I really enjoyed this probably for the reasons some people didn't. It's different. The tone is casual, things don't work perfectly (without it being a story arc of anti-hero corruption), and the 'hero' is ambivalent about her job. That's a refreshing change from the detective lifer. It's not a brilliant mystery, but it's entertaining candy.
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En Villa Maisetta, la intimidante finca de los Peltonen, encuentran muerto de madrugada al hijo de la familia, Jukka, un rico seductor con mentalidad de adolescente. En la villa, se alojan esos días siete compañeros del joven en el coral de estudiantes, todos ellos con motivos sobrados para matar a Jukka: por celos profesionales o sexuales, por interés monetario... La detective encargada del caso, Maria Kallio, joven, pelirroja y muy poco convencional, recién reincorporada a la policía tras una temporada apartada del cuerpo para estudiar Derecho, tendrá que emplearse a fondo para enfrentarse a un caso con más de una conexión con su pasado.

Marie Kallio is a 23-year-old who is uncertain about her future. She worked with the police for a while and then decided she’d like to help both criminals as well as victims, so she started law school. Now she’s back temporarily at the Violent Crimes Unit of the Helsinki police. Her boss is an alcoholic who is absent more than present, so when a possible murder is reported, it is Kallio who is assigned the case.

Choir singer Tommi Peltonen is found dead one morning in the sea outside his parent’s summer house. The cause of death appears to be a blow to the head. Could he have fallen and hit his head? Accident or murder? The answer is resolved when an ax is found under the sauna in his yard containing his blood and bits of scalp.

Tommi and seven other choir members were there rehearsing for an upcoming show. Of course, it was not all work and no play. After rehearsal there was significant drinking and partying going on. As a result, none of the surviving singers is really sure of what happened late into the previous evening.

When Kallio arrives on the scene, she realizes that she knows many of the singers, having roomed with their friend in college. She does not recuse herself from the case but their friendship and the fact that they can’t really see Kallio in the police leadership role, makes conducting interviews difficult. She is also finding it hard to separate some friendships from her work.

As she talks and interviews the choir members, it appears, unsurprisingly, that most of them have had conflicts with Tommi, a renowned serial seducer who would flirt with single and married women, indiscriminately, including wives and girlfriends of his friends.

When Kallio sifts through some papers she found in Tommi’s apartment, she finds that he isn’t as innocent as everyone thought he was; he was involved in various nefarious goings on. That shifts the possible murderer to those outside the choir. Kallio has her hands full.

I was hesitant to review this book for you for several reasons. The first is that, written in 1993, it might be a little dated…although I didn’t really find it so. The second is that cozy mysteries don’t typically fall in the Nordic genre. But I realized that you can choose whether or not you want to read this. There is little action. Some of Kallio’s time is spent on other cases and her opinions about rapists, drinkers, etc. are described, which some may find interesting and others, not so much. Told in the first person, you learn how Kallio feels about a variety of issues: her parents, school, police work, her friends.

While My First Murder doesn’t necessarily meet the definition of a cozy mystery, a female amateur sleuth, it is a cozy in the writing style. One review said fans of Helen Tursten might like this (I recently reviewed Snowdrift for you) but Snowdrift was a solid police procedural while this is more rambling.

Overall, I did enjoy the book. ( )

Jukka Peltonen wird im flachen Uferwasser der Ostsee ermordet aufgefunden. Maria Kallio befindet sich in einer schwierigen Situation, als ihr die Ermittlungen in diesem Mordfall übertragen werden: Sie kennt den jungen Mann aus Studienzeiten gut – ebenso wie die anderen Männer und Frauen, die mit ihm das Wochenende auf dem Land verbrachten. Sie alle sind Mitglieder eines Chors, seit Jahren befreundet, in ihrer Liebe zur Musik und in wechselnden Liebschaften einander verbunden. Und doch hat jemand aus dem Chor Jukka ermordet. Maria Kallio, die finnische Kommissarin, muss den Mörder im Freundeskreis entlarven. (Klappentext)

maybe something was lost in the translation but after all the hype about this book i was really disappointed. the plot meandered and when the killer was finally revealed i felt like there should have been more. ( )