The Inspector and Silence

Starred review from April 4, 2011
Nesser's fine fourth Insp. Van Veeteren mystery (after 2009's Woman with a Birthmark) finds the crime-weary detective teetering on the brink of retirement while sweltering through a brutal case of rape and murder at a camp run by a religious group, the Pure Life (aka the "sex sect"), for adolescent girls. Van Veeteren immediately suspects the sinister cult leader, Oscar Yellinek, of killing first one, then another of his eerily silent charges, but he himself faces the real mystery of this disturbing parable of good and evil: how long will Van Veeteren, "spoiled over the years" by human inhumanity, be able to stand the desperately delicate balance of his chosen work, where he must constantly enter the malicious "heart of darkness"? As Van Veeteren slowly reconstructs these crimes, he also wrestles with the dilemma central to Nesser's police procedurals: the necessity of protecting evildoers until justice can be done.

May 15, 2011

Inspector Van Veeteren probes a religious camp after a series of anonymous calls reports a missing girl.

At the Pure Life Camp in the wilderness at Waldingham, a camper sneaks out of her cabin in the middle of the night, then realizes she's being followed. A short time later, laid-back local police chief Kluuge receives a series of whispered calls about a girl missing from the camp. Meanwhile, in the city of Maardam, a sweltering summer is, depending on whom you ask, either raising or lowering the crime rate. Veteran Inspector Van Veeteren, who's closing in on 60, is again contemplating retirement and a less stressful life. So getting sent to Pure Life seems like an ironic bit of karma. He finds Kluuge an amiable shirker, and the neighbors of the camp hard to communicate with. Van Veeteren checks in regularly with the squad room guys, who have everything under control in other cases. But the creepy leader of the camp proves to be a challenge. Slick, smug and shrewd, Oscar Yellinek parries all of Ven Veeteren's probing questions about the camp, which caters exclusively to teenage girls. Employees and campers alike deny that a girl is missing, but Van Veeteren smells a lie and a cult when Yellinek is evasive regarding sexual activity at the camp. The discovery of a dead girl changes everything.

Van Veeteren's fifth case to be translated into English (Woman with Birthmark, 2009, etc.) builds slowly, the grim haunting plot perfectly suited to the methodical, stoic hero.

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March 15, 2011

A woman's anonymous phone calls about a missing, possibly murdered girl cause a young acting police chief, on the advice of his vacationing boss, to reach out to Inspector Van Veeteren (Borkmann's Point; Mind's Eye) for assistance. The calls prove deadly accurate, as police find the raped and strangled bodies of first one and then another young girl from a religious sect's summer camp. But authorities are frustrated by the lack of information from sect leader Oscar Yellinek, who shortly disappears; his three women assistants; and the girls themselves, who are trained not to be forthcoming to those from the Other World. As expected, Van Veeteren eventually puts the pieces together yet rues his failure to identify the killer earlier. VERDICT The intuitive, introspective Van Veeteren has contemplated retirement more then once before, but the evil behind these murders may prove to be his final straw. This is stylish, atmospheric crime fiction with a strong moral core from an award-winning author; essential for readers of the genre.--Michele Leber, Arlington, VA

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2011
Belligerent, enigmatic, brilliant, dictatorial Chief Inspector Van Veeteren is contemplating retirement from the Stockholm police. When an interim village police chief calls requesting assistance, VV decides this case, in a beautiful village at midsummer, is the perfect candidate for his swan song. Soon after he arrives, the body of a young woman is found. She was spending the summer at a camp called The Pure Life, the residence of a secretive fundamentalist sect. When the police team arrives to investigate, the charismatic cult leader has disappeared, and none of the residents will talk. A baffling case is made even more difficult when it becomes clear that the girls body was moved after death. Nesser is a master of both plot and character. Van Veeterens curmudgeonly demeanor and finely honed intelligence will remind readers of both Maigret and Karin Fossums Inspector Sejer. A taut and compelling mystery in a consistently outstanding series. Make sure Nesser doesnt get lost amid all the other outstanding Scandinavian crime writers whose works are now available in the U.S.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)