experience as a reporter has left a deep imprint on his prose, thus adding plausibility and realism to the text, as it is evident in Dark Music, a novel that transcends genre categorization, incorporating elements from the classic police procedural and political thriller aspects that prompt the reader to make his own inquiry on the book's gloomy main theme, that is the anti-terrorism hysteria that conquered the western countries after the traumatic events of 9/11 in the U.S. and the establishment of torture prisons in Afghanistan by the CIA, during the years of the American intervention there. Lagercrantz certainly devoted many hours researching the nightmarish nature of the so-called "Black Spots" or "Black Sites" and the information conveyed to the reader is shocking, making us aware of a reality that we don't want to acknowledge. The smooth translation by Ian Giles leaves nothing to be desired and guarantees a first-class reading experience, a top rendition of the original source's well-rounded text.

Dark Music is a novel that is equally based on the peculiarities and idiosyncrasies of his main protagonists, especially those of Hans Rekke, and its intriguing plot premise that involves corruption in the upper echelons of the Swedish police force and politics and their American counterparts. Nevertheless, the novel is actually narrating a revenge story, born and bred in the faraway Afghanistan during the terrible days of the Taliban dominance that led to the persecution of musicians, especially those with influences from the west, and the destruction of several musical instruments which were seen as enemies of the religion and distractions destined to lead the folk further away from their one and true God. I was stricken to read and learn that the Saudis banned music in 1978 and one year later in Iran, Khomeini did the same. It seems outrageous to us, citizens of the western democracies, that a form of art as potent as music can be outlawed and its practitioners to be treated as common criminals by the state. The music ban in Afghanistan, established by the Taliban regime began in the late 1990s and the harassment of peaceful musicians became an everyday phenomenon throughout the country. Smashing of musical instruments in public was practiced by the Talibans extensively and eventually musicians became afraid to perform even within the confines of their home as they were afraid that someone may hear and notify the authorities, something that would definitely lead to serious trouble.

Apart from the music ban part, the novel focuses on another hot issue that became the subject of debate internationally during the last two decades, and that is the existence of torture prisons, built by the American state in Afghanistan. The secret prisons were acknowledged by U.S. President George W. Bush during a speech in 2006 and the rumors regarding the employment of torture methods such as cold, darkness, and loud music by the site operators quickly spread and became a controversial issue in the U.S. as there were many who believed that the war on terror necessitates such actions, while others maintained that a modern state such as the U.S. cannot be involved in such dark deeds. Hans Rekke, the Sherlockian ex-Stanford-professor who becomes entangled in the police investigation of the murder of one Jamal Kabir, an Afghanian immigrant who gets killed with a stone after a local match in Grimsta, is an expert in the "enhanced interrogation techiniques" (a euphemism for torture) and when he lived in the U.S., he was often employed by the American authorities to help with the assessment of interrogation transcripts and decide whether or not the interrogated part knew more than he was letting on or not. For Rekke., "torture has its own cultural peculiarities, its own fingerprints. Not only you can trace the perpetrator, but you can also trace the context he is operating in. The ideology beihnd it leaves its traces on the tortured body". With this method, he will be able to offer his critical help to Micaela and her colleagues who seem to be stuck with the investigation for several months.

The story begins with the death of Jamal Kabir, an Afhgani immigrant who is found dead in the woods in Grimsta after the ending of a football match in which he was the referee. The authorities will quickly apprehend their prime suspect, a local lowlife drunk who has proven to be violent in the past, but soon their case is rejected by the prosecutor as they lack the substantial evidence needed in order to prove the man's guilt. Micaela Vargas's superiors decide to talk with professor Hans Rekke, a mysterious figure who is an expert in interrogation techniques and his observational skills are only comparable to the one and only Sherlock Holmes. Rekke's remarks on the case, irritates the top brass as they upend their whole investigation and exonerate their suspect(s). As the months pass by, the case becomes a cold one and the investigative officers are at a loss, having nothing to move the case forward and pinpoint the perpetrator. However, Micaela, a single-minded and persistent individual will begin her own personal inquiries after a chance encounter with Hans Rekke who, after a failed suicide attempt in the Tunnelbana rail tracks of Ostermalmstorg station. Together, and despite Rekke's rapidly deteriorating physical and mental health, they will trace the clues that the police had missed and their team work will be finally appreciated by Micaela's colleagues who were initially suspicious about Hans. Their inquiries will lead them in Afghanistan's recent dark history and the American response in the terrorist actions in New York in 9/11.

