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Bad Intentions by Karin Fossum (view source)
Revision as of 13:55, 6 March 2018
, 13:55, 6 March 2018no edit summary
{{infoboxinfobox1
|title=Bad Intentions
|author=Karin Fossum
|reviewer=Sue Magee
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=192
|publisher=Vintage
|date=July 2011
|isbn=978-0099535843
|website=|videocover=009953584X|amazonukaznuk=<amazonuk>009953584X</amazonuk>|amazonusaznus=<amazonus>009953584X</amazonus>
}}
Jon, Reilly and Axel had been friends for the best part of a couple of decades. Axel was the dominant one of the trio and Reilly was easily led. Jon - well Jon was vulnerable. Something had happened to them all at the end of the previous year and Jon had recently been in a mental hospital, but now, at the beginning of autumn, Axel and Reilly were taking him for a weekend at Dead Water Lake.
The three young men went out in a boat and Jon went over the side. Neither Axel nor Reilly made any attempt to help him and they didn't report his disappearnace until the following moring - and even then they said that he'd gone for a walk in the forst forest and had not returned.
If you're expecting a police procedural then this book might disappoint. Inspector Sejer and Jakob Skarre are there - and Sejer has a new dog - but their presence is almost incidental. It's almost as though Fossum needed a couple of policemen for the story and these two were available. They were convenient policemen to use in what is really a psychological thriller rather than a 'whodunnit'.
It's a short book but by no means an easy read. As usual Fossum gets right to the heart of her story in language so spare a as to be justthe just the right side of brutal. There isn't a wasted word in the book. I didn't find it a relaxing read but it was impossible not to continue particularly when the body of a teenage boy floated to the surface of another lake. You're pretty certain which way the story is going right the way through: it's not a book of clever tricks or unexpected twists - just a carefully crafted thriller.
I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.
If this book appeals then you might like to try any of Fossum's [[:category:Karin Fossum|other books]]. For equally dark Scandinavian crime [[:Category:Henning Mankell|Henning Mankell]] will not disappoint.
{{amazontext|amazon=009953584X}} {{waterstonestextamazonUStext|waterstonesamazon=8138995009953584X}} [[Karin Fossum's Inspector Sejer novels in chronological order]]
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[[Category:Thrillers]]