Review: THE WATER'S EDGE, Karin Fossum

• 
  This title made available as an e-book by my local library on Libby
  
• #8 in the Inspector Sejer series
• Published in 2009 by Random House
• Translated into English from Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund 

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)
A married couple, Reinhardt and Kristine Ris, are out for a Sunday walk when they discover the body of a boy and see the figure of a man limping away. They alert the police, but not before Reinhardt, to Kristine's horror, kneels down and takes photographs of the dead child with his cell phone. 

Inspectors Konrad Sejer and Jakob Skarre begin to make inquiries in the little town of Solberglia. But then another boy disappears, and an explanation seems more remote than ever. Meanwhile, the Ris's marriage starts to unravel as Reinhardt becomes obsessed with the tragic events and his own part in them.  

My Take

It is nearly 10 years since I have read a book by this author and I had forgotten how good they are. It was almost meeting up again with old friends.

Karin Fossum is a Norwegian author and her novels owe a lot to the atmospheric setting. In many ways the novels are police procedurals but they also are related to themes of modern times: in this case paedophilia, and what leads some men to target children. Sejer and Skarr are methodical and sensitive. In a side-theme Kristine Ris is trapped in a loveless marriage to a man she has come to both fear and hate.

My rating: 4.6

I've also read

• BLACK SECONDS
• BROKEN
• THE WATER'S EDGE
• 4.9, BAD INTENTIONS
• 5.0, THE CALLER
• 4.7, I CAN SEE IN THE DARK
• 5.0, THE DROWNED BOY
• 4.7, HELLFIRE

Review: WOLF HOUR, Jo Nesbo

• 
  This edition published by Harvill Secker 2025
  
• ISBN 9781787303775
• Translated from the Norwegian by Robert Ferguson
• 417 pages  

Synopsis (publisher)

Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2016. When a small-time criminal and gun dealer is shot down in the street, all signs point to Tomas Gomez, a quiet man with a mysterious past—and deep connections to a notorious gang—who has seemingly vanished into thin air. Other murders soon follow, and it appears Gomez is only getting started. Meanwhile, Bob Oz, a down-and-out suspended police officer with a dubious past of his own, becomes fascinated by the case: he is obsessed with the notion of hunting down a serial killer who only he can understand, a killer with a story as tragic as his own.  

Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2022. An enigmatic Norwegian man with ties to Minneapolis—a self-described crime writer—has traveled to the United States to research the Gomez case, in the hopes of writing a book about it. But as his investigation progresses, the writer’s seemingly neutral position reveals itself to be more complicated than the reader is initially led to believe.

Wolf Hour is a twisty and unforgettable thriller in classic Jo Nesbø style, which bears out Vanity Fair’s observation that “Nesbø explores the darkest criminal minds with grim delight and puts his killers where you least expect to find them. . . . His novels are maddeningly addictive.” 

My Take

As always, Jo Nesbo provides an intriguing challenge for the reader with a time frame spread over at least six years, at least two "voices", and multiple plot threads. Clues to each of these are plentiful but you have to keep your wits about you.  By about mid-way I suspected I had solved the "puzzle" but that was not confirmed until nearly the end, and I wasn't totally right. This is a book that you will want to keep reading.  

My rating: 4.8

I've also read

• NEMESIS
• THE REDEEMER
• 5.0, THE SNOWMAN
• 4.8, THE LEOPARD
• 4.7, HEADHUNTERS
• 4.7, PHANTOM
• 4.7, THE BAT
• 4.7, POLICE
• 5.0, THE SON
• 4.4, BLOOD ON SNOW
• 4.8, THE THIRST
• 4.4, MIDNIGHT SUN: BLOOD ON THE SNOW 2
• 4.3, MACBETH
• 4.6, THE KINGDOM  

Review: THE BAT, Jo Nesbo - audio book

• Format: audio book from Audible.com, narrated by Sean Barrett
• Length: 10 hours 43 minutes
• series: Harry Hole Book 1
• published in audio 2012
• Published in Norway 1997
• translated into English 2012 by Don Bartlett

Publishers Summary (Audible.com)

The thrilling first book in the best-selling Harry Hole series, never before published in English.

