To Cook a Bear

Starred review from September 1, 2020
When, in 1852, a milkmaid in a village in the far north of Sweden goes missing, the local pastor and his surrogate son, a young Lapp called Jussi, spring into action. Thanks to extraordinary powers of observation and deduction worthy of Sherlock Holmes, the pastor determines that the girl was not killed by a bear, as was popularly believed, but was murdered; nevertheless, the obstreperous lackwit sheriff refuses to accept the truth and continues to insist a bear was responsible. Then, when a second maid is found dead, the sheriff rules it a suicide while the pastor knows it was a second murder. When a third murder is committed, things take a still darker turn, and Jussi, beaten half to death by a local bully, is arrested for the murders. In a hasty trial, he is declared guilty and sentenced to be beheaded. There is much more to this wonderfully idiosyncratic novel from Sweden; it is not only a riveting, psychologically astute mystery but also a work of history, natural history (the pastor is a gifted botanist), and religion. Both the pastor, who is nationally known as founder of a controversial revivalist movement, and Jussi are highly empathetic and memorable characters who populate a book that is an example of both superb genre fiction and character-driven literary fiction. It is not to be missed.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

October 19, 2020
Swedish author Niemi (Popular Music from Vittula) draws on classic murder mystery elements for a sumptuous, deeply informed historical account of 19th-century Lutheran revivalist Lars Levi Laestadius and his adopted son, Jussi, a Sami runaway who narrates most of the novel. After his education, influential teetotaler Laestadius returns to his native Kengis in northern Sweden to minister to the nomadic Sami people, driven by a mission to help end the alcoholism that has affected them over the past few decades. As a crime spree hits the village, with bodies piling up at a precipitous rate, the local authorities attribute the deaths to bear attacks, accidents, or suicides. Laestadius draws on his powers of observation as a botanist to investigate the cases, one of which plays out as a traditional locked room murder. The preacher enlists the aid of Jussi, who Laestadius taught to read and write, and who eventually becomes the target of suspicion among the villagers once they realize foul play is involved. While the plot isn’t likely to leave mystery aficionados baffled, it provides a lively framework for a story that, in other hands might have been devoted to sermon writing and leaf examination. Niemi’s sensitive approach to cultural differences and sharp interest in period details make this worthwhile.