[Book Review] Woman with a Birthmark by Håkan Nesser

Title: Woman with Birthmark: An Inspector Van Veeteren Mystery (Book 4)
Author: Håkan Nesser
Format: Paperback, 336 pages
Genre: Crime, Mystery, Police Procedural
Publisher: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard
ISBN: 9780307387233
Translation Release Date: March 9, 2010
Rating: ⭐ ⭐ 1/2
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I read the previous Van Veeteren mysteries and I have to say this is my least favorite. Woman with Birthmark is for all intents and purposes a police procedural. It follows the detectives knocking on doors, doing interviews, fielding phone calls, and not getting anywhere — at all. It was frustrating to me as a reader, but perhaps the most frustrating part is that the killer is revealed at the very beginning; which left me nothing really to try and figure out. What’s not revealed is the why and if you’re an astute reader you’ll figure out the why after the first murder, if not than you’re sure to get after the second.

[Book Review] The Return by Håkan Nesser

Cover via Amazon

The Return: An Inspector Van Veeteren Mystery
by Håkan Nesser
Paperback, 322
Translation Published June 2007 by Vintage (First Published 1995)
Translated by Laurie Thompson

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Håkan Nesser’s The Return began with great promise but quickly fizzled.  I was immediately hooked with the first line, “It was the first day and the last day” (pg. 3).  With this line the reader immediately knows that nothing good is about to happen, but whose impending demise should the reader expect? Did the newly released prisoner really meet his demise or will he upon his return go back to his criminal ways?

The novel continues to pick up steam in Chapter 2 with some rather bad and rambunctious children out on a field trip.  Kids that I, myself,

[Book Review]The Bat by Jo Nesbo

The Bat by Jo Nesbo
Kindle Edition/Paperback, 369
Translation Published 2012
First Published 1997
First Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Edition, July 2013
Translated by Don Bartlett
Rating 3/5

I was absolutely ecstatic when I found out earlier this year that Jo Nesbo’s The Bat would finally be available in the U.S.  It saved me from ordering it from the U.K. or Canada or even Australia.  But I was even more ecstatic when I received a galley copy of the book from the publisher (Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group) before its actual U.S. release date.

The Bat is the first book in the Inspector Harry Hole series and the latest to be released in the U.S.  Inspector Harry Hole from the Oslo Crime Squad is sent to Syndey, Australia to assist in the murder investigation of a young Norwegian woman, who is minor television celebrity in his homeland.  However Harry soon finds out that he is to be a mere observer and to look at his time in Australia as a vacation.  However as the investigation progresses Harry finds himself more and more involved in solving the murder or as he discovers murders.