First Line: It was the summer Evy Carlén got very sick, realized she didn't have long to live, and confided in me that she knew what had happened to Sven Jörgensson and his son, Vidar, up in Tiarp.
February 1986. Halland police officer Sven Jörgensson is frustrated with the lack of support his murder investigation is getting, but there's a reason for it. Jörgensson's murder occurred on the same night as the assassination of Sweden's prime minister, and there's no way the focus is going to be anywhere else but Stockholm. But Jörgensson could care less. He can't concentrate on anything else but "his murder". The phone call he'd received telling him of the attack also told him it was going to happen again. To make matters worse, he hadn't reached the woman in time, arriving as she was taking her last breaths.
Two more murders occur, and the police officer's obsession grows. Sven remains haunted by the murders he cannot solve, and he eventually retires from the police force, passing his obsession on to his son, Vidar, who joined law enforcement to be closer to his father.
But Vidar can't solve the murders either and he, too, retires. Decades pass, and it's not until a novelist returns home to Halland to lick his wounds from a failed marriage and a floundering career that the murders come under the spotlight once more. Working with Vidar, the novelist begins to unravel the many strands of the investigation in order to finally unmask a killer.
~
When Stieg Larsson's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was released, Scandinavian mysteries were "flavor of the month" for a while but their popularity finally waned. After reading Christoffer Carlsson's Blaze Me a Sun, I think a renaissance may be in order.
Although readers do learn what's going on from the novelist as he becomes fixated on the unsolved mysteries, they also see how Sven Jörgensson and his son Vidar become obsessed with finding the killer over a period of decades. As residents and witnesses are spoken to once again, Sven is seen to ignore his own health in favor of finding a killer. It is incomprehensible to him how something like this could happen in this quiet part of Sweden. His son Vidar finds himself examining his own father with the eyes of an inquisitor. Why was Sven charged with manslaughter by negligence? Did Sven actually know the identity of the killer? And while I was trying to unravel this mystery along with Sven, Vidar, and the writer, I was also learning a few things about Sweden as well, which is always the mark of a good book.
In Carlsson's Blaze Me a Sun, he says, "Everything could be uncovered. Everything could be brought to light. As long as you were stubborn enough and didn't give up." These three men are more than stubborn enough, and they do uncover everything... but are they correctly interpreting everything as they bring the facts to light? Can obsession warp a person's judgment? Carlsson not only knows how to write a compelling mystery, but he can also give readers plenty of food for thought. I'll be looking for more of his books.
Blaze Me a Sun by Christoffer Carlsson
Translated from the Swedish by Rachel Willson-Broyles
ISBN: 9780593449356
Hogarth © 2023
Hardcover, 448 pages
Thriller, Standalone
Rating: A-
Source: Purchased from The Poisoned Pen.
Oh, I have neglected Nordic noir. I mist remedy that,
ReplyDeleteLike any subgenre that's the victim of a craze, ScandiNoir's quality started to suffer. It was time for it to start picking up again.
DeleteThis sounds very well done, Cathy. It sounds atmospheric, and it sounds like it raises some really interesting questions, too, especially the ones about obsession. 'Food for thought,' definitely!
ReplyDeleteYes, indeed.
DeletePicked Up Blaze Me a Sun yesterday at the library. Glad you enjoyed it. Looking forward to reading it.
ReplyDeleteI hope you like it, too, Lynn.
DeleteThat first line has me wanting to read more! And what an intriguing premise. Sounds like a good one!
ReplyDeleteIt is.
DeleteIt was all things Scandanavian for a while in thrillers/mysteries. I'm glad this is another good one. I do like reading them. :D
ReplyDeleteSo do I, even if they all seem to have a sort of GPS tendency (giving us a blow-by-blow account of the exact route taken from place to place).
Delete