The Writing on the Wall

Varg Veum #10

by Gunnar Staalesen

A case for Varg Veum . . . Bergen, Norway. Young teenage girls are being drawn into prostitution, partly for kicks, but also to earn money for drugs and clothes. Matters take a turn for the worse when the local magistrate is discovered in a luxury hotel, clad only in women_s lingerie_and most assuredly dead. Private detective Varg Veum is called by anxious parents soon after to look for their missing daughter.

Genres: Crime, Mystery, Scandinavian Literature, Fiction, Noir, Audiobook, Ebooks

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Gunnar Staalesen is a Norwegian writer. Staalesen has a cand.philol degree from Universitetet i Bergen and he has worked at Den Nationale Scene, the main theater in Bergen.

Reviews

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

9/10

[Susan Swansburg · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first one I've read. Stood alone just fine. I enjoyed it sufficiently to look for others in the series.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The writing on the wall means a signal, a warning. And that’s exactly what our children are. If they go off the rails, so do we… Weighed in the balance and found wanting, eh, Veum? Weighed in the balance and found wanting, every last one of us.” p236

Varg Veum is firmly listed as one of my must read Nordic Noir characters. Created by Norwegian author, Gunnar Staalesen, Veum is a private investigator, somewhat aloof, incredibly independent and probably mildly irritating and somehow a character entrenched in the Scandi crime genre.

The Writing on the Wall is the tenth in the series, the fourth I’ve read, published in Norway in 1995 and translated to English in 2004. The series order in English is a bit all over the place and I sensed that in this book there was at least one character from a previous book that I have been unable to access. Thankfully it didn’t really affect my overall reading experience.

Veum encounters quite a sordid array of events in The Writing on the Wall that takes him down into the the underworld of Norwegian city, Bergen, exposing some fairly horrific criminal activity. What starts as an investigation into the death of a prominent local male judge in a hotel room dressed in women’s lingerie, quickly transpires to a murder investigation when a teenage girl’s body is found in the undergrowth of the Bergen outskirts. Veum finds himself embroiled in secrets and lies as family’s come to grips with daughters they realise they actually don’t know, and familiar adults who they definitely don’t know.

“Could we ever get to know a person - properly? Or would they always keep something hidden from us, something we ourselves had perhaps known once but had gradually forgotten over the year?” P38/9

Veum is classic Nordic Noir.. love Gunnar Staalesen. He’s a master of the genre.

[Renita D'Silva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Haunting

[Mario · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m afraid I seem to be out of kilter with the majority of reviews in that, despite this being a decent enough story, the writing style and characters just weren’t for me.

I found the writing style, where dialogue was constantly interrupted mid-sentence, very irritating. It was like having a conversation with someone who keeps talking over what is being said.

The main character, Varg Veum, is macho, uncompromising and blunt with little depth or history. The same could be said of many of the supporting cast.

So we end up with a decent plot, quite fast moving and at times intriguing, but having no appeal for me personally. I won’t be reading any others.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gunnar Staalesen's Varg Veum is a true original. His name can mean "lone wolf", "persona non grata" and other negative labels, and Varg manages to live up to all of them. His background as a sociologist working in child services (before he went postal on a child abuser) tends to attract him to cases involving children, and this is no exception. Varg is hired by a mother whose teenage girl Torild has disappeared. As Varg digs deeper, he finds that Torild was embroiled with some very unsavoury characters and finds himself the recipient of some letters threatening him with death. Needless to say, Varg ploughs on and irritates the police, witnesses, parents, suspects and everybody else that he encounters.

The Varg Veum novels are set in Staalesen's home town of Bergen and he excels at describing the city, the surrounding countryside and the bitter weather encountered there. Similar to Rebus' Edinburgh, the reader really feels a sense of place when reading these books.

Apparently these books are highly popular in Norway, and one of the greatest Varg Veum mysteries is why so few of them have been translated into English, and why the publishers chose to not start with the first, and to translate intermittent novels in the series rather than give English readers continuity. I highly recommend these, and wish there was more of them.

[Tbfrank · Rating 3 out of 5]

As others have mentioned, the edition of this novel suffers from an awkward translation which is clearly Brit-based (windcheater vs windbreaker). And as like other reviewers, I discovered this author and his series through the MHZ network presentation of the Varg Veum movies (which are mostly decent - the movie based on this book is quite different).

The main character and the eventually unwinding of the plot brought the rating to three stars. The bizarre story-line about Varg receiving his own funeral notice with his death a week in the future is barely part of the novel until close to the end. Varg Veum has roots in the noir detectives though clearly a character born of the 70's: he is intelligent, insightful, compassionate, and driven. He is not the tough guy who carries a gun or uses force to get information - but like a 60's-70's US TV detective called Mannix, he gets the crap kicked out of him time and again. Varg is a flawed character and he knows it.

