In Helen Tursten's novel, NIGHT ROUNDS, she once again calls upon her character, Swedish detective Irene Huss, to solve a baffling crime that has the city on edge.

One nurse is murdered and another is missing from a small, private hospital in the chilly seaside city of Goteborg, and the only witnesses are blaming the ghost of a nurse that has been dead for sixty-something years. But something doesn't add up, and bit by bit, with repeated inspections, and multiple interrogations and re-interrogations, Huss and her colleagues begin to put together the puzzle of who did what and why they did it.

Meanwhile, Huss must live a somewhat double life, juggling her home life with her professional one. At home, one daughter has become a militant vegan and her chef husband, who Huss feels should really lose a little weight to stay healthy, is furious. The dog needs walking, her hair needs coloring, and her mother needs visiting. It never ends.

I particularly enjoyed the fact that Irene Huss is not a super-sleuth. She's just a woman doing her job in a man's world, and that's the charm and strength of NIGHT ROUNDS. As the mother of twin teenage girls, wife of a talented, temperamental chef, dutiful daughter of a chatty widow with a new boyfriend, and best friend of her male police partner, Huss's skill in crime solving is grounded in her skill at maintaining her relationships and having keen observation skills, keeping a close eye on the world around her. She's a force to be reckoned with as a third dan black belt in Ju-Jitsu, but she uses smart soft skills like strategic silence, tactical flattery and sincere consideration more often than force in her investigations. She's a hero in my eyes for sure.

Although NIGHT RUONDS was originally a Swedish novel, the translation comes across with all the nuances of mystery and intrigue that the tale requires. This is a gritty, mesmerizing story that will leave readers breathless and enthralled.

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