Eva's oog (1995)

by Karin Fossum

Series: Inspector Konrad Sejer (1)

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749	38	29,959	(3.53)	96
Fiction. Mystery. HTML: "No one can thoroughly chill the blood the way Karin Fossum can." �??Los Angeles Times Eva Magnus and her daughter are out walking by the river when a man's body floats to the water's surface. Eva goes to call the police, but when she reaches the phone, she dials another number altogether. The police find the body anyway Inspector Sejer and his team quickly determine that the man, Egil, died in a violent attack. But Egil has been missing for months and the trail to his killer is cold. It's as puzzling as another unsolved case on Sejer's desk: the murder of a prostitute, found dead just before Egil went missing. Sejer sets to work piecing together these two impossible cases; it's not long before he realizes that they aren't as separate as they previously seemed. "Fossum crafts remarkably incisive psychological suspense: novels that carry the headlong momentum of thrillers and the acuity and weight of literary fiction." �??Washington Post… (more)

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Member:	johannacb
Title:	Eva's oog
Authors:	Karin Fossum
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Work Information

In the Darkness by Karin Fossum (1995)

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Scandinavian Crime Fiction (39)

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English (31) Spanish (3) Dutch (2) Danish (1) All languages (37)

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This is my second book in the series, and I'm just not feeling them. I don't know what it is, we're just not really connecting. (

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Kiramke | Jun 27, 2023 |

I liked the shifting point of view in this book and how various scenes were replayed from different perspectives. I read #2 in the Inspector Sejer series before this one which I'm glad I did as this wasn't as strong as that and I may not have continued the series otherwise. (

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Stephen.Lawton | Aug 7, 2021 |

A thoughtful novel. Inspector Sejer takes on the case of the dead body in the river, found by a mother and daughter out for a walk. Eva Magnus struggles with making ends meet by selling her paintings, and tries to find equilibrium with her ex-husband and chubby child, seven-year-old Emma.

Oddly, when they find the body Eva does not call the police. She pretends to do so, making a call on a nearby phone, but actually calls someone else. In time, Sejer wonders about this.

Sejer also wonders if there might be a connection between the death of a prostitute that happened a few days before the man in the river went missing.

It takes a lot of puzzling and investigating for Sejer to put together the story. We readers are helped by chapters starring Eva and her thoughts and actions, so that we can drag ourselves to the same conclusions in the end.

I found it highly readable and absorbing, and a bit sad. (

)

slojudy | Sep 8, 2020 |

A steady moving, middle to ends told mystery of two deaths only connected by proximity of the victims on the night of the first death. The coincidences of the plot are the weakness of the book, but the characters have a real texture. (

)

quondame | Jul 15, 2019 |

The first in a series that may still needs to find its feet. Two people have been murdered within a short space: a high-end prostitute had been killed in her apartment six months earlier, and now the bloated body of a local brewery worker, who disappeared with in days of the prostitute's murder, has turned up in the local river. The lead detective thinks their deaths must be related. Sounds like a good set-up, but most of the story is told by a seemingly peripheral artist who comes into the detective's sites. There's very little suspense, as she just tells her story straight out. Maybe I'm just being picky, but I like my detective stories to have more detection in them. Still, I'll give the next one a try. (

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auntmarge64 | Aug 14, 2018 |

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Until now, Canadian readers assumed that the marvelous Fossum series featuring Norwegian Inspector Konrad Sejer began with Don’t Look Back, published in English in 2004. But it turns out that In the Darkness was the real Sejer debut, written in 1993 and translated just last year. The new book comes as a surprise but also, alas, as a disappointment. The Sejer we’ve come to welcome is subtle and likeable. In In the Darkness, he’s not quite either. Fossum was a beginning writer back then, not one who had found her bearings, and though this version of Sejer has all the right trappings, he seems outsized and awkward.

added by VivienneR | editThe Toronto Star, Jack Batten (Jan 11, 2013)

▾Other authors

» Add other authors (11 possible)

Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Karin Fossum	—	primary author	all editions	calculated
Anderson, James	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Haefs, Gabriele	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

▾Series and work relationships

Belongs to Series

Inspector Konrad Sejer (1)

Belongs to Publisher Series

Serie Piper (2705)

▾Awards and Honors

Awards

Bekroond met “De Gouden Sleutel” voor de beste Scandinavische misdaadroman

VGs Tidenes norske krimroman

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Canonical title

Original title

Alternative titles

Original publication date

1995

1997 (Germany)

People/Characters

Important places

Hardangervidda, Norway (Hardanger Plateau)

Important events

Related movies

Evas øye (1999 | IMDb)

Epigraph

Dedication

To my father

First words

It was a Wendy house.

Quotations

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

English translation - 'Eva's Eye' (US) published as 'In the Darkness' (UK)

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

Original language

Norwegian

Canonical DDC/MDS

Canonical LCC

▾References

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▾Book descriptions

Fiction. Mystery. HTML:

"No one can thoroughly chill the blood the way Karin Fossum can." �??Los Angeles Times
Eva Magnus and her daughter are out walking by the river when a man's body floats to the water's surface. Eva goes to call the police, but when she reaches the phone, she dials another number altogether.
The police find the body anyway Inspector Sejer and his team quickly determine that the man, Egil, died in a violent attack. But Egil has been missing for months and the trail to his killer is cold. It's as puzzling as another unsolved case on Sejer's desk: the murder of a prostitute, found dead just before Egil went missing. Sejer sets to work piecing together these two impossible cases; it's not long before he realizes that they aren't as separate as they previously seemed.
"Fossum crafts remarkably incisive psychological suspense: novels that carry the headlong momentum of thrillers and the acuity and weight of literary fiction." �??Washington Post

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Book description
The first ever Inspector Sejer novel, which launched Karin Fossum's career as the Norwegian Queen of Crime.

Eva is walking by the river one afternoon when a body floats to the surface of the icy water. She tells her daughter to wait patiently while she calls the police, but when she reaches the phone box Eva dials another number altogether. The dead man, Egil, has been missing for months, and it doesn't take long for Inspector Sejer and his team to establish that he was the victim of a very violent killer. But the trail has gone cold. It's as puzzling as another unsolved case on Sejer's desk: the murder of a prostitute who was found dead just before Egil went missing. While Sejer is trying to piece together the fragments of a seemingly impossible case, Eva gets a phone call late one night. A stranger speaks and then swiftly hangs up. Eva looks out into the darkness and listens. All is quiet. Gripping and thought-provoking, In the Darkness is Karin Fossum's first novel featuring the iconic Inspector Sejer. The prize-winning series has been published around the world to great acclaim.

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