Full disclosure demands that I start by revealing that I am also a translator of Scandinavian languages. That’s what led me to pick up this book. In the best of worlds, it is possible to read a work from another land without ever thinking about the translator, or the fact that the book was written in a tongue that is not your own. This book does not come from the very best of worlds.

Larsson has woven a mystery based on characters. Her situations grow out of the intricate people that have rolled out of her keyboard. The result, in any language, is a book that is complex and demands full attention. No, The Blood Spilt, is not a novel you would take to the beach to amuse you while you gawk at people in bathing suits. It is a dark and often obscure tale of bloody murder that is sometimes—and here we must glance at translator Delargy—awkward. Rhythms and constructions often resemble the original Swedish more than they should. Sentences that do stand as pure English frequently march forward on leaden feet. There are also moments when one longs for the intervention of a stronger editorial hand somewhere in the flow from author to translator to reader.

The jacket copy describes the book as a “taut, atmospheric mystery.” It is atmospheric. The author paints every page with bucketsful of details. A character doesn’t only pick up a log to throw on the fire, but rather takes that log out of a wooden box from the Swedish Sugar Company. After a while it begins to feel like that log is part of the too many trees with which Larsson is obscuring the forest.

Safina is a scientist who writes like a novelist—well perhaps not exactly like a best selling fiction writer, but he does make science writing sound delicious. Safina speaks on behalf of the threatened leatherback turtle with both passion and compassion. In Safina’s narrative, the turtle is not a distant object of scientific observation, but rather a fascinating creature that becomes a central character in the tale.

We are shown the turtles in every stage of their history and through the many details of their daily existence. Safina also takes pains to give a clear vision of the leatherback turtles’ position in the ecology of the oceans.

Environmentally concerned readers will probably want to follow Safina into the fray for this and other endangered sea species. However, only the most callous reader will be able to come away from Safina’s well-written book without some measure of apprehension about the creatures.