Bad Intentions (Konrad Sejer, #9) (2024)

For two of the kindliest detectives in crime fiction, Inspector Konrad Sejer and his sidekick Jacob Skarre never provide comfortable reading and this ninth entry in the series is one of their most unsettling investigations to date, not that Bad Intentions follows anything as simple as the course of a run-of-the-mill police procedural. The penetrating and all seeing eye that Konrad Sejer brings to his job rarely takes anything at face value, preferring to question everything and come to his own conclusions. Bad Intentions is one of Fossum's simplest thrillers to date and perhaps all the more haunting because it concerns the lives of ordinary folk, neither depraved or necessarily with unsavoury intentions in mind. This short tale concerns the role that conscience plays in the life of every individual and how people reconcile themselves to the events which come to represent their innate morality. That every persons sensitivity to their conscience differs lies at the heart of this tale and opens a divide for the astute Sejer to exploit.

When three old school friends who have known each other for seventeen-years come together for a weekend at the secluded cabin on Dead Water Lake, a boating tragedy sees the anxious and paranoid non-swimmer, Jon Moreno, falling into the mud caked water and submerging. Philip Reilly, a thoughtful and sensitive hospital porter decides to dive into the water and attempt to drag Jon aboard, only for the arrogant and forceful leader of the trio, Axel Frimann, to persuade him that the risk is too great. Advertising executive, Axel convinces the easily persuaded Reilly that Jon's disappearance will be easy to explain by virtue of his mental instability, given his history of incessant anxiety. Having spent the last four weeks in the Ladegården Psychiatric Hospital, the two friends are surprised at the level of interest that Inspector Konrad Sejer and Jacob Skarre show in what appears a routine matter, questioning everything from Jon's state of mind to his body being found so far from shore given that he was a non-swimmer. When things do not add up for the detectives and they become increasingly concerned by the chameleon-esque nature of Axel Frimann, guilt ridden Reilly seems to present the only chance of providing a forthright answer to Jon's mother, girlfriend and psychiatrist. With the case shelved and an unsatisfactory resolution noted, the compassionate Konrad Sejer maintains his contact with Jon's mother and when she decides that reading his diary presents a chance for some peace of mind, both Axel and Reilly have the chance to clear their conscience and reveal a secret that united the trio of friends. The ammoral and less well intentioned of the two remaining friends is undoubtedly Axel Frimann, who tells Reilly to stop worrying about other people as it only restricts ones ability to make the most of life and is perhaps the most telling statement throughout the novel.

The empathy and understanding Konrad Sejer shows towards Jon's mother, Ingerid, is replicated when the body of a seventeen-year-old Asian boy is found in Glitter Lake, shown to have been dead before he hit the water. Once again, Axel Frimann and Philip Reilly were involved and together with Jon's diary, Sejer begins to understand the true nature of the beast that is a person's conscience. Bringing together two grieving mothers, Fossum shines a light on aspects of guilt, peer pressure and the burden of a long-term friendship and provides a truly dark read. She also dissects grief with a thoughtful overview and acknowledgement that events might never have been intentional but they can so often conspire to reveal more about an individual and their motivations. Karin Fossum is as eloquent as ever and raises the issue of whether a confession is in itself an act of decency.

A warning for all Karin Fossum followers: "Bad Intentions" is not for the squeamish. The writing, however, is, as always, riveting and pulse-pounding. As are Fossum's characterizations of people.

In her newest, brief novel, Fossum catches her readers off guard with her dangerously delicious approach to the dark side of the human psyche. Three troubled boys: Jon, Reilly and Axel, fighting demons from their past, must come to terms with their compulsive behavior of a recent unsettling crime, which hits too close to home for the three adolescents. Haunted by their own reproach, the young men will have to face reality, its consequences, and the violent, brutal road that lies ahead for each of them.

Inspector Sejer Konrad and his counterpart Jacob Skarre's minor roles in the book may be off-putting for a few avid readers of the series. Fossum stated earlier in her career that her stories deal with the 'why' instead of the 'who' of the crime, and in no way should her books be labeled a 'whodunit'. Instead, they are psychological interpretations of human behavior and how tortured, disturbed people think the way they do, and the outcomes of their deadly and, often times, unwarranted actions.

