Book Review: Bad Intentions by Karin Fossum

Title: Bad Intentions
Author: Karin Fossum
ISBN: 978-0-547-48334-4
Pages: 213
Rating: 7/10

Summary: A young man named Jon who is recovering from a mental breakdown drowns in a lake in Norway while on a weekend trip with two friends. At first it seems to be a suicide, but Inspector Konrad Sejer has his doubts. When another young man's body is found and Sejer discovers a connection between the two, Sejer and his partner, Detective Jacob Skarre, must determine how involved Jon's friends were in both deaths.

Review: I discovered Karin Fossum in 2007 when the Washington Post featured her novel The Indian Bride in a story about international crime novels. Since then, I've read as many of her English translations as I could find, with the exception of Don't Look Back, which is currently sitting on my bookshelf.

Fossum's books aren't quite as raw as Steig Larsson's and Henning Mankell's. The setting can be bleak, especially when they take place during the winter months. But despite their sometimes harrowing plots, her books don't have quite the sense of cynicism that a lot of Scandinavian crime fiction does.

One difference between Bad Intentions and some of the previous Fossum books I've read is that there's not quite as much background about Sejer's personal life in this one. He occasionally mentions his wife, who's passed away, and his grandchild, but this book focuses more on the victims and their families than on the detectives. There are some moving domestic scenes that involve the mothers of the two dead young men.

Sejer's partner, Detective Jacob Skarre, doesn't play as large of a role in this book as in the previous ones, but I did enjoy the scenes he was in. His youth and energy provide a perfect counterpoint to Sejer's occasional jaded cynicism. I've enjoyed watching their relationship and rapport develop.

The Indian Bride is still my favorite Fossum novel; it's one of the saddest, most moving detective novels I've ever read. But Bad Intentions is also enjoyable. I don't think I've read a Karin Fossum novel yet that's disappointed me.