This is third book in Icelandic writer Yrsa Sigardardottir’s series about Thóra Gudmundsdóttir, a single mother and lawyer living in Reykjavik, Iceland. Yrsa Sigurdardottir is among my favorite writers; she writes excellently and keeps improving.  Ashes to Dust mostly takes place at Vestmannaeyjar (The Westman Islands), a small archipelago off the south coast of Iceland. Interestingly, the archipelago came to international attention in January 1973, when the volcano Eldfjell erupted. The eruption created a 700-foot-high mountain where a meadow had been, and caused the island’s 5000 inhabitants to be temporarily evacuated to the mainland. This is the backdrop for the dark mystery in Ashes to Dust.

When the authorities decides to dig out some of the houses that were buried when the volcano erupted at the Westman Islands more than 30 years ago, in order to create a volcanic tourist attraction dubbed ‘The Pompeii of the North’, Markus Magnússon hires Thora to try to prevent the excavation of the house where he and his family lived. When that proves impossible, he makes Thora negotiate for him so that he is permitted to be the first person into the basement when it becomes accessible. When it is, he enters the basement alone.

Soon after, he calls for Thora to come down there:

Thóra peered at the floor, but couldn’t see anything that could have frightened Markús that much, only three mounds of dust. She moved the light of her torch over them. It took her some time to realize what she was seeing— and then it was all she could do not to let the torch slip from her hand. ‘Good God,’ she said. She ran the light over the three faces, one after another. Sunken cheeks, empty eye-sockets, gaping mouths; they reminded her of photographs of mummies she’d once seen in National Geographic. ‘Who are these people?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Markús…

The basement contains three dead bodies, covered with volcanic ash, and in addition a skull that had been kept in a box. The body belonging to the skull is missing.

Markús Magnússon, Thora’s client, was only a teenager when the volcano erupted. He claims that he had been asked to pick up the box for a woman who was his childhood sweetheart, and that he didn’t know that it contained a skull. Now he falls under suspicion and hires Thóra Gudmundsdottir to defend him. The case is difficult, and when the childhood sweetheart is murdered it gets even more complicated.

Thora feels the police are not doing enough for her client, and starts to investigate the murders herself. She travels to the Westman Islands, where she encounters a wall of silence. Everywhere there are omissions, lies, hidden facts and nothing is quite what it seems to be.

The plot in Ashes to Dust is clever, rich and very intriguing, with several surprising twists and turns, and Thóra Gudmundsdóttir is an excellent protagonist. Yrsa Sigurdardottir’s story telling seems to be improving from book to book, and I thought this book was fabulous – in my opinion her best so far; tense and perhaps even a little terrifying. This is outstanding, very intelligent crime fiction!

Links to Yrsa Sigurdardottir’s books at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

©2010 Nordic Bookblog. All Rights Reserved.

This is an interesting Swedish crime fiction novel; a book that to some extent is a cult novel in Sweden, and that has attracted much attention because it provides a possible explanation for the assassination of Prime Minister Olof Palme in February 1986. The author, Leif GW Persson, is a professor of criminology at Rikspolisstyrelsen (National Police Board) in Sweden and one of Sweden’s bestselling crime fiction writers. Some believe the explanation to be the truth or close to the truth, others that it is completely misleading. Be that as it may – this is a book of fiction based on an actual event, and as such doesn’t need to be true. Instead, it needs to be entertaining and fun to read, and that it is, and more.

The intriguing and somewhat lyrically named story – deliciously told, with lots of humor and with live, fallible and flawed characters – starts with the apparent suicide of a young American, John Krassner, visiting Stockholm. Krassner was working on a book detailing the exploits of his uncle, Col. John Buchanan, an OSS agent in the years following WWII. The young man has seemingly fallen from a window in a student dorm, and his loose shoe killed a little dog taken for an evening stroll by its owner. Had the man been Swedish, the case might have stopped there. But he wasn’t – he was an American. So, to be on the safe side, a small investigation is launched. As it turns out, the search of his room reveals a few strange things. Even so, the case is classified as a suicide.

Then, by accident, police inspector Lars Martin Johansson and his colleagues get involved in the case. And as Johansson starts to look into it, he unearths more than he bargained for, and a larger and quite complex context for the apparent suicide quickly emerges. There is seemingly a huge puzzle surrounding the event – a puzzle that involves international espionage, attempted cover-ups, greed, and other ingredients. A high-ranking Swedish politician known by the code name “Pilgrim” features prominently in the puzzle. Also, several factors seem to point towards incompetent police work and possibly behind the scenes involvement and disinformation by Sweden’s secret police. The deeper Johansson looks, the more he sees that simply doesn’t add up the way it is supposed to.

