Studio Sex

Rating:
Summary: engaging investigative tale
Review: A summer hire at the Stockholm tabloid Kvellspressen, Annika Bengtzon desperately wants to become a permanent reporter on the newspaper. Currently, Annika listens to crank calls on the paper's tip line in hopes of obtaining a legitimate story. One call Annika takes provides the locale of a naked raped dead girl.

Not expecting much from the tip as these usually turn out to be pranks, her editor sends Annika with a photographer to investigate. Instead Annika provides a strong story that earns her accolades from her boss. She continues her inquiries into the life of the victim as she feels that this story is her ticket to a permanent job with the newspaper. However, the case takes an absurd twist from the lover being the suspect to a high government official as a more likely murder candidate. As she follows that detour, Annika begins to uncover a cover-up conspiracy that if exposed could destroy Sweden's current ruling party's grip on the government.

STUDIO SEX, the prequel to THE BOMBER, is an engaging investigative tale that reads somewhat more like an amateur sleuth story because of the heroine's lack of experience. The story line provides plenty of insight into life in Sweden in various ways, but Annika fails to come across as the Swedish Woodward-Bernstein and this is not All the President's Men. Still the novel provides an intriguing conspiracy tale with the required sexual scenes, and a thorough look at Sweden making for an overall fine reading experience.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: engaging investigative tale
Review: A summer hire at the Stockholm tabloid Kvellspressen, Annika Bengtzon desperately wants to become a permanent reporter on the newspaper. Currently, Annika listens to crank calls on the paper's tip line in hopes of obtaining a legitimate story. One call Annika takes provides the locale of a naked raped dead girl.

Not expecting much from the tip as these usually turn out to be pranks, her editor sends Annika with a photographer to investigate. Instead Annika provides a strong story that earns her accolades from her boss. She continues her inquiries into the life of the victim as she feels that this story is her ticket to a permanent job with the newspaper. However, the case takes an absurd twist from the lover being the suspect to a high government official as a more likely murder candidate. As she follows that detour, Annika begins to uncover a cover-up conspiracy that if exposed could destroy Sweden's current ruling party's grip on the government.

STUDIO SEX, the prequel to THE BOMBER, is an engaging investigative tale that reads somewhat more like an amateur sleuth story because of the heroine's lack of experience. The story line provides plenty of insight into life in Sweden in various ways, but Annika fails to come across as the Swedish Woodward-Bernstein and this is not All the President's Men. Still the novel provides an intriguing conspiracy tale with the required sexual scenes, and a thorough look at Sweden making for an overall fine reading experience.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Very interesting and very European
Review: Intern reporter Annika Bengtzon gets a call on the 'Creepy Calls' line and angles for a role in reporting the story. To her surprise, she gets the assignment and soon finds herself in the midst of the investigation. Through a combination of luck and hard work, Annika gains some insights into the case--tracking down facts that give her newspaper several scoops--but the case is more complicated that she first believes. Somehow a longstanding government corruption case is involved, and the competitive press starts pointing the finger at Annika--insisting that she was running planted news.

Set in Sweden and written by Swedish author Liza Marklund, STUDIO SEX feels European with a concern for international happenings that may seem, well, foreign to U.S. readers. Political intrigues play a role, and U.S. readers may be surprised by the apparent lack of privacy and protection that government officials are accorded. Marklund's insights into human reaction to death--the obsessive grief of many who barely knew the victim yet are now seeking a connection with her--ring true. Annika's battle with journalistic ethics--balancing respect for the dead and their families against the public's right to information--reflects the larger story.

The fundamental story of Studio Sex is that of the growing maturation of Annika as she battles her own demons and tries to get at the truth behind the death of the haunted victim. Marklund's paragraph introductions, showing a young woman's descent into sexual domination and abuse add a texture to the novel--a texture that strengthens rather than distracting from the story.

Rating:
Summary: a cunning Swede
Review: It was for the very reasons PW and Booklist critiqued this book that I loved it. I'm not an avid mystery reader because I usually find mysteries shallow and contrived. Ok, it doesn't have any sex to speak of, and it doesn't race from start to finish, but Annika, the young reporter, is a very real character, not some exotic stereotype. I loved the scenes of her eating mushrooms with her grandmother, and felt like I was catching a glimpse of Sweden through the birch trees. I found myself looking forward to picking it up and reading. At times Annika reminded me of Smilla in Smilla's Sense of Snow, both women possessing a cool detachment that's seasoned with a heaping dash of empathy. I will definitely be reading Marklund's next book.