Jørgen Brekke

Jorge Brekke plays fast and loose with time in his narration of the latest (book three) of his Odd Singsaker series. In the present our detective is being questioned about his actions related to a recent crime. But, before we learn too much, the story moves to the past…or to the present, or back to the future—chapters labelled: two days before, two weeks after, early morning of the day it happened or a week before it happened…and so on—following several groups of people until all is revealed. I give the author points for creativity in his telling, and my criticisms of his story are not with his format or with his detective. Singsaker is an interesting character, a well-thought out detective; however, the criminal landscape of Norway is rendered as brutal and violent, and the book is very heavy in what one would call “torture porn”— much more than his previous two novels. I admit to skimming the last half of the book. It’s too bad really as the author is a good writer and, as mentioned earlier, quite creative (even his time-traveling narrative ia interesting) but I’m done with this series.… (mais)

When Brekke's 2nd book "Dreamless" came out in 2015, I read it. I had not read his 1st as the description of it seemed to suggest crimes too gruesome for my taste. I recently revisited that decision and decided to give that first book a try. I had really enjoyed "Dreamless", which juggled two story lines, one historic (18th century), the other modern, and involved music and music boxes.

"Where Evil Lies" (a.k.a. "Where Monster Dwell") juggles investigations of two similar contemporary murders; one in a university library in Trondheim, Norway, and another in Richmond, Virginia at the Edgar Allan Poe museum. It also, includes an historic story line, this one set in Europe in the 16th century and involves ancient books with parchment made from human skin. Back in the contemporary timeline, victims have been found murdered and partially flayed, in both locations, and Odd Singsaker is working the case in Norway, while Felicia Stone is working the US case; eventually the cases will connect and the detectives will meet to solve the case together.

I value an intriguing and complex investigation, and interesting characters, in a crime novel. I value very little the sensational or gruesomeness of crimes, which is why I passed over this book initially in 2014. I regret that now; it would have been nice to read the books in order. The crimes here are indeed gruesome—nothing appealing about flaying—but Brekke seems to keep the subject just above the sensational level by avoiding the over glorification of the crime’s details, and by including the historical perspective, as well as having a well-thought out investigation. This is an intelligent crime novel, and while I admit I zeroed in on the killer/s ahead of the expected unrealistic thriller ending, I happily read to the end.

(oh yeah, as noted by others, there were some forgettable sex scenes that I failed to mention, because, well, they were forgettable).… (mais)