Between Summer’s Longing and Winter’s End is at the same time fascinating and shocking. We embark on a journey deep into the underbelly of the Swedish police force, and meet lazy, incompetent and perverse police officers concerned mostly with position, power, pay, comradeship, drinking and sex. We meet cynical politicians and spin masters in controlling positions.

It’s a dark novel and a dark journey which not only seems very realistic but also masterfully recreates the blanket of uncertainty, the multiple ways insights get lost in huge and complex organizational environments where most actors have their own agendas. Fortunately there is also sarcasm, black satire, dark humor, mind boggling insights, and dialogues that make you laugh out loud. It is a wonderful novel, a riveting anti-procedure police procedural, a psychological drama, and an adventurous journey into a murky landscape we can perhaps only hope doesn’t exist but most likely does. The publication of Between Summer’s Longing and Winter’s End by Leif GW Persson is one of the major crime fiction events of 2010!

Links to books by Leif GW Persson at Amazon US, Amazon UK, and Amazon CAN.

“Laced with irony and satire . . . Reminiscent of Henning Mankell and Stieg Larsson in its toughness . . . Persson does a fine job of pitting one desperate soul against another in a philosophically charged tale worthy of Ingmar Bergman—but with lots more guns.”
—Kirkus (starred)

“A brilliant political thriller.”
—Der Tagesspiegel

“One of the best Swedish crime novels of all time.”
—Expressen

“One of the most exhaustive investigations ever to have been written about. A plot full of suspense, a great adventure, and a philosophical view of the dark and painful sides of life.”
—Il Giornale di Vicenza

“Leif GW Persson’s big lush novel is a tale of mystery and intrigue and murder. .. From a country known for terrific crime novelists, Sweden’s great crime writer Leif GW Persson brilliantly takes the reader into a world of fascinating mystery and secrets.”
—Joseph Wambaugh

©2010 Nordic Bookblog. All Rights Reserved.

(English title in parenthesis if available)

1. Den farliga leken, Mari Jungstedt
2. De ensamma, Håkan Nesser
3. Blodläge, Johan Theorin (A Place of Blood)
4. Vårlik, Mons Kallentoft
5. Pansarhjärta, Jo Nesbø (The Leopard)
6. Oväntat besök på Star Street, Marian Keyes
7. Drömmen förde dej vilse, Anna Jansson
8. Lobbyisten, Thomas Bodström
9. Utrensning, Sofi Oksanen (Purge)
10. I grunden utan skuld, Viveca Sten

For the moment the Swedes seem to mostly be reading Swedish authors, with some notable exceptions: Jo Nesbo (from Norway), Marian Keyes, and Sofi Oksanen (from Finland, and winner of the Nordic Council prize for the best Nordic novel 2010). Oksanen’s book has already been translated and is available, while Theorin’s and Nesbo’s books are available for preorder and will be released in 2011.

©2010 Nordic Bookblog. All Rights Reserved.

Along with Scandinavian crime fiction, the Scandinavian movie industry too has taken some big leaps forward during the last decade or so. Here are five dramas that are my special favorites.

1. My life as a Dog.This is not a recent one, but it is simply so compelling and sweet that I love to watch it from time to time. A Swedish boy is able to cope with severe hardships due to his ability to always see his own problems in a larger perspective. The story is very compelling and excellently told. A real heart-warmer of a movie! Read more ..
2. Mother of Mine. A strong Finnish movie, winner of numerous awards, about the 70,000 Finnish children that were sent to Sweden during World War II. It is a stand-out, very well made and very poignant, superbly acted, that tells this story through the eyes of 9-year-old Eero. It is moving on many levels, and made a deep impression on me. Read more ..
3. Elling. This is another marvel of a movie. It too has received all sorts of honors and awards. What sets it apart is the charming and delightful combination of offbeat comedy with poignant insight. It tells the story written by Ingvar Ambjornsen about Kjell Bjarne and Elling, two special people who have spent time in a mental institution and are now judged fit to return to society. We follow them as they try to overcome the huge challenges of everyday life in Oslo. Simply wonderful! Read more ..
4. Fanny and Alexander. Most of Ingmar Bergman’s movies are masterpieces; Bergman had a special magic touch. Among them, this is my personal favorite for the title of “Bergman’s Best”. Bergman drew upon memories of his own childhood for this portrait of the Ekdahls, an upper-class Swedish family whose celebrations and tribulations are seen through the eyes of 10-year-old Alexander. Excellent on every level, and one I love to return to. Read more ..
5. Babette’s Feast. This warm, quiet Danish pearl is a marvel. Based on a story by Karen Blixen (a k a Isak Dinesen), this artistic, sensual movie is full of sacred passions. A woman flees the French civil war and lands in a small seacoast village in Denmark. There she arranges a feast for the inhabitants that will forever change their lives. It is a lovely and stunning movie. Read more ..