Harry is out of his depth.
Detective Harry Hole is meant to keep out of trouble. A young Norwegian girl taking a gap year in Sydney has been murdered, and Harry has been sent to Australia to assist in any way he can.
He's not supposed to get too involved.
When the team unearths a string of unsolved murders and disappearances, nothing will stop Harry from finding out the truth. The hunt for a serial killer is on, but the murderer will talk only to Harry.
He might just be the next victim.

Appearing in English for the first time, The Bat is the legendary first novel from the worldwide phenomenon Jo Nesbo.

My Take

Jo Nesbo was almost coy at Adelaide Writer's Week last year when he told us THE BAT would be released in English during 2012. It's setting alone, Harry Hole in Sydney investigating the murder of a Norwegian tourist, ensures that it is of interest to Australian crime fiction addicts, especially those who have followed Harry's progress in the later novels in the series. 

I wondered at the time whether his coyness was related to the Australian setting, whether he thought that Australian readers would be supercritical about comments made about our home by an "outsider". Or was he embarrassed because he thought we would find the story unpolished?

But how could that be? THE BAT was awarded with the most prestigious crime writing award in Norway, The Riverton Prize (Rivertonprisen) 1997 for Best Norwegian Crime Novel of the Year, as well as the premier crime writing award in Scandinavia, The Glass Key (Glasnyckeln) 1998 for Best Nordic Crime Novel of the Year.

Nesbo himself says
“Written in beginner’s euphoria. A story which bears the marks of where it was written, both in terms of geography and my life. Just recently I read it on the radio, and to some extent I was dreading all the mistakes new writers make, but what struck me was how fresh and bold it is.”

Most reviews point out how much THE BAT fills in Harry Hole's back story.
Maxine Clarke said "THE BAT is a serviceable, tense crime novel with intriguing hints of what is to come".
But reviewers are divided about whether they like this book as much as later titles, whether delaying its availability in English was a good idea or not.

For me, the Harry Hole we meet in THE BAT isn't really the same person as we meet in later titles, although the signs are there.
In addition there's a lot more evidence of research into the setting than we get in later titles, possibly because Nesbo felt he had to explain the setting more to his Norwegian readers. At times it reads as if he has picked up a book of Aboriginal legends, studied the map of Sydney very carefully, and read a few travelogues.
I had trouble accepting that the Sydney Police would give Harry Hole such powers in directing action in a crime investigation.

Nevertheless an enjoyable and worthwhile read for me.

My rating: 4.7

Other Reviews to consider

• Sarah at Crime Pieces
• Maxine at EuroCrime
• Bernadette at Reactions to Reading
• The Sunday Times

Reviews on MiP of other books in the Harry Hole series
NEMESIS
THE REDEEMER
5.0, THE SNOWMAN
4.8, THE LEOPARD
4.7, HEADHUNTERS - not a Harry Hole
4.7, PHANTOM  

Review: THE CALLER, Karin Fossum

• first published 2009
• English translation from Norwegian by K.E. Semmel 2011
• published in English by Harvill Secker, London
• ISBN 978-1-846-55393-6
• 296 pages
• Source: my local library
• #8 in the Inspector Sejer series

Synopsis (Amazon)

One mild summer evening Lily and her husband are enjoying a meal while their baby daughter sleeps peacefully in her pram beneath a maple tree. But when Lily steps outside she is paralysed with terror. The child is bathed in blood.

Inspector Sejer is called to the hospital to meet the family. Mercifully the baby is unharmed, but her parents are deeply shaken. Sejer spends the evening trying to comprehend why anyone would carry out such a sinister prank.

Then, just before midnight, somebody rings his doorbell. The corridor is empty, but the caller has left a small grey envelope on the mat. From his living room window, the inspector watches a figure slip across the car park and disappear into the darkness. Inside the envelope Sejer finds a postcard bearing a short message. Hell begins now.

My take

When you think about it, the main plot line of THE CALLER is simple enough. Someone is playing pranks. The list of pranks that begins with the baby covered in blood grows: a death notice in the paper for someone who is not dead, a prize sheep painted with orange paint, a funeral home requested to collect the body of a seriously ill man who has not yet died, tyres slashed. In themselves the pranks are not life threatening but they are malicious.

