Still Hate the Name, But the Book I Liked

28. Nemesis

So this guy is Norwegian. Stieg Larsson is Swedish, as are Henning Mankel and Johan Theorin.  And Peter Hoeg is from Denmark.  I think when you lump that all together you call it Scandinavian, but truthfully I don't really know and it all kind of gives me a headache!  But it is safe to say that Scandinavian (?) mysteries are all the rage at the moment and I have fallen victim to the scuttle butt.

In the past year or so I have read mysteries by all of these authors and they are all very good.  A bit meandering and always going on and on about the snow, but good.  Nemesis, however, is by far the tightest.  And by that I mean, that the plot it well laid out and all the little hints and red herrings have follow through (it is a series of books so a few lines are left hanging but you know they will be dealt with if you stick with the series).  There are no endless descriptions of street names and traffic routes, and no trips to Ikea.  However, there are some characters names that are far to similar to others, there are certain jokes and slang that have been lost in translation, and there are too many damn police officers!  It is funny that I have found this last fact to be true with all of these books.  I guess I am used to American authors who like to believe that people do things on their own instead of asking for and utilizing outside help.  So when there are about 15 characters who are all on the police force I tend to get confused and lump them all together.

Anyway, I can't see the trend in these mysteries being popular settling down anytime soon, especially with new movies being made of the Millennium trilogy, but for me I am not sure I will stick with it but if I do Nesbo is the man I will be returning to.