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3.32 AVERAGE
3.32 AVERAGE
I borrowed Hakan Nesser's The Mind's Eye from the library for inclusion in my year-long Reading the World project. I hadn't heard of it before, but I count myself as a fan of Nordic Noir, and thought it might be just the thing to read on a cold winter's night. This volume has been translated from its original Swedish by Laurie Thompson, and was first published in Sweden in 1993; the author was victorious in the Swedish Crime Writers' Academy Prize for it, and subsequently won other prestigious awards for his later work.
The Mind's Eye is the first Inspector van Veeteren mystery, in which a history and philosophy teacher named Janek Mitter awakes to find that he cannot remember who he is. He then discovers the body of his beautiful young wife, Eva, floating in the bath after an attack. Even during the trial which follows, he has no memory of attacking his wife, or any idea as to how he could have killed her; indeed, 'Only when he is sentenced and locked up in an asylum for the criminally insane does he have a snatch of insight. He scribbles something in his Bible, but is murdered before the clue can be uncovered'.
The novel's opening passage is quite striking: 'It's like being born, he thought. I'm not a person. Merely a mass of suffering'. In this manner, Nesser gets straight into the story. He continues thus when the body is discovered, using short, snappy sentences to capture the mood: 'He entered the room and, just as he switched on the light, he became quite clear about who he was. / He could also identify the woman lying in the bath. / Her name was Eva Ringmar and she was his wife of three months. / Her body was strangely twisted... Her dark hair was floating on the water. Her head was face-down, and as the bath was full to the brim there could be no doubt that she was dead.'
The Mind's Eye is rather a quick read, and a page-turner, at least. It isn't the most gripping mystery, nor the most memorable slice of Scandicrime; in fact, it lacks the darkness and the often twisted, gory killings of many of its contemporaries. There are far more grisly whodunnits out there, and part of me wishes I'd selected one such instead. Nesser's effort is well plotted, and the plot points do keep one interested in the story. I cannot help but feel that the blurb of the novel gives a little too much away, however. There is nothing overly special about the translation, sadly; the way in which it is rendered takes away any memorable prose, and it uses many paragraphs made of short sentences to further push different points home. Needless to say, it is not a series which I will be continuing with.
The Mind's Eye is the first Inspector van Veeteren mystery, in which a history and philosophy teacher named Janek Mitter awakes to find that he cannot remember who he is. He then discovers the body of his beautiful young wife, Eva, floating in the bath after an attack. Even during the trial which follows, he has no memory of attacking his wife, or any idea as to how he could have killed her; indeed, 'Only when he is sentenced and locked up in an asylum for the criminally insane does he have a snatch of insight. He scribbles something in his Bible, but is murdered before the clue can be uncovered'.
The novel's opening passage is quite striking: 'It's like being born, he thought. I'm not a person. Merely a mass of suffering'. In this manner, Nesser gets straight into the story. He continues thus when the body is discovered, using short, snappy sentences to capture the mood: 'He entered the room and, just as he switched on the light, he became quite clear about who he was. / He could also identify the woman lying in the bath. / Her name was Eva Ringmar and she was his wife of three months. / Her body was strangely twisted... Her dark hair was floating on the water. Her head was face-down, and as the bath was full to the brim there could be no doubt that she was dead.'
The Mind's Eye is rather a quick read, and a page-turner, at least. It isn't the most gripping mystery, nor the most memorable slice of Scandicrime; in fact, it lacks the darkness and the often twisted, gory killings of many of its contemporaries. There are far more grisly whodunnits out there, and part of me wishes I'd selected one such instead. Nesser's effort is well plotted, and the plot points do keep one interested in the story. I cannot help but feel that the blurb of the novel gives a little too much away, however. There is nothing overly special about the translation, sadly; the way in which it is rendered takes away any memorable prose, and it uses many paragraphs made of short sentences to further push different points home. Needless to say, it is not a series which I will be continuing with.
This seems to be a common pattern that foreign detective novels from a series are translated out of order - several other Inspector Van Veeteren novels came out in English before this one. Thus the book, set in the "current day" is now describing a Sweden of almost twenty years ago.
Presumably publishers do this (out of order) because they decide that one of the later titles is more compelling for an English speaking audience - and that the first one is weaker. It certainly seems possible in this case. Most police procedural series of this kind develop the main character and his supporting characters clearly in the first title in the series - that doesn't happen here. Instead most of the character development, such as it is, relates to the victim and various suspects.
Generally translated detective novels provide the benefit of an authentic description of the setting (rather than an American interpretation). In this case, the setting and crime don't intersect with anything particularly Swedish, so other than the names of people and places, the novel could have taken place in some American city.
