30/11/2017
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW for Book Stopper
The Hammer Paradox
By David Williams
There is a strange paradox in the successful genre of crime writing and its obsession with murder. While the stories are read for fun, any real-life personal encounter with an act of murder isn't."
An impenetrable silence falls like a guillotine on his observation as the Dane; Søren Hammer Jacobsen, who uncannily resembles an El Greco elongation, surgically removes the burnt out embers of a cigarette from his dry lips.
An unexpected snake of smoke rises from his open mouth as if to ring this provocative conundrum left hanging in the momentary silence.
By his side, his sister and writing partner Lotte. The idea is clearly teasing her thoughts and stimulating a mountain of possibilities. She abruptly settles on one and firmly nods her tacit agreement.
Meanwhile, the butt, fanned by three open fingers and increasingly looking like a "dead fly" is finally dismissively flicked onto its last flight into the "politically incorrect" crime scene of a to***co stained ash tray,
This isn't a red herring, just one of many interesting paradoxes in the tale of the brother and sister crime writing team that has produced five tantalising books since they burst onto the international literary scene of trenchcoats, brass knuckles and truncheons in 2010.
Early life
"We are very, very different," says Lotte Hammer Jacobsen. Is she referring to her brother's cool detachment? She surprises with an unexpected revelation. ”From our appearance we are different and also in the way we choose to live. We are not actually siblings you see. We were adopted. So we do not have any genes in common. But of course we have had the same upbringing."
As if to reconfirm these differences Søren elaborates further:
"I have very simple interests, football and reading. I am not interested in art at all. No. no, thats Lotte."
We loved to read
The Hammer's upbringing took place in a rather modest flat in the affluent Copenhagen suburb of Charlottenlund during the late 1950s and 60s. Søren remembers a simple and ordinary childhood, while Lotte nostalgically leans back into her thoughts to embrace a distant world of many special family evenings.
"We were different to any other family I have ever known. We did not have a television. Our father liked Danish literature and would read aloud to us every night. He loved reading. He read for a whole evening. Our mother would listen in too. And as Søren got older he would wait until our father had finished with his reading and only then go out with his friends."
While their father's love of literature ensured both Hammer's grew-up to appreciate and enjoy the written word their tastes differed.
"I enjoy Danish literature from 1870 to 1920, thats a period I especially like. I very seldom read crime novels," says Søren.
Lotte, with a lampshaded smile, answered with conspiratorial confidentiality – she could have been secretly dragging two small glasses across the table to pour us both a tipple of neat whiskey.
"I read a lot of crime stories. I find them relaxing," she confessed.
Different place, different careers
After school the Hammer's both moved away from home, to different places and into different educations. Lotte went on to be trained as a nurse while Søren went into teaching.
"After 10- 15 years in the Danish folkeskole I switched career to work at an Technical Gymnasium making programmes for education. The work was creative and not at all the cold, logical process that most people may think," says Søren, in a voice as warm and deep as a canyon fire.
Meanwhile, Lottes was working as a nurse at American Airforce bases in Greenland. She recounts her experiences with raised eyebrows, remembering it as a world of rules for rules sake. Her experiences sound like a missing page out of Joseph Hellers satirical novel "Catch 22":
"I have never experienced anything like the American Airforce system. I found that maybe the Americans on the bases were not the blossom of American youth."
"They are in movies," slipped in Søren.
Lotte recounts a plethoria of unnecessary rules that demanded, amongst other things; chemical additives be added to the pure water of Greenland; the annual resupply of maleria tablets to American troops in Greenland; the annual issue of a 100 new lawnmowers to cut Greenlands "grass" at the base; the attempted crackdown on personale using air transport and the demand that they use trains and buses instead, to curb costs.
"They did not realise that there were no trains, no buses. Planes were the only way out of this. The Americans did not know anything about Greenland."
Hammer Humour
Søren points out that they occassionally like to use ironic humour in their writing. His humour is sudden and unexpected like the stubbing out of a half smoked cigarette into life's ashtray.
