Mind's Eye

An Inspector Van Veeteren Mystery

De: Håkan Nesser, Laurie Thompson - translator

Narrado por: Simon Vance

Chief Inspector Van Veeteren knew that murder cases were never as open-and-shut as this one: Janek Mitter woke one morning with a brutal hangover and discovered his wife of three months lying facedown in the bathtub, dead. With only the flimsiest excuse as his defense, he is found guilty of a drunken crime of passion and imprisoned in a mental institution.

But Van Veeteren's suspicions about the identity of the killer are borne out when Mitter also becomes a murder victim. Now the chief inspector launches a full-scale investigation of the two slayings. But it may only be the unspoken secrets of the dead - revealed in a mysterious letter that Mitter wrote shortly before his death - that will finally allow Van Veeteren to unmask the killer and expose the shocking root of this sordid violence.

©1993 Original material by Håkan Nesser. Originally published in Sweden as Det grovmaskiga nätet by Albert Bonniers Förlag AB, Stockholm. Translation © 2008 by Laurie Thompson. Recorded by arrangement with Pantheon, an imprint of the Knopf Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc. (P)2011 HighBridge Company

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Snappish, sardonic, unsentimental, depressed, and quite possibly psychic, Van Veeteren is the most appealingly unlovable hero since TV's crabby physician House." ( O, The Oprah Magazine)

"In a class of its own.... This stunning novel by one of Sweden's foremost crime writers might have been written as a script for Alfred Hitchcock. ( The Sunday Times)

" Mind's Eye satisfies on every level. It is an intelligently written, cleverly plotted tale, populated with believable characters.... Nesser was superb right out of the gate." ( BookPage)

Van Veeteren Goes Back to School

Where does Mind's Eye rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This is only the second one. The other was by Alexander McCall Smith's The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection. I listen while in exercise class and it is a little challenging to follow the plot when I skip a couple of days.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

Interesting police personnel and other characters. Had a hard time keeping track of the different characters especially since it took almost a month to hear it all.

Have you listened to any of Simon Vance’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

no.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No that would take too long.

Three decades makes a difference

I like the style of the author despite the fact that there were misogynistic elements in the book. He had the freedom to write it before the me too movement obviously. The main character had the terrible management skills and work ethics; playing badminton during the work hours? Regardless, I enjoyed the writing.

Can somebody tell me what is the “blue bottle on the ceiling” at the courtroom section of the book?

no characters

There is no detail or insight about what is presumably the central character of a series. No likable characters and the only one at all interesting is the husband.

Dark but good

A very dark kind of mystery, writing reminiscent of The Stranger by Camus, but very good. I did figure out the killer before the author disclosed it but that may have been somewhat intentional.

It was okay.

Like a few other reviewers, the identity of the murderer becomes clear fairly early on.
I typically enjoy Simon Vance as narrator, but this time something was amiss, the male character voices seemed to blend together, making them hard to distinguish.
I listened to the end, but wished I had spent my credit on another book. Story was alright, seemed rather flat... short on character development, yet lots of dialog. I wanted to have some empathy for the characters, and left with none.

Very Good!

An enjoyable story and good listen.
The story is solid, and so is the performance. Written in the 90s it has that sensibility, if you know the 90s. Predictable but enjoyable, I'm curious to see how the arc of this detective develops.

Simon Vance

If Simon Vance was reading tax code laws I'd listen to the entire 4,593 pages.

Just okay

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

This story held my interest, but the characters weren't really well developed. Too much happens at the end without sufficient story and character development to support it.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

Most interesting aspect is finding out what happened during the suspected murderer's blackout. Least interesting is the character development of the victim and the murderer.

What about Simon Vance’s performance did you like?

As usual, Simon Vance's performance was outstanding. He can modify his voice to suit a multitude of characters without sounding strange. He is just very easy to listen to -- one of the best readers I've heard.

Dark & Engaging

Nesser's work is dark, engaging, well-paced, eloquent, with a bit of wit and introspection to spice it up. This is a psychological thriller, a procedural. The wit is more reserved than that of Adler-Olson. I'm anxious to listen to the next book in the series. The narration is perfect.

A GOOD MYSTERY

I usually don't like mysteries that jump around and don't stay focused on the detective.

This mystery focuses on the point of view of a murder suspect and also the detective. Still, the writing and plotting is so good, and the detective appealing, so it did not matter. I really eased into this book without any trouble and enjoyed it tremendously.

The narration is excellent. Van Veteeren is, on the surface, not very interesting, but then we realize he is weirdly intuitive. He's quite likeable ultimately.

This is not a novel full of insane serial killers and gore (although it has its graphic parts). It's not Jo Nesbo (thank God, I think Nesbo is horrible). It's not frenetic and freaky like Lars Kepler (The Hypnotist). It is more in line with Henning Mankell, though Van Veteeren, based on this one novel, does not seem as troubled as Wallander, and is not put in as many adventure type situations.

Bottom Line: Nesser is a smart writer and this book is very solid and satisfying. The mystery is smart and keeps you interested. I am looking forward to experiencing the other books in the series. I'm saving them and I'm going to pace myself so as to not burn through them too quick.