Posts from — March 2008

The Demon of Dakar is the third book by Kjell Eriksson about Detective Ann Lindell of the Uppsala police. The first was The Princess of Burundi, and the second Cruel Stars of the Night.

The life of Manuel Alavez, a Mexican peasant, has changed for the worse. One of his brothers have died, the other is imprisoned in Sweden for drug smuggling. Both were set up by a stranger. The Zapotek indians of Mexico, Manuel’s tribe, call such men bhni guí’a. They tempt people with riches and a good life, but in return take their souls.

Manuel decides to go to Sweden. He learns that the demon is the unpleasant owner of two restaurants in Uppsala who with his partner has set up a smuggling operation to finance his restaurant empire. His name is Slobodan Andersson.

One day Ann Lindell shows up in the restaurant. Slobodan’s partner, Armas,has been killed, and has been found with his throat sliced. All clues lead straight back to the popular restaurant Dakar, owned by Slobodan Andersson. has some shady connections in his past, and his partner’s reputation is equally murky.

The murder of Armas seems to have started a wild chain of violent and dramatic events, centered around restaurant Dakar. A large number of people are suspicious. The meat chef is an oddball, to say the least. The newest hire’s personal life is a tangled web of lies. Even Eva Willman, the seemingly blameless older woman returning to the workforce as a waitress, has skeletons in her closet. Ann Lindell feels she is chasing some shadow on a revenge mission that is likely to hit again.

The Demon of Dakar is a wonderful police procedural. If Ann Lindell is to prevent a bloodbath, she must match wits with and out-maneuver an invisible killer whose motives are seemingly completely obscure.

But the reader knows the killer well. To the killer, the crimes are justified. Actually, he’s a very likable fellow who is only looking for justice.

In The Demon of Dakar, as in all of Kjell Eriksson’s compelling spellbinders, though, justice entails a frantic race to the finish, a race without rules and fraught with danger.

Anne Holt (born 1958 in Larvik, Norway) is a lawyer and writer: She has sold over 4 million books worldwide, and is a former Minister of Justice, TV news editor and anchor, and journalist. She has written 13 books. She is one of the most successful crime authors in Norway.
What Never Happens is a chilling, densely written book. It’s a police procedural about a copy cat killer committing a series of gruesome murders in Oslo, Norway.
The main characters in What Never Happens (as well as her earlier What is Mine), are former FBI profiler Johanne Vik and he husband, police inspector Adam Stubo. Even though Johanne is home with their newborn child and cares for a young daughter with autistic-like behaviors as well, she is reluctantly pulled into the investigation as a result of discussions about the terrible and shocking cases at home with her husband.
The victims are all celebrities and theatrically posed. A talk show hostess is found with her tongue cut out, mutilated and lovingly arranged. The leader of a political party is crucified, with a copy of the Koran inserted in her vagina. And grumpy, aspiring literary and political critic is bludgeoned and stabbed in the eye.

There are absolutely no clues, and any connections that Stubo can make among the slain only confuses matters. Gradually Johanne Vik realizes that the murders are familiar to her. This forces her to confront an incident in her past that is her greatest secret, one she keeps even from Stubo.
The mystery in What Never Happens is fascinating. Holt tells a story with several fabulous twists. For instance, once Stubo gets a solid suspect, he finds that he has inadvertently established the suspect’s innocence - even as he becomes certain that this individual is the murderer.

Holt’s talent is partly developing an telling a great tale in a quiet, somewhat remote fashion. Partly it is her ability to let us see the story from both sides, yet to understand very little until it is gradually revealed. Also, she develops her characters very well. It is interesting to follow Johanne, Adam, and their children. The interaction between Kristine and Adam is heartwarming.

What Never Happens is an innovative, well crafted crime masterpiece.
Also by Anne Holt: What Is Mine.
Order from amazon UK: What Is Mine (also known as Punishment), and The Final Murder

The White Lioness may well be the best Henning Mankell ever, at least as far as his Wallander series is concerned. I just read his Italian Shoes, which has not yet been translated, and currently think that’s his best.

The are many ingredients to the plot in The White Lioness. First, a happily married woman disappears in southern Sweden while going about her business as an estate agent. There is no explanation and no motive. Inspector Kurt Wallander and his team are called in to investigate this case of a missing person.

