Death In A Cold Climate

by Robert Barnard

It was midday on December 21st in the city of Tromsø when the boy was last seen - a tall, blond boy swathed in anorak and scarf against the Arctic noon. After that he wasn't seen again, not until three months later, when Professor Mackenzie's dog started sniffing around in the snow and uncovered a human ear - attached to a naked corpse. Nobody knew who he was, or where he had come from. And after three months it was almost impossible to track down the identity of the corpse. But Inspector Fagermo refused to give up - and as he probed deeper into the Arctic city he began to discover a dangerous conspiracy of blackmail, espionage, and cold-blooded murder.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, British Literature

223 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Aka Bernard Bastable.

Robert Barnard (born 23 November 1936) was an English crime writer, critic and lecturer.

Born in Essex, Barnard was educated at the Royal Grammar School in Colchester and at Balliol College in Oxford. His first crime novel, A Little Local Murder, was published in 1976. The novel was written while he was a lecturer at University of Tromsø in Norway. He has gone on to write more than 40 other books and numerous short stories.

Barnard has said that his favourite crime writer is Agatha Christie. In 1980 he published a critique of her work titled A Talent to Deceive: An Appreciation of Agatha Christie.

Barnard was awarded the Cartier Diamond Dagger in 2003 by the Crime Writers Association for a lifetime of achievement.

Under the pseudonym Bernard Bastable, Robert Barnard has published one standalone novel and three alternate history books starring Wolfgang Mozart as a detective, he having survived to old age.

Barnard lived with his wife Louise in Yorkshire.

Series:
* Perry Trethowan
* Charlie Peace

Reviews

[Beth · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well-written and atmospheric, but jesus christ I absolutely despised this book. From the cynical, repetitively pessimistic outlook to the bland characterisations of the villagers, almost everything about this book made me want to throw it across the room.

The first chapter was promising - a clinical account of the murder victim's last afternoon, leaving just enough mystery and suspense to keep me reading. It fell apart quickly after that.

The first warning signs came shortly after, during a protracted description of a minor character's split from his devoted wife. He grew to despise her, the narrative explains, because she was perfect and hardworking and neat and dull. It continues to talk about how joyful life is now that he's not shackled to the joyless bint, happily trading daily homecooked meals for heating beans on a camping stove in an empty rented room. Barnard never addresses why this man, Bjorn Korvald, married her in the first place. Okay, whatever. Marriages fall apart. Still, something about the passage didn't sit well. A woman, confined to the home, working constantly to bring up children and cook and clean, all for a man who loathes her for doing it, and eventually leaves her without a viable source of income.

None of this would have bothered me except the novel, while only around 168 pages long, managed to disparage and demean every single woman contained within its story. All of them were painted in different shades of tired archetype - the cunning slut, the vain mother, the overbearing wife, the desperate girlfriend, the self-obsessed, empty-headed student. Even female characters who barely said two sentences were given double that amount of text dedicated solely to measuring their physical attractiveness - more commonly their lack thereof. It quickly became exhausting, and shortly after that transitioned into making the short book unreadable.

And don't get me started on Lise Nicolaisen, the young wife of a crotchety but respected professor, who was so desperate to seduce two detectives that she wore nothing underneath a blazer in an interview, and flashes them saucily as they're leaving. It's implied one of them doubles back, with a hurried excuse, to sleep with her. It's the exact sort of stupid titillating contrivance I've seen before in boring crime novels written by men. She's twenty-three, can I add, stated to be half her husband's age. That would make him forty-six. She's also initially described as "blonde, sleepy and well-fleshed, with a jumper pulled over bra-less breasts, and tight jeans." It's so cliché as to be satirical. And, to top it all off, the detective who doubles back to sleep with Lise is the aforementioned Bjorn Korvald, having left his detested wife.

Even the killer's identity in the end failed to be interesting. Frankly I'd rather Mrs Sidsel Korvald had been the killer. At least if she killed someone she would have had some agency within the narrative. She deserved a bit of murder after the stupid early chapters detailing her divorce for no reason other than to add colourless background to a colourless story. Instead it transpires she had sex with the victim and, after he failed to show any interest in her afterwards, threw him out because she felt used. And the text goes on to describe how her 'china-doll features' get unpleasantly distorted as she recounts that bruise to her ego, implying there's a well-concealed inner ugliness to her that justified her miserable treatment by two men in the course of the novella.

