Wolves at the Door by Gunnar Staalesen

Wolves at the Door
By Gunnar Staalesen
Published by Orenda Books (E-book - out now; Paperback - 13 June 2019)
I received an Advance Reader from the publisher

Publisher's description

One dark January night a car drives at high speed towards PI Varg Veum, and comes very close to killing him. Veum is certain this is no accident, following so soon after the deaths of two jailed men who were convicted for their participation in a case of child pornography and sexual assault … crimes that Veum himself once stood wrongly accused of committing.

While the guilty men were apparently killed accidentally, Varg suspects that there is something more sinister at play … and that he’s on the death list of someone still at large.

Fearing for his life, Veum begins to investigate the old case, interviewing the victims of abuse and delving deeper into the brutal crimes, with shocking results. The wolves are no longer in the dark … they are at his door. And they want vengeance.

My verdict
I loved Wolves at the Door - definitely my favourite Varg Veum book so far, despite the dark subject matter.

Just as in the previous book (Big Sister), I was hooked into the story from the very first page and couldn't drag myself away. This one follows almost straight on from Big Sister, so it's probably wise to read that one if you haven't done so already.

Yet again, Gunnar Staalasen has written classic crime fiction with a modern twist, concentrating on contemporary criminal activities and social issues within a complex multi-layered plot. The story is revealed slowly but surely through a gripping investigation. Private investigator Varg Veum is investigating what initially appear to be accidental deaths but are revealed to be linked together by child pornography and sexual assault charges. Veum was also arrested (wrongfully) at the time so fears that he could be next.

The writing is highly evocative with vivid imagery - all of the little details of what people wear, eat and drink bring Norway to life. I particularly love the main character's voice, with Varg Veum's wit and irony surfacing through the sharp dialogue and narrative, often prompting me to laugh out loud. Despite the humour though, my emotions were pulled in all directions - fear, sadness, worry and despair - with my heart pounding in certain scenes towards the end.

Yet another great outing for Norwegian private eye Varg Veum, and author Gunnar Staalesen. Bring on the next one!

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Inborn by Thomas Enger

Inborn
By Thomas Enger
Published by Orenda Books (E-book - out now; Paperback - 21 February 2019)
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher

Publisher's description

When the high school in the small Norwegian village of Fredheim becomes a murder scene, the finger is soon pointed at seventeen-year-old Even. As the investigation closes in, social media is ablaze with accusations, rumours and even threats, and Even finds himself the subject of an online trial as well as being in the dock … for murder?

Even pores over his memories of the months leading up to the crime, and it becomes clear that more than one villager was acting suspiciously … and secrets are simmering beneath the calm surface of this close-knit community.

As events from the past play tag with the present, he’s forced to question everything he thought he knew. Was the death of his father in a car crash a decade earlier really accidental? Has his relationship stirred up something that someone is prepared to kill to protect?

It seems that there may be no one that Even can trust.

But can we trust him?

My verdict
Inborn is a tightly plotted mix of thriller and courtroom drama … compelling, twisty and full of emotion. 

This is a tale of murder, secrets and lies in a small Norwegian village, blending young adult (YA) with adult fiction. There are so many suspects (many unexpectedly revealed as the book progresses), making it very difficult to know who to trust. 

The format of the book is very clever, beginning with a chilling prologue and then leading into the police investigation and trial. I soon found myself right inside 17-year-old Even's head. I loved how the narrative moved seamlessly from Even in the courtroom in the present day to his first person narrative in the past (and back again), without repeating any of the events. This created two different versions of the same character - the one who knew the whole story (in the present) and the one in the past who still had a lot to learn.

This isn't just a trial in a courtroom, however, but also a trial on social media. As teenagers carelessly point fingers and spread rumours, they have the potential to destroy innocent people's lives.

The prosecutor's interrogation (in the courtroom chapters) reads like the narration of a play before the characters came back on stage. The dialogue is spot on - realistic and snappy. Using other narrators within the book, such as the police chief Yngve Monk who is grieving over the loss of his wife, builds up a bigger picture about the murder, suggesting that not everything is the way it seems. 

There is so much more I would say, but I wouldn't want to give away anything about the plot. I loved this book and can't praise it highly enough!

