Bad Intentions

Karin Fossum, Charlotte Barslund (trs.)

Bad Intentions

Early one September, three friends spend the weekend at a remote cabin by Dead Water Lake. With only a pale moon to light their way, they row across the water in the middle of the night. But only two of them return, and they make a pact not to call for help until the following morning. Inspector Sejer leads the investigation when the body is discovered. He is troubled by the apparent suicide and has an overwhelming sense that the surviving pair has something to hide. Weeks pass without further clues, and then in a nearby lake the body of a teenage boy floats to the surface. 4.0 out of 5 based on 4 reviews
Bad Intentions

Omniscore:

Classification Fiction
Genre Crime, Thrillers & Mystery
Format Paperback
Pages 288
RRP £12.99
Date of Publication July 2010
ISBN 978-1846552922
Publisher Harvill Secker
 

Early one September, three friends spend the weekend at a remote cabin by Dead Water Lake. With only a pale moon to light their way, they row across the water in the middle of the night. But only two of them return, and they make a pact not to call for help until the following morning. Inspector Sejer leads the investigation when the body is discovered. He is troubled by the apparent suicide and has an overwhelming sense that the surviving pair has something to hide. Weeks pass without further clues, and then in a nearby lake the body of a teenage boy floats to the surface.

Reviews

The Guardian

Laura Wilson

The seventh Inspector Sejer novel from Norway's leading female crime writer is, like its predecessors, a gem… Employing a straightforward plot and little in the way of police procedure, Fossum concentrates her considerable talents on building up a sense of menace as she explores the corrosive power of guilt. That the crimes portrayed here are the result of on-the-spot stupidity and selfishness rather than more grandiose motives renders Bad Intentions all the more powerful.

10/07/2010

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The Independent

Barry Forshaw

By stripping away the usual police procedurals, Fossum suffuses her fiction with something closer to the unsparing vision of her great predecessor, Knut Hamsun. But this is still a thriller: Fossum never forgets that her primary duty is to entertain, and she keeps her cut-to-the-bone mystery moving briskly.

12/07/2010

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The Times

Marcel Berlins

Fossum’s books are quiet and unsensational, but few match her ability to conjure an atmosphere of emotional as well as geographical desolation.

03/07/2010

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The Sunday Times

Joan Smith

Karin Fossum has been described as “the most important female writer of foreign crime fiction at work today”. The Norwegian novelist writes spare prose with elliptical dialogue, and her latest novel is no exception… This is a battle of wits, conducted with chilly intensity and an unsettling sense of menace.

04/07/2010

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