Review of Don’t Look Back by Karin Fossum (1996, Swedish; 2003 English; Vintage)

Six year old Ragnhild is walking home in a small village where everybody seems to know everybody else when a van stops and the driver offers her a lift. At first unsure, she decides to climb into the van. Six hours later, her mother is frantic and half the local community are out searching. What they discover, however, is the naked body of a teenage girl near to a local tarn. Chief Inspector Sejer begins an investigation with Skarre, a younger cop working his first murder. Nobody seems to have a bad word to say about Annie Holland, though they acknowledge that she had changed over the last few months, becoming withdrawn, leaving the local handball team, and running for miles. Sejer and Skarre systematic work their way through interviewing all the local families, but there are few leads. The more they hunt, the more they discover about the lives of inhabitants and their various tragedies – family disputes and untimely deaths – but they don’t seem to warrant the death of Annie.

Don’t Look Back is the second book in the Inspector Sejer series set in rural Norway. In this outing, Sejer starts by investigating the disappearance of a six year old girl, but soon finds himself in charge of a murder investigation. Annie Holland was a fit fifteen year old, obsessed with running, who had become withdrawn over the past few months and was in an on-off relationship with her boyfriend. She was well liked by neighbours and had baby sat for almost every family on her road. Everyone seems surprised when she is found lying naked next to a tarn having been drowned. Fossum charts Sejer’s investigation as he and his younger sidekick, Skarre, try to unearth clues that will lead to her killer. As with Sjowall and Wahloo’s Beck series, there is an everyday realism to the investigation, setting out the patient, persistent footwork without melodrama or invented tension. The characters all feel real, living ordinary lives tainted by the various issues they have to face. Fossum does a nice job of keeping the story moving with engaging prose and manoeuvring various characters into and out of frame. Even to the last part of the book I was unsure who the murderer was and the story builds to a satisfying denouement.

Review of Calling Out For You by Karin Fossum (Vintage, 2006; Norwegian 2000)

Gunder Jomann has led a quiet life in the small village of Elvestad in Norway.  Well into middle age he has a steady job at an agricultural machine supplier and a nice house, but no life partner.  After becoming enchanted with India through a book his sister gave to him he decides to fly to Mumbai to explore and to see if he can find a wife.  Shortly after arriving he meets Poona, who works as a waitress in a cafe and shortly before he returns home they marry.  On the day that Poona flies to Norway to meet her new husband, Gunder is prevented from meeting her at the airport.  The next morning her battered body is found in a field, a short distance from his home.  Nobody in the village can believe any of their neighbours capable of such an atrocity and they close ranks, leaving Inspector Konrad Sejer and his team to try and fathom what transpired and who killed the unfortunate Poona.

Whilst ostensibly a police procedural, Calling Out For You has a somewhat different approach to most books in the sub-genre, focusing as much on the local community and how it reacts to a heinous crime in its midst as it does on the investigation.  The result is a narrative strongly focused on exploring various characters and their interactions and the themes of uncertainty, doubt, suspicion and loyalty.  Fossum nicely plays the heartstrings with respect to the doomed relationship between Gunder and Poona, and the tale has a strong emotional register throughout.  Inspector Sejer is a reflexive policeman who steadily goes about his work, trying to build a case with limited evidence and cooperation.  The scenes where he interviews a suspect are particularly nicely done, illustrating the subtleties of his approach.  Overall, an engaging and unsettling read that provides some degree of closure, but leaves the reader with thoughtful questions to ponder.

Review of Black Seconds by Karin Fossum (Harvill Secker, 2007; Norwegian 2002)

Nine year old Ida Joner lives with her mother in a small neighbourhood some way from the nearest town.  Early one evening she gets on her new yellow bike and heads to the local shop to buy some sweets.  A short while later and she has not returned and her mother, Helga, has grown anxious.  When she calls the shop the owner says Ida never arrived.  Helga calls her daughter’s friends, then her sister, Ruth.  With her panic rising the sisters search the local area to no avail and then call the police. Inspector Konrad Sejer tries to reassure the mother and sets about organising a search.  Two days later and Ida’s disappearance is front page news, her mother is distraught, and Sejer’s investigation appears to be going nowhere.  He has few clues, but is methodological and patient.  Time, however,  is not on his side; Sejer knows that the longer Ida is missing, the less likely it is she’ll be found alive. 

Black Seconds is the sixth book in the Inspector Sejer series and the first I’ve read.  I found it somewhat of a curious read as there was not much mystery to the case, yet it was oddly compelling.  I think there are a couple of reasons for this.  First, the storytelling is quite understated, simply focused on the unfolding of the events and its consequences to those involved.  The characterisation and social interactions are keenly observed, providing a high degree of social realism and emotional sensitivity.  The hook is the exploration of how crime and life are rarely black and white; through mishap and misadventure people can find themselves on the wrong side of the law and bound up in situations that are difficult to resolve.  Second, the telling had a nice cadence and descriptive prose.  The combination produced an engaging style that kept the pages turning, despite there being few moments of high drama and the plot being relatively transparent.  Overall, a story where style and telling elevated a somewhat average story to into a captivating read.