The reader learns early on the identity of the person playing the pranks, and I think there is the possibility that at least one other person in the community knows who the "prankster" is. But the pranks are vicious acts, perpetrated by an adolescent in whom real anger boils as the result of a life time of neglect. And despite the fact that he is in his late teens he is incapable of seeing beyond the immediate consequences of his pranks. He can't see the sense of security that his pranks have removed from his victims, and he can't forecast their long term consequences. And then two of the pranks have serious consequences. Someone dies.

This is #8 in Fossum's Inspector Sejer series and a mark of her popularity with English speaking readers that there has been such a small time lapse since the original publication in Norwegian. If you've not read any of the series before, then you could start with this one. It will send you looking for the others. It presents Inspector Konrad Sejer in a kindly light: ageing, a little worried by health issues, and with great empathy for the victims of these crimes. But he even feels drawn to the prankster himself. He and his team look for the thread that binds the pranks together: how does the prankster select his victims?

There's an ambiguity to the ending which seems characteristic of Fossum stories. If what the prankster says is true, there is one prank that was not his doing. And what was Else Meiner doing at the Sparbo Dam?

An excellent read. My rating: 5.0

Other reviews for you to read

• AustCrimeFiction
• Petrona
• Reactions to Reading
• Euro Crime

Inspector Konrad Sejer, Norway (courtesy Euro Crime) - the first date is the year of publication in English, the number at the end is the series order.

• In the Darkness	2012	1
• Don't Look Back (Se deg ikke tilbake!, 1996)	2002	2
• He Who Fears the Wolf (Den som frykter ulven, 1997)	2003	3
• When the Devil Holds the Candle (Djevelen holder lyset , 1998)	2004	4
• Calling Out for You! (apa The Indian Bride) (Elskede Poona, 2000)	2005	5
• Black Seconds (Svarte sekunder, 2002)	2007	6
• The Water's Edge	2009	8
• Bad Intentions	2010	9
• The Caller	2011	10

Other Karin Fossum reviews on MiP
BLACK SECONDS
(also contains mini reviews of
DON'T LOOK BACK,
HE WHO FEARS THE WOLF,
WHEN THE DEVIL HOLDS THE CANDLE, and
CALLING OUT FOR YOU)
BROKEN (a stand-alone)
THE WATER'S EDGE
4.9, BAD INTENTIONS

Review: 1222 by Anne Holt

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 843 KB
• Publisher: Corvus (December 25, 2010)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English (translated by Marlaine Delargy)
• ASIN: B004G5YVSM
• Source: I bought it

Synopsis (Amazon)

1222 metres above sea level, train 601 from Oslo to Bergen careens off iced rails as the worst snowstorm in Norwegian history gathers force around it. Marooned in the high mountains with night falling and the temperature plummeting, its 269 passengers are forced to abandon their snowbound train and decamp to a centuries-old mountain hotel. They ought to be safe from the storm here, but as dawn breaks one of them will be found dead, murdered.

With the storm showing no sign of abating, retired police inspector Hanne Wilhelmsen is asked to investigate. But Hanne has no wish to get involved. She has learned the hard way that truth comes at a price and sometimes that price just isn’t worth paying. Her pursuit of truth and justice has cost her the love of her life, her career in the Oslo Police Department and her mobility: she is paralysed from the waist down by a bullet lodged in her spine.

Trapped in a wheelchair, trapped by the killer within, trapped by the deadly storm outside, Hanne’s growing unease is shared by everyone in the hotel. Should she investigate, or should she just wait for help to arrive? And all the time rumours swirl about a secret cargo carried by train 601. Why was the last carriage sealed? Why is the top floor of the hotel locked down? Who or what is being concealed? And, of course, what if the killer strikes again?

My take

This is the first book by Anne Holt that I have read, and it certainly won't be the last.
Perhaps one of the reasons that I enjoyed it so much is that it is in part a homage to Agatha Christie. Here are 269 train passengers with nowhere to go (169 of them in the hotel 1222), imprisoned by a snow storm, and with little hope of immediate rescue. So when the murder takes place, we have a classic "locked room" mystery.

