Meet Kalle Blomkvist aka Bill Bergson

Left: photo of the boy who played Kalle Blomkvist.
Right: photo of Stieg Larsson.

The other day my daughter came across two volumes of Astrid Lindgren´s Kalle Blomkvist series in an antiquarian bookshop (both published by Gyldendal in 1989).
Fortunately she bought them, giving me a chance to write a short introduction to the well-known Scandinavian boy detective who was an important source of inspiration when Stieg Larsson created his character Mikael Blomkvist.

Bill Bergson, Master Detective (first published in 1946)
"Blood! No doubt about it!
He stared at the red stain through his magnifying glass. Then he moved his pipe to the other side of his mouth and sighed. Of course it was blood. What else can you expect when you cut your thumb? That stain ought to have been the decisive proof of Sir Henry's doing away with his wife in one of the most horrible murder cases which it ever had been the happy lot of a detective to clear up. But, doggone the luck, it wasn't so!"

Thirteen-year-old Bill mourns his sad existence, not being born in London or Chicago, but in sleepy old Main Street in a sleepy Swedish town. His best friends are Anders and Eva-Lotte who laugh at Bill for seeing crime everywhere, until a newcomer to the town, Eva-Lotte´s uncle Einar, starts behaving mysteriously. Not only does he buy a torch in mid-summer, he even carries a picklock in his pocket! Finally Bill has an opportunity to try out his detective skills which he does in secret until the danger is so imminent that he is forced to involve his friends.

More than sixty years on, this wonderful children´s book feels anything but dated. What is most interesting, perhaps, is the girl Eva-Lotte. The boys do feel they should not be playing with a girl, but they are forced to admit that any adventure is more exciting when courageous Eva-Lotte takes the lead. She may be dressed in the skirts of her time, but this is just about the only feminine thing about Eva-Lotte. Well done, Astrid Lindgren!

So this was Stieg Larsson´s role model: a young, imaginative but in many ways ordinary middle-class boy who realizes that when it comes to the crunch, he needs help from his friends and family.

And where might Astrid Lindgren have found inspiration for her hero?













Mød Kalle Blomkvist.
Den anden dag fandt min datter to bind af Astrid Lindgrens Kalle Blomkvist-serie i et antikvariat (udgivet af Gyldendal i 1989). Hun købte dem heldigvis, og gav mig chancen for at skrive en kort introduktion til den berømte detektiv, som inspirerede Stieg Larsson, da han skulle skabe personen Mikael Blomkvist.

Mesterdetektiven Blomkvist (først udgivet i 1946).
"Blod! Der var ikke tvivl om den ting!
Han stirrede på den røde plet gennem forstørrelsesglasset. Så flyttede han piben over i den anden mundvig og sukkede. Naturligvis var det blod - hvad plejer der ellers at komme, når man skærer sig i tommelfingeren? Den plet burde have været det afgørende bevis på, at sir Henry havde taget sin kone af dage ved et af de uhyggeligste mord, det var faldet i nogen detektivs lod at opklare. Men desværre, sådan forholdt det sig ikke!"

Trettenårige Kalle sørger over sin triste skæbne, at være født i den søvnige Storegade i en søvnig svensk by, når man nu kunne være født i London eller Chicago. Kalles bedste venner er Anders og Eva-Lotte, selv om de gør grin med at han ser forbrydelser overalt, indtil Eva-Lottes hidtil ukendte onkel Einar dukker op i byen, og opfører sig højst mærkværdigt. Han køber ikke bare en lommelygte midt i den lyse sommer, han går sandelig rundt med en dirk i lommen. Nu har Kalle mulighed for at prøve sine detektivevner af i dybeste hemmelighed, indtil det bliver så farligt, at han er nødt til at bede sine venner om hjælp.

Skønt den er mere end 60 år gammel, forekommer bogen på ingen måde .... Det mest interessante i den forbindelse er måske pigen Eva-Lotte. Drengene tænker måske nok, at de ikke burde lege med en pige, men de må indrømme, at alting bliver lidt mere spændende, når friske og modige Eva-Lotte fører an. Selvfølgelig render hun rundt i den tids pigebeklædning, nederdelen, men det er noget nær det eneste feminine ved denne tidlige, kvindelige detektiv. Flot klaret, Astrid Lindgren!

Det var så Stieg Larssons forbillede: en ung, fantasifuld men på mange måder ganske almindelig middelklassedreng, som indser, at når det virkelig gælder, er han afhængig af hjælp fra venner og familie.

Og hvem kunne man så forestille sig, Astrid Lindgren er blevet inspireret af?

Peter Robinson, Et spor af ild (2007).

"Jeg var på den tredje sovepille og det andet glas whisky, da han bankede på min dør. Jeg ved ikke, hvorfor jeg overhovedet åbnede den. Jeg havde overgivet mig selv til min skæbne og arrangeret alting således, at jeg så fredfyldt og behageligt som muligt kunne forlade denne verden, og der var ingen, der ville begræde min bortgang."

Men selvfølgelig bliver den mystiske, suicidale person afbrudt i sit forehavende. En gæst fra fortiden iført ulasteligt Hugo Boss-jakkesæt med en flaske i den ene hånd kan tilbyde ´et lille stykke arbejde´, tilmed ´et indbringende et af slagsen´. Først troede jeg, den whiskydrikkende sortseer var detektiven. Der kunne såmænd nemt have været tale om en type som skotske Inspector Rebus eller norske Harry Hole, men til trods for sin forkærlighed for Laphroaig, ser det ud til, at chefkriminalinspektør Alan Banks har nogenlunde styr på sit whiskyforbrug.

Banks og hans trofaste højre hånd gennem fjorten krimier, den stærkt forkølede kriminalinspektør Annie Cabbot, har tidligere haft en affære, og interesserer sig stadig i påfaldende grad for hinandens gøren og laden. Er det for eksempel jalousi, der får Banks til at holde så grundigt øje med Cabbots nye kæreste?

Banks og Cabbot kommer på overarbejde straks ved bogens start i forbindelse med en voldsom brand på et par flodpramme, som har kendt bedre tider. Den purunge stofmisbruger Tina og kunstneren Tom, som lever som besættere på hver sin båd, omkommer begge i flammerne. Er der tale om mordbrand, og i så fald, hvem af dem var det tilsigtede offer?

Plottet udvikler sig fint; alle vidner opfører sig naturligvis suspekt, og Robinson har tydeligvis sat sig grundigt ind i emnet brandefterforskning. Af og til har han dog en tendens til at overforklare (pædagogiske demonstrationer af viden som læseren ikke nødvendigvis har brug for). Krimien er dog på alle måder gennemtænkt og tilpas spændende hele vejen igennem.

Om man så synes om det ofte tilbagevende tema i krimiserier: langtidsforviklinger mellem den mandlige og kvindelige hovedperson, det er selvfølgelig en smagssag.

