Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Pantheon (2007), Edition: Translation, 336 pages
Description
Fiction. Mystery. Thriller. HTML: International Bestseller Chief Inspector Van Veeteren is forced to unlock the secrets of a nearly perfect murder in this taut psychological thriller. On a rainy April day, a body�??or what is left of it�??is found by a young girl. Wrapped in a blanket with no hands, feet, or head, it signals the work of a brutal, methodical killer. The victim, Leopold Verhaven, was a track star before he was convicted for killing two of his ex-lovers. He consistently proclaimed his innocence, however, and was killed on the day of his return to society. This latest murder is more than a little perplexing and Chief Inspector Van Veeteren is determined to discover the truth, even if it means taking the law into his own hands
User reviews
LibraryThing member bcquinnsmom
The Return is the second book (at least in the US) by Hakan Nesser, and continues the story of Inspector Van Veeteren, a very wise detective who has pretty much seen it all. As the story opens, the Inspector is in the hospital having surgery. A decapitated torso, also minus its hands and feet, was
This book is more of a psychological thriller rather than a straightforward mystery, and frankly, while it was good, it wasn't as good as Borkmann's Point, the series predecessor. Oh well -- I still enjoyed it a great deal and would gladly recommend it. I would recommend starting with Borkmann's Point -- you get a lot of Van Veeteren's quirkiness laid out at the very beginning in that first series novel.
The writing is well done, the characterizations are excellent, and the story is quite good. The book shifts bakwards and forward in time, so be careful. The ending was unexpected; I understood why the author made it so but it is definitely food for thought if you're so inclined.
I'd recommend it to people who have read Borkmann's Point, and those who enjoy a mystery set in foreign countries. As noted, it is more psychological than action, but it does tie together well.
Show More
discovered by a little girl during a pre-school class outing in the woods. There is one telltale piece of physical evidence that may identify the body and it turns out to be a recently-released murderer who's returned to the area. But who killed him? And why? This is what Van Veeteren must discover, trusting the fieldwork to his subordinates while he's laid up at the hospital.This book is more of a psychological thriller rather than a straightforward mystery, and frankly, while it was good, it wasn't as good as Borkmann's Point, the series predecessor. Oh well -- I still enjoyed it a great deal and would gladly recommend it. I would recommend starting with Borkmann's Point -- you get a lot of Van Veeteren's quirkiness laid out at the very beginning in that first series novel.
The writing is well done, the characterizations are excellent, and the story is quite good. The book shifts bakwards and forward in time, so be careful. The ending was unexpected; I understood why the author made it so but it is definitely food for thought if you're so inclined.
I'd recommend it to people who have read Borkmann's Point, and those who enjoy a mystery set in foreign countries. As noted, it is more psychological than action, but it does tie together well.
Show Less
LibraryThing member -andrew-
Nesser is a genius of simplicity. His books are like those films developed with the bleach bypass process that strips out extraneous color and leaves behind a reduced, almost bland color palette, which makes for clean, efficient and beautiful prose. All the extraneous noise that accompany most
Nesser's hero Van Veteran is similarly not flashy. He doesn't have superhuman detective prowess. He's a simple cop. He drinks beer, plays chess and solves crimes. He's so calm, he almost blends into the background.
Van Veteran toils in the imaginary township of Maardam, which may be in Amsterdam, or perhaps western Germany. It's a nondescript place. It doesn't really matter. The stories have to take place somewhere. And so, they take place in Maardam. They are in western Europe and that is all we need to know. The setting really takes a backseat to the plot and character development.
Sadly, only three of his books are available in my public library.
Show More
novels is completely absent. Nesser leaves window dressing for other, lesser writes. Nesser's hero Van Veteran is similarly not flashy. He doesn't have superhuman detective prowess. He's a simple cop. He drinks beer, plays chess and solves crimes. He's so calm, he almost blends into the background.
