Mind's Eye

April 28, 2008
World-weariness in a detective is well and good—but what if it ends up costing innocent victims their lives? That's the predicament in which Detective Chief Inspector Van Veeteren finds himself in this moodily affecting mystery, the first to appear in Nesser's native Sweden but the third to be published in the U.S. (after The Return
and Borkmann's Point
). Though the melancholy cop suspects accused killer Janek Mitter is innocent of drowning his new bride during an alcoholic blackout, Van Veeteren opts to focus on such more personally compelling matters as his own ruptured marriage and to let the judicial process run its course—until a second, truly shocking murder boots him and the book into high gear. The suspense intensifies as it becomes apparent that the initial killing was no garden-variety domestic drama but part of a bloody tapestry worthy of Greek tragedy. Even if you guess the book's final twist a bit early, this is a hauntingly powerful tale you won't soon forget.

May 1, 2008
When Janek Mitter wakes up from a night of too much alcohol and sex, he must break into the locked bathroom, where he finds his wife dead in the bathtub. Suffering from amnesia as a result of his drinking, he falls into a lethargic state that lasts throughout his murder trial, conviction, and imprisonment in a mental hospital. Detective Chief Inspector Van Veeteren launches a new investigation when Mitter is murdered. Finally being published in the United States, this 1993 noir crime novel, set against the bleak, cold backdrop of Maardam, Sweden, launched Nesser's popular police procedurals ("The Return; Borkmann's Point"). For readers of Henning Mankell and those who remember Per Wahlöö and Mai Sjowald. [See Prepub Mystery, "LJ" 2/1/08.]

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2008
When foreign crime novelists break through in the U.S., its often not with the first book in a series; then, riding on success, the earlier volumes are issued. So it was with Henning Mankells Kurt Wallander series, and so it is now with Wallanders fellow Swede Hakan Nesser. This third Inspector Van Veeteren novel to appear here is actually the first in the series. The similarities, apparent in Nessers Borkmanns Point (2006), between Van Veeterens intuitive sleuthing style and that of Commissaire Adamsberg in Fred Vargasseries, are even more evident here, as the inspector attempts to rely on his ability to sense guilt and innocence in a suspect. This time, though, Van Veeterens sense that Janek Mitter didnt kill his wife doesnt keep the man out of prison; the inspector only knows he was right when Mitter is murdered on the day he is released. Effectively combining police procedural and psychological thriller, Nesser lets us into the heads of both his hero and the people he investigates. Backtracking in a series is sometimes disconcerting, as it can be here, but its easy to see how this book launched Nessers career.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)