[Hannah Rebecca · Rating 1 out of 5]

It wasn’t very logical and some things were quite unrealistic. The protagonist is arrogant and impolite.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Originally published in Norway in 1995, Gunnar Staalesen's The Writing on The Wall is set in Bergen Norway in the early '90s. Private Eye Varg Veum returns from the funeral of his ex-wife's most recent husband to find the distressed mother of missing 16 year old girl Torild waiting to see him. Around the same time Bergen is buzzing with rumours about the death of Judge Brandt after he is found dead in a hotel room wearing flimsy female underwear.

Veum starts digging into the last known sightings and movements of Torild and her few friends - all of which seem to centre around a local amusement arcade. What initially seems pretty normal, rebellious behaviour seems to be covering up something more sinister and Veum is soon receiving death threats and Torild is found dead.

Varg Veum has a reflective almost pessimistic attitude, enhanced by the first person POV of the book. The reader is treated to everything that evolves in the story from Veum's point of view and with his observations and reactions in stark focus. There is something "Philip Marlowe" about Veum - not just because he's a lone PI, working the cases that the police cannot or will not touch, but also in his attitude and in some of the wisecracks and observations.

Ultimately it's a book about the unpleasant underbelly of a society with some seriously skewed morality covered by an increasingly thin veneer of normality. Varg Veum is a perfect set of eyes to observe all of this and whilst this is not a comforting read and the first person voice is sometimes a challenge to read, it was an interesting social observation.

[Mike Cuthbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had read two previous Staalesen efforts and this was the best of the three, to me. It is narrated by Varg Veum, always a risk in mystery writing since you know that the narrator has to live through any scrape in order to tell the story unless the author is a cheap trickster. Veum is a hero open to getting bruised, attacked, losing fights and starting few but one who does not shrink from the physical demands of being a PI. He has friends who are foes in the police department, as is usual in such cases, but overall gets along with them because he helps them out with cases or, as in this case, solves them on his own and merely calls them to clean up what’s left of the criminals. This plot is similar to many Nordic Noir plots in that it involves prostitution and very young prostitution at that. A young girl is found murdered around the same time as a judge is found murdered in dressed in women’s clothes. Are the two cases connected? Of course! This is Nordic Noir, after all! Veum conveniently has a friend named Karin with whom he spends precious moments, an old friend who is a reporter with whom he has shared similar intimacies in the past, who is put in jeopardy by Veum’s snooping around and he has his own death threat to deal with as he gets deeper and deeper into the crimes of a sinister band of creeps in Bergen, Norway. Staalesen has a good way with smartass remarks and clever asides that keep the mood light and the action moving and the pace is generally good. I’d rate this effort a success, particularly as it encourages me to read more of his work.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nordic noir mysteries are a totally different flavor than American cozies. This book had quite a few of the seedier elements of the underworld including drugs and prostitution and domestic violence and poor parenting and general thuggery. Also a positive view of the main character's sexual tastes that was just a tad too graphic for me but still somehow almost wholesome.

Varg Veum is a social worker turned private detective who is well known to both the police and the underworld in Bergen. A girl is reported missing by her parents. A judge is found dead in a highly specific sexual outfit in a low grade hotel. An old enemy resurfaces. And Varg is receiving death threats. Add in drugs, teenage sex workers, tabloid news, and a grumpy detective on the eve of his retirement and the stew gets spicier. The names are harder to pronounce and the description is of foreign scenery. Otherwise it could be a modern LA based murder mystery. There are some clear differences and this book can stand beside many of the darker edges of mystery. Not bad for a book selected mostly for the 666 challenge. I would read another in this series.

[Drew · Rating 2 out of 5]

A combination of poor translation, community college creative writing class techniques, moralizing, pitifully weak female characters and over-convulted plotting made this a hard book to get through. But, I did want to make it to the end, hence I gave it two stars. I usually give one star to books I could barely finish or I started to skim after awhile. If I could have given it 1.5, I would have.

I'm not doing too well with Scandinavian crime fiction, though Henning Mankell is significantly better than this writer. I like Japanese and English (UK) ones the best.

[Rachel Hirstwood · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't know why I read this book to the end. Perhaps it was so I could play spot the mistake, or wonder which creative writing course the author took (he used all the tips for writing a punchy line). Or maybe it was so I could just say, I read it and I won't be reading another one. This was dull, predictable, and the descriptions read like a child's comprehension exercise.

[Bud Mallar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think I mentioned before, you'll either hate this series and drop it, or love it like I do.

Yes, our hero is a sexist bastard, and our author is very much into sexual references

And this book is about the business of young girls in prostitution.

