This post was republished into my blog’s timeline from my lost post archive.

Third Voice by Cilla and Rolf Borjlind

Translated by Hilary Parnfors

I had the good fortune to give out copies of Spring Tide, of which Third Voice is the sequel, for World Book Night back in April. I enjoyed Spring Tide so much that Third Voice had a lot to live up to, but it didn’t disappoint. The husband and wife team, the Börjlinds, have succeeded in delivering another multi-stranded and complex crime thriller that continues in much the same vein as their first.

I should add that you ought to read Spring Tide first, there is little recapping of earlier events; Third Voice assumes you know the basics of what happened before. This gives space for much character development for the two leads, Olivia Rönning and Tom Stilton.

Olivia, coming towards the end of her police training isn’t sure she wants to join the police force proper – confused about her heritage, she thinks she might go off and study the history of art, taking her birth mother’s surname too. However, when out for a walk with her adoptive mother, they encounter the police at a neighbour’s house – a government employee who appears to have committed suicide. His young daughter found him. Olivia and Maria look after the girl until her aunt can arrive – and we know that Olivia’s curiosity will ensure that she seeks to investigate the case.

Whereas Tom, the former DI, former homeless person, now sharing a barge with an equally enigmatic landlady is dragged off to Marseilles by his friend Abbas to investigate the death of a woman called Samira.

These two threads seem initially unconnected, but gradually they start weaving together and it is Mette, the DCI, who has problems of her own to contend with, that will bring everything together. Old foes will reappear and new ones come into play in a plot that twists and turns all over the place. There are some gruesome moments as you might expect, but the clever plotting, wonderful characterisation which goes beyond the two leads, and a real sense of justice prevail once again to dominate the violence.

I do hope the Börjlinds (and their translator Hilary Parnfors) continue to write more Rönning and Stilton books, for these are the real deal. (9/10)

Source: Publisher – Thank you.