Hakan Nesser - Borkmann's Point

review by Malcolm Martland on show 29th September 2011
When I saw the title of this book, I thought it sounded a little bit like a New World Cabernet Sauvignon, or perhaps a wine from South East Australia.
From the cover:
Borkmann’s point was hardly a rule; in fact, it was more of a comment, a landmark for tricky cases . . . In every investigation, he maintained, there comes a point beyond which we don’t really need any more information. When we reach that point, we already know enough to solve the case by means of nothing more than some decent thinking etc.
My review.
I seem to be reading more and more Nordic Noir these days but far from the fraught and depressed Kurt Wallander Detective Chief Inspector van Veeteren enjoys a leisurely afternoon with wine and pastries or cake a game of chess with a colleague a pleasant walk by the sea. In this novel he's on holiday by the seaside with his son who is on parole from prison for drugs offences. He is not getting onto well with the relationship and wishes he was back at work when there is a murder in a nearby town and he is offered the chance to extend his holiday and go and help out floundering local police force.
It transpires that the latest murder is the second of a similar type. The victim staggering home late from the pub one might is attacked by a mad axemen who almost severs his head. Van Veeteren quickly makes himself at home in a comfortable hotel and acquaints himself with the local chief of police who is shortly to retire. They get on famously and start to make serious inroads into the police chief's massive ancient fine wine store! Then there is a third attack this time a young doctor who is discovered by his girlfriend lying in a pool of blood in the hallway of their apartment but this time with the axe left embedded in his back.

Witness statements pour in and the Department is overloaded with information and van Veeteren is left to ponder over the information between his high teas and Danish pastries.

Then a woman detective is kidnapped and things hot up a bit. Van Veeteren finds himself a witness having seen her going for a run only shortly before. But of course he solves the whole mystery before local police chief, and fellow chessplayer, retires. Van Veeteren probably goes back to his hotel and rewards himself with a glass of beer and maybe some bratwurst before having a nice dinner somewhere, he "could think of no better companion than a good meal".

Although these mysteries don't have the hard edge of the Wallander novels I find myself enjoying them and am now on my third!

Malcolm Martland broadcast on RadioScilly 107.9 FM, 29 September 2011