No title (1999)

Originally published in Sweden in 1999, this is the 7th of ten in the Van Veeteren series, although it is Chief Inspector Rheinhart who is the main investigator here, as Van Veeteren is now retired and working as an antiquarian bookseller. In this story a drunk driver knocks down and kills a pedestrian, and in trying to cover up his actions, sets in motion a chain of events with further catastrophic results. Van Veeteren is present though, as he is drawn back into the investigation when it affects him personally in the worst way possible.

This story has a well constructed plot and interestingly you get to see events from the point of view of both the killer and the police. One might wonder though about the quick transition of the guilty party from hit-and-run driver to cold killer in such a short space. But I loved this book and how all unfolds, it kept my interest throughout. Near top marks from me for this, one of Hakan Nesser's best in my estimation. ( )

For some reason just had a problem relating to this one and I am not quite sure why. There were many different threads to follow and the writing was very simplistic, maybe it was just me because I usually like these books quite a bit. It almost read like a YA novel, not the violence factor but the speech factor. ( )

Tightly written, with sympathetic characters (except for a couple of bad guys, whose motivations and actions are explained appropriately within the narrative). Author Nesser sets the metaphorical billiard balls of the title neatly in motion, but he plays us a trick about 2/3 of the way through -- his omniscient narrator disappears, just as a confrontation is approaching between two bad guys, and Nesser deprives us of any direct account of the resolution of that key struggle. In addition, the ageing retired commissioner Van Veetering becomes the means of solution of the murders apparently by a sudden insight over a chessboard which is never adequately explained to us. The cast of policemen and their families is well portrayed, keeping the human dimension solidly present throughout, and the griefs and slow recuperation of the old policeman are given in sympathetic detail.