Synopsis:
Nesser’s latest contemporary police procedural, set in his Swedish homeland, is an excellent puzzler that will remind many of the Inspector Morse series. Nesser’s sleuth, Detective Chief Inspector Van Veeteren, is on the eve of major surgery when a baffling murder case is dumped on his team; a mutilated corpse has been found in a ditch, and is eventually identified as that of Leopold Verhaven, a recently released double murderer. … Van Veeteren and his squad deftly delve through decades of faded eyewitness recollections before reaching a satisfying solution, albeit one that requires the inspector to cross a line to achieve justice.
Review:
The Return is a Van Veeteren crime novel, and the sequel to Borkmann’s Point. It was written in 1995 but only translated in 2007. This time Detective Chief Inspector Van Veeteren is back on home territory. 
However, Van Veeteren is ill and does does most of his work from his hospital bed after a colon cancer operation, and uses his colleagues to do the leg work, primarily his colleague Munster.
The mystery in this book is who killed double murderer Leopold Verhaven? The murderer Verhaven had served two separate stretches of twelve years for the murder of two young women. Verhaven was a loner who was once a record-breaking middle distance runner, but was caught cheating and stripped of his medals. He then lived a reclusive life in a cottage in the woods, but was first convicted of murdering a woman he lived with. He returns home from his second prison term carrying a letter that seemingly has given him a mission. However, some months after his release his decapitated body is found by some school children. Studying the trial transcripts and press cuttings Van Veeteren concludes that the evidence against Verhaven was thin and circumstantial. Was Verhaven innocent? Is it the real killer that has struck again?
This is a wonderful whodunit. Van Veeteren is perhaps even more amusingly grumpy than usual. As well, in The Return we learn more about his family life. And, overall, this is a well-written crime fiction with a lot of Hakan Nesser’s dry humor. And the ending of the book is both unexpected and shocking. The Return is a superb piece of detective fiction. The layers of plot are carefully laid one on the other. The Return is a book that may haunt you after you have finished it.
Links:
Amazon US: The Return: An Inspector Van Veeteren Mystery
Amazon UK: The Return
Amazon CAN: The Return: An Inspector Van Veeteren Mystery
Amazon DE: Das falsche Urteil
Praise:
“A blast… His plots are addictive, his writing admirably economical, his characters complex and engaging.”
—Richmond Times-Dispatch
“Another solid example of why Swedes have become the talk of crime fiction.”
—Booklist
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Question about the music of “The Return”. I found it interesting that he selected Dvorak’s New World Symphony (No. 9) as the music that VV listened to after being released from the hospital. Did Mr. Nesser select this music deliberately because of its somewhat “heroic” style, and/or because of the battle in the music between e flat (darkness=cancer) and the ultimate triumph of E Major, (lightness=health) or did he just select this music without any such analysis and thoughts. And, his selection of Gossec’s requiem, a pretty obscure piece of music was equally interesting. All in all, I enjoyed the book a lot, as I did Borkman’s Point. Any comments would be appreciated.
Dave!
A very interesting and a neat observation on your part. However, I don’t know to what extent Mr. Nesser influenced the choice of music. And I don’t really know enough about the music used to be able to meaningfully discuss it with you!
Peter