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.
