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    Misterioso: A Crime Novel
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    Misterioso: A Crime Novel
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    Misterioso: A Crime Novel
    Audiobook11 hours

    Misterioso: A Crime Novel

    Written by Arne Dahl

    Narrated by John Lee

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    After successfully-but bloodily-dismantling a complicated hostage situation at a bank in the suburbs of Stockholm, Detective Paul Hjelm is faced with the requisite investigation by Internal Affairs. It is a potentially career-ending inquiry, but he is plucked out of it by the National Criminal Police commissioner, who drops him into an elite task force of officers assembled from across the country to find an elusive killer with a sophisticated modus operandi and even more sophisticated tastes.
     
    Targeting Sweden's high-profile business leaders, the killer breaks into their homes at night, waits for his victims, places two bullets in their heads with deadly precision, and removes the bullets from the walls-a ritual enacted to a rare bootleg recording of Thelonious Monk's jazz classic "Misterioso."
     
    As Hjelm, his young, doggedly energetic partner, Jorge Chavez, and the rest of the team follow one lead after another in their pursuit-navigating the murky underworlds of the Russian Mafia and the secretive members-only society of Sweden's wealthiest denizens-they must also delve into one of the country's most persistent ills: a deep-rooted xenophobia that affects both the police and the perpetrator in a small nation that is becoming rapidly internationalized.
     
    The first novel in Arne Dahl's gripping Intercrime series-widely considered to be one of Sweden's best-Misterioso is a penetrating, dark, and absorbing introduction to this acclaimed author's world.


    From the Hardcover edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJul 12, 2011
    ISBN9780307913821
    Unavailable
    Misterioso: A Crime Novel

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    Reviews for Misterioso

    3.5/5

    166 ratings15 reviews

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    • 2/5
      I abandoned this book at 50% - it just didn't engage me and 1) I didn't appreciate the crude scene between Hjelm and his wife in the first chapter (she pulls a used sanitary napkin out of her panties and shoves it at him); 2) nor did I like the sex scene.... it felt to me like an editor told him he needed some sex and so he chunked a scene into the book. Not only did it add nothing to the book but it left me rolling my eyes; and 3) even at the half way mark I could care less about any of the characters. So I quit reading.
    • 5/5
      I saw the tv series a couple of years ago; picked up the book and was still impressed.
      there is a thoroughness to the story, you see all the blind alleys that the police have to investigate as well as the threads that will lead to the real culprit coalescing. it did help to have faces for the characters (all except Hultin!)
      Competent and entertaining, with flashes of beautiful descriptive scene setting
    • 4/5
      This is first novel in the Inter-Crime series translated from Swedish to English. A worthy successor to Mankell and the Wallander novels. Someone is murdering prominent Swedish business leaders and causing panic among the public. The solution of the Police is to form a specialised unit from different local Police forces to concentrate on catching the "killer or killers". One of policemen picked is Paul Hjelm ,who is under investigation himself for shooting an unarmed man during a hostage siege. The author develops the plot and characters extremely well and manages to sustain the tension right to the end of the crime novel .
    • 3/5

      This is a police proceedural crime novel. The story is about a special team that is assembled to find out who is killing prominent businessmen in Sweden. I enjoyed the beginning & ending of the story, but found the middle just too dry. The crime team spent quite a bit of time examining each of victims' connections to each other through their corporations, subsidiaries & holding companies, along with the boards they sat on, and on their potential connections to the Russian &Estonian mafia.

