The Caller by Karin Fossum

The story starts with the nightmare a young couple face when they find their baby soaked in blood. Who would play such a sick prank? Yes, a prank it is. Who would do something so horrible? This one prank changes the life of the couple forever. The woman cowered in fear and the man in his helplessness and the prankster getting what he wants, some attention. The prankster is introduced immediately to us. He is not one to stop at one prank, he succeeds in playing more such malicious pranks, one after another. Fossum takes us into the lives of those this prankster decides to turn into a nightmare and changing dynamics of relationship of those affected. Where will his pranks end? They have the potential of becoming fatal, sometimes you can go too far with a prank. One prank does go too far.

Though the Caller features Konrad Sejer as the detective, this book is more about how the young prankster's mind works, than how Sejer investigates. It is interesting to get insight into a troubled youngster, who is kind and loving to his grandfather and at the same time contemplates murder of his mother and who without any thought goes on playing prank after prank on people who had caused him no trouble all to get some attention. If you wonder why he is playing these pranks? It is the Mother. There is a hint of a back story for the mother, but the verdict is whatever the backstory, the mother is to blame for his behaviour. What about the father? The father is to blamed, only by his absence.

I got glued to the book from the first page. What is going to happen next? What is going to be his next prank? And if he would cross the line between a malicious prank and a horrible crime? And will Sejer find him? I didn't expect the twists in the end, though did guess some of the mystery.

This book is originally published in 2009 in Norwegian, translated in English by K E Semmel and published in 2011. This is the first Karin Fossum book I have read and I am going to read more.

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