The Murder of Harriet Krohn

Locations
Call Number: Mystery / Fossum, Karin, Adult Book / Fiction / Mystery / General / Fossum, Karin
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Westgate Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Mystery / Fossum, Karin	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Mystery / General / Fossum, Karin	4-week checkout	On Shelf

Translation of : Drapet på Harriet Krohn.
"First published with the title Drapet på Harriet Krohn Harriet Krohn in 2004 by Cappelen Damm AS, Oslo" -- Title pages verso.
"Available for the first time in English, the seventh entry in the beloved Inspector Sejer series from Norway's Queen of Crime, Karin Fossum. On a wet, gray night in early November, Charlo Torp, a former gambler who's only recently kicked the habit, makes his way through the slush to Harriet Krohn's apartment, flowers in hand. Certain that paying off his debt is the only path to starting a new life and winning his daughter's forgiveness, Charlo plans to rob the wealthy old woman's antique silver collection. What he doesn't expect is for her to put up a fight. The following morning Harriet is found dead, her antique silver missing, and the only clue Inspector Sejer and his team find in the apartment is an abandoned bouquet. Charlo should feel relieved, but he's heard of Sejer's amazing record -- the detective has solved every case he's ever been assigned to. Told through the eyes of a killer, The Murder of Harriet Krohn poses the question: how far would you go to turn your life around, and could you live with yourself afterward?"-- Provided by publisher.

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Only enjoyable as a character study in desperation, but no mystery here submitted by willow on June 24, 2015, 10:48pm This book is about the circumstances that lead Charlo to attempt to steal from an old lady named Harriet Krohn that he knows somehow (how was never made clear to me), and how this ends in her murder, and what happens next. At no point is there any suspense in this book: we know from the title that she will not survive the burglary, and we are told that the detective is one who always catches the murderer. The basic outline of the plot bears some similarity to Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, although it's worth remembering that Raskolnikov commits his murder to attempt to prove he is exempt from moral restrictions rather than financial reasons.

I anticipated the set-up being somewhat like an episode of Columbo: we see the crime, know who the perpetrator is, and watch the detective figure it out. This book actually is nothing like that. Nor is the detective the sort of force in Crime and Punishment as Porfiry Petrovich is. I had previously read others in the Inspector Sejer series, but not recently, and I'd forgotten all the details. It didn't matter, because he hardly makes an appearance and is utterly one-dimensional.

Charlo is a fairly dull character who, through his addiction to gambling, has found himself both financially and emotionally depleted, and he thinks money will solve his problems and that he can put his crime behind him. Unlike Raskolnikov (in Crime and Punishment), he doesn't appear particularly bothered by the murder itself. I was not very sympathetic towards him, and I was baffled by the back of the book, that posed the question, "How far would you go to turn your life around, and could you live with yourself afterward?" as I did not think either of these questions was addressed in the book. Rather, Charlo was enjoying living off the spoils of the murder. With neither character being particularly interesting, the book seemed flat to me.