Chills and Thrills of Crime Fiction: Hakan Nesser

Swedish and tall, armed with crisp, succinct remarks and a ready sense of humour. That’s Hakan Nesser, with all the essential qualities for an immensely popular crime fiction writer— three times winner of Best Swedish Crime Novel Award. Addressing a session titled ‘Nordic Noir: The Mind’s Eye’ along with Nils Nordberg, Norwegian crime writer, at day one of the Jaipur Literature Festival, Nesser spoke candidly about the commercial pull of crime fiction. In a brief stroll-and-chat with this reporter, he waxed eloquent on how books become a binding force globally.

“The greatest discovery in my journey so far has been the truth that readers are the same everywhere,” he replied thoughtfully when asked about his discoveries through writing. “I went to the US where I had to do a lot of readings, and I thought, oh, the readers would be so different here. But I found that we all think alike. We’re all the same in the way we receive books. And it’s a good discovery. It’s good, because you see that books connect us all. Whether you’re from Sweden or India or the US, every reader gets the same…well, message.”

Nesser, whose work has been translated into various different languages, pointed out that the reason there was such a great increase in crime fiction was because that was the genre that brought in the money. He goes on to narrate an episode where a bookseller in Sweden actually put a yellow dot on one of Dostoyevsky’s books—indicating crime fiction. “Well, Dostoyevsky started selling then,” he laughs out loud. And then he tells you that his very first story was a “beautiful, existential love story which got great reviews but sold about 75 copies worldwide.” From then onward, of course, it was crime writing all the way—creating his much loved characters—detective Van Veeteren and the more recent Inspector Barbarotti.

Nesser charms you with his ability to laugh at himself, and to create mirth around things such as murders. And incidentally, he can identify with the murderers in his books, too. Well, not quite in the way that it sounds. “I’m not keen on a black and white way of thinking. The question “why” is more important than “who”. You want to know why a person did such thing. So you get to identify a little with the murderers, too… like in my novel Woman With A Birth Mark,  the woman is out to get four men, and you wish, oh I do hope she gets this one!”

At the end of the day, though, it’s all about telling a good story. “My colleague used to say there’s nothing as bad as a bad crime story, but nothing as good as a good crime story! When I’m writing a story, a good one is the kind that I’d like to read,” he pauses and adds with a twinkling eye, “Only thing is, I’ve got to write it before I can read it!”