Hakan Nesser's Van Veeteren

Hakan Nesser - Swedish author

As we head into a special 2016 Crime & Justice festival feature on Scandinavian writers of crime fiction (more information to follow shortly) I am revisiting authors and their works that grace my home library shelves. Hakan Nesser is perhaps not as well known in Australia as other Swedish writers but his work is worthy of inclusion in any discussion on Nordic Noir.

My introduction to Nesser's work was Borkmann's Point which was the first to be translated into English. The main character is Inspector Van Veeteren, a veteran detective who holds fast to his mentor's rule: Chief Inspector Borkmann believed there was a point at which more information on a crime is superfluous and the answer lies in what is already known.
Van Veeteren is on holiday in the coastal town of Kaalbringen when asked to help the local police investigate what seems to be the work of a serial killer. The local chief of police is about to retire and is more interested in a quick result than the correct result, however, Van Veeteren will not be dissuaded from a full investigation.

As more killings take place, he calls on his colleague Munster to come and join him and they begin to work closely with local inspector, Beate Moerk. Things take a dramatic turn when Moerk goes missing after leaving a message with Munster that she has uncovered something important in one of their reports. As they desperately search for Beate, Van Veeteren is left to wonder if she had reached Borkmann's point and whatever she discovered is the reason for her disappearance.

The series of books featuring Van Veeteren are set in an unidentifiable part of northern Europe while a later series featuring the Swedish Italian detective, Inspector Gunner Barbarotti, are all set in Sweden. In both instances, Nesser's main characters approach their work in a cerebral fashion, favouring detailed intellectual analysis over quick action or assumption-based conclusions.

Nesser has won the Swedish Crime Novel Award three times and has written ten Van Veeteren novels and five featuring Barbarotti.

Here we are in 2016 and about to convene the Crime & Justice festival

When I started this blog in 2012 I was aware of the growing interest in crime fiction from Scandinavia but did not think it would blossom as it has to now being a significant part of any crime fiction section in a bookshop and of my home library.

As I pen this blog, we have marked the twelve-month anniversary of the passing of Swedish crime writer, Henning Mankell.  His character, Kurt Wallander, is widely recognized as one of the most memorable of the genre and is known to a broad audience through the two television series, one featuring Kenneth Brannagh.

My first Wallander was Faceless Killers when it was translated into English in 1997. I had to import a copy as no Australian publisher had the rights to the work. The setting is an isolated farmhouse where the farmer has been tortured to death and his wife left with a noose around her neck. She later dies but not before she utters the word “foreign”. Wallander and his team set about investigating the crime and come face-to-face with the ramifications of the state’s attitude to immigration and national identity. As with all Mankell’s work, there is the opportunity to delve into Sweden’s political and social character and to ponder questions that have the power to divide nations.

As is often the case with crime writers from this part of the world, was politically active and imbued his work with a sense of social commentary. This is part of the attraction for me of Nordic Noir – the deeper, more complex rendering of the society in which the action takes place and against which the characters are set.

Another feature of Mankell’s series of crime novels was the introduction of Linda Wallander, Kurt’s daughter, as a policewoman. I found this sideways tilt from father to daughter as main protagonist to be executed extremely well; the character of Linda was as expertly drawn as that of Wallander himself.

I had the good fortune to meet Henning Mankell on one of his visits to Melbourne and it remains a highlight of my bookselling career. 

I convene an annual Crime & Justice festival in Melbourne and am using this most recent blog as a lead-in to the November event this year and a way of regularly blogging on my favourite form of reading.

For more information about the crowdfunding campaign we have going for the tenth anniversary Crime & Justice festival, please visit: http://pozible.com/project/crime-justice-festival 

The Voices Beyond by Johan Theorin

Set on the Baltic island of Oland this is a tale of secrets long held that have disastrous effects on many as they come to light. The central characters are the Kloss family who are the most prominent islanders, running a large resort; a retired sailor Gerlof Davidsson; and a man who left Oland in the 1930s as a young boy.  The ‘homecomer’, as he is known, spent decades in Russia, living a brutal and desperate existence. His return to the island is the catalyst for the truth coming to light about the Kloss family; a truth that has this man determined to exact revenge.

