The Water's Edge is the eighth crime novel from Karin Fossum featuring Inspector Konrad Sejer. It's a good mix of the elements which make her novels so involving. She focuses on the characters in a close knit community when a young boy is found dead, and they realize a pedophile lives amongst them.
Kristine and Reinhardt are walking by Loch Bonna as they usually do, when they meet a man leaving the wood. Strangely, he doesn't return her smile and nod. Further on in Linde Forest, they find the dead body of a young boy, naked from the waist down. The police interview the community, including an inactive acknowledged pedophile, the gay school teacher, and his classmates. Meanwhile, elderly Wilfred Brein waits in his cabin and watches as they appeal for 'the man in the woods' to come forward and move closer to discovering his secret.
Strain shows in Kristine's marriage as Reinhardt becomes obsessed with the details of the case and attempts to investigate himself, dragging her along. They are all shaken again when another boy from the school disappears.
This novel had a good mix of police procedure and character psychology. The grief of the two mothers, the desperation of Kristine to leave her oppressive marriage, the lives of the teachers and students at the school are all exposed, as Sejer continues to move forward with the case. Despite knowing Brein was the villain, indeed following his side during the investigation, this felt like a tight mystery - especially when Edwin disappears, as it seems there are many suspects.
An involving crime novel from Norway's Queen of Crime, this was one of her best. Her Inspector Sejer series is consistently well written, with an understanding of her characters that is lacking in many other thrillers, turning Sejer's police procedural into an examination of troubled minds - the villain, the victim and those left behind.
My other reviews for Karin Fossum:
The Whisperer (Inspector Sejer #13)
The Drowned Boy (Inspector Sejer #11)
The Caller (Inspector Sejer #10)
Bad Intentions (Inspector Sejer #9)
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)
Don't Look Back (Inspector Sejer #2)
In The Darkness (Inspector Sejer #1)
2007 / Tradeback / 227 pages
Opmerkingen