Summary | Excerpt | Reviews | Beyond the book | Read-Alikes | Genres & Themes | Author Bio
Fossum's protagonist,
Sejer, is a complex, lonely widower, still
grieving over the loss of his wife
(resembling, in some ways, Colin Dexter's
Inspector Morse, or P.D. James's Adam
Dalgleish). In this, the second book, we
learn a little bit more about him as we watch
him slowly and shyly reach out to a
potential new love (in the few slow moments when he's not racing to solve the crime and prevent further bloodshed) and we know that it will not be plain sailing for him in either his personal or public life.
Fossum leverages her series above the pack
of conventional police procedurals by,
firstly, taking us deep into the minds of
her troubled characters, and secondly, by
causing us to ask ourselves difficult
questions - such as how society as a whole views those
who don't fit the norm - without feeling the
need to provide us with answers, easy or
otherwise. Strongly recommended to all who
like their police procedurals on the
cerebral side.
This review was originally published in The BookBrowse Review in September 2005, and has been updated for the August 2006 edition. Click here to go to this issue.
If you liked He Who Fears The Wolf, try these:
A pitch-perfect mystery, an alluring portrait of contemporary Venice, and an elucidating eye into the attitudes of a timeless place in the grip of change.
They are detection's oddest couple: two cranky detectives whose professional partnership dates back half a century. Now Arthur Bryant and John May return in a case of multiple murder that twists through a subterranean course of the secrets, lies, and extreme passions that drive even ordinary men and women to the most shocking crimes .
Life is the garment we continually alter, but which never seems to fit.
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.