Johan Theorin weaves intricate plots that seem to unfold slowly yet build to a devastating crescendo. Each of his titles are self-contained but this is the fourth in a quartet featuring the island of Oland, a place very familiar to Theorin.

The Voices Beyond title signifies those who can be heard down the years through the oral history of a community. It also, in my opinion, refers to the reach of people long gone from this life. Theorin manages to create intricate plots with original characterisations and a sense of the supernatural without in any way testing the credibility of his narrative. He is one of my favourite authors and never fails to impress.

Camilla Lackberg with us at Reader's Feast Bookstore in Melbourne Australia

I am delighted that Camilla Lackberg will be with us at Reader's Feast, my bookstore in Melbourne, Australia, this coming Monday evening, 19 May, 2014. My most recent blog reviewed her latest book, Buried Angels. Full details are on our website - www.readersfeast.com.au - and bookings are via telephone or email. We love meeting our favourite authors and our readers so if you are near us in Melbourne, do come along. It will be a great conversation. Mary D

Buried Angels by Camilla Lackberg *Released in Australia May 2014. Event at Reader's Feast, Melbourne

The latest book from Camilla Lackberg, Buried Angels, is thoroughly engaging and entertaining. The married couple, Patrik Hedstrom, policeman, and Erica Falck, author, become embroiled in a mystery from decades earlier on the island of Valö, off the coast of Fjällbacka. This island was home to the summer camp that children from Fjällbacka all attended, but the big white house has lain dormant for many years following the disappearance of the headmaster and his family one Easter Sunday afternoon. There were five pupils staying over that fateful weekend, but they were ostensibly out fishing all afternoon as they were not allowed to join the headmaster’s family luncheon. No-one has ever uncovered what happened to the family of five or why the youngest child, a little girl, was found wandering the house on her own. Fast-forward to the present time and the surviving girl is a married woman who has tragically lost her own child and she and her husband have come back to Valö to renovate the house and set it up as a Bed and Breakfast.

The reader is offered glimpses into the past, well before the headmaster and his family existed, through the portrayal of Dagmar, a desperately isolated woman living at the beginning of the 20^th century, her daughter Laura, and, in turn, her daughter, Inez. These parallel stories, of the generations of the women of one family and the headmaster’s family, will intersect towards the end of the novel in a surprising and fateful way.

Concurrently, the lives of the five pupils, all boys, who were on the island at the time of the family’s disappearance are scrutinized and we come to realize that they have been holding secrets from that time all their lives. Nazism is part of this side of the narrative; Nazi Hermann Göring is thought to have visited one of the islands in the Fjällbacka archipelago, and this fact is woven into the plot, with his apparent visit to Sweden pivotal to the lives of Dagmar and her offspring.

Lackberg has created an intricate plot, spanning decades and generations of local families. As the reader works through it, and various things are revealed, it loses none of its fascination, keeping you engaged to the end. I think this is Camilla Lackberg’s best so far and I am thrilled that we will have the opportunity to hear Camilla speak of Buried Angels, and all her novels, when she joins us at Reader’s Feast in Melbourne, 19 May. Full details: www.readersfeast.com.au

The Son by Jo Nesbo

This just-released title by the creator of Harry Hole is an accomplished work, with an interesting storyline and a great twist at the end. The son of the title is Sonny Lofthus, a convicted and jailed murderer and drug addict who also happens to be the son of a deceased policeman. Sonny is special among the prison population. He attracts other inmates to him, seeking redemption; they believe he can bless them and relieve them of their guilt. Sonny plays this role, almost by default, his silence and stillness generating the response in others. We learn fairly quickly that Sonny is still using drugs, not least because he is being looked after by other prisoners but also because he is a scapegoat for the assistant prison administrator and others. They fabricate evidence that suggests Sonny, on day release, killed again thereby ensuring for him a supply of drugs and earning them a smokescreen for their actions.

