Gideon's Ring by Carin Gerhardsen ~ a Review

by Donna Huber

A deadly and mysterious case pushes a Swedish detective squad to its limit.

Amazon affiliate links are used on this site. A free audiobook was provided for an honest review.

November 2026; Highbridge Audio; 9781696623834
audio (11h 45m), ebook, print; Nordic Noir

I'm not a big fan of Nordic Noir. I did not jump on the bandwagon when The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo became the must-read book (I listened to it, but didn't enjoy it). Over the last couple of years, though, I have been giving it a try because many people in my mystery book club love the genre. I have found a few I like. I haven't read any of the other books in Carin Gerhardsen's Hammarby series.

I liked Gideon's Ring. It might be useful to read book 1 in the series, as it deals with crime that was committed in that book, but it isn't strictly necessary to read any of the previous books. 

The audiobook was a little hard to follow, mostly because I didn't know the full names of the characters, and sometimes they were referred to by their first name and other times by their last name. There is a few chapters told by an unknown person. From reading other reviews, I think these chapters might have chapter headings, but they are not mentioned in the audiobook (or I just didn't catch it). It always took me a minute to realize we were in someone else's head.

The plot of Gideon's Ring could be disturbing for some readers. It deals with sexual crimes, and there are children and people with disabilities involved in the story. There are no really explicit scenes; it is more implied. 

As I read this book, I realized I haven't read any other translated fiction that features disabled characters. It was interesting to see how another country/culture approaches the subject. I had to look up when the book was first published in Sweden, so I could get a frame of reference. (It was 2012 if you also were wondering).

The mystery is interesting and has more than a few twists. It is a police procedural, but it doesn't get bogged down in the technical bits.

I enjoyed the characters. I particularly like Yeti (I'm not sure if I spelled that correctly since I listened to the audiobook and Westman was Bestman for the longest time). 

The narrator was good. While I don't mind the characters having an accent, aside from the pronunciation of names, the characters didn't sound Swedish. They could have been American for how much accent they had. (After I saw the name Westman in a review, I realized Richard Trinder was saying Vestman as W's sound like Vs.)

I plan on recommending this series to my book club and Carin Gerhardsen in general in case they aren't familiar with the author already.

Buy Gideon's Ring at Amazon

Donna Huber is an avid reader and natural encourager. She is the founder of Girl Who Reads and the author of the how-to marketing book Secrets to a Successful Blog Tour.

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