When an already moody sleuth starts relating events in his life to themes in Andrei Tarkovsky’s Nostalgia, as Van Veeteren does in the fourth of the series, Woman with Birthmark, I figure something significant is percolating. About ninety percent of the way through this book, Van Veeteren takes a break from the murder case that has him … [Read more...]
Van Veeteren – Curing an Aversion
A decade or so ago, when I wasn’t yet compiling moody sleuths, I read some of Hakan Nesser’s Scandinavian crime series: Borkmann’s Point, The Return and Mind’s Eye... not all at once, and likely in the wrong order due to the vagaries of translation. I remember enjoying them as police procedurals, finding lots to recommend the series: … [Read more...]