Don't Look Back

Don't Look Back, the first of Norwegian author Karin Fossum's Inspector Sejer novels to appear in the U.S., is a realistic police procedural that reminds the reader that identifying a murderer as often as not comes down to luck and sheer chance as it does to good detective work. Fossum sets her story in the kind of small town neighborhood where everyone believes that he knows everything about all of his neighbors. But, of course, that is never the case, and this psychological suspense novel is filled with well-developed characters who are living whole lives that are unsuspected by those living just a few feet from them.

When Sejer and his partner were called to the village to investigate the disappearance of a little girl, he was show more realistic enough to expect the worst. What he did not expect, however, was that the mystery of what happened to this child would lead him to the body of one of the little girl's teenage neighbors, Annie Holland, a beautiful and well-liked 15-year old athlete admired by everyone who knew her.

The delicate, almost protective, way that Annie's nude body was left at the scene of her murder convinced Sejer that sex had nothing to do with the reason that she was killed. He sensed that her killer was someone who knew her well and, through repeated conversations with the townspeople, he pushed and poked at them in a patient effort to piece together the last few months of Annie's life in a way that would make it easier to identify the person who had wanted her dead. In the process, Sejer hoped that he would either piece together enough of Annie's story to allow him to make an arrest or that the killer would do something foolish because of all the pressure that he was applying to the townspeople. It was only a question of which would happen first.

Don't Look Back offers numerous insights into contemporary Norwegian society and proves again what an excellent writer of psychological suspense Karin Fossum is. Fans of writers like Ruth Rendell and John Harvey would do themselves a favor by adding her Inspector Sejer series to their list of "must reads."

Rated at: 4.0 show less

"There's supposed to be a sea serpent in the fjord here. It's a legend, a story from the old days. If you're out rowing and hear a splashing sound behind your boat, that's the sea serpent rising up from the depths. You should never look back, just be careful to keep on rowing. If you pretend to ignore it and leave it in peace, everything will be fine, but if you look back into its eyes, it will pull you down into the great darkness. According to legend, it has red eyes."

In Don't Look Back, a Norwegian mystery by Karin Fossum, a number of characters have sea serpents in their past that they can't leave in peace. Annie, an athletic 15 year old girl whom everyone in the village liked, is found dead in the woods, naked and covered with a show more jacket. Inspector Sejer has to figure out why this would have happened and who did it, when nothing seems to support its occurrence. Her boyfriend Halvor is one of those with a serpent trailing him, but he otherwise seems an unlikely suspect. Her death seems more an act of despair than evil. What had happened? Why did Annie have a mysterious memento from an unlikely location? What had caused her placid, pleasant attitude to change in the months before her death?

Inspector Sejer, having lost his beloved wife years before, has his own serpents behind, but brightens with this puzzle to solve. He's an appealing character, and has developed a devoted following based on this series. He's aided by his Leonberger dog Kollberg and his colleague Jacob. In the end he does sort it out, and he helps the survivors climb out of the great darkness they were pulled into. I'll look forward to reading more of Inspector Sejer's adventures. show less

Short, sharp sentences and a compelling sense of foreboding made this a great read. But for a somewhat limp ending I'd have given it five stars. Will definitely read the rest in the Inspector Sejer series.

Conrad Sejer and his young sidekick Skarre are called to a small community to find a missing child, but instead the child finds a dead teenager. As usual, Fossum strips away the layers of social convention surrounding the characters with a delicate touch, showing that things are never what they seem and that nobody is immune from evil. Fossum doesn't 'do' suspense like other writers. She just lets it emerge as she quietly goes about her archaeology, brushing away the mystery until the truth is showing, like bones. And she doesn't let you leave the story congratulating yourself that justice has been done and order has been restored. She gives any comfort you might be feeling a sharp tug in the last pages, leaving the reader a little show more off-balance. show less

Don't Look Back by Karin Fossum is a solid 4 star read. I so enjoyed the complexities and shades of gray of this thriller/ mystery. This is Karin Fossum's first book that was translated into English -and what a wonderful read!

In this story we are introduced to Skarre and Sejer, the two Norwegian Detectives who make up the police duo of Karin Fossum's thriller/ mysteries. I so enjoy her writing. It's so refreshing compared to many North American thriller/ mysteries. The police are not corrupt, men are not busy chasing women, nor going to bed with every skirt in sight, and they have no need of swearing - at least in the two Karin Fossum's that I have read. Right there, Karin Fossum has it on many a thriller/ mystery written in North show more America.

