Review: Mind's Eye

Mind's Eye by Håkan Nesser

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



I've been trying to broaden my horizons by reading more fiction by non-American writers, but this book wasn't the best choice. It just fell flat for me.

I didn't like the detective and thought he was far too much of a stereotype of a detective. His one unique trait was his love for playing badminton against his junior colleague, but we never actually read a match. They always take place when the narrator is with someone else . . . so we never really get to see how he uses that game.

Speaking of the narrator, I found it really obnoxious that the book shifted viewpoint from the accused killer (which, as the cover copy tells us is also an eventual victim), to the detective, to his junior colleague, to another victim . . . I prefer my mysteries to be tightly focused from the point of view of one or two characters alone. We were never with one character for very long, and this was too short a book to really accommodate all of the swapping.

Next, the language. I understand this is a translation, but I still wasn't pleased with the word choice. Using the word "pussy" once was acceptable, as the character that said it was trying to be shocking and offensive. When that same word pops up in another character's free indirect discourse, ug.

Finally, I saw the solution a mile away. I'm not going to give it away, but I will say that I do think it was heavily foreshadowed.

I don't care all that much if the next books are better. I won't be continuing with this series. Life is too short to spend reading books that are merely OK when there are so many great ones out there.



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