We have cruised to The Canary Islands and toured Tenerife, which is a very mountainous and picturesque. We had thought there would be a lot of little yellow birds but learned that the islands are named because of some obscure reference to canine dogs.
This novel imagines a cab driver / piano tuner, who is an Danish immigrant, enmeshed in the corrupt politics, businesses, administration, infant abuse and tourist interests of the island.

En dejligt anderledes dansk krimi. Ingen udpenslet vold, ingen psykopatisk seriemorder! Og så foregår den ikke engang i Danmark, men på den for mig ganske ukendte spanske ø, Fuerte Ventura. Ja, jeg har ikke engang været på Ibiza, men dog en enkelt gang på Tenerife i min pure ungdom.

Hovedpersonen Erhards eneste forsonende træk - bortset selvfølgelig fra hans retfærdighedssans - er at han er en ivrig læser. Der er en beskrivelse af en roman, som han må opgive at læse pga elendighed - det er virkelig sjovt skrevet.

I moderne kriminalromaner skal der helst være lidt sex. Det er der også i denne, dog mest inde i den ca. 70-årige Erhards hoved. En enkelt ægte sexscene bliver det dog til - mellem Erhard og en jævnaldrende kvinde. Hvis jeg siger, at beskrivelsen af den scene mere leder tanken hen på Rifbjerg end på 50 Shades, så ved du, hvor jeg vil hen: Dette er en yderst læseværdig krimi, der har helt Graham Greene'ske toner her og der.

Der er også tid til overvejelser om vort komplekse samfund: "En strøm af trafik og ting, der skifter plads, enheder, der flyttes rundt i et stort netværk af udbud, efterspørgsel, længsler, behov, ønsker, vaner. En tandstik fra Kina i en oliven fra Gran Canaria i en Martini fra Italien og vodka fra Polen i et champagneglas fra Thailand i hånden på en engelsk kvinde fra Portsmouth."

Plottet er temmelig komplekst, og jeg er ikke i stand til at gøre rede for det. Men det synes jeg egentlig ikke gør så meget. Jeg elsker, at en bog tør have en 70-årig hovedperson, der hverken er sexet, rig eller i besiddelse af en ekstraordinær fortid (jo, måske?) eller særlige evner. En forfatterdebut af de mere spændende.

Erhard Jorgensen is a taxi driver and piano tuner living on the Canary Islands, an expat there for 18 years after leaving Denmark. Nearly 70 years old, he lives a life in the margins – driving his cab as much as he pleases while reading, living in a shack with goats for companions, drinking – he has the nickname the “Hermit” after living as a homeless person when first arriving in the islands. When a box with a dead child is found in a car on the beach, Erhard is compelled to find out what happened after the police drop the case after claiming the child belonged to a prostitute. Erhard is an unlikely detective and stumbles along gathering information bit by bit, and his life is threatened when he begins to tie the case to some powerful men on the islands. The book has a noir feel with unsavory characters and a view of the underside of a tourist destination. Erhard is not a typical protagonist and makes questionable decisions and finds himself in unusual situations, such as having to get rid of a body at one point. I found the book to be extremely well written and compelling.

Jeg havde lidt svært ved at starte bogen. De første sider introducerede Erhard Jørgensen, også kaldet Eremitten af de lokale på Fuerteventura, hvor historien finder sted. Her virkede han ikke så tiltalende, og jeg spekulerede på, hvad der var der fik mig til at tage denne bog med hjem. Jeg læste de første sider for et par måneder siden, og så lagde bogen til side. Jeg fornyede lånet på biblioteket et par gange, og så vil jeg endelig giv mig i kast med den. Senere hen i bogen blev jeg klar over at opstarten var en del af det, der skulle præsentere hovedpersonen til læserne. Han er fyldt med fejl, men han er et menneske. Du skal kende ham, for at forstå hvorfor han gør som han gør. Som historien udvikler sig, og han roder sig ud i nogle komplekse situationer, kom jeg til at håbe for det bedst for ham. Han er drevet af en sans for retfærdighed. Når politiet dropper en sag om en død baby fundet i en papkasse på bagsædet af en bil på stranden, tager han opgaven på sig - for retfærdighedens skyld. Nok også for at vise respekt og omsorg for et væsen der mødte så hård en skæbne efter kun 3 måneder af livet. Måske også for at få lidt selvværd for sig selv - at vise (i hans tanker) hans eks-kone og døtre - som han ikke har haft kontakt med i 17 år - at han kan gør noget godt for nogen.

Bogen er lidt langsom, men på en måde der holder spændingen igang. Erhard spekulerer længe over diverse hændelser og ting han skal foretage sig, og det gav en realism til historien. Jeg kan forestille mig, at denne ender på det store lærred een dag, men så vil det være mere tju-bang, sikkert, fordi det er altid svært at gengive tankeprocesser på en troværdig og interessant måde i film. Måske kunne bogen trimmes en smule, men nok på en måde der vil være svært at redigere. Jeg læste 4/5 del færdigt på een dag, så jeg kunne sagtens komme igennem uden at springe noget over.

