The Water’s Edge

The Water’s Edge (2007/2009) Karin Fossum translated Charlotte Barslund

A married couple, out for their weekly walk, pass a strange man exiting the area, and then stumble upon the body of a young boy.

One of the things I especially like about Inspectors Sejer is that his thinks a good deal about the victims and the families of the victims. That’s not always something one sees in American crime fiction. Not that the families are ignored in American crime fiction, but the reactions are immediate. In these stories you have the realization that these lives are permanently disrupted.

Things will never be the same again.

We’ve found a little boy by Lake Linde. He matches your description of Jonas August and we need you to come with us to the Institute of Forensic Medicine first thing tomorrow morning, so we can confirm whether or not the dead boy is your son.

Those would be his words. And in one second her life would go from order to chaos.

‘You haven’t been able to move him? I don’t understand.’

‘We need to examine the crime scene and the surrounding area,’ Skarre said. ‘It takes time, we won’t be able to finish this evening. So we’ll be working through the night.’

She punched the air wildly with her fists. ‘You can’t come here telling me he has to stay in the forest all night,’ she screamed. ‘For God’s sake, he’s only seven years old!’

‘I’m afraid he has to,’ Skarre said. ‘The crime scene officers haven’t finished.’

‘No,’ she protested, ‘you have to take him to a hospital, so he’ll have a bed!’

That is a heart-breaking scene.

There is a fascinating sub-story as well, that of the couple who found the body of the boy, and what happens to them as the case progresses.

How the lives of those two people were changed just as the mother of the boy was changed.

This is a fascinating series, although be aware it is quite dark.
Rating: 8/10

Published by Mariner Books

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