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The Courier by Kjell Ola Dahl - a cover reveal update!

In September 2018, I revealed the cover for The Courier by Kjell Ola Dahl, which is being published by Orenda Books in March 2019. Well, I'm delighted to reveal that the cover has been updated and you can see it below!!! 

If you missed the blurb the first time, here's a reminder!

*drum roll*

The Courier: Read the blurb

In 1942, Jewish courier Ester is betrayed, narrowly avoiding arrest by the Gestapo. In a great haste, she escapes to Sweden, saving herself. Her family in Oslo, however, is deported to Auschwitz.

In Stockholm, Ester meets the resistance hero, Gerhard Falkum, who has left his little daughter and fled both the Germans and allegations that he murdered his wife, Åse, who helped Ester get to Sweden. Their burgeoning relationship ends abruptly when Falkum dies in a fire.

And yet, twenty-five years later, Falkum shows up in Oslo. He wants to reconnect with his daughter. But where has he been, and what is the real reason for his return? Ester stumbles across information that forces her to look closely at her past, and to revisit her war-time training to stay alive…

Written with Dahl's trademark characterization and elegant plotting, The Courier sees the godfather of Nordic Noir at his best, as he takes on one of the most horrific periods of modern history, in an exceptional, shocking thriller.

I am so excited to read this book! I'm currently on the search for more 'Jewish books' to read, as I'm a book blog partner of Jewish Book Week in March 2019. So the timing is perfect!

AND NOW.... *drum roll*

The Courier: View the NEW cover

I love this! If you're familiar with Orenda Books, you'll know how brilliantly each jacket cover ties in with the story inside! 

The Courier: Read about author Kjell Ola Dahl

One of the godfathers of the Nordic Noir genre, Kjell Ola Dahl was born in 1958 in Gjøvik. He made his debut in 1993, and has since published eleven novels, the most prominent of which is a series of police procedurals cum psychological thrillers featuring investigators Gunnarstranda and Frølich. In 2000 he won the Riverton Prize for The Last Fix and he won both the prestigious Brage and Riverton Prizes for The Courier in 2015. His work has been published in 14 countries and sold over two million copies. He lives in Oslo. 

Find Kjell Ola Dahl on Twitter - @ko_dahl

For ALL of your Orenda news, visit the Orenda website and follow @OrendaBooks on Twitter.

Big Sister by Gunnar Staalesen

Big Sister
By Gunnar Staalesen
Published by Orenda Books (published 20 June 2018)
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher

Publisher's description

Varg Veum receives a surprise visit in his office. A woman introduces herself as his half-sister, and she has a job for him. Her god-daughter, a 19-year-old trainee nurse from Haugesund, moved from her bedsit in Bergen two weeks ago. Since then no one has heard anything from her. She didn't leave an address. She doesn't answer her phone. And the police refuse to take her case seriously. 
Veum’s investigation uncovers a series of carefully covered-up crimes and pent-up hatreds, and the trail leads to a gang of extreme bikers on the hunt for a group of people whose dark deeds are hidden by the anonymity of the Internet. And then things get personal…

My verdict
I've read a few Varg Veum books now (thanks to the fantastic translations by Don Bartlett through publisher Orenda Books). Big Sister is definitely my new favourite (so far).

In Big Sister, Veum is looking into the disappearance of a young woman, prompted by a surprise visit by his half-sister (a woman he didn't even know existed until now). This is a haunting story of hidden pasts, family secrets, fathers and fatherhood and troublesome relationships between parents and children - as Veum not only searches for the young woman, but also explores his own past.

The Varg Veum books are gradually coming into the modern age, with mobile phones and computers becoming more popular. Big Sister also features some very contemporary themes, with plenty of darkness lurking beneath the surface. Yet this book (as with Gunnar Staalesen's previous books) still has a traditional 'private eye' feel to it, which I love. Here is a detective used to using his head rather than the tools around him to investigate, explore and do his job. Veum is a man with strong principles and a nose for trouble. But he still manages to put himself into danger several times, ramping up the pace of the book and providing several nail-biting scenes.

