Today we got our hands on what looks to be some solid gold Nordic noir. Yes, Harvill Secker has sent us an early copy of The Drowned Boy, the latest by Norwegian writer Karin Fossum which is out 4 June.
The cover is simple but enticing, with what looks to be a moody reflection of some great big fir trees cutting across the still waters of a dark, cold pond. The title itself is Ronseal – it does what it says on the tin – as pretty much all we know about this book right now is that it’s about a drowned boy. According to the release, it involves the death of a 16-month-old child who has drowned in a pond right by his home. It could be a simple accident, or it could be something worse? The explanation delivered by the boy’s mother doesn’t ring true and her family has turned against her. It must be a case for Chief Inspector Sejer.
If you’ve encountered the dour detective before, you’ll know that he has a knack for squeezing the truth out of culprits without squeezing them at all. He’s an expert at sifting truth from fiction and playing on the guilt of killers until they walk straight into a confession. He works slowly, deliberately, skirting the fringes of his target’s perception and playing to their weaknesses. There’s nobody else like him in crime fiction, and Karin Fossum is as intelligent and perceptive a writer as you’ll come across.
We can’t wait to get stuck into this one, and you can count on Crime Fiction Lover to bring you a review. In the meantime, take a good gander at this early cover. The Drowned Boy is released 4 June at £12.99 as a hardback, and the Kindle version comes out the same day.
Read our guide to Karin Fossum’s Inspector Sejer here, and read our review of the last Sejer novel released in English, The Murder of Harriet Krohn, here. You can order a copy of The Drowned Boy below.
