View source for Meet Me In Malmo by Torquil MacLeod

{{infobox
|title=Meet Me In Malmo
|author=Torquil MacLeod
|reviewer=Sue Magee
|genre=Crime
|summary=The first book in the Anita Sundstrom mystery series bodes well for the following books.  An enjoyable read.
|rating=3.5
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=298
|publisher=McNidder & Grace Crime
|date=March 2015
|isbn=978-0857161130
|website=http://www.torquilmacleodbooks.com/
|video=
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>085716113X</amazonuk>
|amazonus=<amazonus>085716113X</amazonus>
}}

British journalist Ewan Strachan was invited to Malmo in Sweden to interview film director Mick Roslyn.  They'd been friends at University but had drifted apart.  Strachan was holding on to his job in journalism by the skin of his teeth, but Roslyn had made it big time in Sweden and was married to Malin Lovgren, the glamorous star of his latest film. It hadn't been easy to persuade his editor to fund the trip, but when Strachan found himself at the door of Roslyn's home at the appointed time there seemed to be no one there.  When he tried the door he walked in only to find Lovgren dead on the floor.

It wasn't going to be an easy case for Inspector Anita Sundstrom: it was high profile and Swedes still smart from their failure to solve the murder of prime minister Olaf Palme in 1986.  There are even suggestions that the Lovgren murder might be connected to the Palme case.  Then there was the man who appeared to have been stalking - and possibly threatening - Lovgren.  She'd like to have thought that Roslyn himself could not have been involved, but his story about his whereabouts the night before didn't quite hold water.  Then there was Ewan Strachan - who didn't ''seem'' to have any motive or opportunity but couldn't quite be taken out of the frame - and Sundstrom was confused by the fact that she was attracted to the man.

It's a good story - and one that augers well for the following books in the series.  Sundstrom is a feisty character, but she's not without her faults.  Her colleagues are perhaps a little stereotypical - the older and very supportive man along with a couple of others who give decent male chauvinists a bad name.  Hopefully they'll flesh out a little more three dimensionally in future books.  I did like Strachan and Roslyn: a university friendship which had definitely ''drifted'' and perhaps gone a little bit sour and now being approached from opposite ends of career 'success'.

I enjoyed the book but I did want to tell Torquil MacLeod to relax.  I came to find his descriptions of Malmo slightly annoying and a distraction from the story.  They reminded me of the writing style of [[:Category:Peter James|Peter James]] - so I'm prepared to accept that this could well just be me as it doesn't seem to have done James any harm - and to put my quibble in context, it certainly won't stop me reading future books in the series.

I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.

If this book appeals to you then you might also enjoy [[Falling Freely, As If In A Dream by Leif G W Persson]].

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