Til slut en bemærkning om sproget: det er min fornemmelse, at Peter Robinson skriver glimrende engelsk, men oversættelsen lyder ofte kunstig og ligefrem komisk:
"Vi kommer til at ville tale med dig igen snart."
"Ringer den beskrivelse en klokke?"
"Winsome var den eneste, som spiste med eftertrykkelighed"

Ærgerligt, at den slags skal forstyrre en ellers udmærket læseoplevelse. Jeg skal helt sikkert prøve Peter Robinson igen - på engelsk!

Peter Robinson, Playing with Fire (2004)
"I was on the third sleeping pill and the second glass of whisky when he knocked on my door. I don´t know why I opened it at all. I had surrendered to my fate and arranged everything so I could leave this world as peacefully and comfortably as possible, and no one would lament my departure."

But of course the mysterious, suicidal person is interrupted in his project. A guest from the past, dressed in an immaculate Hugo Boss suit with a bottle in his hand, has come to offer ´a little job´ which should even be ´a lucrative one´. First I thought the whisky-drinking pessimist might be the detective. It certainly looked like another Inspector Rebus or Harry Hole type (Jo Nesbo´s protagonist), but in spite of his love of Laphroaig, it seems that detective chief inspector Alan Banks is able to control his consumption of liquor.

Inspector Banks´ faithful sidekick throughout fourteen crime novels, detective inspector Annie Cabbot, is also his former lover, but have they really got over this? One wonders, as Banks cannot help keeping an eye on Annie and her private affairs.

Banks and Cabbot are thrown into overwork right from the beginning in connection with a violent fire on two worn-out canal barges. The young drug addict Tina and the artist Tom who squat on each their boat are killed in the flames. Is this arson, and if so, who was the intended victim? The plot is developed expertly, all the witnesses behave suspiciously, and Robinson has evidently studied the investigation of fire thoroughly. Now and then he shows a tendency to overexplain (demonstrations of knowledge the reader does not necessarily need). Yet the crime novel is well thought out and suitably exciting all the way through. Whether one likes the recurrent theme in crime series: long-term complications between the male and female protagonist is a question of personal taste, of course.

Finally a comment on the language: my feeling is that good language is lurking behind a translation which has its moments - of involuntary humour and unidiomatic dialogue. I am certainly going to revisit Peter Robinson´s universe, but in English!

While we are waiting ...

Perhaps there are still visitors who want to try to guess this week´s bait so this post is just a commercial for a post which will be brought some day. Here are the six Wexford novels Ruth Rendell wrote during the 1970s. It will take some time to get through them, and I do not promise to read them all in detail.
Did you see my first post about him?


Mens vi venter ...

Måske er der stadig besøgende, som gerne vil prøve at gætte denne uges bog, så her bringes et reklameindslag for et fremtidigt indlæg. Her ses de seks Wexford-romaner Ruth Rendell skrev i løbet af 1970erne (de er formodentlig udgivet noget senere på dansk). Det vil tage lidt tid at komme igennem bunken, og jeg vil ikke love at nærlæse dem alle.
NB: så du mit første indlæg om Wexford?

Graph: the nationalities of my latest 100 visitors

DJ's Bait in the Box # 6

This week´s beautiful tin belongs to Cathy, Kittling: Books

This British crime novel is far from the first in a series.

"They were standing on a canal bank close to dawn watching two barges smolder. Not usually the sort of job for a detective chief inspector ..., especially so early on a Friday morning, but as soon as it had been safe enough for the firefighters to board the barges, they had done so and found one body on each."

The rules:
If you recognize the quotation, or if you think you are able to guess who wrote it, please post a comment. Just leave a hint, do not spoil the fun by giving too much away.


Gæt en bog # 6
Denne britisk krimi er langt fra den første i en serie.

"De stod på bredden af en kanal kort før daggry og iagttog to pramme, der lå og ulmede. Det var normalt ikke arbejde for en chefkriminalinspektør ..., særligt ikke så tidligt en fredag morgen, men så snart det havde været sikkert for brandfolkene at entre prammene, havde de gjort det og havde fundet et lig på hver af dem."

Reglerne:
Hvis du kan genkende citatet, eller hvis du tror du kan gætte hvem forfatteren er, så læg venligst en kommentar. Skriv bare et hint til nye besøgende, lad være med at ødelægge fornøjelsen for andre.

Odd WoMan Out

I am not going to offend my intelligent blog visitors by asking who is odd woman out here. But:

1) in your opinion, who is the ´real´ Miss Marple? - why?
2) which topical film role does the fourth woman play?

NB: I know Blogger does not work properly today - sorry if you want to comment but are not able to.

Look here for Miss Marple videos (Thank you, Kerrie)


















Jeg vil ikke fornærme mine intelligente besøgende ved at spørge, hvem det er, som ikke hører hjemme her. Men:

1) hvem er den ´rigtige´ Miss Marple efter din mening? - hvorfor?
2) hvilken (højaktuel) rolle spiller den fjerde kvinde?

NB: jeg ved der er tekniske vanskeligheder med Blogger i øjeblikket - beklager, hvis I gerne ville sende en kommentar. Håber problemerne snart er løst.

Se Miss Marple videoklip her. (Tak til Kerrie for dit link).

Meet Chief Inspector Reg Wexford # 1.

The point of this post is not to review Ruth Rendell´s novels, but to scrutinize her long-standing detective, Reg Wexford, beginning in the 1960s. So for this first part I have re-read her four first crime novels - and chosen to let many of the quotations speak for themselves.

1) From Doon with Death (1964)
In this story of a missing woman and a madwoman in the attic, we meet Chief Inspector Reg Wexford for the very first time. "He was taller than Burden, thick-set without being fat, fifty-two years old, the very prototype of an actor playing a top-brass policeman." Wexford is a local man who knows all and sundry in the area, a very competent detective, but not necessarily a patient or sympathetic man. He even ridicules his subordinates´ ideas when he thinks they are irrelevant to the investigation, and obviously enjoys provoking his sidekick Mike Burden now and then, "´They´re having a real humdingin´ affair,´ Wexford interrupted, ´knocking it off in the back of his jag.´ Burden was shocked."

Like many other fictional detectives, Wexford knows his classics and often quotes poetry. Besides he seems to be a connoisseur of lipstick and women´s scents which proves very useful in the first books. The reader knows that he is a married man, but does not know anything else about his family life.

In the first novel Wexford uses Sherlock Holmes´ well-known method of gathering people around him to tell them what happened and how, and when he has found his murderer he can afford to be kind. Thus a rising crime star was born - though the characters have not quite achieved their full potential in this debut.

2) A New Lease of Death (1967 - aka Sins of the Fathers).
A man called Painter was hung for murder 15 years ago. Now his daughter´s father-in-law-to-be, a village vicar playing the amateur sluth, tries to prove that Painter did not do it. Throughout the novel Reg Wexford is angry that anyone thinks he didn´t get his first murder case right!

