Kasvoton tuomio

Vik & Stubø #4

by Anne Holt, Sanna Manninen (Translator)

Joulukuu 2008. Norjan talvi on luminen, ja uuden vuosituhannen ensimmäinen talouskriisi ravistelee jouluun valmistautuvaa kansaa. Kesken joulunvieton kriminologi Inger Johanne Vikin rikostutkijamies Yngvar Stubø kutsutaan Bergeniin murhatutkimuksiin.Bjørgvinin pidetty naispiispa on löydetty puukotettuna jouluaattoyönä keskeltä pientaloalueen katua.

Murha-aalto käynnistyy myös Oslossa, ja Inger Johanne Vik alkaa selvittää mahdollista yhteyttä piispan, turvapaikanhakijan ja monien muiden murhien välillä. Vaikka tekotavat eroavat, murhien taustalta hahmottuu yhteinen motiivi - viha - eikä tekijää pidä etsiä ainoastaan Norjan rajojen sisäpuolelta.

Cover Image Designer/Kannen suunnittelu: Sanna-Reeta Meilahti

Genres: Crime, Mystery, Thriller, Fiction, Scandinavian Literature, Nordic Noir, Murder Mystery

447 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Anne Holt was born in Larvik, grew up in Lillestrøm and Tromsø, and moved to Oslo in 1978. She graduated with a law degree from the University of Bergen in 1986, and went on to work for The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) and then the Oslo Police Department, earning her right to practice as a lawyer in Norway. In 1990 she returned to NRK, where she worked one year as a journalist and anchor woman for the news program Dagsrevyen.

Holt started her own law practice in 1994, and served as Minister of Justice in Cabinet Jagland for a short period from November 25, 1996 to February 4, 1997.

In 1993 Holt made her debut as a novelist with the crime novel Blind gudinne, featuring the lesbian police officer Hanne Wilhelmsen. The two novels Løvens gap (1997) and Uten ekko (2000) are co-authored with former state secretary Berit Reiss-Andersen.

Holt is one of the most successful crime novelists in Norway. She has been published in 25 countries.




Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Razvan Banciu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stars, which should be only two, but all the books here are overrated. Some of them quite a lot.
Too many pages, too many targets for a single book, too many characters, too many wrong options, too many unpleasant persons, Inger Johanne included...

[Stela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mi-a plăcut cel mai mult din toată seria. Poate pentru că în ultima vreme am văzut destule ticăloșii care se fac în numele credinței.

[Claire · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't actually finish this book. I got two thirds in and then gave up because it just wasn't exciting enough for me. There were too many characters and sub plots and too much time was spent on description and explaining things that the momentum was just lost. There cane a point when I forgot what the point if the story was so I had to give up.

[Mariafrancesca di natura viperesca sta con gli ultimi della terra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Non so. Un argomento a cui, come la maggior parte degli etero, non ho mai fatto attenzione per eccesso di disinvoltura e con una punta di fastidio per i gay pride, una carnevalata superflua, antiproducente per l'inclusione rivendicata.
Dicevo.
Che debba un librino "giallo" a indurmi a riflettere sulla condizione dei LGBT nella società che viviamo, quando mi sembrava tutto ovviamente superato, mi sconcerta. Specie dopo il bazuca di Bergoglio.
Tant'è: è successo.
La storiella gialla è alla sanfason ma alcuni personaggi, sebbene banalizzati, hanno una scintilla umana non malaccio. Quasi avulsi dalla storia.

[Antonomasia]

This book has Casualty syndrome, as - to a lesser extent - do some of the others in this series. You start getting to know perfectly nice separate bunches of characters, and just as you develop a soft spot for them, you hear about something horrible happening to them or their family.

