The G File. Hakan Nesser (Writer) Laurie Thompson (Translation) Pan Books (2003)

A woman is found dead in an empty swimming pool, there is nothing to suggest foul play and nothing to suggest an accident either. There is just a body and a location. The complicating factor is the woman's husband, Jaan G. Hennan, a man Chief Inspector Van Veeteren has an unhappy previous knowledge of. An investigation fails to advance beyond the bare facts of the case. Fifteen years later  private investigator, who had been involved in the initial case, is reported missing by his daughter. Evidence suggests that he has solved the problem of of how G murdered his wife, and Van Veeteren emerges again from retirement to assist with the investigation into the disappearance. The story is moves through the two investigations as the first one haunts the second,the reveals are cunningly staged and the plot unfolds quietly right up to the entirely satisfying conclusion.
This book is much more about the cast than the mystery, although the mystery is a brilliantly designed one, action is never to the foreground. The cast are all given a lot of time to think, act and reflect on the investigations they are involved in as well as their lives. This gives the story an expansive and unhurried feel that allows the simple plot to naturally draw in the cast and never feel to frail.
The structure of the book is smart, each section is relatively self contained, they are centered on episodes fifteen years apart but the same cast grapple with a murder in each case and the ghost of the first investigation hangs heavily over the second. Hakan Nesser neatly deals with the weight of unfinished business and the effects of multiple pieces of unfinished business between Van Veeteren and Jan G Hennan complicates matters.
Van Veeteren is a great character, cranky and determined, he is both inside and outside of the investigation, an ambiguous situation that reflects the route of the investigation. There may have been a crime or not, the investigation may be chasing something  or it may be just trying to recover from past failures, when the situation is neatly and nastily resolved Van Veeteren is at the centre of the events. What Hakan Nesser does really well is to show how the rest of the cast are never that far behind Van Veeteren, they are getting to the same place just a little more slowly and the sense that the book is never a one man show. The extensive supporting cast are capable, competent and very engaging. The conversational style of writing that Hakan Nesser uses allows for the cast to sprawl across the investigation and include their wider lives without feeling that the book had lost a focus.
The translation by Laurie Thompson is transparent, this is very clearly a Swedish story, the use of Swedish terms is beautifully judged to support the Swedish nature of the story without ever locking out the reader. Thoughtful, deeply engaging crime fiction at its peak, a pleasure.

The Unlucky Lottery. Hakan Nesser (Writer), Laurie Thompson (Translator), Mantle (2011)

A slowly unfurling crime story that quietly builds up to a very satisfactory and biting conclusion. Four elderly men win some money on a lottery in Sweden. That night one of them is savagely murdered in his bed and another disappears and Detective Inspector Munster is assigned the case. It proves to be very difficult to find out anything beyond the fact of the murder, there is no real threads to grasp and pull in the case. When a neighbor of the murdered man disappears and a most unexpected person confesses to the murder it appears to have been solved. Inspector Munster is not convinced and continues to try to understand what really happened. The story has a slow steady pace, the reveals are cunningly set up and the very nasty secret at the heart of the mystery is carefully unwrapped.
The strengths of this book are in the cast rather than the plot which is a bit too slight to take the extended weight of the story. A great deal of time is spent on the investigation slowly grinding to nowhere and the trial of the person who confesses to the murder. While it is time well spent, the cast are very engaging, it does submerge the other aspect of the story. When the details do start to emerge there is a superbly structured third act which showcases Hakan Nesser's wonderful talent for crime fiction. The balance of the story has been lost by then however and the impact has been diminished.
The cast have to carry the story on their own merits as people a reader would be happy to spend time with and happily they are. Inspector Munster is feeling the weight of the job and wondering if his marriage is loosing something. He is not a genre staple of a unhappily married policeman, more wedded to the job than to a wife, rather he is a man who has been worn a little by the concentration of malice his job exposes him to. He retains a fundamental desire to understand that drives him to pursue the case beyond what would appear to be a satisfactory resolution. His fellow officers share the same basic competence and commitment to doing the job properly. They respond to the pressures of the case in very distinctive and individual way and the space they are given is well used.
The real weakness of the book is the villain, they do not get enough time to really create the context for the action. This absence reduces the impact of the plot, the critical reveal is superbly done and the devastating logic of the results is all to credible. There is a hole at the center however that is not filled, a tie that bound all involved with such force that its breaking created a wave of violent, fatal action. We see the aftermath, it would have been good to have seen the dangerous calm in more detail too. Enjoyable but not gripping.

