THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 17, 1996 TAG: 9604170040
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BY PEGGY DEANS EARLE
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
COMING FROM a culture where fear of the dark is almost customary, I find it hard to picture a place where terror lurks in the light of the midnight sun. But in ``Blackwater,'' a singularly disturbing thriller set in northern Sweden, it does just that. This murder mystery disturbs in an almost physical way; throughout its complicated and, at times, confusing story, there is something that constantly scratches for our attention, driving us to read on.
Although Kerstin Ekman has written 17 novels and won literary prizes in Sweden and Europe, ``Blackwater'' is her first novel to be published in English. Its gloomy, psychologically-oriented style is the sort that should appeal to fans of a more well-known Swede, Ingmar Bergman.
Ekman deals with a broad variety of themes here, including the demise of small towns, the loss of native culture, the impact of random events and the very nature of evil.
The pivotal event of the story occurs on Midsummer's Eve 1974 in Blackwater, a remote northern logging town. Annie Raft and her 6-year-old daughter Mia are on their way to join Annie's boyfriend, Dan, at the small commune where he lives.
But Dan is not at the bus stop to meet Annie and Mia, as he'd promised. Mother and child endure a grueling hike through the woods in search of the commune and find instead a terrible sight: a bloody tent in which two people have been savagely stabbed to death. Annie glimpses the face of a young man fleeing the scene, a face that becomes permanently engraved on her memory.
Eighteen years later, Annie sees that face again. To her horror, it belongs to the man Mia introduces as her lover and the father of her unborn child.
By bouncing back and forth in time, the story introduces us to Johan, owner of the face in question, and his unsavory family, consisting of mother, stepfather and four half-brothers.
We meet Birger, the local doctor and close friend of the chief of police. Birger's marriage is falling apart. His environment-conscious wife has become pathologically obsessed with the damage caused by uranium mining in the area. On the night of the crime, she is nowhere to be found.
Then there's Ylja, a strange woman with whom Johan becomes involved on that same night. Through her, he learns something about the mythology and religion of the Sami peoples, from whom his mother is descended. This 2,000-year-old reindeer-herding culture in Lapland has been disappearing, its shamanistic beliefs largely forgotten. But not by Ylja, whose odd behavior and membership in a mysterious society of women give Johan reasons to flee in fear.
When Annie eventually hooks up with Dan at the commune, she feels alienated and unhappy about the way he has changed. Haunted by her frightening experience on Midsummer's Eve, she becomes determined to investigate and solve the mystery, with dire results.
While red herrings abound in ``Blackwater'' - virtually everyone, save Annie and Mia, is a potential murder suspect - there are a few disconcerting instances of total confusion, for which translator Joan Tate may be at fault.
Fortunately, these lapses are rare and the story's consistent, existentially chilly mood prevails, leaving an indelible impression. As Ekman weaves her disparate characters' fates together, she ponders the randomness of life in general and violence in particular.
Nonetheless, we are provided satisfying explanations for the events of that midsummer night, the night that altered so many lives. That strange, scary, sunny night. MEMO: Peggy Deans Earle is a staff librarian.
by CNB