It's blatant in some places and subtle in others, but the frustrating, shallow and dismissive attitudes to the female characters go far beyond the examples I've listed. Beyond that, the text seemed infused with a weird grey deadened feeling - usually a murder mystery/thriller will have a bit of life to it, but this felt like a bloodless, misanthropic, leaden slog through the investigative procedure.
I can't remember the last time a book annoyed me this much. If you're going to be misogynistic at least make it interesting.

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actually 3 1/2 would be good....I started this book years ago and it got put aside for who knows why.
It's a great mystery...has all the elements of one. Takes place in Norway and the people are described well enough so that you feel you know someone just like them! I didn't figure it out at all! The Police superintendent was smart and insightful. I think I'll try another one of his books. He is a renown author and has won many awards. Always a bit of a challenge with names and places that are difficult to pronounce ....it makes me have a hard time keeping track of them!

[Alton Motobu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a cozy Christmas mystery as categorized on some Christmas book lists on the web. Takes place in Tromso, a town in northern Norway. Story starts on Dec 21 with the killing of a young man. Sixteen pages later it is Jan 20, and various characters are introduced. Sixteen pages after that it is Mar 15 when the victim's corpse is discovered. Then it turns into a long police procedural somewhat like Ed McBain's 87th Precinct novels as the Norwegian detective Fagermo uncovers clues, interviews witnesses, and narrows down the suspects. In the end the killer turns out to be a complete surprise since the author did not identify that person even though that person appeared several times previously in the story line.

I read this book because of the supposed Christmas theme, but there was hardly any mention of the holiday season. In fact the major events occurred from Jan to May. Why do these list-compilers include non-Christmas books on Christmas mystery lists??? I strongly suspect they do not even read the books and only include them if the word "December" appears somewhere in the text.

[Shauna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book does a great job in evoking the atmosphere of a small Norwegian city in the winter months. I thought the story itself started off really well with some interesting characters but it was as if the author got bored and rushed the ending. I finished it feeling disappointed and dissatisfied. Not one of Barnard's best books.

[Marianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I looked at other reviews before writing my own, and am a little surprised that this book has a lower overall rating than I expected. I discovered Robert Barnard in an EQMM issue, and decided I needed more. I love the purely Scandinavian, land-of-the-midnight-sun vibe he puts forth. To me, it's pretty realistic! A few things I love about this author:

1. He really pulls off a slow, deliberate, almost plodding detective. Not stupid, just slow and deliberate like many Scandinavians I know. (Not to generalize or anything, because I know a number of mindful people!) The murder takes Fagermo, our protagonist, a few months to solve, but with every step (steps sometimes held up by bureaucracy or a simple lack of physical evidence), he gains ground. Some reviewers said the story was too slow. I didn't mind. For me, it was a good change of pace and I grew quite fond of Fagermo and his methods.

2. Barnard assumes that his readers are capable of following logic and nuance. Refreshing not to be hit over the head with conclusions. There were so few clues in this mystery, but the protagonist was thorough and chronological in his investigation.

3. The mood was palpable. Wonderful descriptions of Norway's far north. Tromsø is a fairly large city by my standards, but Barnard captures the "small town" atmosphere that often goes hand-in-hand with academic circles.

This was a terrific vacation read, which made it just a bit hard to put down and enjoy my own far north surroundings, but I knew I'd have a long and boring plane ride home, so I was able to do both. I love a good mystery, but so often I find myself solving the mystery halfway through a novel because they do tend to be a bit formulaic at times. Not so with Robert Barnard's work. His short story in EQMM was as much of a surprise as the end of this novel, and there is nothing more pleasurable than being carried along by a good story by a great writer.

The omniscient narrator also has quite a wry sense of humor. An example:
"He idled, noting the decorations for Christmas in the shops and the Christmas trees oddly decorated with the Norwegian flag, as if Christ had been born in a stable near Oslo."

(Made me chortle out loud!)

