Don't Look Back

Solid crime novel that left me surprisingly hooked. I don't know, it wasn't as bleak as some Scandinavian crime can be, but then bleak enough that I could easily imagine this small Norvegian town that was shook up by first the disappearance of a girl, followed by finding the body of another one.

Nothing special, but rock-solid.

I would qualify the book as passable at best. The plot is not uninteresting, well developed but the writing is a bit naive, as it written by a teenager. The sentences are awkward as if the author is writing an essay for the first time.

Rural Norway, nice mystery, nothing to write home about but entertaining enough and I will probably read another one of em'

Conrad Sejer and his young sidekick Skarre are called to a small community to find a missing child, but instead the child finds a dead teenager. As usual, Fossum strips away the layers of social convention surrounding the characters with a delicate touch, showing that things are never what they seem and that nobody is immune from evil. Fossum doesn't 'do' suspense like other writers. She just lets it emerge as she quietly goes about her archaeology, brushing away the mystery until the truth is showing, like bones. And she doesn't let you leave the story congratulating yourself that justice has been done and order has been restored. She gives any comfort you might be feeling a sharp tug in the last pages, leaving the reader a little off-balance.