Customer Reviews

Mind's Eye (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is the first in the Inspector Van Veeteren mystery series. It is an intricately plotted mystery with several murder victims, but it is impossible to say more without giving away a major plot development. So if you buy this book, don't read the description given on the inside cover flap.

Let me say only this. Chief Inspector Van Veeteren (or "VV" as his colleagues call him) is a character and quite the opposite of Mankell's introverted Kurt Wallender. Make no mistake, however, VV is a dedicated and brilliant chief inspector who has solved 20 of 21 cases. But his outspoken and blunt behavior around his colleagues and even around his boss, the chief of police, often had me laughing out loud. There is humor in this book, as when a suspect calls the police department with some information but can't remember the name of the Inspector (Van Veeteren) who questioned him. "You know," he says to the on-duty officer, "the unpleasant one, the really, really unpleasant one"--upon which the officer immediately puts him through to VV!

It is wonderful to watch Chief Inspector Van Veeteren connect all the dots in this intricately woven plot, and the subtle humor that runs throughout the book is an unexpected plus.

The actual first installment in the Inspector Van Veeteren mystery novels, "Mind's Eye" is a treat waiting for anyone who hasn't discovered this excellent series yet. Two pieces of advice first: as the previous reviewer has already mentioned, leave off reading the plot synopsis on the dustjacket -- it gives away far too much of the plot. The second piece of advice: be prepared for a very different kind of police procedural. Hakan Nesser has taken the genre that the British so excel in (and which we are so familiar with) and managed to make it something intriguingly and uniquely his.

When Eva Mitter is found drowned in her bathtub, the chief suspect quickly becomes her husband of three months, Janek. With no other viable suspects and Janek's suspicious behaviour, it looks like and open and shut case. Certainly Inspector Van Veeteren thinks so. After all who could believe Janek's convenient loss of memory as to what happened that fateful night because he drank too much at dinner? But something about Janek's protestations sets Van Veetern rethinking the entire case, and before long finds himself involved in one of the darkest cases of his career...

This is the second Inspector Van Veeteren I've read ("The Return" being the other one); I've enjoyed both of them very much. Nesser's prose style, while economical and a little sparse at time, and his star detective, Van Veetern is a bit of a curmudgeon, impatient and condescending to boot, and seems to make connections in the case at hand that one doesn't always see and which he doesn't always share with his colleagues, but Neser's clever plotting and is brilliant character portrayals made "Mind's Eye" a very compelling and very engaging read. It was literally unputdownable and I simply had to read on until the very last page. A very good read indeed.

In Hakan Nesser's "Mind's Eye," a high school teacher named Janek Mitter finds his wife of three months, Eva Maria Ringmar, drowned in their bathtub. When Mitter is accused of murdering her, he has no alibi. He claims that, on the night in question, he was asleep in the next room after drinking too much and awoke the next morning suffering from a massive hangover. His defense lawyer candidly tells Mitter that his story is unconvincing. However, Detective Chief Inspector Van Veeteren is not completely sold on the husband's guilt. When a second shocking crime follows on the heels of the first one, Van Veeteren and his team face the daunting task of finding a killer whose boundless rage impels him to commit unspeakable acts.

"Mind's Eye" is not a typical murder mystery. Nesser's biting wit and black humor serve as a sharp counterpoint to an exasperating inquiry that turns out to have many unexpected twists and turns. (In one hilarious scene, a witness that he is interrogating gives Van Veeteren a massage to ease his aching back.) VV, as he is known, is successful at his job because he is an intelligent and forceful leader (although he can be sarcastic, cranky, and patronizing at times), and also because he is curious and capable of making imaginative mental leaps. He doggedly pursues every lead, no matter how tangential. Far from being falsely modest, Van Veeteren prides himself on "being the best interrogating officer in the district, possibly in the country." He wastes no effort on political correctness or deferring to his superiors; VV is very much his own man.

All of the characters are a bit off-beat. Mitter cracks jokes and refuses to act deferential, even during his trial. Chief Inspector Van Veeteren has a rather unsettled personal life and an obsession with beating his long-suffering colleague, Inspector Munster, at badminton. The introspective Van Veeteren has grown cynical over the years and longs for a life of ease after retirement when he will be able to rid himself of the "feeling of disgust and impotence" that goes with the job. Munster dreads the grueling task of tracking down a suspect. They were "hemmed in by questions and answers and guesses in a slow but inexorable search for the right track." If they were to make one wrong turn, not only would they be wasting valuable time, but the murderer might conceivably strike again.

Nesser is a fluid writer and Laurie Thompson translates expertly from the Swedish. The dialogue is lively and often amusing, and the plot provides enough clues for the armchair detective to take a shot at figuring out whodunit. This police procedural, like so many others, demonstrates why so many homicide investigators become emotionally hardened, are incapable of staying happily married, and develop stomach ulcers. Pursuing murderers is, indeed, "a nasty business," but Nesser also makes it an entertaining one.

This is the book that introduced Swedish Inspector Van Veeteren.

After a drunken night of love-making, Janek Mitter awakens to find his wife drowned in the bathtub, and Mitter has absolutely no recollection of what might have happened. Van Veeteren is not completely certain that Mitter is guilty of the murder, but with the evidence stacked against him and no real defense, Mitter is convicted and sent to a mental institution.

