Jon, Reilly and Axel had been friends for the best part of a couple of decades. Axel was the dominant one of the trio and Reilly was easily led. Jon - well Jon was vulnerable. Something had happened to them all at the end of the previous year and Jon had recently been in a mental hospital, but now, at the beginning of autumn, Axel and Reilly were taking him for a weekend at Dead Water Lake.
| Bad Intentions by Karin Fossum | |
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| Category: Crime | |
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Reviewer: Sue Magee
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| Summary: A psychological thriller rather than a police procudural - and a short but very intense read. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 192 | Date: July 2011 |
| Publisher: Vintage | |
| ISBN: 978-0099535843 | |
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The three young men went out in a boat and Jon went over the side. Neither Axel nor Reilly made any attempt to help him and they didn't report his disappearnace until the following moring - and even then they said that he'd gone for a walk in the forest and had not returned.
If you're expecting a police procedural then this book might disappoint. Inspector Sejer and Jakob Skarre are there - and Sejer has a new dog - but their presence is almost incidental. It's almost as though Fossum needed a couple of policemen for the story and these two were available. They were convenient policemen to use in what is really a psychological thriller rather than a 'whodunnit'.
It's a short book but by no means an easy read. As usual Fossum gets right to the heart of her story in language so spare as to be just the right side of brutal. There isn't a wasted word in the book. I didn't find it a relaxing read but it was impossible not to continue particularly when the body of a teenage boy floated to the surface of another lake. You're pretty certain which way the story is going right the way through: it's not a book of clever tricks or unexpected twists - just a carefully crafted thriller.
I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.
If this book appeals then you might like to try any of Fossum's other books. For equally dark Scandinavian crime Henning Mankell will not disappoint.
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