The Blood Spilt

By: Åsa Larsson

Narrated by: Hillary Huber

Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

From an award-winning author comes this disturbing, entrancing, beautifully crafted mystery set in northern Sweden.

It's midsummer, when the light lingers through dawn as the long winter finally ends. In this magical time, a brutal killer strikes, and the murder of a female priest sends shock waves through the community. Though she has no cause to get involved, attorney Rebecka Martinsson cannot help herself. And the further she is drawn into a mystery that will soon claim another victim, the more the dead woman's world consumes her - a world of hurt and healing, sin and sexuality, and above all, of lethal sacrifice.

Translated by Marlaine Delargy.

©2004 Asa Larsson, translation copyright 2007 The Bantam Dell Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc. (P)2007 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Critic reviews

"A virtuoso mood piece that works endless changes on its unforgiving landscape." (Kirkus Reviews)
"Fans of Henning Mankell, Karin Fossum, and Arnaldur Indridason will be rewarded." (Publishers Weekly)
"Larsson...delivers plenty of suspense, but her real gift lies in her ability to climb inside the minds of her characters, analyzing their motivations for doing damage and good." (Booklist)

Wonderful Prose and Narration!

After listening to books by Indridason, Nesser, and Lackberg, this murder mystery was pure pleasure because it simply flowed along and carried me away. The narrator has a most pleasant and melodious voice and the names of the characters were much easier on the ear. Translation was exceptional but for "picnic blanket" instead of "picnic basket" early on. Providing narration of the main non human character provided an interesting plot turn that has given me a lot to ponder. I hated for the book to end and I was left wanting more of Rebecca--her life before this story and afterward.. A really good read!

NARRATION RUINS IT!!!

I'm only 2 hours in, and not sure if I'll finish this book. The reader couldn't be more wrong: American at its worst. Sort of casual, no sense of Scandinavia, no differentiation of characters, no differentiation of anything! I will return to this review if I do finish the book, as this probably isn't fair to the book.

good story, annoying narration

good story, wish I could find the first in this series. not a fan of this narrator, who often comes across with a very whiney voice

Good story - some aspects did not appeal to me

The story was decent and I enjoyed it more than I did not. I didn't particularly enjoy when they broke away from the story to tell the story of the wolf. Others might find that more interesting than I did. To me, the narration vacillated between snarky and robotic. So many of the characters were given nasal, annoying voices. I also found the wolf howl at the beginning of each chapter a bit "jazz hands" for my taste. Again, I did mostly enjoy it - those were just the things about it that I did not like.

å doesn’t sound like a

Åsa Larsson seemed to be trying something new with winding two stories together. It was interesting but seemed a little forced at points.
Overall I liked the story. Dark. Interesting.
The performance was great except for the pronunciation. Å Ä and Ö were just substituted with A A and O. It doesn’t work like that, they’re different letters with different sounds. It made me cringe to hear the all the names mangled. I don’t know why the reader wasn’t coached a little. The translation was clearly done by a British person the performance was clearly American. So that was a bit awkward. Aside from that it was acted very well.

Well written. Clever

In the same genre as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, with the same sense of place as one of Louise Penny's Chief Inspector Gamache mystery novels. Worth an Audible credit. Audible doesn't have #3 in the series, but I will definitely list to #4.

Just okay, a little depressing

What did you like best about The Blood Spilt? What did you like least?

I chose this book for its unique northern Scandinavian setting, and I felt like I got a glimpse of what life would be like in a small town there. There was a lot of hunting, berry picking, and wolves - very interesting! I liked learning the names of the towns and picturing the landscape. It was also interesting to see the role that the church plays in the town.

The story itself was a little anticlimactic. It was a bit depressing as well, and focused more on overall life issues than the mystery itself. Maybe it was supposed to reflect real life rather than try to be an exciting story. There were some twists and turns like any mystery, but there weren't any parts where I was truly surprised or shocked. So, it was okay but not great. I did finish it through - once I got involved with all of the characters, about halfway through the book, I got more into it and wanted to know what happened.

Also, this seems to be a book written by a women, for women. It dealt with a lot of women's issues, such as women in the church, women in the workplace, etc. I would say that was overall a very strong theme that was reflected in the metaphor of the female wolf that was described here and there throughout the book. I am a woman but at times this theme was a little too much for me, and I couldn't relate to any of the women characters in this book. I have much more enjoyed reading about the thoughts, quirks, and personal issues of other mystery/detective genre characters such as Kurt Wallander and Lizbeth Salander.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

I did not like the flowery and dramatic language and descriptions. There were too many metaphors used to describe feelings or visual scenes. Sometimes I just want to know what's going on and the descriptions don't have to be so decorative to be effective. There are other mystery writers out there who manage to convey a feeling perfectly without all of that fluffiness.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Hillary Huber?

I am not sure about that. Now that I am used to her voice, I might say yes, but at first I would have said no. When I first started the audio book, I have to admit, I thought the narrator was bad. Her voice monotone - it's like all of the sentences follow the same melodic pattern and there is no variation in emphasis. The change in voices for characters was just okay. There are other narrators who do this much better. I had to get past the voice and try to listen to the story only, which was difficult at first, but halfway though the book, I got used to it and I didn't notice it any more.

Also, maybe she has a Swedish or other type of accent, I don't know, but for some of the words that begin with "s", they sound like they are beginning with a "th" which made it kind of confusing to process the words when I'm listening to them - I had to think twice about it. But again, this is something I got more used to as the book went on.

Do you think The Blood Spilt needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

I feel like the story was wrapped up pretty completely, except there is one thing that I never found out. It's something that happened in the main character's past that is mentioned several times, but we never really find out the details. Some of it comes out at the end but it's not really clear. I think there could be another book that goes more deeply into the personality of this main character, and into her past. Sometimes it takes several books for a reader to get to know and love a character and all of his or her little quirks.

Any additional comments?

I hate to be so negative about this book because I really did want to finish it (and I did), and the story and setting has really stuck with me. It was actually a very memorable book because it was so unique. I would recommend it, but just go into it knowing that it is very different than some of the other Swedish crime novels you may be into, such as the Kurt Wallander mysteries.

OK but not thrilling

This is a set up book for background. It works but why they used the wolf crys between chapters was beyond me.

What a “heavy” book

At times the side stories got to be a bit much, but all came together in the end to create a full picture of what created and what led to tragedy. This will stay with me for awhile.

why such an ugly American accent?

What made the experience of listening to The Blood Spilt the most enjoyable?

He's a great writer and his plots are wonderful.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Hillary Huber?

Someone with a cleaner more proper accent

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

yes, horrible accent. It makes it sound like it's taking place in Missouri or something instead of Sweden.