The Final Murder (by Anne Holt)

It seems I've been hooked on Scandinavian crime fiction lately! That's because I somehow manage to stumble on the books almost all at once at the library. I decided, ahhh well, let's check them all out & enjoy myself.

The latest Scandinavian crime fiction I read, "The Final Murder", has a Norwegian flavour, written by Norwegian author Anne Holt. And the story is set in, well, Norway. I'm starting to fall for Nordic novels!

And what do we have this time? Some ghastly killings in Oslo, Norway. First, Fiona Helle, a TV talk-show host, was found murdered in her home, her tongue cut off & left on her table, with the front of the tongue split off in two. Shortly after, Vibeke Heinerback, a politician with right-wing affiliations, was found crucified to her bedroom wall, with a copy of a religious book shoved up between her thighs. After this, Superintendant Adam Stubo was called from his paternity leave to lead the investigation into the killings. Both Helle & Heinerback were well known in Norway. Hence the lingering question: Is there a celebrity killer out there? Then a third person was found dead: an outspoken literary critic, whom few had liked, stabbed in the eye.

Stubo's partner, Johannes Vik, formerly with the FBI, agreed to provide some help, even though she was busy with their newborn baby. Vik began to see a pattern, which goes back to her FBI days. Then a fourth person is murdered - this time, an unpopular professional biathlete. This fourth victim conformed to Vik's pattern & heightened her fears - if her suspicions are correct (& Vik was convinced they are), the fifth & final murder victim would be Stubo. Finding the murderer proved to be extremely difficult - no matter what Stubo & his colleague tried, the murderer was always a step ahead.

I found it to be not a bad read. But for me, even though the 4 murders were committed in cold blood, I didn't find "The Final Murder" to be as thrilling as the axe murders in Hakan Nesser's "Borkmann's Point". In fact, I found the ending to "The Final Murder" to be very anti-climatic & somewhat disappointing. That is my only "gripe" with the novel - I didn't particularly like the way the ending was written (it didn't seem real) & would have preferred Anne Holt to have done it differently. Apart from that, I thought the book was reasonably good, & I would consider reading another Anne Holt novel in the future.

Borkmann's Point (by Håkan Nesser)

An axe murderer is at large! The realisation of this struck terror in the little coastal town of Kaalbringen. All in all, 3 people had been brutally murdered, all in cold blood. Welcome to "Borkmann's Point", a crime thriller made in Scandinavia, courtesy of one Hakan Nesser (translated from Swedish to English by British translator Laurie Thompson).

The book kicked off with the ghastly slaying of Ernst Simmel, a wealthy real-estate mogul. A very bloody way to begin the story. This killing of Simmel was the second axe murder in Kaalbringen. The first was the murder of Heinz Eggers, a shady ex-convicted criminal. It was the slaying of Simmel that raised alarm bells, it was this slaying which sparked off speculation that there was a serial killer in town. Chief Inspector Van Veeteren happened to be on vacation nearby. After Simmel's murder, Van Veeteren was summoned to assist the Kaalbringen police force.

Despite the best efforts of all involved in the investigation, there were absolutely no clues which could link the 2 murders. One of the few things Van Veeteren managed to learn was that Simmel (the second victim) was not a particularly nice individual with questionably morals. Then a third person was butchered to death, this being Dr Maurice Ruhme. Investigations fail to come up with any links to the first 2 murders, let alone clues as to whom the axe murderer might be. Van Veeteren & his team of investigators would come under pressure (from the media & the public) to solve the case, especially given that the local veteran police chief is on the verge of retirement & would like the case solved before he calls it a day. To complicate things even further, one of Van Veeteren's fellow investigators, Beate Mork, then went missing - possibly abducted by the killer.