Van Veteran toils in the imaginary township of Maardam, which may be in Amsterdam, or perhaps western Germany. It's a nondescript place. It doesn't really matter. The stories have to take place somewhere. And so, they take place in Maardam. They are in western Europe and that is all we need to know. The setting really takes a backseat to the plot and character development.
Sadly, only three of his books are available in my public library.
Show Less
LibraryThing member annbury
Inspector Van Veeteren is in the hospital after surgery, but that doesn't damp his investigative drive. A mutilated body has been found, which turns out to be that of Leopold Verhaven, a former track star who spent many years in prison for the murder of two women. He always denied the crimes, and
Show More
was killed almost as soon as he got back home -- hence, the return. The novel switches back and forth in time and in perspective, but watching the way it all falls together by the end is a real pleasure. Show Less
LibraryThing member jimrbrown
This is the third Van Veeteren book I have read and they just get better and better. I intend buying the other two that have been translated The Minds Eye and the Inspector and Silence. Here's hoping more of his books are translated to English.
LibraryThing member isabelx
I was expecting this detective story by a Swedish author to be set in Sweden but I soon realised that it wasn't, as the names of the characters, places and newspapers didn't sound right; they seemed to be a mixture of Dutch and German, with a few Eastern European. In fact there were no
Show More
country-specific references at all, and on looking the author up on Wikipedia, I found that this series is set vaguely in Northern Europe but that the country is never named. I found this really rather irritating, which is a pity because the murder-mystery itself was very interesting. Show Less
LibraryThing member bookczuk
One of my favorite indie bookstores recently closed. Before it went bye-bye, I made some purchases, including this book. Both javaczuk and I had read another Inspector Van Veeteren mystery and liked it a great deal. I think we both liked this one a bit better. Van V was crustier, more curmudgeonly,
Once again, we have a mystery, murder, victim, criminal and the investigators, but the way these are presented is what makes all the difference.
I hope I can find more Nesser translations.
Show More
and had elements of Josephine Tey's Daughter of Time in is solving the mystery essentially from his hospital bed. (DoT is my all-time favorite Tey, where Inspector Grant investigated (and quite possibly solved) while confined to his hospital bed in the twentieth century, the mystery of the two little princes in the tower, back in Richard II's day. )Once again, we have a mystery, murder, victim, criminal and the investigators, but the way these are presented is what makes all the difference.
I hope I can find more Nesser translations.
Show Less
LibraryThing member patrickgarson
At one point in The Return, one of Nesser's harried, every-man cops says something to the effect that the case they're working is like something from television. It's humorous in context because the pedestrian reality of constructing their case is so far removed from your average Law and Order
Inspector Van Veeteren's team are charged with finding the identity of a headless, handless body. It seems to be linked with a twice-convicted murderer, but the threads are finer than spidersilk and it will take the intuition of Van Veteeren - recovering in hospital from stomach surgery - to weave them together.
The best parts of The Return is when the focus is on police work. Nesser takes the romance out of both CSI-style technology fetish crime novels, and the more common flawed-detective style. His cops are hard-working, funny, sad and very human. The focus on team dynamics was really nice and worked very well. The struggle to make a case from the slimmest of leads is rendered in perfect, frustrating detail.
Unfortunately, this proves to be part of the novel's undoing, as the leads are so very slim, the resolution feels both rushed, forced, and entirely improbable. It's almost as if - having found a Macguffin with which to set the team moving - Nesser was at a complete loss when the time came to actually *do* something with the narrative.
The answer of what to do is so stupid it overwhelms the stronger parts of the book and throws the weaker elements into stark relief. Nesser is unable or unwilling to have a single three dimensional female in the entire book - indeed there are only three women with speaking roles altogether. His handling of drama or tension - or anything outside the narrow confines of the local police station - is extremely labored and unconvincing. Finally his idea of crime, its motives and execution is just shallow and blah.
The more modulated and three-dimensional elements of the police team are entirely underwhelmed and the whole thing collapses like a bad souffle. The Return certainly had some strong points, but ironically I'm going to be wary about going back to Nesser in the future.