2 paragraphs about themes, on the verge of needing a spoiler tag:
Fear Not features another fantastically elaborate series of only-in-fiction murders. One of Holt's pet themes (which I don't have a gripe with, other than in its repetition) is malign influences from America invading European societies. The villainy here is along the lines of: what if Westboro Baptist Church had got in league with some low-key muslim fundamentalists and employed ex-marines? 'What if there were flying spiders?' I remember thinking as a kid; lots of unpleasantness rolled up into one thing, multiplying it - but not quite real. A country with one of the lowest rates of religious belief in the world wouldn't be high on the list of targets for fundie hate groups, but some sensationalist and intricate plotting eventually explains why.

The previous Vik & Stubø novels each had specific social and political themes. Here it is that, whilst urban middle class gay people can now live openly and safely in mainstream society, there are still dark corners of homophobia in existence even though it's easy to live with the impression 'these things don't happen to people like us/our friends now'. A theme which strikes a particular chord because a number of LGB friends find life pretty comfortable these days - but another, not connected to them, was, this same decade, killed in a homophobic attack. He rarely saw the need to hide that side of himself these days either. I thought about him and what happened to him quite a lot whilst reading this book.

There are various clumsy bits in the novel - a daft quantity of coincidences, and, especially, one character whose actions conflicted with his other traits to a rather unbelievable extent - but given the what's evoked by the theme, I can't rate it based on these faults. Family scenes can be cloying at times, but I'm prepared to believe some of that's me being bitter as much as the book being slushy.

For a while, I've had a feeling that the world in contemporary Norwegian novels and films is that bit more comfortable than in those from Sweden and Denmark, even bordering on decadent. It may not be wise to look for the imprint of of the current affairs of a foreign country in something so intangible as the atmosphere of a novel, but here it's quite clear - there's even material about public spending:

Then came the financial crisis. And all those billions in public money. Certain branches of Norwegian research were drowned in funds. Since the police were included in the many initiatives aimed at keeping the wheels moving and preventing economic collapse, Johanne found herself with four times as much money at her disposal as a few weeks before...
When the financial crisis hit the whole world in the autumn of 2008, it didn’t have the same effect in Norway as in many other countries. With billions in the bank, the Red-Green coalition government introduced the sort of expensive counter-measures that few could have imagined a few months earlier. Norway had been pumping money out of the North Sea for so long that it seemed more or less fireproof after the financial collapse in the United States. (Although, as the following sentences say, there was still some recession in the housing and building sectors. And, as is shown later, some kids are just too messed up and abused for even some of the best run social services in the world to be able to help them.)

I haven't quite warmed to Johanne Vik - this character needs more emotional notes than anxiety, anxiety and anxiety, for goodness sake. But there is something nice about "getting to know" people through the course of a series (and now I understand that exclamation from another world "I need a new series!" sometimes seen in recommendation requests). I also realised I'd judged Vik too harshly before. I don't tend to read novels like this when at my most alert - had thought she was trained in psychology because she was a criminal profiler, and she seemed an unconvincing representation of a psychologist given the lack of psychological terms and concepts in her thinking, and her low awareness about her effects on her partner. Wronggg! She trained in law, and good instincts and natural talent set her on this career path.

There's an interesting up and coming detective, Silje Sørenson, here and in the previous novel. Given that no.5 is to be the last Vik & Stubo novel, I wouldn't be surprised if Sørenson becomes the lead character for a new series. In some ways she might be a bit too perfect for some readers: very good looking, if short, and from a wealthy family who weren't keen on her joining the police at first - but her zeal for the job and to sort out the stack of neglected cases is just wonderful if you've ever delighted in being a new broom.

