En aning trögt i början med hopp mellan olika personer, som än så länge inte har någon relation till varandra. Men det tar sig och spänningen stiger. Huvudpersonen är skickligt psykologiskt skildrad och slutligen blir man benägen att hålla med den elaka styvmodern om det är något allvarligt fel med Justines huvud. ( )

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"Sie ist eine Autorin, die ihresgleichen sucht." (Norrbottens-Kuriren)
Kurzbeschreibung
Wer ist eigentlich diese Justine Dalvik, diese reiche und exzentrische Frau, die einsam im alten Steinhaus am Mälarensee wohnt, in dem schon ihre Eltern lebten? Justine kommt von ihrer Vergangenheit als gleichzeitig vergöttertes wie gequältes Kind nicht los. Gerade als sie beginnt, ihr Schneckenhaus zu verlassen, geschehen um sie herum erschreckende Dinge. Ihr Geliebter verschwindet auf mysteriöse Weise während einer Urlaubsreise, eine Mitreisende kommt ums Leben, eine alte Schulfreundin ist wie vom Erdboden verschluckt. Justine gerät in Verdacht, mit all diesen Vorfällen in Verbindung zu stehen. Versucht jemand, ihr Glück endgültig zu zerstören? Oder ist sie doch die Täterin? Ein Psychothriller um Hass, Liebe und Rache.

3.0 von 5 Sternen Vom Verlag mehr versprochen als gehalten, 9. September 2002
Von Ein Kunde
Rezension bezieht sich auf: Gute Nacht, mein Geliebter. (Taschenbuch)
Bisher waren die Bücher, welchen die Schwedischen Krimipreis erhalten haben wirklich auch gute Krimis (siche Kerstin Eckmann). Dies ist leider bei diesem nicht so, da im ersten Teil (ca. 50% des Buches) versucht wird Spannung zu erzeugen mit Andeutungen und jede Menge Vorgeschichte. Im zweiten Teil kommt es dann zu den Handlungen, welche sich jedoch in Sex und absolut kühler Erzählweise verlieren. Der dritte Teil ist dann mehr oder weniger der Auslauf der Geschichte.

Justine Dalvik lives alone with a slightly creepy bird in a big house in a Stockholm suburb. But her house is a nice one, placed on a solitaire beach. She’s lived there all her life. Her father was the maker of a world famous cough drop. Her mother died early, to be replaced by the abusive Flora, who tortured her all through her upbringing. Now Justine lives a quiet middle aged life, having the occasional lover and a few friends. She just came home from a backpacker trip to the Malaysian jungle. She still dutifully visits Flora regularly at the nursing home.

Into this little world steps Berit, Justine’s old bully from the school days. Berit is in the middle of a life crisis and desperate to make amends with her life. She sees the chance meeting with Justine as an opportunity to put things right and ask forgiveness. Little does she know that Justine already has crossed a line. Something happened in Malaysia. And now there’s no turning back.

Inger Frimansson is a pretty special voice in the current flora of Swedish crime fiction. Her books are not quite procedurals, not mysteries, not really thrillers (even if they are often pretty creepy). Her perspective is always the killer’s. Her books are stories of pretty ordinary people who commit ugly crimes without really planning to, and then desperately try to manage guilt, shock and the inevitable questions from well-meaning policemen. She’s very good at making this feel authentic, and her books are full of sweaty, claustrophobic accounts of what it might be like when that smiling cop who’s “just asking around about a missing person” rings your doorbell. Admittedly, when you’ve read a few of Frimansson’s books, you kind of know the drill. But a walk on the dark side of the ordinary is usually very worth it anyway. ( )

GMD begins with, and spends a great deal of time on the relationship between a young child (3 yrs. ?) and her new, somewhat abusive step-mother. The story hops around a bit, introduces new characters that we suspect will return later to help reveal all. After 80% of the book, I kept asking where are we here, where is this revenge story that is promoted in write-ups, reviews, etc. It begins (SPOILER coming) soon after in the jungles of Malaysia, then quickly moves on. At least I think it was quickly, it was difficult to understand how much time had elapsed between many passages in the book. Then it's over, ho-hum. What else, well Justine keeps a wild bird in the house that scares the bejesus out of guests. And there's some sex. Doubt I'll read another Frimansson. ( )

"Good Night, My Darling" by Sweden's Inger Frimansson is an unusual psychological thriller--although I'm not sure "thriller" applies in the usual Mary-Higgens-Clark or James-Patterson sense. I certainly kept reading although I did not sit on the edge of my seat ripping through the pages to discover if Justine Dalvik's prey lived or died. Some of her victims have already died when the book opens and there's a certain inevitability about the others. What holds the reader in thrall are the stories behind Justine and her victims. She does not kill randomly but out of deep hurt and anger seated in an adult who has never matured and moved beyond her fractured childhood. Her victims are all people with whom she has had long-term or romantic relationships. Their stories and hers intertwine to form a composite psychological portrait of lives lived and lost for various acts of intentioned and unintentioned cruelty toward Justine. None are quite guiltless, which is what makes this novel such a fascinating read. ( )