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It's a sweltering summer in Sweden and Chief Inspector Van Veeteren is long overdue for a holiday when a secretive and dubious religious sect comes under investigation. One of its members, a girl on the cusp of adolescence, is found dead in the forest near their holiday camp, brutally raped and strangled. The members of the Pure Life choose to remain silent about the incident rather than defend themselves.Tags
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The Inspector and Silence takes place with Inspector Van Veeteren contemplating peaceful retirement and instead getting drawn into a particularly brutal murder investigation involving young girls at a religious retreat known as the Pure Life. Oscar Yellineck, leader of the cult, is a nasty piece of work who refuses to admit any girls are even missing from his camp, and his loyal trio of adult female followers (who bring to mind the Weird Sisters) are hardly any more-- and possibly less-- sympathetic. Located in rural Sweden, there are few witnesses and few clues, an AWOL police chief who has left a rookie in charge, and very little for Van Veeteren, who is out of his usual territory, to work with.
In the midst of what is an admittedly show more very glum set-up, we have Van Veeteren's delightfully quirky personality and biting wit, which often erupts at the most inopportune moments. He has all the well-known cop vices-- smoking, drinking-- and partakes heartily as the investigation spins its wheels. He broods, he snaps at people (fellow cops, witnesses, suspects), and is a curmudgeon's delight. He's not lovable, he's not a renagade, he's not a forensic whiz: he's a good, old-fashioned, think-it-through and follow-the-clues instinctive cop. And that's what makes this a great detective story: it's not trying to fit into the niche of the technological craze, the young and sexy detective craze, the renegade cop craze, etc. It knows what it is and goes with it, and it does it well.
Much applause to the supporting cast, too. For a fairly short novel, the secondary characters are fairly well fleshed-out and developed, personalities in their own rights. Van Veeteren carries the day, but coming along behind him is a terrific group of secondary characters who snap and snarl at each other in the unseasonable heat, or are lost in youthful hopes and dreams. Their interactions are terrific.
The mystery, as noted above, is of the old-fashioned gumshoe kind. No one's going to be sitting in a CSI lab yelling "volia!" as DNA saves the day. Rather, the puzzles slowly assembles itself. Suspicions shift, clues build, small statements lead to great revelations. If you enjoy a mystery of this type, then, by all means, don't let this one pass you by. It may not have the urban flair and flashiness of some more recent entries from Sweden, but it doesn't need them; it's got character and brains, and plenty of them. And that's all it needs, it would seem, for Hakan Nesser to write a good mystery. show less
In the midst of what is an admittedly show more very glum set-up, we have Van Veeteren's delightfully quirky personality and biting wit, which often erupts at the most inopportune moments. He has all the well-known cop vices-- smoking, drinking-- and partakes heartily as the investigation spins its wheels. He broods, he snaps at people (fellow cops, witnesses, suspects), and is a curmudgeon's delight. He's not lovable, he's not a renagade, he's not a forensic whiz: he's a good, old-fashioned, think-it-through and follow-the-clues instinctive cop. And that's what makes this a great detective story: it's not trying to fit into the niche of the technological craze, the young and sexy detective craze, the renegade cop craze, etc. It knows what it is and goes with it, and it does it well.
Much applause to the supporting cast, too. For a fairly short novel, the secondary characters are fairly well fleshed-out and developed, personalities in their own rights. Van Veeteren carries the day, but coming along behind him is a terrific group of secondary characters who snap and snarl at each other in the unseasonable heat, or are lost in youthful hopes and dreams. Their interactions are terrific.
The mystery, as noted above, is of the old-fashioned gumshoe kind. No one's going to be sitting in a CSI lab yelling "volia!" as DNA saves the day. Rather, the puzzles slowly assembles itself. Suspicions shift, clues build, small statements lead to great revelations. If you enjoy a mystery of this type, then, by all means, don't let this one pass you by. It may not have the urban flair and flashiness of some more recent entries from Sweden, but it doesn't need them; it's got character and brains, and plenty of them. And that's all it needs, it would seem, for Hakan Nesser to write a good mystery. show less
Chief Inspector Van Veeteren was feeling quite upset with his ex-wife, who had just tried to trap him into spending two weeks at some holiday cottage with their adult children and grandchildren. Taking the coward’s way out, he announced that he had already booked a trip to Crete. Of course, he had no vacation plans whatsoever. But then, driving away from their meeting he thought, “why not?! If you could redeem your sins by doing penance, it should be child’s play to conjure up a retroactive truth from a white lie.” And so Van Veeteren books a trip to Crete for August 1. Now all he has to do is find some “nice little two-week case” to fill in the time until vacation, perhaps in the country by a lake. So, when an anonymous show more caller repeatedly insists that a 13-year-old girl is missing from the Pure Life Camp in the idyllic Sorbinowo police district and Van Veeteren is asked to serve as a consultant, it looks like the perfect chance for the tired inspector to get away before getting away.