This is how Mike Burden describes his fifty-five-year-old superior. "He turned round when he heard Wexford come in. The Chief Inspector´s heavy grey face was a little greyer than usual, but he showed no other sign of tiredness and his eyes, dark and hard as basalt, showed a gleam of triumph. He was a big man with big features and a big intimidating voice. His grey suit - one of a series of low fastening, double-breasted affairs - appeared more shabby and wrinkled than ever today. But it suited Wexford, being not unlike an extension of his furrowed pachydermatous skin."

In this novel we are reminded that Wexford is a married man. He has been working overnight, and finally his wife is forced to disturb him. "´My wife,´ he said. ´Am I dead? Have I forgotten I´ve got a home of my own? She´s run out of housekeeping and she can´t find the cheque book.´ He chuckled, felt in his pocket and produced it. ´No wonder. I´ll have to nip back.´"

An important theme of the story is the old, class-ridden Britain. Wexford meets upper-class people and Oxford graduates with distrust and prejudices, but he cannot refute the vicar´s belief that criminal tendencies are inherited. He asks himself, "If he had been asked to predict the future of such a one as Theresa Painter [the murderer´s daughter], what would he have foreseen for her? ... he supposed he would have counted her lucky to have become an anonymous manual worker with perhaps already a couple of petty convictions." Another aspect of the class theme is the number of children who came down in the world because the provider of the family died untimely.

The 1960s were not a politically correct era, either. In a restaurant, Wexford "took the menu, scowling. ´Look at that, Polynesian chicken. What do they think we are, aborigines?´" Still, Wexford shows more signs of being kind and sympathetic than in the first book.

3) Wolf to the Slaughter (1967)
Important characters are a naive young woman, a man who enjoys toying with sharp knives, plus a wealthy, but immoral woman who disappears. We also come across a new generation of casually dressed people who are into modern music and arts ... to be frowned upon by proper citizens. Young police officers are not even what they were, and Mike Burden struggles to hide his envy when Wexford calls the new man at the station, young, besodded Drayton, by his first name.

This is also the book where Mike Burden begins to develop a distinct personality. "The tea was sugarless because Burden preferred it that way, not from motives of self-denial. His figure remained lean naturally, no matter what he ate, and his greyhound´s face thin and ascetic. Conservative in dress, he was wearing a new suit this morning, and he flattered himself that he looked like a broker on holiday." Whatever Burden may think, he tends to come across as a rather moral and censorious family man. A typical Burdenism, "That means adultery, and a man who´ll commit it once will commit it again."

Wexford is his elephantine self in a ´hideous grey overcoat which would never be at the cleaner's during cold spells because it was never cleaned.´ - says Burden. Though not well-dressed, he is the more generous, understanding and imaginative police officer, who even goes to the station on his days off. He fully acknowledges Burden´s talents, however, - perhaps without saying it aloud. Again, there is no information whatsoever about Mrs Wexford, but Wexford tells his young daughter Sheila to invite Drayton to one of her noisy get-togethers.

4) The Best Man to Die (1969)
This story takes off when Jack Pertwee is about to get married, but his best man and very close friend, Charlie Hatton, never turns up. Instead we are properly introduced to Wexford´s family at last.

"Detective Chief Inspector Wexford didn´t care for dogs." Nevertheless he ends up taking Clytemnestra, a ´grey thing with ears like knitted dishcloths´ for a walk, because his daughter Sheila is preoccupied with her hair.
"´Where did Sheila get it from?´ Wexford said gloomily.
Mrs Wexford was a woman of few words. ´Sebastian.´
´Who in God´s name is Sebastian?´
´Some boy,´ said Mrs Wexford. ´He´s only just gone.´"

Moments later we catch Wexford musing on the looks of his family. "His daughter´s beauty had never ceased to surprise the chief inspector. Sylvia´, the elder married one, was well-built and healthy, but that was the best that could be said for her; Mrs Wexford had a magnificent figure and a fine profile although she had never been of the stuff that wins beauty contests. While he... All he needed, he sometimes thought, was a trunk to make him look exactly like an elephant."

This admirer of female beauty is less generous when it comes to their inner qualities, however. "Moreover, now that she [the dog] had achieved the heart´s desire for which she had turned on her shameless, neurotic display, she had become detecjed, and walked along meekly, head and tail hanging. Just like a woman, Wexford thought crossly. ... When you get what you want you don´t want what you get ..."

So we learn quite a bit about the whole family and Wexford as a person in this one, including his fear of lifts. On the whole Mrs Wexford comes across as the little middle-class housewife who neither needs much personality nor a first name. Yet it is clear that she is a patient and phlegmatic person:
"´What would you do,´Wexford said to his wife, ´if I brought a young girl home and offered you a thousand pounds to let her stay?´
´You haven´t got a thousand pounds,´ said Mrs Wexford."

Reg Wexford may seem more of a male chauvinist than for example Lord Peter Wimsey, but he is also a police officer who has experienced more than his share of crime and violence. Here he speaks out against physical punishment of children:
"Ever heard of the pill? ... Having kids is a privilege, a joy, or it should be, and by God, I´ll get the County down on you if I see you strike that boy of yours on the head again!"

Small wonder that this father worries about his beautiful daughter and wishes to see her ´safely married´. Altogether, Reg Wexford begins to look like a real character of flesh and blood though he is still very much a product of a time before new-fangled ideas about youth rebellions and equal rights for women and other minorities.

Your Blog is Fabulous Award

I received this cool award from Sherrie, Just Books. Thanks a lot, Sherrie, I have admired this pretty one whenever I came across someone who had got it.

My five nominees are:
Louise, Lou´s Pages
Kerrie, Mysteries in Paradise
Reg, Stieg Larsson´s English translator
Ruth, Buzz ´Bout Books & More
Bibliophile, (Another) 52 books.

Feel free to pass the award on to five newbie blogs you have read lately.


This very professionel "scam" was concocted by Maxine, Petrona. The reading room for heavily addicted crime fiction folks is to be found here.

Five Questions Interview

- a meme from Kim (Sophisticated Dorkiness)

1. Who is your favorite book character? Why?
- I have just scrolled down the list of crime novels I own to make sure I really mean this, but there is no real doubt that the answer must be Adam Dalgliesh, P.D. James´ gentleman detective since 1962 (Cover her Face).
Wikipedia indicates that P.D. James was inspired by Jane Austen´s character, Mr Darcy, because Dalgliesh is “tall, dark and handsome”. On the other hand, Dalgliesh also drives a Jaguar so in spite of some physical differences I have always suspected that Dorothy Sayer´s Peter Wimsey must be a source of inspiration, especially after Dalgliesh´ falling in love with Emma Lavenham.
- And why? Perhaps it is too easy to say “because he is loveable”? I don´t remember which P.D. James novel I read first, or if I actually came across Roy Marsden before reading about my hero, but I am quite certain that part of what appealed to me was the sad story about the death of his wife and newborn child. Basically, Adam Dalgliesh embodies the British gentleman in my eyes - a very private person, but still someone who reads great literature and is thoughtful and considerate (whenever his job allows him to be so).