In Bad Intentions, minor characters, like the boys' grieving mothers or Jon, Axel and Reilly's female friends, may not get enough page time or a larger light in which shine, but those characters and their situations are minute in themselves. They are not Fossum's center focus. Their purpose, however small, illuminates enough of the reader's mind as to why they are present in the novel in the first place. Fossum succeeds in doing what she does best: telling a story.

Like "The Water's Edge," Bad Intentions is told in a brevity of words. The story is richer and more complex than previous outings. The novel has a sense of growing restlessness and a cold-war chill on every page, as Fossum delivers the goods in every menacing chapter. Even so, a few of the characters will stay with you after you finish the book, close it, and set it back on the shelf.

Another important observation: Being compared to author, Steig Larsson, Fossum may be another Norwegian author, but her writing style and approach to the psychological novel is in a class of its own. Taut. Haunting. Disturbing. And yet, the beautiful, unnerving images adhere to you and linger in the mind well after the last page.

Most readers would have preferred to read an extra one hundred pages of the detectives' lives, but the 213 pages inside Bad Intentions are rightly justified. A short, indicative tale with a meaty punch.

I've been reading Karin Fossum for years now, so I've had a chance to see her change. Her books started as more traditional crime novels. Procedurals, basically, with a stoic and sensitive Inspector Sejer at their heart. They were always smarter and more emotionally honest than your average crime novel.

Lately she's moved in a different direction. Her novels claim to be Inspector Sejer books but he is only a minor figure in "Bad Intentions." Instead the book focuses on a group of 3 men, friends since childhood, who have something to hide.

The book is not really about detection or finding out who did it. We know who, but we don't exactly know what. What we get to see mostly is how it ripples through their relationships and the lives of those around them.

Fossum's writing is good, as always. Her new style is lovely and spare and heartwrenching. But I kind of miss the old Karin Fossum who made crime novels something better than they generally are. This new one doesn't actually care much about that type of thing anymore. I am thinking perhaps I like the middle-Fossum best, where there was still structure but plenty of artful writing as well. (The Indian Bride comes to mind.)

Plus I miss Sejer himself. He is a great character and he and his partner, Skarre, are little more than window dressing.

I will never have to dump Fossum the way I dumped Ruth Rendell--for sheer lazy writing. But I wonder if Fossum and I will continue to be as close as we always were.

I'm not sure whether a friend told me about this book or if I saw it mentioned on a website; either way, it was presented to me as a Scandinavian crime novel in the mold of Steig Larsson's Millenium Trilogy (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, etc). Everyone is recommending Scandinavian crime novels these days, riding on Larsson's coattails.

Well. Bad Intentions is nothing at all like Larsson. There's not a hint of Lisbeth Salander here, or even Mikael Blomkvist. The author isn't even Swedish; she's Norwegian. Bad Intentions is one of Fossum's "Inspector Sejer" series, and Fossum is known (according to Wikipedia) as "Norway's Queen of Crime." Interestingly enough, Bad Intentions is not a police procedural, though you'd expect it to be. Inspector Sejer is a background character here, making a few appearances but not really involved in solving the crime. The perpetrators of the crime, three young men, basically undo themselves and one of them eventually confesses. And the crime? It's not much of anything at all -- neglectful manslaughter at most, and I doubt such a thing would even be prosecuted in the United States.

As crime novels go, this one is a "meh." Look, peeps, stop recommending books just because they come from Sweden or Norway. Second-rate crime novels are all about the same, no matter what language they were originally written in. Being Scandinavian does not automatically make someone the next Steig Larsson.

Like the narrator of Poe's Tell Tale Heart, Jon Moreno is a young man driven to insanity by a guilty conscience. At first, we are unaware of what crime Jon has committed; only that his friends, Axel Frimann and Philip Reilly are also deeply involved.
When Jon's drowned body is discovered in the aptly named Dead Water Lake, Inspector Konrad Sejer is called in to investigate.
Konrad Sejer is, in many ways (although not in appearance),like a Norwegian Columbo; patiently yet persistently probing the evidence and suspects until he arrives at the truth.
The storyline alternates between Konrad's investigation and the increasingly desperate measures taken by Frimann and Reilly to evade justice.
Although hardly a high action thriller, this novel is a perfect example of how an evenly paced psychological drama can be gripping and enlightening from beginning to end.

