‘Good Girls Don’t Tell’ by Liselotte Roll

Published by World Editions,
17 November 2016.
ISBN: 978-94-6238-039-4 (PB)

Good Girls Don’t Tell is a rather horrifying tale of how one misguided person uses highly targeted violence to free someone he loves from the pain of the past.

It is difficult for Inspector Magnus Kalo, his colleague Roger and their boss Arne to understand why anyone would want to kill both Eric Berggren, a harmless young man who has never hurt anyone, and his elderly mother who had already lost most of her wits.  It becomes even more difficult to understand what is going on when Magnus and his family also come under attack.  Why would the killer want them dead?  Is there any connection at all between the two families? 

The trail involving Eric’s family leads back to the reign of terror imposed by the military Junta in Argentina several decades previously. With the help of the Argentinian police, Inspector Kalo learns that a man who helped the Junta when he was young has now fled to Europe.  He immediately becomes the focus of their suspicions and a major hunt is started to find him.

On a day-to-day basis Inspector Kalo’s task is not made any easier because none of his family are getting much sleep - his three-year-old twin girls are unwell with a virulent streptococcal infection. The twins and Magnus’s wife Linn have to remain isolated at home and none of them is very happy with the arrangement.  Magnus and Linn, who is more intelligent than Magnus, have a very good marriage.  Linn is also a therapist and throughout the book she provides psychological insights on the case for Magnus to consider.

The story is set in Sweden and the prevailing cold weather and picturesque descriptions of the Swedish countryside are brilliantly used to enhance the hard and and merciless attitude of a killer who will stop at nothing until he had achieved his goals.  This is definitely a book for fans of Scandinavian thrillers of a dark hue.

------

Reviewer: Angela Crowther

Liselotte Roll is a freelance journalist and has previously worked for Sveriges Radio as a scriptwriter. She is a qualified Marine Archaeologist, and while working on a dig uncovering a pre-Incan settlement in La Rioja, Argentina, she discovered the story of the military junta’s reign. These memories eventually came to form the book you are now holding. Liselotte’s books have been translated to half a dozen languages and have piqued the attention of crime fiction aficionados. Critics have described her as one of the most exciting debut writers in recent years and the next Nordic queen of crime.

Angela Crowther is a retired scientist.  She has published many scientific papers but, as yet, no crime fiction.  In her spare time Angela belongs to a Handbell Ringing group, goes country dancing and enjoys listening to music, particularly the operas of Verdi and Wagner.