Babylon

Good story and character development, psychological insights and political-cultural intrigue. Would recommend to readers keen on crime, police work and Scandinavian drama.

Camilla Ceder is outstanding!!!

'Babylon' is the second novel in a series featuring D.I.ChristianTell of the Gothenberg Police. He leads a team dealing with adouble murder of an academic archaeologist,Ann-Marie Karpov,andher student lover,Henrik.Initially,Rebecca,Henrik's possessivegirlfriend is the suspect,but when stolen valuable artefactsfrom Iraq are found amongst Henrik's belongings following aburglary of Rebecca's flat,the investigation broadens its scope.The author is trained in psychotherapy,and this book is not onlyan enjoyable crime novel ,but also equally a novel about relationships,fear of closeness,possessiveness,how people react when their needs arenot met in a relationship.The author interestingly and skillfullyintegrates the two strands into a whole.

The worst feature of this book is the banner announcing it as the new Nesbo.nothing like those works bar being Scandinavian and about crime.as someone who finds Nesbo too bleak I actually preferred this book and it’s predecessor .there is a web of interesting characters and relationships and the plot in Babylon cleverly brought in various explanations for the initial crime with red herrings galore.Sad to see this was published in 2012 and there doesn’t seem any other books in the pipeLine.wonder if expectations pitched too high as per the banner?

I found the pace of this thriller less than thrilling ; a little flabby in its middle with all the descriptions of Istanbul [but it would make great looking tv]yet the ending picked up speed and I was left almost satisfied . I think the problem is Ceders background in psychotherapy so she allows her 2 main stars detective Christian Tell and his girlfriend Seja to ramble on about how they are feeling and how they would like their relationship to be .... I began to skip their teenage style angst as I was beginning to want to shout ; this is a thriller ! I want guts and gore not counselling conversation. Poor editing I guess as I found the idea of the trade in stolen treasure and the student friends a good read .

I was a little disappointed with this tale which promised much but, in the end, delivered little. It was muddled and switched situations so rapidly that one had to keep going back to follow the plot. There were too many characters and I found the descriptions of ancient artefacts boring and unnecessary. It was also disappointing to guess the killer halfway through the story. That said, as in most Nordic literature, it was beautifully written and the descriptive parts which appealed to me I liked very much. Maybe this book will be appreciated by slightly younger readers with a better memory than mine!

This novel is another very well written thriller, by this new (to me) author. Christian Tell is an interesting hero, not perfect but not disfunctional either. There are strong characters in the rest of the team too and there is an interesting unobvious plot. As a reader (and watcher) of Nordic Noir, I would definitely rate Camilla Ceded highly., she is a writer to follow!

Enjoyable second book in what I hope will becpme a long series.

This held my interest but after a while the themes of powerful women (full of empathy and social intelligence) and weak men (necessary, maybe physically strong but childlike) pall somewhat. A bit like an overlong conversation.

Could not get into this at all, got bored and gave up

Five stars for this book enjoyed the story line from start to finish didn't think the follow-up from the first book could be as good but it was

Interesting plot mixed with recognisable relationshipsSet in present day explores social issues and human idiosyncrasies and the way we construct ourselves

l really enjoyed it

Excellent, I am reading book 2, having a great time!