Call Me Princess

Popular Danish crime author Blaedel makes her U.S. debut with this pedestrian procedural featuring Asst. Det. Louise Rick, Copenhagen PD, Unit A. Aggressive, tough-talking, and type A-cold, Rick investigates a series of savage rapes, beginning with an assault on Susanne Hansson, while Rick's workaholism fatally drains her relationship with her wimpish live-in lover, Peter. Since Susanne had met her attacker online, and later encountered him at one of the "real" parties that draw thousands of yearners after love, Rick pursues her subject into that addictive world. The detective's personal tribulations and her predictable problems with police administrators superficially counterpoint Stieg Larsson's "men who hate women" theme, while hinting at current social issues like Muslim immigration. Blaedel is best at probing the burgeoning tendency of the cyberworld to outcompete reality, where online relationships, like drug-induced visions, may seem deeper and far more intimate than genuine ones, only to vanish, leaving behind profound pain and sorrow. (Sept.)