Where Monsters Dwell by Jorgen Brekke

Category: 50 Books

wheremonstersdwell

wheremonstersdwell

What do we want?

SCANDICRIME!

When do we want it?

IN MY FACE RIGHT NOW!

Where Monsters Dwell is Jorgen Brekke’s debut novel, and let me just say, this is an ambitious crime novel. Here’s the synopsis from the jacket:

A murder at the Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia, bears a close resemblance to one in Trondheim, Norway. The corpse of the museum curator in Virginia is found flayed in his office by the cleaning staff; the corpse of an archivist at the library in Norway, is found inside a locked vault used to store delicate and rare books. Richmond homicide detective Felicia Stone and Trondheim police inspector Odd Singsaker find themselves working on similar murder cases, committed the same way, but half a world away. And both murders are somehow connected to a sixteenth century palimpsest book—The Book of John—which appears to be a journal of a serial murderer back in 1529 Norway, a book bound in human skin.

A Renaissance serial killer, Edgar Allan Poe, a super-old mystery book, and a Norwegian murder mystery? What’s not to like?

Well, first of all, there are too many timelines going on in this book. We have the 1500s, the present in the USA and Norway, Felicia Stone’s teen years, and a few years back when John Vatten’s family was murdered. It’s a lot to take in. I wish the 16th century stuff could’ve all been done with at the beginning instead of interspersed throughout the book.

The Edgar Allan Poe stuff, of which there was very little to do with Poe (There’s nil to do with Poe, really.), and the mystery in Virginia connecting to one in Norway was really a stretch when it came right down to it, and it seriously complicated things. Complications are not always bad, mind you, but in this case it didn’t add anything worthwhile to the story.

The detectives, Felicia Stone and Odd Singsaker, are solid characters. The author does a great job with their backgrounds giving the reader a good feel for the characters.

There was a very gratuitous blow job in this book that was so absurd I believe I mumbled, “Obviously a male wrote this garbage.” It was ridiculous and felt pretty juvenile.

I know I’m being harsh on this book, and I think I’m doing it because this book could really be a good one, if the author would trim some of the fat off (skip the Edgar Allan Poe tease, really cut back [cut, get it?] on the 16th century surgeon/killer parts) and tighten up the mystery. The Book of MacGuffin John added some creepy curiosity, but then fell flat.

I did enjoy the nod to Jo Nesbo’s character Harry Hole. It was cleverly done without naming names, and it made me smile. It felt like a high-five to other readers of scandicrime.

To sum up, this is an ambitious first novel. Too ambitious. If it had been less grand, I would have really loved this book. You can tell the author is a reader, and he’s got some writing chops. I look forward to a second novel, and I hope the author settles down and really finds his stride.

This book is available February 2014.

 

 

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