When I picked up the novel "Borkmann's Point" from the library & looked at the front cover, my first thought was that it was a infamous spot where terrible crimes were committed. As it turned out, it was not actually a place. It was an old rule which Van Veeteren inherited from an old police officer, Borkmann, whom he had come across in the past. More accurately, it was not really a rule, but more of a comment, a landmark for tricky cases. Borkmann's Point was that in every investigation, there comes a point beyond which one does not really need any more information. When one reaches that point, one already know enough to solve the case by means of nothing more than some decent thinking. A good investigator should try to ascertain when that point has been reached or passed. According to Borkmann, it is precisely this ability, or lack of it, which distinguishes a good detective from a bad one.

Easier said than done, though, given that all the investigative work done by Van Veeteren & his team had come up with precious little clues. But after Mork's disappearance, Van Veeteren would crank things up. Using all his wit, Van Veeteren would eventually reach Borkmann's Point & solve the case.

Overall, I found "Borkmann's Point" to be a good read. The details of the killings were very gory - perhaps more so than any other crime novels I have read. But that's axe murders for you - brutal to the extreme. The ending was a bit too quick for my liking (it just came like that). It's because of the Borkmann's Point theory - for a long while, Van Veeteren & his crew dug & dug for information. Everything was right there, but needed some thinking in order to reach Borkmann's Point & solve the case. I never managed to guess who the killer was - then again, I hardly succeed in all the books I have read.

The book has an obvious European flavour. Interesting, Mr Nesser would use the setting of a fictitious Northern European town. Apparently, that is his style - he sets his books in fictitious places. The character names in the book are mostly either Swedish, Dutch or German. However, when I read the book, I imagined the story as being set in the Netherlands, mainly because of the surname Van Veeteren. The town Kaalbringen sounds either Dutch or German, & the author is Swedish. Hhhhmmm, oh well, "Borkmann's Point" is European. A good European crime novel, one worth reading.

Nemesis (by Jo Nesbø)

Jo Nesbø has been described in Daily Express, a British newspaper, as Norway's finest crime writer. That was after he wrote "The Redbreast", the third novel in the Detective Harry Hole series. High praise indeed.

Before I proceed any further, I should say 2 things. Firstly, I have not yet have the chance to read any books written by any other Norwegian crime writer apart from Mr Nesbø - so strictly speaking, I would not yet be able to agree or disagree that Nesbø is Norway's best crime writer. Secondly, I have not yet read "The Redbreast", so I am not yet able to see what is it about that particular book that drew such acclaim from Daily Express. Having said these 2 things, I can definitely understand Daily Express' sentiments. That is because I have just finished the fourth novel in the Detective Harry Hole series, "Nemesis". It was brilliant, & Mr Nesbø deserves much praise for his work.

"Nemesis" started with a bang, with a bank robbery in Bogstadveien, Oslo which culminated in the cashier being brutally murdered. Video footage of the robbery would reveal just how savage the killing was - the robber held the cashier at gunpoint & asked her to count to 25 while demanding the bank manager to give him all the bank's money before the cashier finished counting. She would be blown away shortly after, when the robber did not receive the money in time. Oslo Police assigned Detective Harry Hole to solve the robbery.

But not only has Harry had to contend with investigating the robbery. He would have to contend with the death of Anna Bethsen, his former girlfriend. Hole had dinner at Anna's home one evening, but then later woke up in his own home with no recollection of what happened during the last 12 hours. The same day, Anna was found shot dead in her own bed.

So Harry now has his plate full with the bank robbery & Anna's killing. Harry would later receive cryptic, mysterious emails from an unknown source relating to Anna's killing. It seems that the sender of the emails knows something about Anna's death - the sender might possibly have been the killer or at least had been present at the scene where Anna had died. It would later transpire that the sender of the emails was trying to frame Harry for Anna's death, by setting things up to make it look as if Harry had killed her & that Harry had tried to frame another individual for the killing. It would be a challenge for Harry to avoid being incriminated for Anna's death & simultaneously get to the bottom of the mystery. All the while, the bank robberies escalate in Oslo, thus adding more & more to Harry's plate.

