Woman with Birthmark

This is the third book by Nesser that I've read and rather different from the rest. Most Nesser mysteries are classic page-turning whodunnits. In Woman with Birthmark, the identity of the perpetrator is known from the outset. The motive is made clear about halfway through the book, and isn't especially difficult to guess before then. The overall feel of it is like a Greek tragedy: a series of events leading to a knot of a situation that is basically not salvageable. Grim, sad, and my favourite of the Nesser mysteries that I've read.

Another fine Scandinavian police procedural (no children were harmed in the course of this plot). Some mysteries start with nothing but the discovery of the crime, and dare the reader to solve the puzzle before the detectives; others let the reader ahead of the police, and the charm is seeing how the police work the puzzle out. This is one of the latter. The criminal is known immediately to the reader, even before the crime. The root cause is fairly easy to guess. But the police must start from the beginning, and watching them work it out is like cheering for the home team.

Inspector Van Veeteren is a classic: disillusioned, depressed in the long dark winters, alone yet surrounded by interesting and sometimes funny police characters, show more each with their special talents/drawbacks.

This is not the first in the series, although the first I've come across. I'll be looking for the first, and more if there are any. Quite enjoyable. show less

I adore HÃ¥kan Nesser's books and Woman with Birthmark was no exception. Though Van Veeteren is a cranky main character, I love reading about him and this newly translated book is no exception. While Van Veeteren fights off both a cold and the desire to do nothing but sleep in, he manages to find himself wrapped up in a potential serial murder case. The story, and not just the characters, are engrossing and while we get to follow the murder as well as Van Veeteren, the motives remain a mystery. The book has a satisfying ending and I cannot wait to read whatever book of Nesser's is translated next.

Hakan Nesser is another one of my all-time favorite writers of Scandinavian crime fiction. Woman With Birthmark is #4 in this series featuring Inspector Van Veeteren, a veteran detective in Maardam, whose location remains a mystery in itself. These books you can read as stand-alone novels, but there's always a plus to reading a series in order.

A solitary mourner at a funeral is at the heart of a baffling series of crimes. A young woman made a death-bed promise to her mother and has cleared the way to begin her plan of revenge. Her first victim is a businessman who has recently been receiving some very odd phone calls. There is no voice, just a song that plays over and over again. Shortly after a little fender-bender, his wife goes out show more one night leaving him home alone, and comes back to find him shot to death. Enter the police and Inspector Van Veeteren, who after their investigation, come up with very little to make a case, never mind an arrest. When another murder occurs in the same fashion, the members of the Inspector's team know that they must find some sort of a connection between the two dead men. Not only are they worried about a possible serial killer, but the press doesn't understand why the police are not doing their job and makes no bones about publishing how they feel. But the two victims lived very different lives, so the team has to begin the tedious and difficult task of linking each victim's pasts together, not only to identify the killer and the why, but to possibly warn anyone else connected with these two men.

It's not a mystery, per se; the reader knows the who (sort of) from the very start. What drives the killer is what slowly unravels throughout the story, teased out a little at a time. As in all of his Van Veeteren books, Nesser's writing, his plotting genius and his characterizations all speak for themselves in this story. He doesn't pad the writing with a lot of great detail and gets right to the crime and the search for a solution. Van Veeteren doesn't seem to suffer from the angst that many other Scandinavian detectives are full of and he has this very dry wit and sarcastic sense of humor.

I've seen this book reviewed as being too slow with little punch, but trust me -- this is far from the case. If you want bang-bang shoot 'em up, look elsewhere. This one is much more subdued and cerebral.

I have followed this author's works in order of translation and have NEVER been disappointed. I can definitely recommend this book to readers of Scandinavian crime fiction, and for those who want quality and intelligence in their crime. show less

Zwei Männer sind tot. Auf ganz ähnliche, brutale Weise ums Leben gekommen. Mit vier Schüssen niedergestreckt, zwei in die Brust und zwei in den Unterleib. Zweifellos handelt es sich um denselben Täter, aber erstmal tappen Inspektor Van Veeteren und seine Leute im Dunkeln. Dann stellt sich heraus, dass die beiden Toten vor dreißig Jahren gemeinsam ihre Offiziersprüfung beim Militär ablegten. Schon bald erkennt Van Veeteren, dass auch die ehemaligen Kameraden in Gefahr sind. Kann er die nächsten Morde verhindern?

4th of 4 crime novels which have been translated. A young woman decides at her mother's funeral to avenge a wrong done to her mother. She has a list and she intends to kill everyone on it. The first man is found just inside his front door with 2 bullet wound in the chest, and 2 bullet wounds "down below." It's up to the police to figure out the killer before they (we know it's a she but they don't) strike again.

This crime novel is formatted like a psychological thriller, very much in the vein of Barbara Vine (isn't it Vine/Rendell that introduces you to the killer first?). It's all about finding stopping the killer before they kill again. There's a bit more character development in this one than in the previous two I read, but time is show more spent with both the potential victims and the killer herself, so there isn't much leftover for the police. And because Nesser has set his novels in a fictitious city in a country never named, he obviously does't want us to get too attached to that either. Everything it seems is in service to the thriller storyline, which is fine if you enjoy thrillers. I find that all that suspense in a crime novel just makes me impatient. I've read 3 of these now, and I find the Inspector Van Veeteren just meh. He can't stand up to Rebus, Dalziel, Wallender, Erlander or Winter, imo. show less

I have to admire a writer who can hold your interest when so plainly outlining the drudgery & dreariness of so much police work and when the motives & methods of the killer are laid bare. I'm not sure what it is with Nesser's writing when his characters are so depressed by much of their work much of the time.