The reader soon knows what is in store on the first page of the first chapter of this disturbing yet immensely absorbing novel by Karin Fossum, when we are told: “He did not wish to discard his burden casually on the ground; he wanted this precise cluster of trees, which would serve as a kind of monument. This last scrap of decency comforted him, he was still a human being, he had feelings, many of them good ones.” This is a prelude to the discovery of the dead body of a young boy, nearly eight years old, in the forest near the edge of a lake, naked from the waist down.
This newest in the Inspector Sejer mystery series finds him and his assistant, Jacob Skarre, somewhat contemplative and trying to define what draws them to their work, asking Sejer “Why are we so drawn to the death of others? . . . Why do you think people are so fascinated by crime? Nothing sells better than murder and the worse it is, the more interested people are. What does that say about us?” As the search for the killer begins, Sejer expresses his main concern: that “this man will strike again.”
Conrad Sejer is an interesting man, “always correct, reserved and polite. His formality might at times be mistaken for arrogance, unless you knew him well. Hardly anyone knew him well.” He is the owner of a dog, “Frank Robert [great name for a dog!], a Chinese Shar Pei, [who] had the same temperament as his fellow countrymen; he was both inscrutable and dignified. In addition he never barked, but might occasionally emit a disgruntled snort.”
The author again, as in her excellent “Black Seconds,” captures the anguish that the loss of a child brings, of “the magnitude of losing those closest to you.” In the aftermath of the tragedy, lives, and marriages, are completely torn asunder. The author also examines the often fraught relationships between children and their parents, and between husbands and wives. As I read, the hours, and the pages, flew. The book is highly recommended.