Hans Rekke is definitely on the spotlight as he is a compelling character, bearing some unique charismas that render him invaluable in a criminal investigation, but his unbalanced mentality and impulsive actions, such as his suicide attempt in Tunnelbana in the beginning of the novel, put him under a whole different light as the story progresses. Hans is addicted to a variety of drugs such as benzodiazepines, morphine, ritalin and a whole galaxy of uppers and downers that help him to stabilize his mood and offer him relief from the severe depressive spells that torment him. While being manic, Hans has the tendency to make a lot of enemies as his insistence to tell the truth despite the consequences often put him on the wrong side of his peers and then a conflict is inevitable. Lagercrantz discloses his protagonist's background in broad strokes and we learn, mainly through the discussions of Hans's daughter Julia with Micaela in the beginning of the novel, that he was born and raised in a peculiar family and his fraught relationship with his mother defined and still defines his behavior. Destined to become a piano prodigy from his early childhood, Hans was quickly drawn to the intellectual world and his pathos for order and clarity turned him from an aspiring artist to a dedicated rationalist whose power of perception led him to a brilliant career, that culminated with his appointment as a professor in the respected University of Stanford. The abandonment of his promising piano course resulted in a bitter dispute with his mother who was, according to Hans's own words "the impresario for hell", a strict and demanding authoritative figure who oppressed her son in many ways. His scientific research on torture methods and the interrogation techniques in his book "War and the Art of Telling the Truth" make him the prime candidate to examine Jamal Kabir's case as it becomes apparent in the post-mortem examination that he had been subjected to torture in the past.

Micaela Vargas is a young woman from a humble background, "a girl from the hood" as she likes to describe herself, and a competent police officer who, nevertheless, struggles to survive in a man-dominated working environment that often clips her wings and force her to investigate second-rate cases. Her timid origins contrast with Hans Rekke's aristocratic disposition that is evident in the cliched quotes he often uses in order to communicate with the others, even the people closest to him. However, it is that comparison that, inexplicably, seems to help in the development of their relationship as Micaela sees in Hans the traits that she longed for herself since she were a child. Without being the typical pretty girl stereotype, her looks radiate explosivity and indicate her fierce temperament that becomes eventually a trademark for her as a character. Her sharp intellect urges her to focus on the -many- flaws and inconsistencies in the initial investigation on Jamal Kabir's murder and she seems keen to follow her father's advice that was "always go back to the source- to what preceded the interpretations that laid themselves like a filter over developments", a quote that became her mantra ever since her early years. Micaela shares a difficult liaison with her brother, Lucas, who is a prominent member of Stockholm's underbelly and his criminal tendencies put Micaela in crosshairs with her superiors who use Micaela's affinity with Lucas as leverage in the inner machinations of the police force that exclude her from the investigation in the first place. Furthermore, Micaela becomes invested in the case as her own father had been tortured in his youth while being in Chile. The chemistry between Micaela and Hans is perhaps the novel's strongest asset as Lagercrantz excels in characterization and creates two protagonists that will remain in the reader's minds for long after finishing reading this book.

As I already mentioned in the previous paragraphs, the story is dismal and the motifs of torture and oppression of artists may prove to be too much for the readers who are faint at heart or oblivious of the Nordic crime fiction's tropes and choice of main themes. However, Lagercrantz reduces the shock effect by weaving a mystery compelling enough to keep the reader hooked from the first page until the last, while at the same time is prudent enough to take his time in the precious character development that results in the introduction of two of the most beguiling protagonists in the genre's works: Hans Rekke and Micaela Vargas. There are no extensive descriptions of torture within the text, the subject is handled expertly by the author in such a way that supports the overall plot structure without depressing the reader with representations and wordy details of such appalling acts. Overall, Dark Music is a special type of police procedural that reaches its solution through grand leaps of intuition rather than the old-fashioned solid footwork and the conduct of excruciating interrogations. It's not the police force that leads the Jamal Kabir investigation but solely Micaela and Hans who collaborate and conclude the case themselves during a short trip to Cologne, Germany. I would like to thank Netgalley and MacLehose Press for providing a free ARC of this title and also to send my regards to Milly Reid who selected TapTheLine for the blog blast of the novel, even though I couldn't upload my review in the expected date (18 August). Please excuse my tardiness.