The Inspector and Silence. Hakan Nesser (Writer), Laurie Thompson (Translation) Pan Books (1997)

A slow building crime story that quietly and forcefully builds to a strong and bitter conclusion. A young girl is reported missing from a Christian group in rural Sweden, the local Acting Chief of Police calls on Chief Inspector Van Veeteren for help. The Christian group, decline to co-operate with the investigation and there is an open question about the truth of the disappearance in the first place. When the body of a young girl, raped and murdered is discovered, the investigation gains a clear point of focus. The members of the sect, both adult and the young girls cling to silence and Inspector Van Veeteren has to try and understand what he is not being told. The investigation is seriously hampered by a lack of direct evidence and the unwillingness of the group members to co-operate. The case breaks in an unexpected fashion and finally comes to a grim and satisfying conclusion.
This is a very deliberately paced book, the investigation is a study in frustration as the team try to discover something new from scant evidence and uncooperative witnesses. The tensions of the investigation are very well drawn, as the ever present threat of another murdered child is faced with each passing hour. Running along side this are Inspector Van Veeteren's on thoughts about retiring from police work. One of the pleasures of the book is the way that Hakan Neser has avoided the cliche of a policeman afraid to retire as they have no life outside of police work. Van Veeteren is thinking about leaving without agony or severe loss, it is a matter more of having  run the course. It is a natural and difficult process and it is presented in a natural way, it overlaps with the investigation as a child murder is hard to bear.
The rest of the cast are drawn with a wry sympathy that is greatly appealing, everyone is handling a life as well as an investigation and trying to make it all work. The Acting Chief of Police Merwin Kluuge, expectant father and feeling horribly out of his depth with the investigation finds that he has to cope and manage in circumstances he could not have imagined. The way he responds and develops is very nicely written, the character is given the room to grow and develop.
There is a strong editorial voice in the story which adds to the pleasure, the cast are framed a bit by the comments, it does not intrude or act to try and force the reader to respond in a particular way. It is more of an aside that strikes off the situation. The pace of the story does not change when the final deductions are made and the murderer comes directly into the story, it is still a slow pace, the deliberate pacing makes the situation ever more horrible. The murderer is presented with care and restraint, the appalling actions that have been committed and may be committed are left to be realised by the reader and this adds to the force of the situation. This is a great crime drama that never forgets the victims are not just the dead.

Woman With Birthmark. Hakan Nesser. Laurie Thompson (Translation) Pan Books (2010)

Vivid and compelling crime story that has smart structure,superb cast and powerful emotional undertow. A man is shot and investigation reveals that he had received odd phone calls prior to his murder, when a second man is murdered in the same way and having received similar calls the police struggle to find the connection and the killer. As the police investigation proceeds two other men realise the the cause of the deaths and the fact that they too are in danger, unwilling to involve the police they plan their defences. The reveals are superbly staged, the various strands of the story are brilliantly drawn together to a bitter and satisfying conclusion.
The most striking aspect to the story is the way Hakan Nesser solves the story problems in deeply satisfying and unpredictable ways.Two of the cast know they are being hunted and they know why, this does not release the tension as surprise murder becomes a deadly battle of will and wits. The police investigation is thoughtful and competent, it drives the story as a nearly random factor in the deadly duel between the hunter and the hunted.
The cast are vivid and sparkle with life, all of them are given the space to emerge as fully fledged characters, the reader becomes involved with them all. Inspector Van Veeteren has a cranky forcefulness that is entirely engaging, the woman who finally finds a life purpose in revenge is brilliant, believable and finally, truthfully unheroic. The men she hunts are discovering that actions can have consequences very much after all thought of them had gone, they struggle to understand just how utterly their lives have been torn asunder. A must read.