Big Sister is perfectly packaged Nordic crime fiction, with its amazing sense of place and chilling plot - one particular scene left me feeling cold (not many books have that effect on me). I finished the book feeling a little sadder and more thoughtful then when I began its rollercoaster journey. The words flew off the page, thanks to the taunt writing and seamless translation, and I'm looking forward to the next one in the series.

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Music and Writing by Kjell Ola Dahl - Blog Tour

I'm delighted to welcome Kjell Ola Dahl to my blog today for his The Ice Swimmer blog tour, to talk about 'music and writing'. The Ice Swimmer is being published in paperback by Orenda Books on 30 April 2018. 

Music and Writing

By Kjell Ola Dahl

For me, music and writing are intrinsically linked.

I always think an interesting question to ask about one of the characters you’ve created as a writer is whether their taste in music tells you something about them. We all have prejudices about taste. You might hate some specific piece of music; you meet a person who says she loves it, and you think she’s a moron (or you do if you’re like me). Afterwards, though, you and the same person might have an interesting discussion about the latest book you’ve both read. Now she’s suddenly an interesting person – someone whose intelligence and taste you respect. Music and writing therefore goes many ways – making you despise and adore the same person.

Gunnarstranda, a police officer in my Oslo Detectives series, has an obsession with Miles Davis. I don’t have the same strong affinity as he does to Miles’s music, though. I can relax to records like Kind of Blue, In a Silent Way or Milestones, but I can never bear to listen to the whole of Bitches Brew, for example. Gunnarstranda can though, and I think this obsession reveals an aspect of his personality. He likes to follow the trumpet’s lead through the strange world of beats it’s played against. I think he is intrigued by complex things and has an innate patience, and this is reflected both in his taste in music and the way he conduct his police work.

Musical taste also tell us something about the protagonist of The Ice Swimmer, Lena. She likes Tom Waits and female singers such as Sade. These are two very differnet types of artists – one of them rough and experimental and the other smooth and easy to listen to. I think Lena is the type of person who uses music to reflect different feelings and states of mind.

One reader wrote this to me about The Ice Swimmer: ‘I loved the book, but didn’t like Lena's taste in music and films.’

I like this comment very much because it shows that the reader has been with my character all the way, but still, after they’ve finished the book, they have a sort of unbalanced feeling about the protagonist. Lena is therefore still in their mind.

Music provokes all our emotions: it influences your heartbeat and your blood pressure. Your pulse and hearbeat will sometimes adapt to the beat of the music you’re listening to. No wonder music can be inspirational.

I am often inspired by music when I write; after all, writing is all about emotions. If I am listening to music I like very much, my thoughts starts wandering and suddenly an extrodinarily good idea pops into my mind and I have to start writing immediately. A few moments later I don’t hear the music anymore and I’m just concentrating on the writing. At other times I have to turn the same music off, so that I can concentrate. That is a bad sign. When I turn the music off, I know that the idea was not as good as I thought it was in the first place – and I know I will throw the text away later.

Other times the opposite happens: I hear some good music; I’m inspired, start writing and suddenly the music makes the ideas accelerate. I cannot write fast enough. It’s like a sprint. I’m exhausted, but I cannot stop, because if I do, that magic grip will let go and then I will lose everything. But later, when I polish the same text, I can do it perfectly without listening to anything. I can concentrate hard on the words and sentences and they survive the trash bin.

Writing is hard work – with or without music. But for me music feeds my creativity.

About Kjell Ola Dahl

One of the godfathers of the Nordic Noir genre, Kjell Ola Dahl was born in 1958 in Gjøvik. He made his debut in 1993, and has since published eleven novels, the most prominent of which is a series of police procedurals cum psychological thrillers featuring investigators Gunnarstranda and Frølich. In 2000 he won the Riverton Prize for The Last Fix and he won both the prestigious Brage and Riverton Prizes for The Courier in 2015. His work has been published in 14 countries and sold over two million copies. He lives in Oslo. 