But the Pure Life is a murky, closed sect whose leader, Oscar Yellinek, vehemently denies that any of the campers is missing and refuses to cooperate with the investigation. Van Veeteren’s intuition and instant dislike of Yellinek and his entourage fuels his determination to find satisfactory answers to the anonymous caller’s insistence that a girl is not only missing but has been murdered. Who is the caller? And who is the girl?
The Inspector and Silence is the fifth book in this Swedish series by Hakan Nesser. Like his fictional Scandinavian brethren, Van Veeteren is stubborn, dedicated and irreverent. Introspective to a fault, it’s the inspector’s philosophical musings and observations that prove the attraction for this particular entry in the series. Who but Van Veeteren would consider the moral potential of “retroactive truth”? While the plot is acceptably intricate and the setting attractive, it’s the character himself that will please Van Veeteren’s fans in his latest case.
Hakan Nesser’s Inspector Van Veeteren series has racked up some impressive awards, including the Swedish Crime Writer’s Academy Prize for new authors for Mind’s Eye and best novel awards for Borkmann’s Point and Woman with Birthmark. show less
But the Pure Life is a murky, closed sect whose leader, Oscar Yellinek, vehemently denies that any of the campers is missing and refuses to cooperate with the investigation. Van Veeteren’s intuition and instant dislike of Yellinek and his entourage fuels his determination to find satisfactory answers to the anonymous caller’s insistence that a girl is not only missing but has been murdered. Who is the caller? And who is the girl?
The Inspector and Silence is the fifth book in this Swedish series by Hakan Nesser. Like his fictional Scandinavian brethren, Van Veeteren is stubborn, dedicated and irreverent. Introspective to a fault, it’s the inspector’s philosophical musings and observations that prove the attraction for this particular entry in the series. Who but Van Veeteren would consider the moral potential of “retroactive truth”? While the plot is acceptably intricate and the setting attractive, it’s the character himself that will please Van Veeteren’s fans in his latest case.
Hakan Nesser’s Inspector Van Veeteren series has racked up some impressive awards, including the Swedish Crime Writer’s Academy Prize for new authors for Mind’s Eye and best novel awards for Borkmann’s Point and Woman with Birthmark. show less
This is my first Hakkan Nesser book, but it won't be the last. I don't know about the previous novels in the series, but here Inspector Van Veeteren has an antihero aspect. Yes, he is a morose middle aged Swedish policeman, but he has dreams, and there is a bit of humor as well.
3.5 stars actually. This was my debut to the Swedish author and Crime genre as well, and I some what liked it. The book is the 5th of Van Veteran series and I had a lot of trouble to get clear what's going on and to differentiate Swedish's names from places for first few pages. Once the plot opened, it was then like flowing water.
Story is based on thin and a common story line used for crime subjects. A secret & mysterious sect, A missing girl, a girl murdered, anonymous phone calls.... But the author's knack of delivering it is what made the book to read
Definitely not a boredom type... A fascinating read
Story is based on thin and a common story line used for crime subjects. A secret & mysterious sect, A missing girl, a girl murdered, anonymous phone calls.... But the author's knack of delivering it is what made the book to read
Definitely not a boredom type... A fascinating read
In some ways, I liked this one more than the previous books and in some ways I didn't. But what I really like is VV. I think his weirdness, his odd ways of figuring out/solving crimes. I'm not so much a fan of his insecurities, but those are par for the course in detective fiction. The Inspector and Silence feels like the final book in the series (it's not) and it also feels more modern than it actually is (originally published in '07). It's a good, solid book and it makes me like VV a lot, but also some of his other characters/coworkers. The plot is interesting, but I was mostly invested in how VV was going to solve everything. I like Nesser's writing and I hope they translate his newer books into English.
The Inspector and Silence by Haken Nesser
This was the first book I had read by Hakan Nesser but it is not the last by far. His stream-lined style of writing draws the reader in very quickly and takes you along for an exhilarating ride.
This story starts with Chief Inspector Van Veeteren who does not want to go away with his ex-wife, children and grandchildren; so quickly comes up with the excuse that he has already booked a trip to Crete for the same time. He gets assigned to a small case of a missing 13 year old girl from a mysterious Pure Life Camp. His chief of police assigns Van Veeteren as a consultant to another police force in a different town. Because he always solves the cases (except for one), he is expected to solve this show more mystery before he leaves on holiday.
Nesser gets you so deeply involved and when the bodies start piling up; you are wondering how Van Veeteren will piece everything together and solve these very complex crimes. You are left speculating under the last few pages. By using his brain and deep thinking, those pieces all start to fit.
I recommend this book by Hakan Nesser as a thriller you will want to read and additionally want to pick up his others. show less
This was the first book I had read by Hakan Nesser but it is not the last by far. His stream-lined style of writing draws the reader in very quickly and takes you along for an exhilarating ride.