      The numerous characters, corporations & how they they were all connected was a little confusing. I stopped reading for a couple of days because I just found the going too slow at the half way point. Although the story dragged at this point, there was some humour sprinkled throughout which encouraged me to finish the book. Not sure if I'll read any more of this series but I will look for the dvd of the tv series :-)
    • 4/5
      A great thriller that manages to interweave Thelonious Monk!
    • 5/5
      Please Note: I read and reviewed this book in May, 2011 from a copy I received from the Amazon Vine program in exchange for an honest review. Just adding formatting and that disclosure. All opinions are my own.About the Book: Misterioso is the first in the A-Group series from Arne Dahl, a published author in his native Sweden. You can tell he is an experienced writer by how smoothly this story runs, and by how it sucks you in and keeps you in. Originally published in 1999 in Sweden, it has now been released in the U.S. My Synopsis: Paul Hjelm arrived on the scene of a hostage situation - an ethnic Kosovor Albanian who, with his family, had been in Sweden a long time, but now due to a legislative ruling he was due to be exported back to Albanian. Hjelm, wanting to make sure the hostage taker would not be killed, rushed in and talked his way into the office, then shot the Kosovor in the arm to cause him to drop the shotgun he was holding. Hjelm was in the process of being investigated by Internal Affairs and certain that he was going to be fired when, instead, he is brought into a new, elite team of detectives whose sole duty would be to track the worst murderers and serial killers across Sweden, starting with one who is targeting businessmen across Sweden. My Thoughts: One of the best things about this novel is the extreme care taken to give each of the characters a strong background and various motivations. While they occasionally clash, especially in the early days, the team soon becomes cohesive and close-knit. There are some truly funny moments in this book, too, which I always enjoy. This is a fast-paced book, with lots of twists and turns and the killer is kept mysterious until well toward the end. This is definitely a book that any lovers of thrillers, mystery and suspense will enjoy - don't miss it!
    • 3/5
      A typically gloomy Scandinavian crime novel introducing a new team of crack detectives to Sweden. A serial killer is on the loose and the team must crack their first case. Initially focusing on the middle-aged and mode-life crisis bearing Paul Hjelm, the novel cleverly opens out to include the equally downbeat other members of the team. I found the focus on racism, both in the police force and in Swedish society in general, a bit of a distraction, since this takes no part in the actual crime being solved. Strong characters, a good balance between mindless routine police work and violent action leaves us with a very good and engrossing thriller. Clearly, setting us up for a series of books featuring the same team, i will be looking for more to read.
    • 4/5
      Um Paul Hjelm, Ermittler bei der Stockholmer Polizei, nach einem aufsehenerregenden Fall aus der Schusslinie der internen Ermittlung zu bringen, initiiert sein Chef die Neugründung einer Sondereinheit, zu der Hjelm umgehend abgeordnet wird. Deren Aufgabe ist die Klärung dreier Morde an schwedischen Wirtschaftsgrößen sowie(vermutlich) weitere Tote zu verhindern. Die ersten Spuren führen zu einer Geheimloge, dann in osteuropäische Mafiakreise. Doch diese versuchen auf einzigartige, brutale Weise klar zu machen, dass sie mit diesen Verbrechen nichts zu tun haben.
      Dahls Ermittlerteam hebt sich wohltuend ab von den sonst so häufig schwermütigen, depressiven KollegInnen. Es sind normale Menschen, von denen dennoch jede/r auf eine Art besonders ist: der ehemals steroidabhängige Bodybuilder, der jetzt im Chor singt; der frühere Staranwalt den sein Gewissen zur Polizei brachte; Chavez, ein stadtbekannter Jazzmusiker. Charaktere die Interesse wecken, auch über den Fall hinaus.
      Der Fall selbst ist verzwickt: Scheinbar sichere Fährten erweisen sich als falsch, führen jedoch so ganz nebenbei zur Aufdeckung von anderen Verbrechen. Ebenso beiläufig werden eine Reihe von gesellschaftlichen Problemen miteinbezogen: der alltägliche Rassismus, Flüchtlingsproblematik, Korruptheit und Verkommenheit der obersten Schicht - fast schon ein bisschen viel was Dahl sich hier vorgenommen hat.
      Till Hagen als Vorleser macht seine Sache gut. Ohne sich in den Vordergrund zu drängen, verleiht er den Personen und Geschehnissen den Ton und die Betonung die es braucht, um alles vor sich zu sehen.
      Alles in allem ein spannender aber auch unterhaltsamer Krimi, in dem selbst Erotik und Humor nicht fehlen.
    • 3/5
      Misterioso opens with an odd prologue featuring a darts-playing bank employee engaging in his daily ritual of opening the bank for which he works. We then jump to a completely unrelated event in which a Kosovar refugee who has recently been told he will be deported has taken several hostages in a Stockholm Immigration Office. Choosing not to wait for backup policeman Paul Hjelm involves himself in the situation and, because no one dies, is treated as a hero by the newspapers. Within the police though he is investigated because his approach broke several rules and just as he fears he will lose his job he is approached to join a new elite team being formed within the National Criminal Police. The team will be temporarily known as the A-Unit (cause for much frivolity throughout the book) and its first job is to investigate a series of high-profile murders of prominent businessmen.