As the story progresses we come to understand that Sonny is pivotal in many peoples' lives, people in positions of power and authority wanting to remain untouchable. When he escapes from prison, Sonny begins a quest to avenge his dead father, a man who supposedly took his own life because he was corrupt. This has never sat well with Sonny and he sets out to kill those he believes were in fact responsible for Ab Lofthus' death.

Another central character in the story is Simon Kefas, a policeman and one-time colleague of Sonny's father. He is regarded as somewhat of a maverick and a difficult man to work with; his wife is in the midst of a health scare that is robbing her of her sight and he is assigned a new detective whom he rightly picks as a woman on a fast-track through the police force to greater things. We learn early on that Simon was very close to Sonny’s father and, as the story unfolds, we also learn that there was a third policeman with whom both men were close and who is now in the higher ranks of the force.

Nesbo creates two equally captivating characters in Sonny and Simon. He also introduces a third character, Helen, who spends her life working with addicts and whom we come to have great sympathy for as her life intersects with the two men. As always with Nesbo, this is a book that has moments of great violence but it is not as extreme or shocking as in some of his earlier works. Nonetheless, he is an author for the seasoned crime fiction reader. The twist at the end is unexpected but, at the same ttime, utterly believable.

The Gingerbread House by Carin Gerhardsen

It has been far too long since I added to my blog so this is the first of regular posts, beginning March 2014. I have been reading Nordic crime,  perhaps too much, as time for blogging has been non-existent. But, here we go....
The Gingerbread House introduces us to Inspector Conny Sjoberg, a welcome new addition to my list of interesting crime fiction characters. Conny has a young, big family and is in a happy marriage. This is, as readers of crime fiction will know, rather unusual; most lead detectives have any number of impediments to a stable family life!
Conny becomes involved in a very unusual case. An elderly woman, returning to her Stockholm home from an extended stay in hospital, discovers the body of a man in her kitchen. She has no known connection to the man and there is no apparent reason for him to have been in her home. As he and his team are grappling with this mystery, Conny hears of other suspicious deaths but does not immediately relate them to the dead body he is investigating. He will, though, come to realise that he has a serial killer at work.
Whilst we are reading of the Inspector's struggle to find a motive for the murder, we are also reading of Thomas, a completely isolated man who was the victim of dreadful bullying at school as a very young boy. We quickly realise that one of Thomas' classmates was the man found dead in the old woman's kitchen.
Gerhardsen cleverly manipulates the reader; we are so sure of the correlation between Thomas' revelations to us and the focus of Conny's investigation that we believe we know the killer and the motivation for the murders. You will have to read it to discover if this is in fact, true. Originally published in 2008, this is the first of a series, one I am looking forward to reading as more are translated into English.

The Asylum - Johan Theorin

The Asylum is another stunning book from Johan Theorin. The premise is fascinating - a young man applies for a job as an assistant at Dell Nursery, a child-minding facility located next door to St. Patricia's asylum. The connection between the two organisations is that the children attending the nursery are all offspring of someone residing in the asylum.

Jan, the young man, sets about cementing his place at the nursery in an effort to gain access to the asylum. He believes that a one-time famous singer lives there and he wants to meet her; he is also interested in a notorious serial killer known to be another of the residents.

As the story unfolds, the reader becomes increasingly aware of Jan's troubled past and his unsuitability as a nursery assistant. He befriends a neighbour whom he discovers once worked and resided at the asylum and gains useful information about access, and he becomes embroiled in plans by other nursery workers that will compromise the strict security regimes of the asylum.

Whilst a dark and disturbing novel on some levels, The Asylum is also riveting and memorable. The final chapters are remarkable as all becomes clear about Jan, the inmates and the nursery workers. Every book by Theorin has completely captivated me.

