#18...2012

Only One Life by Sara Blædel
My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The very idea of Honor Killings...that the recalcitrant actions of one person could lead another family member to commit murder......boggles the mind. Even though our society seems to have lost all concept of Shame and/or Honor...the thought of Murder for Honor makes me blench. Not to mention the fact that, according to this book, most Honor Killings are perpetrated my members of the Extended Family...those living outside the country where the Killing took place..

All of which is Nice & Good.......except , in the case of this book, Honor Killings are a matter of Police Procedural...and Journalistic Hubris


.....and so it goes

Louise Rick is caught up in another Honor Killing case, after being.sourced out to the town of Holbaek...where a Jordanian immigrant girl’s battered corpse is discovered...awash in a cold sea. Enter Dicta Moller....dead girl’s best friend (and aspiring Model....she’s got the Looks)..the Linchpin of this story.....

Be Warned: Teen Angst abides in this story (in a rather Wooden manner)....as does Rape-by-a Family-Member

After much back&forth.....with Samra’s family (the Jordanian girl)....and the whole Honor Killing thing....and Dicta (Teenage Slut).....I was left with a “let down” feeling...mainly because the whole tone of the Narrative is dry-as-dust (but, I’ll chalk that up to the translation)...or full of excess characters (Camilla-the-Journalist was present..to remind the reader of the previous novel....CALL ME PRINCESS..????)....and the fact that Samra's murder had nothing to do with Honor Killing...just Family Hubris.....and teenage ambition

The denouement wasn’t unexpected..just Slow on Arrival..

My second read by Sara Blaedel......it was better than CALL ME PRINCESS....but still too busy, in ways that didn’t keep the story moving.....

I like this woman’s stories...just wish they had more life..in the translation

*****This was a Net Galley*****

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