In this first Van Veeteren novel the author made him too cranky and idiosyncratic otherwise to be believable. As I recall, that changes in later volumes in the series.
In short, I was a little disappointed. But I did finish it.
Presumably publishers do this (out of order) because they decide that one of the later titles is more compelling for an English speaking audience - and that the first one is weaker. It certainly seems possible in this case. Most police procedural series of this kind develop the main character and his supporting characters clearly in the first title in the series - that doesn't happen here. Instead most of the character development, such as it is, relates to the victim and various suspects.
Generally translated detective novels provide the benefit of an authentic description of the setting (rather than an American interpretation). In this case, the setting and crime don't intersect with anything particularly Swedish, so other than the names of people and places, the novel could have taken place in some American city.
In this first Van Veeteren novel the author made him too cranky and idiosyncratic otherwise to be believable. As I recall, that changes in later volumes in the series.
In short, I was a little disappointed. But I did finish it.
3.5/5 stars
Like I've said before - a good mystery book shouldn't be longer than 300 pages. In this case 288 was perfectly enough.
I picked Mind's Eye randomly in a second hand book shop because the cover and then a description caught my eye. It being written by a Swedish author was a gigantic plus because 2018 is a year in which I'm trying to read a lot of foreign authors. Speaking of foreign, the translation for this was superb - really, really enjoyed it.
As it usually goes with mystery novels - it's hard to review them without giving anything away, so I will just be very general here. The writing was blunt and very refreshing and therefore the book was a breeze to read through. Even a little bit addicting at some points. The opening was fantastic - it lures the reader right in and doesn't want to let go.
I love myself some cold European sarcasm and boy did this book deliver - I laughed out loud quite a few times, which was such a pleasant surprise.
Van Veeteren is a "lovely" character to follow. The description on the back cover that compares him to Dr. House is quite spot on. Yes, you can definitely call him Dr. House of the investigation scene. Grumpy, snarky and with no regards to other people's feelings. Although to be honest he could have cranked up his grumpiness a few notches (or a lot) and I would have enjoyed it even more.
We don't really get to divulge into Von's detective style - there's a lot of conversation, interrogation and coffee drinking, but he doesn't reveal much of his thoughts until the very end. Which both is good and kind of annoying. It's good because it keeps the reader guessing, but it's also annoying because who likes to be in the dark??
The plot is nothing special, but despite of that there wasn't a point in which I felt bored o wanted to speed things up. I will definitely try to pick up more of his books in the future.
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Like I've said before - a good mystery book shouldn't be longer than 300 pages. In this case 288 was perfectly enough.
I picked Mind's Eye randomly in a second hand book shop because the cover and then a description caught my eye. It being written by a Swedish author was a gigantic plus because 2018 is a year in which I'm trying to read a lot of foreign authors. Speaking of foreign, the translation for this was superb - really, really enjoyed it.
As it usually goes with mystery novels - it's hard to review them without giving anything away, so I will just be very general here. The writing was blunt and very refreshing and therefore the book was a breeze to read through. Even a little bit addicting at some points. The opening was fantastic - it lures the reader right in and doesn't want to let go.
I love myself some cold European sarcasm and boy did this book deliver - I laughed out loud quite a few times, which was such a pleasant surprise.
Van Veeteren is a "lovely" character to follow. The description on the back cover that compares him to Dr. House is quite spot on. Yes, you can definitely call him Dr. House of the investigation scene. Grumpy, snarky and with no regards to other people's feelings. Although to be honest he could have cranked up his grumpiness a few notches (or a lot) and I would have enjoyed it even more.
We don't really get to divulge into Von's detective style - there's a lot of conversation, interrogation and coffee drinking, but he doesn't reveal much of his thoughts until the very end. Which both is good and kind of annoying. It's good because it keeps the reader guessing, but it's also annoying because who likes to be in the dark??
The plot is nothing special, but despite of that there wasn't a point in which I felt bored o wanted to speed things up. I will definitely try to pick up more of his books in the future.
My WEBSITE
My INSTAGRAM
My WORDPRESS BLOG
My newest "Scandanavian-Noir" discovery. This is the first book in the series and it did not disappoint. It has all the trappings of a great nordic mystery - disheveled, curmudgeonly detective (who smokes and has a troubled marriage), lousy weather, and a dark plot with lots of twists and turns. Can't wait to read more in this series.
Sweden
Flashes of brilliance, swathes of lethargy, and a herky-jerky style that is equal parts effective and annoying.
