My sister Valerie put me onto the Danish T.V. series, “The Killing” or “Forbrydelsen”. Season 1 is a dark, murder mystery /detective story, centred around the killing of a young woman in Copenhagen. In recent years I’ve watched various versions of “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and “Let the Right One In”. I also read one Jo Nesbo book (which was truly awful and makes me wonder how he is said to have written some brilliant books – maybe he has but “Headhunters” is not one of them).
The films and books all strongly feature the Scandinavian environment, usually lots of snow, cabins in the wood, deranged murderers and disfunctional detectives.
Nordic Noir
In this permanent winter
Nordic crimeland
everybody speaks with
a hurdy gurdy lilt
At night the characters
are like porn stars
waiting off set
for their next assignment
The detectives have
been trained by
either Sherlock Holmes
or Inspector Clousseau
The police chief
does his utmost
to hinder investigations
until the final episode
Children are self-sufficient
living on one meal a week
and needing only an occasional
“I’m such a bad parent” apology
The cars are brick-like
and steer themselves
whilst the driver converses
at length with a passenger
The politicians are
sharp suited narcissists.
Big busted personal assistants
live under their office desks
Everybody avoids
toilets and showers
(that’s where you get murdered)
but maintain clean-shaven
shiny haired perfection
The crime would be solved
in episode one
but for evidence withheld
for no better reason than
“I didn’t think it was important”
Scandinavian house hunters
are more concerned
about living next door
to a detective than a murderer
Ikea filled houses
are self-cleaning
but every carpet has
a still damp blood stain
© Mike Hopkins 2014
