Title: Good as a Novel or as a Thriller
Review: Some detective writers are novelists first, detective writers second.Robert Crais, Robert Barnard, Sara Paretsky, Lawrence Block (in the Matt Scudder books).Add Liza Marklund to the number.This is a fine novel that incidentally happens to be a thriller.The novel-qualities are more important than the thriller-qualities. Good characterization, fine sense of setting, good pacing, interesting view of social issues--these are all as well done as any novelist would do them.And the thriller-elements aren't bad, either.
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