Bad Intentions

In the wake of Stieg Larsson’s best-selling novels, readers are discovering the rich trove of modern Scandinavian crime fiction. If you’ve devoured the Millennium trilogy and are looking for your next read, Karin Fossum and her bone-chillingly bleak psychological thrillers have won the admiration of the likes of Ruth Rendell and Colin Dexter (of Inspector Morse fame).

In Bad Intentions, the newest installment in the Inspector Sejer series since The Water’s Edge in 2009, Konrad Sejer must face down his memories and fears as he struggles to determine why the corpses of troubled young men keep surfacing in local lakes.

The first victim, Jon Moreno, was getting better. His psychiatrist said so, and so did his new friend at the hospital, Molly Gram, with her little-girl-lost looks. He was racked by a mysterious guilt that had driven him to a nervous breakdown one year earlier. But when he drowns in Dead Water Lake, Sejer hesitates to call it a suicide.

Then another corpse is found in a lake, a Vietnamese immigrant. And Sejer begins to feel his age weigh on him. Does he still have the strength to pursue the elusive explanations for human evil?

Review"I not only enjoyed it but admired it, too. I also found it playing in my head for a long time afterwards, the effect on the reader every writer surely longs for." — Lesley McDowell, *Sunday Herald

"The seventh Inspector Sejer novel from Norway's leading female crime writer is, like its predecessors, a gem." — Laura Wilson, Guardian"Few match her ability to conjure an atmosphere of emotional as well as geographical desolation." — Marcel Berlins, The Times*

From the Inside Flap“Fascinatingly readable and very cleverly done.”—Colin Dexter, author of the Inspector Morse series

In this chilling addition to the internationally best-selling Inspector Konrad Sejer series, the detective must face down his memories and fears as he investigates the deaths of two troubled young men. The first victim, Jon Moreno, was getting better after a mysterious guilt had driven him to a nervous breakdown one year earlier. His psychiatrist said so, as did his new friend at the hospital, Molly Gram, with her little-girl-lost looks. So when he drowns in Dead Water Lake, Sejer hesitates to call it a suicide. Then the corpse of another young man is found, a Vietnamese immigrant. And Sejer begins to feel his age weigh on him. Does he still have the strength to pursue the elusive explanations for human evil?A harrowing, masterfully wrought mystery from the celebrated Karin Fossum.

Translated from the Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund