Move over, Harry Hole: A Review of Closed for Winter (A William Wisting Mystery) by Jorn Lier Horst

The cornucopia of crime and detective novels coming out of Scandinavia unnerves me. Those affluent and chill residents of the north land with good government are subject to some very nasty criminals, at least according to their crime writers. Starting with Steig Larson and his dragon-tattooed heroine, to Henning Menkell (via television for me) to Jo Nesbo, we get a very different look at Scandinavia. Now I’ve added Jorn Lier Horst to my list of Scandinavian crime writers, and he’s a worthy addition. 

Unlike fellow Norwegian cop Harry Hole from Jo Nesbo, Lier Horst’s Wisting isn’t confronted—in this book at least—with psychopaths and persons bent on deep revenge. Instead, Wisting has to deal with, well, criminals, the sort that you encounter if you’ve had anything to do with the criminal justice system, as I have. Unlike criminals on screen or in fiction, most persons charged with crimes are screw-ups first and foremost. A few are professional, and fewer still are deadly. A police officer has to sort it all out, the dumb, the opportunistic, and the calculating. Sorting it all out is what William Wisting must do. 

Lier Horst was a cop until very recently, and it shows. Lier Horst displays an appreciation of the mundane challenges of policing, such as gathering evidence, dealing with co-workers and other agencies, interviewing witnesses and suspects, leading a personal life, and so on. Not always glamorous, but then how much of life is glamorous? I found Wisting an appealing character for his plainness and the realism of the plot. In my two forays with Jo Nesbo, The Redbreast and then The Snowman, I found the plots a bit too contrived, the villains too psychopathically sinister, and Harry Hole experiencing too many cliffhangers. Lier Horst’s effort in Closed for Winter avoids this fault. It intrigues by remaining largely prosaic. 

So Wisting now goes onto my list along with Arkady Renko, John Rebus, and John Marshall Tanner as characters that I will join again for another case.

Knots & Crosses by Ian Rankin

 

Some detectives you meet stick with you. Sam Spade, Phillip Marlowe, Spenser, Arkady Renko, Harry Hole, and John Marshall Tanner (of whom I am not the creator), come to mind. To this list, I must add John Rebus. I’d listened to one Rebus book some time ago, but I was lucky to find this, the initial Rebus book by author Ian Rankin, published in 1987. John Rebus is a police officer in Edinburgh, Scotland. Divorced, with a young daughter, a brother, a love of Scotch (the whiskey), some faith, and a past, Rebus is a round character. Typical of this genre, Rebus is neither a model of rectitude nor a model crime fighter. He lacks the suave confidence of Bogey’s Spade or Marlowe. Rebus, like many of his detective fiction contemporaries, is far too vulnerable.

As the book opens, someone is kidnapping girls. Rebus gets pulled into the investigation as he deals with his own life. His relationship with his brother, his ex, his daughter, an attractive fellow officer—you get the drift—all pull upon him. Rankin digs into the messiness of life in creating this character. Rankin’s prose is medium; descriptive without excessive detail, but not the sparse, hard-boiled prose of many of the outstanding Americans.

I’ve already mapped out what book in the series comes next. I’ll be visiting Rebus again, but then, some of his peers listed above still beckon.

P.S. I found this book in Jaipur in a bookshop. Read a paperback copy. Good luck to have found it!