The central sleuth is wheel-chair bound,  retired police inspector Hanne Wilhelmsen. After the first murder, that of a church minister, Hanne doesn't initiate an investigation as one might expect, but teams up with a doctor, a solicitor, and the hotel manager. Hanne expects their isolation on the highest mountain pass in Norway will be short-lived, but the storm grows in intensity and rescue is actually days away.

‘That’s what you said when you were in here earlier,’ he insisted. ‘You said this investigation would be incredibly simple. Or something along those lines. Is that what you think?’ 

I nodded. ‘We have a very limited number of suspects, all of whom are trapped up here. A limited geographical area to examine, to put it mildly. I think the murder will be cleared up in a day or two. Once the police have taken over, of course. I mean, they have to make a start first.’

There are some obvious parallels between this story and many of the "isolated location" novels of Agatha Christie. Hanne herself draws one:

Twenty-four hours ago, there were 269 people on board a train. Then we became 196. When two men died, we were 194. Now there were only 118 of us left. I thought about Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. I immediately tried to dismiss the thought. And Then There Were None is a story that doesn’t exactly have a happy ending.

The number of people resident in the hotel reduces and they become even more isolated as a connecting passage with another wing of the hotel collapses. And then there is another murder.

Apart from the murder mystery, the story has a second element: who were the people in the last carriage of the train? Why have they taken up residence in the top floor of the hotel? Why do they have an armed guard?

There are a number of details about Hanne's personal life and past history to be pieced together from the novel, and this does seem to take away from the main threads, although they are probably necessary.

Holt does have one disconcerting narrative ploy, that you can see in action here:

I didn’t know how right I was. Just a few weeks later, his business colleagues would be seized and placed under arrest in a major police operation in the Natal province of Brazil. They could look forward to a lengthy trial and an even longer prison sentence, all under conditions that made the prison at Ullersmo look like a five-star hotel.

In more than one place Hanne looks ahead and tells us how something ends up.

However, that aside, this is a good read. Anne Holt a good Norwegian author for you to look for.

My rating: 4.8

What a pity this is the only title in the Hanne Wilhelmsen series that has been translated into English so far. According to Fantastic Fiction, two more will appear this year:
1. The Blind Goddess (2012)
2. 1222 (2010)
3. Blessed Are Those Who Thirst (2012)
There are 4 titles in Holt's other series, Vik & Stubo, already available in English.

Check another review

• On EuroCrime by Maxine Clarke 
• On Scandinavian Books

1222 has been shortlisted for the 2012 Edgar Award for Best Novel

About the author

Anne Holt spent two years working for the Oslo Police Department before founding her own law firm and serving as Norway's Minister for Justice in 1996/97. Her first book was published in 1993 and she has subsequently developed two series: the Hanne Wilhelmsen series and the Vik/Stubo series. Both series will be published by Corvus.

Review: BLACK SECONDS, Karin Fossum

This review is one of a number that I am re-publishing as they were originally published elsewhere, not on this blog.

Harvill Secker, Sep 2007
translated from Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund.
ISBN 0151015279, 272pages

Helga Joner has often thought that her nine year old daughter Ida is too good to be true, too good to last. The disappearance of a child is every parent's worst nightmare. When Ida fails to arrive home from the shop, Helga feels she had been rehearsing the moment for years. First Helga and her sister Ruth scour the streets where they might find Ida, without success, and then they ring the police. Helga feels that somehow she has tempted fate, setting off an inevitable chain of events.

When Inspector Konrad Sejer arrives at her house, Helga feels instinctively that he will find Ida. As time passes Sejer becomes concerned that no trace has been found of Ida or the bright yellow bicycle she rode to the shop. One hundred and fifty volunteers search for Ida without success. Eight days later there are still no clues, the search is to be scaled down, and a chance comment by Helga to Sejer gives them something new to work on.

The careful reader will pick up the clues laid by Fossum early in the book, and probably feel at the book's end that he/she has always known where it was headed. But that won't diminish your enjoyment of this novel. The path is rich with scenes, characters, and explorations of how people think, and why they make the choices they do. Even so, nothing is certain, the characters are as large as life, and the scenarios so believable.

