The Inspector And Silence (2010) - Plot & Excerpts
"There's a time for everything."A proposta da ex-mulher para passar as duas semanas que dispõe de férias com ela, os filhos adultos e os netos é para o Inspector Van Veeteren um ultraje. Ele prefere usufruir do seu tempo livre sozinho e, por essa razão, faz uma reserva para descansar 15 dias em Creta. É com surpresa e alegria - sentimento que raramente o acompanha - que na agência de viagens encontra Ulrike, mulher de umas das vitimas mortais, do caso por ele resolvido há alguns meses atrás ("A Woman With a Birthmark"), com quem simpatizou no primeiro instante. Coincidência ou destino, ouve-a planear a viagem e reservar alojamento para o mesmo destino por ele escolhido. E é assim que, pela primeira vez, vemos Van Veeteren de bom humor, extremamente bem disposto, ansioso pela nova fase da sua vida. Desejoso por se reformar, sente-se tentado a tornar-se sócio de uma livraria local (cujo desejo de parceria, do dono actual, está disposto na montra), imaginando uma reforma acolhedora a jogar xadrez e ouvir música clássica. Longe do mundo do crime que só o faz sentir-se deprimido e impotente e do qual apenas quer distância.Contrariamente, com os 37 graus toda a equipa está mal humorada e sem vontade de trabalhar. As férias aproximam-se e todos desejam que nada grave aconteça nas próximas duas semanas que os impeça de as gozar livremente, como aconteceu há dois anos atrás. Em contraste com o frio quase insuportável do "A Woman With a Birthmark" está um calor infernal, no final de Julho. Contudo, mesmo sob calor tórrido que atormenta a população, o Inspector continua a jogar badminton com Münster, o seu melhor amigo eternamente paciente e compreensivo. E é tudo um mar de rosas até Van Veeteren ser chamado pelo substituto do chefe polícia, a quem deve um favor, da cidade Sorbinowo. Uma mulher telefonou para a esquadra, disse que uma criança foi assassinada e exigiu uma tomada da acção da policia. Contudo, nenhum corpo foi encontrado."A Vida Pura" contra "O Outro Mundo"A investigação foca-se numa seita religiosa que tem a cargo um grupo de 12 raparigas, que estão no seu campo de férias de verão. O grupo intitula-se "A Vida Pura" (The Pure Life) e é liderado por um homem muito peculiar, que é ajudado por três mulheres. Este líder chega a ser mesmo assustador, causando apenas desdém a Van Veeteren. No contexto da chamada telefónica o Inspector vê-se na obrigação de confrontar o estranho grupo, deparando-se com um problema de maior, que vai persistir ao longo de todo o livro. A falta de comunicação é quase surreal, tanto as crianças como os adultos se recusam a falar com os "de fora", principalmente com a policia.É então que aparece um corpo. O Inspector vê-se assim inserido numa realidade obscura, pela qual apenas sente aversão. Os sentimentos de frustração e impotência são cada vez maiores, à medida que tenta descobrir o assassino e anseia pelo fim do caso. Por outro lado, Van Veeteren é apenas um consultor na cidade vizinha, e não o encarregado como normalmente acontece, portanto aproveita o que Sorbinowo tem para oferecer: come em bons restaurantes, bebe cervejas em locais agradáveis e aproveita para andar de canoa e reflectir.Münster e Reinhart não estão presentes fisicamente, mas fazem parte do pensamento de Van Veeteren.O Inspector sente a falta da ajuda dos dois colegas e apercebe-se que nesse sentido sempre foi mimado. Apenas deixou um caso por resolver em toda a sua carreira e a investigação actual parece querer seguir o mesmo caminho. A sua intuição está adormecida, as suas acções e decisões são uma perda de tempo, bem como as informações recolhidas que não podiam ser mais inúteis. Para tornar tudo mais insuportável, Van Veeteren é ateu e o seu cepticismo perante as crenças religiosas torna os acontecimentos ainda mais horríveis e incompreensíveis."Reason has an elder sister, never forget that. She's called Intuition."O Inspector tem o dom para as palavras e a construção complexa dos seus pensamentos torna-os memoráveis e sonantes. É de destacar que nem mesmo Van Veeteren, o próprio autor das suas reflexões privadas, sabe o que significam ou implicam as palavras que lhe surgem na mente. Fica mesmo impressionado com esta sua capacidade única, que não sabe como surgiu. Quanto a Münster é o único que a admira e compreende, o que é possível de compreender, claro. Muitas vezes, esta capacidade criativa leva ao surgimento inevitável de questões pertinentes, que ficam sem resposta e situações embaraçosas, onde domina o silêncio. Van Veeteren é um homem de poucas palavras que muito valoriza a reflexão. E raramente partilha o que lhe vai na mente complexa e muito - mesmo muito - interessante.Apesar da seriedade do tema retratado, envolto num mistério intenso por Håkan Nesser, o livro é rico em humor, como todos os que lhe antecedem. E, como não podia deixar de ser, o acaso volta a desempenhar um papel fundamental no desfecho. Mais do que profissionalismo e intuição, Van Veeteren joga com os elementos que lhe são dados pela realidade."That was precisely what everything boiled down to: dreams."