[John Hardy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I forgot that I had already read this, but obviously that was before I joined Goodreads. Quite a few of Barnard's books have re-appeared in the library, and I quite liked them. Quickly read this again and here's my review.
On the back cover, a review stated that the author "is one of the leading exponents of the traditional English murder mystery." Although some of the basic ideas are the same, this story is set in Norway, and obviously the landscape and colour are completely different.
Another review - "an excellent psychological thriller". There's nothing thrilling about this book at all. It's a very plodding investigation, and practically all the characters are cold, unfeeling, and self-absorbed. Cops are portrayed as stupid and / or lazy, except for the lead investigator Fagermo.
The author does have a way with words. He describes one female character as "like a heavy autumn mist over the fjord". The trouble is that that's the feeling you get about the whole book. Translations from another language can come across very flat, depending on the skill of the translator, but this isn't a translation, so probably Barnard intended to give this effect. Apparently he lived in Norway.
The murder victim was given a striking appearance, if not a memorable personality, so amazingly, many who barely met him or saw him remember lots of details after months have passed. It's hard to believe, given that even his own parents apparently feel no emotion about his death.
Fagermo keeps putting one foot after the other, and eventually gets to the truth. The ending is a classical trope where the investigator invites the perpetrator to commit suicide, and they duly do so.
The story is OK but with plenty of negatives as above, therefore the rating is 3.2.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not one of his best, but intriguing because, like so many of Barnard's mystery, identity is a key factor. Since he lived in Norway, he writes of what he knows, and includes humorous asides about the Norwegian character, and also those of Brits and Americans. I loved this, about Inspector Fagermo: "the occasional crinkling at the edges of the mouth signified the presence of a sense of humour that was un-Norwegian in its irony and blackness." This is a man who has his work cut out for him, first in identifying a naked body buried in the snow, then tracing the young man's footsteps since arriving in Tromsø, and then looking more closely at his background. He's pretty much on his own, and Barnard's sense of humour comes through when he writes, about Feragmo's useless sergeant, "He had the happy knack of never being able to see that he had done wrong, or done too little, or might have done better. He had the equally happy knack of giving to everything he did an equal amount of attention or inattention: knocking up a shelf in the garage or investigating a murder case occupied in his mind places of equal important or unimportance, and were accordingly done in much the same take-it-or-leave-it manner. Such men live to a ripe and inconvenient old age."

[Shanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

A body is discovered beneath the snow in a small town in northern Norway with no identification. After he is identified as a foreign visitor, the detective interviews everyone who crossed his path to try to piece together the victim's last days in order to discover the killer. Of course, lots of people have secrets they don't want revealed, so they aren't as forthcoming with information, hindering the progress of the case. Luckily, the detective is perceptive and persistent, and he doesn't stop until he figures it out. This is my third Barnard novel, and this one was still good but not my favorite. There are plenty of red herrings which kept me guessing, the mystery had the right amount of complexity, and I enjoy Barnard's witty writing. However, the back-and-forth investigative process and the backstory of the ocean exploration for oil dragged at times for me.

[Lisa Kucharski · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of my Winter, Christmas type mysteries. A grim Norwegian mystery, where the author is quite good at showing off all the foibles of the various people there both natives and foreigners. Luckily for this smaller town near the Arctic Circle there is an Inspector that has smarts and hunts and hunts until he finds the links to both the identity of the murdered man, but then the links of the locals to him.

Well written, though I would say when he stated he was getting in certain information, we didn’t see it (so not fair play but if you saw the info you would see the suspect) it was more satisfying for the Inspector to reveal it in his own way with the suspect.

Not a long story, but had a lot of depth to it.

[Alison Cairns · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did like the evocation of the Norwegian atmosphere and background but not much else. I didn't know Norway was so old fashioned in so many ways. The cold climate was definitely a character in this book. Characters were ok, but not really rounded, full people. A very slow book, no tension created, and very random connections. The victim was painted as a cold, calculating kind of guy but I don't think we ever really got to know much about him. My main reason for not being a big fan of this book was the Inspector explaining in great, boring detail his take on the case. Why would you do that? The ending was unnecessary I thought. I read this as a friend picked it for our book club.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

First Mystery I read by this author and now I want to read the rest of his books. I loved the setting and how he describes the characters and their motivations. This mystery takes place in a small Norwegian village. The body of a young man is found buried in the snow. The detective tracks down a cast of reluctant witnesses in his quest to learn something of the deceased and uncover a possible motive. I understand the author lived in Norway for a time and taught at the university there. If you like the cozy mystery genre you will enjoy this book and the wintery setting.