As readers, we know right from the beginning what is going on: she was at the wrong time at the wrong place. However, Wallander does not know this. Inspector Wallander has a gut feeling that the victim will never be found alive, but he has no idea how far he will have to go in a search of the killer and the origin of the crime.

The case turns out to be much more complicated that it appeared to be. The search for the truth behind the killing eventually uncovers an assassination plot, and Wallander finds himself in a tangle with both the secret police and a ruthless foreign agent.

It turns out that it all started in South Africa. A pro-apartheid conspirator has sent a gaunt, steel-eyed former KGB assassin and a black hit man to Sweden to train for a unnamed killing. When their hideout is destroyed in a fireball and the remains found in the ashes - a precision firearm, a sophisticated, high-powered radio, and a severed human thumb - the clues lead Wallander back to South Africa.

Combining compelling insights into the sinister side of modern life with a riveting tale of international intrigue, The White Lioness keeps you on the knife-edge of suspense. Some may find the book a little long-winded in the passages about South-African politics, but it is a wonderful book even so!

The White Lioness has been filmed as well. You can order the DVD from amazon (US): The White Lioness.

Or, order from amazon UK: The White Lioness (book) or White Lioness [2000] (REGION 1) (NTSC).

Knut Hamsun was a great Norwegian novelist, dramatist, poet, and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920. He is perhaps best known for Growth of the Soil, Hunger, and Mysteries. These are relatively “heavy” and serious books, and they have contributed much to making serious and hard to read part of Hamsun’s image as an author. (You can read more about Knut Hamsun’s books at http://www.leserglede.com/.)

However, Knut Hamsun has many other qualities as a writer as well. He had a great sense of humor and irony, and he was socially engaged as well as a great observer of social change. A number of his writings display these characteristics, thus pointing to a “lighter”, and perhaps more easily accessible side of Knut Hamsun.

Segelfoss Town is one of these books. It is a wonderful, light novel, and my personal favorite among Hamsun’s books.

Segelfoss Town is the continuation of Children of the Age, but can be read indepent of it. Now Tobias Holmengrå, the entrepreneurial capitalist, is the big guy in Segelfoss. The lieutenant is nothing but a distant memory now; money and the struggle of the classes rule the day. Changing times, business cycles, and events large and small create problems for the city and even its richest citizen.

This is, in my humble opinion, an even more interesting book than “Children of the Age”, and full of black humor, fascinating interactions among the wide gallery of characters in the book, and with great observations about the dynamics of the changing circumstances.

While easier to read than most of Hamsun’s other books, this book still reveals the depth of Hamsun’s ability to observe, and is written in a beautiful, extremely well crafted language. Great fun, and a great experience, as well as food for thought.

In a sleepy little village at the foot of a Norwegian mountain, a child — 6 year old Ragnhild — goes missing. It is a village where the children run in and out of one another’s houses and play unafraid in the streets. Yet the search for her reveals the naked body of a well-liked local schoolgirl. Why would anyone want to murder Annie Holland? The investigation is in the hands of Inspector Konrad Sejer and his young colleague Jacob Skarre.

Karin Fossum is my favorite Norwegian crime writer. Karin Fossum was born November 6, 1954 in Sandefjord. Fossum now lives in Oslo. Karin Fossum’s Inspector Sejer novels are masterfully constructed, psychologically convincing, and compulsively readable.

This is a wonderful book with great characters, and it is very carefully written. The dialogue is realistic. It is also a book that gives a strong sense of community and that makes you feel and know that, yeah, this is how is could really have happened. The book is highly recommended to anyone who likes police-procedural novels.

And, so that you know that this really is a quality book, I should mention that Don’t Look Back! received The Riverton Prize and The Glass Key (for the best Nordic detective novel).

Read an excerpt of the book at the Hardcourt publishers’ site. We have more reviews of Karin Fossum’s books at ScandinavianBooks!

Aftenposten’s reviewer said the book “has hit the bull’s eye. It has scored a direct hit and is an exceptional top score! This is a dazzling writing in the crime genre”.

“Don’t Look Back! shows just how well Fossum deserves her continental fame.” — Sunday Times