Left to man the Sorbinowo police station while the chief takes time off to get over the death of his wife, Sergeant Merwin Kluuge isn't expecting much trouble in this bit of paradise. But it's not long until he receives an anonymous call from a woman claiming that a little girl has disappeared from a camp in Waldingen run by the Pure Life religious sect. The people at the camp say everyone's accounted for. The next day he gets yet another anonymous phone call from the same woman, who threatens to go to the press if Kluuge doesn't do something. But what sends him into a minor panic, and has him reaching for the phone to call the Mardaam police is when she says that if continues to do nothing, "they'll kill some more." His chief had left orders not to be disturbed and to call Maardam if anything came up, because Van Veeteren owed him. Of course, V.V. is not happy about this, since he's bought a plane ticket for Crete, but off he goes to Sorbinowo. But when he gets to the Pure Life camp, the group will hardly give him the time of day, and swear that no one's disappeared. He's allowed to talk to some of the girls, but they're not saying much. The next day, the body of a young girl is discovered -- she had been raped and murdered. But Van Veeteren realizes that something's off -- he recognizes the dead girl as one of those to whom he had just spoken to the day before. So if she had been alive the day before, how could she be the missing girl the caller warned about earlier? So what happened to that girl? It isn't long until Van Veeteren and the police get their answer. Complicating the issue is the fact that the small group at the Pure Life camp, with the exception of one girl who is very upset, is not talking. No matter how much Van Veeteren and the others question them, nobody is saying a word -- or when they do, it's to extol the virtues of their religious beliefs and to put down those living in "the Other World." The leader, Yellinek, has disappeared; no one knows anything about it -- or if they do, they're not saying anything. Frustrated, Van Veeteren knows that this case will not be easy to crack -- first he has to break through the wall of silence. This is a fascinating book, actually, one that showcases V.V. at his best. While he pleads with the members of Pure Life to offer up any information they can to help find the murder and rapist of two young girls, nobody seems to care about anything except maintaining the integrity of the sect and defending their missing leader. Small wonder that he has his eye on trading years of police work for a partnership in an antiquarian book store -- seriously, you can sense his frustration leaping off of the pages. Although the crimes in The Inspector and Silence are particularly horrifying, Nesser as usual uses some moments of sarcasm and humor to ease the tension. He also continues the tradition of great characterization and a powerful sense of place, elements that never waver throughout any of his novels. While many people said they didn't care for this book, I thought it was one of the better ones in the series.Definitely recommended for Scandinavian crime fiction readers, but do start with book one in the series. The Van Veeteren novels really are more on the cerebral, rather than the action-packed side, so if you're looking for someone a la Nesbø or Stieg Larsson, you won't find it here -- and this begs the question as to why on the cover of my copy there is a blurb from the Sunday Times saying "[Nesser] is being favorably compared with Henning Mankell and Stieg Larsson." Nesser doesn't need to compare favorably -- he has his own style which is every bit as good or even better than the authors with whom he is "being favorably compared."
What do You think about The Inspector And Silence (2010)?
