When the Devil Holds the Candle (Inspector Sejer Mysteries, Book 4) ebook

by Felicity David,Karin Fossum

Felicity David Karin Fossum Mystery English

Book 4 of 11 in the Inspector Sejer Mysteries Series. Norwegian author Karin Fossum shuns convention and spins another offbeat crime novel in "When the Devil Holds the Candle", a refreshingly off-the-beaten track Scandinavian mystery that is as well written as it is quirky.

Book 4 of 11 in the Inspector Sejer Mysteries Series. Andreas Winther is an aimless eighteen-year old, a not uncommon slacker holding down a minimum wage job while flirting with the mildest fringes of crime. Irma Funder is 60ish, a mostly reclusive divorcé with a semi-estranged adult son and memories of a childhood of benign neglect.

Book 4 of 13 in Inspector Sejer Mysteries. A young mother walks her four-month old child along Oslo's beach.

She lives in a small town in southeastern Norway

She lives in a small town in southeastern Norway. Shipping: US$ . 0 Within . Destination, rates & speeds.

Inspector Konrad Sejer and his colleague Jacob Skarre see no connection between the infant's death and the . Another brilliantly observed, precisely rendered psychological mystery from the highly acclaimed Karin Fossum.

Inspector Konrad Sejer and his colleague Jacob Skarre see no connection between the infant's death and the reported disappearance of a local delinquent. And so while the confusion in the world outside mounts, the chilling, heart-stopping truth unfolds inside the old woman's home. Unflappable as ever, Sejer digs below the surface of small-town tranquillity in an effort to understand how and why violence destroys everyday lives.

Norwegian author Karen Fossum's WHEN THE DEVIL HOLDS THE CANDLE is another excellent entry into the Inspector Konrad Sejer series

Norwegian author Karen Fossum's WHEN THE DEVIL HOLDS THE CANDLE is another excellent entry into the Inspector Konrad Sejer series. I've read over half of the books in the series, and while they are very readable and offer fascinating looks into the minds of the deluded, criminal, and insane, they really don't feature the standard format of the cops looking for clues and catching the bad guys

Home Karin Fossum When the Devil Holds the Candle. Translated from the. Norwegian by Felicity David.

Home Karin Fossum When the Devil Holds the Candle. When the devil holds th. .When the Devil Holds the Candle, . Also by karin fossum.

Jacob Skarre glanced at his watch. He slipped a book out of his inside jacket pocket and read the poem on the first page.

When the devil holds. W h e n the. Devil h o L D s. The candle. Cappelens Forlag, . Jacob Skarre glanced at his watch. It's like playing Virtual Reality, he thought. Poof! – and you're in a different landscape.

2004) (The fourth book in the Inspector Sejer series) A novel by Karin . Used availability for Karin Fossum's When the Devil Holds the Candle.

2004) (The fourth book in the Inspector Sejer series) A novel by Karin Fossum. Pulling a handbag from a pushchair handle, two teenage trouble-makers, Zipp and Andreas, unwittingly commit murder when the baby inside is thrown to the ground. Unaware of what has happened, the pair move on to their next target. June 2006 : USA Hardback.

When the Devil Holds the Candle (Norwegian: Djevelen holder lyset, 1998) is a novel by Norwegian writer Karin Fossum, fourth in the Inspector Konrad Sejer series. In 2007, upon its publication in the USA, the novel won the Gumshoe Award for Best European Crime Novel. The story follows teenage friends Andreas and Zipp, the former a fun loving delinquent, while the latter a reluctant follower

When the theft of a purse from a stroller results in an infant's death, two teenagers are in trouble.

When the theft of a purse from a stroller results in an infant's death, two teenagers are in trouble. Unaware of the enormity of their crime, Zipp and Andreas are intent on committing still another. They follow an elderly woman home, and Andreas enters her house with his ever-reliable switchblade. Motionless in the dark, Zipp waits for his friend to come out. Inspector Konrad Sejer and his colleague Jacob Skarre see no connection between the infant's death and the reported disappearance of a local delinquent. And so while the confusion in the world outside mounts, the chilling, heart-stopping truth unfolds inside the old woman's home.Unflappable as ever, Sejer digs below the surface of small-town tranquillity in an effort to understand how and why violence destroys everyday lives. Another brilliantly observed, precisely rendered psychological mystery from the highly acclaimed Karin Fossum.

Bradeya

Norwegian author Karin Fossum shuns convention and spins another offbeat crime novel in "When the Devil Holds the Candle", a refreshingly off-the-beaten track Scandinavian mystery that is as well written as it is quirky.

