From today's bookcrossing entry:
I've given myself the challenge of reading "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" this summer. Hm, perhaps I have bitten off more than I can chew because I am only to Book 11 of "The Iliad" and I am so sick of Greeks killing Trojans and vice versa. I know, I know, this is Homer's point: Achilles' wrath caused horrible losses. Robert Fagles' translation gives Homer a strong poetic voice in English through his use of earthy language. Each detailed death by spear impalement makes me cry "ouch." Other times I'm just glad the soldier has died, because they probably wouldn't have been able to heal his wounds! Oh, the humanity!
Karin Fossum is a Norwegian 'psychological suspense mystery' writer. I have to give her a separate, mini-genre because of her subject matter. Yes, she includes details of police procedure. But her detective Sejer has the unique quality of discerning the emotions of others. With her third person narration, she easily enters the minds of her characters. And what we find there often produces the sensation similar to the one that comes from turning over a rock in the woods and finding what's rotting underneath. But that's a cold chill I can take, and it propels me to follow Sejer to the discovery of the mind of the suspect who has finally acted on his or her ugly impulses.
Give me a death I can understand, not death wholesale. I guess it's a good thing I'm a librarian.
And as an addendum:
I'd compare Fossum to Tana French's "In the Woods" or most of Ruth Rendell's Wexford mysteries. Each author includes descriptions of good, difficult police work, which would not make their works 'psychological suspense' except that both authors often dissect the twisted, disorganized, sad and strange compulsions that lead to murder.
Ruth Rendell's most recent Wexford "Not in the Flesh" also had a spine-tingling, creepy beginning and finish. I haven't had a chance to get my hands on French's newest, entitled "The Likeness."
Has anyone else? Are there any other authors you've found that are like French, Fossum, and Rendell?