2. If you were going to be stuck on a desert island, what three books would you want to take with you?
- The first one is easy: Barbara Vine, The Chimney Sweeper´s Boy (wonderful psychological thriller)
The second is Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend (a classic novel, but also crime)
Finally, I have chosen Colin Dexter, The Remorseful Day (even though it is so sad).

Perhaps you wonder why P.D. James does not appear on this list. She would probably be no four or five. Even though Dalgliesh is such a favourite character of mine, I would find it difficult to pick just one of the novels about him. Perhaps “Shroud for a Nightingale” because the antagonist is also such an interesting character.

3. What is one element that makes an amazing crime fiction novel?
- the one element which really singles out the best crime novels is the carefully planned plot, obviously. So the perfect crime novel is one with a satisfactory, convincing plot and some surprising twists. Yet, without credible characters and an interesting environment it would hardly be first class, however.

4. You blog in two languages, which is super cool! What language do you think most of your readers speak?
- I checked my "SiteMeter" which shows me that the number of British & American readers and that of Scandinavian readers is just about fifty-fifty. (See graphics below). I soon realized that if I blogged in Danish only, I would lose a whole world of interesting English-speaking readers (and all their kind comments), and if I should ever decide to give up a language it would be Danish as most of my Scandinavian readers are quite competent readers and writers of English.

5. Have you ever read a book that changed your opinion about a political or social issue?
- Well, a social issue, perhaps, but never political. What reading great fiction (criminal or not) gives me is an insight in human beings. In Ken Kesey´s excellent novel, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo´s Nest” (1962) the deaf-and-dumb Indian narrator says, ““But it´s the truth even if it didn´t happen.” So literature which changes the world is stories which seem to be more true than real life. A crime fiction author who takes up social issues is Ruth Rendell. A striking example is her novel “Simisola” (1994) which deals with the horrible living conditions of illegal immigrants.

Kim, thank you for your excellent, thought-provoking questions.

Does anyone out there want to participate in this meme? - just send me a comment “I want to be interviewed” - and I shall try to come up with some good questions for you.

Graphics: the language of my latest 100 guests

Interview - fem spørgsmål.
- stillet af Kim fra Sophisticated Dorkiness

1. Hvem er din litterære yndlings-person?
- Jeg har lige checket mine egne krimier for at være helt sikker, men der er egentlig ingen tvivl om, at det er Adam Dalgliesh, P.D. James´ detektiv-gentleman, som kom til verden i 1962 (Dæk ansigtet til - oversat til dansk i 1989).
Ifølge Wikipedia fandt P.D. James sin inspiration fra Jane Austens hovedperson Mr Darcy (Stolthed og Fordom - 1813), fordi Dalgliesh er “høj, mørk og flot”. På den anden side kører Dalgliesh også Jaguar, så på trods af fysiske forskelle, har jeg altid forestillet mig, at James har skævet lidt til Dorothy Sayers´ Lord Peter Wimsey, især efter at Dalgliesh har forelsket sig i Emma Lavenham.

Hvorfor? Måske er det for nemt at sige “fordi Dalgliesh er en elskelig person”? Jeg kan ikke huske, hvilken P.D. James-roman jeg læste først, eller om jeg stødte på TV-skuespilleren Roy Marsden før bog-versionen, men noget af det, der oprindeligt appellerede til mig var den sørgelige historie om hans kone og nyfødte søn, som døde. Først og fremmest er Adam Dalgliesh den fuldendte, engelske gentleman i mine øjne - et meget reserveret menneske, som holder af god litteratur og er eftertænksom og hensynsfuld (når jobbet tillader det).

2. Hvis du havnede på en øde ø, hvilke tre bøger ville du så gerne have med?
- Den første bog er nem nok: Barbara Vine, Skorstensfejerens dreng (fantastisk psykologisk thriller).
Nummer to er Charles Dickens, Vor fælles ven (en klassiker, men også en krimi)
Som nummer tre har jeg valgt Colin Dexter, Et kors for Morse (selv om den er så sørgelig)

Og nu er der måske nogen som undrer sig over, at P.D. James ikke er med på listen. Hun ville nok være nummer fire eller fem. Selv om Adam Dalgliesh er min yndlings-person, ville jeg have svært ved at vælge bare én af romanerne om ham. Måske er den bedste “Døde nattergale”, fordi morderen også er en ganske spændende person.

3. Nævn ét element, som skaber en fantastisk krimi.
- det ene element, som virkelig adskiller fantastiske krimier fra de andre, er det vel-tilrettelagte plot. Den perfekte krimi har et tilfredsstillende plot og nogle overraskende drejninger undervejs. Men uden troværdige personer og et interessant miljø, kan bogen selvfølgelig aldrig være i første klasse.

4. Det er superflot, at du blogger på to sprog. Hvilket sprog tror du de fleste af dine læsere taler?
- Min tæller "SiteMeter" viser mig, at antallet af engelsktalende læsere og skandinaver er omtrent lige højt. Det gik snart op for mig, at hvis jeg kun bloggede på dansk, ville jeg gå glip af en hel verden af spændende, engelsk-talende gæster (og alle deres venlige kommentarer), så hvis jeg bliver træt af at blogge på to sprog, vil det være dansk, som ryger, eftersom de fleste af mine skandinaviske besøgende klarer sig fint på engelsk.

5. Har du nogensinde læst en bog, som ændrede din mening om et politisk eller socialt emne?
- Socialt, måske, men aldrig politisk. Hvad jeg får ud af at læse stor litteratur (krimier eller andre genrer) er indsigt i menneskers liv og færden. I Ken Keseys fremragende roman, "Gøgereden" (1971) siger den døvstumme, indianske fortæller: "Men det er sandheden, selv om det ikke skete." Så litteratur, som kan forandre verden, er historier som forekommer mere sande end det virkelige liv. En krimiforfatter som ofte beskæftiger sig med sociale emner er Ruth Rendell. Et oplagt eksempel er romanen "Simisola" (1995), som handler om illegale indvandrere og deres forfærdelige livsvilkår.

Kim, tak for dine fremragende, tankevækkende spørgsmål.
Er der nogen derude, som kunne tænke sig at blive interviewet? - bare send mig en kommentar og skriv "jeg vil gerne interviewes" - og jeg skal prøve at lave nogle gode spørgsmål.

Ann Cleeves, The Crow Trap (1999)

- denne britiske krimi er desværre ikke oversat til dansk -
Reviewed as part of my 2009 thriller and suspense reading challenge (eco thriller).

“Bella had arranged her suicide as efficiently as she had done everything else in her life. In the torchlight she swung, hanging from a noose made of strong, nylon rope. Her face was white. She had prepared for the occasion by putting on lipstick and the silk top Rachael had bought her as a thank-you present after last season. Her black shoes shone so the torchlight reflected from them. She´d pulled two bales away from the wall and climbed onto them to tie the rope round a beam. Then, when she was ready, she had kicked one away.”

