A fan of Nordic crime novels, I was excited to read The Murder of Halland by Pia Juul, one of Denmark's foremost literary writers. Called "haunting" and "a spacious reimagining of the crime novel", I was nevertheless bored, irritated and disappointed in it.
I haven't disliked a book this much in a long time. This was not for me.
Bess and Halland spend an ordinary night, and the morning is the same as always. Halland must have gone to work already - when there is a knock on the door. Halland has been shot in the public square outside his house, his last words "My wife has shot me". Detectives are brought in to investigate, but stay on the periphery. Rather than clear her name, she wanders aimlessly, visiting her estranged daughter to find out he has been sleeping at her apartment, papers from his office are missing - there is a poster of The Return of Martin Guerre on the wall, which may lead to something of interest, but doesn't. She visits her aged grandfather. She talks with neighbours and gets drunk at a dance, kissing a next door lodger. Who killed Halland is forgotten, even to Bess, as she states to a friend "It's police work. I don't poke my nose in".
If you are looking for a crime novel, or even a result to the event, you'll be disappointed. I had a hard time figuring out what the point was, except to show how one woman deals with her grief and regret. The tone is poetic, with sentences that are pure and some leap off the page, but overall the novel is dragged down by my sheer boredom, waiting for something to happen. It doesn't. This seems like a novel I should like, I wonder if I'm missing something, maybe I should read it again, but I can't face it.
I found it pointless, a letdown as I finished the last page and sighed "Oh, Brother".
2009 / Tradeback / 152 pages
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