He Who Fears The Wolf (Inspector Sejer Mysteries, 2)

My greatest admiration for the authors of this amazing novel. It's not at all a who-dun-it; instead, the main characters are created in totally absorbing worlds of their own. I would like to applaud the creation of the working of mental illess as absolutely the most remarkable I have ever come across in 30 years of reading widely and teaching both fiction enjoyment and creative writing. I'm looking forward to the next work from these authors.

He Who Fears the Wolf is written to entertain those readers who don't enjoy a lot descriptive adjectives tossed into a plot,as if it were a salad. From the beginning, Karin Fossum, as with other Scandinavian authors, such as Henning Mankell, grab your attention and keep it. Like the other Karin Fossum's I've read, this is a "good read."

This is where Karin Fossum starts focussing more on the tragedies of those involved in her stories. This one does have more humor than her later stories. A bank robber unknowingly takes the prime suspect in a murder case who's an escapee from a mental institution as a hostage The key witness to the murder, a 12 year old delinquent, completes the trio of misfits that the author focusses her attention on. We stil get a lot of Inspector Seger and officer Skarre as they investigate both the robbery and the murder. The reader will figure things out if one particular clue revealed midway in the story is duly noted. However, this ddoesn't diminish enjoyment of the book as one follows the story line. The story is told in a shorter time frame than that in the other Inspector Sejer mysteries I've read.Highly recommended

Characters that are real, not forced or overdrawn. Plot development that is believable and deceiving, with a style that smoothly involves the reader mentally, laying clues that may be clues or not, always with unexpected plot finishes that are satisfying. Read one of her books and you immediately want to start another. A detective mystery writer of the highest order. If you haven't read any Fossum I would recommend starting with The Indian Bride. The British TimesOnline named her one of the 50 greatest crime writers. If you like anything in this genre you will love this author.

I am not a regular reader of mysteries, but my wife has encouraged me to read a number of interesting writers in this genre. One of my favorites is Norwegian writer, Karin Fossum. He Who Fears the Wolf is a story with her appealing character, Chief Inspector Konrad Sejer, a quiet, thoughtful man with unusual powers of observation and a somewhat melancholy personal life that keeps him immersed in his work. The contrast with gun-waving, bellowing American detectives is notable and welcome. In this character, as in so many of Ms. Fossum's characters, there is a deep sense of humanity and decency. In Wolf, Ms. Fossum creates another wonderful character, Erkki Johrma, an insane-asylum escapee. Ms. Fossum always displays an interest in the disturbed and rejected of society, but with Errki she has worked something of a miracle. This story contains what must be one of the most memorable series of scenes in mystery books, to say nothing of literature. It involves the escape of a bank robber and a hostage, and there is a quality here that reminds me of Don Quixote - pathos, absurdity, and subtle humor combined with a very sympathetic view of the human condition. I cannot give any details without spoiling it for you. Ms. Fossum is also a poet, and her descriptive powers are considerable, but she manages her descriptive passages with quick brushstrokes. She never creates a burden for those who like mystery books to move along briskly. Some might even regard her descriptions of bloody scenes as a bit overpowering. Please don't think this is an "artsy" book despite its literary qualities, this is a genuine murder mystery, well-paced and gripping. It is a book you will not want to put down.