The Treacherous Net by Helene Tursten

First published in Swedish in 2007; published in translation by Soho Crime on December 15, 2015

The Treacherous Net combines two themes that have become standard in police procedurals. One involves a hunt for a sexual predator who murders his victims. The other spotlights a team of “cold case” detectives. First published in Sweden, where the story is set, The Treacherous Net is the eighth Detective Inspector Irene Huss novel to be translated from Swedish into English.

The predator is pursued by DI Irene Huss and other members of the understaffed Violent Crimes Unit. Two dead girls and the discovery of a body that was sealed up in a chimney have the detectives feeling overworked. When it becomes apparent that the man in the chimney had been dead for 40 years, his case is shuffled off to the cold case unit, whose members are nearing retirement.

One of the dead girls seems to have fallen into the “treacherous net” by agreeing to meet someone who groomed her online. The police quickly find physical evidence that connects the two dead teenagers, leading them to wonder whether they are dealing with an internet predator. That investigation launches a straightforward police procedural.

Unfortunately, the investigation is too straightforward to be interesting. It lacks any sense of mystery. There are no plot twists or surprises. The police move forward in a predictable way with predictable results. I give Helene Tursten credit for telling a believable story. It just isn’t a compelling story.

The other plot is a bit better. The man in the chimney has been dead for 40 years. The man's father, a Swedish security agent, was assassinated before his birth. Was the father killed by Russian spies? Were the father-and-son murders connected? The answer comes in an information dump at the end of the novel. Again, the story holds no real surprises, but it avoids being dull.

Characters, like the plot, lack interest. Irene drinks a lot of coffee and experiences family woes, but not much in the way of personality shows through in this novel. The woman in charge of the detectives, Efva Thylqvist, seems to like her male detectives but has little regard for Irene. That’s the closest the novel comes to having any spark. The other detectives spend their time complaining about being overworked before they embark on their four-week summer vacations -- and then they complain about how they make so little progress in their investigations during the summer. It’s a wonder any crime gets solved in Sweden.

The Treacherous Net is capably written but, with a couple of brief exceptions, it lacks energy. The absence of dramatic tension or surprising plot twists makes the story, at best, a moderately pleasant read, but not an exciting one.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

Merry Christmas!

The Promise by Robert Crais

Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons on November 10, 2015

The Promise scores points for its fresh and imaginative plot. If you’re tired of “former Special Forces guy saves the world by being tougher and smarter than everyone else” stories, this “former Special Forces guy solves a crime with the help of a smart dog” story will be a refreshing change.

Amy Breslin’s son was killed in a terrorist bombing while traveling in Nigeria. Amy is a chemical engineer who makes explosives for the government. She has disappeared, apparently after embezzling a good bit of money. Elvis Cole has been hired to find her.

Shortly after the novel opens, Cole knocks on the door of a home that contains a murder victim. When the bomb squad shows up, Cole knows that the case is more complicated than it initially seemed to be.

While this is an Elvis Cole novel, much of the focus is on a police officer named Scott James and his K-9, a German Shephard named Maggie. While Maggie is a drug dog, she was trained by the Marines to sniff for explosives, a talent that she has retained and uses frequently during the course of the novel. Dog lovers will enjoy Robert Crais’ portrayal of Maggie.

Scott James isn’t Superman. He’s a decent guy who wants to do the right thing. More importantly, he loves his dog, and doing the right thing means doing what’s best for Maggie -- which is really the police department’s dog, a source of some conflict as the novel progresses. James comes across as an authentic and sympathetic character. He’s the best part of the book.

The other characters are familiar but again, none of them are Superman. As opposed to thrillers that try to convince us how awesomely superior the protagonist is to the rest of the human race, these characters are extremely competent but comparatively low-key. That makes them easy to like and easy to believe.

Why is Amy doing what she’s doing? Why has Cole been hired to find her? The plot is clever, filled with misdirection without sacrificing realism. Crais doesn’t overreach, which is also refreshing, given how outlandish most modern thrillers have become. The ending has multiple components and they are all satisfying.

RECOMMENDED

The Relic Master by Christopher Buckley

Published by Simon & Schuster on December 8, 2015

The Relic Master is a fun, light-hearted story. It combines action with comedy, a bit of romance, occasional drama, and a touch of mad genius. Funny, touching, and sometimes exhilarating, The Relic Master is a shrewd Middle Ages romp with a surprisingly coherent plot.

Dismas makes a living hunting down religious relics for his two rival clients, Archbishop Albrecht and the ruler of Saxony, Frederick the Wise. Bits of bone from a saint’s skeleton, shards of wood from the cross, and straw from the manger are just a few of the thousands of items that collectors seek. Most of the relics are fake and Dismas stays away from obvious attempts to defraud, but by applying a series of tests (does the relic have a sweet smell? has it been known to promote healing?) he tries to authenticate them as best he can. Frederick is the more discerning of his clients while Albrecht wants to acquire as many relics as possible and doesn’t much care whether they are genuine.