This is the worst one yet. The writing seemed very amateurish to me; the book did not engage me, and yet again, she indulges in the annoying habit of providing just a bit of forboding information about Konrad Sejer, but I guess I'd have to read the next novel to know where that goes. If I can get it for $1.99 on my Kindle, like I did with this one, I might do it; otherwise, forget it. I'm off to find other Scandinavian crime authors who can better hold my interest.

Bad Intentions by Karin Fossum tells the story of three friends who make a bad choice and a drunken moment and whose lives unravel as a result. The book begins with the suicide of one of the three young men while the other two watch and then decide to wait a day to report his suicide. They have a secret which is the mystery of this book. But the real story is not the solution of the mystery but the effect the wrong choice has on the friends and those around them.

The book is part of the Sejer/Skarre series but Detective Sejer has a relatively minor-although effective-role. The two surviving friends bear most of the weight of the story. There is almost no violence-but I will pass on the warning I read in another review for which I was grateful: there is a scene of brutal treatment of an animal towards the end of the book. Sejer, although not the central character, has some excellent scenes and his weariness and his resolve to uncover the truth touched me.

I enjoyed this book greatly. It's a short, tightly written book which took only a couple of hours to finish. It reminded me of another author I enjoy, Ruth Rendell, in its creation of a claustrophobic and somewhat creepy atmosphere. I've also read and enjoyed Don't Look Back and look forward (no pun intended) to reading the rest of the series.

Two teenage boys missing. Their bodies found in different lakes in Norway.
The guilty ones began to lack trust in each other. Then the stronger one turns on the weaker one.
Alex and Riley were caught using DNA from what was found in their car.
The mothers of the two dead boys, banded together in their grief, trying to understand what happened.

"It might be good to let yourself sink, he thought, stop the fear flowing through your body for good. An explosion in his head, a burning sensation in his lungs and it would be all over."

I am very sad as I have just read the third Karin Fossum's book in a row that I really do not like that much. About two months ago I was singing utter praise for the Norwegian author and in my review of Hell Fire I even wrote " Of hundreds of authors [...] that I have read in over 50 years, Ms. Fossum joins only Nicolas Freeling and Denise Mina in the select trio of mystery writers for whom I feel a deep, total, and virtually uncritical admiration." and explained in detail why I love Ms. Fossum's books so much. Well, the blind fascination is over. I need to acknowledge the truth. Some of her books are great. Not all! Bad Intentions (2008) appears to me the least favorite of all her books.

Jon, a young man, a boy really, is away from a psychiatric hospital where he is treated for anxiety and depression. His two best friends, Axel and Philip, take him camping on the shores of the Dead Water Lake. When they decide to go out on the lake in a rowing boat Jon has an anxiety attack, falls over the side of the boat, and drowns.

Inspectors Sejer and Skarre arrive at the scene; they interrogate Axel and Philip as well as Jon's mother. They also learn that all three boys had been routinely questioned in a missing person's case the year before. We meet some interesting people in the course of the investigation: Sejer's conversation with Dr. Wigert, the psychiatrist who was in care of Jon, is, to me, the highpoint of the entire novel. The reader is also offered hints that Jon was heavily burdened with a secret: something traumatic must have happened in his recent past.

About mid-novel the author begins offering fragments of Jon's diary, which - from the purely literary point of view - feels rather a clumsy and mechanical way of divulging the secrets. I do not particularly care for the characterization of Axel, one of the main characters, a sociopath always trying to be in control. His character reads more like a textbook case than a real person. I am also quite curious about the role of long passages involving his toothache; maybe I am just too obtuse to get the point. The character of Philip, a druggie and slacker, is shown more convincingly.

