Product Description

A boy arrives - breathless and aghast - at his police station, to report the discovery of a horribly maimed body outside an isolated house in the woods. Yet there was another person in the woods that day - standing nearby, hidden within the trees, was the mysterious figure of the local misfit, Errki. The next morning a bank in the nearby town is robbed at gunpoint. The gunman takes a hostage and flees. As his plans begin to come apart he, unlike his passive hostage, rapidly loses control. Meanwhile the search for the killer has developed into a manhunt - everyone is looking for the enigmatic Errki.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23629 in Books
• Published on: 2004-07-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

From the Publisher
'As yet, the crime novels of Karin Fossum are something of a well-kept secret, known to a growing band of aficionados but not to the larger crime readership. In fact, Fossum's highly atmospheric and involving books are among the best being produced in the genre today. Don't Look Back was a psychological thriller that was both economical and forceful, and He Who fears the Wolf is an even more persuasive piece of writing. Like the best of Ruth Rendell, this is a dark and unsettling novel...' Barry Forshaw, Crime Time

About the Author
Karin Fossum made her literary d-but in Norway with a collection of poetry in 1974. She has since published another volume of poetry, two collections of short stories and one non-crime novel. Her crime novels featuring Inspector Konrad Sejer are published in sixteen languages.

Customer Reviews

He Who Fears the Wolf, Karin Fossum
Fossum comes from an impressive backlist of Scandinavian writers, all of whom have won the Glass Key Award for Best Scandinavian crime novel. She's in the company of Peter Hoeg, Henning Mankell and Arnaldur Indridason, to give you just three. If you were asked to name any one place in the world that's, crime-fiction wise, in the ascendant, Scandinavia would, without a doubt, qualify.

He Who Fears the Wolf is the second novel in translation; I've no idea where in the series it comes, as so little information about that has filtered into English. One suspects it might not matter - both books I've so far read have been complete within themselves. Possibly, we are missing development of Inspector Konrad Sejer, but I'm not sure that matters: he's pretty much an archetype, which could be considered either a good thing or a bad. On the one hand, we've met his like before (there are definite touches of Rendell's Wexford about him, as well as P.D. James's Dalgleish, and other of the more genteel elder detectives) and so know pretty much what we're in for, but, on the other hand, we've met his like before, and so he's nothing hugely original. That doesn't really matter, though - after all, we've met the likes of Rebus and Bosch many times before as well, and yet all-too-willingly lap up more. What matters is how he's put in the story, and the story itself.

One morning, an old woman is murdered outside her cottage in the woods. A young boy finds her, and rushes to the police station, where he also reports seeing the neighbourhood loon lurking around among the trees. That same morning, a young man robs a bank. Panicked when escaping, he snatches a hostage, who so happens to have just escaped from a mental institution.

Somewhat implausible, possibly, but the way Fossum handles it, and the way the one investigation begins to pale when faced with the great urgency of the other, is very well done indeed. Too, Fossum shows a marked ability at getting beneath the skin of her characters, the result being that each scenario is charged with the bizarre psychology of the pivotal characters. This ability for psychological insight is another factor which gives these books hints of Ruth Rendell. As gentle elders, Sejer and Wexford share a lot, and fans of Rendell's series will without question find a lot to admire here.

Fossum's writing has a soft clarity to it, and occasional streaks of poetry. I've seen these books criticised for being too pedestrian as mysteries, but I really can't see it. True, despite it's psychological depth and surprising turns, the tone's as soft and gentle as cotton, which is why it's so powerful. Because occasional peaks of brutality lance out of it, as sharp a contrast as blood on fresh snow. Horrifying touches crash out of the blue and drop your jaw (for those in the know: consider the story of Errki's mother). The overall effect is of not only a sucessful (and atmospheric, may I add!) crime novel, but a great thriller as well. Karin Fossum is another import from Europe that I've been all too happy to add to my "must read" pile.

"All the interesting people in the world are losers."
JFrom the dramatic opening paragraphs, in which a person believes that his face is sliding off and his insides are falling out, Fossum captures the bizarre inner worlds of several characters barely holding onto their sanity. Errki Johrma, a 24-year-old who has been committed to a residential lockup for the disturbed, escapes the residence in rural Norway and seeks solitude in the woods. There he sees an elderly woman, Halldis Horn, working outside her cabin.

Suddenly the point of view shifts, and a 12-year-old boy, Kannick Snellingen, runs into the police station saying that Halldis is dead, with a hoe embedded in her face, and that he has seen Errki lurking nearby. Kannick, like Errki, is also disturbed, living in a home for children with behavioral problems. A sudden shift to the next morning, and Detective Inspector Konrad Sejer, after noting a strange person entering the bank, soon hears a gunshot and learns that it has been robbed and a hostage taken--Errki.

The intersecting worlds of Errki, the robber (known as Morgan), Kannick Snellingen, and Inspector Sejer and his assistant, Jacob Scarre, create a fascinating series of psychological portraits and interactions. Morgan and Errki, hiding out together in an abandoned cabin, try to avoid the police and stay alive, remaining wary of each other but starting to communicate about the voices Errki hears from The Coat and a spirit named Nestor. Kannick, who wants to become a national archery champ, wallows in the attention he gets from his peers at the home, describing the gory condition of Halldis's body in exchange for candy. At the same time, Sejer, a widower for eleven years, confers with Errki's psychiatrist in order to understand Errki more fully, and finds himself powerfully drawn to her as he tries to solve Halldis's murder and the robbery of the bank by apprehending Errki and Morgan.

Developing the story in clean, straightforward prose, Fossum reveals the disturbing thoughts of Errki, Morgan, and Kannick, along with their traumatic backgrounds, stories which need no additional melodrama. As the reader comes to know the characters and feel empathy for them, she creates fine dramatic tension and a suspense-filled story in which nothing is as it appears to be. Occasionally, the ironies are leavened with dark humor. A climactic meeting involving all the major characters leads to a full resolution and, ultimately, a greater understanding of the characters' interior worlds. Fascinating, well-drawn, and concise, this novel, the second in the Inspector Sejer series, is a psychological mystery of the first order, filled with intriguing characters and unusual plot twists. Mary Whipple

Deep in the middle of the dark, dark woods...
...there lived a buxom woman in her third bloom of life.

Halldis Horn (for that was her name) was an independent woman, who lived alone after the death of her husband, quietly tending her garden and keeping to herself.

Now in these woods also lurked Errki Johrma, a schizophrenic with a murderous reputation, who had recently liberated himself from the nearby mental institution, and Kannick Snellingen, a 12 year old reform school resident, with a free pass to the woods, and a passion for a bow and arrow.

One day, Kannick comes across the particularly gruesome body of poor Halldis Horn, and when he spies Errki lurking nearby, he runs as fast as his fat legs will carry him to the nearest police station.

As fate would have it, there is a robbery at the town bank, and the unsuspecting robber, Morten Garpe (a.k.a. Morgan) takes Errki hostage, and whisks him away in a little white car, and into the deep dark woods.

Chief Inspector Konrad Sejer is investigating both crimes, and while he lays the groundwork, a psychological battle of minds is taking place in a little cabin in the woods between the befuddled bandit and his disturbed hostage. When Kannick unwittingly finds himself as the third guest in the cabin, the three come to uneasy understanding before the day’s events catch up with them.

A tightly wound and enthralling tale, with fascinating characters and traces of humor.

Amanda Richards