Post 328) from Xanga

[artemisdart]

328) My dad gave me an old 1960s detective series set in Sweden, by a Swedish husband-and-wife author team (Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö). I just finished the first one -- Roseanna -- and I'm hooked. Not because of the murder (parts of which are graphic and uncomfortable to read about, even though it's only fictional), but because the atmosphere of the book feels so foreign... so Swedish.

I like murder mysteries; always have. As I get older, however, I savor them more. I used to skip pages and jump ahead just to see who did it. Now I read more slowly, feeling the time pile up in the story and feeling the crushing weight of the law swing around to annihilate the criminal.

Good murder mysteries need to have a strong focal character -- the detective investigating the crime, usually, who has to put up with untold boredom and disappointment before getting a break. Good murder mysteries also transport the reader away to another time and another place, and let us peer over the detective's shoulder, live his life and fill his shoes, watching as he makes yet another poor lifestyle choice in his driven quest to solve the crime. ("Another cup of coffee? This poor guy!")

I enjoy reading a book that absorbs me so thoroughly that I am taken away from the here and now (and, incidentally, given a puzzle to solve at the same time). And of course in murder mysteries, good usually wins out -- only partially, it is usually true, but who can really hope for more than a partial victory?