When the Devil Holds the Candle

[sawyl]

Onwards ever onwards to Karin Fossum's When the Devil Holds the Candle, another Norwegian crime novel featuring Konrad Sejer.

When Andreas, a teenager with petty criminal tendencies, goes missing, the only person who knows anything about his whereabouts, his best friend Zipp, finds himself in a difficult position: he can't go to police because that would mean confessing what he and Andreas were up to; but equally, he can't seem to manage to get to the bottom of his friend's disappearance on his own.

Unlike the previous Sejer mysteries the identity of the perpetrator is revealed fairly early on, while the reasons for Andreas' disappearance only gradually become clear. As with He Who Fears the Wolf, the story focuses on the psyche of the main character, allowing their ideas and thoughts to emerge gradually through a series of monologues that are inter-cut with Sejer and Skarre's investigation of the disappearance.

The plot twists nicely from one revelation to another and features a host of nice character moments in the book — Zipp's sudden realisation about Andreas and his attempts to reconcile himself to it; the staid, slightly prudish Sejer's relationship with the impulsive, free-spirited Sara Struel; and the main character's unreliable account of events.