Silenced byKristina Ohlsson

I have read this impressive book in one sitting. A small group of Swedish detectives (which includes amongst their team a non-police trained investigative analyst) are faced with the apparent suicide of a controversial priest and his wife. The controversy surrounds his position on, and activity with, the asylum-seeker issue. It appears one of his two daughters has died of a drug overdose in the same week as her parents are found dead.
At the same time, the team have to establish if a hit-and-run is something more; if it is another crime for them to investigate. Over time, connections are found between the case of the family deaths and the car accident.
Interspersed with the action in Sweden, the reader is swept along with a woman in Bangkok who is desperately struggling to maintain her identity as all avenues for help close off - her email accounts are inaccessible, her contact phone numbers for her family are no longer valid, her passport and wallet are stolen. She is systematically being made invisible by unknown forces.
It will transpire that the woman in Bangkok is the other daughter of the Swedish priest. And the culmination of all three events - the death of her family, the car accident victim and the hijacking of the her identity - will lead the detectives through a circuitous route to the early childhood of the priest's two daughters and to a detective in their own community.
There is not one central character - all are equally well-drawn and developed. This makes for a nice departure from many books in the broader crime fiction genre. The plot is intriguing and the issues raised by the story are both timely and thought-provoking.
I can honestly say this particular Nordic crime offering is the most engaging book I have read this year. I look forward to many more from Kristina Ohlsson.

She's Never Coming Back Review

Hans Koppel's She's Never Coming Back is not a police procedural but, rather, a thriller. Ylva disappears one day without trace and her husband is, naturally, frantic. He is also, naturally, the first suspect the police think of as the days go by without any lead into Ylva's disappearance. There is a young daughter, Sanna, and Mike (the husband) slowly settles into a routine of looking after her and trying to regain some semblance of a normal life. What none of them can know is that Ylva is watching them the whole time. She is fact being held hostage in a cellar which is rigged up so that she can see clearly her husband and daughter as they live each day. It is the ultimate cruelty, to be so close and yet completely incapable of communicating with her loved ones. As the story unfolds, it becomes a saga of the worst of human nature and the ways in which we take on a new 'normal' when circumstances demand it. Koppel is  a pseudonym for a Swedish based author; whoever he or she is, they have penned an intriguing and disturbing novel in She's Never Coming Back.

Johan Theorin's The Quarry

I highly recommend Johan Theorin's books - Echoes from the Dead, The Dark Room and, now, The Quarry. All set on the island of Oland, the place of Theorin's ancestors on his mother's side, the landscape and local culture are two main characters in his novels. The Quarry is a novel rich in folklore references and I found myself strangely accepting of the talk of elves and trolls; the deeply held beliefs of this island people and their connection to their environment act as an unusual channel through which the very real tale of sordid family histories and the associated murders plays out.
Per Morner has decided to settle on Oland having been left a cottage by his elderly relative, a Quarry man living on the edge of the alvar (an extensive limestone plain). His young daughter is gravely ill but he is distracted from all else by the death of three people, one of them his father (Jerry), whom he comes to realise are the victims of murder. His father's past is the catalyst for these events,  Jerry having been at the forefront of the Swedish porn industry some decades earlier.
Morner befriends a neighbour, Vendela, who has returned to the island of her birth. Her family history is sad and inextricably linked with the mythology that many islanders weave into their daily lives. Her explanation of events, from a young girl, as the actions of elves and trolls comes to dictate her every move and decision.
A favourite character is retired sea captain Gerlof Davidsson who checks himself out of a nursing home and takes up residence once again in his cottage that sits alongside Per Morner's home. He spends his days reading his late wife's diaries from the 1950s and, through these, begins to separate reality from mythology, and ultimately helps Per to both survive and find some solace.
A thoroughly engrossing and original story, Johan Theorin is an author of particular note among the community of contemporary Nordic crime writers.

