The Fifth Season

Malin Fors is back in Mons Kallentoft’s fifth book in the series, The Fifth Season.

The work obsessed police inspector is working on a case that has parallels to that of Maria Murvall, a case that Malin has long been interested in. When a family stumble on the body of a young woman in the same forest where Maria Murvall was found raped and beaten several years before, Malin is sure that the cases are linked. When, at a weekend with her partner Peter’s family, she finds out about another young woman who was also found raped and beaten in the woods, Malin sets out to investigate. In doing so she may have taken on more than she can handle.

The Malin Fors books have added Mons Kallentoft’s name to the list of must-read Scandi crime authors. His crime debut Midwinter Sacrifice was a bestseller in his native Sweden and was a spring 2012 Richard & Judy pick in the UK. So it’s safe to say that this was a book that came with a lot of promise, not least the publisher’s assertion on the proof that Kallentoft is a Swedish ‘crime-writing phenomenon’.

With all that in mind though, I have to admit to being slightly disappointed in The Fifth Season. Putting aside the sections narrated by the victims, including the dead ones (and I rarely buy into that narrative trait as a reader), I found Malin quite irritating. She is completely work obsessed to point of being rather boring about it and she’s so moody! She worries about her relationship with her partner, Peter, as she doesn’t feel that she fits in with his family due to their wealth and position, but for a woman in her (I think) early 40s, she acts more like a procrastinating teenager and decides to do anything but confront the issues like an adult. She does, however, also possess the traits of a good old-fashioned detective: drive, passion for the victims and the single-minded goal of catching the killer. Fans of the series will no doubt enjoy.