Woman with Birthmark: An Inspector Van Veeteren Mystery (4)

Your post: April 20, 2009 10:37 AM PDT E. Crowley says: WOMAN WITH A BIRTHMARK is the fourth of Harkan Nesser's books to be translated into English. It opens at a cemetery a few days before Christmas. A woman, the lone mourner, stands at the side of a grave as her mother is being buried. In the last days before her death, her mother had urged, "Don't cry....don't stand there bawling at my funeral....No, do something, my girl! Take action!. Do something magnificent that I can applaud up there in heaven!" (p6). Ryszard Malik has been receiving strange phone calls. Someone has been calling and playing an old song from the sixties; the caller never says a word. One night, in the middle of January, his wife returns to find his body sprawled in the entry. He had been shot four times, twice in the heart and twice below the belt. There are no clues, no supects, and no indication of a motive. Van Veeteren and his team go through the motions but there is nothing in Malik's background to suggest that someone would want him dead. It seems a clear "no solve" until another man is murdered. Rickard Maasleitner was found shot to death, two bullets in the chest and two bullets below the belt. He, too, had received phone calls in which there was played a song that he vaguely remembered from the 1960's. The story opens fully when the team discover the connection between the men and a detective's partner suggests something about the killer that Van Veeteren may well have missed. This is a tightly written story, the best, I think, of Nesser's books. Van Veeteren is more upbeat and less self-involved than he seemed to be in the previous books. It is a book that begs to be read at one go.

I've read all VanVeeteren mysteries now. The characters are very interesting...the plot is unpredictable and there is the right amount of tragedy, suspense and tongue and cheek humour. Great background of Europe (most of the 'action' takes place in Maardam, which is a fictional place in Holland). Swedish authors have a reputation for great mystery/crime writing, and Nesser verifies that point.

I had never heard of this author before ordering "Borkmans Point". Well, wow---now THIS is a superb thriller, mystery. It has a plot twist to the VERY end. Enjoy this writer. I did.

Lately, I've been on a Scandinavian mysteries book binge - Karin Fossum ["The Indian Bride", "Don't Look Back"] is my favorite author, but I've also enjoyed the works of Arnaldur Indridason ["The Draining Lake"], Henning Mankell etc. Hakan Nesser does not disappoint in his latest Insp Van Veeteren mystery, "Woman With Birthmark". The storyline itself is intriguing - a young woman is so affected by her mother's dying words that she undertakes a vendetta against those she deems wrongdoers. She undergoes a major transformation, changes her appearance, and `returns' as a sort of grim reaper, dispatching said wrongdoers with aplomb. Prior to each murder, there is a phone call, with identical music [in each case] being heard in the background. Enter Insp Van Veeteren, a veteran who has had his share of disturbing cases [the Insp Van Veeteren Series]. As the body count rises, Van Veeteren finds himself on the heels of a remarkably able and clever nemesis. The characters in this novel are well-delineated and complex, and the pacing of the plot is just right, drawing readers in and engaging our attention for the duration. Highly recommended for fans of psychological thrillers and suspense novels, and especially for those who have developed a literary taste for Scandinavian thrillers.

A mother's deathbed request. An obsessed young woman. A sudden spate of identical murders where the victims are seemingly unrelated. These ingredients are familiar to mystery fans, but Hakan Nesser finds a fascinating new way to tell the story. His melancholy Scandinavian cop, Inspector Van Veeteren ("VV" to his loyal assistants), takes on the case the way he always does, slowly and carefully. As the police begin to close in on the shadowy perpetrator, VV can't help but feel a grudging admiration for his opponent. And the killing isn't over.... This is the 4th of Nesser's award-winning series to arrive in the U.S., and it's a good one. The moody Van Veeteren and his colorful team are always entertaining, and they work well together to solve even the toughest cases. And this case, with its back-and-forth shifts between the good guys and the mysterious woman, is constantly lively. If you're a fan of police procedurals in interesting places, you'll definitely want to add Nesser to your list of "must-reads." Recommended.