![\"The](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com\/images\/I\/51CW35Zyl0L.jpg?w=474&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
One-word review: Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n I hate to be one of those philistines who can\u2019t appreciate the literature of a past age, but I have to say \u2013 the art of the crime novel has improved immensely since 1909, when The Iron Chariot<\/a><\/em> was published.<\/p>\n Author Stein Riverton (real name Svein Elvetun) apparently gets credit for being the inventor of the Scandinavian crime genre. And The Iron Chariot<\/em> is his classic work.<\/p>\n But even for a Norway booster like me, it\u2019s a slog, my brothers. A genuine slog.<\/p>\n The story opens on a summer day at a resort on a Norwegian island. Some locals come running, announcing they\u2019ve discovered a body. A few guests who\u2019ve been lounging on the lawn run to look, among them the narrator (who is never named). A local gamekeeper has been clubbed to death.<\/p>\n Shortly a private detective is summoned from Kristiania (now Oslo). This detective sets about questioning a few people, relaxing in his room, and wandering the area, apparently without purpose. He carries on a series of languid conversations with the narrator. And about a hundred years later, he names the killer.<\/p>\n \u201cStein Riverton\u201d is reported to have been a fan of Nobel Prize-winning author Knut Hamsun. This is not good news for the casual reader. The book is indeed Hamsun-esque, and that means slow progress and dense prose. I also didn’t like the detective, Asbj\u00f8rn Krag, who is one of those inexorable, infallible thinking machines who infest so many early mystery stories.<\/p>\n Worst of all, I figured out the culprit\u2019s identity very early on. After that, it was a matter of mumbling, \u201cGet on with it! Get on with it!\u201d for a hundred pages or more.<\/p>\n Valuable for its historical significance, The Iron Chariot<\/em> is a yawner of a book. I recommend it only for devotees of old mysteries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One-word review: Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. I hate to be one of those philistines who can\u2019t appreciate the literature of a past age, but I have to say \u2013 the art of the crime novel has improved immensely since 1909, when The Iron Chariot was published. Author Stein Riverton (real name Svein Elvetun) apparently gets credit for being … Continue reading ‘The Iron Chariot,’ by Stein Riverton<\/span>