I read this during a plane ride to Sweden and coincidentally sat next to a woman who was from the author's home town. Although I got a kick out of the main character, Inspector Van Veteren, VV for short, I thought VV was a little short on the detecting side of things. I discovered the murderer in the first 100 pages and had to wait another 150 pages while VV dawdled, drank and detected, before he found the culprit. While the settings were interesting, taking place in some fictional Northern European country, I found this to be a yawner for the most part. I will not be reading any more of these, even though the author has been acclaimed in his native Sweden.
—Corny
My first introduction to Håkan Nesser, “The Inspector and silence” affords the reader a thoroughly enjoyable sojourn to Sorbinowo, a forested Swedish lake side town. Looks can be deceptive however and the forest, along with the town, hides a dark secret that local police cannot fathom – enter chief inspector Van Veeteren.When I began reading “The Inspector and silence” which is incidentally the fifth in a series of ten books to be released in the UK, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect having never heard of either Håkan or indeed Van Veeteren! It became clear to me within a couple of chapters that the narrative, considering it hails from Swedish descent, was engaging and fluid. Having now read the book to its conclusion, much to my surprise, I can now confirm that this fluidity remained throughout allowing a rapid and entertaining read. I can’t remember reading another translated novel that read so effortlessly – plaudits to Nesser and of course the translation services of Laurie Thompson. “In the heart of summer, the country swelters in a fug of heat. In the beautiful forested lake-town of Sorbinowo, Sergeant Merwin Kluuge’s tranquil existence is shattered when he receives a phone-call from an anonymous woman. She tells him that a girl has gone missing from the summer camp of the mysterious The Pure Life, a religious sect buried deep in the woods. Chief Inspector Van Veeteren is recruited to help solve the mystery.But Van Veeteren’s investigations at The Pure Life go nowhere fast. The strange priest-like figure who leads the sect -Oscar Yellineck- refuses even to admit anyone is missing. Things soon take a sinister turn, however, when a young girl’s body is discovered in the woods, raped and strangled; and Yellineck himself disappears. Yet even in the face of these new horrors, the remaining members of the sect refuse to co-operate with Van Veeteren, remaining largely silent.As the body count rises, a media frenzy descends upon the town and the pressure to find the monster behind the murders weighs heavily on the investigative team. Finally Van Veeteren realises that to solve this disturbing case, faced with silence and with few clues to follow, he has only his intuition to rely on. . .”Full review on my blog:- http://www.milorambles.com/2011/04/16...
—Miles
De kaft van een boek bestudeer ik meestal niet echt, maar in dit geval fascineerde hij me. Die hand. Voor of achter die mond? Van wie is die hand? Van het meisje zelf, of van iemand anders, die haar wil laten zwijgen?Dit is precies, waar dit boek over gaat.Er is een zomerkamp in een afgelegen plaats in Zweden. Het is er mooi. De deelnemers van het kamp zijn allemaal meisjes van 12 jaar en iets ouder. De leiding wordt gevormd door drie, in naturelkleurige gewaden gestoken dames en een wat onduidelijke man, die als geestelijk leider optreedt. Hij heeft het voor het zeggen. Hij werpt zich op als leider van zijn eigen kerk. Of is het een sekte?Dan verdwijnt een van de meisjes. Op het politiebureau komt een telefoontje binnen van een onbekende vrouw. De leiding van het kamp ontkent, dat een van hun pupillen verdwenen is en ook de meisjes zeggen niets van een verdwenen meisje te weten.De plaatselijk commissaris is op vakantie en er is een waarnemer. Die roept de hulp in van commissaris Van Vleeteren, die in andere boeken van Nesser voorkomt. Hij roept zijn intuïtie te hulp. Hij denkt na, observeert, probeert met mensen te praten, maar iedereen zwijgt. Dan wordt het lichaam van een ander meisje gevonden.Een echte Scandinavische thriller, met een sympathieke commissaris en veel oog voor de gebeurtenissen in de levens van de speurders. Nadat ik een eerste boek van nesser had gelezen en er enthousiast over was, viel dit beslist niet tegen.
—Weaverannie
