A review by drkottke
Don't Look Back by Karin Fossum

4.0

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.