The Murder of Halland [Paperback]

Reading the excellent review above by Andrew Blackman, I am nearly at a loss to add up anything after his great summing-up of the book. Ironically presented as the 'Nordic crime fiction' of the smart Pereine Press, 'the murder of Halland' it is in fact a long way from that genre. Yes a crime is committed at the start and a man dies in mysterious circumstances but then the story progresses in quite an evasive way. Certainly no police procedural here! Bess, the narrator and wife of the dead man, quickly drags us into her dreamy and somehow subtly deranged mental world. Because everything we know of the situation is only presented through Bess's point of vue, you wonder where it's all going and even if she has not in fact played some part in the murder. But nothing here is about solving. Soon you simply enjoy the strangeness, eeriness even, of this tale where nothing is exactly as you expect, where things happen with just enough logic that you believe in it but also with just enough quirkiness that you're a little thrown out of comfort zone. It definitely feels very nordic, you can sense the luminous, surreal, troubled light in the landscape and the people are little odd too, as you imagine them to be in a small village lost in far Denmark. The reactions of Bess to the murder of her husband is at the same time, funny enough, very credible and totally bizarre. And that is only one of the many elements in this wonderful little book, that keep you enraptured all along, a book where you keep being surprised in a very unusual way, and satisfied too in the end, but certainly by no obvious means! A masterful writer that I hope to read again...

A gripping, beautifully written novel, though not a typical crime novel. The narrator, Bess, asks `What am I? Can you tell me who I am?' which captures Bess's urgency to understand not only herself, after Halland is murdered, but also people in her life - family, friends, neighbours.

Bess navigates the aftermath of her beloved's unexpected death, his secrets he kept from her and her inability to share fully her own life with him. Finding the killer is almost secondary to the discoveries Bess makes about her relationship with Halland and people around her.

This novel is a breath of fresh air in the flood of bloody and violent crime novels on the market. Juul gives voice to the forgotten ones, the people who are rarely given a chance to tell their side of the story. The lack of police procedural or a detective as the main character makes this novel stand out.

Each chapter is meticulously constructed, preceded with a quote from various works of fiction which made want to read some of them after I finished reading this intriguing novel.

Translated from the Danish by Martin Aitken.

Bess has been working late and never made it to bed. When she awakens, Halland is gone. The doorbell rings and having opened the door, Bess learns that Halland has been shot.

This is the story of a crime, and there is a death and an accusation of murder within the first three pages, and possible suspects are revealved, but it is not an everyday crime novel; instead the author has taken a different route here. This novel explores the psychological aspects of loss experienced by Bess, her reactions, her erratic, confused thinking, her struggle to cope in the wake of her bereavement. 'My mind ran on two parallel tracks: one thinking about nothing, merely existing, the other churning out unpleasant explanations.' The author demonstrates how grief makes Bess's behaviour unusual, curious, almost absurd at times.

Narrated throughout in the first person by Bess, a complex character, we have a stark and intimate portrayal of someone in the traumatic aftermath of losing their partner, experiencing a sudden bereavement and this causing them to re-examine their life. Bess almost immediately thinks about a previous loss that she has experienced in her life of someone close to her, and of the regret that that relationship is not a close one. Halland's death makes her rethink what, and who, is important in her life, and how well she really knew Halland, as she discovers his secrets. There is little input from the detective investigating the death, and when there is, it is all from Bess's perspective.

The author effectively conveys Bess's confusion and uncertainty in how to behave in the way that she asks herself many questions and doubts her ability to remember with clarity: 'What did we say to each other in those days? What did we ever say?' or to be able to decide what would be appropriate behaviour - how does one pick up the pieces and deal with the mundance after such a shock? 'At what point would I cancel an engagement?'

I found this an interesting, challenging read. I was fascinated to learn how Bess would cope after the death of Halland, and at times I was surprised by her behaviour. In some ways I found the story a challenge, in that the author cleverly played with my expectations and perceptions of what would happen. This style results in a story that is, for me, both intriguing and yet at times difficult to actually enjoy and a little frustrating due to the strangeness; but having said that, it offers an intellectual challenge to the reader to experience something different to the norm, and I glad to have been open to this experience and to have read this work. And something that struck me was that always there is the constant presence of nature in the background throughout the book, the glittering sunlight on the fjord.

To paraphrase the commentator quoted in praise of the book, this novel (and the others published by this press) are almost like a chance to spend a couple of hours experiencing a thought-provoking European film but in literary form. It is a beautifully designed and presented volume.

This book won the most important literary prize in Denmark in 2009 when it was published there. It is part of the Small Epic series of three works being published this year by Peirene Press, who publish contemporary European literature they identify as 'throught provoking, well designed and short.'