Customer Reviews

THE LAST FIX

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Although I have read the previous two books by Dahl available in English translation, I found that I had to look back at the descriptions on Amazon to remind myself what they were about. That really sums them up, instantly forgettable. I am maybe being a bit unkind to The Man in the Window as it least touched on the role some Norwegians played in World War Two, which is not uncommon amongst the country's authors. This book, although the latest of the three to be translated into English, is the first of them in the original language. It really does show when read out of sequence, as the characters are still in the early development stage. Unfortunately the only memorable aspects of the two detectives are things to dislike. Frolich is a fat lecher and Gunnarstranda has a comb over and 'porcelain' teeth, although I believe this has made him something of a cult figure in Norway. He also spouts on a bit too much about his plant hobby for someone like me who has no interest in the subject. Still, being an objectionable detective doesn't mean the books will be unpopular, witness the success of Poirot.

Being over descriptive is a problem throughout the book. You get full descriptions of people walking down the street, viewed through windows etc. who have no role to play other than space filling. At first glance this is quite a big book, 576 pages in paperback, but the pages have borders wider than anything Young Lochinvar would have witnessed, and if all of the extraneous descriptions had been edited out it would be quite a slim volume in the hands of another publisher.

The story is reasonable, and is in the form of a standard police procedural 'whodunit' where the guests at a party all come under suspicion after one of them is killed. The distinguishing feature which takes it outside of the sort of Cluedo country house mystery is that the murder takes place after some of the guests, including the victim, have left the house. So instead of just shepherding everyone into the drawing room for questioning, the detectives have to do a lot of driving to and fro which just affords further opportunity for unnecessary description. Maybe I have just read too many cop books but I thought 'whodunit' was very obvious from an early stage, even if the reasoning for the killing was a bit flimsy.

In original language and publishing order this novel would be a reasonable introduction to the characters, but out of sequence it is lightweight and disappointing.