I Can See in the Dark - Rilegato

"Fossum vividly unpacks the mind of a troubled individual in this haunting psychological thriller written from the perspective of a sadistic nurse. Riktor is a fortysomething loner who readily confesses to having an “evil little devil” lurking within his placid exterior. When not working at a nursing home and abusing patients, he sits alone in a park coldly observing others while inwardly longing for affection. One day he reaches out to a fellow lost soul. Inevitably, things go wrong and the police come knocking. To his shock, Riktor is ¬arrested for a different transgression, a murder that he didn’t actually commit, forcing him to prove his innocence without revealing his guilt. The author refuses to cast blame for Riktor’s mental disorder on either society or his upbringing, presenting his squirmy delusions matter-of-factly while still managing to elicit a measure of compassion. VERDICT In this slim stand-alone, Fossum takes a chilling departure from her popular series featuring Norwegian police inspector Konrad Sejer. The results are a compelling—if unsettling—character study for fans of disturbing psychological suspense".--Library Journal"Riktor, the narrator of this first-rate novel of suspense from Fossum (Broken), works in a nursing home in a small Norwegian town. In almost affectless prose, he describes his circumscribed life, both at the hospital and in his local park, where he observes Miranda, a wheelchair-bound girl; Miranda’s mother; teenage lovers Eddie and Janne; and town drunk Arnfinn. One day, he watches a cross-country skier fall through the ice of a nearby lake, then thrash around helplessly before sinking to his death. Riktor is filled with scorn and a quiet rage, which eventually grows to the point where he begins to abuse his elderly patients. The initially predictable plot takes an unexpected turn after Riktor is arrested for the death of Nelly Friis, one of his patients. “What a wasteland this world is,” the unlikable Riktor muses at one point in this bleak but clever and compelling standalone."--Publishers Weekly, STARRED

“The great Norwegian crime novelist Karin Fossum has a special gift for voices. She’s come up with a humdinger in the first-person narrator of I Can See in the Dark...It’s wrenching.” —Washington Post

"One of the standouts of the Nordic thriller boom." —Vulture

“The queen of Norwegian crime fiction, the prolific and brilliant Fossum has riddled the quaint countryside north of Oslo with imagined crimes...In Fossum’s literary thrillers, the crime is almost incidental to a deeper moral crisis: Her killers aren’t madmen but ordinary people driven to monstrous acts.” —Men’s Journal  

"Fossum descends deep into the alienated mind of Riktor to create an exquisitely Poe-ish novel of psychological suspense." —More Magazine

"Fossum vividly unpacks the mind of a troubled individual in this haunting psychological thriller...In this slim stand-alone, Fossum takes a chilling departure from her popular series featuring Norwegian police inspector Konrad Sejer. The results are a compelling—if unsettling—character study for fans of disturbing psychological suspense". —Library Journal

"[A] first-rate novel of suspense...[A] bleak but clever and compelling standalone." —Publishers Weekly, STARRED

"In the tradition of Patricia Highsmith and Iain Banks, Fossum creates a creepily realistic sociopath, rolling his story out in a spare Scandinavian style that lends the book a classic horror feel...It’s not light reading to climb inside of a sociopath’s brain, but readers who can handle the darkest tales will be rewarded by Fossum’s streamlined, thoughtfully constructed story." —Booklist

"Haunting, twisted, and oddly redemptive." —Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

"Fossum vividly unpacks the mind of a troubled individual in this haunting psychological thriller written from the perspective of a sadistic nurse. Riktor is a fortysomething loner who readily confesses to having an “evil little devil” lurking within his placid exterior. When not working at a nursing home and abusing patients, he sits alone in a park coldly observing others while inwardly longing for affection. One day he reaches out to a fellow lost soul. Inevitably, things go wrong and the police come knocking. To his shock, Riktor is ¬arrested for a different transgression, a murder that he didn’t actually commit, forcing him to prove his innocence without revealing his guilt. The author refuses to cast blame for Riktor’s mental disorder on either society or his upbringing, presenting his squirmy delusions matter-of-factly while still managing to elicit a measure of compassion. VERDICT In this slim stand-alone, Fossum takes a chilling departure from her popular series featuring Norwegian police inspector Konrad Sejer. The results are a compelling—if unsettling—character study for fans of disturbing psychological suspense".--Library Journal

