We Know You Remember - Tove Alsterdal
- marymary
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We Know You Remember - Tove Alsterdal
Tove Alsterdal is apparently really well known in the Nordic Noir genre of Crime fiction but this was my first encounter with her work. The novel won the best Swedish crime novel award in 2020 and the best Nordic Crime novel in 2021 so it’s obviously considered one of the best by those who know.
It starts off promisingly enough, with a man returning to his old family home to discover that his father has been murdered and the dog has been shut into the kitchen and has obviously been there for some time. The complication for the police when they arrive, is that the son has already been in jail for a murder he admitted committing when he was fourteen.
The novel looks at themes of Swedish attitudes to sexual relationships, cognitive decline, alcoholism, small town community hive minds, police corruption etc.
The murder that the son admitted to has never had a recovered body so when a limb resurfaces from a nearby lake the obvious conclusion to jump to is that it belongs to the murdered girl. However the limb turns out to be a different person and now two, or possibly three, investigations begin.
The ending took me by surprise because I thought there should have been more exposition. It wasn’t that we didn’t find out who had committed the various crimes along the way, it was just that the “but what about…and what happens next?” questions are left to the reader to resolve.
4/5
It starts off promisingly enough, with a man returning to his old family home to discover that his father has been murdered and the dog has been shut into the kitchen and has obviously been there for some time. The complication for the police when they arrive, is that the son has already been in jail for a murder he admitted committing when he was fourteen.
The novel looks at themes of Swedish attitudes to sexual relationships, cognitive decline, alcoholism, small town community hive minds, police corruption etc.
The murder that the son admitted to has never had a recovered body so when a limb resurfaces from a nearby lake the obvious conclusion to jump to is that it belongs to the murdered girl. However the limb turns out to be a different person and now two, or possibly three, investigations begin.
The ending took me by surprise because I thought there should have been more exposition. It wasn’t that we didn’t find out who had committed the various crimes along the way, it was just that the “but what about…and what happens next?” questions are left to the reader to resolve.
4/5
- Leigh
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Re: We Know You Remember - Tove Alsterdal
Sounds interesting. If I could only be motivated enough to spend more time to read.....
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- Quaver
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- marymary
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Re: We Know You Remember - Tove Alsterdal
Maybe?
My grandfather used to say, why go to the cinema if you can see it on TV in a few years?
My grandfather used to say, why go to the cinema if you can see it on TV in a few years?