This is the fifth title in author Karin Fossum's Inspector Sejer series. What a pity it has taken five years for an English translation of this masterpiece by the Norwegian "Queen of Crime" to become available. If you've never read anything by Karin Fossum, after BLACK SECONDS you'll want to start the series at beginning, enjoying the connections between her novels, the plots she creates, and the development of the character of Konrad Sejer. Let's hope the next two novels in the series, already published in Norwegian, become more quickly available.

Karin Fossum lives in Oslo, and, in her early fifties, is a relatively young writer. Her successful Inspector Konrad Sejer series has been translated into over 16 languages. She won the Nordic Glass Key award in 1997 for DON'T LOOK BACK, and in 2005 CALLING OUT FOR YOU was shortlisted for a CWA Gold Dagger.

My rating 5.0

Oct 2007 review originally published on Murder and Mayhem

Other links on my blog

• When I first began this blog I listed Karin Fossum as one of my favourite authors
• Review: BROKEN

Other mini-reviews:

DON'T LOOK BACK
The second time I have read this book by the 'Norwegian Queen of Crime' and I liked it even better the second time around. A six-year-old child disappears, terrifying her parents; when she suddenly returns home, a teenager is found murdered on a mountain path, her naked body carefully covered with a jacket. And the teenager’s on-and-off again boyfriend has lived through a childhood so nightmarish that he barely survives, only to find himself a murder suspect.There is comfort in the person of Inspector Sejer, the man charged with solving this murder in the picturesque setting near the Kollen Mountains. With his calm demeanor, the gray-haired inspector pursues anyone who knew the murdered girl, peeling away the façade of this idyllic village. The teenager’s shocking death has unsettled everyone, but there is an appalling paucity of clues for the inspector to work with on this puzzling case.
My rating: 5

HE WHO FEARS THE WOLF
is the second title and for some reason I have no record.
This is the blurb from Fantastic Fiction
Superb plotting, fresh style and compassionate, detailed treatment of characters have made the Inspector Sejer Mysteries bestsellers in their native Norway. A twelve-year-old boy runs wildly into his local police station claiming to have seen Halldis Horn's brutally murdered corpse. Errki Johrma, an escaped psychiatric patient and known town misfit, was sighted at the scene disappearing into the woods. The next morning the local bank is robbed at gunpoint. Making his escape the robber takes a hostage and flees and, once again, a suspect takes to the woods.

WHEN THE DEVIL HOLDS A CANDLE
Translated from the Norwegian and starring her detective creation, Inspector Konrad Sejer and his sidekick, Jacob Skarre, the book tells the tale of two delinquent youths who accidentally kill a child when snatching a purse from a pram. Later that day, a life-changing event occurs between the two friends, Andreas and Zipp, who – in order to erase its memory – choose to rob an elderly woman. Except that Andreas enters her house, but never leaves again. While Zipp ponders where he is and the police close the net around the baby's murderers, Fossum takes you inside the house to witness the grim goings on. She draws the reader into the mind of the old woman, explaining her actions and her perceptions of the young man she has trapped there, even as she recounts the grisly events taking place behind her closed doors. It also touches on the ongoing saga of Sejer, his newfound love for Sara and the hassles that affect his family and friends.
mY RATING 4.5

CALLING OUT FOR YOU! (aka INDIAN BRIDE)
Gunder Jomann, a quiet, middle-aged man from a peaceful Norwegian community, meets Poona on a trip to India and the two agree to marry. Gunder returns home to prepare for her arrival, but the day Poona is due to arrive, he is summoned to the hospital as his sister has been involved in a car crash. The driver sent to collect Poona in Gunder’s place fails to meet her. Then the body of an Indian woman matching Poona’s description is found in a cornfield on the edge of the community and a murder enquiry is set underway. This baffling mystery — for what motive could there be to bludgeon a newly arrived foreigner to death — sends shock waves through the community. Inspector Sejer and Skarre are called in to investigate. Increasing suspicion surrounds people’s mundane daily activities, and even when one man’s confession seems to tie up all the loose ends, there remains the uneasy feeling that all is not as simple as it first appears. published in 2001, not translated until 2005.
My rating: 5

Review: THE REDEEMER, Jo Nesbo

Published by Harvill Secker 2009, ISBN 9781846550409, translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett, first published in Norwegian in 2005, 457 pages.