I used to praise Ms. Fossum for avoiding cheap sentimentality and overt didacticism in her novels. Well, yet another generalization of mine proves to be wrong: in this book several passages are far from stellar, for instance, the conversation between two mothers reads maudlin rather than deep. I feel that the author is a bit too intent on conveying her message and the layers of fiction that envelop the moral are just too flimsy. At least Ms. Fossum's writing is recognizable, and her short, clear sentences are still abound. The translation reads fine, which not always has been the case.

Well, I would have never expected not being able to recommend a Karin Fossum's novel. Learning something new every day...

Two stars.

When an institutionalized young man, suffering from a nervous condition, is found at the bottom of Dead Water lake after a night camping out with 2 of his friends, a verdict of suicide, is released. However, Inspector Sejer is not convinced that foul play didn't have a hand in his death, despite evidence to the contrary. There's just something about the way he died, and the statements made by the man's therapist and girlfriend, which didn't seem to indicate he was in the frame of mind to do away with his own life. But when the body of a Vietnamese man surfaces, a very tenuous link emerges and the pressure Inspector Sejer puts on 2 individuals brings out cracks in stories and accelerating panic which culminates in a surprising end.

This is a much leaner book in the Inspector Sejer series, but no less complex and enjoyable. In this, the author focuses on 3 main characters, and identifies the culprits from the start. But what she keeps from us, is the mystery behind the roles they play in each others' lives and the secret they share which needs to be kept at all costs. The psychological anguish a heavy guilt lays on a couple of the characters and the escapism they adopt to cope is well analyzed in this story.

Bad Intentions, by Karen Fossum, is the latest in the Det. Konrad Sejer series to be translated into English from its original Norwegian. While the short novel is easily readable and quite a page turner, it is also easy to find faults with.

Axel, Reilly, and Jon have been best friends since childhood. Axel and Reilly checked Jon out of a mental institution for a weekend getaway. The three friends are ravaged by guilt over an incident that continues to haunt them. Over the weekend, tragedy strikes and Jon dies. Det. Sejer and partner Skarre do their thing and investigate what happened to Jon.

Reilly and Axel are hiding something, and the novel is more about them than Detective Sejer. Can Axel and Reilly continue to lie to the police before they are consumed by guilt?

This novel is really a character study, and that can be a fault because so little happens. But, it really is a tight little mystery, and Fossum reveals the needed details slowly and cleverly.

After reading only two of her novels, I plan on reading them all. They are simple, but filled with deep characters and an ending that packs an emotional punch.

Predictable

Really tired of writers using animal abuse as a way to demonstrate the cruelty of their characters. We get it. No, really. WE GET IT. I really don’t need the mental image of a defenseless kitten being strangled and thrown out of a high rise window, even if I could see it coming from a mile away.

Good writing but a bit creepy. I like the main inspector Sejer.

This was short but really well developed in terms of damn near everything.

«Antes una libertad humilde que una esclavitud opulenta».


Lo primero y, antes que nada, una confesión. He deseado con todas mis fuerzas que les encarcelaran por un crimen que no habían cometido, porque, salvando un detallito muy insignificante que en psicología tiene importancia, pero ante un juez no, Reilly y Axel asesinaron a Jon. Y para descubrir si es o no cierto, tendéis que leer la novela.
Lo que más me atrajo de esta historia, no es el crimen, si lo hubo o no, sino como se desmoronan los protagonistas, cuál es su talón de Aquiles, porque todos tenemos una brecha por la que se cuela cualquiera y nos hace flaquear. Axel, por ejemplo, se miente así mismo creyéndose invulnerable, y nosotros lectores también lo llegamos a creer, pero resulta que su debilidad está más cerca de lo que puede y podemos imaginar.
En esta ocasión nuestro conocido inspector Konrad Sejer queda en un segundo plano ante el retrato que la autora nos hace de los tres amigos, no digo que su participación no sea relevante, igual de sagaz como en las entregas anteriores, lo veréis en los interrogatorios.
Y como diaria aquel, hasta aquí puedo contaros, el resto será un placer leeros y debatir con vosotros sobre el “detallito”. ¿Suicidio o asesinato?

