The Murder of Halland

Starred review from October 12, 2015
The first North American release of Juul's 2009 novel, which won Denmark's Danske Banks Litteraturpris, is long overdue. The story follows Bess, a deliciously selective narrator, in the wake of the death of her famed lover, Halland. His murder triggers a chain of events and discoveries, including the revealing of Halland's double life with his pregnant foster niece, Pernille, whose baby might be Halland's, and the restoration of Bess's relationship with her daughter. But the book's primary focus is on more existential revelations. Juul concerns herself principally with character, and her writing is sparse, ascetic, and exquisite, especially when she writes atmospheric passages or captures the novel's central ethos through Bess's love of TV police procedurals. Bess admits, "The puzzle attracted meâthe solution left me cold. Nothing like real life." Apropos, the book is intentionally without resolution; Halland's murder left unsolved, though readers have enough information to draw their own conclusions. But his death isn't the point; it's the catalyst for a beautifully wrought narrative about reclamation, letting go, and moving on. This Nordic murder mystery cum existential novel will appeal to fans of Banana Yoshimoto, Jedediah Berry, and Sara Gran's Claire DeWitt mysteries.

July 15, 2015
In this slim novel, Danish author Juul's first to be translated into English, the conceits of crime fiction frame a lonely woman's disorienting struggle with loss and the treacheries of navigating emotional relationships. When Halland Roe is murdered, inexplicably shot to death in a public square, Bess, his wife, finds herself in the unsettling position of being the first suspect. Although the novel begins with a murder and a shocking accusation, however, it quickly shifts its concerns from the solution of a crime to the way a traumatizing event can force a person to confront all the loneliness and unhappiness already in her life. A perfunctory investigation threads the novel together, but neither Bess nor the police seem urgently concerned with discovering the identity of Halland's killer. Instead, Bess reflects on the isolation that afflicts even the most intimate relationships, the amount of unknown that wells up between estranged relatives or longtime lovers. She becomes fixated on reconnecting with her daughter from a previous marriage, her grief for her husband unexpectedly obliterated by the realization that she longs for her daughter even more. Readers should not look for a conventional crime story in this novel but should instead linger over its efficiently conveyed portraits of different kinds of grief and regret. Bess is a writer, a relatively well-known author of short stories, and her narration seems to play with the boundaries between telling a story and being part of one. The prose is clean and straightforward, sometimes brusque and distant, but also surprisingly effective in conveying the confusion and irrational desires that follow in the wake of extreme distress. Quietly compelling.

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