Karin Fossum (born 1954 in Sandefjord) is a Norwegian writer of crime fiction, often called the 'Norwegian queen of crime'. She writes in Norwegian, and her work, which began in the late twentieth century and has continued into the twenty-first, has been translated into many languages. That reach has made her one of the most widely read crime writers from Scandinavia outside the region.
Before devoting herself fully to fiction, she worked for a time in hospitals and nursing homes, and she also helped with the rehabilitation of people recovering from drug addiction. Her first step into literature was poetry: at the age of twenty she published the collection Kanskje i morgen (1974), which won the Tarjei Vesaas debut prize.
She is best known for the series featuring Inspector Konrad Sejer, a calm detective who pays close attention to ordinary people. These novels care less about technical puzzles than about the psychology of their characters: guilt, fear and the small cracks in everyday life. Fossum works in the psychological thriller mode, with a restrained prose style that moves easily from the investigation to the community around the crime.
Don't Look Back won the Glass Key award and the Riverton Prize, and she was later shortlisted for the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger. Her legacy lies largely in the way Nordic crime fiction joins the account of a crime with a portrait of society. The Italian film The Girl by the Lake (2007), directed by Andrea Molaioli, was based on Don't Look Back, a sign that her work has also reached beyond the page.
Key works
- Don't Look Back (1996): the first novel in the Sejer series, following the disappearance of a young woman and the anxiety of those around her.
- He Who Fears the Wolf (1997): an investigation into fear and suspicion within a small community.
- Black Seconds (2002): a novel that mixes a police mystery with an examination of guilt and chance.
- Calling Out for You (2000): one of her best-known books, translated into many languages.
Where to start
Don't Look Back 1996
Don't Look Back is the second novel in Inspector Konrad Sejer's series and the one that introduced Fossum to English readers. It is a crime novel with a sober, tense pace, focused on both the investigation and the psychology of its characters, and it shows the introspective, restrained style that defines the author.
Next: Calling Out for You. Calling Out for You returns to Inspector Sejer in an investigation of a brutal murder, deepening the human and reflective tone of the series.
Works in Filopedia
- Don't Look Back 1996
- Calling Out for You 2000
- Black Seconds 2002
Curiosities
A poet before a novelist
Her first published book was a collection of poems, *Kanskje i morgen*, which appeared in 1974, when she was twenty.
From page to screen
The Italian film *The Girl by the Lake* (2007), directed by Andrea Molaioli, was based on her novel *Don't Look Back*.
Teachers and influences
Influenced by
- Ruth Rendell 1930–2015
Original Filopedia text based on Wikipedia (es) and Wikipedia (en) and Wikidata.