My thanks to Quercus Books MacLehose Press for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Dark Music’ by David Lagercrantz.

This crime thriller was originally published in Sweden as ‘Obscuritas’ (2021). It was translated from the Swedish by Ian Giles. I have read and enjoyed two of David Lagercrantz’s continuations of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series, so was interested in reading more of his work. ‘Dark Music’ marks the start of a new series of mysteries inspired by Sherlock Holmes.

Professor Hans Rekke, a world authority on interrogation techniques, is capable of impressivefeats of logic and observation. In the course of the novel he is paired with Micaela Vargas, a community police officer whose parents are Chilean political refugees.

While Rekke comes from a privileged background, Vargas had grown up in a tough suburb and her two brothers are involved in shady activities; causing problems for her with her supervisors. I found both leads intriguing and accessible characters.

‘Dark Music’ is set in 2003 and its central case involves the murder of Jamal Kabir, a refugee from Afghanistan, who has been beaten to death following a junior football match where he was referee. At first it is believed that he had been attacked by an angry parent, who had objected to a call he had made during the game.

However, it soon becomes apparent there is far more going on. No further details to avoid spoilers. Some chapters flash back to past events in Kabul during the Russian occupation and later after the Taliban take control.

‘Dark Music’ was a slow burn with an emphasis upon character development as well as social and political issues, which is very much in keeping with Scandinavian crime fiction. I have been enjoying ‘Nordic Noir’ in translation for over a decade so was prepared for this type of pacing and themes.

As the title suggests, music is an important aspect of the narrative, which highlights the Taliban’s suppression of music and persecution of musicians, especially those trained in classical music by the Russians.

Overall, I found ‘Dark Music’ an intricately plotted mystery-thriller that incorporates complex themes. After this promising start I will be interested in reading the future cases for Professor Rekke and Micaela Vargas.

David Lagercrantz's name will already be familiar to many enthusiasts of Nordic Noir. Following the premature death of legendary Swedish author Stieg Larsson, Lagercrantz was approached to continue Larsson's Millennium series featuring Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist. This was a remarkable vote of confidence in an author with only one earlier novel and a cowrite of footballer Zlatan Ibrahimovic's autobiography. Following the writing of The Girl In The Spider's Web and two subsequent stories in the Millennium series, Dark Music is Lagercrantz's first attempt to create a series in his own name.

From the outset, it is very clear that he has opted to provide a contrast to his earlier novels. Dark Music is a character driven novel which follows a slower pace than the preceding novels, although one similarity it does share is having two main characters, one of each gender who might be considered outsiders in society who form an unexpected investigative relationship.

Set in Stockholm in 2003 the reader first encounters Micaela Vargas who was born in Sweden to Chilean political refugees. Despite coming from the wrong side of town and having two brothers with dubious earnings, she has become a community police officer who is unexpectedly pulled into a murder investigation. Afghan refugee and football referee Jamal Kabir is murdered, his skull crushed by a rock following a heavily contested football match that he has officiated where he denied an obvious penalty. The clear suspect for the murder is Costa, the father of a promising football player. Vargas is brought in as she knows this man who was drunk and apoplectic at Kabir's on-field decisions and later seem staggering off with a heavily stained t-shirt. Yet Costa fails to admit his guilt. In a surprise and left field move, the Stockholm police commander urges Vargas and the other investigating officers to meet renowned Stanford psychology professor Hans Rekke to assist. He stuns them by showing remarkable insight into the lives of the police officers demonstrating his incredible powers of deduction. Yet then he angers them with his clear dismissal of the case against Costa through reasoned argument.

Unlike her colleagues Vargas is in awe of Rekke’s abilities yet as the investigation flounders and she is removed from it back to her routine work she meets another side of him shortly afterwards.

As Professor Hans Rekke’s character is filled out we learn he was born into a wealthy Stockholm family and was once a world touring classic pianist before a severe bout of depression brought this career to an end. Owing to his intelligence he has since become a world-renowned authority on interrogation techniques yet it is his remarkable skills of logic and observation that truly make him stand out. Lagercrantz confirms that Rekke is heavily influenced by Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes and comes across as very unique.