Show More
episode. Unfortunately, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy and the book fritters away its charms with a pretty stupid ending.Inspector Van Veeteren's team are charged with finding the identity of a headless, handless body. It seems to be linked with a twice-convicted murderer, but the threads are finer than spidersilk and it will take the intuition of Van Veteeren - recovering in hospital from stomach surgery - to weave them together.
The best parts of The Return is when the focus is on police work. Nesser takes the romance out of both CSI-style technology fetish crime novels, and the more common flawed-detective style. His cops are hard-working, funny, sad and very human. The focus on team dynamics was really nice and worked very well. The struggle to make a case from the slimmest of leads is rendered in perfect, frustrating detail.
Unfortunately, this proves to be part of the novel's undoing, as the leads are so very slim, the resolution feels both rushed, forced, and entirely improbable. It's almost as if - having found a Macguffin with which to set the team moving - Nesser was at a complete loss when the time came to actually *do* something with the narrative.
The answer of what to do is so stupid it overwhelms the stronger parts of the book and throws the weaker elements into stark relief. Nesser is unable or unwilling to have a single three dimensional female in the entire book - indeed there are only three women with speaking roles altogether. His handling of drama or tension - or anything outside the narrow confines of the local police station - is extremely labored and unconvincing. Finally his idea of crime, its motives and execution is just shallow and blah.
The more modulated and three-dimensional elements of the police team are entirely underwhelmed and the whole thing collapses like a bad souffle. The Return certainly had some strong points, but ironically I'm going to be wary about going back to Nesser in the future.
Show Less
LibraryThing member VictorTrevor
A well paced and constructed story which keeps you guessing until the end. Van Veeteren is forced to conduct his investigations into the murder of a double murderer while recuperating from an operation. His colleagues help out until they are pulled off the case and Van Veeteren is left on his own
Show More
to make difficult decisions as to how to resolve the case. Show Less
LibraryThing member rkreish
"I am a huge Håkan Nesser fan, and I know I’m just catching up with the rest of the world since his books weren’t translated into English until 2006– and U.S. publication dates lag behind the U.K. ones. Why? Each book feels a little different, which is quite a feat for a series. It’s
The Return feels different than Mind’s Eye and Borkmann’s Point because of the set-up: in The Return, Van Veeteren is in the hospital recovering from cancer surgery for the bulk of the investigation, a premise he borrowed from Josephine Tey’s The Daughter of Time. (I keep coming across Tey’s name in the last week or so, which I’m taking as a sign that I should pick up one of her books soon). The murder victim is Leopold Verhaven, a disgraced middle distance runner who dies just after being released from prison after serving his second twelve-year murder sentence, those murders being nearly twenty years apart. Nesser gets to play with time in this book because the investigation encompasses all three murders over a significant period of time. The non-linear story is definitely different than the earlier books in the series.
The Return is also a reflective book because Van Veeteren is grappling with mortality as he faces cancer surgery. The murder victim being his age also gets him thinking about his life. It’s not an entirely dour book about murder and mortality though: Van Veeteren is still an eccentric investigator, and there are jokes sprinkled throughout the story. I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the series in the coming months."
source: library e-book
Show More
obvious that Nesser loves his characters because they are well-rounded people too.The Return feels different than Mind’s Eye and Borkmann’s Point because of the set-up: in The Return, Van Veeteren is in the hospital recovering from cancer surgery for the bulk of the investigation, a premise he borrowed from Josephine Tey’s The Daughter of Time. (I keep coming across Tey’s name in the last week or so, which I’m taking as a sign that I should pick up one of her books soon). The murder victim is Leopold Verhaven, a disgraced middle distance runner who dies just after being released from prison after serving his second twelve-year murder sentence, those murders being nearly twenty years apart. Nesser gets to play with time in this book because the investigation encompasses all three murders over a significant period of time. The non-linear story is definitely different than the earlier books in the series.
