this.. wasn't great

pros:
- it did grip me right towards the end.
- the writing itself wasn't bad and the plot had plenty of twists and turns.
- it was fairly original.
- i guess it was interesting to see a woman whose seen as the most sympathetic character, Fredrika, having an unconventional relationship, to put it mildly, with Spencer and not being condemned for it, or suddenly finding her Mr Right at the end.

cons:
- it was slow and ungripping for most of it and i was almost surprised by how little i was invested by it. Partly this was because the blurb spoilered an event that doesn't happen until at least 150 pages in! which was ridiculous. 
- I could happily throw Peder out of a window. Loathsome man. I didn't like how it seemed like he and Fredrika had to 'put aside their differences' as it says on the book cover. Fredrika is a decent person and a decent detective, Peder is neither, so why should they have to meet in the middle? Peder just runs around doing what he's told and making fairly obvious assumptions, all the hard thinking was done by Fredrika and, to a lesser amount, Alex.
- Fredrika never got an apology for how they treated her, nor did the book seem to recognise how crucial she'd been to the case. If Alex had gone with her ideas from the start, maybe

that last kid wouldn't have been burned at all.

- it was also predictable.

It seemed obvious from the first moment Nora said Aron was a psychologist that he was a psychologist and that's how he was targeting the women. And I got the abortion plot point a good while before they did.

- Peder's redemption arc is weak and the book's general attitude to women felt shitty. Alex is old fashioned, Ellen is ignored,

Peder get apparently forgiven for cheating on his depressed wife and treating her, his mistress and his kids like shit. I get that it was written by a woman but the whole thing gave me the vibes of 'sympathise with this guy who is an asshole to women' and i had no intention of doing that.

- the attitude to affairs was pretty shitty too. I felt pretty distanced from Fredrika in her getting it on with a married man, Ellen's man was cheating too without her knowing, and Pia goes right along with Peder cheating on his depressed wife. And Alex, though he says he wouldn't cheat, says he understands Peder doing it, if he was feeling very low. Just :/

so yeah.. didn't like this much.