Lotte Hammer

This is the third volume in the crime series featuring Danish detective Konrad Simonson (Simon). Although it's rather long and leisurely, it opens with a bang: a school shooting. However, that proves not to be the main crime to be solved, but only the link to a connection with a postman who recently died in a fall. Simon is given the task to determine whether the postman's death was an accident or murder. Along the way Simon also looks into the disappearance 40 years previously of a teenage runaway from Liverpool named Lucy. And that's where, for me, a lot of the "fun" and merit of this book came in: repeated reference to Beatles songs and trivia. The runaway's name of course refers to Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, and the circumstances of her leaving comport with She's Leaving Home ("meeting a man from the motor trade"), with her parents still mourning and wondering what they did wrong 40 years later. And then Simon's girlfriend from the late 60's was named Rita, and she's involved with parking garages, so references to Lovely Rita the Meter Maid abound. And so on.

I'll probably read another in the series, though I'm not sure Beatles references will be enough to keep me reading. In general I'm not a huge fan of series (or at least those that go on too long), preferring to read new characters and new situations.

3 stars… (more)

I wrote of review and somehow it didn't save so I'm going to make this brief. This is the third installment in the Konrad Simonsen series and it would have been better to have started at number one. However, this was the book recommended in the New York Times book review sectionon Scandinavian noir, a genre I love.

Simonsen, just back from recuperating from a heart attack, is given an easy assignment. Clear up the accidental death of a postman who fell down the starts of his apartment building. However, it is not clear cut, as the investigation progresses, because he had a penchant for teenage girls.

Associated with this investigation is the disappearance 40 odd years ago of Lucy Davidson, who actually knew the deceased.

The characters are OK, other than Pauline who is a pip. I found the book dragged a bit. There are another one or two Danish mysteries on the list, so I'll keep going. this isn't my favorite Scandinavian mystery by a long shoht.… (more)