When the Devil Holds the Candle

Pulling a handbag from a pushchair handle, two teenage trouble-makers, Zipp and Andreas, unwittingly commit murder when the baby inside is thrown to the ground. Unaware of what has happened, the pair move on to their next target. Having followed home Irma, an elderly lady who lives nearby, Andreas enters her house armed, with his trusty flick-knife. Zipp waits nervously outside, but his friend never reappears. He will never see him alive again. Fossum toys with the roles of victim and killer and pens the inner monologue of her characters to chilling effect. There are no red herrings in this narrative as the crime is played out on the page, but it is the mental processes behind the murderer's sinister act that are the real pieces of this puzzle. Gradually, they fall into place as Irma and Andreas talk to each other. We are forced to question the familiar stereotypes: people are not always what they seem and it is not always bad people who do bad things. While the reader knows the truth of this crime, the police remain flummoxed. There is no reason for Sejer and his colleague Skarre to see a connection between the infant's death and the reported disappearance of a town trouble-maker.


Genre: Mystery

"Marked by an intelligence and compassion not often found in the pages of crime fiction." - Donna Leon