The epilogue is terribly sweet and reminded me vividly why, as a child, I'd been religious. So much is in how you tell the stories. It's a version of Jesus you'd want to believe in, and Bishop Eva Lysgaard's God sounds very much like what we in the UK heard as Rowan Williams'.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretending to be all critical about Anne Holts crime novels is somewhat hard when you're finishing one per day. So yes, sue me, I like them even though they aren't perfect. Gotteszahl was great, especially since it seems more streamlined than the other volumes in a way. Yes, it's still a stretch to believe that the Vik/Stubø family is directly involved in yet another crime, but apart from that the rest is less coincidental and therefore way more believable.
There's nothing earth shattering about these books, and sometimes a smaller secret might be easier to swallow, but they're still damn good entertainment. You just have to accept that these are slightly convoluted, "in books only" murders that are just that bit over the top.

[Ana-Maria Bujor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I usually roll my eyes when it comes to novels about serial murders, but this is pretty good. It gives no gruesome details about the crimes, but allows the reader to rather understand the lives of the victims and those left behind. Sure, the manner in which the psychologist got to the key is very unlikely, but her flaws and family life made her a pretty interesting character. So is her husband. But too many characters with dead families in their history to make this believable. Either way, it's a fun read when you don't really feel like tackling philosophical issues, even though it does refer enough to the mechanisms of hate crimes to have a point.

[Antonella Imperiali · Rating 3 out of 5]

Come al solito la Holt parte lentamente per poi sferrare il colpo finale e chiudere la storia velocemente, riassumendo poi il tutto. Un classico.
Beh, qui ci sono vari omicidi, tutti - per un verso o per l'altro - riconducibili ai crimini d'odio.
Dietro ognuno di essi, le storie personali delle vittime, che danno un po' di sale al romanzo.
Male non è, ma non è nemmeno la migliore Holt che io abbia letto.

📚 Biblioteca

[Moreninha · Rating 4 out of 5]

He pasado un buen rato con esta cuarta entrega de Vik y Stubo. Al final me he acostumbrado a lo rarita que es Inger Johane y la veo interesante. En esta novela me ha gustado también el entramado que teje la autora, aunque la resolución es muy chapucera. Pero toda la motivación, todo el esquema de cómo y por qué me ha parecido muy imaginativo y me ha entretenido mucho.

[Maria Teresa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Giallo ambientato in Norvegia in cui si intrecciano 3 misteri: un cadavere ripescato in mare, un vescovo (donna) accoltellato in strada la vigilia di Natale e un artista morto di overdose.
Almeno questo è quanto si legge sul retrocopertina, invece poi nel libro saltano fuori anche un tossicodipendente ucciso in un parco, un altro arrestato perché faceva le marchette, una donna uccisa nei sotterranei di un hotel, una ragazza che per disgrazia precipita da una finestra, una donna morta in un incidente d'auto ma forse le avevano tagliato i freni... Insomma ad ogni pagina saltano fuori nuovi misteri, nuovi personaggi, nuovi agenti di polizia.
Ho fatto molta fatica a seguire e a ricordarmi chi fosse chi, le divagazioni sui dettagli delle vite dei personaggi erano anche noiose da leggere e in molti casi non servivano ai fini della trama.
Non c'è nemmeno una vera e propria indagine con interrogatori, ricerca di prove, ecc.

Il filo conduttore che lega tutti i misteri è l'omofobia, ma lo sviluppo della storia mi è sembrato poco credibile.
Infine non ho capito perché il figlio del vescovo assomigliava alla donna del ritratto se quella non era né sua sorella, né tanto meno la sua vera madre.

Poco originale anche l'idea di una serie di gialli in cui è la moglie dell'investigatore a risolvere i misteri, succede già nei libri di Camilla Lackberg.

Nota di demerito all'edizione Einaudi dove, sul retrocopertina, si legge che "Johanne e Vik cominciano a mettere in relazione i vari delitti"
Non c'è nessun Vik!
Vik è il cognome di Johanne, il nome dell'investigatore (suo marito) è Yngvar Stubø.

