Review: THE DROWNED BOY, Karin Fossum

• first published 2015, June 4
• available for pre-order at Amazon
  
  
• #11 in the Conrad Sejer series
• review copy from Random House UK via NetGalley
• translated by Kari Dickson
• ISBN 9781448192311

Synopsis (NetGalley)

‘He'd just learnt to walk,’ she said. ‘He was sitting playing on his blanket, then all of a sudden he was gone.’

A 16-month-old boy is found drowned in a pond right by his home. Chief Inspector Sejer is called to the scene as there is something troubling about the mother’s story. As even her own family turns against her, Sejer is determined to get to the truth.

My take

Carmen and Nicolai are young parents but none of their family doubts that they are good parents. Their son Tommy is a sturdy and healthy toddler who has just learned to walk. One hot August day he apparently wanders from the house into the pond at the bottom of their garden and drowns. But there is something about the way Carmen relates what has happened that Conrad Sejer finds strange, particularly the way she accepts it all, despite the fact that she is constantly in tears. Her husband is distraught.

When Sejer discovers that Tommy had Downs Syndrome he can't help wondering if the drowning really was an accident.

This is a very readable story, where Fossum has taken a very plausible plot and explored the character of the mother in particular, but also the impact of the death of the little boy on the whole family.

My rating: 5.0

I've also reviewed
BLACK SECONDS
BROKEN
THE WATER'S EDGE
4.9, BAD INTENTIONS
5.0, THE CALLER
4.7, I CAN SEE IN THE DARK