TheCaller by Karin Fossum
(Norwegian) is a dark psychological mystery, #10 in the Inspector Sejer
series). The story opens with a couple finding their young child sleeping in
her pram and covered in blood. When the frantic parents bring her to the
hospital, they discover that this was a prank, but the loss of security and
psychological damage has been done. These “pranks” escalate as the reader
follows Sejer’s investigations and the 17-year-old prankster’s angry life.
Our prankster lives with his drunk
mother and visits his beloved grandfather. His pranks start off mild with
calling a funeral service to pick up a man who hasn’t died yet and summoning a
mother to the hospital for her child who had been in a serious accident (which
never happened). With changing points-of-view, the pain of these pranks is
shown. All the victims feel a variation of violation and loss of security. The emotional
terror continues and escalates throughout
the book.
Inspector Sejer remains calm and
thoughtful throughout. He also is always one step behind the teenage prankster.
In the end, Sejer does not solve the crimes.
Note on the translation: this is a
British translation. Squash,
in British English, is a non-alcoholic concentrated syrup used in beverage
making.
If you like dark explorations of psychological
stress and pain, this book is perfect. Just don’t expect a happy, or even neat,
ending.
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