The Fire Dance by Helene Tursten
Translated by Laura A. Wideburg
Originally published as Eldsdansen, 2005
Soho Crime, January 2014
Disclosure: I received a review copy from the publisher.
The Fire Dance centers on the disappearance of a young woman named Sophie who disappears after a drunken book party for a distant cousin several years after she was suspected of arson and killing her stepfather. The arson and murder investigation was one of Huss’s first cases, and in the present, she leads the missing person investigation that turns into a murder investigation. The book also carries on a criminal plot from a previous novel about the Hell’s Angels and drug dealing.
I quite liked the first Inspector Huss novel, but I’m not as enamored of this outing, the sixth in the series. I think this felt too police-procedural for me but without that something extra that makes a book stand out for me. I was very aware of all of the interviews that happened during the course of the investigation, and the side stories about Sophie’s love of dance and her first choreographed work, the fire dance of the title, didn’t really appeal to me. I’ve heard good things about other books in the series, and I plan on catching up with them before dismissing Tursten’s books.
For a different take on the novel, see Nancy’s review at The Crime Segments.
Ms. Wordopolis Reads 