Håkan Nesser, En fortælling om hr Roos (2009)

Denne biblioteksbog er den tredje i den svenske serie om vicekriminalkommissær Gunnar Barbarotti. Se min anmeldelse af bind to.

Hovedpersonen, den usigeligt almindelige Valdemar Roos, sidder fast i sit dødsens kedsommelige liv med arbejdet på termokandefabrikken og det ikke-eksisterende samliv med Alice og steddøtrene.

Men en dag sker miraklet; den tipsrække, Roos pligtskyldigt har udfyldt i halvtreds år, fordi han arvede den efter sin far, kommer ud med den store gevinst: to millioner svenske kroner. Han siger sit job op og køber et gammelt hus langt inde i den øde skov, men uden at fortælle det til sin kone. For Valdemar Roos er luksus lig med at kunne trække sig tilbage fra alle de mennesker, han ikke længere bryder sig om.

Samtidig er unge Anna Gambowska frivilligt anbragt på en institution for at komme ud af sit narkomisbrug, men efter en måned føler hun sig endnu en gang misforstået og udenfor fællesskabet, og beslutter sig for at flygte.

Naturligvis krydses Valdemar og Annas veje langt inde i skoven, men første halvdel af bogen handler i det væsentlige om Valdemar, som nu har så mange muligheder og derfor føler sig tvunget til at overveje, hvad han vil bruge resten af sit liv på.

I anden halvdel forsvinder Valdemar Roos, og vicekriminalkommissær Gunnar Barbarotti bliver omsider indblandet. Han er netop udskrevet fra hospitalet med et brækket ben og kan ikke klare mere en enkelt dag hjemme i selskab med sin arbejdsløse, klæbende svoger, og kaster sig derfor ud i mysteriet Valdemar Roos, og hvad i alverden han foretager sig sammen med en purung narkoman på flugt.

Denne vidunderlige bog er ikke nogen traditional krimi, den handler mere om menneskeskæbnerne bag en forbrydelse – lidt i stil med Karin Fossums psykologiske spændingsromaner, men med mere humor og kærlighed til personerne.

Håkan Nesser, A Story about Mr Roos.
This library book is the third in the Swedish series about Inspector Gunnar Barbarotti. The series has not been translated into English yet. See my review of the second volume.

The main character, the incredibly ordinary Valdemar Roos, is stuck in his deadly dull factory job and the non-existent relationship with Alice and the stepdaughters.

Then the miracle happens: Roos wins two million Swedish kroner. He quits his job and buys an isolated house in the woods, but without telling anyone. To Valdemar Roos luxury is being able to withdraw from all the people he doesn´t care about any more.

Young Anna Gambowska is staying at a nearby institution to conquer her drug abuse, but after the first month she feels lonely and misunderstood so she makes up her mind to run away. Of course Valdemar and Anna´s paths cross in the woods, but the first half is mainly about Valdemar who has so many opportunities that he is forced to think about how he wants to spend the rest of his life.

In the second half Valdemar Roos disappears, and DI Barbarotti is finally involved. He has just been discharged from hospital with a broken leg, and as he cannot cope with more than one day in the company of his unemployed, clingy brother-in-law, he sets out to get to the bottom of what Valdemar Roos is doing together with a young drug addict on the run.

This wonderful book is not a traditional crime story; it focuses on the fates of the people behind an act of violence – somewhat similar to Karin Fossum´s psychological thrillers, but with more humour and love of the characters.
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Daim Stories

If you wonder where I am... Oh, you don´t? (Don´t think you can shut me up so easily).

I should be adding page after page to my novel, and I have made some progress, but I can´t help my imagination coming up with new ideas, can I?

One or two of you have suggested that I made a collection of Knavesborough stories, and my rambling imagination has come up with the idea of DJ´s Daim Stories - half Knavesborough stories, half other cosy stories, including a few that haven´t been published on my blog. It seems as if it won´t be too complicated to publish an e-book via Smashwords.

Do you think there are people out there who are crazy enough to pay one dime pr story - 99 cent - plus three free stories?

(If I can sell more than fifteen, it will be one of my best business ventures so far)

And if this is a huge, commercial success (i.e. more than fifty sold), I may collect some of my stronger stuff later.