I enjoyed the many aspects of so many lives that were investigated in the course of this mystery. Karin Fossum is great at developing psychological portraits of many of the characters, and giving us an understanding of why people do what they do. Things are not neccesarily black and white - and I appreciate that, as that is what life is so often like.

The story starts out with a missing six year old, Ragnhild......... and from there the body of 15 year old Annie is found dead beside a lake. Who did what, and why -and what are the ramifications and reasoning - if any - behind these events? Well, I do not want to give away the plot -but suffice it to say that Karin Fossum has become on of my favourite new thriller/ mystery writers. The story is mulitfaceted and the ending most thought provoking.

Karin Fossum gives such wonderful psychological insight into her character's - I think she is now one of my favourite authors. I highly recommend her! show less

Annie was fifteen. She was pretty, athletic and popular. No one would ever think of hurting her.. but someone did. Her body was found near a lake, shattering the tranquil setting of her sleepy hometown in Norway. Inspector Konrad Sejer, middle-aged, taciturn, is called in to investigate. Fossum is a strong writer, who builds her story quietly, carefully peeling off layers, revealing dark unsettling secrets. I like the fact that she does not just stay focused on the point of view of the Inspector but also spends time with some of the other characters, filling out the narrative. This is the first book in a series and one I highly recommend.

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Don't Look Back heralds the arrival of an exotic new crime series featuring Inspector Sejer, a smart and enigmatic hero, tough but fair. The setting is a small, idyllic village at the foot of Norway's Kollen Mountain, where neighbors know neighbors and children play happily in the streets. But when the body of a teenage girl is found by the lake at the mountaintop, the town's tranquility is shattered forever. Annie was strong, intelligent, and loved by everyone. What went so terribly wrong? Doggedly, yet subtly, Inspector Sejer uncovers layer upon layer of distrust and lies beneath the town's seemingly perfect facade.

Critically acclaimed across Europe, Karin Fossum's Inspector Sejer novels are show more masterfully constructed, psychologically convincing, and compulsively readable, and are now available in the United States for the first time.

My Review: Herein we're introduced to Inspector Konrad Sejer, homicide detective in a Norwegian city, as he solves the murder of the popular, universally beloved young athlete and all-around good girl Annie Holland. Sejer can't crack the shell of acclaim and plaudits that surround the dead girl. No one, and I mean NO ONE, will admit that she was anything but beautiful and perfectly kind. Well, no one except her slow-top sexpot older sister...make that half-sister...who finally, in an unedited moment, admits that she found Annie a bit snide at times. No one else, from her horrible harpy of a mother to her convicted rapist of a sports coach to the neighbor whose dead toddler she was the only one who could handle, will give Sejer the way in to her life that he needs to discover her killer.

Since this is a mystery, not real life, Sejer and his newly minted partner Jacob Skarre do find the way in, and the killer is brought to justice barely in time to prevent a third needless death. Along the way, as really happens when police start turning over rocks in the search for evidence, lives are altered, lives are ruined, and even lost; in the end, does the guilt of the murderer being proved make up for the pace of destruction left in the wake of the search? Fossum provides no answer, or does she pretend that it's even of more than passing concern for her characters.

I began this book excited, if a little reluctant; I am always conflicted when starting a series of mysteries. It's nice to know that there are a few more pleasures to be had with an agreeable set of characters; my orderly side likes to know that justice will be served; but then, well, then there's that oppressive sense that *yet*more*books* have landed on the pile of material that, should I live to be 150, will never disappear, or even appreciably diminish. That feels a little depressing to me, to have a task (however much I love the task, and I do) that simply cannot be finished. Sort of like laundry, a Sisyphean labor of impossibly distant closure. (Unless you launder naked and don't put on clothes until you go outside your house, everything is always a little dirty, and therefore always laundry. It's just depressing.)

And then the trouble set in. We have dead children, never ever a favorite theme of mine. We have violent men, never ever a favorite theme of mine. We have a grouchy, isolated older detective, kind of overused. But then we have Norway as our backdrop, fresh and new to me. We have prose that, in English translation, feels immediate and grippingly suspenseful. We have characters limned against a bright background in sharp, dark strokes, like reverse film noir...hard to do, and done well here. But on balance, I really don't feel four-starry about the book. I'll read more, of course. I'll even enjoy them, provided we don't have more dead children. But the bright bloom of excitement dimmed a bit, as I suppose was inevitable, and it seems to me that it needn't have. Other choices could have been made. But they weren't, and so here I am, only pleased, not overwhelmed.

Welcome to life as an adult, I suppose.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. show less