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Fossum’s The Caller an eerie police procedural
Especially interesting is that Fossum reveals this perpetrator early on – he’s a 17 year old boy named Johnny Beskow. His life constrained by his bullying, alcoholic mother, Johnny may be a sociopath, but he has a tough life and he loves is grandfather. The hateful pranks can be seen as an attempt to build self-esteem and gain some control over others, and therefore himself. When a child is attacked and killed by dogs, the assumption is that it is once again Johnny’s attempt to stir up trouble by letting the dogs out… but is it? Sejer tends to believe his denial, but as his son Matteus proves to him, “If you like someone, you’ll believe anything they say.”
Johnny’s nemesis is a 13-year-old girl named Else Meiner, who seems to see through him, although she doesn’t know his secrets. He resents this and tries to diminish her, but unlike his other victims, she emerges essentially unscathed. It is she who is the lone witness to Johnny’s death. The police may never know what happened, for she will never tell.
The Caller offers an interesting premise and some strong suspense. The reader may know more than Inspector Sejer, but is not privy to Johnny’s every thought, so there are some real nail-biting moments. And there’s a plot twist that’s heart-twisting for Johnny and the reader both – kind of a reverse O.Henry-esque twist that you probably won’t see coming.
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