In addition, As It is in Heaven also deserves special mentioning. An outstanding, very charming movie where Michael Nyqvist gives what it perhaps the best performance ever!

©2010 Nordic Bookblog. All Rights Reserved.

They spend their time pondering crime and criminals, and often their thoughts are occupied with murder: how to commit it and make it virtually impossible to find the killer, among other things. Every year this group of famous ladies kills. Fortunately they limit themselves to doing it between the pages of crime fiction books.

But who are they, how do they write, and what do they have in common, the women of this exclusive group? Scandinavian crime fiction is often discussed by commentators as if the term itself denotes something in particular, apart from the very obvious – that Scandinavian crime fiction writers are Scandinavians. Which, of course, they tend to be. But is there something more? To what extent is this term meaningful beyond the obvious?

And who are these bloodthirsty Nordic ladies of the pen? As this post is for an English-speaking readership, we limit ourselves to authors translated into English. The Swedish members of this set are, for the moment, Karin Alvtegen, Kerstin Ekman, Inger Frimansson, Mari Jungstedt, Camilla Läckberg, Asa Larsson, Liza Marklund, and Helene Tursten. The Norwegians are Anne Holt and Karin Fossum, in Finland there is Tove Jansson, and in Iceland Yrsa Sigurdardottir. So it is a group numerically dominated by Swedish writers.

In this and a series of later posts I take a closer look at the authors in this group and discuss how they differ and what they have in common, as well as whether there is anything distinct to Scandinavian crime fiction that perhaps somehow sets the writings of this group apart from, say, the crime fiction literatures of the US and UK.

The writers discussed here do not fall neatly into the same sub-genre and there are many differences along multiple dimensions between them. Here I focus on their protagonists. In later posts I’ll look at the settings of their mysteries, how they build suspense, and what they have in common.

The Protagonists

No set protagonist

Some of the writers listed above do not write series, and do not write about the same protagonist from novel to novel. Karin Alvtegen and Tove Jansson mostly write about women, but different women each time. They tend to be, in some or other sense, women that are peripheral and who, for some or other reason – often psychological – find it difficult to fit into their surroundings.

The same is the case with Inger Frimansson and Kerstin Ekman (in the latters’ crime fiction books). They, along with Altegen, write psychological thrillers, and concern themselves with psychological processes and interpersonal dynamics. They tend to write about women, but not exclusively so. For instance, in one of her books Kerstin Ekman has a male protagonist, Police Constable Torsson.

Heroines

Perhaps it is to be expected that female crime fiction authors write about heroines. And some of these ladies do that. But only a few of them feature female heroines. Liza Marklund’s is a reporter named Annika Bengtzon. She is smart as a razor and very good at connecting loose facts. She has a problematic relationship with a man who mostly shares in the work at home and in taking care of the children. Marklund’s books tend to be somewhat “gendered” – they deal a lot with the private life of the heroine from a woman’s point of view.

Helene Tursten writes about Detective Inspector Irene Huss, an impressive and likable woman. She lives a tough life: a wife, a mother, and a career woman with a time-consuming, often dangerous, job. She is marrided to a chef, has twin teenage daughters and wandering terrier.

Interestingly, two of the writers have female lawyers as protagonists – Yrsa Sigurdardottir’s heroine Thora Gudmundsdottir is a Reykjavik lawyer and single mother, working hard to balance the needs of her family with a demanding job. Asa Larsson’s main character is Stockholm tax attorney Rebecka Martinsson, but police detectives Svein-Erik Stalnacke and Anne-Maria Mella also feature prominently in her books. Rebecka Martinsson is divorced and seems to be searching for the right job and her place in the world. She does not usually occupy the center stage in Larsson’s books to the same extent as Thora does.

Married couples

Anne Holt has a married couple as her protagonists in her later books, even though she wrote a series of earlier books (which I actually prefer to the current series) featuring a lesbian police officer, Hanne Wilhelmsen. However, in the books translated into English so far, the protagonists are the FBI-trained profiler and academic psychologist Johanne Vik and Detective Inspector Adam Stubo. In the course of the series, we have followed their relationship from its beginning and by the later books have learned much about their family life.