With the approval of Pope Leo X, Albrecht (among many others) sells relics as indulgences -- buy one and your time in Purgatory is shortened. The more you pay, the less time you need to serve. Apostle Peter’s fishing boat might knock a couple hundred years off a wealthy man’s sentence. Half of the sale proceeds go to the Pope, who uses them to build cathedrals or to …. well, there are rumors. Dismas doesn’t recall the Bible mentioning anything about buying one’s way out of Purgatory by investing in indulgences but it is not his place to criticize. Martin Luther is more vocal in his criticism, citing indulgences as evidence of church corruption that justify the Protestant Reformation.

The historical background to the story is sound, but the story gets its kicks from both the characters that Christopher Buckley invents and from a lively plot that involves the greatest relic of them all -- a burial shroud that, before it made its way to Turin, was known as the Shroud of Chambéry. Dismas and an artistic friend get into a bit of trouble with one version of the shroud and Dismas can only redeem himself (or die trying) by getting into trouble with another.

Dismas is a likable character, kind-hearted but crafty and not immune to temptation. Personality traits of other characters (greed, vanity, lasciviousness, slothfulness) are magnified in amusing ways. Buckley introduces a female character who adds wisdom and common sense to the mix while serving as a love interest for Dismas.

The Relic Master moves at a good pace. Clever plot twists in the last quarter lead to a satisfying conclusion. This could almost be classified as a tongue-in-cheek historical thriller with a romantic element, but the novel actually defies classification. It is both original and enjoyable.

RECOMMENDED

Ivory by Tony Park

First published in Australia in 2009; published by St. Martin's Press on November 17, 2015

Alex Tremain is a good looking pirate, a kind-hearted rogue with a sad background, making him the kind of bad boy that seems destined to star in a trashy romance novel. Unsurprisingly, the key female character, Jane, is attracted to him, even after his pirate gang hijacks the cargo ship that is bringing her to Johannesburg and kidnaps her in the belief that she is holding valuable treasure. Jane doesn’t know the nature of the treasure, but she has a hunch it belongs to her wealthy employer, with whom she is having an affair.

Naturally, Alex’s good nature is at odds with a more evil pirate in his crew, the kind of pirate who thinks that Jane should be tortured in predictable ways. And naturally, as a kind-hearted rogue, Alex would rather con women than torture them, leading to a predictable conflict with the evil pirate who turns into one of the novel’s chief villains.

Alex is too contrived to be a believable character. He is a socially and ecologically conscious pirate who won’t smuggle people or drugs or timber or wildlife. In fact, he secretly reports illegal fishing vessels to the police, because illegal fishing is much worse than boarding vessels and stealing from everyone on board. His desire to “start afresh as an honest man” doesn’t ring true because Alex is too honest and decent to have gone into the piracy business in the first place. I’ve enjoyed many novels in which the protagonist is a thief or other brand of criminal, but they are usually lighter fare, not meant to be taken seriously. Tony Park never convinced me that Alex was anything other than the stereotypical (and mythical) “bad boy” of romance fiction, the kind that women can feel safe about loving since they know he won’t actually hurt anyone. Or, at least, he’ll only hurt people who deserve it. Is there a bigger cliché in fiction?

Jane is also a stereotype. She’s in love with her married boss, one of those hopeless situations that can only be resolved by falling in love with a dashing pirate. She feels “a jolt of electricity” when Alex brushes his fingers against her arm and “her heart was pounding fast” after Alex tells her “I only have eyes for you.” Too many cheesy lines like that are a disappointment in a novel that is otherwise capably written.

The cheesy parts of Ivory are too predictably cheesy. Alex sees in Jane a reason to “redeem his wasted life.” Everything that happens between them is so predictable, and described in such torrid detail, that I had to check to see if I had chosen to read a “new adult romance” by mistake. Ivory isn’t marketed that way, but it is more a tawdry romance novel than it is a thriller.

I liked the descriptions of Mozambique and South Africa. The novel works relatively well when it sticks to action scenes, although even then Park takes a series of missteps. The biggest involves an elephant hunt that has Alex encountering an elephant he remembers from his childhood, all so that we can see once more what a great guy Alex is. Seriously?

The valuable treasure that Alex is pursuing from Jane borders on the ridiculous, but it is in keeping with the plot as a whole. That “surprise” was the final straw that kept me from recommending this novel, at least to thriller fans. I suspect that romance fiction fans will like it, but I can’t recommend it to anyone else with any enthusiasm.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS