En dit is de Zweedse thriller, die ik zonder verplichting, louter voor het plezier voor mezelf las eind deze maand! Hieronder volgt weliswaar een Engelse bespreking. 

Review based on the Swedish original, by a Dutch-speaking Flemish reader

Mittvatten is the third book about the odd pair Sam Berger and Molly Blom. Sam Berger is suspected of a murder he did not commit and his partner, Molly Blom, has been in a coma since her rescue after the final act of book two. Berger gets a safehouse from his Säpo contact in which he is supposed to hide until he is needed in an action against a major terror attack with which Stockholm is threatened at the highest degree and while there is a hunted killer on the run with a kidnapped girl.

Meanwhile Désirée Rosenkvist, Berger’s former colleague at the Swedish police, is on the lookout for him, who it’s a mystery for, what his whereabouts are. Surprisingly for everyone, Molly Blom awakens really soon and also seems to have her own agenda besides finding Sam Berger as well. At the beginning of the book, all these characters are presented again together with the most important new supporting roles. Once brought together, Berger and Blom closely cooperate again at a once more continuously higher risk case to find the killer and kidnapper who has been their opponent since that person’s appearance in the second book.

It does not take Arne Dahl long to unfold again several storylines which are really exciting in itself, of which some of them are the consequences from the previous parts, however they could also seem a bit over the top this time and have disastrous effects if the worst scenarios would come true. Although Dahl never kept himself to simple crime solving on the Swedish level in his previous work, more of this may lead to incredible and irrational situations for some long-time fan(s) some time…

The name-giving of Molly Blom from the first novel of this series onwards, didn’t seem accidental either. Literature amateurs get a real treat of intertextuality by Dahl this time, a literature reviewer and writer of several literary novels himself before he got to his outstanding thriller work, under his own name Jan Arnald.

Although some things are indeed far-fetched and some confrontations with the bad guys seem somewhat soggy and even clumsy from time to time - but then again realistic? - there is still the red thread which is consequently kept throughout the book and his excellent clear and sometimes atmospheric writing style, which Dahl never loses to keep the story up, also through the longer investigative ‘waiting’ periods towards another action build-up.

The plot is again very intelligent and witty, and its balance is again neatly achieved. Dahl’s thriller fans might be in for some exciting surprises in fact. A lot of loose threads are tied together in the end, perhaps even a bit too smoothly. In the end, this is still a fair and good Swedish crime novel with a clear Arne Dahl signature, however who is not a real fan, might not be too amused this time. Luckily, I still am and of course still very curious to the following part of the Berger and Blom series.

Voorheen besprak ik al de twee eerste delen van deze Berger- en Blomserie: 

• Grensgebieden
• Achterland