He Who Fears the Wolf

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An unusual combination of damaged people - Rated
This is a story of a roller-coaster journey when three disfunctional people who are thrown together by chance. As with all the Karen Fossum books I've read one is drawn into the story and bowled along by a gripping narrative. There is a bit more psychological interpretation of the characters actions than in her other books that is reminiscent of Ruth Rendell. The police chief inspector of this series, Seger, is somewhat unusual in this type of fiction in that he is a nice man who treats his staff well, doesn't drink too much and doesn't come into conflict with his superiors. It makes a nice change!

"All the interesting people in the world are losers." - Rated
JFrom the dramatic opening paragraphs, in which a person believes that his face is sliding off and his insides are falling out, Fossum captures the bizarre inner worlds of several characters barely holding onto their sanity. Errki Johrma, a 24-year-old who has been committed to a residential lockup for the disturbed, escapes the residence in rural Norway and seeks solitude in the woods. There he sees an elderly woman, Halldis Horn, working outside her cabin.

Suddenly the point of view shifts, and a 12-year-old boy, Kannick Snellingen, runs into the police station saying that Halldis is dead, with a hoe embedded in her face, and that he has seen Errki lurking nearby. Kannick, like Errki, is also disturbed, living in a home for children with behavioral problems. A sudden shift to the next morning, and Detective Inspector Konrad Sejer, after noting a strange person entering the bank, soon hears a gunshot and learns that it has been robbed and a hostage taken--Errki.

The intersecting worlds of Errki, the robber (known as Morgan), Kannick Snellingen, and Inspector Sejer and his assistant, Jacob Scarre, create a fascinating series of psychological portraits and interactions. Morgan and Errki, hiding out together in an abandoned cabin, try to avoid the police and stay alive, remaining wary of each other but starting to communicate about the voices Errki hears from The Coat and a spirit named Nestor. Kannick, who wants to become a national archery champ, wallows in the attention he gets from his peers at the home, describing the gory condition of Halldis's body in exchange for candy. At the same time, Sejer, a widower for eleven years, confers with Errki's psychiatrist in order to understand Errki more fully, and finds himself powerfully drawn to her as he tries to solve Halldis's murder and the robbery of the bank by apprehending Errki and Morgan.

Developing the story in clean, straightforward prose, Fossum reveals the disturbing thoughts of Errki, Morgan, and Kannick, along with their traumatic backgrounds, stories which need no additional melodrama. As the reader comes to know the characters and feel empathy for them, she creates fine dramatic tension and a suspense-filled story in which nothing is as it appears to be. Occasionally, the ironies are leavened with dark humor. A climactic meeting involving all the major characters leads to a full resolution and, ultimately, a greater understanding of the characters' interior worlds. Fascinating, well-drawn, and concise, this novel, the second in the Inspector Sejer series, is a psychological mystery of the first order, filled with intriguing characters and unusual plot twists. Mary Whipple

Deep in the middle of the dark, dark woods... - Rated
...there lived a buxom woman in her third bloom of life.

Halldis Horn (for that was her name) was an independent woman, who lived alone after the death of her husband, quietly tending her garden and keeping to herself.

Now in these woods also lurked Errki Johrma, a schizophrenic with a murderous reputation, who had recently liberated himself from the nearby mental institution, and Kannick Snellingen, a 12 year old reform school resident, with a free pass to the woods, and a passion for a bow and arrow.

One day, Kannick comes across the particularly gruesome body of poor Halldis Horn, and when he spies Errki lurking nearby, he runs as fast as his fat legs will carry him to the nearest police station.

As fate would have it, there is a robbery at the town bank, and the unsuspecting robber, Morten Garpe (a.k.a. Morgan) takes Errki hostage, and whisks him away in a little white car, and into the deep dark woods.

Chief Inspector Konrad Sejer is investigating both crimes, and while he lays the groundwork, a psychological battle of minds is taking place in a little cabin in the woods between the befuddled bandit and his disturbed hostage. When Kannick unwittingly finds himself as the third guest in the cabin, the three come to uneasy understanding before the day’s events catch up with them.

A tightly wound and enthralling tale, with fascinating characters and traces of humor.

Amanda Richards

A little bit too much like Nicci French - Rated
Errki Johrma is crazy, very crazy: he hears voices, is practically unreachable for normal people and bites when he feels threatened. When he escapes from the psychiatric ward where he is staying and is seen near a farm where an elderly lady is murdered, it is easy to draw the conclusion that he is the murderer. But it is very difficult to track him down: a bank robber has taken him hostage and hides with him in the woods. Somehow Erkki and the bank robber get attached to each other until a freak accident happens...

People around me really loved this book, but to me it was a little bit too much like Nicci French: the emphasis on the literary side and not enough suspense.

A good psychological thriller - Rated
In Mrs Fossum's psychological thriller, the main character is a schizophrenic man of 24 called Errki Johrma. He has narrow shoulders and surprisingly wide hips and because he inherited bad hip joints, he moves about with a hideous swing as if he wants to shake off something on his back. His skin is scarred with acne, his eyes deep-set and strange, often downcast, avoiding other people's glance. He wears filthy, smelly and disgusting clothes and the words on his T-shirt read "Kill The Others".
He sees the world through a sort of murky veil, always afraid that others are after him, that every single person is his enemy and that is why he has no friends at all and hardly talks to anyone. He often conducts imaginary inner dialogues with a hallucinatory figure called "Nestor". Most people find him so repulsive that they compare him with an animal, finding that his eyes resemble those of a dog or that he runs like a hare.
One day, a boy called Kannick Snellingen finds the dead body of Haldis Horn lying on the steps of her small farm in Finnemarka. He also reports to the police that he has seen Errki Johrma in the woods not far from the farm. And indeed Inspector Sejer soon finds out that Errki has been missing from the asylum for some time...
Mrs Fossum designed a clever plot in this mystery story and her portrayal of the schizophrenic mind will indeed regale readers interested in psychology in the same manner as Ruth Rendell's books do.