The same is the case for Camilla Läckberg’s protagonists, namely police detective Patrik Hedström and his wife, author Erica Falck. Considerable attention is devoted to the development of their relationship, pregnancies, family and social life.

Both these couples tend to exchange information and discuss the cases they are working with when they are together at home.

Heros

Both Norwegian Karin Fossum and Swedish Mari Jungstedt write crime fiction series with male protagonists. In Jungstedt’s books, set on the idyllic island Gotland, we meet the sleuthing duo Inspector Anders Knutas and Swedish news reporter Johan Berg. We learn a little about Inspector Knutas’s life as a married man, but quite a bit about the course of a romance between Johan Berg and a woman who is initially – in the early books – married with children.

In Fossum’s series, featuring the protagonists Inspector Konrad Sejer and his assistant Jacob Skarre and set in small-town Norway, on the other hand, we learn relatively little about their private lives. Instead, Fossum’s focus is more on the perpetrators of the crimes.

Summing it up

Most likely there are generally more heroines in the books by female writers than in those by male writers, and this is the case here. But among the ladies of Scandinavian crime fiction we find all types of protagonists.

As far as I can see there are some differences in style depending on the type of protagonist. Having a couple, as in Lackberg’s series, or two main protagonists, as for example Sejer and Skarre in Fossum’s books, makes it easy for the author to reveal some of the thinking of the protagonists, for instance in conversations between the characters.

Another difference of note is that in series where the protagonist, or one of the protagonists, is female, there tend to be a little more focus on family issues and relationships than in the other books. This difference relates to the “side stories” in the books and their relative prominence, and is one of degree.

Apart from that, it is probably worth noting that the hard, tough, one-man strike force heroes are absent in the writings of these Scandinavian ladies, as it generally is in Scandinavian and most European crime fiction. Characters of that type are so out of date, so 1950′s, and have been replaced by protagonists that more or less are ordinary people living ordinary lives and who solve their cases by means of hard work and brain power.

As far as protagonists are concerned, there clearly is no unique Scandinavian recipe that sets these authors apart from their counterparts in the rest of the world.

To be continued ..

©2010 Nordic Bookblog. All Rights Reserved.

This must be an exciting time for Liza Marklund. Postcard Killers, the thriller she wrote with James Patterson, will be released in the US on August 16th. And Red Wolf, her most recent book in the Annika Bengtzon series, will be released in UK October 14th, 2010, and in the US on February 15th, 2011 (it is already available for preorder both places).

Red Wolf is the fifth book in Swedish crime fiction writer Liza Marklund’s series featuring reporter Annika Bengtzon. It is set in the middle of a very cold spell during the Swedish winter. Annika is still recovering from the traumas suffered in The Bomber, and still struggles with anxiety.

Now she has arranged a meeting with a journalist up in the northern Swedish town of Lulea about an old case of terrorism – a terrorist attack on a military airport named F21 by a group that called themselves The Beasts. However, when she arrives in Lulea to meet him, she is told that the journalist has been killed in a hit and run accident. It doesn’t take Annika long to find out that he has been brutally murdered.

Annika Bengtzon, an experienced crime reporter, suspects that the murder is linked to an attack against a nearby air base in the late sixties – the case she came up there to talk about. She makes a few small findings and starts to pursue them. And as more people are killed she uncovers evidence that links the killings: A mass-murderer is one the loose in Sweden. Seemingly one of the terrorists that were involved in the attack on F21 – a man who has since fled to France, and who is a known assassin – has now returned to Sweden and is behind the brutal murders. He was the leader of The Beasts and used to be code-named Dragon.

But who is Dragon? And who were the other members of the group – in particular Red Wolf? And why has Dragon returned to Sweden and started to kill people? While Annika investigates and increasingly finds herself drawn into a spiral of violence, she also – by accident – finds out that her husband is having an affair with a colleague. And when she tells her editor what she has found out, including evidence that suggests the case involves a member of the sitting Government, he tells her to stop investigating and drop the case.

Annika disregards the order from her boss. She is persistent and stubborn, and continues her investigation. Soon she finds that she has been betrayed by her editor for political gain, and is able to connect the dots and move in even closer to Dragon, the terrorist cell, and the well-hidden secrets of the past. She is determined to find the truth and expose the people involved in the atrocities. To achieve this, Annika is again forced to fight for her career, for her life against a deadly psychopath, and this time for her marriage as well.

