When Stieg Larsson's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was released, Scandinavian mysteries were "flavor of the month" for a while but their popularity finally waned. After reading Christoffer Carlsson's Blaze Me a Sun, I think a renaissance may be in order.
Although readers do learn what's going on from the novelist as he becomes fixated on the unsolved mysteries, they also see how Sven Jörgensson and his son Vidar become obsessed with finding the killer over a period of decades. As residents and witnesses are spoken to once again, Sven is seen to ignore his own health in favor of finding a killer. It is incomprehensible to him how something like this could happen in this quiet part of Sweden. His son Vidar finds himself examining his own father with the eyes of an inquisitor. Why was Sven charged with manslaughter by negligence? Did Sven actually know the identity of the killer? And while I was trying to unravel this mystery along with Sven, Vidar, and the writer, I was also learning a few things about Sweden as well, which is always the mark of a good book.
In Carlsson's Blaze Me a Sun, he says, "Everything could be uncovered. Everything could be brought to light. As long as you were stubborn enough and didn't give up." These three men are more than stubborn enough, and they do uncover everything... but are they correctly interpreting everything as they bring the facts to light? Can obsession warp a person's judgment? Carlsson not only knows how to write a compelling mystery, but he can also give readers plenty of food for thought. I'll be looking for more of his books.
Although readers do learn what's going on from the novelist as he becomes fixated on the unsolved mysteries, they also see how Sven Jörgensson and his son Vidar become obsessed with finding the killer over a period of decades. As residents and witnesses are spoken to once again, Sven is seen to ignore his own health in favor of finding a killer. It is incomprehensible to him how something like this could happen in this quiet part of Sweden. His son Vidar finds himself examining his own father with the eyes of an inquisitor. Why was Sven charged with manslaughter by negligence? Did Sven actually know the identity of the killer? And while I was trying to unravel this mystery along with Sven, Vidar, and the writer, I was also learning a few things about Sweden as well, which is always the mark of a good book.
In Carlsson's Blaze Me a Sun, he says, "Everything could be uncovered. Everything could be brought to light. As long as you were stubborn enough and didn't give up." These three men are more than stubborn enough, and they do uncover everything... but are they correctly interpreting everything as they bring the facts to light? Can obsession warp a person's judgment? Carlsson not only knows how to write a compelling mystery, but he can also give readers plenty of food for thought. I'll be looking for more of his books.
