{"id":2297,"date":"2024-06-12T21:55:14","date_gmt":"2024-06-12T19:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/minimal-kritikak.hu\/en\/?p=2297"},"modified":"2024-08-21T11:09:14","modified_gmt":"2024-08-21T09:09:14","slug":"geiger-by-gustaf-skordeman-book-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/minimal-kritikak.hu\/en\/2024\/06\/12\/geiger-by-gustaf-skordeman-book-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Geiger by Gustaf Sk\u00f6rdeman \u2013 Book Review"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Geiger<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Have you been waiting for, and so far in vain, a crime novel similar to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which once sparked the renaissance of Scandinavian crime fiction? If so, Gustaf Sk\u00f6rdeman\u2019s Geiger<\/em>, the introductory novel in his series, might catch your eye. After all, it lures you in with this exact promise on the cover. (At least on the Hungarian* edition.) But what if this only makes your disappointment all the more bitter?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sara Nowak is not a captivating character<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

No. She\u2019s a mom. She\u2019s not tattooed either. But she does struggle with anger management issues. This isn\u2019t very useful for a police officer. And, naturally, not for a mother either. In fact, Sara Nowak is quite embarrassing as a mom. She\u2019s the typical overprotective, constantly lecturing person who wants to guide her kids as a moral compass. No wonder they kind of hate her. (You’d hate her too if you were all turned on and went on PronHub to, uh, broaden your horizons a bit, and she barged in to tell you it was immoral towards women.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nowak, as a police officer, likes to rough up suspects who indeed deserve it, but how stupid is it to do this constantly in front of witnesses? Is this woman crazy?!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, despite being a trained martial artist, she somehow always ends up on the losing side in real-life situations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ah, damn it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And why on earth does a lousy vice cop meddle in someone else\u2019s investigation anyway?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, Gustaf Sk\u00f6rdeman didn\u2019t quite pull this off. It\u2019s simply impossible to like Sara Nowak, the main character. Maybe by the very end of Geiger<\/em>, just a little bit. Perhaps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

East German spy network in Sweden, hello!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Does anyone even care about this anymore? Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall? The whole bunch is old as dirt. Half of them are senile. And really, what important information could they have accessed back then in mild, boring, neutral Sweden?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, despite all this, you find the game of the aged spies much more exciting than Sara Nowak\u2019s investigation. Agneta, the 60-plus-year-old grandma who switches to Terminator mode, and Karla Breuer, the German counterintelligence officer stuck in the past, are about five times more interesting than Nowak. Individually. (And they\u2019re certainly not playing their own parody, unlike the retirees in The Thursday Murder Club<\/em>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naturally, part of the reason is that Sara Nowak, the investigator in Geiger<\/em>, conducts more historical research than real investigations. That is, of course, when she has time aside from her own family issues. In short: She\u2019s bored with her husband, her kids are bored with her. Well, who the hell cares?!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sweden\u2019s most dysfunctional family<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

But seriously. The Bromans in Geiger<\/em> are the most messed-up family you\u2019ve ever heard of. Of course, to realize all this, you have to get to the end of the book. In any case, it\u2019s far from clear why Agneta didn\u2019t put a bullet in her dear husband Stellan\u2019s head thirty years ago.

<\/strong>And it also requires Abu Rasil, the terrorist mastermind, to come out of retirement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh, Abu Rasil, just what we were missing! (And how hasn\u2019t Gabriel Allon<\/a> and his team caught him yet?) Anyway, the point is, by the end of Geiger<\/em>, the stakes start to rise exponentially. And as the stakes rise, so do your eyes widen in amazement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A big bang at the end!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Like when a balloon pops.

<\/strong>Sk\u00f6rdeman\u2019s Geiger<\/em>, which you long thought to be a simple Scandinavian crime novel with a bit of added spy story flair, starts to burst out of its own frame. We all know what a stretched frame looks like, right? It\u2019s not a pretty sight. Just wood scraps. But Gustaf Sk\u00f6rdeman keeps stretching it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uncle Stellan\u2019s backyard begins to gain world-historical significance. Uncle Stellan\u2019s wife, the retired granny, also begins to gain world-historical significance. The Soviet Union, Gorbachev, and Yeltsin all come into play. And Abu Rasil wants to throw in a bunch of nuclear bombs too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And all of these make up the more believable part of the book Geiger<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the end of the first part of the Sara Nowak series, you\u2019re simply bored out of your mind. Geiger<\/em> has never been exactly a paragon of thrilling excitement, but when it should have ended with just one exciting action scene, Gustaf Sk\u00f6rdeman throws in two completely unnecessary yet ridiculously unbelievable twists, which you can\u2019t even laugh at anymore. You don\u2019t feel like it, you\u2019re just too bored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6.9\/10<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Geiger (Sara Nowak #1) by Gustaf Sk\u00f6rdeman
432 pages, Hardcover
Published in 2022 by Grand Central Publishing<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

—<\/p>\n\n\n\n

* This is a Hungarian blog<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you been waiting for, and so far in vain, a crime novel similar to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which once sparked the renaissance of Scandinavian crime fiction? If so, Gustaf Sk\u00f6rdeman\u2019s Geiger, the introductory novel in his series, might catch your eye. After all, it lures you in with this exact promise … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[112,25,163,35,23,39],"class_list":["post-2297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book","tag-cold-war","tag-crime","tag-domestic-thriller","tag-nordic-noir","tag-spy-novel","tag-thriller"],"yoast_head":"\nGeiger by Gustaf Sk\u00f6rdeman \u2013 Book Review - minimal-Critiques<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The spy network is activated after decades. The code name "Geiger" unleashes a bloodbath. 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