THE MURDER OF HALLAND
Pia Juul
Translated from the Danish by Martin Aitken
Reviewed by Andy Barnes
With a glut of Scandinavian crime fiction entering English translation it would be easy to
overlook Pia Juul's The Murder of Halland. However, Juul is one of Denmark's most celebrated
literary writers, and her foray into 'Scandi Crime' is a surprising subversion of the genre,
rather than an attempt to jump on a bandwagon. The subject of murder in a small Danish town
may have aided the appearance of a first English translation for any of Juul's books,
but The Murder of Halland is anything but another run-of-the-mill police procedural.
The book opens with the shooting of a man called Halland on the streets of a quiet Danish town.
His partner, Bess, is awakened by the gunshot, and initially the police suspect her of the crime,
after a passer-by apparently hears Halland accuse her as he lays dying. It has all the elements
of a classic whodunit. However, because we view the subsequent events through Bess' eyes,
the police investigation fades into the background. Bess neither knows nor cares who shot
her lover. Instead she wanders in a grief-induced fug, examining the effects that her affair
with Halland and her alcoholism have had on her relationships, particularly with her estranged
daughter Abbey. The police and her friends try to engage her in the mystery, but Bess retreats
into introspection. For Juul, the interest in the crime lies not in its resolution, but rather
in its effects on the victims left alive.
The Murder of Halland is both playful and dark. As a portrait of a bereaved woman it is
poignant, and Bess' apparent estrangement from the human race is beautifully played out. However,
Juul finds time to lighten the load by repeatedly poking fun at the idea of a police procedural.
The police, and occasional suspects, pop in to the narrative only to be dismissed with equal
alacrity. It is as if Juul is daring the reader to care about the resolution of the case,
when we really should be caring about Bess. Bess' disengagement, together with the unusual take
on a crime novel, make this a strange, ethereal book, one haunted by the ghost of a narrative
that the author repeatedly waves under your nose before whipping it away again.
It is 'Scandi Crime', but not as we know it. The Murder of Halland is a memorable literary
attempt to look at the real repercussions of violent crime, and a clever examination of the effects
of grief on a lonely life.
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