[Jessy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me encantó este libro, desde la historia, la resolución final, el epílogo... todo, lo amé de principio a fin. Muy recomendado

[Lynda Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This isn't her best by a long way. It started really well and I was gripped but all the way through right up till the very end she was introducing new characters and I'd sort of switched off as it was becoming way too hard to follow. Also, because some chapters are written by goodness knows who till later on it just added to the general bafflement for me.
I wasn't keen on the ending, either-all too heavy-going for my liking. I did think that her youngest daughter who is almost 5 speaks in a way that's way too old for her as well. I don't have kids but I don't ever encounter 4 year olds with the vocabulary she seems to have !! I do enjoy her chapter/paragraph links from one to another. I don't recall spotting those in previous stories. They're cleverly done.
This appears to be the last book featuring Johanne and Adam which is a great shame. It doesn't end with any sense of finality that we'll hear no more from them so I hope they'll be resurrected soon, unless she's including them more in the Hanne stories. I've read 2 of those so far and I know they cross over here and there.
At one point she spelt Ragnhild as Raghnild too which was pretty terrible !! The only other mistakes I spotted were a missing fullstop and week used instead of weeks which is very good going. I didn't understand this passage, though: "She must be quite slim, because even on the little display screen he could see deep laughter lines".....plus I never understood what one person was doing in an hotel basement. If that was explained then I missed it and I guess we'll never know what those ambulance drivers were doing in Sofienberg Park, either !

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ce păcat de seria asta... începuse așa drăguț și promițător... și dupa cel de-al doilea vol, a dat-o de gard... Tot ce a construit în privința caracterelor personajelor, a stricat. (Inger e aproape nebună, serios). Nu știu și n-am înțeles ce a vrut autoarea să facă... dar a stricat povestea dpmdv, pt că dacă scopul ei a fost să creeze tensiune și suspans... nu i-a reușit. M-a plictisit mai degrabă.
A 4 a carte din serie merge pe un tipar destul de interesant, (crime diverse la fel de dure), dar m-a pierdut pe undeva pe la jumătate, când mi s-a parut ca totul este o mare adunătură fara zvac. Nu m-am putut conecta cu povestea și am citit-o cu lehamite. Aparent crimele nu au nicio treaba, criminalul nu pare să aibă un tipar, si astfel detectivul întâmpină multe probleme până a ajunge să rezolve ingrozitoarele crime. Inger de asemenea se implica, în paralel, făcând propriile supoziții. Mi-aș fi dorit să lucreze mai mult împreună. Ca in primul vol. N-a fost la fel...
A, încă o chestie... dacă în primele vol mi s-a părut drăguță grija pe care Inger i-o acordă fiicei sale autiste, aici m-a disperat la propriu. Mi s-a parut terorizată de gândul că fiica ei a fost martoră la una dintre acele crime si mai ales super stresata de faptul că cineva o urmărește sa-i faca rau. Parca asta a fost lait motivul ei toată cartea. Enervantă.
Legatura dintre criminal si crimele acestuia, este foarte interesant pusă în pagina, dar nu îndeajuns ca sa-mi stârnească interesul.
Sincer, nu stiu daca voi citi si ultimul vol. Sunt in dubii. Asta e de maxim 3 stele. Ma mai gandesc. :) Deci, recomand primele 2 vol dar asta nu m-a convins.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Somehow I can't picture our present minister of justice writing excellent crime fiction as ex-Minister of Justice for Norway, Anne Holt. Yet another excellent crime novel from yet another excellent Scandanavian writer.

[Babete · Rating 4 out of 5]

Óptimo thriller!

[Lut Lahousse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Als je op zoek bent naar een spannend boek, laat je dit boek best liggen. Wel een heel degelijk, goed uitgewerkte krimi, die uit verschillende perspectieven verteld wordt. Verrassend plot, goede leesbaar en met boeiende hoofdpersonen.

[Karen Jarvis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Think it lost something in translation. Felt like 2 separate books and second half read much better than first. So very nearly gave up on this book.

[Patrícia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Como é a raiz do ódio? Onde começa, como se alimenta para crescer até ramificar e destruir tudo à sua volta?

