The Drowned Boy

Karin Fossum author Kari Dickson translator

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Vintage Publishing

Published:2nd Jun '16

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

The Drowned Boy cover

The new Inspector Sejer novel

‘He was sitting playing on his blanket, then all of a sudden he was gone.’

A 16-month-old boy is found drowned in a pond right by his home. Chief Inspector Sejer is called to the scene as there is something troubling about the mother’s story. As even her own family turns against her, Sejer is determined to get to the truth.

‘He'd just learnt to walk,’ she said. ‘He was sitting playing on his blanket, then all of a sudden he was gone.’

A 16-month-old boy is found drowned in a pond right by his home. Chief Inspector Sejer is called to the scene as there is something troubling about the mother’s story. As even her own family turns against her, Sejer is determined to get to the truth.

Fossum’s Inspector Sejer novels are invariably morally and psychologically complex affairs, but The Drowned Boy might well be her crowning achievement to date -- Declan Burke * Irish Times *
Fossum’s Inspector Sejer novels are invariably morally and psychologically complex affairs, but The Drowned Boy might well be her crowning achievement to date -- Declan Burke * Irish Times *
A simple but gripping story, balanced, believable and compassionate, about a sensitive subject -- Laura Wilson * Guardian *
Nordic noir of note * GQ *
A tightly woven tale in spare but piercing prose * Metro *
Moving and thought-provoking -- Doug Johnstone * Big Issue *
Karin Fossum's minimalist police procedurals... have a stealthy way of mutating into richer, if also darker, psychological studies of criminals and their victims... In the end, the novel isn't about willful murder or even accidental death, but the psychological aftershocks for the living * New York Times Book Review *
Reading a Karin Fossum novel is always a wonderful, almost meditative, experience. Even though she writes about horrible crimes, her compassion and intelligence shine through, and by the time you reach the final page you’re left feeling irrevocably changed - for the better. Her latest, The Drowned Boy, is right up there among her best * Reading Matters *
Fossum shows us how the crime novel can be more than sheer entertainment… Well-written and gripping * Dagbladet *
Karin Fossum is among our foremost authors, regardless of genre. This because of her unique ability to create real people and her deep understanding of the human soul. She has always mastered this, but never better than in The Drowned Boy * Drammens Tidende *

  • Short-listed for The Petrona Award for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year 2016 (UK)

ISBN: 9780099593621

Dimensions: 198mm x 129mm x 16mm

Weight: 181g

256 pages