In this crime novel Ann Cleeves switches among the point of view of four women. The first voice is Rachael Lambert, the friend who discovers Bella´s body, and the team leader of an environmental survey near Kimmerston in Northumberland National Park. Rachael´s ambition is to be a confident and assertive leader, but at the same time she is afraid to appear rude. On the whole, Rachael struggles to find her own feet professionally as well as privately. She has had an affair with Peter Kemp, her boss, a man too charming to be true, but when Rachael met him, she was too young or romantic to see this.

We also follow Rachael´s team members, Anne Preece and Grace Fulwell. The three very different women do not really hit it off, to say the least. Anne Preece is a confident and reckless botanist who has had a number of affairs because her homosexual husband cannot satisfy her. She despices Rachael and regards Grace as a stuck-up madwoman.

Grace Fulwell is a pale young woman who prefers to keep her own company. In her chapters we learn that as a lonely foster child she “had to pretend at failure to be accepted at all by the other kids at school” and that she considers animals and facts easier to handle than human beings.

As Rachael cannot come to terms with Bella´s suicide, she engages her bossy and enterprising mother Edie to help her find out what lies behind. She realizes that she did not know Bella at all, and that the quiet, unobtrusive farmer´s wife has a tragic past, but Rachael and Edie do not make any real progress until a second woman dies.

We are not properly introduced to Vera Stanhope, the fourth and final voice, until nearly half-way through the book, but this remarkable woman is certainly worth waiting for.First of all, it is quite refreshing to meet a female detective who is more like a bag lady than a dainty beauty queen. Vera Stanhope does not do much to placate the people around her, either, in her direct, nearly sarcastic manner, “... if I do have a reputation for eccentricity, I have one too for getting results”

Just like Stephen Booth´s Ben Cooper and Diane Fry series, the hostile and dangerous environment plays an important role. An interesting, recurrent symbol is the crow trap with its live bait. It takes a long time, however, before the reader is able to figure out who is the bait and who is supposed to walk into the trap.

Vera Stanhope does get her results in the end, though, even if she is not at all as certain as she pretends, and after this first thrilling meeting with the grim landscape and characters of Northumberland this reader certainly craves for more! This is an unusually promising ´first in a series´.


Photo: sheep from Northumberland National Park

DJs Bait in the Box # 5

[This week´s rather unusual tin belongs to Elizabeth, Thoughts from an Evil Overlord]

A quotation from a British book which is the first in a series:
"When the ambulance, the doctor and the undertaker had driven away in convoy she was left with the young policeman. He watched the tail lights of the other vehicles disappear into the darkness with a sort of wistfulness, as if he were being abandoned, then he said: ´Do you know if there´s any booze in the house?´"

The rules:
If you recognize the quotation, or if you think you are able to guess who wrote it, please post a comment. Just leave a hint, do not spoil the fun by giving too much away.

Gæt en bog # 5

Denne engelske krimi, som er den første i en serie, er endnu ikke oversat til dansk:
"Da ambulancen, lægen og bedemanden var kørt væk i konvoj, stod hun tilbage med den unge politibetjent. Han så baglygterne på de andre køretøjer forsvinde i mørket med en slags vemodighed, som om han blev efterladt, og så sagde han: ´Ved I, om der er noget sprut i huset?´"

Reglerne:
Hvis du kan genkende citatet, eller hvis du tror du kan gætte hvem forfatteren er, så læg venligst en kommentar. Skriv bare et hint til nye besøgende, lad være med at ødelægge fornøjelsen for andre.

Blog Improvement Project # 4 - what is a blog?

[Kim, Sophisticated Dorkiness]
This week, blog basics are in focus. As I am reasonably satisfied with my six-week-old blog, I think it is too early for major changes. Instead, these are my musings about where I am right now.

When I started out two things were clear:
1) I was going to write about crime fiction and related subjects. (I do digress when Kim or some of my geeky friends tempt me, but not too often, I think)
2) I wanted to write in English and Danish.

Obviously, I also wanted people to see my blog and to comment. Recently, I put my little feedjit down in the right hand corner (which tells me where my visitors come from) so I know that I have around thirty guests per day. That is okay for a new blog, I think. Now and then I also google "DJs krimiblog" and conclude that google likes me :D

With regard to comments, it is clear that when I write short and humorous posts with interesting pictures, I get good response. It seems that people also appreciate my ´article posts´ (e.g. this one about the Scandinavian femikrimi), and my Bait-in-the-Box posts go down really well when the book is not too obscure. My reviews are the ones which get the least response on the blog itself; on the other hand I discuss reviews and other crime related subjects in my crime and mystery fiction room which is a place where I feel well integrated among nerds of my own kind.

Besides, I have found quite a large number of fellow bloggers whose blogs I really enjoy - many crime fiction readers obviously - but also people who read other genres or whose blogs I just enjoy for social reasons.

Finally, many English-speaking visitors comment on my bilingual blog, and generally, even though I have just as many Danish visitors as foreigners most days, the English-speaking ones leave more comments. Thank you; they are much appreciated!

- and should you have suggestions which you think would improve my blog, please leave a comment.

Blog Improvement Project # 4 - hvad er en blog?
[Kim, Sophisticated Dorkiness]
Denne uges projekt går ud på at se på de grundlæggende sider ved ens blog. Eftersom jeg er nogenlunde tilfreds med min seks uger gamle blog, tror jeg det er for tidligt at foretage større ændringer. Jeg har i stedet valgt at filosofere lidt over, hvor jeg står lige netop nu.

Da jeg begyndte at blogge, lå to ting fast:
1) Jeg ville skrive om krimier og lignende emner. (Jeg snyder af og til, når spændende bloggere som Kim og mine Weekly Geeks-venner frister mig, men vist ikke alt for tit).
2) Jeg ville skrive på engelsk og dansk.

Selvfølgelig ville jeg også gerne have folk til at lægge mærke til min blog, og kommentere. For nylig installerede jeg min lille feedjit i nederste højre hjørne (den fortæller mig, hvor mine besøgende kommer fra), så jeg ved, at jeg har omkring 30 gæster dagligt. Det er vist okay for så ny en blog. En gang imellem googler jeg også "DJs krimiblog", og hver gang tænker jeg, at google i hvert fald har set mig :D

Med hensyn til kommentarer, så er det tydeligt, at når jeg skriver korte og humoristiske indlæg med interessante billeder, får jeg masser af respons, og mine Gæt-en-bog-indlæg går fint, når bogen ikke er alt for svær. Det ser også ud til, at mine læsere værdsætter mine ´artikler´ (f.eks. den skandinaviske femikrimi). Mine anmeldelser får færrest kommentarer på selve bloggen, men på den anden side diskuterer jeg anmeldelser og krimier generelt i mit "crime and mystery fiction room", hvor jeg virkelig føler mig vel-integreret blandt nørder af min egen slags.

