THE DEMON OF DAKAR

Murder joins the menu at a trendy Swedish restaurant.

The tale introduces a handful of unrelated characters—a pair of Mexican brothers named Manuel and Patricio; culinary entrepreneur Slobodan Andersson, who boasts a long list of enemies; Johnny Kvarnheden, a melancholy chef with a romantic soul; recently divorced single mother Eva Willman, desperate for a new job after being laid off at the post office; and homeless Konrad Rosenberg—before focusing on Dakar, the Uppsala restaurant Slobodan rules with an iron hand. Eva gets a challenging job there as a waitress, and Johnny as a cook. She finds in him a reliable friend and a resource for mentoring her two volatile sons, Patrik and Hugo. In due time a body clad only in underwear washes ashore in Uppsala. Detective Ann Lindell and her team soon identify the dead man as Slobodan’s partner Armas. Meanwhile, Rosenberg comes into an unexpected fortune; Manuel gets closer and closer to Uppsala with dark intent; and the police question Patrik about a series of attacks by gangs of teenagers. Might any of them be connected to the crime?

In Lindell’s seventh case, the third published in English (The Princess of Burundi, 2006, etc.), Eriksson’s unique achievement is crafting a richly layered novel packed with sublime character detail out of which his murder puzzle seamlessly emerges.