Geiger by Gustaf Skördeman

 

In May, we read Rebecca's pick, Geiger by the Swedish author Gustaf Skördeman. This novel, which is in the genre of police procedural, is about the investigation of the murder of a retired television personality, Uncle Stellan. From chapter 1, we see how one mysterious phone call sets off a series of events weaving together an intricate story of the missing wife, secrets of the past, and espionage.

Four of us carpooled together to get to bookclub, and it took a significant amount of time to recap the plot, clarifying what happened and why. Surprisingly, a good chunk of this time was recounting what happened in the last pages of the last chapter. So there was a decent amount of complexity and twists and turns to keep the reader guessing.

Because the author is Swedish, we also learned a good deal about the geopolitical landscape of Europe during the Cold War and modern-day Swedish customs (like high school graduates riding around in huge trucks partying and spraying drinks). Many of us enjoyed the discussion of historical politics and learned quite a bit. We tended to prefer this aspect of the book over the description of the personal lives of some of the characters, like Sara who was stressing about her relationship with her daughter. We all made some correct predictions about relationships of some of the characters and found some details, especially about Agneta, Stellan's wife, to be less than believable. But all in all, it kept (most of us) reading until the very end.

In addition to discussing characters and plot, we spent some time talking the gender of the author, biases, and trends that we are noticing with other authors from Sweden. 

After talking about the book, we enjoyed a delicious lunch, watched Rebecca's work presentation with pictures from Barcelona, discussed travel, kids, graduations, parents, jobs, etc., and ... celebrated Lisa's BIRTHDAY! Although you can't tell from the picture, Cathy ordered party hats that are adorned with pictures of Lisa's face - they are fabulous just like Lisa!

It was so wonderful having everyone on the call. We cherish this time together from the east coast where Liz worked on her garden to France where Karen made sure the sun set properly. Until next time!