ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 17, 1996 TAG: 9603150106
SECTION: BOOKS PAGE: F-4 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: BOOK REVIEW
SOURCE: REVIEWED BY CHIP BARNETT
BLACKWATER. By Kerstin Ekman. Translated from Swedish by Joan Tate. Doubleday. $23.95.
This first of Ekman's 17 novels to be translated into English won her the Swedish Crime Academy's Award for best crime novel.
Yet it is hardly a typical mystery, revolving only loosely around a double murder in the 1970s Swedish village of Blackwater.
Instead, the unsolved killing seems nearly forgotten as the novel focuses on the lives of three people: the jilted teacher who, with her 6-year-old daughter, discovers the bodies; the good-hearted doctor who examines her and the bodies; and the 17-year-old boy who has been tormented by his half brothers and runs, without knowing of the murder, across the border into Norway.
Ekman's writing is choppy and cold, suitable to the chilled setting, but at times annoyingly literary: "A weariness was visible in the very grass and leaves. They had paled and bent over, the turning inward had begun."
Just as you get impatient, Ekman drops an intriguing clue or inconsistency, sometimes one overlooked by the characters, just enough to keep you hooked and reading.
Two-thirds of the way through, we leap ahead 18 years to the present, when the former tormented boy has become the lover of the teacher's daughter, and all the primary characters come together.
Suddenly the long-unsolved mystery comes alive and is even intensified when one of those three is unexpectedly murdered.
It's during this last third of the book that Ekman's abrupt style is most effective, magnifying the dry-mouthed tension of wondering who the killer is and who the next victim will be; by that time you know the characters, care about them and don't want them to die.
Through all the twists of the plot, Ekman vividly shows the rawness of rural Swedish life, simultaneously new and familiar to American eyes.
"Blackwater" is a rich and often frustrating novel.
You may rebel against its seemingly irrelevant and lengthy tangents. Yet Ekman will eventually reward your patience by bringing all the casual clues and unrelated events into a coherent and satisfying whole.
Chip Barnett writes contemporary fiction for adults and children.
LENGTH: Short : 49 linesby CNB