Reviews

• Adoro i romanzi di questa scrittrice per il loro realismo e l'introspezione psicologica e sono molto affezionata al suo ispettore. Questo libro l'ho trovato specialmente bello, in un modo triste e struggente insieme.

• A word of warning. This book is the 2007 United States release of the UK released CALLING OUT FOR YOU from 2006. This version has the title THE INDIAN BRIDE and if you have already read or bought CALLING OUT FOR YOU, please AVOID this novel!!

• What is it about Scandinavian murder mystery writers? I mean, they probably get what - like ten murders a year in all of Scandinavia? Yet they keep turning out all this kick butt crime fiction - I'm talking about Arnaldur Indridason, Jo Nesbo, and now, Karin Fossum. So is it like some ancient Norse God death wish that spawns great authors of crime - an unfulfilled lust for violence in real life that gets compensated through fiction dark enough to light a Norwegian December? Anyway, enough of my rant - my first experience with Karin Fossum in "The Indian Bride" will definitely not be my last (in fact, I've already got "When the Devil Holds the Candle" teed up in the on-deck circle). Gunder Jomann, a gentle and mildly addled middle aged Norwegian farm equipment salesman, entralled with a picture of an Indian woman in a travel book, decides he will fly to India and find a wife - and thus the title. Now I'll admit that this sounds a bit more sensitive than my normal fare - a tender love story? Come on, this is hardly Charlie Huston or Dean Swierczynski or Victor Gischler or Cormack McCarthy or Joe Lansdale. But the wily Fossum is only setting us up, and true to her roots that obviously reach all the way down (well, OK "up") to Valhalla, she shows the chops to spring a brutal murder and a whiz-bang mystery on the unsuspecting reader, cleverly crafted with homespun characters and carefully drawn settings. Fossum has a keen grasp of human nature, and its all on display here - an atrocious and apparently senseless crime with just a tinge of bigotry, a small Norwegian town whose people primp and position and stake their claims on their own theories to the heinous murder, and the roles that they'll each play in its eventual unraveling - or not. Suspects come and suspects go, while the interesting Police Inspector Sejer sorts them out somewhat distractedly as he worries about his aging dog and his sometimes girlfriend. This is suspense and mystery and murder told with feeling and poignancy that - dare I say? - only a woman can master. So while Fossum and "The Indian Bride", like the talented Megan Abbott, bring with them uncommon dimensions - and we're not talking "Ya Ya Sisterhood" here by any stretch - and I found myself glued to Fossum's atmospheric prose and delicious ambiguity. Net, this is a terrific novel in a field that seems to be getting more and more crowded with excellent crime fiction - a must read and a great chance to get familiar with a writer who, while still a bit off the American beaten track today, deserves a strong US following. Well done Ms. Fossum (and to you also, Charlotte Barslund, for a translation that has to be top notch).

• Nicely done, well drawn characters. A trip through the norwegian countryside. 5th in the inspector Sejer series, but i started with this one and didn't feel lost. Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Award. The ending is open, so you may want to read the next.

• Le livre m'a ennuyé. Les descriptions sont lassantes. Je n'ai pas été convaincue par Karin Fossum dont c'était le premier livre que je lisais.

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