The Return: An Inspector Van Veeteren Mystery (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)

The Return: An Inspector Van Veeteren Mystery (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) | Hakan Nesser | "All is transient, arbitrary, coincidental, and obscure."

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The Return: An Ins...

	The Return: An Inspector Van Veeteren Mystery (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) Hakan Nesser Vintage, 2008 - 336 pages average customer review:based on 9 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Chief Inspector Van Veeteren is forced to unlock the secrets of a nearly perfect murder in this taut psychological thriller.

On a rainy April day, a body?or what is left of it?is found by a young girl. Wrapped in a blanket with no hands, feet, or head, it signals the work of a brutal, methodical killer. The victim, Leopold Verhaven, was a track star before he was convicted for killing two of his ex-lovers. He consistently proclaimed his innocence, however, and was killed on the day of his return to society. This latest murder is more than a little perplexing and Chief Inspector Van Veeteren is determined to discover the truth, even if it means taking the law into his own hands.

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Another great Scandinavian writer

Another excellent example of mystery writing that does NOT depend on sex, violence and four letter words to tell a story that keeps you wondering about the outcome. You soon feel you know Van Veeteren and the conditions he works under as if they are old friends. You really feel the chill and damp of Scandinavian winters.

"All is transient, arbitrary, coincidental, and obscure."

Hakan Nesser's "The Return" takes place in 1994 in an unnamed northern European country. A six-year-old girl finds the torso of a homicide victim who was dumped in the woods with his head, hands, and feet removed. The police eventually identify the corpse as Leopold Verhaven, an eccentric who had spent over twenty years in prison for murdering two women, one in 1962, and the second in 1981. Verhaven, who had a bad reputation and an off-putting personality, was tried and found guilty in the press and was subsequently convicted based on circumstantial evidence. Although he stoically accepted his punishment, Verhaven consistently maintained his innocence.

Nesser's protagonist is the irreverent, sarcastic, and brilliantly intuitive Detective Chief Inspector Van Veeteren (nicknamed VV), who is intrigued by the Verhaven case. Unfortunately, he is temporarily sidetracked when he enters the hospital for surgery. His right-hand man, Munster, dutifully visits his workaholic boss and keeps him informed while he recuperates. VV familiarizes himself with Verhaven's background and becomes fascinated by the investigation's twists and turns.

"The Return" is a chilling police procedural that is enhanced by a healthy dose of black humor, witty repartee, and a narrative rich in vivid detail. As is the case in so many novels of this type, the detectives laboriously explore numerous leads, most of which turn out to be dead ends. Nesser moves back and forth in time, enabling the reader to observe key events through the eyes of Verhaven, his acquaintances, and the police officers who struggle to unravel the tangled threads of a crime that may be impossible to solve. In addition, the author has created a colorful group of minor characters, including the victim's neighbors in the small "rural backwater" of Kaustin where he lived, the judge who helped put Verhaven in prison, and the police chief, who angrily tells VV that if he cannot close the case quickly, he should summarily drop it and move on.

When VV finally takes charge of the inquiry, he uses his keen powers of observation and out-of-the box thinking to identify a clever and so far, extremely lucky killer. However, is there enough evidence to prove the perpetrator's guilt? VV engages in some uncharacteristic soul searching, as he tries to find a way to punish someone who may very well be untouchable. "The Return" is gripping and suspenseful, and it has a fluid prose style for which the translator, Laurie Thompson, deserves much credit. This compulsively readable novel raises thorny and unsettling questions about the difficulty of obtaining perfect justice in a world that is often cruel, unjust, and unpredictable.

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I have discovered that all human evil comes from this; man's being unable to sit still in a room.

It was an early morning in August; Leopold Verhaven walks free after serving twenty four years in prison for double murder. He feels the first rays of warmth from the sun on his face; his aim, to quietly return home. On a rainy day the following April a child on a field trip wanders off into the woods alone, frantically the adults and party of friends search for the young girl they find her safe but disturbingly sitting next to a mutilated corpse half wrapped in carpet.

A new case for Chief Inspector Van Veeteren or was it? His stubborn determination not to let a case go unsolved, even if it was from a hospital bed while recovering from surgery. The decomposing body is soon identified as a local man the murderer Leopold Verhaven or so they believe. Van Veeteren becomes rattled at this news, his quick to reopen the old cases for the killings of Verhaven two lovers. Could it be that Verhaven had been judged by character and not by evidence all those years ago, was it never on anyone lips he may have been innocent? Maybe Verhaven really did commit those crimes and now this lastest killing is someone's act of revenge at long last. The only way to solve this present case was to review old documentation with complicated history of what now could be a few near perfect murders.

This Swedish series is coming to us translated out of order and quiet some years later. The Return I certainly prefered much more to the pervious novel, one small drawback for me, I felt some other police characters part of Inspector Van Veeteren team needed to be a bit more developed, you get the feeling you touch base with them but something is being held back, still we may learn more as the translation series goes on.

One character that really shines through in this book is Van Veeteren, after his serious surgical procedure his in a lighter philosophical mood with more humor and irony surfacing; and with that wonderful no nonsense attitude that I just happen to love, he couldn't go wrong. He also faces the prospect in this one of taking the law into his own hands, as he realizes the flaws in the justice system. Van Veeteren overstepping certain boundaries is very intriguing to read.

Another reason I found The Return more enjoyable would be the jump back and forth in time looking at different angles into a close-knit community with changes taking place and testimony from witnesses being broken down. We as the readers are let lose for a while, staying one step ahead of the police, the author gives to us a little extra piece of information on a certain date and time line, I found that very clever and interesting.

Håkan Nesser the Author worked as a teacher in Uppsala before turning his hand to writing Novels. In Sweden, his detective stories around Inspector Van Veeteren has received numerous honors. After reading this Novel I'm looking forward to future books in translation from this Author.

Wonderful psychological thriller. Recommended.

Andrea Bowhill

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Nesser at his best!

Kept me on the edge of my seat!
Well written. Great characters. Great story.
Loved Brookman Point as well.

murder where it's cold

The Return is the second book (at least in the US) by Hakan Nesser, and continues the story of Inspector Van Veeteren, a very wise detective who has pretty much seen it all. As the story opens, the Inspector is in the hospital having surgery. A decapitated torso, also minus its hands and feet, was discovered by a little girl during a pre-school class outing in the woods. There is one telltale piece of physical evidence that may identify the body and it turns out to be a recently-released murderer who's returned to the area. But who killed him? And why? This is what Van Veeteren must discover, trusting the fieldwork to his subordinates while he's laid up at the hospital. This book is more of a psychological thriller rather than a straightforward mystery, and frankly, while it was good, it wasn't as good as Borkmann's Point, the series predecessor. Oh well -- I still enjoyed it a great deal and would gladly recommend it. I would recommend starting with Borkmann's Point -- you get a lot of Van Veeteren's quirkiness laid out at the very beginning in that first series novel. The writing is well done, the characterizations are excellent, and the story is quite good. The book shifts backwards and forward in time, so be careful. The ending was unexpected; I understood why the author made it so but it is definitely food for thought if you're so inclined. I'd recommend it to people who have read Borkmann's Point, and those who enjoy a mystery set in foreign countries. As noted, it is more psychological than action, but it does tie together well.

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reviews: page 1, 2

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