Andreas Winther is an aimless eighteen-year old, a not uncommon slacker holding down a minimum wage job while flirting with the mildest fringes of crime. Irma Funder is 60ish, a mostly reclusive divorcé with a semi-estranged adult son and memories of a childhood of benign neglect. A young mother walks her four-month old child along Oslo's beach. Guided by Fossum's talented hand, the unlikely crossing of these dissimilar lives makes for an explosive literary feast of suspense and depravity, a novel so rich in conflicting themes, sinister undercurrent, and depth of character that it nearly bursts out of the mere 259 pages that try to confine it. This is a masterpiece of darkness, a somber and psychologically chilling tale that leaves no winners as it takes twists and turns to its unexpected and powerful conclusion.

Drawing parallels to this author's work is mostly futile. Sure, the fatalistic tone recalls Arnaldur Indridason or Jo Nesbo, but living in a cold, damp place with no sun for half of the year probably makes it hard to write like say, Carl Hiaasen. Fossum's plots are fresh and unexpected, her villains unlikely, her settings surrealistic, even haunting. Where most writers deal in blacks and whites and good vs. evil that lead to a clean finish, Karin Fossum's mastery stems from her rich ambiguity. Where most authors cast their protagonist in the central role, spinning the story around their whims and deductions and forensic brilliance, Fossum's inspector Sejer is nearly an observer, a keen but detached bystander who never seems fully engaged with the crime at hand.

So if you're looking for a different path - intelligent fiction that will prod and pester and make you want to put your life on hold until you're forced to finish, then you've got to meet Karin Fossum. But a word of warning - don't expect relief when it's finally placed on the bookshelf. Fossum's prose will continue to haunt long after you've turned the last page.

Gralsa

There are two new fronts in European mystery writing: the well-named Tartan Noire coming out of Scotland, which is represented by a whole cadre of young, new, irreverent talent; and an as-yet-named current of excellent police procedurals coming out of Scandinavia. The great Swedish writer, Henning Mankell, started the flow for me, followed by the excellent debut novel by Icelander Arnaldur Indridason entitled Jar City. Amazon.com helpfully suggested that if I like these two, I might like Karin Fossum, and, so I tried her (don't you love that helpful old Amazon?). As with Mankell, it took me a book or two to get into the rhythm, but I think Fossum's third book, When the Devil Holds the Candle, is superb. It was the winner of the Gumshoe Award for Best European Mystery in 2007.

This is a fresh approach to police procedurals where we actually know the facts of the crimes quite early in the book. The journey we take is in discovering the twists of history and fate that put the main characters into a collision course with each other. It is also an incisive commentary on the narrow boundaries between idle youth/criminal behavior, and isolation/insanity. Irma is a strange and solitary older lady like anyone we might see and ignore on our city streets. She is beneath notice. But she harbors powerful and disturbing insights. Andreas and Zipp are, respectively, formless and gormless youth, but they are capable of far-reaching damage due to their short-focus selfishness. These three end up in a desperate synergy that moves like a runaway train and takes strangers, friends, family, and the police along with them. And Fossum continues to develop Inspector Sejer and his colleagues and family in ways that benefit the story without competing with the action. I look forward to the next installment.

P.S. Notice should be given to the excellent work of the translator, Felicity David.

Chi

An extremely good-looking, self-possessed eighteen-year-old boy is missing. His mother reports it, sick with worry. Andreas has a steady job and regular habits. He hangs around a lot with his best friend Zipp, and maybe he sometimes does "those things that all boys do," but he's never been in trouble.

Meanwhile the reader knows just where Andreas is, because his captor is telling us all about it, alternately with the narration of the police investigation. It's not the mystery that keeps us reading, but the anguish and perplexity of all the players.

If you've ever wondered why so many young men drink too much and do stupid, violent, irresponsible things, you'll find this book an interesting window into that scary universe of out-of-control teenage males. For Andreas and his friend Zipp, an unplanned evening of purse snatching leads to horrific consequences.

The book has a few too many coincidences for my taste. Cops, crazies and criminals all seem to know each other or happen upon each other by accident. Can Oslo be this small? But there's a momentum to the storytelling that kept me hooked anyway.

IInspector Sejer seems to be a man of steel with emotions kept strictly in check. His gray eyes like lead crystal make the guilty sweat. But self-disciplined as he is, Sejer has his struggles: from dealing with his mother's death to coping with his rather hedonistic girlfriend.

So far my favorite Fossum novel is The Indian Bride, but I did like this book, and I'll no doubt be reading more by Norway's "Queen of Crime."