I'm Traveling Alone By Samuel Bjork

I picked up this book on a whim, as I often do, expecting a reasonable crime thriller, something like Camilla Lackberg, Robert Bryndza or similar. I am only an occasional "Crime" reader enjoying hard sci-fi or epic fantasy as my preferred reading choices but there is little that is great in those genres that I have recently found. When this is the case I read history books, literary novels or Scandinavian Crime Novels, they are my fall back genres. I never expect too much from them other than an enjoyable or informative read. Few have truly made me sit up and take notice. I review very few of them although I almost always find them enjoyable. Yet this one I decided to review as it is above average, in my opinion. If you have enjoyed "The Bridge" or The Killing" on your television then this is a book that you will wish to read. It is almost formulaic, at first, very much in the Scandinavian crime thriller style. I suspect that Samuel Bjork is an avid reader of crime fiction himself as this book uses very similar tricks to many others to keep you hooked, in suspense and carried along by the investigation. At one point the similarities gathered from other Scandinavian crime thrillers piled one upon the other until it was almost annoying "using every trick in the book" was what jumped to my mind but I should not have worried as Mr Bjork has a few new tricks up his sleeves and he uses those tricks to great advantage.The book rockets along with great pace, good story telling and a good story to tell. The characters all have serious flaws as is the fashion these days (wouldn't it be good if the odd character was almost normal?) but he takes the flaws farther than most and strangely it works (Lisbeth Salander, is well adjusted and normal in comparison with Mia Kruger). The book is well written (I have only read the English Translation) and this could be the work of the Translator rather than the author but I do not think so. This book has not the style or literary credibility of (for example) Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow" but it is a great thriller that pelts along with great pace. I rarely give a book a rating of four stars but this is one. A great read and thanks to Mr Bjork for writing it.