Different. I didn’t really care for the writing style, and at the beginning of the book I hated it and nearly set the book aside forever, but it got better or at least tolerable. It was a short, fast read so that helped. Plus I found myself laughing because bits of the writing were quite funny. In any case, a weird little story more about adolescence than crime but as Erik would say... it is what it is. ( )

What a pleasure to read a simple story written by a master. Characters, setting, plot all perfectly entwined. The hand of the author invisible. The beauty on the pages gently pulling you forward. ( )

The Summer of Kim Novak is a rare story in that it surprised me and more than once. It is as much the story of friendship and memory as it is a murder mystery. Erik is looking back on a formative event in his childhood, told through his memories. Spending summer vacation at a rundown lake cabin with his reporter/writer brother, Erik, and his new acquaintance Edmund soon become good friends. They know how to be silent together, a rare commodity in friendship. They are in sync. They are fascinated by the stunning Ewa Kaludis, a Kim Novak lookalike, who was Erik’s substitute teacher. You know they are fascinated because they say her full name Ewa Kaludis. The first part of the book tells about the bucolic lakeside adventures and adolescent fantasies that precede the Incident.

The Incident was a surprise to me. I will let it remain one for you as well because it was so pleased that the expected did not happen. It tells the story of the investigation and how suspicion falls on Erik’s brother who was having an affair with Ewa Kaludis. The police suspect Erik and Edmund are not telling the truth and most readers will, too.

The final part is long into the future. The case is still unsolved. His brother lives in South America and is long out of touch. He and Edmund have also been separated by school and circumstance since that summer, but Erik’s wife arranged to connect them again. This prompts Erik’s remembering the past and the truth coming out at last.

I enjoyed The Summer of Kim Novak a lot. I have always liked Håkan Nesser’s series, but this was something new and completely unexpected. It would be a tighter book if the first part spent a little less time on the lazy days of summer. I was wondering if it was ever going to get to the Incident. However, the effect of that time was to really cement our understanding of the two boys and why they might not tell the police what they saw and what they knew. We understand their complicity because we understand how well they get each other. So, it is an important part of making the story work, but it still made me impatient. I love that the story surprised me not once, but twice. That is a rare thing in a mystery.

I received an e-galley of The Summer of Kim Novak from the publisher through Edelweiss

https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2020/06/10/9781642860191/ ( )

Cancer-Treblinka-Love-Fuck-Death: “The Summer of Kim Novak” by Håkan Nesser "After my father had suggested that we might spend the summer together, I realized I didn't actually know anything about him. I knew what everyone knew: his father read girlie mags, and he was born with six toes on each foot.”
 
In “The Summer of Kim Novak” by Håkan Nesser
 
 
The first time I discovered Scandinavian Crime Fiction was when I bought 3 books in German (that’s why I always associate Scandinavian fiction with German) at an airport book-stand. What did I buy? 3 novels by Mankell, Nesser and Indridason (see pictures on my blog regarding my German library; mind you, it's just a taste...). Those were my first loves. Before that I’d only Hamsun in English (“Hunger”). I still remember a very heated discussion at the British Council with a fellow student concerning Hamsun and his Nazi sympathies. I read Hunger when I was very young and going through my existentialist phase in life. I thought at the time it was quite a brilliant book, the translation was masterful and I thoroughly enjoyed it at the time. It still is. 
 
You can find the rest of my love for Scandinavian (Crime) Fiction, in the usual place (my blog). ( )

Verhaal vanuit het zichtpunt van de dader. Romantish ( )