Search This Blog

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

The Seventh Child by Eric Valeur

I'm unsure of just how to evaluate The Seventh Child.  Exceedingly long and complicated, I have to wonder how on earth the author managed to keep all of the characters, threads, and backgrounds straight when writing the book.

The book opens with a scene of a murder of a woman on a beach in Denmark in 2001.  Her body is surrounded by what appear to be important, but indecipherable, symbols.  There is no identification.  The police have little to go on, although the weirdness of the scene remains a burr in the police chief's memory.


The investigation is eventually shelved as it fails to produce any leads.  Then for the next 500-600 pages, the body on the beach is pretty much forgotten as the lives of seven children who were at the famous Kungslund orphanage at the same time are presented in detail.   

Final Evaluation:  I'm glad I read it, but can't say I really liked it.  Now, isn't that a contradiction in terms!

read in February

Mystery.  April 1, 2014.  642 pages. 

4 comments:

  1. I am picturing the author's writing area--maybe a big bulletin board with strings or lines connecting people to each other with the body at the top, connected to them all . . . :-)

    The book sounds interesting--different. I will have to look for it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wendy - Kind of like a spider web! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I do enjoy Scandinavian crime fiction so I will have to keep my eye out for this one although 642 pages? Yikes! Maybe a good read for summer vacation when I have more time :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. :) You could fit 2 typical Scandinavian crime novel, with a little left over, in 642 pages!

    ReplyDelete