Not the best Inspector Sejer book I've read. A little predictable and not enough focus on the characters of Sejer and Skarre, which is what I've enjoyed most about this series.
This won't stop me from continuing with the next few books, but I hope to see a return to the character dynamics of Karin Fossum's earlier books.

hat mich leider nicht wirklich überzeugt. ich wurde komplett vom klappentext gespoilert und die story war nicht stark genug, um das wieder gutzumachen. ich habe das große „geheimnis“ von anfang an durchschaut, deswegen hab es für mich keinerlei überraschende wendungen oder spannende momente. ich mochte den schreibstil, aber die figuren waren mir zu platt und eindimensional.

This very dark novel takes place in Norway and although it presents as a mystery, it is more an exploration of guilt, passivity and responsibility. A good book but so depressing that I can not in good faith recommend it.

Glaubwürdige Figuren aber ich hätte gern (besonders zum Schluß) mehr von Sejer gelesen. Wie stand er zum Ausgang des Falles, zum Beispiel . . .

A shorter book than most of Fossum's novels, this is also a simpler one in terms of the unraveling of the crime, but its portrayal of character is every bit as deep and engrossing.

Jon, one of three friends, commits suicide in front of the other two, who conspire to lie about the circ*mstances of the death, thereby arousing the suspicions of Inspector Sejer that this could be a murder case. Why they should do so, and why Jon committed suicide, is something that unfolds before us for the rest of the book. There is of course an earlier crime involved, another death.

Sejer and Skarre play a relatively small part in the proceedings; the solution to the case really comes about through the confession of one of the two surviving youths, the one who, however much he may appear to the world to be a wastrel junkie loser, has retained an integral core of decency. Indeed, if the book is about anything beyond the tale, it's about this concept of decency. It's embodied in the figures of the two bereaved mothers, who cross all sorts of social boundaries to comfort each other (and are my favorite characters in the book). Jon's mother at one point expands upon the topic:

A man was in a German prison camp during the war. He was subjected to so many awful things—abuse, torture, starvation and exposure. There were thirty men crammed into a freezing barrack, and the snow blew in under the door. Nevertheless he survived, and when the war ended he returned home. Though he now had plenty of food and warmth, he died shortly afterward. He was haunted by a terrible memory. One night he had stolen a crust of bread from a sleeping man. It was this incident which killed him. He could not bear to eat."

"That's very sad," Yoo said. She could visualize it all, an emaciated man in prison clothes stealing in the night. Crouching alone in the dark, furtively gnawing at the dry crust.

"That's one way of looking at it," Ingerid said. "But I also think that it says something positive about people. We need a sense of decency. Without it we cannot live a good life. And Jon had lost that sense of decency."

That's as good an exposition of the idea as I've come across.

This is a crime novel that focuses not on murder or any other major crimes, but instead on more minor ones like self-interest, stupidity, moral cowardice and of course that loss of decency. I found it gripping and very satisfying.

This was my first exposure to Fossum and I was disappointed (especially when I went on to read another of her books which was fabulous).

This all just seems undercooked, not least her detectives who are so far back in the plot as to barely leave a trace as they get to the bottom of why a boy jumps out of a rowing boat in the middle of a freezing Norwegian Lake and plunges to his death while three friends in the boat look on. Fossum is always far more concerned with the impact of a death on other people than mere crime solving, but although the three friends in the boat are shown wrestling with various degrees of guilt, the opening of the book makes it clear this was suicide rather than murder so the novel never really is able to move up a gear. It's also let down by some very strange authorial assertions about the characters, which just jar from the rest of the tone, but could be down to the translation. It is never quite established why the three are rowing out in the middle of a night on a freezing lake, which I found particularly unsatisfying. The best and most tender writing was the slowly burgeoning friendship in grief of two bereaved mothers. (I wonder if Fossum is good on writing women and mothers, less so on young males at least to judge by this book). When they linked their arms as a gesture of alliance as well as warmth, I nearly shed a tear. But overall the novel felt too slight.

Audio.

Early one September three friends spend the weekend at a remote cabin by Dead Water Lake. One is on leave from a psychiatric hospital following a breakdown. With only a pale moon to light their way, they row across the water in the middle of the night. But only two of them return, and they make a pact not to call for help until the following morning.

