When the Devil Holds the Candle (Inspector Sejer Book 4)

As a devotee to Chief Inspector Konrad Sejer and a sucker for the marginalised outsiders who proliferate the novels of Karin Fossum, this book had my name written all over it! When the Devil Holds the Candle is the third outing to be translated into English featuring the combination of compassionate Konrad Sejer and his eager and intuitive sidekick, Jacob Skarre. Although this case takes a good few chapters to unravel and its direction to become clear, it swiftly builds into an compelling investigation that tests even the imperturbable Konrad Sejer to the very limit.Opening with Skarre encountering an elderly lady who seems possessed and rambles incoherently about a missing person, he is left with the distinct impression that he is dealing with a senile woman lamenting on her husbands impending death. As she flees the station without giving further details she remains on his mind. It is only days later that Skarre is able to make some sense of her words and deduce the true significance of her testimony. From that point on Fossum takes her readers back to the prior days and introduces best friends and errant young men in the shape of good looking and dominant Andreas and his hanger-on and lackey, Sivert Skorpe, better known as Zipp. Although Andreas has a job at the local cash and carry that supplies beer money for the pair it is Zipp who has the car and together they terrorise the town looking for action, creating mayhem and frequently watching action movies. What begins as a simple theft of the purse of a young mother backfires somewhat when she loses control of her pram and her child falls onto the path. Things soon escalates into something seemingly far more serious as Andreas and Zipp seek to rid themselves of this memory and opt for an easier victim. Typically cowardly their next mark is sixty-year-old Irma Funder, a bitter and lonely elderly lady who rails against the obligations and duties imposed by a society where she has never known freedom or been loved. Irma has one friend, but in common with her sterile view of life she considers her merely as someone to spend time with without too much discomfort. As a confident Andreas breaks into her home his failure to re-emerge leaves Zipp with a dilemma; namely how is he to tackle the situation without revealing their criminal intent? As the days pass and the disappearance sends his mother, Runi, to the police, all the while a seriously injured Andreas is lying within the confines of Irma Funder's home. But as the hours turn into days, Irma gives her victim water and eventually finds a purpose in her capacity to condemn reprobate Andreas to either life or death.Once again Fossum delivers a tale of complicated and unhappy individuals and shows the destructive and often unintentional effects when their paths cross. Cleverly Fossum leaves her readers to decide on whether justice is served for any of the involved parties. When The Devil Holds a Candle may leave a bitter aftertaste but is is a powerful analysis of compounding mistakes damning the fates of Fossum's well deployed characters. On a personal note, Sejer's relationship with psychologist, Sara, who he met in the previous case is still in progress, despite his first qualms over their long-term compatibility and in another investigation, that of drunk student Robert charged with murdering his girlfriend, the outcome weighs heavily on Sejer. At times difficult to read yet always providing food for thought and an intelligent commentary on modern society, Fossum proves herself worthy of comparison to the esteemed Ruth Rendell.Review written by Rachel Hall (@hallrachel)

Much more than police procedurals, and quite atypical when compared to other Scandi-noir fiction, these are brilliant, compassionate psychological thrillers. I only discovered Karin Fossum last year after reading a Guardian review of her latest to be published in the UK, The Drowned Child. After reading and enjoying that novel I went back to the beginning of the Sejur series and have been working my way through.Konrad Sejur is a refreshing change from so many fictional detectives. He is, above all, a good man: deeply, sincerely moral (although not religious), considerate, even courtly in his manners, a man who believes that civil society depends upon the rule of law and upon each citizen cooperating to make that law work. You feel his pain and disappointment when (inevitably) so many of his fellow citizens fail to do so.This particular work, as the Aamzon blurb suggests, tells a story which could have been written by Stephen King. What Karin Fossum brings to it is an awareness of the fragility of each person touched by the crime. She writes with a delicate touch, and the awfulness of the crime is allowed to blossom on its own, and at its own pace (this is a hint to those who insist on relentlessly 'fast-paced' works that perhaps you might want to look elsewhere!). But the suspense is real, and if you like thrillers with a bit of subtlety, a bit of believable, real-world horror, I think you'll have a hard time putting this one down.Highly recommended.

It took me a fair while to really get hooked - Seyer doesn't feature till much further into the book, and I was a bit frustrated at this, too much on the other characters. However, it did pick up and eventually made sense why it was written in such a way. Amazingly written, interesting characters, with some brilliant one-liners (in my opinion) describing Hollberg, the dog. Now onto book 5... :)

I did not enjoy this book. Every character had issues and mostly behaved in an irrational way. One or two yes, but a book full, no. It was a dark and nasty tale full of police incompetence without a redeeming feature to lighten a depressing backdrop of upsetting events. But I enjoy this author and both she and this book are an international success. So don't be put off. It is probably just me.

This had a really slow beginning, off putting to say the least. As it progresses, this novel raises a few thought provoking issues and the characters do become quite real eventually. Other writers have done it so much better, Lesley Glaister for one. Despite the intriguing title and the writers reputation, 'When the Devil ... ' is one of the least interesting crime novels I have ever read

Chose this book because I hadn't read any Sejer novels before and the review made it seem as though it might be a good read. You might therefore imagine my disappointment at discovering what a pile of self absorbed, tedious nonsense this turned out to be. To be fair I gave it a go but eventually gave up (I can't remember at what chapter) on the basis that life really is tooshort. The book might have picked up but I doubt it. I don't know what happened to the Characters but (spoiler alert) I skipped to the end and it looks like possibly everyone dies. Frankly I don't care. I am conscious that this is a rather negative review but in my defence I don't ever review books and I felt compelled to warn others against spending money on this tosh. Sorry Karen Fossum, I'm sure you're very nice but this is tedious nonsense.

Excellent read stayed up late to finish couldn't put it down can't wait until the next one is on my kindle

Karin Fossum is up ther with the other Nordic writers who have been so successful in the UK in recent years, another well thought out and executed legal thriller with excellent characterisation. She knows her craft.