Mind's Eye

An Inspector Van Veeteren Mystery

By: Håkan Nesser, Laurie Thompson - translator

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Chief Inspector Van Veeteren knew that murder cases were never as open-and-shut as this one: Janek Mitter woke one morning with a brutal hangover and discovered his wife of three months lying facedown in the bathtub, dead. With only the flimsiest excuse as his defense, he is found guilty of a drunken crime of passion and imprisoned in a mental institution.

But Van Veeteren's suspicions about the identity of the killer are borne out when Mitter also becomes a murder victim. Now the chief inspector launches a full-scale investigation of the two slayings. But it may only be the unspoken secrets of the dead - revealed in a mysterious letter that Mitter wrote shortly before his death - that will finally allow Van Veeteren to unmask the killer and expose the shocking root of this sordid violence.

©1993 Original material by Håkan Nesser. Originally published in Sweden as Det grovmaskiga nätet by Albert Bonniers Förlag AB, Stockholm. Translation © 2008 by Laurie Thompson. Recorded by arrangement with Pantheon, an imprint of the Knopf Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc. (P)2011 HighBridge Company

Critic reviews

"Snappish, sardonic, unsentimental, depressed, and quite possibly psychic, Van Veeteren is the most appealingly unlovable hero since TV's crabby physician House." ( O, The Oprah Magazine)

"In a class of its own.... This stunning novel by one of Sweden's foremost crime writers might have been written as a script for Alfred Hitchcock. ( The Sunday Times)

" Mind's Eye satisfies on every level. It is an intelligently written, cleverly plotted tale, populated with believable characters.... Nesser was superb right out of the gate." ( BookPage)

Van Veeteren Goes Back to School

Where does Mind's Eye rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This is only the second one. The other was by Alexander McCall Smith's The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection. I listen while in exercise class and it is a little challenging to follow the plot when I skip a couple of days.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

Interesting police personnel and other characters. Had a hard time keeping track of the different characters especially since it took almost a month to hear it all.

Have you listened to any of Simon Vance’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

no.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No that would take too long.

Three decades makes a difference

I like the style of the author despite the fact that there were misogynistic elements in the book. He had the freedom to write it before the me too movement obviously. The main character had the terrible management skills and work ethics; playing badminton during the work hours? Regardless, I enjoyed the writing.

Can somebody tell me what is the “blue bottle on the ceiling” at the courtroom section of the book?

no characters

There is no detail or insight about what is presumably the central character of a series. No likable characters and the only one at all interesting is the husband.

Dark but good

A very dark kind of mystery, writing reminiscent of The Stranger by Camus, but very good. I did figure out the killer before the author disclosed it but that may have been somewhat intentional.

It was okay.

Like a few other reviewers, the identity of the murderer becomes clear fairly early on.
I typically enjoy Simon Vance as narrator, but this time something was amiss, the male character voices seemed to blend together, making them hard to distinguish.
I listened to the end, but wished I had spent my credit on another book. Story was alright, seemed rather flat... short on character development, yet lots of dialog. I wanted to have some empathy for the characters, and left with none.

Very Good!

An enjoyable story and good listen.
The story is solid, and so is the performance. Written in the 90s it has that sensibility, if you know the 90s. Predictable but enjoyable, I'm curious to see how the arc of this detective develops.

Good start to the series

This was one of those audio books I couldn't put down. Listened to it in just two sittings. I enjoyed the story, but wish the setting had come a bit more into play in this book.

The main character, Inspector Von Veeteren, is a bit of a curmudgeon, but being a huge Morse fan, I can't complain about that. I wonder what his toothpick budget is on top of the cigarettes.

Anyway, the story is what sells this book and the characters of the victims and the suspects more than the police. The plot is definitely different to most standard mystery novels. Complex, but not overly complicated. I can't wait to listen to another book by this author.

My introduction to Van Veeteren

If you could sum up Mind's Eye in three words, what would they be?

Twists and turns

Who was your favorite character and why?

The suspect ;)

What about Simon Vance’s performance did you like?

His measured reading and distinctive voice

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I was surprised!

Any additional comments?

This was a pleasant introduction to Van Veeterem, even though there is little of his character revealed in this first novel.

Old fashioned in a way

Been looking for something like Peter Grainger or Jusse Adler-Olsen and Katrine Engberg.. this is the first thing I’ve found to interest me in a long while. Love the inspector and the other characters. Even the ones that die.

Simon Vance

If Simon Vance was reading tax code laws I'd listen to the entire 4,593 pages.