Desuden har jeg jo mødt en masse andre bloggere hvis blogs jeg virkelig nyder - selvfølgelig en masse krimilæsere - men også mennesker som læser andre genrer, eller hvis blogs jeg slet og ret nyder af sociale grunde.

Og endelig, så er der mange engelsktalende gæster som roser min tosprogede blog, og generelt kommenterer de mere end danske gæster. Jeg ved ikke helt hvorfor, men det kan nogle af mine danske besøgende måske fortælle mig?

- og hvis du skulle have forslag til forbedringer af min blog, så læg endelig en kommentar.

My first crime novel: Clouds of Witness (1926)

The first crime novel I got was Dorothy Sayers´ Cloud of Witness. Together with my parents I visited my grandmother one Sunday afternoon when I was around thirteen years old. As usual, I browsed her books and fell into the first adult crime story I had ever read. I enjoyed meeting Lord Peter Wimsey, the distinguished detective, and his little helper, Inspector Charles Parker, but of course we had to go home before I had finished reading the 286 pages.

"You may keep it. I have read it," my grandmother said so I brought my treasure home. Even today, when I own more than 500 crime novels, this old book is quite special to me. Not only because it was the first, but my dear, generous, humorous grandmother gave it to me!

So this was my first meeting with Dorothy Sayers. I really liked the book, and I have read all her Peter Wimsey stories years ago. One of the things I remember about "Clouds of Witness" is that I thought Wimsey and Parker were ´old men´, or at least middle-aged, so I was amazed when they had solved the mystery and celebrated by getting drunk. I thought that was out of character.



Min første krimi: Et væld af beviser (1947)
Den første krimi jeg fik, var Dorothy Sayers "Et væld af beviser". Jeg var på søndagsbesøg hos min farmor sammen med mine forældre, da jeg var ca tretten år gammel. Som sædvanlig gik jeg ombord i hendes bogreol, og faldt i min første voksenkrimi. Jeg nød mødet med Lord Peter Wimsey, den adelige detektiv, og hans lille hjælper, politiassistent Charles Parker, men selvfølgelig skulle vi hjem, længe før jeg var nået igennem alle 286 sider.

"Du må godt beholde den; jeg har læst den" sagde min farmor, så jeg tog min nyerhvervede skat med mig hjem. Selv idag, hvor jeg ejer mere end 500 krimier, er den plettede, gamle bog helt speciel for mig. Ikke bare fordi den var den første, men min søde, gavmilde og humoristiske farmor gav mig den!

Så sådan mødte jeg Dorothy Sayers for første gang. Jeg blev vældig glad for bogen, og har siden læst hele Peter Wimsey-serien. En af de ting, jeg kan huske om "Et væld af beviser" er, at jeg så Peter Wimsey og Charles Parker for mig som gamle mænd, eller i hvert fald midaldrende, så jeg var helt forbløffet, da de havde opklaret mysteriet og fejrede det ved at drikke sig fulde. Det passede ikke rigtigt til mine forestillinger.

Inger Frimansson, Skyggen i vandet (2006)

- oversat fra svensk, (Skuggan i vattnet 2005) - inverted mystery
Advarsel: Da denne bog er en fortsættelse af Frimanssons krimi-debut, "Godnat, min elskede", kan det ikke rigtigt lade sig gøre at skrive noget om plottet, uden at komme ind på, hvad der er foregået i den første bog.

Ved bogens begyndelse møder vi Jill Kylén og Tor Assarsson, som er på ferie sammen i Norge. Jill nyder sejlturen til Lofoten, ser en kaskelothval (sperm whale), mens Tor sidder indendørs, kold og søsyg. Tors kone forsvandt for seks år siden, og hverken han eller politiet aner, hvad der blev af hende. Jill er hans kones bedste veninde, og hun gør sit bedste for at ruske lidt op i ægtemanden.

Læseren ved imidlertid lige fra begyndelsen, at Berit blev myrdet af sin gamle klassekammerat, Justine, som blev udsat for grov mobning, bl.a. af Berit og Jill. Det er altså denne viden om morderen, samt hendes opvækst og personlighed, der skal drive handlingen fremad, men det tager sin tid, før der for alvor begynder at ske noget.

Ligesom Sjöwall og Wahlöös første krimi, Roseanna, udspiller handlingen i denne bog sig omkring Stockholm og sluserne ved "Mälaran med det mørke vand". Et andet fælles træk er de mange triste menneskeskæbner. "Skyggen i vandet" vrimler med ensomme og triste mennesker, skuffede, grædende, onde og skyldige mennesker, mennesker som oplever mishandling, død og ulykker, og man mærker ikke meget til deres gode sider. Bogen er altså i høj grad en mørk, psykologisk thriller og ikke en krimi, selv om den fik prisen for bedste svenske krimi i 2005.

Inger Frimansson har et bedre sprog og er sikrere i sine personkarakteristikker end Ingrid Hedström, men selv om der kommer nogenlunde gang i spændingen efter de første hundrede sider, er den langt fra så helstøbt som Kerstin Ekmans krimi om det sorte vand.

Inger Frimansson, The Shadow in the Water (2008)
Swedish thriller from 2005 - inverted mystery.

Warning: as this book is a sequel to Frimansson´s debut, "Good Night my Darling", it is not possible to write about the plot without spoiling the first book.

At the beginning we meet Jill Kylén and Tor Assarsson on holiday in Norway. Jill enjoys the Lofoten Islands and the sperm whales while Tor is sitting indoors, freezing and seasick. Tor´s wife disappeared six years earlier, and neither he nor the police has any idea what has happened. Jill is his wife´s best friend, and she does what she can to brighten up his life.

The reader knows from the outset that Berit was murdered by her old classmate, Justine, because of the gross bullying she was subjected to in school by the other girls. So this knowledge about the murderer, her background and personality is supposed to be the incentive of the story, but it takes some time before the action really begins.

Just like Sjöwall and Wahlöö´s first crime novel, Roseanna, the setting of this book is the area around Stockholm and the locks of "Mälaren with the dark water". Another similarity is the many dismal fates. "The Shadow in the Water" is practically swarming with lonely and sad people, disappointed, crying, evil and guilty people, people who experience maltreatment, death and accidents, and their good sides rarely surface. So this book is certainly a ´noir´ thriller and not a crime story, even though it won the prize for the best Swedish crime novel in 2005.

Inger Frimansson writes better and her characters seem more real than Ingrid Hedström´s, but even though this thriller is reasonably exciting after the first hundred pages or so, it is not of the same literary quality as Kerstik Ekman´s crime novel about the black water.

Weekly Geeks # 6 - what´s in a name

- this week´s task is to write about the name of one of the fictional characters we like

The name of my favourite British crime fiction heroes is Adam - can you guess who?