Vargas feels driven to try to solve the investigation into Kabir's death requesting help from Rekke in order to prove her abilities to her colleagues, yet she finds that keeping Rekke on the straight and narrow is a challenge due to his bipolar disorder and resultant substance abuse. Yet as they start to work together and particularly after Rekke identifies certain characteristics from the torture scars photographed on Kabir’s body, it becomes clear that there are other parties who do not wish their probing to continue.

Set the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 bombings and invasion of Afghanistan, Dark Music explores from afar the life that Kabir lived and experiences that he encountered before arriving in Sweden in a climate where music was banned but football just about tolerated. More broadly the novel considers the changes that occurred in the country from the Taliban’s original takeover of the country following the Soviet retreat to the CIA’s involvement in the interrogation of its members following their downfall after the US led invasion.

I found the appeal of the book was particularly on the characters of Rekke and Vargas, their interaction with each other and those that they encounter. At times the connections Rekke was able to foster and contacts that Vargas succeeded in making largely from the former’s apartment did occasionally appear a little implausible. It is actually quite unusual to have an internationally focused story which is almost exclusively set in one place, particularly one set twenty years ago. There are also some flashback scenes that fill in the reader on some historical events.

Lagercrantz does continue the theme of Swedish neutrality which was common to many of the country’s writers such as Mankell during the cold war to the more modern “war on terror.” Yet it is the distinctiveness of the main protagonists in particular that make Dark Music an essential read for those fond on either Scandinavian crime fiction or political thrillers. The English language interpretation of the original Swedish novel was completely superbly by experienced and prolific Ian Giles providing a smooth narrative without any ambiguities.

It is apparent David Lagercrantz intends to continue to develop his new creations. I believe that there is plenty of further scope for both characters to develop their own personal storylines, in particular with their respective brothers. The novel tees up another story for the pair in the closing chapter so it seems inevitable that there will be at least one more story featuring Rekke & Vargas. Therefore, I would definitely recommend that you ensure you commence this with Dark Music.

Micaela Vargas is a young police officer desperate to prove herself. She's got two brothers on the wrong side of the law, but she's determined not to let that hold her back, despite her fellow officers trying to put her down. Hans Rekke is a world reknowned expert on interrogation techniques, but also suffers with severe mental health issues that see him struggle to face the world. The two must work together to try and uncover the truth behind the murder of an asylum seeker from Afghanistan, a case that turns out to be much more complicated and far reaching than either of them anticipated.

I've read and enjoyed David Lagercrantz's additions to the Millenium trilogy series, so was excited to see he had a stand alone novel out. Unfortunately this one fell short of the mark for me, and I ended up being glad to get to the end of it.

the main thing that bothered me with this one was that I often found myself feeling like I was missing information. All the way through the book there was instances of the narrator referring to events or memories that had not been mentioned previously, as if the reader should know what was being talked about. It left me feeling like there was a lot of gaps, and although I could generally make assumptions to fill in the blanks that's not something I feel I should need to do in the first book in a series.

The story jumped around a lot, between different characters and towards the end also with times and places, which made it hard to follow at times.

There is a great storyline in here, Lagercrantz has got a complex mystery with several different facets to it. I also liked the idea of Vargas and Rekke as an unlikely team, and although they need a little work I think they could become a great pair for an ongoing series.

In the end this one was just too disjointed for me to really get into it.

Today, I’m taking part in a blog blast organised by Quergus books & Maclehose Press for Dark Music. This crime novel turned out to be very surprising and not what I expected at all. It was very intelligent and cleverly written novel about solving a murder case. The two main characters of this novel were proper underdogs, a young, female police officer who got taken off the case and a professor battling addiction and depression but with a very sharp mind. What surprised me about this novel was how the case was solved, police failed to find the culprit to the murder by using traditional methods, but the psychology professor solved it by thinking like Sherlock Holmes. It made fascinating reading.
I loved the location for this novel, namely Sweden. I like reading Scandinavian crime novels, as these seem to be very popular nowadays. I also liked the writing style of the author, the plot twists, how action-packed and fast-paced this crime novel was, the character development and having a strong female main character in a novel filled with male characters.
This was the first novel which I’ve read by the author and it was a joy to discover a new author whose writing I like, and I would like to read more books by the author in the future. I’m giving Dark Musuc 4 stars, and I recommend it to all readers who like cleverly written, and intelligent crime novels/thrillers.