Inspector Sejer leads the investigation when the body is discovered. He is troubled by the apparent suicide and has an overwhelming sense that the surviving pair has something to hide. Weeks pass without further clues, and then in nearby Glitter Lake the body of a missing teenage boy floats to the surface.

I enjoyed, but was not engrossed by this book.

Part of the problem for me is that right at the beginning you know how and why the first boy is drowned. And so a large part of the book then becomes a futile exercise in going back over the same ground, until the body of the missing boy is discovered and things can once again move forward.

Having said that, this story tells of the consequences of allowing a dominant personality to over-rule our good sense. It is also a tale of friendship coming from adversity, and the dangers of allowing stereotypes to blind us to the truth.

Another Karin Fossum book I have enjoyed reading. This is a relatively short book in the Skarre/Sejer series. A realistic and uncomplicated story, but it still keeps you engaged and hooked, as a good story should. Three young friends meet up in a cabin for the weekend and one has been granted weekend release from a psychiatric hospital. He is suffering from major anxiety and is clearly a troubled soul. He and his friends take a boat out on the lake late at night and he jumps into the water and drowns. I don't want to give anything away, but all is not what is seems and when the police are called in to investigate an apparent suicide, Sejer finds cause for further investigation into the circ*mstances and the reasons that the young man was admitted to the hospital in the first place, will lead Sejer/Skarre to solve another missing persons case. This series is well worth following, Ms. Fossum has written eight books in all and one stand-alone called "Broken", also one worth picking up. I hope there are others to come in the future.

I have read past Inspector Sejer books and he has been a primary figure in those books. This book is unlike her previous books in that Sejer is barely featured. The book is told largely from the perspective of one of three life long friends who, it is made clear, have committed a criminal act together. The exact nature of the act, although hinted at, is not known until the end of the book. The book is more of a study in guilt than detection. What seems least believable about the book, largely because it is not explained in any meaningful way, is the attraction that has kept the three friends together up until the point of the crime. Once I adapted my expectations away from police procedural to psychological study, I found this a quick and enjoyable read.

A young man is found dead. Everyone saw it as a suicide, except two others knew it wasn’t, and they weren’t about to tell.

Inspector Sejer is very good at his job, he should be, he has been at it for years. So when he is called to this scene to investigate, something just doesn’t sit right. The more the inspector and his assistant, Jacob Skarre, dig into the mans past, the more it just confirms his suspicion. Talking to those who knew him and searching through his past, Inspector Sejer is determined to find the truth.

Easy to follow with a variety of characters, you will keep reading to see how the inspector works towards his conclusion.

3.5 stars
I started reading mysteries by Karin Fossum, a Norwegian writer of psychological crime stories over the Christmas holiday and this is the 4th I have read.The detectives in the series are Sejer and a younger policeman and friend,Skarre.The stories are short and very tight with no wasted narrative. We get to know what is going on in the minds of the criminals and their victims early in the books. The mysteries are usually solved by the detectives interviewing people in the small town several times. Highly recommended. Can't wait to read some more in the series.

Karin Fossum writes a gentle psychological mystery centering on two young men covering up a crime. There is no violence or bloodshed. Just a dominate personality, Axel and a weaker one Reilly . Detective Sejer takes a back seat to the two men knowing he can play with the weaker one. Nice insight to a personality with no conscience and huge ego and ambition juxtaposed with a weak drug addicted man ravaged with guilt.

I found this book dumped in the share area of my apartment building, next to the trash and thought, why not try it out. It's sort of a detective novel about something that didn't really have to be a mystery. It was boring but it sounded literary so I tried to give it a go. Months later, I've hardly read any of it and realize I should just give up.

3.5 stars. Somewhat predictable, but suspenseful anyway. The relationships between the female characters (Molly and the night nurse, the two moms) were more interesting than the relationship between the three friends. And Sejer seemed absent for much of the story; there wasn't a lot of detecting for him to do. Not my favorite of the series.

Well, I read. Read it easily, read it quickly. Short, pointed sentences. Descriptive. Not annoying tell, tell, tell. Norwegian. The eerie mystery was interesting as was all the pieces not having to be ostentatiously pulled together in the end like ta da. But still, when the characters aren't likable, it's hard to feel warm.