The Whisperer - (Inspector Sejer Mysteries) by Karin Fossum (Paperback)

About the Book

This psychologically acute thriller from the queen of Norwegian crime fiction asks: How does a lonely, quiet woman come to brutally kill a man?

Book Synopsis

This psychologically acute thriller from the queen of Norwegian crime fiction asks: How does a lonely, quiet woman come to brutally kill a man?

Ragna Riegel is a woman of routines. She sits in the same seat on the bus every day on her way to her predictable job at a supermarket. On her way back to the house she has always lived in, she visits the same local shop. She feels safe, until one day she receives a letter with a threatening message scrawled in capital letters. Ragna's carefully constructed life beings to unravel into a nightmare. Isolated and threatened by an unknown enemy, she must use all her means to defend herself. When the worst happens, Inspector Konrad Sejer is called in to interrogate Ragna. Is this unassuming woman out of her depth, or is she hiding a dark secret?

The Whisperer shifts between Inspector Sejer's interrogation of Ragna and the shocking events that led up to her arrest. Sejer thinks it is an open-and-shut case, but, unnervingly, The Whisperer keeps readers questioning assumptions even in its final moments.

Review Quotes

"Karin Fossum's characters are so realistic, I keep expecting to see them on the crosstown express bus." -- Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review "Psychologically fraught . . . rewards the patient reader with a mix of physical and mental peril and emotional power." -- Wall Street Journal "Those who like Scandinavian mysteries and the subtle buildup of psychological thrillers will enjoy this book. An essential purchase." --Library Journal "A wonderfully tense psychological crime novel by a master storyteller." --Booklist "A familiar damsel-in-distress story veers off script into territory that would be too dark for almost anyone but Fossum." --Kirkus Reviews "Engrossing... Fossum has rendered Ragna's plight with great precision and empathy in this acute psychological study of loneliness and grief. Fans of more nuanced Scandinavian crime fiction will be rewarded."--Publishers Weekly --

About the Author

KARIN FOSSUM is the author of the internationally successful Inspector Konrad Sejer crime series. Her recent honors include a Gumshoe Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for mystery/thriller.