Grendel’s Game

Image of Grendel's Game
Author(s): 
Release Date: 
June 30, 2015
Publisher/Imprint: 
Permanent Press
Pages: 
360
Reviewed by: 

“Grendel’s Game is a good first novel with a wonderful main character and vivid images of Southwestern Sweden.” 

Grendel’s Game, Erik Mauritzson’s debut crime novel, introduces a charming Swedish detective, Chief Superintendent Walther Ekman of the Weltenborg Police. A 30-year veteran of investigating Southwestern Sweden’s crimes, Walther is overweight, fifty-six years old, chaffing under the supervision of an inept Deputy Commissioner, and not ready to receive an anonymous letter from someone who calls himself Grendel.

Walther is puzzled and disbelieving. “He’d gotten publicity-seeking crank confessions before to murders, kidnappings, rapes, robberies. They’d all been ongoing cases. This one was different: they had nothing involving cannibalism.”

Even though Walther suspects the letter is a hoax, he shows it to Deputy Commissioner Malmer just in case, but Malmer is more concerned about the recent daylight robbery at the home of County Councillor Westberg. Nothing was stolen except a few pieces of jewelry and a family photo. “Consider this your most important task until it is solved. I’ll expect daily reports.”

Walther fantasizes about how much he’d like to jerk the pompous Deputy Commissioner out of his oversized chair and bang his head against the nearest wall. It is all politics; Westberg is a rich man with powerful friends, so police officers needed to investigate major crimes are assigned to the Westberg case for political reasons. “This was part of the job he intensely disliked . . . catering to political superiors.”

Despite his uncertainty about the letter Walther sends the letter to Forensics and takes a copy to his psychiatrist friend, Dr. Jarl Karlsson for a profile of the self-styled Grendel. Karlsson’s opinion is disturbing. “He wants to humiliate you personally, not just the police. You’ve become the opposition. He’s not simply warning you, but issuing a direct challenge.”

Walther assembles a team to investigate Grendel. Patients recently released from mental hospitals are eliminated, but the team finds four open files on missing persons: three young men and one woman. All are stable individuals who had good jobs and no known enemies. They all disappeared without a trace found anywhere. There seemed to be no common connection between them although Walther believes there must be. The team just hasn’t found it yet.

If the situation isn’t bad enough, Walther is mugged and his briefcase stolen. It is returned by a mysterious person who carefully conceals his identity from the security cameras. In the briefcase is another letter from Grendel. “You need not trouble yourself about the thieves. They have been severely chastised and will not bother you (or anyone else) again.”

Under pressure from Deputy Commissioner Malmer, Walther takes over the Westberg case while still overseeing the Grendel investigation. He interviews Westberg and his wife, who want to know why someone would steal a family photo. Walther has no answers, but is worried over the theft. It does not fit the pattern of other daylight robberies that have plagued the city. He asks for information on the couple’s son, Rodger Westberg, so that he can, too, be interviewed.

Rodger, too, has disappeared, and Walther’s feeling of foreboding increases. Just like the other missing persons, Rodger has simply vanished, and Walther is certain the young man is dead. Deputy Commissioner’s reaction is typical. “You’re implying that a madman, a possible cannibal, for God’s sake, has grabbed Westberg’s son? How am I supposed to break this news to him?”

Walther could guess that Malmer “was racing through all the horrendous political and media ramifications.” If the media learned of Grendel, the newspapers would immediately connect Rodger’s disappearance the self-styled cannibal.

Grendel leaves a package containing a severed body part on Walther’s front porch, along with a letter identifying the shriveled flesh. “Please Permit Me to Introduce the Distinguished Advokat Rodger Westberg.”

If he didn’t fully admit it to himself before, Walther now knows that he is Grendel’s principal target. He sends his wife to stay with their daughter, because he fears Grendel may make her his next victim. “I can’t do my job properly if I’m worrying all the time about whether he might decide to harm you in order to get at me.”

It is not his wife who is Grendel’s next target; it is Walther’s son, Erick, who disappears while out walking. As Mr. Mauritzon ratchets up the suspense, tension becomes almost unbearable as crime fiction fans cheer on Walther’s search for his son before the unthinkable happens.

Unlike so many police officers in modern crime fiction, Walther does not suffer from personal angst. He is not addicted to alcohol or drugs, is not unfaithful to his wife, and has a good relationship with his children. His officers think he is a nice guy, which surprises him because he thinks he is too harsh sometimes. His one indulgence is food; Walther likes to eat. He is altogether a very likeable man who does needlepoint while thinking through a case. Readers will welcome Walther’s next case.

As with most first-time novelists, Mauritzson stumbles occasionally, primarily in his narrative descriptions of Walther’s lunches and dinners, but his plot is spot on, and identity of Grendel will surprise everyone. Grendel’s Game is a good first novel with a wonderful main character and vivid images of Southwestern Sweden.