A Memory For Murder doesn't beat about the bush to begin with; after a first chapter (when a worse for wear 30-something woman is made pregnant by a much younger male) worthy of its own mystery, there's a homicide seven pages into the novel when a junior MP - and friend of private investigator Selma Flack, who is initially thought to be the target - is killed.
That page-turning promise isn't maintained, with a series of rambling paragraphs following for the next 100 pages or so, but things pick up again when two more people with links to the murdered politician are found dead and seemingly random sections such as the old man who visits his wife's grave (and the aforementioned opening) finally begin to make some sense.
Although the author's knowledge of the subject matter is evident, some characters are as cold as the snow-capped cabins, mountains and trees that adorn the front cover (Falck, for example, can be very blunt and plays fast and loose with colleagues, acquaintances and even her own daughter who forbids her from seeing her grandson) and there's an element of 'blink and you miss it' about the finale where Falck is confronted by the killer.
That page-turning promise isn't maintained, with a series of rambling paragraphs following for the next 100 pages or so, but things pick up again when two more people with links to the murdered politician are found dead and seemingly random sections such as the old man who visits his wife's grave (and the aforementioned opening) finally begin to make some sense.
Although the author's knowledge of the subject matter is evident, some characters are as cold as the snow-capped cabins, mountains and trees that adorn the front cover (Falck, for example, can be very blunt and plays fast and loose with colleagues, acquaintances and even her own daughter who forbids her from seeing her grandson) and there's an element of 'blink and you miss it' about the finale where Falck is confronted by the killer.