Don't Look Back [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

This is above all a psychological mystery, as Sejer and Skarre carefully poke and prod the small community, where everyone knows everyone else, in order to unravel the tale that led to the killing of a well-liked teenage girl. Although the townspeople have plenty of skeletons in their closets, the story never strays into cliché, as it might have under a less assured hand. Sejer is a placid and cunning detective of late middle age, living alone with his dog after being widowed (again, one senses that his personal life has been detailed in previous books). He bears a certain similarity to Det. Inspector Charlie Resnick, the protagonist of John Harvey's long-running Nottingham procedural series. Skarre works well as his younger, more informal partner, slightly treading on eggshells around his more experienced superior.

With no forensic evidence, no witnesses, and no apparent motive, there's little for them to go on. Thus, Sejer and Skarre spend the whole novel interviewing and reinterviewing everyone who knew the girl and might have seen something. As the tension builds, and various red herrings are dispensed with, Sejer grows convinced that the key to the murder lies in an abrupt change in the girl's behavior almost a year previously. This leads seamlessly to yet another layer within the story. Throughout, every character comes to life, and sometimes, the story shift to their perspective for several pages to add a richer depth to the unfolding investigation. Norway never really emerges as a distinct setting, it's a story that really could have been set in any small town in the first world, but it's an absorbing tale, which ends with a potentially unsettling coda.

PS. Danish television produced a four-hour miniseries from the book under the title "Se Deg Ikke Tilbake." With luck, it might be subtitled in English at some point...

But this scenario does not have the expected conclusion. The search party combing nearby Kollen mountain turn up the naked body of a local teenager, and Ragnhild is deposited on her doorstep by the lonely Downs-syndrome boy who had taken her to his home.

It's a small, close, valley community where everyone knows everyone else, though not as well as they think they do. The dead girl, Annie, had been bright, outgoing and well liked by everyone. Sure, she'd been subdued, even a bit withdrawn in the last few months, but her family and friends put it down to adolescence. Sejer thinks she had a secret.

As he and his assistant, young Jacob Skarre, begin to probe, they peel away layers of deception and self-deception, uncovering cracks and chasms under the tranquil surface. No surprise to Sejer, there are lots of secrets in this respectable, idyllic village, starting right in Annie's family. And there's the boyfriend - brutalized into passivity, he hardly seems her type.

Fossum is particularly adept at revealing character through details. A neighbor views Sejer's approach: "He assumed a strained expression, but then realized that this might make them suspicious; so he pulled himself together and tried a smile instead. Then he remembered that Annie was dead, and went back to the strained mask."

She steeps the story in its semi-rural, woods and mountain atmosphere, but just as telling are the characters' surroundings - a toy-strewn house or a muddy farmyard or a teenager's bedroom. Shifts in point of view heighten the psychological suspense and narrative depth. Sejer is a complex, thoughtful, empathetic character. Readers will hope to spend more time in his company.