The Mind's Eye (Inspector Van Veeteren, #1) (The Van Veeteren) (Inspector Van Veeteren Mysteries)

by Hakan Nesser

Laurie Thompson (Translator)

A Swedish crime writer as thrilling as Mankell, a detective as compelling as Wallander . . .

The Mind's Eye by Håkan Nesser is the first novel in the stunning Van Veeteren series.

Janek Mitter stumbles into his bathroom one morning after a night of heavy drinking, to find his beautiful young wife, Eva, floating dead in the bath. She has been brutally murdered. Yet even during his trial Mitter cannot summon a single memory of attacking Eva, nor a clue as to who could have killed her if he had not. Only once he has been convicted and locked away in an asylum for the criminally insane does he have a snatch of insight – but is it too late?

Drawing a blank after exhaustive interviews, Chief Inspector Van Veeteren remains convinced that something, or someone, in the dead woman's life has caused these tragic events. But the reasons for her speedy remarriage have died with her. And as he delves even deeper, Van Veeteren realizes that the past never stops haunting the present . . .

The Mind's Eye is followed by the tensely gripping Borkmann's Point.

• ISBN10: 0330478389
• ISBN13: 9780330478380
• Publish Date: 23 February 2011 (first published 1 January 2008)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan
• Imprint: Pan Books
• Format: eBook (EPUB)
• Pages: 416
• Language: English

Reviews

[Aidan Brack (Mysteries Ahoy)]

The result is a book that intrigued me but left me hungry for more. Van Veeteren can be quite funny, albeit in a sort of dour and sarcastic way, and I would have liked more to delve a little deeper into his character to understand him better. Similarly I liked a lot of the characters who struck me as well-observed, particularly the rather odious headmaster of the school Mitter worked at, but Nesser stacks all the most entertaining figures at the start of the story.

Read my full review at Mysteries Ahoy!