Prime Time, by Liza Marklund

April 5, 2010 by Nekkidblogger
Filed under: Annika Bengtzon, Liza Marklund, Swedish writer, book review, crime book

This is the fourth book written in Liza Marklund’s series Prime Time, by Liza Marklund about the Swedish journalist Annika Bengtzon. The action in the book, however, takes place between the two previously published books Paradise and The Bomber.

In Prime Time, well translated by Ingrid Eng-Rundlow, Annika gets involved in the investigation of a Swedish media personality, perhaps the brightest star of them all, TV presenter Michelle Carlsson. Carlsson has been on a Midsummer Eve party with 12 other people, in a beautiful and remote manor house in Sweden, and is found shot to death in a mobile control room. Michelle Carlsson was shot after a late night of drinking, quarreling and sex.

It is quickly established that more or less all of the other twelve people present both had opportunity and motives for wanting Carlsson dead. Liza Marklund takes us into the world behind the cameras, into a world where very few people like one another, where there is lot of envy and backstabbing, where the competition for the top spot is extremely intense and everybody is involved in a more or less continuous fight for power, money and fame.

With the murder, things get more complicated for Annika Bengtzon. One of the suspects is a close friend. And the relationship to her partner Thomas gets worse – he accuses her of letting the family down. And, on top of all of that, her boss also involves her in a power struggle in the newspaper. So Annika is often angry, complaining and difficult in this book. Meanwhile there’s a killer on the loose – and a tense drama about to unfold in the public eye. And in the center of it all is Annika, who in the end is the one who actually solves the mystery.

Prime Time is an interesting and good book, and times quite suspenseful. Even so, in my opinion it is the weakest of the books in the Annika Bengtzon series. However, it is still well worth reading, and you should, if possible, read the series in chronological sequence – that is, read Prime Time after Paradise and before The Bomber.