"I lived abroad for many years and Søren wrote me letters. I loved those letters because first of all he is an excellent writer but most of all they were very funny. They were a really subtle type of humour. I think its one of the things we have in common."
Søren smiled. He peered thoughtfully out of the panoramic windows of his mind, probably wistfully thinking about taking a puff of smoke from his unlit cigerette. Then his eyes came alive with a story.
"I was recently in St. Petersburg. It was January, -25 degrees, as cold as hell. I tried speaking English. No-one speaks English so I spoke Danish because it did not matter, they didn't understand anyway. In the end I just mimed what I wanted. I got rather good at it. Then one day my back was hurting. I went to the pharmacy. A shop with a glass partition and a stern-faced Russian woman seated behind it. The Russians do not have this smiling culture as they do in the West. She just stared at me blankly. I thought it would be easier to explain headache so I took an imaginary glass of water, drank it, then pretended to slap my head to show pain.
She continued to stare at me. Then she suddenly started slapping her own head, paused, and asked me in perfect English "Do you want a pill against insanity?""
Hammer style
Now on their fourth novel the writing has become smoother than a 12 year old whiskey and the twists and turns in their plotting as shocking as going through a trawlers net of fishes and discovering a headless co**se!
"I must say the books are getting better and better. We are learning all the time. We can feel it ourselves," says Lotte
Søren attributes the popularity of their books to their commitment to fulfill the readers expectations.
"You make an agreement with the readers. They know when they buy your book there are some things they can expect. This agreement is a framework for the writer."
Secret Hammers
Readers of the crime writing genre enjoy finding hidden content inside the novels. It can be a little more subtle than having a snubnosed revolver secretly shoved into a fat belly, but just as effective. And the Hammers do not disappoint!
Søren admits that in most of their books you have to use a little effort to find the references. In their first book, "Svinehunde", allusions are regularly being made to evil goddesses of Greek mythology. In "Alting har sin pris" all the victims have the same first name as each of Jack the Rippers victims. "Ensomme hjerters klub" is influenced by the Beatles´ album Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band; with thirteen chapters for the thirteen songs and a little of the lyrics from each song in each chapter.
People ask us why do we do that and Søren answers, "because we want to appear a little more intellectual than we really are," says Lotte with a mischievous smile.
Halsnæs - the comfort zone
Lotte moved to Frederiksværk, North Sjælland, Denmark, 18 years ago. Søren moved in with his sister some years later to work at the local Folkeskole. The post-industrial town once known for its mighty steel industry seems to have stimulated their creativity. Only two days after moving in Søren approached Lotte and suggested that they write a book together. The rest as they say is history.
"I have heard a lot of things said about Halsnæs. When I moved here I loved it from day one. I like this working community. We have been surprised at how some of the writers we have met are so sure of themselves but no one behaves like that here. No one asks us questions which really mean "The worse you are doing the better I am." No one cares about our writing. Of course, they know we do it. For us, Halsnæs is like a comfort zone. And we really appreciate the people not being snobs," says Lotte.
Demons or Geniuses?
The world of crime fiction is filled with the smoke of existential bitterness and intrigue, where murderers and conmen rub shoulders with hardboiled detectives, femme fatales, corrupt policemen, jealous husbands and the down-and-out. Into this world the Hammer's have in a short time, carved a successful niche for themselves.
"Our first book "Svinehunde" touched on the subject of paedophillia and we got some mails from grown-ups who had been abused as children. Thank God they were positive towards the book. These letters were the only response we recieved to any of our books that got to me. I do not really mind if we have good or bad reactions. We have some people calling us demons and some call us geniuses. One Polish critic appeared to want to murder us," says a bemused Søren.
The best for last
The Hammer's seem to work at a frantic pace compared to other writers. When their first book was printed they admit that they already had three others ready to publish!
"We have fun doing it which is the main thing.. Søren is a firework of ideas. I do not know how he does it but they come up all the time so I doubt we will ever run out of ideas," says an enthusiastic Lotte.
Sørens final comment slithers upon this thought like a snake on ice.
"In some ways your best book is your next book and thats the way it should be."
