The Long Shadow

Marklund’s busy eighth Annika Bengtzon novel finds the dogged Stockholm crime reporter still struggling with the personal and professional aftershocks of her deadly previous case in 2013’s Lifetime. Her latest assignment for her newspaper is hardly a sunny one: writing about the slaughter of former hockey star Sebastian Söderström and his family during the robbery of their Spanish villa. If that weren’t grim enough stuff for Annika to handle while trying to adapt to sharing custody of her two children with her ex (and his dim girlfriend), as well as having to suffer an equally clueless new editor, she’s soon uncovering money laundering, drug trafficking, and glimpses of a history of horrific abuse and murder stretching back decades. Despite the often confusing subplots, this installment in the Bengtzon chronicles offers plenty of suspense. Agent: Niclas Salomonsson, Salomonsson Agency (Sweden). (Apr.)