The Mind's eye. Hakan Nesser. Laurie Thompson (Translator). Pan Books (2009)

A hugely enjoyable and mordantly funny crime story. Janek Mitter awakes from a drunken sleep and finds his wife murdered. He has no memory of the night and no idea what happened to his wife. He is sent to an asylum for assessment and a fragment of memory returns. He is murdered in his cell. Detective Chief Inspector Van Veeteren investigates the two murders, sure that the key lies in the past of the murdered woman. The investigation uncoils at a steady pace, the plot threads are cleverly played out, the reveals very well staged and the conclusion equally sad and satisfactory.
DCI Van Veeteren is a superbly cranky and compelling character. He is a competent and professional policeman who is deeply committed to his work. He has a natural depth of perception allied to considerable experience that makes him impatient with his colleagues and frequently with himself. The rest of the cast are well developed, Van Veeteren does not dominate the book. The rest of the police are allowed to be competent and effective, they are critical to the investigation. Janek Mitter is a very engaging character, he is given a complicated and credible response to his situation and a sharp and resilient approach to dealing with it. His trial is very cleverly constructed and brilliantly written set piece. The least developed character is the killer, trapped by past events and compulsions, there is little scope for development.
Hakan Nesser has written the book with a sardonic tone that is a pleasure to read. The action is framed with snarky editorial comments that do not either overwhelm the action nor throw the reader out of the story. They are a flavoursome addition to the story, they add strongly to the telling. Superb.

Borkmann's Point. Hakan Nesser. Macmillan (2006)

A very enjoyable and leisurely crime story. Two people are murdered in the same fashion, most likely by the same person, there is no discernible link between the two victims. Chief Inspector Van Veeteren, on holiday nearby is sent to the small town to assist with the investigation. The local Chief of Police is happy to have the Van Veeteren join the investigation, he is due to retire and would like to have the case closed before he does. A third murder takes place, again apparently the same murder and no clear link to the other victims. The story swirls around quietly as the investigation tries to gain some focus on the crimes, the reveals are nicely done and paced, the finale is thoughtful and satisfying.

The title refers to an investigative theory propounded by an old policeman, that at a certain point in an investigation everything required to solve the cases is already known, a good investigator recognises this and uses good thinking to resolve the case. The story allows the information to accumulate carefully and nicely describes the struggle of the very well realised cast to make sense of what they are seeing.

The plot is well structured, the real pleasure of the book is the cast. They are are well rounded and come to life with armed with a pessimistic professionalism that is not cynical or bitter. This gives the book a low key tone which makes it very easy to read and allows the emotional context for the events to arise naturally and frames the conclusion to excellent effect. A very enjoyable read.

The Return. Hakan Nesser. Pan Books. (2008)

An enjoyable, low key murder mystery with an enjoyably cranky lead investigator. A torso is found in a forest, it had been there for some months. It is finally identified as the body of a man who had served two separate prison terms for two murders, he appears to have been murdered himself the day of his release from prison on parole. The question of how those murders relate to his death are nicely opened up and as the questions regarding his guilt mount the stakes rise as the implications of his innocence start to become apparent. The plot is unravelled at a steady pace, the reveals are staged with skill and the investigation has depth and detail to it. The conclusion is fitting and harsh.

The cast are the real attraction in this book, the mystery is well structured, the investigative team, with the heroically cranky Chief Inspector Van Veeteren are a substantial pleasure. The book has an unhurried pace, the cast are given time to emerge as individuals and to establish a claim on the reader. The reasons why Leopold Verhaven was found guilty both times, why he had to be found guilty are carefully explored as is the impact of his guilt on the little village where he lived. By adding this wider context to the mix Hakan Nesser adds colour and texture to the story that are very important. This is a very skillfully written, thoughtful story.