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Eva's Oog (1995)

by Karin Fossum(Favorite Author)

3.57 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

9085490162 (ISBN13: 9789085490166)

languge

English

genre

Mystery & Thriller

publisher

Ambo

series

Inspector Konrad Sejer

review 1: This was less of a mystery and more of a slow thriller. Inspector Sejer is hardly the main character, so there was little slow unfolding of an intricate mystery. Rather, the reader is given the present-day set up, then for two-thirds of the book provided with a chronological flashback account of the way that the mystery's events occurred. The descriptions were vivid; the main character, Eva, was interestingly developed; the moments of tension were thoroughly tense. However, since one knows how everything will end from the beginning, the story felt more of a revelation of details rather than a series of surprises or a build up to some grand event. That said, however, I did enjoy the psychologically distressing twist at the end.
review 2: Her first Konrad Sejer b... moreook from 1995, but only recently translated into English. Too bad, because it gives some good background information on Inspector Sejer. In any case, a very enjoyable read both for the mystery and the observations and discussions about art. Eva is a painter who paints only in black, white and gray (no colors) and the storyline here deals in those gray areas of circumstance, memory and our psyche. Eva is slowly being beaten down by money problems (her phone service was recently cut off, other utilities may follow), she feels that she is a very talented artist but she is not selling, her husband recently left her for another woman (although Eva magnanimously maintains a good relationship with them), her daughter is very over weight and Eva doesn’t know what to do about it, and her father is in declining health. Her life changes (boy does it ever) when Eva runs across her childhood best friend, Maja, who she hasn’t seen in 25 years. And from there the tale is on. So I hesitate to say much more so as to not give anything away. But the rest of the story is pretty suspenseful, with chance circumstances, chance comments and memory driving much of the narrative. The book gives us a good insight into the character and style of Konrad Sejer as a police officer. It also gives us a taste of the psychological perspective that takes up much of Fossum’s later works, mostly from the perspective of non-police characters in her books i.e. victims, perpetrators and others. For those who have not read her later works, I would definitely recommend starting off with this one. less

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