The Indian Bride

"Calling Out For You" is the British release title for "The Indian Bride". I'm a recent fan of Ms Fossum's Insp Sejer mysteries and have been looking for all of her book titles that are available for sale online. In "The Indian Bride", 51-year-old benign bachelor Gunder Jomann, a farming equipment salesman decides to go to India and find himself an Indian wife. This decision is arrived at after Gunder sees a picture of a beautiful, exotic woman in a book given to him by his sister, Marie. Now, this is quite an unusual decision given that Gunder lives in a small town in Norway - Elvestad, with a population of only 2,347 inhabitants. Most of the people are ethnic Norwegians, with the exception of two families, one Vietnamese and the other Korean. But, Gunder is resolved and goes off on a two-week trip to Mumbai, India, where he promptly meets a waitress in a tandoori restaurant, a slender, pleasing lady,with striking silky,long black hair not quite forty and falls in love with her. The lady, Poona, is taken by Gunder's gentlemanly manner and they promptly wed. Gunder leaves for Norway with Poona promising that she'll make her way to Elvestad as soon as she ties up her personal business in India. In Karin Fossum's able hands, this whirlwind romance between Gunder and Poona comes across as wholly credible, achingly so, and not at all cliched as one would imagine such 'sudden romances' to be. Gunder strikes us as a truly decent person who left it till late in life to experience romance and marriage. Poona, given her impoverished circumstances, does not seem like a gold digger, but someone who sees a potential happy future away from the poverty, dust, heat and grime and is more than willing to move to a land of 'snow and ice' with a man she deems gentle and good. Unfortunately, this is a crime thriller, and the unfortunate victim is Poona. On the day of her arrival, poor Marie [Gunder's sister] gets into a horrific car crash and goes into a coma. Gunder, torn between being there for his sister and going to meet his wife at the airport, makes the fateful decision of staying with his sister, making arrangements with a local cabbie to receive Poona instead. Gunder never sees Poona again - she is found in a field close to Gunder's house, her face bashed in beyond recognition. In steps Inspector Konrad Sejer and his much younger assistant, Jacob Skarre.Even the much-experienced Insp Sejer finds himself immensely disturbed by the crime and goes all out to solve the crime, gaining lots of interesting insights along the way. Sejer realizes that the town's inhabitants are a tough crowd and seem to be very protective of their own, something Sejer actually empathizes with "We're not talking about evil here, but the good in people that stops them from saying what they know." This is not just an average crime thriller, but a meditation on human frailties, of people's natural tendency to protect their own, even in the face of unpalatable truths,and the complexit

This is a previous release of The Indian Bride, which I loved. Everything I've read of Fossum's is great.

I have read every Karin Fossum book I can get my hands on. The Indian Bride is a step above all of the others, and they are first rate. I literally could not put this book down, and neither could my partner. Fossum has a way of creating interesting, and believable characters. The main detective, Konrad Sejer, is a full bodied, interesting detective. The story is interesting, heartbreaking, and unusual. I have read all of Maj Stowall, Per Wahloo's Swedish detective, Martin Beck series, all available Henning Mankell's Kurt (and Linda) Wallander series, and Indradason's Icelandic mysteries. You can't beat the Scandinavians for dark, psychological mysteries. At times, you already know the killer, it is the process by which they are captured, that counts. Karin Fossum's are some of the finest available mysteries. I can give her my highest recommendation.

The corpse of a battered woman is found near the town of Elvestad, Norway. Police Inspector Konrad Sejer is assigned to lead the investigation. The body is identified as Poona Jomann of India, the wife of tractor salesman Gunder, who just married the victim. Coincidently, an auto accident involving Gunder's sister kept him from meeting his new bride at the airport; thus Poona was traveling by herself to their home. Because of the degree of the battering, Sejer assumes a crime of passion of some sort happened so he concentrates on the townsfolk seeking a motive. He quickly learns that everyone who knows the fiftyish Gunder was stunned when he suddenly married as he was considered a lifetime bachelor by one and all. Still none of the residents accept that one of them is the killer as they prefer a random incident. However, Sejer begins to uncover potential suspects amongst the 2347 residents; a few who might have a motive to commit such a horrific deed. THE INDIAN BRIDE is an excellent Norwegian police procedural that combines a great investigation with a vivid look at a small somewhat insular Norwegian village. The story line is fast-paced, but also enables the audience to understand life in Elvestad and how much an outsider the former Mumbai, India resident would have been if she lived. Karin Fossin provides a great whodunit that will lead readers to seek other translations of Inspector Sejer mysteries (see WHEN THE DEVIL HOLDS THE CANDLE). Harriet Klausner

Fossum writes beautifully...her characters are sharply and sympathetically drawn and the storyline keeps you going and going. Suspense keeps growing from page 1. Inspector Sejer has unique qualities of perserverance and empathy--and his ability to unravel the mystery are his alone among police procedural investigators, top=notch, all the way.