- here is part of the information found at BabyNamer
Meaning: Its source is a Hebrew expression meaning "Red earth."
Languages: This boy's name is used in Hebrew, German, English, French, Hungarian, Kiswahili, Polish, Serbian and Croatian.
Feminine Forms: Adamina
Narrative: Some authorities believe this name is Phoenician in origin, and simply means ''man.'' Others believe the Hebrew original refers to ruddy skin.
In the Jewish scriptures, this is the name of the first man. Though we aren't told if Adam named himself, it was his job to give names ''to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field.''
Adam was also the first person to give a name to another human being. He named his wife and helpmate Chava (in English, Eve), meaning ''life,'' because she was ''the mother of all living.''

The prize: when someone has sent me the correct name, I will post a photo! (No, not of the winner - of my hero, of course). Congratulations, Steph (from WhoDunnit)

Weekly Geeks # 6 - om navne.
Denne uges opgave går ud på at skrive om navnet på en af de litterære figurer, vi holder af.
Min britiske helt hedder Adam - kan du gætte hvem han er?

Gevinst: når nogen har gættet navnet og sendt det til mig, viser jeg et fint billede her på siden (nej, ikke af vinderen, men af helten)

Stephen Booth, Blind to the Bones (2003)

While reading the first three novels in this series I noticed that each book was better and better, so I have been looking forward to this one for some time.

In this series the Peak District environment is described in great detail. The village of Withens is anything but idyllic as it is harrowed by rats, vandalism of gravestones, burglary, and a desperate mother, waiting to hear news about her daughter, young Emma Renshaw who disappeared two years ago. (As we all know from reading newspapers and crime fiction, some of these missing persons do turn up again one way or the other - others haunt the memories of their relatives, turning into mythical and idealized figures, never changing or growing older). The first chapter is practically teeming with warnings: "Danger of Death". Withering Withens seems to be dying out, and the reader soon begins to wonder if someone has decided to help the development along.

Central figures of the village are the Oxleys - three generations of easy targets when it comes to pointing out a scapegoat - but how much are they really guilty of? Another recurrent figure is reverend Derek Alton, a vicar with death on his mind, ridden by guilt for what he did not do. Not exactly a handyman, he is also bothered by the large, unkempt cemetery. Like the village, the church seems about to be invaded or even conquered by the strong forces of nature. The numerous rats and carrion crows may be the real winners of this war.

The book also offers a delightful reunion with Detective Constable Ben Cooper who is of local Peak District stock. He is basically an equable and kind mand, and obviously has a strong sense of solidarity with the local farmers and villagers. In this book he is loaned to the Rural Crime Team which is why he is involved in the goings on of Withens even before a battered body is found in the area.

His superior, Detective Sergeant Diane Fry, is not exactly well integrated. She is a city dweller from Birmingham, a woman with a past and a phobia. She has a strained relationship with Cooper whom she does not really understand, but as soon as he is sent away from her beat, she wants him back. Someone from her past suggests that Cooper is the only friend she has which may not be far from the truth.

Finally, it is difficult to say whether the sinister environment or the detection plays the major role in this great book. One would hardly thrive without the other, however. All in all, a really satisfactory reading experience - every six hundred and thirty pages of it.


Stephen Booth, Blind to the Bones
- vil formodentlig blive oversat til dansk i løbet af 2009 -
Mens jeg læste Stephen Booths tre første bøger, lagde jeg mærke til, at de blev bedre og bedre, så jeg har glædet mig til at læse den fjerde i ugevis.

I denne serie bliver det bjergrige Peak Distrikt-miljø grundigt beskrevet af en forfatter, som helt sikkert kender sin egn. Landsbyen Withens er meget langt fra at være nogen idyl, da den bliver hærget af rotter, hærværk på kirkegården, indbrud og en desperat mor, som venter på nyt om sin datter, Emma Renshaw. Emma forsvandt sporløst to år før bogens begyndelse. (Som vi ved fra nyhederne og krimilæsning, dukker nogle savnede personer op på den ene eller den anden måde - andre bliver til mytologiske, idealiserede væsener, som aldrig forandrer sig eller bliver ældre, mens de hjemsøger deres pårørendes hukommelser). Withens er tilsyneladende på vej til at uddø, og man begynder snart at spekulere på, om nogen har besluttet sig for at sætte skub i udviklingen.

Centrale skikkelser i byen er Oxley-familien - tre generationer af lette ofre, når det drejer sig om at udpege en syndebuk - men hvor meget bærer de i virkeligheden skylden for? En anden gennemgående person er pastor Derek Alton, en sognepræst med død på hjernen, plaget af skyld over hvad han ikke fik gjort. Da han ikke ligefrem er nogen handyman, er synet af den store, forsømte kirkegård yderligere en byrde for ham. Ligesom landsbyen er kirken ved blive invaderet, eller måske endda erobret af stærke naturkræfter. Det kunne godt se ud til, at de talrige rotter og de ådselsædende sortkrager er de oplagte vindere af denne kamp.

Bogen byder også på et hyggeligt gensyn med kriminalbetjenten Ben Cooper, søn af en lokal landmand. Ben er i bund og grund et venligt og ligevægtigt menneske, og han udviser stor forståelse for de lokale bønder og landsbyboeres levevilkår. I denne bog bliver han lånt ud til "the Rural Crime Team" (en ny enhed, som skal opklare forbrydelser i landområdet), og er derfor på stedet, endnu før et stærkt medtaget lig bliver fundet udenfor Withens.

Coopers overordnede, kriminalassistent Diane Fry, er derimod ikke særlig velintegreret. Hun er en rigtig bybo fra Birmingham, en kvinde med en fobi og en fortid. Hun har et anstrengt forhold til Cooper, som hun ikke rigtig forstår sig på, men så snart han bliver sent udenfor hendes gebet, tigger hun om at få ham tilbage. En person fra Frys fortid påstår, at Cooper i virkeligheden er den eneste ven, hun har, og måske er der noget om snakken.

Det er svært at sige, om de dystre omgivelser eller kriminalplottet spiller den største rolle i denne glimrende krimi. Jeg er jo komplet anglofil, så jeg nød bare begge dele. Alt i alt bød bogen på en rigtig tilfredsstillende læseoplevelse - på ikke mindre end 630 sider!

DJs Bait in the Box # 4

[Bingo post 10] What book is this - and who wrote it?
This week´s fantastic tin belongs to Julia, A Piece of my Mind.

"With shaking fingers, he brushed some of the dust from his sleeve. The exertion had made his collar stick to the back of his neck, and a few strands of hair had fallen over his forehead, where they lay like barbed wire on his skin. He rubbed at a fresh scratch on his knuckles, but managed only to smear a streak of blood across the back of his hand. He could taste dust in his mouth, too - old dust, the debris of years, stirred into the air by a random act of violence."

The rules:
If you recognize the quotation, or if you think you are able to guess who wrote it, please post a comment. Just leave a hint, do not spoil the fun by giving too much away.