The shooting of a Salvation Army officer at point blank range as Christmas shoppers stand listening to a street concert in Oslo is almost unthinkable. Many saw the assailant, the gun in his hand, but predictably, afterwards, they were almost of no help. If there is an irony, it is that the victim should not have been there, having changed his shift with his brother.

At Police HQ Harry Hole is investigating another case, the death of a young heroin addict, found dead in a unit at the container terminal. Harry's boss Bjarne Moller is leaving. If it hadn't been for Moller's protective wing Harry would have been off the force years ago. Harry mistrusts his new boss, Gunnar Hagen, who threatens to make him toe the line.

You can almost feel Nesbo building this book, layer on layer, investigating how events that took place over a decade before, can have consequences in present time. You certainly forget that it is translated, so natural is the English.

We've already met Harry Hole, most recently in NEMESIS, and before that in THE REDBREAST and in THE DEVIL'S STAR. (see below for my mini-reviews). THE REDEEMER is a great read, a book whose ending may shock. Harry's personal life is also once again at the centre of this book.

My rating: 4.8

THE REDEEMER has been shortlisted for the 2009 CWA International Dagger. Check Euro Crime's CWA International Dagger polls

Check these other reviews of THE REDEEMER

• Crime Scraps
• International Noir Fiction
• DJs Krimiblog
• Detectives Beyond Borders
• Reviewing the Evidence
  

Jo Nesbo's own site

The correct order in which to read the novels that have so far been translated into English:

• THE REDBREAST
• NEMESIS
• THE DEVIL'S STAR
• THE REDEEMER

THE REDBREAST, my rating 4.5
First published in Norwegian 2000. Translate into English 2006. Norwegian's history stretches its tentacles into the year 2000. This features Norwegian detective Harry Hole recently promoted to Inspector to hide the true story of how he he came to shoot and American security agent duringa visit to Oslo by the American President. A crime novel that is more a thriller than a mystery. A complex story. Harry is tracing the importation into Norway of a rare weapon, when reports come in that it has been fired. A veteran ex-soldier is found with his throat cut, and Harry keeps coming up with the same set of names.

THE DEVIL'S STAR, my rating 4.8
Translated from Swedish. Set in Oslo. Detective Harry Hole is an alcoholic who has been absent from work for the last 4 weeks.
He is highly valued by his boss who has covered up for him and marked his absence as annual leave. But now it is crunch time. He has been assigned to a case with an adversary whom he is convinced was responsible for the death of a colleague. Harry has no choice now - he must return to work or quit. The new case involves what appear to be serial killings where the murderer is leaving clues related to a five-pointed star - the devil's star.

Favourite Authors- #2 Karin Fossum

There's a good list of Karin Fossum's novels over at Fantastic Fiction as well as a photo of her in which she looks remarkably like Ruth Rendell.

In the last 3 years I have read 4 of her novels, and given 3 of them a rating of 5. I was probably being a bit mean with the other rating. I've listed them in the order in which they should be read.

DON'T LOOK BACK
The second time I have read this book by the 'Norwegian Queen of Crime' and I liked it even better the second time around. A six-year-old child disappears, terrifying her parents; when she suddenly returns home, a teenager is found murdered on a mountain path, her naked body carefully covered with a jacket. And the teenager’s on-and-off again boyfriend has lived through a childhood so nightmarish that he barely survives, only to find himself a murder suspect.There is comfort in the person of Inspector Sejer, the man charged with solving this murder in the picturesque setting near the Kollen Mountains. With his calm demeanor, the gray-haired inspector pursues anyone who knew the murdered girl, peeling away the façade of this idyllic village. The teenager’s shocking death has unsettled everyone, but there is an appalling paucity of clues for the inspector to work with on this puzzling case.
My rating: 5

HE WHO FEARS THE WOLF
is the second title and for some reason I have no record.
This is the blurb from Fantastic Fiction
Superb plotting, fresh style and compassionate, detailed treatment of characters have made the Inspector Sejer Mysteries bestsellers in their native Norway. A twelve-year-old boy runs wildly into his local police station claiming to have seen Halldis Horn's brutally murdered corpse. Errki Johrma, an escaped psychiatric patient and known town misfit, was sighted at the scene disappearing into the woods. The next morning the local bank is robbed at gunpoint. Making his escape the robber takes a hostage and flees and, once again, a suspect takes to the woods.

