[Book Review] The Return by Håkan Nesser

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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 Chat: Borkmann’s Point by Hakan Nesser

Borkmann’s Point: An Inspector Van Veeteren Mystery
by Håkan Nesser
Paperback, 321
Translation Published June 2009 by Vintage (First Published 1994)
Translated by Laurie Thompson
Rating: 3/5

Could it be true there is

a necessity behind most murders, a compulsion stronger than anything behind [an]other action? (BK — 294-295).

Perhaps it’s true or perhaps it’s nothing but pure hokum.  The Axman in Håkan Nesser‘s Borkmann’s Point certainly thought murder was a necessary means to an end.

Borkmann’s Point is the second installment in the Inspector Van Veeteren Mystery series.  I didn’t enjoy Borkmann’s Point as much as I hoped.  Even after the second read.  The plot was very thin and the characters, except for Beate Moerk, remained static.  Oddly enough I didn’t like DCI Van Veeteren as much in this novel as much as I liked him in Mind’s Eye (click here to read my review).

Inspector Van Veeteren is on vacation and asked to assist with two gruesome murders in nearby Kalbringen in which the heads of two victims have been severed with what is suspected to be an ax. Van Veeteren is just as cantankerous

Book Chat: Mind’s Eye by Hakan Nesser

Mind’s Eye: An Inspector Van Veeteren Mystery
by Håkan Nesser
Paperback, 278
Translation Published June 2009 by Vintage (First Published 1993)
Translated by Laurie Thompson
Rating: 4/5

When I read Mind’s Eye by Hakan Nesser the first time, I didn’t like at all. I didn’t get it and I didn’t know how I could write a review about a book I disliked so intensely. I put it in the pile of books (finished, unfinished, not yet read) and forgot about it. I came across it when I was going through the pile and thought I should give it another shot. And I’m glad I did! 😛

Mind’s Eye by Swedish author Hakan Nesser is the first novel in the Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) Van Veeteren series, which takes place in the fictional city of Maardam in Northern Europe.  It is a crime procedural about a cantankerous police detective, DCI Van Veeteren on the hunt for a killer.  He is not, convinced the right man (Janek Mitter) has been convicted of murdering his wife (Eva Ringmar).