I won’t reveal more of the plot here. Even if it is exciting and well constructed, there are other aspects of the novel that are even more exciting. Above all, I’m referring to Kallentoft’s use of language. It is far removed from the journalistic reporter style that so dominates the genre today. Kallentoft commands a broad register, from high-octane exciting prose to lyrical meditative prose, from brisk dialogue to sophisticated inner monologue. Language is really put to good use in this novel.
Another strength is the depictions of characters and environments. Even though some of the cast of characters could easily serve as stereotypes for white trash families or divorced cops with drinking problems, Kallentoft still treats all the figures in his novel with sensitivity and inquisitive respect.
Nature also plays an important part of the story, and not just as a backdrop or a setting, but as a landscape generating symbolism and saturated with significance, filled with signs waiting to be interpreted.
It sounds hardly original that the theme of the book is evil. But the author manages to extract, if not something new, then at least something highly absorbing and poignant with his study of man’s darker side.
With Midvinterblod (Midwinter Sacrifice), Mons Kallentoft takes a firm grasp on the classical Swedish police genre. Its 430 pages can be directly traced back to Sjöwall/Wahlöö and those who came after them. It has everything that we’ve come to expect from a Swedish police story. Focus is on the hardworking police force. A gruesome murder is to be solved, and slowly but surely the pieces fall into place.
Mons Kallentoft is a reliable author. He observes with a reliable eye and writes with a reliable hand. Midvinterblod (Midwinter Sacrifice) is a sturdily built novel. (...) If Malin Fors is one of the book’s main characters, the city of Linköping is the other, at least for those of us who wander in the shadow of the cathedral on a daily basis. We are presented with a city caught in frozen grasp of winter and Mons Kallentoft’s descriptions are right on the money...(..)”
"The mystery genre moves in the highly charged situation between total control and unimaginable madness, between the crime and the punishment. This can be seen in both the plot and the language: there are those who control reality by objectively registering practical matters rather than inconceivable feelings, as if a detailed description of a cheese sandwich can conjure up the frightening reality of fumes that originate from a corpse. A fear of death? Sure, but now let’s concentrate solely on who killed this person, not on our own mortality. If. We. Only. Concentrate. On. One. Thing. At. A. Time. Then. We. Will. Be. Able. To. Deal. With. Reality. In Midvinterblod (Midwinter Sacrifice) Mons Kallentoft allows deliberate descriptions wobble, so that out of the corner of an eye you can sense other contexts, nastier truths. An incidental, resigned reply gives the awareness that what is being described may not be exactly everything that could be said. It is skilful and not just a little disquieting, a feeling of uneasiness slowly but steadily oozes through the pages. (...). But Mons Kallentoft dances an elegant dance of death on the verge of ruin that the mystery has become, allows weariness become part of the resignation of the main character, Malin Fors. The action takes place in Linköping, a town surrounded by snow-covered plains that could have come from the Coen Brothers movie, Fargo, although with different overtones. (...). But the originality does not need to be based on the choice of subject matter, the cast of characters or the plot. Instead, Kallentoft shifts the perspective ever so slightly, to a different language, a different mood. Only just enough so that one feels lost. It’s a new territory, that Linköping where Malin Fors lives.'
"The mystery genre moves in the highly charged situation between total control and unimaginable madness, between the crime and the punishment. This can be seen in both the plot and the language: there are those who control reality by objectively registering practical matters rather than inconceivable feelings, as if a detailed description of a cheese sandwich can conjure up the frightening reality of fumes that originate from a corpse. A fear of death? Sure, but now let’s concentrate solely on who killed this person, not on our own mortality. If. We. Only. Concentrate. On. One. Thing. At. A. Time. Then. We. Will. Be. Able. To. Deal. With. Reality. In Midvinterblod (Midwinter Sacrifice) Mons Kallentoft allows deliberate descriptions wobble, so that out of the corner of an eye you can sense other contexts, nastier truths. An incidental, resigned reply gives the awareness that what is being described may not be exactly everything that could be said. It is skilful and not just a little disquieting, a feeling of uneasiness slowly but steadily oozes through the pages. (...). But Mons Kallentoft dances an elegant dance of death on the verge of ruin that the mystery has become, allows weariness become part of the resignation of the main character, Malin Fors. The action takes place in Linköping, a town surrounded by snow-covered plains that could have come from the Coen Brothers movie, Fargo, although with different overtones. (...). But the originality does not need to be based on the choice of subject matter, the cast of characters or the plot. Instead, Kallentoft shifts the perspective ever so slightly, to a different language, a different mood. Only just enough so that one feels lost. It’s a new territory, that Linköping where Malin Fors lives.'
Review by Lotta Olsson, Dagens Nyheter
