The Sandhamn Murders

A very unusual policeman never shooting even in the most dangerous situations. A wonderful place where peace is menaced by a series of murders. Love relationships intertwined with door to door investigations. Quite different from tough cops and screaming sirens! Enjoyable!

Great characters, cast, scenery, plots. We are about to run out of epidodes and would love more. We even learned some Swedish. Beautiful detective series set in the Stockholm archipelago. Spans several years of the characters' lives as they go through many changes. Ranges from serious and thought provoking to lighthearted and humorous. Great performances by a wonderful cast set in the idyllic village and harbor setting of Sandhamn island. Based on the Viveca Sten novels. Comprises individual mysteries of varying length within an overarching story of several intertwined family stories. A pleasure to watch. Recommend. Great vibe.

If you're looking for gripping Scandi Noir this isn't it ... it's lightweight but easy on the eye and once you accept that it's thoroughly enjoyable. Island hopping in your speed boat, standing at the wheel with your hair streaming out behind you (if you have it) seems to be one of the favoured ways to get around ... or maybe a bicycle in Nora's case as you head off for a clandestine meeting over a coffee in the village to discuss the latest crime, suspected crime ... whatever! It's all rather good fun and each hour and a half episode drifts by you in no time at all.

Nicolai Cleve Broch has been a worthy addition to the series and like Nora is quite vapid much of the time but very at home in their roles as are all the cast. :)

This is a miniseries in three episodes that is based on the novel "I de lugnaste vatten" by the Swedish detective writer Viveca Sten.

The series is professionally made. It utilises the idyllic scenery of the Stockholm archipelago to good effect and the cast does as good a job with the script as they can. The main performers, Cedergren and Rapaport, do have some chemistry, even if the former is overdoing the "manly-male-who-suffers-in_silence" thing.

The let-down is in the plot, however. It is a rather cliché story featuring a silent cop who keeps on breaking all the rules of policing and yet never gets suspended. His young side-kick still has to learn that a real cop goes by gut feeling and does not bother with methodical work with such boring stuff as, ehm, evidence? By simple elimination the viewer can soon figure out who is the culprit, if only because the plot does not present enough possible candidates, which is deadly for the suspense. Hence, the story very soon fails to engage.

In Sweden the series was a success nonetheless.

Everyone in the series seems to be nice and pleasant. Even the murderers don't seem to be truly evil. There's nothing in Viveca Sten's universe that offends. People we know barely nothing about are the ones who die and subsequent crimes are always attempted murders of characters we've got to know a bit about and are generally saved from death in the nick of time.

There are back stories to the main characters whose lives mesh seamlessly with each other although true romance is always an on/off affair. They have their problems, of course, but these don't generally interfere with the denouement of the plots.

The setting in the archipelago is stunning. I've only been there a couple of times and the series makes me want to go back again one day. It's all so perfect just as Sweden is portrayed abroad.

I've seen all seven seasons and am eagerly awaiting an eighth. It's absolutely not Scandi Noir, more Rosemary and Thyme, but that's not a reason to be critical - the genres are different, that's all. I like them both and this series is a great example of an easy watch that holds the attention.