N is for Håkan Nesser

Mind’s Eye by Håkan Nesser is my submission for the Crime Fiction Alphabet at Mysteries in Paradise this week.

From my copy of the book:

Håkan Nesser was born in 1950 in Sweden. In 1993 he was awarded the Swedish Crime Writers’ Academy Prize for new authors for his novel Mind’s Eye, and is the only author to have won the Academy’s best novel award three times: in 1994 for Borkmann’s Point; in 1996 for Woman with Birthmark; and in 2007 for A Rather Different Story. In 1999 he was awarded the Scandinavian Crime Society’s Glass Key Award for the best crime novel of the year for Carambole. His novels have been published to wide acclaim in nearly thirty countries.

At the beginning of Mind's Eye, a man wakes up with an excruciatingly painful hangover, not sure even who he is. He discovers the dead body of his wife in their bathtub and remembers who he is. He calls the police.

This is definitely not your standard mystery story. From almost the beginning of the book, a suspect is apprehended for a murder, is charged, and very quickly the story moves to the trial of the defendant for murder. There is no real proof that this man is the murderer, yet there seems to be no other answer.

The detective is Inspector Van Veeteren. He is very talented at his job and he knows it. This keeps him motivated to stay with the job even when he is not enjoying it. I don't know if I would call Van Veeteren likeable, but he is human and very interesting.

Quotes from the chapter where we meet the inspector:

Detective Chief Inspector Van Veeteren did not have a cold.

On the other hand, he did have a tendency to be depressed when the weather was poor, and as it had now been raining more or less nonstop for ten days, melancholy had made the most of the opportunity to sink deep roots into his mind.

And...

Why be a depressed master gardener or bus driver when you can be a depressed detective chief inspector...

The book is divided into three parts. Each part kept me interested. The first part focussed more on the people involved. The second and third parts moved on to more intense stages of the investigation. The story was compelling.  I read the first part the first night, the rest the next evening, rather than splitting the book up in many sessions as I usually do.

In summary, I liked this book very much and I am eager to continue the series. I found the characters to be interesting and believable. It was more of a psychological  study than a fairly-clued mystery. There were hints but no real clues to the solution, which is fine with me as long as the author keeps me entertained.

I prefer to go into a book knowing as little as possible about the story and I was glad I did not read any of the summary on the back cover of the book, because it tells way more than I want to know. But that is just me. Some of the reviews and posts listed below go into more detail of the story, if you are looking for more.

At Ms. Wordopolis Reads

At Reactions to Reading

In the Spotlight by Confessions of a Mystery Novelist...

Karen Meek's review at Eurocrime

Please visit the post at Mysteries in Paradise to check out other entries for the letter N.

This is the third translated book I have read this year and will count for the Books in Translation Reading Challenge.