NB: want to know a bit more about who DJ is? - look here

Gæt en bog (4)
Hvilken bog - og hvem skrev den? Det drejer sig om den fjerde i en serie, og den kommer sandsynligvis på dansk i løbet af 2009 (og det er jo også en slags spor).

"Med rystende fingre børstede han noget af støvet af sit ærme. Anstrengelsen havde fået hans krave til at klæbe sig til bagsiden af hans hals, og nogle få hårtjavser var faldet ned over hans pande, hvor de lå som pigtråd mod hans hud. Han gned på en frisk skramme på sine knoer, men det lykkedes ham bare at tvære en stribe blod tværs over håndryggen. Han havde endda smagen af støv i sin mund - gammelt støv, flere års efterladenskaber, hvirvlet op i luften af en tilfældig voldshandling."

Reglerne:
Hvis du kan genkende citatet, eller hvis du tror du kan gætte hvem forfatteren er, så læg venligst en kommentar. Skriv bare et hint til nye besøgende, lad være med at ødelægge fornøjelsen for andre.

NB: vil du gerne vide lidt mere om, hvem DJ er? - så kig her

Ingrid Hedström, The Schoolmistress of Villette (2008).

The book has not been translated into English, but I have decided to use it as part of my 2009 suspense and thriller challenge even though it is a bit unfair (legal thriller).

This Swedish thriller takes place in Villette, a fictitious town on the river Meuse in the French-speaking part of Belgium. In the prologue, which takes place in 1961, we meet eleven-year-old Nico who receives a serious blow when he sees his hero, the older brother Daniel, crying! The plot continues in 1994 when the beloved old schoolmistress of Villette is killed by a hit-and-run driver. Her last words are, "It was wrong of us... the truth... always wrong to hide it."

Other jigsaw pieces are a medival mass grave under a building site, two missing children and some Belgian solders who lose their lives in connection with the Rwandan genocide (Rwanda is a former Belgian colony).

Now it is up to the newly appointed investigative judge Martine Poirot and the reader to figure out what is the connection between these pieces of information, and what is behind the murder. Martine Poirot is 34 years old, married to a professor of history, and apparently always attired in black Armani suits.

My view of the book: the author seems strangely uninvolved in the characters and the murder of the old teacher. Furthermore, the book is swarming with people, and the language is marred by a number of cliches and clumsy expressions, "... she was glad their parents had been spared from seeing Philippe throw his career and marriage away." "The blody corner of the mantelpiece does not come from the lesion in her head..." [Sic]

At any rate I know which designers Ingrid Hedstrom´s characters prefer, however, and the book undoubtedly lives up to at least nine out of ten "femikrimi commandments". Roughly speaking, the characters can be divided into three groups: first the idealistic women who want to bring forth the truth at any cost, and second the female victims of the third group, the dishonest, Machiavellian politicians of the town.

At some point Poirot´s female subordinate turns down an invitation with the following words, "unfortunately I do not have time, detective inspector, I am going to castrate my cat tonight. That is the only way you can prevent them from squirting all over to mark their territory." (Is this good femi-humour or sexism? - judge for yourself).

The case is duly solved, and the last 20-30 pages are fairly exciting, but far too often Martine Poirot has the answers handed to her on a plate e.g. when an inkeeper happens to trudge into the Palace of Justice with a basket full of sandwiches and is able to give her important information about a photo related to the case. I think enough has been said; this crime novel was just not my cup of tea.

Ingrid Hedström, Lærerinden fra Villette (2008)
- oversat fra svensk (Lärarinnan i Villette 2008) - legal thriller

Denne krimi udspiller sig i Villette, en fiktiv by ved floden Meuse i den fransktalende del af Belgien. Den indledes med en prolog, som foregår i 1961. Her møder vi 11-årige Nico, som får sit livs første knæk da han oplever sin helt, storebroderen Daniel, græde! Handlingen fortsætter i 1994, hvor byens højt-elskede lærerinde bliver dræbt af en flygtbilist. Hendes sidste ord lyder: "Det var forkert af os... sandheden... altid forkert at skjule den."

Andre brikker i sagen er en ældgammel massegrav på en byggegrund, to forsvundne børn og nogle belgiske soldater, som mister livet i forbindelse med folkemordet i Rwanda (tidligere belgisk koloni).

Og derefter er det op til den nyudnævnte undersøgelsesdommer Martine Poirot og læseren at finde ud af, hvordan disse oplysninger hænger sammen, og hvad der ligger bag. Martine Poirot er 34 år gammel, gift med en historieprofessor, og går tilsyneladende altid i sorte Armanisæt med tilhørende knude i nakken.

Mit indtryk af bogen: både personbeskrivelserne og mordet på lærerinden virker sært uvedkommende (som om forfatteren ikke en gang selv bryder sig om nogen af dem). Det bliver ikke bedre af, at man møder et væld af personer, og at bogen skæmmes af en del klicheer og kluntet sprog: "... hun var glad for, at forældrene var blevet skånet for at se Philippe kaste karriere og ægteskab bort."
"... det blodige hjørne af kaminhylden stammer slet ikke fra læsionen i hovedet..."

Men i det mindste, så ved jeg hvilke designere, Ingrid Hedströms personer foretrækker, og man kan heller ikke være i tvivl om, at bogen lever op til mindst 9 af femikrimiens 10 bud. Personerne kan groft sagt inddeles i tre grupper: først de idealistiske kvinder, som vil have sandheden frem for enhver pris, dernæst de kvindelige ofre for den tredje gruppe: de uhæderlige og magtgale mænd.

Martine Poirots kvindelige underordnede afslår på et tidspunkt en date med følgende replikker: "desværre, kriminalassistent, jeg har ikke tid, jeg skal kastrere min kat her til aften. Det er den eneste måde, man kan forhindre dem i at gå rundt og strinte over det hele og markere deres territorium." (er det god femihumor eller sexisme? - døm selv).

Sagen bliver naturligvis opklaret, og de sidste 20-30 sider er absolut de mest spændende, men Martine Poirot får alt for ofte svarene foræret, som når en kroejer ´tilfældigvis´ vader ind i selve justitspaladset med en kurv sandwiches og lige på stedet kan give hende vigtige oplysninger om et foto med tilknytning til sagen. Så er det vist sagt, denne krimi faldt slet og ret ikke i min smag.

Information on Scandinavian crime fiction.

[Bingo post 9 - billedet stammer fra Københavns Biblioteker]

Danske sider om skandinaviske krimier:
Krimimessen - sidste nyt om årets krimimesse i Horsens

Krimisiden - omfattende side med anmeldelser af krimier og forfatterportrætter

Agatha læseklub - diskussion af en ny krimi hver måned (kræver medlemsskab)


English pages about Scandinavian crime fiction:
CrimeFest 2009 - the international crime fiction convention

Euro Crime - Scandinavian authors and biographies

Scandinavian Crime Fiction

Scandinavian Mysteries

Scandinavian Books - reviews of new books - you may also look here for a list of upcoming translations - New Crime Books