And, no, it's not a police procedural. And no, it's not really a character study. Our hero just goes around talking, checking a few dates and times, makes some assumptions, interfaces with the cops who wish he would go awAY. I didn't notice any 'sneak peaks' into the whodunit, so had no clue until the last CHAPTER.

But it's fun to watch over our hero's shoulder as he goes messing about, putting the pieces together. Glad I bought a bunch of these when they were free or cheap. A good guess on my part.

Start with #1

[Klr · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first varg veum book that I wasn’t crazy for. I usually like his self hating doubt filled musings, as well as his clever observations about humanity in general This had less of that and entirely too much action which didn’t allow any time for his understanding of events to be shared. I was disappointed but not giving up.

[samuel-levi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked the book, especially Veum and his wry sense of humor. Enjoyed his depiction of the city of Bergen which was like a minor character in the book. My library only has one other of Staalesen's books but I'll read it too.

[David G McSweeney · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have a suspicion that my issues with this book are more to do with the translation than anything else. The plot is great with plenty of unexpected twists and turns, but some of the images feel flat and similes are lackluster. Translation?

[CAROL · Rating 1 out of 5]

I bought it because I saw one of the Varq Veum mysteries on TV. I never like books that waste lots of space on descriptions of clothing worn by those in the book. Seems like 2nd rate writing: I don't plan to read this author again.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though this is exactly like the books I generally read when I'm bored and need to be entertained - Scandinavian crime fiction) this one by Staalesen was just a little - or a lot - too awful for me! Meaning the crimes committed and the people who commit them. Still I'll read others by him.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was too slow and dreary for me.

[Sandrine Dumont · Rating 4 out of 5]

As usual Veum is a pearl! 👍🏼

[Shannon M (Canada) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This instalment of the Varg Veum series had a plot that was too complicated. Also, it was a slow read due to too many unneeded descriptions and hackneyed phrases. I had to stop reading it several times. Not as good as most of the books in this series.

[Marcia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another gripping Scandinavian Crime novel, soon to be forgotten. My guilty pleasure!

[Halvor Harnæs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lokalkoloritten er mindre tydelig enn tidligere og dermed mangler en av Staalesens styrker. Dermed blir det en krim på det jevne.

[Andrea Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another brilliant Nordic Noir with Vargas Veum as the PI investigating a missing teenager on behalf of her mother. It very quickly changes direction and leads down some dark paths.

[Eva Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Årets påskekrim fullført! Den råaste veum-forteljinga så langt, med ein overraskande og vellukka vri mot slutten. Eg såg han i alle fall ikkje komme!

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Varg Veum uncovers a particularly unpleasant part of the Bergen criminal underworld when searching for a missing schoolgirl. Mystery with lots af twists.

[Rosalin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another interesting plot, for the most part. The beverage and car product placement is tacky. 3.5 Stars

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm really enjoying playing catch up in the world of Varg Veum. He's is such an interesting character, not entirely what you might be expecting from a Private Investigator and certainly not in the Raymond Chandler style that most people would probably envisage. He's a guy with a real heart, a soft spot for the more personal and sensitive cases, not interested in chasing a quick buck with an infidelity case, but happy to go on the hunt for a missing person, especially if that person is vulnerable or, as in the case of Torild Skagestøl, a sixteen year old girl whose mother engages Varg's services to locate her. As Varg tells her himself he is less PI and more Sociologist, and it is this background that gives Varg, and this series, their human touch.

This is a short read but packed with mystery, misdirection and scenes that will both shock, amuse and horrify you in equal measure. The opening scenes are certainly memorable, and you'd be forgiven for wondering how they could possibly tie in with the rest of Varg's story, but they do. As with any socio-political themed tale, this book takes readers to some relatively dark places, but all from the safe distance of Varg's newly gained knowledge rather than any gratuitous or graphic observations and direct action. Gunnar Staalesen takes a subject which in the time the book was set would have been shocking enough, but is still very much relevant and sadly, believable, today. If you think about all of the headlines of the past ten to twenty years, of grooming, abuse, assaults, the story is infused with a very vivid kind of realism, bit never taken to the extremes. The author explores much more the emotion and impact of those left behind, the psychological aspects of the story, than he does on the perpetration of the crime itself.

I have to be honest, as much as I had sadly guessed part of the direction of the story, the author still managed to completely blind side me as some of the eventual truth is revealed. It is a story of real tragedy. Of loss, of family and of an abuse of trust by those with power and those with authority. It is handled in a sensitive manner, but still brings readers to the heart of the matter. With Gunnar Staalesen's ability to paint such a clear picture of Varg's life and surrounds, he transports us to Bergen, the stark and rich imagery letting us experience all the sights, sounds and complexities of city life. The more he experiences, the more weary Varg seems to become, but the more I like him as a character and I look forward to revisiting his world soon.

[Gregory M · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed this but didn't manage to get to the end.