WHEN THE DEVIL HOLDS A CANDLE
Translated from the Norwegian and starring her detective creation, Inspector Konrad Sejer and his sidekick, Jacob Skarre, the book tells the tale of two delinquent youths who accidentally kill a child when snatching a purse from a pram. Later that day, a life-changing event occurs between the two friends, Andreas and Zipp, who – in order to erase its memory – choose to rob an elderly woman. Except that Andreas enters her house, but never leaves again. While Zipp ponders where he is and the police close the net around the baby's murderers, Fossum takes you inside the house to witness the grim goings on. She draws the reader into the mind of the old woman, explaining her actions and her perceptions of the young man she has trapped there, even as she recounts the grisly events taking place behind her closed doors. It also touches on the ongoing saga of Sejer, his newfound love for Sara and the hassles that affect his family and friends.
mY RATING 4.5

CALLING OUT FOR YOU! (aka INDIAN BRIDE)
Gunder Jomann, a quiet, middle-aged man from a peaceful Norwegian community, meets Poona on a trip to India and the two agree to marry. Gunder returns home to prepare for her arrival, but the day Poona is due to arrive, he is summoned to the hospital as his sister has been involved in a car crash. The driver sent to collect Poona in Gunder’s place fails to meet her. Then the body of an Indian woman matching Poona’s description is found in a cornfield on the edge of the community and a murder enquiry is set underway. This baffling mystery — for what motive could there be to bludgeon a newly arrived foreigner to death — sends shock waves through the community. Inspector Sejer and Skarre are called in to investigate. Increasing suspicion surrounds people’s mundane daily activities, and even when one man’s confession seems to tie up all the loose ends, there remains the uneasy feeling that all is not as simple as it first appears. published in 2001, not translated until 2005.
My rating: 5

BLACK SECONDS
Helga Joner has often thought that her nine year old daughter Ida is too good to be true, too good to last. The disappearance of a child is every parent’s worst nightmare. When Ida fails to arrive home from the shop, Helga feels she had been rehearsing the moment for years. First Helga and her sister Ruth scour the streets where they might find Ida, without success, and then they ring the police. Helga feels that somehow she has tempted fate, setting off an inevitable chain of events.
When Inspector Konrad Sejer arrives at her house, Helga feels instinctively that he will find Ida. As time passes Sejer becomes concerned that no trace has been found of Ida or the bright yellow bicycle she rode to the shop. One hundred and fifty volunteers search for Ida without success. Eight days later there are still no clues, the search is to be scaled down, and a chance comment by Helga to Sejer gives them something new to work on.
My rating: 5

A new title due to come out this year
BROKEN - not a Conrad Sejer title though
From the blurb on Fantastic Fiction.
A gripping novel set on the boundary between fact and fiction.
A woman wakes one night to find that a strange man has walked into her bedroom. She lies there in terrified silence unable to move. The woman is an author and the man one of her prospective characters. So desperate is he to have his story told that he has resorted to breaking into her house to make her tell it.
She creates Alvar Eide, forty-two years old, single, who works in an art gallery. He lives a quiet, dutiful life, carefully designed to avoid surprises. One winter's day, all this begins to change when an emaciated young heroin addict walks into the gallery. A kind man, Alvar gives her a cup of coffee to warm her up. She returns some weeks later to his place of work, and then one day appears on his doorstep demanding to be let in.
Interspersed with the chapters of Alvar's story are his encounters with its author — the frantic attempts of a fictional man trying to control his own destiny. Broken is a gripping novel about the boundary between fact and fiction and the perils of good intentions.