The Witch Hunter, Finnish novelist Max Seeck's pulse-quickening English-language debut, is a genre twofer: it gives crime-novel enthusiasts a satisfying puzzle to logic out, and it offers fans of supernatural tales a look at the world of, as one character puts it, "amulets, rabbit feet, you name it."
Following an anonymous phone call, the Helsinki police find the body of Maria Koponen seated at the dining table in her waterfront home. She's wearing a black evening gown and a peculiar expression; Detective Sergeant Jessica Niemi sees it as "more reminiscent of Jack Nicholson's Joker than anything else." There are no signs of a break-in, but Maria's husband, Roger Koponen, the author of bestselling novels of the paranormal, couldn't have a tighter alibi: he's halfway across Finland at a literary event in his honor. Still, Roger may bear some responsibility for his wife's death, albeit inadvertently: it seems to have been staged to mimic a murder in one of his books. It won't be the last death of the sort.
The Witch Hunter has the meticulous plotting and obstreperous weather typical of Nordic noir, as well as a cast of avid detectives who often lapse into amusingly agitated squabbling. While the novel is an ensemble piece, Seeck most frequently hands the storytelling reins to Detective Niemi. If the chapters about her past occasionally test the reader's patience, they ultimately divulge the supremely interesting secret she's keeping. It's right under her colleagues' noses but apparently beyond mere mortals' powers of detection. --Nell Beram, author and freelance writer