Red Wold is a remarkable and very good crime fiction novel, with an excellent, very exciting plot. Liza Marklund’s writing is fast-paced, direct, and very good. She masterfully builds suspense and when she releases it, it is with a bang. The ending is excellent. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book – Red Wolf is one of the best Scandinavian crime fiction books translated into English this year.

Praise:

“Pick up a Liza Marklund book, read it until dawn, wait until the stores open, buy another one.”
— James Patterson

“Liza Marklund is the next great Nordic export for fans of crime fiction to discover…Edge-of-your-seat suspense, sophisticated plotting, complex characterisation and unique locales.”
— Harlan Coben

Links to books by Liza Marklund at Amazon US, Amazon UK (books and DVD’s), and Amazon CAN.

©2010 Nordic Bookblog. All Rights Reserved.

This book is classic Varg Veum, and a strong addition to the series. Originally entitled Din til døden and published in 1979, it was the second book published in Gunnar Staalesen’s much celebrated series about the Bergen sleuth Varg Veum, and Staalesen’s Norwegian breakthrough. Yours Until Death is a relatively noir crime fiction novel, set in bleak and rainy Bergen and featuring a disillusioned Veum, a man with a past as a social worker – but without much of a present. He is now divorced detective, nearly broke, has no clients to speak of, and lots of unpaid bills.

Then one rainy day he actually gets a new client. Roar, a little man, eight and a half years old and sharp as a tack , comes to Varg’s office with a problem. He has found the sleuth in the telephone book, listed under “Detective Bureaus”.

“Maybe it was because he was the youngest client I’d ever had. Maybe it was because he reminded me of another little boy in another part of Bergen. Or maybe it was because I had nothing else to do. Anyway, I listened to him.”

Somebody has stolen Roar’s bike, and he wants Varg to help him get it back. He knows who stole it, and he knows where it is. The bike is being held hostage by a gang of teenagers from his neighborhood who specialize in terrorizing the locals, and are led by a nineteen year old psychopath named Joker. These bad boys want to lure Roar’s mother to their hut in the forest to get the bike so they can molest her, as they have molested others.

Varg Veum recovers the stolen bike, and meets Roar’s mother Wenche Andresen – a beautiful and blue-eyed, shy, and very sensuous woman – and becomes infatuated by her. However, what seemingly is the conclusion of yet another trivial case turns into the beginning of something far bigger and more ominous.; Varg gets sucked into a murder case where the victim is Roar’s father and the person accused of the murder is Roar’s mother.- Varg is convinced that Wenche is innocent, even though all the evidence points to her. Trying to prove her innocence, and perhaps also to win her love, Veum very soon finds himself in grave danger.

Yours Until Death is great crime fiction by Gunnar Staalesen (left on the picture, with Varg Veum – actor Trond Espen Seim right), wonderfully written and excellently translated into English by Margaret Amassian; very dark yet full of dark and understated humor and at times almost unbearably tense. It is a novel more than anything about the potentially destructive force of lust and passion.

‘one of the finest, most serious, most ambitious books in post-war Norwegian crime writing’ – Norwegian critic Nils Nordberg

‘Staalesen is another fine representative of Scandinavian crime fiction’—
Independent

‘Varg Veum is in the best traditions of sleuthery’ —The Times

See also our reviews of the Varg Veum movies on DVD!

Links to Gunnar Staalesen’s books at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

©2010 Nordic Bookblog. All Rights Reserved.

The Danish crime fiction writer Jussi Adler-Olsen has won the Glass Key Award for his book Flaskepost fra P.

This is the third book in Adler-Olsen’s outstanding series about police commissioner Carl Mørck and his odd and intriguing Department Q. The books in this series are all excellent, so full of suspense that it is hard to sit still while reading them, very well plotted and written, and full of humor to boot!

The case in this book starts with a message in a bottle that reaches the eccentric commissioner. It is an old message from two boys in dire straits. A wonderful tale!

I hope the publishers in the UK and the US move quickly on this series, as I am sure it will be a huge hit. Also, I hope they this time publish the series in the right sequence.

A well deserved prize for Jussi Adler-Olsen! Good for Denmark too – it is now 11 years since the last time a Dane won this prestigious award; Leif Davidsen won the award in 1999.

©2010 Nordic Bookblog. All Rights Reserved.

