When the devil holds the candle (2010) by Karin Fossum

Where does Fossum get her macabre ideas? In his third case, Inspector Konrad Sejer (He Who Fears the Wolf, 2005, etc.) searches his Norwegian town for a missing delinquent who’s being kept right under his nose.

Andreas Winther and Sivert Skorpe, better known as Zipp, have simple tastes. They like to watch Blade Runner, drink and steal from locals. (Andreas also likes Zipp in a special way, but Zipp doesn’t know that.) One night, fresh from a routine purse-snatching that will have devastating consequences, Andreas strolls into the dark house of 50-ish Irma Funder, who sells curtains and bed linens, expecting an easy score. Zipp waits outside, but Andreas doesn’t return, and he doesn’t show up for work the next day, making Zipp uneasy and sending Andreas’s mother into a tizzy.

Though they aren’t alarmed that an 18-year-old boy would stay out all night, Sejer and Jacob Skarre investigate. But Fossum, who writes like Ruth Rendell with the gloves off, is less interested in their viewpoint than in the psychodrama unfolding between Andreas and Irma, who’s pushed him down the stairs and paralyzed him, turning him into a helpless audience for whatever she cares to say.

Fossum’s characters are as thin-skinned as anatomy charts. It’s no wonder she knows things about them no one else has ever seen—except for the Devil who holds a candle to them.

Thanks to Kirkus review.

Still life ( 2007) by Joy Fielding

 

Still Life by Joy Fielding is her newest book in a long line of bestsellers. I’ve been reading her novels for years and always enjoy them. This one started out slowly for me but then got going and I couldn’t put it down last night until I finished it.

Casey is a woman who has the world by the tail. She’s beautiful, rich, has her dream job and her dream man. So, her day starts as normally as always and she’s out having a nice lunch with her two best friends. She’s talking about wanting to start a family and she’s excited. She leaves to get on with her day and whammo! ~she gets hit in the parkade and worse the driver leaves her there for dead.

Sometime later Casey wakes up. She’s in the dark but she can hear things all around her-doctors, nurses, her friends, Warren-her husband. She’s talking to them but nobody is hearing her or answering her. What is going on? Listening in she learns she’s in a coma! So her days unfold with her wavering between hearing tv programs and thinking it’s real life to actually listening in on her family and friends when they visit. Eventually the hospital can do no more for her and her husband takes her home along with a nurse and a therapist. The doctors say that she could recover fully in time~they just don’t know.

The story takes off when Casey comes home. The police detective for her case visits. He’s not convinced that this wasn’t a deliberate act against Casey. Inside her mind, Casey is screaming~someone tried to kill me!!! But who? Ultimately that’s what it boils down too~who hates Casey enough to kill her? Listening in on the conversations around her Casey is caught in a terrifying ordeal of learning who wants her dead and not being able to do a thing about it.

I enjoyed this book although not as much as some of her other titles. Still it was a good read. As I said the beginning was slow for me but it did finally take off and I was hooked. It’s an interesting concept though. Just imagine yourself in a coma not being able to communicate yet hearing everything around you. Kind of scary if you ask me. This isn’t really one of those fast-paced thriller type books, but one that keeps you wondering just how it’s going to come to a conclusion. Something kind of light yet satisfying.

 

Thanks to blog, Peeking Between the Pages., April 2007 write-up.

Black seconds (2008) by Karin Fossum

Fossum, Karin - 'Black Seconds' (translated by Charlotte Barslund)
Paperback: 272 pages (May 2008) Publisher: Vintage ISBN: 0099501724

It is generally agreed that the worst thing that can happen to anyone is to lose a child. This is the premise of Karin Fossum's excellent new novel, BLACK SECONDS. Small and unpretentious in scale yet deep in meaning, as is usual with Fossum's books, the story begins when nine-year-old Ida Joner goes missing on her way to buy a comic and some sweets at the local newsagent. Helga, her distraught mother, reports her missing, but the girl seems to have vanished without a trace.

Inspector Sejer and his colleague Jacob Skarre, familiar from previous books, investigate the disappearance. They have little to go on, however, as nobody seems to have seen the girl while she was on her errand, and a search of the area by local volunteers reveals no clues.

As the days go by with no news of Ida, we see the effects of the disappearance on her parents, on Helga's sister Ruth and her family, and on Emil Johannes, a rather simple local character with an overbearing mother. Worry, guilt and fear affect this small cast of characters, invading every aspect of their lives and corroding relationships. The partnership between Sejer and Skarre is sparse yet charming, each man with his own strength, with a mutual respect leading to an attractive and fruitful partnership. Neither man is prepared to "let things go", so the reader is sure that, however long it takes, the detectives will solve the crime and see that justice is done.