Spoiler

Bogen ender med at han er tilbage i sit gammelt skur af et hus. Jeg tror han er mere glad - han har fundet en slags ro nu, modsat af hvordan han var i starten af bogen. Cirklen slutter. Og jeg er meget glad for at se Hardy komme tilbage. Jeg var bange for, at han var spist af hundene!

Det er længe siden jeg har læst en decideret krimi. Da har det nok været mest Agatha Christie, som jeg læser for atmosfæren mere end noget andet. Jeg foretrækker personer med lidt kød på i mine bøger, og krimier har tit kun 2-dimensionelle personer, fordi de skal bare bære historien/plottet frem. Her var Erhard klart 3-dimensionelt. Jeg har ikke analyseret de andre fuldt ud, men de må have haft den fylde de skulle have, for at hamle op med Erhard. Alt i alt, nød jeg at bruge en hel fridag i denne bogs selskab, fri fra alle andre tanker og forpligtelser.

Started reading because it’s on Jack Taylor’s list. I wanted to like Erhard but he is to put it simply, weird af. The plot is kinda anti climatic but still entertaining.

Continuing my tour of mysteries the world over through the eyes of authors new to me, I came across Thomas Rydahl. Winner of a few Danish literary awards, I thought it worth a look, if only to compare it to some of the other Scandinavian work I have read over the past few years. Erhard Jørgensen enjoys the quiet life with his two goats. A Danish ex-patriot living on the Canary Islands, Jørgensen contradicts himself by driving his taxi around for tourists and tuning the odd piano when requested by locals. His isolated lifestyle has earned him the moniker The Hermit, though Jørgensen winces whenever he hears it, choosing to defend his lifestyle as one of a tranquil senior citizen. When the local authorities approach him for help on a case, Jørgensen throws himself into the investigation and turns this into his newest obsession. A baby has been found dead in a car, wrapped in the pages of a Danish news magazine, but no one can identify either the child or the vehicle in which he was found. As Jørgensen seeks to learn a little more, the police choose to take the easy way out and bribe a prostitute to take the fall. However, Jørgensen wants justice and and answers, even if he will have to do it alone. Where the investigation takes him, only Jørgensen knows for sure, but when he finds himself in the middle of a travesty, things take a definite turn for the worse. Now a man with secrets of his own to keep, Jørgensen struggles to keep from revealing too much while he continues to search for the truth. As things become clearer, the question remains as to whether Jørgensen will be able to convince anyone to believe him before he becomes the next victim. A superior noir mystery that takes many turns, Rydahl has a winner on his hands. Patient and diligent readers ought to take a look at this finely-crafted piece, if only to weigh-in on the discussion.

The art of reading a novel not in its original language is one that some readers may find difficult, as I have come to learn through numerous conversations and review analyses. I find that a writer cannot necessarily be held accountable for the flow and rhythm of a story when the reader is given something other than the original text, in which language has been put through some sort of sieve. While I love Scandinavian mysteries and find their stories so intriguing, they are not for everyone. This novel's content differs greatly from the British, Australian, or even North American publications that saturate the market, which has both positive and negative attributes. With a decent translator, a story can hold its foundation effectively, though a poorly penned novel cannot necessarily be resuscitated. I would venture to say that Rydahl's novel survived its linguistic metamorphisis, as the intricacies of the narrative work well. The great set of characters that emerge as the story flows prove highly entertaining and thoroughly captivating. Of course, Erhard Jørgensen remains the protagonist and his quirks prove both disturbing and very alluring to the attentive reader, especially his fiaxation on his life back in Denmark and the missing finger for which he metaphorically searched throughout. Rydahl develops Jørgensen slowly and pulls pieces of his backstory out throughout the narrative, as if to tease the reader into wanting more, but having to wait awhile before the full picture can be offered. The narrative is one that I would say remains uniquely Scandinavian, as it trudges along, but always gets to the key elements at just the right time. I recently read an Irish author who also enjoyed her 'pulling molasses in January' narrative, but Rydahl is perhaps even more methodical in his pacing. Detail is key and Rydahl certainly does that throughout, depicting the smallest thing with the most attention and pulling the reader closer to investigate. One major example is a depiction of a sexual encounter, which, while graphic in nature, is told in such frank terms with linguistic complexities that one could never feel that it is by any means smutty. I found Rydahl offering the reader doses of this detail, though no turning the entire novel into something gazed upon under a microscope, with minutiae filling the page. The symbolism is found throughout the story and the search for justice pushes the story and its protagonist forward from the opening paragraph, though there is also a keen banter in the dialogue, which peppers English, Danish, and forms of Spanish idiosyncrasies throughout. That being said, I am still not sure how I feel about the novel, Erhard Jørgensen, or the entire premise involved. Unique and memorable for sure, I am not ready to place Rydahl alongside some of my other favourite authors from the region. We shall see if time allows my thoughts to ferment a little more and for me to have an epiphany. Still, an interesting read that some who understand the noir mystery might find right up their alley.

Kudos, Mr. Rydahl for impressing me in some places while also leaving me wondering in others. I will be sure to keep an open mind, though my first impression is surely one of an author deserving of the literary accolades that have been presented.

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