Ann Rosman, Fyrmesterens datter (2010)

Denne svenske krimi er forfatterens debut.

Nogle polske håndværkere finder et lig i murværket mens de er i færd med at restaurere fyrtårnet Pater Noster. Men bygmesteren har en stram deadline og kan ikke tillade sig forsinkelse, så i første omgang forsøger han at løse problemet ved at betale dem for at holde mund. Som gode katolikker ringer de alligevel til politiet bag hans ryg, så staklen kan få en kristelig begravelse.

Da sagen om det gamle lig mildest talt ikke er højprofileret, må kriminalassistent Karin Adler sno sig for overhovedet at få tid til at kigge på den. Hendes privatliv halter imidlertid, så hun har ikke så meget imod at tære på sin fritid; hun er træt af sin charmerende skibskaptajn Göran, som er væk i seks uger og derefter forventer at blive vartet op i seks uger.

Bogen byder på romantik, skattejagt, nazister, jøder og skærgårdsøer. En typisk skandinavisk femikrimi tilsat ekstra romantik, også et let sødladent sprog:

“Det føltes, som om smerten skulle sønderrive hende. Hun trak tæppet op over ham, så han ikke skulle fryse.”

Desuden klinger det noget hult, at den gamle indmuringshistorie skulle foregå i Sverige i 1963. 1863 ville have virket mere sandsynligt. Der er gode takter i romanen, men også en del ting Rosman mangler at lære, før hun er i liga med Läckberg og Jungstedt, hvis stil kommer bogen nærmest, bl.a. at rydde op i det meget store antal personer og de springende synsvinkler.

Denne ´Läckberg light´ er lånt på biblioteket.

Ann Rosman, The Lighthouse Keeper´s Daughter.

This Swedish debut has not been translated into English yet. It is available in Spanish, however, titled La Mujer del Faro.

Some Polish workmen find a body in the thick walls while they are restoring the lighthouse Pater Noster. But the builder is on a tight deadline so in the first place he tries to solve the problem by paying them to shut up. Money or not, they call the police, so the poor man can have a Christian funeral.

As the old body is not exactly a high profile case, Detective Inspector Karin Adler must juggle a bit to scrape a few hours together to look at the case. Her private life is in tatters anyway as she is tired of her charming sea captain Göran who is away for six weeks and expects to be pampered during his six weeks at home.

The novel offers romance, a treasure hunt, Nazis, Jews and the Swedish archipelago. A typical Scandinavian ´femikrimi´ in a language which is good but also a bit sugary. Furthermore it stretches belief that the old story about the body in the wall is supposed to take place in Sweden in 1963. 1863 would have seemed more convincing. All in all there are some good sides to this story, but also some things Rosman will have to learn before she is in league with Camilla Läckberg and Mari Jungstedt, e.g. sorting out the huge number of characters and the jumps in point of view.

This Läckberg light was a library book.

Kate Summerscale, The Suspicions of Mr Whicher (2008)

This is a British non-fiction account of a true crime in Victorian England which took place in 1860.

The gruesome story begins when three-year-old Saville Kent is taken away from his bed in the nursery in the middle of the night. A few hours later he is found in the servants´ privy in the yard with his throat cut.

Almost immediately the local police suspect the nursemaid Elizabeth Gough, and they are rather unwilling to question the members of the middle class family though it is most likely that the killer was one of the eleven persons who spent the night under the roof of Road Hill House. One of their theories is that the boy caught Gough with a man in her bed and threatened to tell, but even though their prime suspect for this role is the father, Mr Kent, they focus on questioning and charging the young woman.

After two weeks Scotland Yard is called in, however, and the renowned Inspector Whicher suspects Constance, Saville´s sixteen-year-old half-sister who might be jealous because the younger siblings get more attention than her, and/or she might be mentally unstable like her late mother.

There were several aspects of this book I appreciated. The account of the death of little Saville is very thorough and well written, and it is obvious that Summerscale knows her crime and her period thoroughly so it is also an excellent document of crime and police work in Victorian times. Besides, there are several references to Victorian crime novels which are based on or inspired by the Road Hill murder (I plan to read one or two of these soon).