It isn't that difficult to guess at how Ida vanished, given the clues provided at the start of the book, although there are several unpredictable twists and turns along the way. In particular there is a moving little sub-plot involving a nightdress which speaks volumes about the person concerned. But the "whodunit" aspect isn't the main point of Fossum's account - the events she describes in this slow burn of a book allow us to see how a small, focused cast of characters think, feel and live against a background of increasing suspense and dread. The writing and the translation (by Charlotte Barslund) are excellent. Karin Fossum's last book, CALLING OUT FOR YOU, was shortlisted for the CWA dagger in 2006. If possible, BLACK SECONDS is even better.

Thank you Maxine for this excellent review!
Read another review of BLACK SECONDS.
Maxine Clarke, England
May 2008
Maxine blogs at Petrona.
Details of the author's other books with links to reviews can be found on the Books page.
More European crime fiction reviews can be found on the Reviews page.

The intruder (2015) by Hakan Ostlundh

B

Malin and Henrik Andersson have used an agency to rent out their home on Faro, a tiny island in the Baltic Sea that was the longtime home of Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman. But when they return, their house has been trashed, and photos of the couple and their two children have had their eyes poked out. The investigation is handed to Detective Fredrik Broman on his first day back from a two-year medical leave necessitated by a massive concussion and cerebral hemorrhage. Östlundh (The Viper, 2012) has conceived an imaginatively disturbing threat to the Andersson family and skillfully builds suspense and tension. Primary characters are very closely observed, and Östlundh highlights the stark differences between their veneers of Swedish calm and their inner turmoil. These character expositions add complexity, but they occasionally threaten to dissipate the tension and sense of menace Östlundh creates. Nevertheless, U.S. readers of Swedish crime fiction should persevere and appreciate another talented Scandinavian crime novelist.--Gaughan, Thomas

Copyright 2015 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Descriptive content provided by Syndetics™, a Bowker service.

Taken from the Toronto Public Library's reviews.

61 hours (2010) by Lee Child

 

 

Jim Grant, better known by his pen name Lee Child, is a British thriller writer known for the Jack Reacher novel series. The books follow the adventures of a former American military policeman, Jack Reacher, who wanders the United State.

It all begins during a blizzard in South Dakota when a tour bus goes off the highway after a near-collision. The road is closed in both directions, no emergency vehicles are nearby, and all the passengers are old and infirm. Except one: Jack Reacher, who had hitched a ride in exchange for a few dollars. Jack is never far from trouble. In fact, in the dozen or so years since this iconic hero first hit the bookshops, he has attracted trouble like an open jar of jam attracts wasps.
Eventually, help arrives in the shape of a cop from a small town that has got bigger since a penitentiary was built on the outskirts, and where the lawyer who unknowingly caused the bus to crash in the first place had been working for a very bad man from down in Mexico. The Mexican is planning a massive drug deal, which could go wrong only if a vulnerable witness is not wiped off the face of the earth. So, Jack is stranded by the weather and, as is his nature, gets involved with the cops, and the witness, and eventually the Mexican, who has an inside man or woman in the local police force.

This case of crime and corruption explodes into one of the best thrillers I've read for ages. Lee Child is a Brit who has managed to become more American than most US authors. He has lived in New York and the only time one of his books has not rung true was when he brought Reacher to the UK. 61 Hours is destined to do big things on both sides of the Atlantic, and it really deserves it. Superb stuff!

Thanks to Independent, UK for review.

The ice child (2016) by Camilla Lackberg

Wow. This is a gripping Nordic noir in Camilla Lackberg’s series that, in part, charts the arc of married couple Erica Falck and Patrik Hedstrom — she’s a true-crime writer, he’s a detective — on another grisly adventure. This one begins with a traumatized young girl wandering blindly in the snow observed by a horsewoman: we won’t truly understand the significance of this scene or the depths of its evil until the very last page.

Sweden’s Lackberg works on a big canvas — there are many, many interconnected characters in these books. That can be a curse or a blessing — like a Russian novel you have to keep track of who’s who. The best way I find to do that is to take my smartphone and charge it on the opposite side of the house and just let myself go.

Lackberg’s plotting is on a plane with, is it too much to say, Agatha Christie? At the very least her plots have that level of complication and awareness that even old apparently harmless ladies have a knowledge of the world that should never be underestimated.

Besides its insane page-turner quality that kept me up on succeeding nights well after a reasonable bedtime, there are so many fascinating domestic themes. Erica and Patrik and their extended families are constantly trying to achieve a work-life balance with the help-hindrances of parents and in-laws. As a married couple, they are also trying to keep a balance of passion, compassion and mutual respect in a world awash in evil (and, yes, that is no exaggeration).

One theme that fascinates me in this particular novel is reflections over and over again on the subject of mothering: what makes a good mother, what limits maternal feeling, the extent a mother will go to protect a dangerous and even deranged child. In one very quiet scene toward the book’s climax, a daughter finally asks her mother the question that the teen must have asked herself a thousand times a day: mama, why don’t you love me? It is a raw question and cuts deeply. Sitting there, in my nightgown, racing toward the end and the many final revelations that keep spinning the story in surprising directions, I paused and wondered what is that question I have for my mother — and would I ever be brave enough to ask it. And all this while corpses pile up and cold cases thaw.

