Why a Booktrail?
21C: A classic short novel from Peirene Press. Set in Denmark and in the deepest recesses of one woman’s troubled mind.
The Murder of Halland
What you need to know before your trail
Bess and Halland live in a small tightly knit community where everyone knows everyone else’s business. One day Halland is murdered in the main square but police find it hard to investigate who might have done it.
Bess struggles to come to terms with events and so starts her descent into a gloomy reassessment of friends, family and everyone else.
Travel Guide
From the outset, the murder is at the centre of this short novel and starts off a chain of events.
Most of the novel is spent inside the head of the dead man’s widow Bess. From their apartment in Copenhagen, she discovers things about him that she didn’t know such as the existence of another apartment in the city which belonged to him.
The investigation into the murder is not Bess’ main concern for she remains some what detached. It’s as if she never quite ‘comes to’ in the novel – she was asleep when her husband is killed – and she seems to stay in a sleepy trance afterwards. And what about the policeman who comes to see her who is not what he seems?
How should a woman behave when her husband has been killed? Should she go out dancing and drinking? Should she reconsider her own life?
Just what is the life that is evoked in this novel? This may be Denmark but this is a story of character and all about the people in the unravelling story.
And what of the situation of murder? The police investigation?
“First a murder, nothing too bestial. Then a police inspector. Insights into his or her personal problems, perhaps. Details about the victim. Puzzles and anomalies. Lines of investigation. Clues. Detours. Breakthrough. Case solved. Nothing like real life.”
Be sure to read the quotes before each chapter – they reveal a lot.
Where Next?
