Souls of Air by Mons KallentoftMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Two weeks ago today my 95 year old aunt who spent the last two years in a nursing home passed away. I had no idea what the subject of this latest Kallentoft installment of the Malin Fors series was, but the opening chapters were almost exactly the conversations I had with my aunt only a month ago. Her nursing home purchased by a new company, the staff reductions, the loss of long-time staff to other jobs that paid more, the degradation of care and the horror of unappetizing, cold or lukewarm meals slapped down on the pull over table. After hearing of these changes in a nursing home that had been warm and caring and cheerful filled my heart with grief. In retrospect, if her remaining time on this earth was to be in a warehouse situation, in a cheerless God's waiting room, then perhaps there is truth in things happen for a reason. Kind of eye opening to hear of these things in Sweden, one of the Scandinavian systems held up to us by some politicians as the epitome of perfect health care for all.
But, of course, this being a Malin Fors mystery there is a suspicious death in Linkoping's Cherub Nursing Home. Though it appears Konrad Karlsson committed suicide no one seems to believe he was unhappy or despondent nor that he had the strength to hang himself. Malin's daughter, Tove has been working the day shift at Cherub as a summer job and was particularly close to Konrad. She is therefore quite shaken by his death and seems to be showing early stages of following her Mother into alcoholism. Malin is at a loss how to deal with this since she feels 19 year old Tove will see any attempt at guidance as the pot calling the kettle black.
In addition, struggling with her own alcoholism, though on the wagon for a year , Malin is emotionally frozen. Her break-up with Peter, the doctor whom she thought would be her life partner, has left her numb and strangely devoid of any type of feeling for anything including her job, her life, her co-workers, her brother.....
Kallentoft continues keeping her co-workers as well as characters new to this case as well developed as real people. Their lives and relationships are described with depth and sensitivity, making the story engrossing and interesting. And as usual, Tove, Malin and others who appear in each of the stories, have made decisions and choices that leave the reader waiting for the next installment to see the consequences of these developments. Definitely, addictive this Swede and his books!
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