Jo Nesbo's Headunters and pending Melbourne visit

Just finished reading Jo Nesbo's Headhunters. I initially missed 'Harry Hole' as this is a stand-alone novel and found the first fifty pages or so less than riveting. But then.....Nesbo brings his trademark 'dark' imagination to this story of Roger Brown. At the pinnacle of his profession, once Roger has decided on the best candidate for a job, no company will refuse his recommendation. His life is very good, not least because of his healthy ego and side line of art theft. When the tables are turned on Roger and all his plans are turned on their head, he is forced into bizarre and extreme actions. Oslo is the backdrop as Roger's life unravels and takes unexpected twists. By the end of this novel, I was once again interested in how Nesbo's mind comes up with such original and graphic situations in which to place his characters. And, I was thoroughly engaged by the peppering of some very dark humour through the text. I am excited to add that we have the great honour of hosting an evening with Jo Nesbo in Melbourne, Thursday 1st March 2012. Go to www.crimeandjusticefestival.com and click on "Events" for full details.

Midwinter Sacrifice

Have just finished reading Midwinter Sacrifice by Swedish author Mons Kallentoft. Simultaneously describing the action and allowing the reader to 'eavesdrop' on the stream of consciousness playing out in the main character's head, the rhythm of the narrative is initially daunting but rewards the reader with a fascinating new detective, Malin Fors. She is a woman struggling in her personal life as she cements her place in the Violent Crime Squad. The discovery of a body in a desolate part of the countryside triggers an investigation that baffles Malin and colleagues and takes them into a world of maternal domination, familial dysfunction and social ambivalence. Kallentoft brings the trademark Scandinavian focus on the physical environment while at the same time deftly describing the complexities of modern life in Sweden. Malin Fors features in five novels to date by Mons Kallentoft, with this being the first one translated into English. It is due for release in Australia in November....in time for our new bookstore to include it in our Christmas gift recommendations.

bookselling news

If you are reading this blog, you must share my interest in nordic crime fiction and probably share my passion for the whole crime fiction genre. My passion for it dates back to my earliest memories of reading, starting with the classics of the Famous Five and the like, that were both mystery and adventure novels and, for me, precursors to the works of Agatha Christie and Ngaio Marsh. This book passion runs through my life, with over 30 years now in a career in bookselling. And, will continue long into the future.
My store, Reader's Feast, in Melbourne Australia is currently in the throes of great disruption but the hope is that we will be able to transplant all that we have built there into a new beginning. Watch this space, as they say.
In the meantime, be assured that a new nordic crime review is on its way over the next week.

Watch out for Outrage

Outrage by Arnaldur Indridason
Have just read the proof of Outrage by Indridason, a title due out early July. Set in Reykjavik, this latest in a series features Detective Elinborg leading an investigation in the absence of her colleague Detective Erlendur. When a man is found dead, wearing only a woman's t-shirt and with the drug Rohypnol both in his jacket pocket and his mouth, the police are baffled not least because the scene does not fit the usual rape/murder profile. It transpires that the victim was once a resident of a small, isolated village a plane ride away from the Icelandic capital and that his circle of friends seems to extend to one, a reclusive and odd man. Elinborg is confronting the silence of a small village community; virtually no witnesses to either the victim's life or death; and her own family situation that is fraught with tension with her teenage son.
The narrative is, at times, slightly disjointed (a result perhaps of the translation process rather than the writing per se) but this is nonetheless a book well worth reading. Elinborg's character is developing well over the life of the series and indeed all the characters who populate this book are interesting and provide some surprise elements to the discussion of how certain crimes lead to multiple victims, not just the person physically harmed.
 

The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler

“Joona Linna’s colleagues at the National Criminal Investigation Department will tell you they admire him, and they do, but they also envy him. And they will tell you they like him, and they do, but they also find him aloof. As a homicide investigator, his track record is unparalleled in Sweden…..But what most don’t know is that his unique stubbornness is the result of unbearable personal guilt”

It is Detective Linna who heads up the investigation into the slaying of a family. The first officers on the scene thought everyone was dead but, in fact, the young boy, Josepf, is still alive.  Dreadfully injured, he lapses into a coma and Linna brings in Erik Maria Bark, an expert in the treatment of shock and trauma. The problem is that Bark has been at the centre of a  controversy in earlier years involving his use of hypnosis.

