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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
3.5 stars.
This is my first Karin Fossum book - was really missing some good psychological crime mysteries with strong character development and an engaging plot (ie. Tana French) - so I trawled through forums looking for similar readers looking to quench the French thirst (this sounds much better in my head you know) and found a whole lot of authors, including Fossum. I know it's a bit unfair to start reading an author like that but I'm so tiffed with the person who suggested her because she's nothing like French.
Fossum holds her water well with this book - a popular, generally do-gooder teenager turns up dead, seemingly sexually assaulted in a small town, and no one knows why because there is no one in her life, or nothing she did leading up to that fateful day that suggested she was about to be killed. Pretty solid novel with lots of turns and twists and great, simple prose. Unfortunately, with the oversaturation - and that's the massive understatement of the what, past few years - of murder mysteries with popular, shining-star young girls, small towns, secret diaries and what not, it really is just another book in the pile which isn't really worth my time to read. I wasn't impressed with the numerous tropes I picked out from the book:
Young Girl Who Is Loved By Everyone
But She Stole Something So Maybe She Wasn't As Perfect As They Come
Small Town With Secrets
Oh Maybe It Was Her Family
Isolated Male Individual That Everyone Suspects
Perfect Family Facades
Misdirection (I Thought It Was About The Child With The Bunnies)
Possible Sexual Element To Crime
Grumpy For No Reason Inspectors
Boyfriend That Everyone Is Starting To Suspect
They aren't even spoilers because literally you could have predicted it.
Honestly, I could enjoy the book. It's fun, it kept the pages turning... it really just isn't for me when I have other more unique, interesting books to read yanoo?
This is my first Karin Fossum book - was really missing some good psychological crime mysteries with strong character development and an engaging plot (ie. Tana French) - so I trawled through forums looking for similar readers looking to quench the French thirst (this sounds much better in my head you know) and found a whole lot of authors, including Fossum. I know it's a bit unfair to start reading an author like that but I'm so tiffed with the person who suggested her because she's nothing like French.
Fossum holds her water well with this book - a popular, generally do-gooder teenager turns up dead, seemingly sexually assaulted in a small town, and no one knows why because there is no one in her life, or nothing she did leading up to that fateful day that suggested she was about to be killed. Pretty solid novel with lots of turns and twists and great, simple prose. Unfortunately, with the oversaturation - and that's the massive understatement of the what, past few years - of murder mysteries with popular, shining-star young girls, small towns, secret diaries and what not, it really is just another book in the pile which isn't really worth my time to read. I wasn't impressed with the numerous tropes I picked out from the book:
Young Girl Who Is Loved By Everyone
But She Stole Something So Maybe She Wasn't As Perfect As They Come
Small Town With Secrets
Oh Maybe It Was Her Family
Isolated Male Individual That Everyone Suspects
Perfect Family Facades
Misdirection (I Thought It Was About The Child With The Bunnies)
Possible Sexual Element To Crime
Grumpy For No Reason Inspectors
Boyfriend That Everyone Is Starting To Suspect
They aren't even spoilers because literally you could have predicted it.
Honestly, I could enjoy the book. It's fun, it kept the pages turning... it really just isn't for me when I have other more unique, interesting books to read yanoo?
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Enjoyable series! I appreciate how Sejer's dog is named Kollberg, and I'm imagining Jim Comey in the role of the determined detective.
After being disappointed by three of the last four Scandinavian detective yarns I read, I was relieved to find that every scene did not have someone making coffee, and every third scene did not have some hideous brutality or bloodshed. I liked the working relationship between the protagonist Inspector Sejer and his young assistant. I liked the three dog characters and their involvement in the story. It was a fast, enjoyable read.
What I did not like was the paragraphing and formatting of dialogue. I don't know if it is the fault of the original text or the translation, but the speeches of different characters were put in the same paragraph. It was irritating to have to re-read sections to figure out who said what. All of this could have been fixed by an editor redoing the dialogue in conventional format, one speaker per paragraph--even if the paragraph is only one line.
What I did not like was the paragraphing and formatting of dialogue. I don't know if it is the fault of the original text or the translation, but the speeches of different characters were put in the same paragraph. It was irritating to have to re-read sections to figure out who said what. All of this could have been fixed by an editor redoing the dialogue in conventional format, one speaker per paragraph--even if the paragraph is only one line.
The plot was interesting, but the writing was choppy. Given the book is translated, whether that's the author's or the translator's fault is uncertain.
A great whodunnit story. Definitely an author to read again.
I've decided to embark on a reading of all the Glass Key winners (or at least as many of them as I can obtain in English) in my break between Harry Hole novels. This one came through interlibrary loan first. I thought it was the first Inspector Sejer novel, but it turns out to be the second (though the first to appear in English). That would explain some of the sketchiness of the exposition of recurring characters, but other than that, the story wrapped me up immediately. It reminded me a lot of Broadchurch in its depiction of the hidden tensions in a quaint little community rising to the surface in the wake of a young person's murder. Sejer is refreshingly untortured (thus, not like Broadchurch, or many other Scandinavian crime series protagonists for that matter) and highly competent, but the story isn't so old fashioned as to be of another time and place. Although almost two decades old, this mystery could take place as readily today, and the ending sent ice-water through my veins.
Great characters, including the town. Enjoyed the plot and the writing.