Bad Intentions by Karin Fossum

This is the ninth Inspector Sejer novel in the series from Karin Fossum. It's another involving story of the repercussions of a crime, told with insight and great characters, but for me there was little tension or suspense.

"From the outside everything looks fine...but it's rotten to the core.

It's often the way."

Three childhood friends visit a forest cabin by a deep lake called Dead Water. Jon has been released from his stay at a mental hospital, filled with a crippling guilt for several months over an unknown incident. Reilly is a sensitive loner who reads the Koran and stays in the shadow of advertising executive Axel, the manipulative and self obsessed leader of the group. As they move out into the middle of the lake, Jon stands up and steps overboard, disappearing into the dark water.

In the morning, they call the police to investigate, but the two decide to lie and say he wandered off in the night. Inspector Sejer is puzzled by the case but cannot find the foul play. When the body of another man who has been missing for months appears in another nearby lake, Sejer discovers all four men were at a party together the night he disappeared, which no one wants to talk about.

Bad Intentions is filled, as always, with well drawn characters, especially the mothers of the two men who are in anguish not knowing what happened. Axel is a real creep, self centred and controlling, but nevertheless I still felt sad for him in the end. This case caused Sejer to look at his own aging, and Skarre was, as usual, a perfect foil. Fossum has a way of making both the villains and the Inspectors rounded and complete, the incidents that happen real. I found this lacked the suspense or mystery I was hoping for. A great character study without violence or major twists.

In my first US edition hardcover from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt publishers, there is a strange mistake that is so glaring I'm surprised it didn't get caught. Reilly is alone in his room in the cabin on page 181, trying to keep under his sleeping bag, and several times he has sat up or propped himself up when he hears a noise from Axel wandering around the cabin.

The names of Axel and Reilly are reversed in the next passage. Strange.

It's a relatively short episode for Sejer, my hardcover is only 213 pages, and I read it in just over a day. As always, an enjoyable read, but not one I would recommend as her best.

My other reviews for Karin Fossum:

I Can See In The Dark

The Whisperer (Inspector Sejer #13)

Hellfire (Inspector Sejer #12)

The Drowned Boy (Inspector Sejer #11)

The Caller (Inspector Sejer #10)

The Water's Edge (Inspector Sejer #8)

The Murder of Harriet Krohn (Inspector Sejer #7)

Black Seconds (Inspector Sejer #6)

The Indian Bride (Inspector Sejer #5)

When The Devil Holds The Candle (Inspector Sejer #4)

He Who Fears The Wolf (Inspector Sejer #3)