The unfolding story draws on characters on the edge of an emotional precipice with manipulation, sinister intent, and fraught relationships at the heart of it. Linna is a wonderful main character while the emotionally unravelling Bark is expertly depicted.

The film rights have been sold to this title and more books featuring Linna are on the way from Lars Kepler ( a pseudonym of Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril and Alexander Ahndoril)

Mercy

Mercy

Jussi Adler-Olsen

$29.95

This book has just arrived in-store and I wanted to review it immediately as I read it some weeks back and it is fabulous. Set in Copenhagen, it follows detective Carl Morck as he comes to terms with being relegated to creating a ‘new’ department after a disastrous last case in the Homicide Division in which colleagues were killed and another left permanently disabled. Morck’s first case (which no-one expects him to solve) is one of missing person, Merete Lynggaard, who was last seen five years earlier. She was a government minister about whom little was known beyond her public persona.

The reader realises very early in the novel that Merete is in fact still alive but imprisoned. Carl has no sense of this, assuming he is on the hunt for a body and an explanation for murder.

This is a thoroughly original novel that so captivates the reader as to make him/her feel unease through the chapters depicting Merete’s imprisonment and how she is responding to what has befallen her. Morck’s fall from grace, his demons over what happened to his colleagues, and his refusal to allow his bosses sideline him are wonderfully represented.

A confronting but absolutely riveting novel, this is also the first in a series of four books to feature Morck.

Martin Beck Series

Maj Sjöwell and Per Wahlöö are credited with creating the Nordic crime novel and providing the precedent for all the novels we now enjoy from Scandinavian writers.

Set in Stockholm, their series of books featuring Martin Beck was written over ten years and stands as a wonderful example of character development.

Beginning with Roseanna, written in 1965, the reader meets Martin as he prepares to travel to the locale where the body of a young woman has been found. As he finishes packing for his trip, we learn that “Martin Beck wasn’t chief of the Homicide Squad and had no such ambitions. Sometimes he doubted if he would ever make superintendent although the only things that could actually stand in his way were death or some very serious error in his duties. He was a First Detective with the National Police and had been with the Homicide Bureau for eight years. There were people who thought that he was the country’s most capable examining officer.”

Beck is a methodical investigator and the detailed description of the procedural nature of his work is the hallmark of the authors’ status as the very best crime writers. It takes him six and half months to catch Roseanna’s killer and involves detectives from as far away as America. It is the randomness of her killing and the difficulty of identifying her that dog Beck throughout the investigation. But, it is his calm stubbornness that carries him forward to the ultimate, accurate unveiling of the truth of Roseanna’s death.

Martin Beck will become a favourite detective for avid crime fiction readers.

Introduction

It is often remarked that readers of crime fiction think of location as another character in a novel….as an example, Ian Rankin’s descriptions of Edinburgh are as fascinating as is his portrayal of the lead character, Rebus.

I believe this is especially true of Nordic crime. For an Australian who knows only mild to hot weather, the notion of being in a chilly, snow laden landscape is entrancing. To pitch the darkest behaviour of human beings towards others – murder, cruelty, and the like – in this physical landscape is particularly atmospheric.

My enjoyment of Nordic crime is based, loosely, on three characteristics:

-       Atmosphere – the physical landscape and the way it depicts the moods of the characters

-       Psyche – the characters are invariably introspective and complex people who reflect not only on their own emotional state but that of their colleagues

-       Writing – typically well written, the Nordic novelist seems to be adept at character development, plot creation, and weaving themes of social justice and human rights into their storylines.

Future Blogs will be dedicated to my reviews of Nordic crime titles you’ll find in book stores. As well I’ll be reviewing books I have read prior to their publication.

- Mary D.

Ready to Review

From April I will be reviewing my favourite Nordic Crime new releases. Favourites such as Jo Nesbo, Henning Mankell, Camilla Lackberg will feature.