[Bill Fox · Rating 3 out of 5]

This mystery takes place in Norway, but is written by a British mystery writer and feels more like the English mysteries I've read rather than the Scandinavian ones. Key to the investigation is a group of people, mostly foreigners, who meet at a pub and converse in English. The Norwegians who join the group mostly come to practice their English. This is a straightforward mystery. A body is found and Inspector Fagermo of the Tromsø police investigates.

[Ron Kerrigan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Surprisingly non-engrossing mystery, considering how I much enjoyed other Barnard mysteries. The setting in the northern Norwegian city promised to be a plus, but it wasn't explored or expanded as much as I hoped. The detective was fairly routine (unlike his witty Perry Trethowan) and the plot not that interesting.

[Kate Ashurst · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was full of promises - a murder mystery set in my favourite city. It was a reasonably good read, but the ending was a bit anticlimactic. I suppose it's different from the usual contemporary psychological thrillers I read, which was refreshing in some sense. I did come to like the characters but I don't feel like I knew them on a deep level.

[Karen Wickham · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is quite a short book. Only about 160 pages. It's a murder mystery set in Norway.

The story itself was quite mundane as murder mysteries go, and a think a lot more could have been done with it.

[Harper · Rating 2 out of 5]

The novel was brought down by its shallow, unvaried depictions of the few female characters. On the other hand, there were a lot of clever elements of plotting in this story that I appreciated at the denouement.

[Hannah · Rating 2 out of 5]

- slow pace for such a short book
- never learnt much about the victim or the killer so no emotion to the reveal
- no tension
- odd connections between characters
- forgot who some characters were by the time they were reintroduced to the storyline

[Proctor Penny · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable read, the writing style connects you as the reader really well to Inspector Fagermo - a calm, methodical murder mystery with pretty scenery descriptions to match the calm, methodical and thoughtful MC. I think the only thing I didn't like was some of the descriptions of women.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

A quite nicely written police procedural set in Norway but very DULL. I get the impression that this author, who was a professor at the University of Tromso, didn't like Norwegians very much. Almost every character in the story is dislikeable.

Disappointing.

[Anie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring. I could not keep the characters sorted, possibly because they were so poorly developed. By midway I simply didn't care who did it, or why.

[Leon · Rating 3 out of 5]

It isn't Robert Barnard's best novel. The murderer wasn't very convincing. There were a lot of biases against Norwegians. In the end the book was boring.

[Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well written, intriguing story. It will keep you guessing!

[Sophie Sternschuss · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing more than an average murder mystery for me. Found it difficult to get my head around all the Norwegian names.

[Lydia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Based on Barnard's experiences at the Northern-most university. Blistering descriptions of academics and their many foibles (along with some off-putting criticisms of Norwegian housewives).

[Ryann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very slow.
Inspector Fagermo continuously gives away details of the case to everyone he speak to, frustratingly bad policing.

[nx74defiant · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good murder mystery. A dead body is found. Who was the victim? Why would someone want to kill him? The reveal came as a surprise to me.

[Bonnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite being really short, I found it quite dull and a bit of a slog. I can’t think of a female character that’s anything other than a bimbo

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty solid police procedural.

[Rog Harrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

"I first read this book about 30 years ago so thought I would read it again on a long train journey. It's a good read but not one of Robert Barnard's best." was what I wrote on 14 August 2012.

Reading it for the third time I still enjoyed it. The author writes well (I have read forty two of his books) with some gentle humour. This book is set in the north of Norway and as the snow begins to thaw in the Spring the naked body of a young man from England, who had last been seen just before Christmas, is discovered by a man walking his dog. The police officer slowly discovers what happened in the last few days of the young man's life though he has to deal with many witnesses who have their own reasons for not being entirely honest. Well worth a read though the author has written much better books.

[Jazz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unusual and striking setting in the Land of the Midnight Sun, this mystery certainly follows all the rules of the classic whodunnit, but that is what I've come to expect from Robert Barnard. It helped me to go online and look at images of Tronsø, Norway. I totally missed the murderer and the ending came as a surprise. 3-1/2 stars.