Workmanlike
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This is a competent procedural crime story, with the two detectives doggedly questioning the inhabitants of a suburban community, and slowly letting the skeletons out of the closets. There are no real shocks or twists, and (like much contemporary crime fiction) no real opportunities for the reader to solve the mystery. Brought up on the likes of Christie, Sayers, James and Rendell, I prefer the old-fashioned detective novel, where the writer scatters red herrings up garden paths in all directions, before delivering the surprising solution in the final chapter.
Other readers have compared Karin Fossum to fellow Scandinavian Henning Mankell, predictably. But on the strength of 'Don't Look Back' I think Mankell is far better on location; you get a real sense of landscape in his novels, while Fossum barely bothers to sketch in her Norwegian backdrop, and the action could just as easily be set in the Lake District or North Wales.
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Good characters
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A dead body by the Serpent's Tarn. When you see the serpent, run away and don't look back. What place has death in this beautiful mountain setting?
This is the first book I have read by Karin Fossum. Inspector Sejer is likeable. The picturesque scenery contrasts with the messy lives of the inhabitants. I like the range of personalities we are introduced to.
Good police procedural with interesting characters. I wonder how you are supposed to pronounce the names?
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Top-notch Scandinavian crime thriller
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A sleepy Norwegian village is rocked by the discovery of a teenage girl's naked body lying on the edge of a local, secluded lake. Did she kill herself? Or was she the victim of a sexual attack?
But there's much more to this crime than meets the eye, as Inspector Sejer soon discovers. The victim, for instance, was an extremely popular girl in the neighbourhood, but she had recently become withdrawn and had quit her school's handball team despite being a top-notch player. She had also stopped her regular babysitting work. Her mother puts this change in behaviour down to puberty; her father thinks there's slightly more going on; Sjer wonders if she might have been raped.
There's little evidence of who committed the murder but several locals fall under suspicion including a disabled man, a teacher and the girl's boyfriend. Without giving away the ending, it's always the person you least expect, isn't it?
Ultimately, this is a fast-moving, well-paced crime thriller that had me guessing all the way through, which is rather rare for me: I normally guess the ending long before I reach the final page.
The prose is straightforward, clear and concise and the dialogue is realistic.
It has a convincing set of characters, especially Inspector Sejer, a widower still mourning the death of his wife, who is smart, tough and fatherly. I liked him enormously.
And the atmosphere -- both of the cloying community stunned by the crime, and the sense of dread that builds as the investigation progresses -- is pretty much perfect.
On the strength of this one book I've already added the remainder of Fossum's back catalogue to my wish list.
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Disappointed in my first Fossum
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This book came as part of a bumper bundle under the Christmas tree. Good thing there were others to read...the big print of my edition was an immediate turn off. The story proved to be a lightweight tale, lacking in the development of plot and character. Without the twists & turns which make a gripping dectective story (e.g. Henkell Manning, Val McDermid.) this was quite enjoyable - an average read, but less than truly satisfying.
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My favourite Fossum book - a very readable thriller
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I give this 4.5 stars in fact - of the two Karin Fossum novels I've read (the other is Calling Out For You), this is the better one. As usual featuring wise Inspector Konrad Sejer, this is a cool, occasionally rather stylised, thriller.
Fossum's crime novels are not as earthy as Henning Mankell's more famous ones (you can't imagine Sejer wondering if he ought to change his underwear more often, as Mankell's Kurt Wallander muses at one point). But in some ways Fossum is the better, more elegant writer, with better psychological insights. The stories are less dramatic (or melodramatic perhaps), and are paced expertly. For more blood and guts, a reader can turn confidently (as I do) to Mankell's prize-winning Wallander series.
I do agree with the reviewer who feels that occasionally Fossum's dialogue as translated does not flow very naturally - but in some ways the characters' 'careful' choice of words lifts the book's tone to a slightly higher plane.
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