The wide scope was not quite what I had expected, though, so parts of the book felt more like work than entertainment, because I wanted to know who killed little Saville, plus how and why, so I skimmed some sections to get back to the case. I found the lengthy accounts of the detectives´ former careers and private lives particularly uninteresting.

Another weakness is that Summerscale often tells the reader something and afterwards she uses a lengthy quotation to say exactly the same.

I enjoyed this quotation from “The Semi-Detached House” (1859), however:

“´I like a good murder that can´t be found out,´ says Mrs Hopkinson… ´That is, of course, it is very shocking, but I like to hear about it.´” (So true, Mrs Hopkinson).

I bought the book myself and read it for the 2011 Global Reading Challenge (Seventh Continent, history). 



Kate Summerscale, Mr Whichers mistanker (2009)

Denne britiske bog om en virkelig forbrydelse i Dronning Victorias England er ikke en roman, men en fagbog.

Den grusomme historie begynder, da treårige Saville Kent bliver fjernet fra sin seng i børneværelset midt om natten. Næste dag bliver han fundet i tjenestefolkenes udendørs lokum med halsen skåret over.

Det lokale politi retter straks deres mistanke mod barnepigen Elizabeth Gough, og de er ikke meget for at udspørge medlemmer af middelklassefamilien, selv om det er højst sandsynligt, at morderen var en af de elleve personer, som befandt sig i herskabsvillaen den pågældende nat. En af deres teorier er, at drengen overraskede barnepigen og en mand i sengen og truede med at sladre, men selv om den vigtigste mistænkte mand er drengens far, retter de al deres opmærksomhed mod den unge kvinde. 

Men efter to uger bliver Scotland Yard tilkaldt, og den berømte inspektør Whicher mistænker i stedet Constance, Savilles 16-årige halvsøster. Han mener, motivet er jalousi, fordi de yngre søskende får mere opmærksomhed end de ældre, eller at pigen er uligevægtig, ligesom sin afdøde mor.

Der var mange aspekter af denne bog, jeg satte stor pris på. Beretningen om Savilles død er grundig og velskrevet, og det er tydeligt, at Kate Summerscale kender sit materiale og viktoriatiden til bunds, så den er et fremragende værk om forbrydelser og politiarbejde i perioden. Desuden er der adskillige henvisninger til viktorianske krimier, som er baseret på eller inspiret af Road Hill-mordet (jeg har tænkt mig at anmelde et par stykker inden så længe).

Den brede pensel var imidlertid ikke, hvad jeg havde forventet, så visse afsnit føltes mere som arbejde end fornøjelse, fordi jeg bare gerne ville vide, hvem der dræbte lille Saville, samt hvordan og hvorfor, så jeg skimmede en del afsnit for at komme tilbage til sagen. Og de lange redegørelser for detektivernes tidligere karriere og privatliv interesserede mig især ikke.

Endnu en svaghed er, at Summerscale har en tendens til at fortælle sine læsere noget, for bagefter at bringe et langtrukket citat, som siger nøjagtig det samme.

Dette citat fra krimien “The Semi-Detached House” (1859) morede mig imidlertid:

“´Jeg kan lide et godt mord, som ikke kan afsløres´, siger Fru Hopkinson… ´Det vil sige, det er selvfølgelig chokerende, men jeg kan godt lide at høre om det.´” (Ja, det kan vi krimifans jo).

Jeg købte selv bogen under en ferie i Skotland.
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Thy´s Day # 38

Our proud national guard flying in formation over National Park Thy!

DJ´s Bait in the Box # 87

This week´s book is of a different category – let´s see what my intelligent readers make of it.

“… Benger lifted the lavatory lid and peered in until his eyes adjusted to the darkness. ´By steadily looking down, I could see better, and saw a something like clothing below; I put my hand down and raised the blanket´. The blanket was soaked with blood. About two feet under the seat, on the wooden ´splashboard´ that partly blocked the descent to the pit beneath, was the boy´s body.”

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. The book will be reviewed on Friday.

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EKSTRA: 
se min præsentation af DJ´s Krimiblog på Blogkvinder 40+.

To my English readers - sorry there is no translation, but as I have joined a Danish blogging community, I suppose I should write a few words in Danish now and then ;)
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More snow

Look here what one of my visitors sent me: a manipulation of snow photo 1 and 2:

Thank you very much, Ursula.