Review: Hakan Nesser – The G File

Hakan Nesser is one of my favourite crime writers. His Woman with Birthmark easily features in my top 10 crime novels of all time and I’ve found his output to be of a consistently high quality. His protagonist Van Veeteren has taken a back seat in some of Nesser’s later books but he is back with a vengeance in this final novel of the series. The G File features that most potent of cases, an old investigation that remains tantalisingly unsolved. But, given that it’s Nesser who’s doing the writing, there is plenty in the narrative to surprise the reader.

In 1987, private investigator Verlangen is approached by a woman to follow her husband, Jaan ‘G’ Hennan. When the woman is found dead days later in her empty swimming pool, suspicion naturally falls on Hennan who has a reputation for violence. However, at the time of his wife’s death Hennan was drinking in a bar with Verlangen, the man who was being paid to watch him. Although Hennan is arrested, Van Veeteren, who has his own demons to conquer in relation to the suspect, is unable to find anything to prove the man’s guilt. Fifteen years later Verlangen goes missing, leaving behind a message that suggests he finally found proof of Hennan’s guilt. For Van Veeteren it’s a chance to finally lay ghosts to rest and one last case before he completely retires.

Some books that complete a series are often a disappointment, earning their plaudits as much from the sense of an ending than literary merit. This isn’t the case with The G File. At 400 pages, it’s a long book but the splitting of the narrative onto two distinct parts, that of 1987 and 2002, means that the plot never drags. The character of Verlangen, alcohol soaked yet loving his teenage daughter, which is developed in the first part exerts a strong pull in the later narrative, despite his absence. There is a nice symmetry, typical of Nesser’s writing, that his now adult daughter instigates the search for her missing father.

I guess is must be part homage to the books of Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö that there have been ten books in this series. We have seen Van Veeteren morph from a serving Chief Inspector to a retired bookshop owner, dragged out of his retirement for one last case. In this final book he displays the tenacity and talent we as readers have grown to appreciate and it is a fitting end to the series. And, without giving away too much of the plot, Nesser still has the ability to surprise.

Thanks to Pan Macmillan for my copy of the book. The translation was by Laurie Thompson.