"Riktor, the narrator of this first-rate novel of suspense from Fossum (Broken), works in a nursing home in a small Norwegian town. In almost affectless prose, he describes his circumscribed life, both at the hospital and in his local park, where he observes Miranda, a wheelchair-bound girl; Miranda’s mother; teenage lovers Eddie and Janne; and town drunk Arnfinn. One day, he watches a cross-country skier fall through the ice of a nearby lake, then thrash around helplessly before sinking to his death. Riktor is filled with scorn and a quiet rage, which eventually grows to the point where he begins to abuse his elderly patients. The initially predictable plot takes an unexpected turn after Riktor is arrested for the death of Nelly Friis, one of his patients. “What a wasteland this world is,” the unlikable Riktor muses at one point in this bleak but clever and compelling standalone."--Publishers Weekly, STARRED

"In the tradition of Patricia Highsmith and Iain Banks, Fossum creates a creepily realistic sociopath, rolling his story out in a spare Scandinavian style that lends the book a classic horror feel. Riktor veils his constant analysis of prey beneath a cloak of outward kindness. Hiding behind this persona, Riktor watches for opportunities to indulge his secret game: torturing those he perceives as weak. He is in constant contact with weakness at his nursing job at Løkka nursing home, and he amuses himself by flushing patients’ food and medication, throwing in pinches and scratches for those too infirm to report him. Then a detective appears at Riktor’s home, invading Riktor’s tightly controlled environment and accusing him of killing one of the home’s patients. Riktor isn’t guilty of this one, but everything is connected, and proving his innocence could reveal the misdeeds Riktor has been careful to conceal. It’s not light reading to climb inside of a sociopath’s brain, but readers who can handle the darkest tales will be rewarded by Fossum’s streamlined, thoughtfully constructed story."--Booklist

 

"One of the standouts of the Nordic thriller boom takes a breather from her Inspector Sejer novels in a compact, moody character study about a twisted male nurse who’s finally arrested—albeit for the wrong crime. The clipped flatness of translated Norwegian is well suited to the banally evil Riktor, whose turn toward the light makes you almost believe in moral growth." —Vulture

"Fossum descends deep into the alienated mind of Riktor to create an exquisitely Poe-ish novel of psychological suspense." —More Magazine

"Fossum vividly unpacks the mind of a troubled individual in this haunting psychological thriller...In this slim stand-alone, Fossum takes a chilling departure from her popular series featuring Norwegian police inspector Konrad Sejer. The results are a compelling—if unsettling—character study for fans of disturbing psychological suspense". —Library Journal

"[A] first-rate novel of suspense...[A] bleak but clever and compelling standalone." —Publishers Weekly, STARRED

"In the tradition of Patricia Highsmith and Iain Banks, Fossum creates a creepily realistic sociopath, rolling his story out in a spare Scandinavian style that lends the book a classic horror feel...It’s not light reading to climb inside of a sociopath’s brain, but readers who can handle the darkest tales will be rewarded by Fossum’s streamlined, thoughtfully constructed story." —Booklist

"Haunting, twisted, and oddly redemptive." —Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

“The great Norwegian crime novelist Karin Fossum has a special gift for voices. She’s come up with a humdinger in the first-person narrator of I Can See in the Dark...It’s wrenching.” —Washington Post

"One of the standouts of the Nordic thriller boom." —Vulture “The queen of Norwegian crime fiction, the prolific and brilliant Fossum has riddled the quaint countryside north of Oslo with imagined crimes...In Fossum’s literary thrillers, the crime is almost incidental to a deeper moral crisis: Her killers aren’t madmen but ordinary people driven to monstrous acts.” —Men’s Journal   "Fossum descends deep into the alienated mind of Riktor to create an exquisitely Poe-ish novel of psychological suspense." —More Magazine

"Fossum vividly unpacks the mind of a troubled individual in this haunting psychological thriller...In this slim stand-alone, Fossum takes a chilling departure from her popular series featuring Norwegian police inspector Konrad Sejer. The results are a compelling—if unsettling—character study for fans of disturbing psychological suspense". —Library Journal

"[A] first-rate novel of suspense...[A] bleak but clever and compelling standalone." —Publishers Weekly, STARRED