After some time in the institution, Mitter is brutally murdered, and Van Veeteren now knows that a tragic error has no doubt been made. He plunges into a full scale investigation of both crimes that leads him to a shocking conclusion.

With this book, Nesser succeeds very well in introducing a very intriguing protagonist, and watching Van Veeteren in action is the real pleasure of reading the book. The crimes themselves are intriguing, but my reservation about the book is that the solution to the crimes results primarily from Van Veeteren's intuition about the murders, little of which is shared with the reader, as opposed to the physical evidence.

Once Van Veeteren intuits the solution to the puzzle, he races around gathering the evidence that will support his conclusion, but the reader is left totally in the dark about the conclusion he has reached. Thus the solution at the end of the book seems to come out of the clear blue sky. The reader is in no way prepared for the resolution that the detective provides.

Meeting Van Veeteren and watching him interact with his colleagues and others is a lot of fun, but you can't help feeling that Nesser has withheld a bit too much of the evidence from the reader, perhaps cheating the reader of the opportunity to accompany Van Veeteren along the road to the solution of the crimes.

One of the best mysteries I've ever read! Cruising around Amazon can be such a great way to find new books. I found this book after reading a review for a mystery that I adored (The Likeness.) I clicked on the name of the reviewer and Viola! a whole new series of mysteries have fallen into my lap.

Mind's Eye is a great mystery. A man wakes up to find his wife dead in the bathtub with absolutely no memory of the night before. Is he guilty? Inspector Van Veeteren doesn't think so but he has no way to prove otherwise. When the husband ends up dead, Van Veeteren is committed to finding out the identity of the real killer once and for all. Hakan Nesser does not mess around with a lot of jibber jabber in his novels, he stays on point, keeps the action moving and thus the reader completely involved, just the way I like my mysteries. The main character, Inspector Van Veeteren is a crotchety, but lovable detective genius who is fun to follow. The story is intelligent, witty, and creepy all at the same time.

This is the third novel I've read by Nesser but I didn't review the others. He won awards from the Swedish Crime Writes Academy three times with good reason in my opinion. His books are "who-done-it's" with a central character of a rough and tumble senior lead homicide detective (Van Veeteren).

I must acknowledge that with each book I experienced a brief struggle to get into each story (first few pages only) but can't identify why. Very quickly I was absorbed in all. They are solid, entertaining detective stories. Page filler is not a factor as it is with too many American authors these days. If the police are hunting some criminal, the search is described directly and simply - there's no instance of endless pages of unnecessary overkill detail. Likewise there's no overdone overly graphic descriptions of murder victims although some detail is there

No more to be said - I'd encourage pursuit of books by this author based in my initial purchases . I will order more.

Frustrating though it may be, there's little I can say about this book without completely spoiling the plot. I personally read too far in a professional review and had part of the story spoiled, myself, so I won't turn around and do the same thing to anyone else.

From the beginning the book grabs hold. A man's being interrogated about the death of his wife - found drowned in their bath tub - and he has no memory of what happened. The both of them were drunk, having consumed multiple bottles of wine, and any clues he may have held were locked away in the recesses of his mind.

Enter Van Veeteren, a veteran detective with an unerring sense for what's true and what's a lie. But in this case, even he's left feeling uneasy following the end of the trial. And then, after a defining plot point, he's more determined than ever to get to the bottom of this case.

A jaded, tired, and overworked detective, Van Veeteren follows the stereotype of the 1940s detective, the grumpy but incredibly intelligent man who lives alone - in his case due to a separation from his wife. But in this case, the stereotype is a positive. The book is so wonderfully written, so tightly plotted and minimalist in style, any other character would never have worked in the main role.

I'll most definitely read the rest of the series.

In Sweden the evidence overwhelmingly condemns drunken schoolteacher Janek Mitter in the killing of his wife and a colleague who apparently was with her. Detective Chief Inspector Van Veeteren arrests the distraught husband who has no alibi and was found in a drunken stupor at the crime scene; Janek is easily convicted and sent away to spend the rest of his life either in a mental institution or if his mind heals a prison.

Van Veeteren has some issues with the conviction although it appears reasonable and he is a prime reason Janek was nailed. Although he keeps mentally reviewing the case making him bone weary, he does little to follow up on his hunch until it is too late. Someone murders Janek leaving Van Veeteren feeling guilty that he failed to follow his instincts. He vows to find the link between the homicides of the Mitter couple and subsequently their killer while personally vowing never to ignore his gut instincts ever again.

MIND'S EYE is an excellent Swedish police procedural (see THE RETURN and BORKMANN'S POINT) starring a great investigator who is filled with remorse for not following up on his belief something was off kilter in the case even as he received acclaim for solving an obvious domestic dispute that turned ugly, but proved to be something else. Fans will enjoy this terrific tale as a good likable cop struggles with his mistake by chasing down the real culprit in a great twisting thriller.

Harriet Klausner

I love the way the book is written, i wish american mystery writers would take a hint from the european writers.. the foreign writers always leave you feeling like just one more turn and that will be the end, but its 250 pages or so before you really get to the end, which is always a thriller

The characters are great! Sometimes funny, sometimes spooky police procedural. Two murders and a tricky investigation. I was glad to hear that this is the first in a series. I look forward to reading more.