Book Review
Nobel's testament was written by the famous Swedish crime writer Liza Marklund. The book was published in Denmark in 2006 and has been a huge success since then. Nobel's testament is the fifth book in a series of six, and is about the journalist Annika Bengtzon. For a Nobel Fest escape an assassin in and shoot the Nobel Committee chairman, Caroline von Behring, and her partner. Annika Bengtzon witnessing the murder, and police are the main witness. Police impose her secrecy, she's on leave from the newspaper where she works. But Annika can not keep himself from the case. Although she meets much opposition from her husband, she begins to investigate the murder of Caroline von Behring. The hunt for a hired assassin "The Kitten" begins, and it is not entirely safe for Annika and her family.
Nobel's testament is divided into three parts, each divided into sub-chapters are named with a date. This supports the internal composition, which is chronological. In the chapter skips around a lot of different places. There will only be "made aware" of this by a single line break.
Some places in the book are some letters addressed to Andrietta Ahlsell, who was Alfred Nobel's mother. For starters gives no sense, and you wonder why they are there, and first to last in the book you find out.
The book is told in 3.persons omniscient narrator, who follows the protagonist Annika, so one person says. The story is panoramic produced, and the narrator tells from an external perspective. We hear most about the person's appearance and behavior. The only person whose thoughts we hear is Annika. Her thoughts to get the story feels more truthful, and one can easily relate it to their lives and what they know from everyday life.
The story is written as a report, and are rarely directly involved. Internal monologues and telling comments are hardly any. This means that you get a very objective view of the different people and may even form an opinion on them.
Annika Bengtzon which is the book's protagonist, is a very modern woman. She is the mother of two, have problems in marriage and the stress of work. She is a very conscientious person, but this does not stand in the way of her work and looking for adventure. She can not help but meddle in things, and have an ability to always sneak around the problems. Annika is really a reflection of hiring the killer "The Kitten". They are both perfectionist, and both have a strong desire to finish what they started på.De desires both for adventure and challenges, and have the same stamina. One can, in other words, that Annika could have survived this murderer's life, had it not been for her commitment to her family and work. [1]
Annika's husband is very selfish. He's hard to put Annika's needs as high as his own. At the beginning of the story he gets a new job, and this takes all his time. If Annika asks him to pick up the kids from kindergarten, kicking himself and when he should have a visit from some colleagues, he is disappointed with Annika's choice of food, and scolds her out. Annika is very tired of this, and therefore initiates a flirtation with Bosse, who works at another newspaper. But it goes up to Annika that her husband still means a lot to her and therefore interrupts flirting again.
Throughout history, there will be spending much time in the scientific community, more precisely at the Karolinska Institute. There will be described how stressful the researchers are and how much they will do to pursue their own research forward. They will kill other researchers' experiments, destroy their attempts, and yes, perhaps they are also willing to kill?
Another environment that is very detailed, the newspaper where Annika is working. They are stressed, and the newspaper's new boss does not help even to this problem.
Sweden's beautiful countryside is also described very much. Therefore, there descriptions of the general Swedish cities, and their houses: "The house stood on his corner due and shone so sparkling white in the morning sun, her fine house, her own house. (...) For a house that was just in this district to be, it was not particularly remarkable, but it was nice and stylish. (...) There were no trees grew up around the house, which was a shame, but the previous owners had planted both trees and small oaks, so it would probably be fine in a few years. "[2] This is a description of Annika's new house in a small suburban town. One is not told the descriptions directly, but may even form a picture.
Nobel Testament contains everything you would expect of a crime. Liza Marklund's writing style reminds a lot about the Swedish author Camilla Läckberg's books. The place also in Sweden and the Swedish nature is described in the same way. In addition, the books also divided chapter regularly in the same way, and has also contributed letters of Camilla Läckberg's books.
Crime genre is something you've known for many years, but one of the things that have changed in recent years is that you do not have all served on a platter. We should even expect some things out, and here they added letters also added as an example. What characterizes the last five years writing style is that they remove themselves from the 1990s very tight style of writing, which Nobel Testament also bears the stamp of. In addition, the literature also become much more international, which Nobel Testament is also, in terms of its written by a Swedish author.
I think Nobel Testament was an incredibly good book. It was extremely catchy, and when you first started it was not to escape again. However, I think it was hard to find around sometimes, and this will draw my rating down. But I choose to give it 5 out of 6 possible caraway
[1] http://www.litteraturnu.dk/univers.php?action=read&id=744
[2] Nobel's Testament by Liza Marklund, 2.udgave, 2.oplag 2007 s.192
