The Consorts of Death: Varg Veum

I like this book. It reads like an entertaining case study. The author employs an understanding of psychopathology and the influences of early childhood attachment problems to trace the probable development of a murderer. In the meantime, the back story of Varg Veum, Private investigator, is revealed. It remains a mystery—If there is any more of his story to be known.

I would have given this book 4and a half. But of course I had to round it up. I read it in three days. The book has a multi level plot. One had to be continually focused or you would miss clues. It is hard reading. The story is mostly in flashback. It is related in the first person. I constantly had to re- read chapters to grasp the full meaning and to keep up with the characters and places. But what an education and treat it was. This book is seriously good.The story centres around Varg Veum, a social worker turned private eye. (think Phillip Marlow) He is called to the home of "Johnny Boy" a 4 year old and possible victim of abuse. We follow the progress of these two over a period of 15 years. There are many intriguing and mysterious characters and we get a social commentary on Norway during this period. (70's and 80"s) Veum is flawed like us all (I am immediately turned off books where the characters are beautiful, handsome and good). Best of all I loved the description of villages and cities, monuments, bridges and gates I enhanced this by looking up the images on the internet. I was thus able to visualized Groruddalen, TveitaAngedalan Fornebu, Oscarshall Palace and more. Positives for the internet.Staalesen piercingly sums up the frustration of his social worker job and the modern human condition. For example one of his descriptions reads"It struck me the moon wasn't alone after all. There were many of us adrift and circling around the same chaos the same turmoil without being able to intervene or do anything about it. We were all consorts of death"Gunnar Staalesen has written an gripping, intricate timely novel. His books have been translated into twelve languages and he has twice won Norway's top crime prize, the Golden Pistol. Kudos also to Don Bartlett who did an excellent job of translating this novel. Looking forward to reading more from these two.

What an amazing story! Much of it told in flashbacks, as it spans 20+ years. The detective is a former social worker turned private eye. It's complicated, with everyone related to or sleeping with some other major character(s). Actually, I figured out who was the bad guy about 2/3 through the book but the resolution was still quite exciting!

I love the nordic depressive outlook and how many authors depict lives of people in the darkened areas of the north. Gunnar Staalesen captures all the atmosphere of the crime and investigation in an intrigue of a lawyer involved in the demise of friends.

Love this writer - this one is particularly interesting for anyone with a background or interest in social work

Enjoyed this story. I found it through the DVDs. A very good story .... though being English I had to be careful with the names!

Having been referred to this author as must read scandanavian crime writer I found it dull and rather wooden,slow moving and often repetitive...a real disappointment.

Varg Veum is a social worker who has been called out urgently to a murder which appears to have been committed by a 6-year old boy. The child has had a very unhappy time with his own mother and with foster parents and is not prepared to talk about what happened. Varg manages to get the boy to trust him and feels he should be given a chance to grow up normally. More murders follow as the boy grows up and 21 years later when Varg who is now a private investigator does his best to help.This is Norwegian crime and is very engaging!.