Writing on the Wall by
Gunnar Staalesen
pbk out September 02
(Arcadia Books)
at £11.99
Early 90s, February, Bergen Norway: there is no shortage of rumours
when seventy year-old Judge H.C.Brandt is found dead in a hotel room
clad only in flimsy female underwear. Such rumours, however, are far
from the thoughts of private eye Varg Veum (see page 14 for the origins
of this strange name) when he returns from the funeral of his ex-wife's
most recent husband to find a distressed mother anxious to trace Torild,
her 16 year-old missing daughter. With Torild's mother reluctant to
involve the police, Varg is soon probing a network of young teenagers
from a variety of social backgrounds, whose out-of-school lives
seem to centre around Jimmy's, a Bergen amusement arcade. At first
their activities seem normal, if rebellious, but the stakes are raised as,
first, Veum receives a death threat and, second, Torild turns up dead.
According to at least one Norwegian critic, Gunnar Staalesen's Varg
Veum 'is no longer the same rebel as before, nor as hard-hitting.' That is
certainly true if the only other Staalesen book on my shelves, 1979's
Yours Until Death (Constable 1993), is anything to go by. 1995's Varg
Veum (the original date of publication for The Writing on the Wall) is
older and wiser, more reflective, pessimistic even.
But what Staalesen may have lost in vigour, he appears to have
gained in both compassion and complexity. Chandler remains the key
influence: Staalesen keeps Veum's story constantly on the move,
swapping a few quasi-Marlowe wisecracks as he goes; doors slide to
'with a quiet sigh like a form teacher full of resignation'. But Ross
Macdonald adds a grace note or two. Note the pitch-perfect portrayals of
family tensions, the mothers aging prematurely as the case proceeds.
And Hal Sutcliffe's fluent translation of what I believe is his debut crime
novel, reads like he has been doing it for years.
But it is Staalesen's steadily accumulating portrait of how a male-
dominated society gradually, perhaps inevitably, shifts to accommodate
all the most unpleasant aspects of modern 'civilisation' that sticks in the
mind. With The Writing on the Wall Staalesen shows that he can still
pack a powerful punch.
Writing on the Wall by
Gunnar Staalesen
