Night Rounds

By: Helene Tursten

Narrated by: Suzanne Toren

Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's Summary

Irene Huss is a former Ju-Jitsu champion, a mother of twin teenage girls, the wife of a successful chef, and a Detective Inspector with the Violent Crimes Unit in Goteborg, Sweden. And now she’s back with a gripping follow-up to Detective Inspector Huss. One nurse lies dead and another vanishes after their hospital is hit by a blackout. The only witness claims to have seen Nurse Tekla doing her rounds, but Nurse Tekla died sixty years ago. Detective Inspector Irene Huss of the Violent Crimes Unit has the challenge of disentangling wandering ghosts and complex human relationships to get to the bottom of this intriguing case.

©2001 Helene Tursten. All rights reserved. English translation © Laura A. Wideburg. All rights reserved. (P)2012 AudioGo

Follow D I Huss

D I Huss is a busy lady she is the best D I in Goteborg, she is a mother of twin girls that keep the parents busy, she encourages her chef husband to be the best he can be. With all this going on, she solves crimes. Nightrounds is a good story, fast moving and a good ending. I have enjoyed all Ms Tursten novels and looking forward to her next adventure for D I Huss.

Nordic Noir Disappointment

What a letdown. I'm only 6 chapters into this but I can already tell this is a real turkey. The story is written like a second rate TV crime drama. Trust me, this author is no Nesbo, Larson, or Mankell. Pretty juvenile. But it gets worse. The narration at 1x is the slowest I've ever heard in 10 years of listening to Audible. Out of sheer desperation I increased playback speed to 1.25x. At this speed the reading was a more normal pace, but - of course - some of the narrator's voices now sounded cartoonish. But there's more ... this is by far the worst narration I've heard. Now I know why it was only $5. You've been warned!

Easy listening

Hypnotic narration. I enjoyed it. It's a good story to listen to if you want a crime story that isn't intense. More procedural. End-of-the-work-day easy listening.

Pretty good

I Really enjoyed this book....the mix of characters and suspense was just right and there were enough twists and turns to keep the reader guessing. I like Helene Tursten's style of writing, she strikes a good balance between the plot and background information around the home life of the main character. I didn't like the narration...I found the narrator had a harsh voice and was a bit "shouty" at times...I also struggled with the American accent and found it strange that an American should be chosen to voice a Scandanavian book, but...maybe that's just me.

The good, the bad and the very ugly

On the ugly side is the translation. Putting aside that it is a Swedish to American English translation it is all the little mistakes that jar you out of the narrative. At one point the detectives discover a "day planner" in a pocket. Now I think of a day planner as one of those large charts you see in offices where staff record leave, sickness etc. I can only assume it is a diary, but I am still not sure despite having completed the book. There are many more of these mistakes. The beginning of the book is worst but the effect fades through the book because you begin to mentally insert the right words.



The bad is the reader. Her narration is full of inappropriate.....pauses and while her Swedish pronunciation seems consistent with other readers the issue is that you can hear her vocally “taking a run” at the more complex ones for about half a sentence before she gets there. Lastly her voice is not pleasant to listen to, imagine the female option in Stephen Hawking's voice software and you won't be far off.



But the good is that, in spite of the bad translation and rotten reader, there is a really good police procedural in here. Irene Huss is a likeable character who does not suffer from the usual star detective maladies that afflict her male colleagues. She is happily married, has kids, and goes home at night to a house filled with children arguing and a husband cooking. Being written from a female perspective by a woman also adds a great deal to the feeling of Irene being a normal person with normal hang ups and normal attractions. The plot is intriguing, involving an old hospital, dark secrets from the past, and ghost. The killer turns out to be a surprise without there being any improbable leaps and the last half is a gripping listen. Try the sample, and if you can live with the reader you will have a really enjoyable listen that has a different perspective to the usual detective fare.



Could have been a 5 star listen.