A sensation in Sweden, MARKED FOR LIFE by Emelie Schepp, the first in a trilogy of thrillers about prosecutor Jana Berzelius, makes its American debut this summer. I'm not as familiar with Scandinavian thrillers as many, my only experience being the Ewert grens series by Roslund- Hellstrom, and this novel shared many of the idiosyncrasies I didn't care for but not the benefits. The synopsis sounds enticing and much of the story itself intrigues, but Schepp includes far too much extraneous detail of my taste.

A high-ranking member of the immigration board is found dead in his home. The most peculiar aspect of the murder scene are a child's fingerprints as the couple has none. Prosecutor Jana Berzelius, a successful but emotionally cold woman, leads the investigation. At first she works with the police, most of them odd and unlikeable, but when the body of a preteen boy is found on a deserted beach with the gun that killed the official, she changes her path.

The boy's body is riddled with track marks, but during the autopsy, they also discover letters carved in the back of the boy's neck. Whether memory or dreams, Berzelius feels a pull toward her own past and set out to find out who's responsible, staying one step ahead of the police. Her whole career could be in jeopardy.

Schepp's premise is intriguing and the story has numerous twists and turns, but the plot moved too slowly to easily keep my attention. Schepp, like Roslund-Hellstrom, uses different viewpoints as well as flashback to tell her story. Perhaps the problem is in the translation, but many of the details don't move the story forward. Also, the dialog is awkward, and I couldn't find a character to like or root for in the bunch of them. I enjoy thrillers, and I particularly like thrillers with difficult topics at their core. Out of curiosity, I've read the synopsis of the sequel, MARKED FOR REVENGE, and it too, sounds intriguing. Whether or not, I will delve more into this series remains to be seen.

Book Summary

When a high-ranking head of the migration board is found shot to death in his living room, there is no shortage of suspects, including his wife. But no one expects to find the mysterious child-sized handprint in the childless home. 

Public prosecutor Jana Berzelius steps in to lead the investigation. Young and brilliant but emotionally cold, Berzelius, like her famous prosecutor father, won't be swayed by the hysterical widow or intimidated by the threatening letters the victim had tried to hide. Jana is steely, aloof, impenetrable. That is, until the boy… 

A few days later on a nearby deserted shoreline, the body of a preteen boy is discovered, and with him, the murder weapon that killed him and the original victim. Berzelius is drawn more deeply into the case for as she attends his autopsy, she recognizes something strangely familiar in his small, scarred, heroin-riddled body. Cut deep into his flesh are initials that scream child trafficking and trigger in her a flash of memory of her own dark, fear-ridden past. Her connection to this boy has been carved with deliberation and malice that penetrate to her very core. 

Now, to protect her own hidden past, she must find the suspect behind these murders, before the police do. 

International bestselling author Emelie Schepp introduces us to the enigmatic, unforgettable Jana Berzelius in this first novel of a chilling trilogy.