My first Hanne Wilhelmsen was the outstanding 1222, which is actually #8 in the series. So I went back to the beginning of the series. The first was just okay, but subsequent titles have just gotten better and better. Interesting, unusual characters and complex, believable mysteries make for compelling and absorbing reading. Highly recommend.

Reading Death of the Demon, it’s easy to get the idea that Holt doesn’t like her main character that much. For one thing—as in the previous books—Hanne Wilhelmsen is only one of a number of characters from whole point of view we see the action. Yes, she is at least marginally the central character, but in having her appearances limited, we do not get to know her as well as we should. What we do know is this: Hanne has recently been promoted to Chief Inspector. But as she rises in rank, she seems to be even more frightened of being outed than before. She and her Partner, Cecilie Vibe, have been together since the two were in college, yet Cecilie has never met Hanne’s family. The only one—outside their inner circle of friends—who knows that they are a couple is Billy T., Hanne’s go-to detective. And oddly, Hanne seems to be more than ordinarily drawn to Billy T.

What’s worse, because Hanne is unable to totally accept herself as homosexual, she is adamantly against Cecilie’s wish to have children, and for a reason that is hard not to find homophobic. “If I can’t quite dare to accept myself, then it’s bloody unfair to make life difficult for a child.” Then she adds, “I truly believe that a child should come into being through a mother and a father loving each other.” Well!

The plot revolves around the stabbing murder of the director of a foster home. Was it one of her underlings, who has deceived her in some way? Was it one of the children? Or maybe the man she was having an affair with? The plot is a good one, but ironically, Hanne fails to solve it, just as she fails to solve her own problems with Cecilie.

As always, Holt’s writing is very good, as is the professional editing from Scribner. But I will have to rate this one lower than the first two—and the 8th. Holt’s meandering point of view becomes annoying, especially since the first 32 pages are taken up with a prologue, much of which comes from the first-person, stream-of-consciousness point of view of the mother of one of the residents of the foster home. In fact, this woman’s narration continues intermittently throughout the book, despite the fact that she is only an incidental character. My suspicion is that she gets so much print because of Holt’s sib-theme of abuse inside foster care facilities. This is an important theme, of course, but it could have been done better and more artistically.

I’ll have to give this one a simple 3 rating—no more and not much less. With Holt’s penchant for delving too deeply into other characters, she seems to be writing primarily for a non-lesbian audience. Yet she has another series featuring protagonists that are not lesbian, so I wonder what the point is. Even if there is no point, and that it is simply Holt’s style to involve as many characters as possible in her plot, the book suffers from lack of focus. Again: 3.

Note: I read the first printing of the Scribner edition of this book.

Another Note: This review is included in my book The Art of the Lesbian Mystery Novel, along with information on over 930 other lesbian mysteries by over 310 authors.

My blog post about this book is at this link.

Not one of her best but still fun.

Knifed in the back...

When respectable, middle-aged Agnes Vestavik is found at her desk with a kitchen knife in her back, it seems at first as if no-one could have wanted her dead. But as Hanne Wilhelmsen and her team investigate, they suddenly find themselves with a surfeit of suspects amongst the staff and in Agnes’ personal life, all with strong motives. And then there’s Olav – a 12-year-old newcomer to the foster home that Agnes ran: a boy with serious behavioural problems and a mother who can’t cope. Why did he run away on the night of the murder? Did he witness something? A question they can’t ask him until they find him - but Olav doesn’t intend to be found…

This was my first introduction to Hanne and her team and I found it a thoroughly enjoyable read. There’s obviously a back-story and it would probably be better to read the books in order, but I found this worked perfectly well as a standalone. Hanne has just been promoted to Chief Inspector and has persuaded her friend Billy T to transfer to her team. Their interactions are good fun and give the book a lighter side, without in any way detracting from the plot. We also see Hanne’s home-life with her partner Cecilie and get to see why Hanne is reluctant to make their relationship public.

The descriptions of the foster-home and the troubled children are very convincing and handled with a welcome light touch. So often such places are rather unfairly portrayed as being all doom and gloom, but Holt brings out much of the humour and genuine care that in reality usually exists in them. We see Olav’s past through his mother’s eyes – a child she loves but can’t control. Both Olav and his mother are very well-drawn characters and Holt manages to make the reader increasingly sympathetic towards them as the book goes on.

Overall, a very enjoyable read that will certainly encourage me to read more in the series.

NB This book was provided for review by the publisher.

www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com

While I enjoyed this book, I was a little disappointed in the storyline which was predictable and not really interesting. The sub-plot of the problem child was more interesting, but failed to elicit the necessary emotion, I thought.
Hanne has somehow evolved, but not totally. I have read these books out of order, and probably shouldn't have. It is still a valuable series for a reader, with characters that continue to fascinate and evolve.