Flashes of brilliance, swathes of lethargy, and a herky-jerky style that is equal parts effective and annoying.
It took me a while to read this book and I actually read it twice. Not because the first time I so thoroughly enjoyed it, but because I didn't get it and as a result I didn't finish the novel. The second go 'round was much better and I finished. I like Nesser's brevity with his sentence structure and he packs a lot of information into those short staccato sentences.
For the most part the characters are rather dysfunctional with the exception of Inspector Munster, who has a wife and children. Van Veeteren is perhaps the most dysfunctional character in the novel outside of the murderer. His son is in jail, he doesn't see his daughter, his wife leaves him and comes back quite often, he's prone to depression, and the list goes on. And even with all of this Van Veeteren is a superb detective.
Even though I could find little character growth in the novel, I enjoyed Van Veeteren with his self assured attitude (some may call arrogance). His honesty, abrasiveness, that he dug in like a bull dog and didn't let go until he solved the case. I also enjoyed the character, Janek Mitter. He was such a smart-ass and for me was the comic relief the novel. The Bungee High School Headmaster was also pretty comical -- wiping his desk of a speck of dust with his coat sleeve.
I figured out who the murderer was about halfway through the second reading, when the police were talking to former classmates of Eva's. Interesting. I liked that Nesser had a few chapters from the murderers point of view.
I didn't like the ending at all -- particularly the last two chapters. The novel was wrapped up in a nice little bow and it pretty much left me feeling a bit underwhelmed. It kind of seems like Nesser didn't know how to end the novel, so he just put a nice little pink bow on it and called it a day. So, the ending made the book lose some quality points.
Now that I know what to expect from Nesser's writing style, I'm looking forward to next book in the Van Veeteren series Borkmann's Point.
For the most part the characters are rather dysfunctional with the exception of Inspector Munster, who has a wife and children. Van Veeteren is perhaps the most dysfunctional character in the novel outside of the murderer. His son is in jail, he doesn't see his daughter, his wife leaves him and comes back quite often, he's prone to depression, and the list goes on. And even with all of this Van Veeteren is a superb detective.
Even though I could find little character growth in the novel, I enjoyed Van Veeteren with his self assured attitude (some may call arrogance). His honesty, abrasiveness, that he dug in like a bull dog and didn't let go until he solved the case. I also enjoyed the character, Janek Mitter. He was such a smart-ass and for me was the comic relief the novel. The Bungee High School Headmaster was also pretty comical -- wiping his desk of a speck of dust with his coat sleeve.
I figured out who the murderer was about halfway through the second reading, when the police were talking to former classmates of Eva's. Interesting. I liked that Nesser had a few chapters from the murderers point of view.
I didn't like the ending at all -- particularly the last two chapters. The novel was wrapped up in a nice little bow and it pretty much left me feeling a bit underwhelmed. It kind of seems like Nesser didn't know how to end the novel, so he just put a nice little pink bow on it and called it a day. So, the ending made the book lose some quality points.
Now that I know what to expect from Nesser's writing style, I'm looking forward to next book in the Van Veeteren series Borkmann's Point.
This is interesting, but I'm not sure if I liked it enough to go on with the series. Very dark, but surprisingly funny. For a gritty Nordic noir (which I've decided is the male-reader equivalent of a cozy mystery), it has a lot of off-beat humor that I rather enjoyed. Nesser gets playful with the POV, jumping into the killer's head without telling us anything about him. The actual substance of the mystery didn't do much for me, and I didn't like some of the author's structural choices, but the main character (who doesn't actually show up for a few chapters) is very engaging.
And for some reason, the reader decided to do the voices in various flavors of stodgy English accent, which was a little dissonant with all of the Swedish names.
And for some reason, the reader decided to do the voices in various flavors of stodgy English accent, which was a little dissonant with all of the Swedish names.
This was well written in a simple, blunt style. I didn't connect a lot with the characters, but I also didn't dislike them, except for a couple of minor side characters.
It was very dark in places, but hardly much more bloody or gruesome in details given than your average Agatha Christie.
My only real disappointment with this novel was that after trying so hard to find a Nordic Noir novel without explicit sexual content, it still contained a few paragraphs of that nature that I had to skip over.
Based on this book, I would definitely read more Nordic Noir if I can manage to find it without explicit content.
It was very dark in places, but hardly much more bloody or gruesome in details given than your average Agatha Christie.
My only real disappointment with this novel was that after trying so hard to find a Nordic Noir novel without explicit sexual content, it still contained a few paragraphs of that nature that I had to skip over.
Based on this book, I would definitely read more Nordic Noir if I can manage to find it without explicit content.