Tanum, Bærum, in its well-kept villa style: Lisbet Lind, a young mother of two, lives with two children in what was also her childhood home. The man Henrik has turned into an ex. It is almost Easter, and Henrik will take the children to Geilo. The day before, Lisbet finds a very disturbing map attached to the kitchen window. The next day, with ex and children on holiday, she lies on her own kitchen floor. Stabbed, with most of the blood outside the body. That’s how it can go, when the wickedness of the past mixes with the present and someone wants the price paid. The question is who and why. The time when the Past is in this case 1999 and a secondary school in the same Bærum. A shy, silent, different boy named Robert is not tolerated for his insecurity and anxiety. He is bullied, systematically and horribly. Two or three classmates lead the bully train, don’t give up. Several times it comes close to going completely wrong. Here in the pool, practicing lifesaving: Robert holds on to existence by surveying the world, the near and local, just as much as the larger one. He draws maps, a meticulous perfectionist. He wants to be like his father, the navigator, the one who got lost at sea between Denmark and Norway when Robert was little. At home there is little care. Robert and little sister Victoria have to cope as best they can, while mother rests in her own narrow world of sofa, blanket, medicine and Prince on the veranda. Exciting, despite familiar moves, “Kartografen” is told through alternating voices, in a fast pace, alternating between then and the narrative’s now. Each and every character of importance has their own chapters, all told via an omniscient voice. The policeman Persvik, his young colleague Oda, the drunk Sander, Henrik, Lisbet, and so on. Such a narrative technique is by no means a new formula in crime literature – what, on the other hand, is new in this genre? The question is whether the author makes it work, whether she manages the art of suspense in the middle of it all. And so does Anette Hemming, so far along that the prick will approach the petty. Can become superficial One danger with this way of building a story is that the characters can become flat and superficially portrayed. I think that Henrik, Lisbet’s ex-husband, is an example of this problem. He has very different and sometimes contradictory sides. That’s all well and good, but the author can’t quite manage to get the whole thing to hang on the narrative. Henrik remains a bit unclear. On the other side, the reader gets a decent insight into both Robert and the strict investigative leader Persvik. Steer clear of the traps I’m not revealing much when I say that “Kartografen” is also in the genre of stalker novels. That could have made the novel predictable, but even there Hemming steers clear of the pitfalls. Long, while death finds its way and misses some. The hints, those that should inspire the attentive reader to guess and think for themselves, are neatly placed in a sensible way, without being too many or fussy. Like when Henrik has been given a map, it scares him out of his wits, and he calls the police at Persvik: A really good debut. I won’t say what kind, but I am satisfied that Hemming has managed to write stories about fragile young people’s lives and various forms of abuse into the novel, without them seeming sewn in or contrived. That in itself is a good thing, all too often it is the opposite. That it is told with a credible degree of empathy is good. I can probably object that the answer to the big question “who did it?” dawns on the reader early enough in the reading. I still don’t think it spoils the whole. “Kartografen” is quite simply successful, as a debut it is really good. Hello there! I am a freelancer and review literature for news, preferably crime books. Here are some crime books, both recent and classic, that I recommend you read.
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“Kartografen” by Anette Hemming – Reviews and recommendations