The Return is also a reflective book because Van Veeteren is grappling with mortality as he faces cancer surgery. The murder victim being his age also gets him thinking about his life. It’s not an entirely dour book about murder and mortality though: Van Veeteren is still an eccentric investigator, and there are jokes sprinkled throughout the story. I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the series in the coming months."
source: library e-book
Show Less
LibraryThing member stuart10er
Liked it a lot. I still think my favorite bit I that it isn't really set anywhere; just vaguely Northern Europe. I thought I knew whodunit midway thru but I guessed close but wrong. But the value is the characters and setting more than the mystery.
LibraryThing member NaggedMan
A good read, but no more than that. One wonders about the gap between the original and the translation.
LibraryThing member erica471
I really enjoy Hakan Nesser's books, but this wasn't my favorite. It just felt a bit disjointed. Maybe it was all the shifts in time. Anyway, this book won't stop me from reading more from this author.
LibraryThing member Erratic_Charmer
Swedish noir mystery, part of the Inspector Van Veeteren series: a mutilated body is found in the woods after several months. The inspector and his fellow police officers must discover the identity of the corpse before they can begin to put together a motive and find the murderer, but as they
Show More
slowly uncover the facts questions are raised about murders that were declared 'solved' decades before. Show Less
LibraryThing member ecw0647
For some bizarre reason I started listening to this book while mowing a couple of summers ago and then dropped it and only recently came back to it. Bizarre because it’s it’s a good mystery with some bizarre events glued together by Chief Inspector Van Veetteren, known to his colleagues as
A man is found dead and the only apparent identifying trait (the head, hands and feet had been removed) is that he had but one testicle. It turns out that a man convicted of murdering two wives, Verhaven, years before, had just been released from prison after serving a twenty-four year sentence and fit that description. Whether the man was actually guilty of the murders remains a mystery even though the presiding judge at his trial was absolutely sure he did it. But the man didn’t care whether he was incarcerated or not. And who would want him dead? Or did he know who the real killer might be? And what is the role of the close-knit small community.
The story jumps around in time, which perhaps was a bit distracting in an audiobook, but it was enjoyable, nevertheless, but somehow also dissatisfying. VanVeeteren is an interesting character with untapped promise for a series, yet some of the events and conclusions seem improbable at best.
Show More
“VV.” (When someone calls and asks to speak with a particular inspector on the case but can’t remember the name, he says, “you know, the unpleasant one, the really, really unpleasant one". He is immediately put through to Van Veeteren.”A man is found dead and the only apparent identifying trait (the head, hands and feet had been removed) is that he had but one testicle. It turns out that a man convicted of murdering two wives, Verhaven, years before, had just been released from prison after serving a twenty-four year sentence and fit that description. Whether the man was actually guilty of the murders remains a mystery even though the presiding judge at his trial was absolutely sure he did it. But the man didn’t care whether he was incarcerated or not. And who would want him dead? Or did he know who the real killer might be? And what is the role of the close-knit small community.
The story jumps around in time, which perhaps was a bit distracting in an audiobook, but it was enjoyable, nevertheless, but somehow also dissatisfying. VanVeeteren is an interesting character with untapped promise for a series, yet some of the events and conclusions seem improbable at best.
Show Less
LibraryThing member jkdavies
Read on kindle so a bit bitty...
As much a whydunnit than a whodunnit; but I just couldn't care much about any of the three deaths in this. Still, an interesting read though.
As much a whydunnit than a whodunnit; but I just couldn't care much about any of the three deaths in this. Still, an interesting read though.
LibraryThing member ffortsa
I'd missed this one in the march through the Van Vetteren series. A man released from prison after serving two twelve year sentences, each for a murder he claims he did not commit. Shortly after he returns home, a headless, handless body is found by some children in the woods, and the ex-convict
Show More
has disappeared. Show Less
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1995 (original Swedish)
ISBN
0375421971 / 9780375421976