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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
Jul 2005, 288 pages
Paperback:
Jul 2006, 312 pages
Book Reviewed by:
BookBrowse Review Team
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Fossum's protagonist,
Sejer, is a complex, lonely widower, still
grieving over the loss of his wife
(resembling, in some ways, Colin Dexter's
Inspector Morse, or P.D. James's Adam
Dalgleish). In this, the second book, we
learn a little bit more about him as we watch
him slowly and shyly reach out to a
potential new love (in the few slow moments when he's not racing to solve the crime and prevent further bloodshed) and we know that it will not be plain sailing for him in either his personal or public life.
Fossum leverages her series above the pack
of conventional police procedurals by,
firstly, taking us deep into the minds of
her troubled characters, and secondly, by
causing us to ask ourselves difficult
questions - such as how society as a whole views those
who don't fit the norm - without feeling the
need to provide us with answers, easy or
otherwise. Strongly recommended to all who
like their police procedurals on the
cerebral side.
This review was originally published in The BookBrowse Review in September 2005, and has been updated for the
August 2006 edition.
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