Este livro, o primeiro que li da Roda dos livros, foi uma ótima surpresa. Definitivamente Anne Holt entrou para a minha lista de autores favoritos.

O livro começa com uma criança especial, Kristiane, a caminhar descalça numa noite gelada das ruas de Oslo. É salva, in extremis, por um desconhecido. Johanne, a mãe da criança, não compreende quando ela lhe diz “A senhora estava morta”.

Adam, marido de Johanne, é chamado para investigar a morte da episcopisa Eva Karin, fervorosa defensora dos direitos dos homossexuais. Mas há outras mortes a serem investigadas pela polícia. Um drogado, um prostituto e um artista entre outros.

A história vai-nos sendo revelada a várias vozes, as várias histórias interligando-se. Há muitas coisas que percebemos facilmente, outras que apenas nos são reveladas no final. Mas o interesse mantém-se sempre.

Por trás da história está o que nos faz pensar. O ódio e a violência dirigidos a grupos com características específicas, não a pessoas específicas. O que faz alguém matar outro alguém apenas porque este é negro, cigano, homossexual ou de outra religião? Como é que é possível deturpar uma religião, pegando num texto escrito há milhares de anos e usá-lo literalmente para tirar vidas? Como é possível usar alguém, usar-lhe a fé, o desespero, a necessidade de encontrar um sentido para a vida, moldá-lo e torná-lo num instrumento ao serviço do dinheiro e da maldade humana? Como é possível, num momento de loucura, destruir a vida de tantos?

Temos a sorte de viver num país onde os crimes de ódio não são muito comuns (penso eu), por cá o racismo, a homofobia, a xenofobia mostra-se mais nas palavras que nos atos. Não é essa ausência de violência que nos iliba, que nos faz melhores. É necessário que nem sequer tenhamos que pensar que todos somos iguais, essa certeza terá que ser inata, não aprendida. É necessário que não nos sintamos diferentes apenas porque temos uma outra raça ou nos apaixonámos por alguém do mesmo sexo.

Culturalmente ainda temos muito que evoluir. Legalmente ainda há um longo caminho a percorrer.

A evolução, as leis mais justas nos direitos dos que ousam seguir um caminho menos tradicional, a convicção que tantos de nós temos de que ser de outra raça ou escolher amar alguém do mesmo sexo não faz de ninguém diferente ou com menos direitos será o suficiente para que este tipo de crime nunca aconteça no nosso país? Países com uma democracia mais antiga que a nossa, mais evoluídos nas leis, com índices de iliteracia mais baixos têm muito mais problemas com crimes de ódio que nós. Às vezes acho, e pensei-o várias vezes ao longo deste livro, que quanto mais queremos normalizar as diferenças mais nos afastamos do objetivo. Há que voltar ao básico, ao respeito inerente ao: Somos todos iguais.

http://www.ler-por-ai.blogspot.pt/201...

[Danilo De rossi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Libro molto accattivante, seppure risulti un po’ troppo cupo nella parte iniziale.
La Holt dispiega una trama ricca di personaggi e di filoni narrativi, che pazientemente finiscono per intrecciarsi, dando vita ad un giallo piacevole e scorrevole da leggere. Molto interessante il modo in cui l’autrice affronta il tema di come l’omosessualità sia vissuta dai radicalismi religiosi, da parte chi pensa di conoscere il pensiero di Dio, ma che in realtà non lo conosce affatto. Interessante anche il problema che solleva in merito alla libertà di pensiero e alla (auto)censura: possiamo davvero arrogarci il diritto di dire tutto quello che pensiamo, senza considerare l’effetto che le nostre parole possono avere sugli altri?

