OMG! This was one hell of a fantastic ride. And since there is a second book coming soon (actually not soon enough!) this ride isn´t over yet. Kristina Ohlsson, you´ve got yourself a new fan. This was big entertainment. Good, I admit it, if I would have gone after the cover, I probably wouldn´t have touched it at all. Not to mention reading it. But it fits. And when you read it, you will know why.
Schwesterherz*
by Kristina Ohlsson Martin Benner Series #1
Original Title Lotus Blues
Publisher Limes on April 10, 2017
Genre Thriller
Pages 479
Format Softcover
Source Publisher
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How do you vindicate a deceased, self-proclaimed killer? A criminal lawyer in Stockholm, Martin Benner sees himself as a man who has it all. Then Bobby T barges into his office one day, demanding his help. Bobby says he´s the brother of Sara Tell, a young woman dubbed `Sara Texas´ by the tabloids after she confessed to five brutal murders some time back – three in Sweden, and two in Texas. Six months ago, she shocked everyone when she escaped from pre-trial custody and leapt off a bridge to her death. But Bobby says she was innocent. He needs Martin´s help to clear her name and to find Sara´s son, Mio, who he says disappeared around the time of her death. As Martin and Lucy, the partner in his firm, delve deeper into the case, their pursuit of the truth takes them across the ocean to Texas, where the pieces of the puzzle slowly fall into place. But before Martin can continue his investigation, he receives some devastating news that turns his world upside down …
Story
Martin lives the life he wants. He has money, a great job, a woman at hand, and a little girl he loves more than anything in the world. When he needs his space from being a loving and caring father, he calls the babysitter or the grandparents and everything is fine. But the moment Bobby steps into his office, demanding that Martin proofs that his sister Sara was innocent, everything changes. The case becomes an obsession and Martin stands all the sudden on the brink to lose it all.
Style
A thriller that will haunt you from the very first page. Martin Benner is an arrogant but great man who knows how to read a woman. Good, not every woman, because with Lucy everything is different. But for Belle, the little cutie, he is the absolutely perfect father. Kristina Ohlsson´s style is clear, decent, and absolutely to the point. There are no long descriptions of the landscape or the figures, but enough to make you see and enough to make you enjoy and get the rest with your own imagination together. I could literally see the stones or the houses, the fog, and the street of the city.
And I loved how she went with her main figure Martin. Oh boy, that man has it all and knows how to use his charm to get what he wants, when he wants and how he wants. But put him beside Belle and he is melting like butter in the sun. In combination with the case he takes, to prove the innocence of a dead woman, this thriller has the right amount of brutality, passion, and a psychological finesse that simply stuns you. You never ask how this or that could be the reason why this or that happened. You just keep reading and reading and in the end, you find a plan behind all this, that is as much cruel as it is simple. Drugs, crime, theft, and a syndicate without any mercy. Kristina Ohlsson digs really deep into a world with double moral standards. If you don´t cooperate with the boss, you´re as good as dead. And if you start to look too close, you are in huge trouble as well.
Characters
Martin Benner is a man who knows exactly what he wants. He became a lawyer to live a life full of money and success. And both he has. Why doing something yourself if you can pay money to get it done? He rather calls a plumber when his mother calls and complains that the basement is underwater then going there himself. No, he isn´t a cold man, he just knows better things to do with his time than doing a job he isn´t really qualified for. And the way he educates little Belle is, at least in my eyes, perfect. Oh, yes, I am in love with that man *smile*
Conclusion
This was the first book by the author that I have read and for sure not the last one. I am absolutely flashed, shocked, and overwhelmed. Read!
Happy reading
*This book was kindly provided to me by Limes in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Thank you. Therefore you see the cover of the German edition first in this review. This book will be published in the English language by Simon & Schuster Ltd on June 15, 2017, as Buried Lies
Kristina Ohlsson
Kristina Ohlsson, born 1979, is one of Sweden´s most successful authors of crime fiction and children´s books. Before becoming a full-time writer, she worked for the OSCE (the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe), the Swedish Security Service, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Her crime fiction novels about Fredrika Bergman have repeatedly been shortlisted for the Swedish Academy of Crime Writer´s Award for ´Best Crime Novel of the Year´, and featured prominently on bestseller lists all over the world. She won the 2010 Stabilo Prize for ´Best Crime Writer of Southern Sweden´ and established herself as highly popular author with a broad fan base of adults as well as children. The author lives in Stockholm.
