Criminal Twist

Karin Fossum is a household name in her native Norway, much like Ruth Rendell or P. D. James in Britain. Like those two masters, she lets character drive her stories, and what may seem at the beginning to be a meandering plot slowly builds to the climax, which often isn´t at all what one expects.

"When the Devil Holds the Candle" is the third English translation of Fossum´s series featuring Inspector Konrad Sejer. It´s a spellbinding story of madness and murder. Three events start the plot. Idle youths Zipp and Andreas want money for beer, and decide to snatch a purse. They select a woman pushing a baby in a pram, assuming she´s an easy mark. When she fights back, the baby falls from the pram and, ultimately, dies. Next, they encounter a small black boy on his way home from school, and torment him. Finally, they rob an elderly woman, and something terrible happens.

That is Fossum´s focus in this mesmerizing novel and, by the end, we have, at least this time, the answer.