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A review by kiwikathleen
The Unlucky Lottery by Håkan Nesser
3.0
I found this book when I was looking for a novel that had a character with the same occupation as me (yes, for a Goodreads Challenge - see Fiction Fanatics "All About Me" challenge). It was quite fun searching the library website to find a novel that appealed to my usual likes while having an ESOL teacher or a bookshop worker. I was prepared to look at previous jobs as well, but found this. Of course, the character working in a bookshop is really a policeman on leave (Van Veeteren, the chief protagonist in a series by this author) and his role in the book was minimal. Sometimes we have to flex things a little to fulfill the challenges.
So, what's the book about and what did I like about it? It's about the investigation into a murder, which expands to be an investigation of a murder and two disappearances. The murder is of an old fellow, who with his 3 mates has just won the lottery. The first disappearance is another of the group of 4 old fellows, and the second, only a few days later, is that of the caretaker's wife in the apartments where the murdered old fellow and his wife live.
I liked the dour characters and the dreary weather and the philosophizing - it's all so perfectly dreary Northern Europe, and so different to American or British crime novels. I also liked that it gave me enough information about the characters and their history that I didn't feel I needed to have read the preceding novels. Having said that, I'm going to look for the first in the series because I liked this one enough to see if the liking keeps going.
So, what's the book about and what did I like about it? It's about the investigation into a murder, which expands to be an investigation of a murder and two disappearances. The murder is of an old fellow, who with his 3 mates has just won the lottery. The first disappearance is another of the group of 4 old fellows, and the second, only a few days later, is that of the caretaker's wife in the apartments where the murdered old fellow and his wife live.
I liked the dour characters and the dreary weather and the philosophizing - it's all so perfectly dreary Northern Europe, and so different to American or British crime novels. I also liked that it gave me enough information about the characters and their history that I didn't feel I needed to have read the preceding novels. Having said that, I'm going to look for the first in the series because I liked this one enough to see if the liking keeps going.