For when life seriously sucks

I really, really needed a distraction last night, which I handled in a not-totally-positive-but-fun way and by reading more of the "newest" (to me) Karin Fossum / Inspector Sejer book I picked up last Friday / finished today, He Who Fears the Wolf. It was the oldest of the ones the library had, at least the ones in English, so it was interesting going back in time, so to speak, when it comes to the characters (including Kollberg, yay!!!).  It was hard to tell, but I would guess this book was set at least ten years before The Indian Bride, so clearly a lot had happened in the lives of the main characters, Sejer and Skarre (?).  I'm not sure I think this book was as good as the one I first read (in particular, the parts where the crazy character was being all crazy got a little repetitive, I sorta skimmed), but it was just as good at pulling my mind out of my world and into Fossum's, and I needed that.  It also makes much more sense now that the series is named after Inspector Sejer, as he was both more present and more deeply drawn than in the other book. Might go grab another one later in the week or next week, but I have a stack at home and one waiting for me from deposit that I should get through, as I'm running out of floor space to pile my read and to-be-read books.

back to Norway

Finished The Indian Bride by Karin Fossum last night (once again, it kept me up too late), and it definitely lived up to its potential.  It's not a GREAT book, but it was interesting and engaging, and the characters were drawn nicely - detailed, nuanced - and the scenes were set well.  I also liked the dog.  How was I not more familiar with the Leonberger breed in general (huge and adorable)?  And the one in the book is great; I don't know why, he [Kollberg - I think] doesn't do much, but I just wanted to cuddle him...  He belongs to Inspector Sejer, who is - I guess? - the main character of the book (I wouldn't have thought so, but apparently the book is part of the Inspector Sejer Mysteries" series, so it seems likely), so maybe there will be more of him if I go track down the other books that have been translated into English??

One a more serious, or at least more literarily-minded note, I was also pleasantly surprised when the book ended without really much of a conclusion.  That is to say - we're not totally sure the person in custody on the last page is actually guilty, we don't know if someone else is going to crack and kill someone (although I think said person has already cracked, and it's just the potential killing that's in question), etc.  Some books, if they ended like that, you would think it was just so you'd buy the sequel (AHEM, Lev Grossman and The Magicians), but I don't think that's the case here.  I suppose there could be a sequel, but it felt more like Fossum had told the story she (he? must check...) wanted to tell, and ended things.  And instead of it being incredibly frustrating not knowing the answer at the end of the mystery novel (this issue came up in The Sherlockian, didn't it?), it was open-ended enough to keep me thinking after I shut the book, but still satisfied.  I wanted to mull it over more, but I didn't feel like I needed more, if that makes any sense...
Think I might run downstairs and see if they have any more in the stacks - pretty sure they did when I picked this one up - for reading this weekend.  I'll be interested to see if Sejer becomes a more prominent character; from the first Inspector Lynley novel (by Elizabeth George) I read, it was pretty clear how central he was, but in this Inspector Sejer novel, he was just one well-drawn character out of many.  I'm curious if he's a main character in the series, or simply a linking character...