Customer Reviews

Man in the Window

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The characters are deep, the backdrop is engaging, but the mystery is the thing. The plot takes time to play out, getting thicker and murkier as it progresses. I found myself thinking about this novel much more than most mysteries. Mankell is the standard comparison for Scandinavian crime fiction, and his novels do have more breadth and finesse. However I never found his mysteries as engaging and puzzling as the one Dahl presents.

Again, K. O. Dahl creates a unique Scandinavian mystery. The victim here has not only been murdered, but has been further humiliated by being exhibited in the nude in his shop window. We're given the last day of his life in detail, and then the methodical investigation by Norwegian inspectors Frolich and Gunnarstranda. We are led through a compolex labyrinth leading to a complicated solution with the requisite red herrings. The victim is an octogenarian and the investigation leads us back to the second World War as seen through Norwegian eyes.All in all, this is a quite satisfying book and one more example of Scandinavian mystery telling.

This novel started rather auspiciously. Unfortunately, several of the protagonists never came to life. And in the end, the motives appeared specious, and it was hard to believe the murderers really acted in the way described. It did not seem in character with the way they had been shown.

I have read a number of Scandianvian authors, and am a particular fan of Henning Mankell's and Karin Fossum. This author is way below.

This was the first book by this author that I read. Dahl is billed on the book cover credits as "Norway's award winning crime novelist"; and "A Norwegian Mankell".

In a few words (mine): "this book is one good mystery". There are many twists, turns and complexities that keep the story interesting and moving quickly. I've read many of Mankell's books. While there are some conceptual comparisons to Mankell's Wallender series, this book is more about the mystery and less about the interactions among the police detectives and their respective personal lives. Those aspects are embedded in this book and there are similarities to those dynamics as in Mankell's books, but the focus is on the "who-done it". And ... many options unfold in that regard.

Well worth reading the book.

Suspects abound in the opening chapters as the elderly antiques dealer plods through the last day of his life. He obstinately refuses to sell his store to an eager buyer, his wife discovers that he knows of her affaire, he vilely insults someone who accosts him in the street, and he even kicks a little dog to death! Such an unpleasant fellow deserves to die, and I frankly was not able to keep up my interest in the endless investigation into his murder, so I skipped to the final chapters. The red herrings in the denouement were satisfactory, but did not compensate for the dullness of the narrative and the colorlessness of the detectives. Stick to Jo Nesbo for satisfying Scandinavian mysteries.