Lackberg is top-shelf Nordic Noir, and if you’ve done the Steig Larsson, Jo Nesbo, Anne Holt, Yrsa Sigurðardóttir circuit, Camilla Läckberg is a must-read.

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Thank you Huffinton Post for this review.

Midwinter sacrifice (2011) by Mons Kallentoft

'After his prize-winning debut with the thriller Pesetas and two novels that examined contemporary culture’s obsession with superficiality and consumption, author Mons Kallentoft is back with a new novel called Midvinterblod (Midwinter Sacrifice). The genre? Mystery – of course, one is tempted to add. The new book is the first of three promised with Detective Inspector Malin Fors of the Linköping police force in the leading role. 

During the coldest winter in memory, a hanged man is found dangling from a tree out on the plain. He had also been severely beaten. A suspicion of ritual murder is quickly formed. But who would want to murder Bollbengan - a loner and town eccentric? It soon becomes apparent that he didn’t lack tormentors. He was abused by young people and adults alike, mainly verbally. The fact that he "smelled like piss” seems to be an established truth, along with other hard ‘facts’, produced by local gossip. However, based on the modus operandi, the police suspect that sect-related violence may be involved, perhaps some crazies who believe in the old Asa gods.

 

I won’t reveal more of the plot here. Even if it is exciting and well constructed, there are other aspects of the novel that are even more exciting. Above all, I’m referring to Kallentoft’s use of language. It is far removed from the journalistic reporter style that so dominates the genre today. Kallentoft commands a broad register, from high-octane exciting prose to lyrical meditative prose, from brisk dialogue to sophisticated inner monologue. Language is really put to good use in this novel.

 

Another strength is the depictions of characters and environments. Even though some of the cast of characters could easily serve as stereotypes for white trash families or divorced cops with drinking problems, Kallentoft still treats all the figures in his novel with sensitivity and inquisitive respect.

 

Nature also plays an important part of the story, and not just as a backdrop or a setting, but as a landscape generating symbolism and saturated with significance, filled with signs waiting to be interpreted.

 

It sounds hardly original that the theme of the book is evil. But the author manages to extract, if not something new, then at least something highly absorbing and poignant with his study of man’s darker side.


  With Midvinterblod (Midwinter Sacrifice), Mons Kallentoft takes a firm grasp on the classical Swedish police genre. Its 430 pages can be directly traced back to Sjöwall/Wahlöö and those who came after them. It has everything that we’ve come to expect from a Swedish police story. Focus is on the hardworking police force. A gruesome murder is to be solved, and slowly but surely the pieces fall into place.



 Mons Kallentoft is a reliable author. He observes with a reliable eye and writes with a reliable hand. Midvinterblod (Midwinter Sacrifice) is a sturdily built novel. (...) If Malin Fors is one of the book’s main characters, the city of Linköping is the other, at least for those of us who wander in the shadow of the cathedral on a daily basis. We are presented with a city caught in frozen grasp of winter and Mons Kallentoft’s descriptions are right on the money...(..)”
   "The mystery genre moves in the highly charged situation between total control and unimaginable madness, between the crime and the punishment. This can be seen in both the plot and the language: there are those who control reality by objectively registering practical matters rather than inconceivable feelings, as if a detailed description of a cheese sandwich can conjure up the frightening reality of fumes that originate from a corpse. A fear of death? Sure, but now let’s concentrate solely on who killed this person, not on our own mortality. If. We. Only. Concentrate. On. One. Thing. At. A. Time. Then. We. Will. Be. Able. To. Deal. With. Reality. In Midvinterblod (Midwinter Sacrifice) Mons Kallentoft allows deliberate descriptions wobble, so that out of the corner of an eye you can sense other contexts, nastier truths. An incidental, resigned reply gives the awareness that what is being described may not be exactly everything that could be said. It is skilful and not just a little disquieting, a feeling of uneasiness slowly but steadily oozes through the pages. (...). But Mons Kallentoft dances an elegant dance of death on the verge of ruin that the mystery has become, allows weariness become part of the resignation of the main character, Malin Fors. The action takes place in Linköping, a town surrounded by snow-covered plains that could have come from the Coen Brothers movie, Fargo, although with different overtones. (...). But the originality does not need to be based on the choice of subject matter, the cast of characters or the plot. Instead, Kallentoft shifts the perspective ever so slightly, to a different language, a different mood. Only just enough so that one feels lost. It’s a new territory, that Linköping where Malin Fors lives.'

Review by Lotta Olsson, Dagens Nyheter

Dark angel (2014) by Mari Jungstedt