[Cami · Rating 4 out of 5]

Llegué a este libro por recomendación de un señor del bibliometro, y sigo agradeciéndolo porque me gustó bastante.
Como es el primero que leo de Anne Holt, me compliqué un buen rato con los nombres y géneros de los personajes, así como en las abundantes historias que se cuentan. Me chocó un poco el rol de madre de Inger Johanne, pero supongo que es porque no tengo hijos y todo eso.
En realidad no tenía idea de qué iba el libro, y la violencia que describe no supera la grata sorpresa que significa leer sobre el amor.

[Sireesha · Rating 2 out of 5]

If this a true reflection of what the rest of Scandi crime fiction is like, it will be my last. One of the most disjointed, BORING crime books I've read. So many characters and diversions from main story (is there one?) kills of any suspense. I forgot about the original murder! So it's about hate crime, but the resolution is so pathetic. How convenient for the FBI to be waiting at the airport. It seems all they were waiting for was not even proof, just someone on the Norwegian police force to see a pattern? This book is really silly.

[Niall · Rating 1 out of 5]

Found this book pretty aimless and ill thought out. Characters and storylines are discarded seemingly for no reason and the main story doesn't really pick up til midway through the book. The ending in turn is ultimately rushed and the killer who you expect is one of the large cast of characters involved is instead a random who is arrested off screen. For a crime novel based around a murder mystery theres very little murder and even less intriguing mystery.

[Christine Van Heertum · Rating 2 out of 5]

Une enquête très lente sans rebondissements tout au long de ses 570 pages, des personnages relativement fades auxquels il est difficile de s'accrocher, et un dénouement qui n'en est pas un ... en ce qui me concerne, à oublier ...

[Cirrus Minor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Normalerweise überrascht Anne Holt mich am Ende immer positiv und holt noch Punkte raus. Hier war es eher umgekehrt. Der gesamte Roman hat mir recht gut gefallen und das Ende fand ich leider sehr blöd, wofür es nun einen Abzug gibt.

[Ullagummans Läsgodis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intressant början av boken. Det intressanta höll sig igenom hela boken. Med ett högt tempo flög man igenom allt som hände, riktigt skickligt skriven.

[MacarthursMutterings · Rating 3 out of 5]

little slow to get going, but really comes together well at the end

[Nathalia · Rating 4 out of 5]

My rating: 3.5

[Ash Willett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story line, though bit of waffling and over explaining at times.

[Ewa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hat mir definitiv deutlich besser gefallen als Schattenkind. Die Charaktere waren meiner Meinung nach irgendwie ausgreifter und die Story vielschichter und spannender :)

[Marina · Rating 3 out of 5]

perhaps too much like larsson in some respects but enjoyed it anyway!
it's been a long time since i've read scandinavian crime novels, but the tropes quickly came back to me.

some of the things i didn't like:
- too on the nose with transitions between sections/POVs (i.e. one character's POV ended in "i'm starving", and the other's began with "he tried to drown out the rumbling of his stomach"); i mean, a few times is enough, the entirety of the book didn't have to be like that
- a lot of the sections started with personal pronouns and didn't reveal whose POV it was until way too late, which resulted in the flow of the text being broken and confused. i had to go back a few times and re-read them, which was fine, but unnecessary. there is enough intrigue in the book without it.
- the translation seemed fine for most of the book, but sometimes i wondered if it was correct and if that was the reason i was sometimes confused.
- was surprised that the book was not completely grounded in truth (e.g. saying there was a female american president, which was completely unnecessary as it only proved one small point in the book, and didn't mean much), after which i started doubting everything
- 2/3 of the book in new characters were still being brought in
- some political/religious attitudes were not completely developed; e.g. if Johanne says something is horrible and shudders at the thought of it, this does not make the reader feel the same
- a bit predictable, but not terribly so
- some of the plotline seemed unnecessary
- with regards to the above, i didn't understand why lukas looked like martine and who was his mother? did someone rape martine and erik and eva karin adopted him, saying he was their child?

something that pleasantly surprised me:
- there was no big action scene at the end, and the story weaved itself out perfectly