      With three rapid changes of story focus and more than a dozen characters introduced in its first 40 or so pages I found Misterioso a bit awkward to get into, and the first half was really a bit of a direction-less slog. There are seven members in the elite new team and while Paul Hjelm is clearly meant to be the main character Dahl does try to give all of the rest an equally significant introduction. The positive view of this is that it means the book (and the series for which it is the debut) does not have to be carried by a single man but the downside is it’s a lot of people to meet all at once. For most of the novel I thought of them all by the first quirk they were introduced with which is probably doing everyone a disservice but I couldn’t help it. I’m not sure that the contrivance of creating this new team of supposed independent thinkers worked all that well as a plot device really because it meant they were all getting to know each other along with us readers getting to know them and it times this felt a bit forced. Hjelm is fleshed out to be a lonely man (though he is married with children) harbouring some strange thoughts and an obsession with a newly acquired blemish on his cheek. Towards the end of the novel there are flashes of real people behind the quirks of his team mates and I’m sure these would continue to be explored more in future novels. The one attempt at a female character did leave me grimacing though as the combination of personal history and behaviour depicted was neither credible nor particularly sensitive.

      Dahl did a good job depicting the grunt work of such a case where there is little evidence to go on. The team were shown looking at every aspect of the victim’s lives to see where there might be connections and possible links to killers. There were several threads followed that turned out to be harmless dead ends and I’m sure this is a very realistic occurrence in most real-world investigations. The way that various team members got it into their heads that their angle was the one that would break the case wide open also felt quite credible to me. Though when this led to one of them flitting off to another country and getting himself (non-fatally) crucified I did roll my eyes. That’s what you get for having a team of independent thinkers I suppose

      The second half of the book was, for me, much more coherent and tightly written as the team narrowed down an increasingly likely suspect and were able to focus their efforts a bit more. Here Dahl also started to provide some social commentary on issues such as the problems with the Swedish economy (not the recent world financial collapse as this book was first published in 1999) and the eagerness with which people looked to blame foreigners for crimes being committed in their country.

