Borkmann's Point
by Hakan Nesser
Macmillan, $165
In his home country, Swedish crime writer Hakan Nesser is one of the masters of the genre. Elsewhere in Europe, too, his name is associated with gripping crime fiction. In the English-speaking world, he's barely known.
Not any more. We've waited 12 years to read Borkmann's Point. It's an indictment of the risk-averse publishing industry that the gap since its Swedish publication has been so long. But it has, unquestionably, been worth the wait.
We can only hope that now that Macmillan has introduced Nesser's superb Chief Inspector Van Veeteren series to an English-speaking audience the more recent instalments will arrive at a faster pace. They also may arrive in the correct order, unlike the Kurt Wallander thrillers of Nesser's compatriot Henning Mankell.
Nesser, 56, who began writing while still a school teacher, has an assured and masterly touch. In Borkmann's Point, the plot is clever and compelling, his characters credible, empathetic and very real, flaws and all. The local police officers are particularly well drawn, with bumbling juniors and the uninspired Inspector Kopke, who will be the new chief of police. His colleague, Inspector Beate Moerk, is more competent and intuitive - but she's a woman, single and unhappy with her childlessness, all the more intimately drawn because she's the only one whose first name Nesser uses.