"In the tradition of Patricia Highsmith and Iain Banks, Fossum creates a creepily realistic sociopath, rolling his story out in a spare Scandinavian style that lends the book a classic horror feel...It’s not light reading to climb inside of a sociopath’s brain, but readers who can handle the darkest tales will be rewarded by Fossum’s streamlined, thoughtfully constructed story." —Booklist

"Haunting, twisted, and oddly redemptive." —Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

"Fossum descends deep into the alienated mind of Riktor to create an exquisitely Poe-ish novel of psychological suspense."--More magazine

"Fossum vividly unpacks the mind of a troubled individual in this haunting psychological thriller written from the perspective of a sadistic nurse. Riktor is a fortysomething loner who readily confesses to having an “evil little devil” lurking within his placid exterior. When not working at a nursing home and abusing patients, he sits alone in a park coldly observing others while inwardly longing for affection. One day he reaches out to a fellow lost soul. Inevitably, things go wrong and the police come knocking. To his shock, Riktor is ¬arrested for a different transgression, a murder that he didn’t actually commit, forcing him to prove his innocence without revealing his guilt. The author refuses to cast blame for Riktor’s mental disorder on either society or his upbringing, presenting his squirmy delusions matter-of-factly while still managing to elicit a measure of compassion. VERDICT In this slim stand-alone, Fossum takes a chilling departure from her popular series featuring Norwegian police inspector Konrad Sejer. The results are a compelling—if unsettling—character study for fans of disturbing psychological suspense".--Library Journal

"Riktor, the narrator of this first-rate novel of suspense from Fossum (Broken), works in a nursing home in a small Norwegian town. In almost affectless prose, he describes his circumscribed life, both at the hospital and in his local park, where he observes Miranda, a wheelchair-bound girl; Miranda’s mother; teenage lovers Eddie and Janne; and town drunk Arnfinn. One day, he watches a cross-country skier fall through the ice of a nearby lake, then thrash around helplessly before sinking to his death. Riktor is filled with scorn and a quiet rage, which eventually grows to the point where he begins to abuse his elderly patients. The initially predictable plot takes an unexpected turn after Riktor is arrested for the death of Nelly Friis, one of his patients. “What a wasteland this world is,” the unlikable Riktor muses at one point in this bleak but clever and compelling standalone."--Publishers Weekly, STARRED

"In the tradition of Patricia Highsmith and Iain Banks, Fossum creates a creepily realistic sociopath, rolling his story out in a spare Scandinavian style that lends the book a classic horror feel. Riktor veils his constant analysis of prey beneath a cloak of outward kindness. Hiding behind this persona, Riktor watches for opportunities to indulge his secret game: torturing those he perceives as weak. He is in constant contact with weakness at his nursing job at Løkka nursing home, and he amuses himself by flushing patients’ food and medication, throwing in pinches and scratches for those too infirm to report him. Then a detective appears at Riktor’s home, invading Riktor’s tightly controlled environment and accusing him of killing one of the home’s patients. Riktor isn’t guilty of this one, but everything is connected, and proving his innocence could reveal the misdeeds Riktor has been careful to conceal. It’s not light reading to climb inside of a sociopath’s brain, but readers who can handle the darkest tales will be rewarded by Fossum’s streamlined, thoughtfully constructed story."--Booklist

"Haunting, twisted, and oddly redemptive."--Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine  

Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Best Mystery/Thriller (The Indian Bride and Broken)

 

 Praise for Karin Fossum and the Inspector Sejer series:

 

"Fossum crafts remarkably incisive psychological suspense: novels that carry the headlong momentum of thrillers and the acuity and weight of literary fiction." —The Washington Post

 

"The next Scandinavian literary superstar." —Chicago Tribune

 

"They never last very long, those anonymous joggers and dog-walkers whose only purpose in a crime story is to trip over the body in the woods. Unless, of course, they figure in a novel by Karin Fossum, who makes it her business—and the business of her uncommonly sensitive Norwegian detective, Inspector Konrad Sejer—to scrutinize in great depth and detail every person touched by a murder." —The New York Times Book Review

 

"I always eagerly await a new novel from Karin Fossum." —Ruth Rendell

 

"A truly great writer and explorer of the human mind."—Jo Nesbo

 

"Sejer is a beautifully created character, a thoughtful, lonely man with great empathy."—Publishers Weekly