NOTE: This review
contains a discussion of the novel's ending which contains SPOILERS.
It will be signaled in the text, but BE WARNED.
For nine tenths of
the way, this Inspector Sejer novel is a slow-burning procedural with
the haunting psychological dread of a horror novel. Tommy, a 16 month
old boy, drowns in a pond at the bottom of his garden. The young
parents are distraught, in diametrically opposite ways, but Sejer
senses something off-kilter in the mother's tearful responses. Slowly
and deliberately, Fossum takes you through his investigation, but
also through the strains on the marriage between the emotive Carmen,
who wants to move on, and the shy, quiet Nicolai, who is mourning the
loss of his son. Most importantly, she lets Carmen reveal herself to
you, so that as Sejer continues his investigation you are, as much as
he is, trying to decide what really happened.
It's a tightly
measured piece of writing, dropping hints, then leading you away from
them, and the whole process drags on while Sejer has his own health
worries and the marriage
of the two young
parents slowly dissolves. And then, when it looks like all be will
settled, there is a twist, and that twist seems to me to be so
contrary as to what has come before to
be deeply
dissatisfying. It is set-up carefully, in retrospect, and if you buy
that then you will appreciate its irony, but basically I find it very
hard to buy, for reasons I will explain now.
SPOILER ALERT:
These reasons constitute a complete SPOILER so if you would prefer to
judge the novel for yourself stop reading now and come back to it
when you've finished and see if you agree.
I
have three problems with the denouement of the novel. First, Carmen's
father gives her a diary to help her deal with her 'grief'. Fossum
uses the diary brilliantly, because through its entries we get a good
idea of the very narrow, self-centered world-view Carmen possesses,
and her ability to construct her reality along those lines. But for
that very reason, I found it unlikely in the extreme that she would
actually pen a 'confession' to her diary, regardless of how she
justifies her deed after the fact.
Second,
even if you accept that Carmen was likely to make such an entry in
her diary, it seems to me completely impossible she would misplace
the diary, and let it be taken to the
bonfire pile. Fossum has set it up so that we can assume Carmen's
new partner, Anders, has found the diary and is throwing it out with
other old papers...but that would mean he went through the living
room desk, and most likely found the diary, and most likely would
know it for what it was. So would he read it? It's possible, as you
can interpret the scene as Fossum wrote it as implying Anders is a
little uneasy and wants to get rid of the evidence, which means he
also accepts Carmen's actions. Or else he's just got an overdose of
Nordic OCD. I look to the former interpretation, since he'd be
unlikely to throw away a newish diary as being rubbish, but would he
be likely to cover up for Carmen?
Third,
even if you assume that he would, or that it's all an accident, the
final coincidence of Sejer's dog Frank pulling that diary off the
bonfire pile and bringing it to Sejer is just too neat for me. Fossum
has set it up, with Frank bringing back trophies, and she leaves it
nicely, with the reader filling in the future, but it's all too pat,
and as I said, for me it just doesn't work.
The Drowned Boy
by Karin Fossum
Harvill Secker
£12.99 ISBN 9781846558542
NOTE: This review
will also appear at Crime Time (www.crimetime.co.uk)
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