This story starts with Chief Inspector Van Veeteren who does not want to go away with his ex-wife, children and grandchildren; so quickly comes up with the excuse that he has already booked a trip to Crete for the same time. He gets assigned to a small case of a missing 13 year old girl from a mysterious Pure Life Camp. His chief of police assigns Van Veeteren as a consultant to another police force in a different town. Because he always solves the cases (except for one), he is expected to solve this show more mystery before he leaves on holiday.
Nesser gets you so deeply involved and when the bodies start piling up; you are wondering how Van Veeteren will piece everything together and solve these very complex crimes. You are left speculating under the last few pages. By using his brain and deep thinking, those pieces all start to fit.
I recommend this book by Hakan Nesser as a thriller you will want to read and additionally want to pick up his others. show less
After reading the Stieg Larsson series of Swedish crime novels (Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, The Girl Who Played with Fire), I thought I'd try another popular crime novelist from Sweden, Hakan Nesser.
In The Inspector and the Silence, Chief Inspector Van Veeteren takes on the investigation into the murder of a pre-teen girl from the summer camp of a small religious sect in rural Sweden. The leaders of the sect remain silent and secretive, and clues are few, compounding Van Veeteren's problems.
The book does not have the tension or graphic depravity of the Stieg Larsson books, which might make it an easier read for the squeamish. In Hakan Nesser's book, the characters are interesting individuals, show more very human, and somewhat folksy in nature.
All in all, it's a nice little crime mystery without a lot of unnecessary graphic details, and keeps you wondering how the crime will be solved to the end. show less
In The Inspector and the Silence, Chief Inspector Van Veeteren takes on the investigation into the murder of a pre-teen girl from the summer camp of a small religious sect in rural Sweden. The leaders of the sect remain silent and secretive, and clues are few, compounding Van Veeteren's problems.
The book does not have the tension or graphic depravity of the Stieg Larsson books, which might make it an easier read for the squeamish. In Hakan Nesser's book, the characters are interesting individuals, show more very human, and somewhat folksy in nature.
All in all, it's a nice little crime mystery without a lot of unnecessary graphic details, and keeps you wondering how the crime will be solved to the end. show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Inspector and Silence
- Original title
- Kommissarien och tystnaden
- Original publication date
- 1997 (original Swedish) (original Swedish); 2010 (English translation) (English translation)
- People/Characters
- Van Veeteren
- Important places
- Maardam
- Epigraph
- Imagine a twelve-year old girl.
Imagine her being attacked, raped and murdered.
Take your time.
Then imagine God.
M. Barin, poet - First words
- The girl in bed number twelve woke up early.
- Quotations*
- Cazzate. Il vocabolo le passò rapido per la mente, come già le era successo il giorno precedente. Cazzate. Allora non era riuscita a soffocarlo, le era solo scappato di bocca come una piccola rondine incollerita e disubbidi... (show all)ente, e d'un tratto si era gonfiato in una nuvola nera.
Creta? pensò, smontando. Perché no? Sì, davvero. Perché no? Se si poteva ricostruire una verginità con nuove membrane, doveva pur essere una faccenda abbastanza semplice lavare una verità rettroattiva dalla sabbia della... (show all) menzogna.
Ma non c'era nulla. Nulla affiorò e nessun pensiero si cristallizzò. Solo quella parola, «impotenza», che a quel punto cominciava a sembrargli una vecchia conoscenza. Un parente vecchissimo e sconsolato che non voleva mai... (show all) morire, e che non si poteva sbattere fuori; forse proprio per via della relazione di parentela.
«La ragione ha una sorella maggiore, non dimenticarlo. Si chiama Intuizione».
Il colloquio col sovrintendente Puttemans durò circa un'ora, e per tutto il tempo lui rimase a osservare la lenta discesa delle gocce di pioggia lungo i vetri delle finestre leggermente ondulati. Non sapeva spiegarsi perché... (show all), ma c'era qualcosa in quei rivoli sottili e irregolari che lo affascinava, e con cui non voleva interrompere il contatto. Per non perdere l'attimo imprevedibile in cui una di quelle infinite gocce d'improvviso ne avrebbe avuto abbastanza e avrebbe deciso di scorrere all'insù; sì, probabilmente era qualcosa del genere che gli girava per la mente. Qualcosa che aveva a che vedere con rivolta e affinità elettive. Oppure con i primi sintomi dell'Alzheimer, pensò terrorizzato. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)'Welcome,' said the man.
- Original language*
- Schwedisch
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
Classifications
- Genres
- Fiction and Literature, Mystery
- DDC/MDS
- 839.73 — Literature & rhetoric German & related literatures Other Germanic literatures Swedish literature Swedish fiction
- LCC
- PT9876.24 .E76 .K6613 — Language and Literature German, Dutch and Scandinavian literatures Swedish literature Individual authors or works 1961-2000
- BISAC
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- Reviews
- 27
- Rating
- (3.45)
- Languages
- 12 — Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian (Bokmål), Norwegian, Polish, Swedish
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 54
- ASINs
- 15