This is not a crime fiction book by Henning Mankell, and not about Kurt Wallander. Italian Shoes is a novel – a book describing a voyage deep into the soul of an elderly man. Sixty-six-year-old Frederick Welin has been a surgeon. For the past 12 years he has lived alone in his little cottage on an isolated island outside Stockholm. His stay on the island is a self-imposed exile. He was guilty, and this is what he deserves; the punishment he has prescribed for himself. But why is he hiding? Will he ever be able to return from exile?

One day, in January, one cold, bleak mid-winter day, a lone figure is slowly coming towards him out there on the ice, an old lady on a walker. When she is close enough, he recognizes Harriet Hörnfeldt, the woman he had loved intensely in the summer of 1966 and then abandoned – 30 years ago. Finally she has tracked him down.

Now Harriet is dying of cancer. Ever since he left her, she has loved and hated him. The reason for her visit is that she wants Frederick to honor the beautiful promise he once made her – to take her to a pool deep in the forests of northern Sweden; to a place where he once, as a child, spent a wonderful day with his father.

This is the start of a long journey through the Swedish winter and, at the same time, deep into old, almost forgotten, perhaps even repressed memories of events far in the past and of love, intimacy and betrayal. The journey is strenuous and eventful – with accidents and problems, and with the past moving forward into the present. It provides him with an opportunity to take responsibility and face his past, to ponder who he really is, and forces him to recognize his own lack of consideration both for himself and for others.

Gradually Frederick realizes the extreme futility of his attempt to abandon himself and others. His questions about himself and his life get increasingly urgent: “Before I die,” Fredrik says, “I must know why I’ve lived.” But can he make up for what has been lost?

Italian Shoes is a wonderful novel, outstandingly translated by Laurie Thompson. Having read most of the books Henning Mankell has written, I consider this to be among his three best books, and I enjoyed it tremendously. It is tender and reminiscing, profoundly sad, and tells a rich story in a way that in many ways remind me of the writing of Norwegian author Per Petterson in his Out Stealing Horses. It is quietly told, yet rich in all manner of emotions. The story is one that will make you pause to reflect and consider. Italian Shoes is a deep, timeless, very impressive tale of redemption and renewal, about a man imprisoned by fear and pride.

Praise for Italian Shoes:

“a fine meditation on love and loss.” –Sunday Telegraph

“stark” — Sunday Times

“Mankell carefully maps the changing seasons in beautifully stark prose”
–FT

Links to books by Henning Mankell at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

©2010 Nordic Bookblog. All Rights Reserved.

Bad Intentions (Den onde viljen) is the ninth novel in Norwegian and the seventh in English in Karin Fossum’s excellent series about Inspector Konrad Sejer. It is a psychological thriller about living with bad conscience and a police procedural where we partly know whodunit.

The plot is very interesting. Early one September day, three old friends – Axel, Reilly and Jon – go on a weekend trip together. Jon has severe psychological problems and suffers from anxiety attacks. Axel and Reilly have picked him up at the hospital and brought him to their favorite place, a remote cabin in the forest, to cheer him up.

They are restless, and decide to row out on the Dead Water Lake, the little lake next to the cabin. Out on the lake, Jon starts to feel very anxious and jumps into the lake. One of the friends wants to try to save him; the other one prevents it. They decide to construct a shared story about what happened that presents it as a suicide, and they wait until the next morning before calling the police.

When the police, Konrad Sejer and his assistant Skarre arrives, Sejer and Skarre quickly detect some problems with the story the two boys tell them. Some of the facts do not fit the story all that well. But the boys – the only witnesses – are consistent and tell the same story. Sejer strongly feels that the boys are hiding something. However, finding what they hide and the truth behind Jon’s death will prove very difficult. Weeks pass without further clues, and then in a nearby lake the body of a teenage boy floats to the surface.

Bad Intentions is an intelligent psychological crime novel that deals with bad conscious and its effects on the human mind. Fossum has created a smart plot where lies lead to further lies and actions to cover the initial lies, and very cleverly describes the consequences of this within a friendship. As the context changes, what was once mutual trust turns gradually into fear and distrust. And, as Fossum shows, it is sometimes very hard to hide the truth – it has a way of popping up when you least expect it!

I was very fascinated by this book. It is excellently written and cleverly plotted. It just feels like a very believable, very real story, and at the same time as it is suspenseful and entertaining, it is also a book that made me ponder. I strongly recommend Bad Intentions – it is a marvelous crime fiction book!

Links to books by Karin Fossum at amazon US, amazon UK, amazon CAN, and Fossum at Barnes & Noble

©2010 Nordic Bookblog. All Rights Reserved.