Category — Inger Frimansson

Inger Frimansson is well established as a Swedish crime writer, and Good Night, My Darling is one of her best books. It has won the Swedish Academy of Mystery Authors Award for Best Swedish Crime Novel in 1998.

Good Night, My Darling is the first book in a series about the mysterious Justine Dalvik, a wealthy and eccentric woman in her forties living alone in a big house by the beach, with a bird as her only companion. It is a beautiful house, but full of memories of a tortured childhood. As readers, we are witnesses to her childhood hardships. And we start to are feel vindictive on her behalf. However, not until Justine is in her forties does she catch up with the our feelings.

Inger Frimansson enables the reader to enter Justine’s child-thoughts of being an almost willing victim while she absorbs both the hurt and the methods of cruelty used to hurt her. We sympathize with Justine the child, but as she grows to maturity we become less sympathetic. Now the memories come back to haunt Justine, but she is prepared. It is time for Justine to take revenge on everyone who has done her wrong. Terrible things start to happen.

Inger Frimansson has the courage to experiment with the crime genre. Good night, my darling is not a whodunit or a thriller. This book is a how-could-she-do-it. In her effort to understand this - to peer into the mind of a dark soul - Frimansson has written a deeply psychological crime novel which in several ways reminds me of the Norwegian author Karin Fossum.

Good Night, My Darling takes a while to really pick up speed, but when it does, the tension is almost unbearable. Putting it away does not feel as an option before the end is reached.

Praise for Good Night, My Darling:

“With this book, she stands out as one of the great authors of psychological suspense in contemporary Swedish literature.” - GT

”
.. whereas Mankell often tries to pinpoint the external factors which shape our lives, Frimansson concentrates on what we look like on the inside; what it feels like to be at someone’s mercy.” - Eskilstuna Kuriren

Order Good Night, My Darling by Inger Frimansson from Amazon UK: Good Night, My Darling.