      On balance I liked the book enough to look for more by this author and am prepared, as always, to be a little forgiving of a debut. There’s certainly plenty here that shows promise and I do hope that more of the 11 book series in translated into English (hopefully in order).
    • 1/5
      There are a lot of great Scandinavian authors - Steig Larrson, Jo Nesbo, Asa Larrson; Arne Dahl is not one of them. I am kicking myself for finishing this book; I knew well before the halfway point that this was no more that a 1/2 star, and yet I finished it - I didn't care how it ended, I was raised to clean my plate. Blah! Where to start. I don't think the author did a lot of research into police procedure. At one point he has three police officers fly to a southern city to interview someone that could have been interviewed on the phone !? There were little forensics, little evidence of knowledge of modern police investigation. There is little sense of urgency even though victims are being murdered every other day. But most jarring was the prose. It was stilted. At times dialog was speechy, most of the time it didn't feel real. There are three references to Dirty Harry within 20 pages, three times within a limited number of pages a different character comments along the lines of "people who don't know, talk; those who do know, don't talk" or some such nonsense. Cops burst into an apartment using a battering ram, they then run into the apartment "noiselessly". Two cops meet each other for the first time in a police station - here's the description of their introduction: "Norlander", said Norlander. "Jonsson", said Jonsson". Here's a not untypical chapter ending, 'He smiles and understands. And yet he understands nothing.' Deep, huh!? Here's one more, a description of two cops waiting for colleagues 'They waited, enveloped in the metal casing of their car.' This was all very distracting, I would read some of these sentences, and stop, dead still, wonder what was that I just read, go back, read it a few more times...What makes absolutely no sense at all to me though is how some of our esteemed reviewers and bloggers across the pond are generally positive in their comments and fail to mention the points I raised above.
    • 2/5
      Too many stereotyped characters and very little depth or inner feeling to the main ones. It includes a car chase and typical action sequences that strike me as a movie script would require. Fortunately there is not too much violence nor torture which are also what action movie scripts require these days. I missed a good but brooding police detective; this young one is too callow for my taste. It tried to bring the requisite social critique of banks and the economic collapse but even that was ham handed and overdone. The epic duel with the villain is like we have seen in many films and doesn't satisfy me. Not psychological enough for a good Scandinavian mystery, it disappointed on several levels.
    • 2/5
      Translated into English with style and grace- beautifully done. The storyline is filled with a multitude of powerful characters, and sadly the book really doesn't get interesting until about 100 pages in. The build up is glorious. Backgrounds on all characters draw the reader in and this is what makes it hard to put down initially. The problem, however, is that like real life, it takes a good amount of time to go though all the leads for the death of two prestigious men. This takes up much a good bulk of the book and in the end can be rendered useless. I wouldn't recommend this book to a friend because it's boring, and when you finish reading it seems like it wasted time with unnecessary material.
    • 4/5
      This one is a little different than the other Nordic offerings. Not so much a mystery as a solid police procedural, great development of characters though. Will definitely be reading more from this author.
    • 5/5
      Award-winning Swedish crime novelist Arne Dahl’s first book is getting well-deserved raves. Police officer Paul Hjelm is summoned to an immigration office surrounded by police, with a hostage team racing to the site. A disgruntled immigrant is holding three hostages. He claims that he was misled by the officials to believe he could remain in Sweden and is now being told he and his family will be transported back to the Balkans. Hjelm refuses to wait for the hostage team, enters the room with the gunman and hostages, and shoots the gunman in the shoulder.The newspapers call him a hero, but Internal Affairs officers argue that his actions were rash and bigotry against non-Swedes. They take his gun and badge, and lead him to believe he will be fired and left without a pension. But suddenly, Hjelm is offered a job in a newly organized prestigious police unit to find a serial killer who has so far shot two highly-placed Swedish business men in the head and then tweezing the bullets from the wall. The murder shows signs of being a professional killer. The newly organized team of about a half dozen experienced police officers must find him. The government is worried that perhaps there is a conspiracy to destroy Sweden’s businesses. One of the unit’s first tasks is to find who might be the third target and to protect this person. Hjelm discovers that the two men were involved in separate sexual exploits and that they were also part of a secret organization that had been recently formed. So begins this easy to read, engrossing tale with many twists and turns. People do not turn out to be who we think they are. The Russian Mafia seems to be involved. Hjelm needs to find out if he has outgrown his prejudices against minorities. He needs to learn new methods of police work. And most of all, he needs to find who are committing the murders, why, and stop them.
    • 3/5
      The first novel in Arne Dahl's 'A-gruppen' 10 book series is good, but not overwhelmingly so. The formation of a special task force to investigate an assumed serial killer collects 10 misfit police officers from all over Sweden in the Police yard in Stockholm. The novel follows the investigations of the group, mainly focusing on Paul Hjelm, and his problematic relationship with his wife. The throwing together of these disparate characters are a wellworking plotdevice, but the improbability of that actually happening makes it come cross as highly artificial and a strain to the credibility of the entire plotline. The behaviour and motivation of the murder is equally non-credible, which doesn't help the situation. The unrealistic setup and plotline detracts from an otherwise well written book.