Harry was aided by his new colleague, Beate Lønn, in investigating both cases; the search for answers to the robbery would take both Harry & Beate as far as Brazil. To add to the twists already in the story, Beate is the daughter of a former Oslo policeman who was killed many years ago during a bank robbery. The criminal connected to that particular robbery, one Raxhol Baxhet, appeared to have known something about the Bogstadveien robbery. Another twist - Raxhol is related to the dead Anna Bethsen!

"Nemesis" is absolutely thrilling & chilling, unpredictable & rivetting. It is thick (about 470 pages) but not difficult to follow. I would say that "Nemesis" shows that Jo Nesbø is indeed a master of his craft. This is a must-read for lovers of crime fiction.

The Devil’s Star (by Jo Nesbø)

Jo Nesbø, it seems, is a well-rounded person. He is one of Norway’s best-selling authors. He is also a former pop musician & he used to be a footballer with Norwegian club Molde FK. Just how good a footballer or musician he is/was, I would not know as I haven’t seen him play or sing. What I do know, however, is that Nesbø can write crime fiction very well. I say that after having recently finished reading one of his novels, “The Devil’s Star”. This novel (not Nesbø’s first) was translated from Norwegian by Don Bartlett.

Here are some reviews that the novel has received from some British newspapers:

“Terrific….a first rate thriller” Sunday Telegraph
“Steeped in entertaining observational detail” Independent
“A well-crafted rollercoaster of a book….Nesbø sets a cracking pace.…A series of spectacular plot twists leads to a thrilling finale. Highly recommended” Guardian

Having read the novel, I feel that all the above acclaims are justified. Judging from “The Devil’s Star”, Nesbø is indeed a fine crime fiction author.

So what’s the novel about? Well, it started with a young lady found murdered in her Oslo flat. A finger was cut off from her left hand, & behind her eyelid, the killer left a tiny red diamond shaped like a pentagram, the devil’s star. Detective Harry Hole was assigned to the case, with a colleague that he doesn’t get along with, Tom Waaler. Harry suspected Tom of being involved in shady dealings outside his police profession; specifically he suspected Tom of being involved in an arms smuggling operation & of being involved in the killing of Hole’s work partner. Also, Harry was experiencing some personal problems (alcoholism, separation from partner). So for those reasons, he wasn’t keen on taking on the case. But he was already on notice for dismissal from the Oslo Police Force. That, & with various colleagues being away on summer holidays, Harry had to bring himself to work on the case with Tom.

Just 5 days after the murder in the flat, another lady was reported missing by her husband. The missing lady’s severed finger was later found, & it had the red diamond. Then, another murder took place in another part of Oslo. And then another murder in another place. All the patterns & clues suggest that a serial killer is at large. The key to the killings is the number 5 – the 5 points of the star-shaped diamond, 5 days between each crime, 5 fingers to a hand.

So Harry set about finding the killer, & at the same time look to expose Tom’s illegal & corrupt dealings. The story took a major twist after the supposed murderer was arrested. That arrest took place with roughly 1/3 of the novel (just under 180 pages) left to read, & that was when I had a feeling there was going to be more twists & turns as the real killer was sought.

I thought that the novel (which was more than 520 pages) was well-written. The story was relatively easy to follow, yet at the same time anything but predictable. Never at any point did my interest drop. Having a street outline of the Oslo City Centre at the front of the novel made it easier to follow the story. I would definitely recommend "The Devil's Star" as a book worth reading.

One other thing (& this doesn’t take anything away from the novel’s quality): though the story was set in a Norwegian summer, I didn’t find it easy imagining a sunny Oslo or the characters not wearing coats. I mean, when you think of Norway or the other Nordic countries, you would normally think of cold weather & people in thick clothes.

I have read some good writings of American crime writers (who typically set their stories in North America) & British ones (who normally set their stories in the UK, occasionally France). So it was a welcome change to expose myself to the work of a Nordic crime fiction author and a different setting of a Nordic country. A story set in Oslo gives the novel a different feel from stories set in the UK or the major American cities.

I would certainly look forward to reading more Nordic crime fiction in the future, whether by Mr Nesbø or by other Nordic writers.