Find Kjell Ola Dahl on Twitter - @ko_dahl

About The Ice Swimmer

The Ice Swimmer
By Kjell Ola Dahl
Published by Orenda Books (E-book - out now; paperback - 30 April 2018)

Publisher's description

When a dead man is lifted from the freezing waters of Oslo Harbour just before Christmas, Detective Lena Stigersand’s stressful life suddenly becomes even more complicated. Not only is she dealing with a cancer scare, a stalker and an untrustworthy boyfriend, but it seems both a politician and Norway’s security services might be involved in the murder.
With her trusted colleagues, Gunnarstranda and Frølich, at her side, Lena digs deep into the case and finds that it not only goes to the heart of the Norwegian establishment, but it might be rather to close to her personal life for comfort. 

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BEST OF CRIME with Thomas Enger

Welcome to my latest BEST OF CRIME feature, looking at crime writers' top picks, from their favourite author and fictional detective to their best writing tip. 

Today I'm delighted to welcome 

THOMAS ENGER

for his Killed blog tour

to share his BEST OF CRIME ...

... AUTHORS
John Hart. Simply because he is a master with words and plots, not to mention a class act himself. 

... FILMS/MOVIES
Shawshank Redemption. A film with so many layers and great characters. And a highly satisfactory ending. The scene in the sewer (you know the one) is one of the greatest film scenes of all time.

... TV DRAMAS
I like a lot of them, but for me Sopranos still rates as the best - even though they dragged it out a bit towards the end. I loved Breaking Bad, too, although the same can be said about that show, too. TV dramas should know better when to quit while they're ahead.

... FICTIONAL KILLERS

Hannibal Lecter. Seriously, can you think of a creepier killer? A highly educated, cultivated man with exquisite taste, who is a relentless sadist and yet he isn't completely without compassion either.

... FICTIONAL DETECTIVES 

Sherlock Holmes. Now, who wouldn't want to have a brain like that. 

... MURDER WEAPONS

A necklace bomb. Talk about a psychological ordeal, having one of those around your neck. Must be a lot worse than having a gun pointed at your chest, knowing that at any given moment your whole head can be blown off. 

    

... DEATH SCENES

Silence of the Lambs, in the ambulance, when Hannibal Lecter removes the skin from his face, skin that belonged to the man who was guarding him, as he escapes the prison... One of the biggest WTF moments I've ever seen. 

... WRITING TIPS

Don't sit and wait for inspiration. Just sit down and write. 

... WRITING SNACKS

I try to stay away from food while I write, as my keyboard gets sticky and nasty, but one thing I can't do without, is coffee. Lots of it. 

About THOMAS ENGER

Thomas Enger (b. 1973) is a former journalist. He made his debut with the crime novel Burned (Skinndød) in 2010, which became an international sensation before publication. Burned is the first in a series of 5 books about the journalist Henning Juul, which delves into the depths of Oslo’s underbelly, skewering the corridors of dirty politics and nailing the fast-moving world of 24-hour news. Rights to the series have been sold to 26 countries to date. In 2013 Enger published his first book for young adults, a dark fantasy thriller called The Evil Legacy, for which he won the U-prize (best book Young Adult). Enger also composes music, and he lives in Oslo. 

Find Thomas Enger on his website, on his Facebook page and on Twitter - @EngerThomas

About KILLED

Publisher's description

Crime reporter Henning Juul thought his life was over when his young son was murdered. But that was only the beginning...
Determined to find his son’s killer, Henning doggedly follows an increasingly dangerous trail, where dark hands from the past emerge to threaten everything. His ex-wife Nora is pregnant with another man’s child, his sister Trine is implicated in the fire that killed his son and, with everyone he thought he could trust seemingly hiding something, Henning has nothing to lose ... except his own life. Packed with tension and unexpected twists, Killed is the long-awaited finale of one of the darkest, most chilling and emotive series you may ever read. Someone will be killed. But who? 

Read a snippet of my review

'This is a tense, fast paced and gripping read, pulling together various threads to tie up loose ends.'

To read the rest of my review, click here.

Killed is being published by Orenda Books on 28 February 2018.

Look out for more BEST OF CRIME features coming soon.

Click here to read more BEST OF CRIME features.

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Killed by Thomas Enger

Killed
By Thomas Enger
Published by Orenda Books (28 February 2018)
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher.

Publisher's description

Determined to find his son's killer, Henning doggedly follows an increasingly dangerous trail, where dark hands from the past emerge to threaten everything. His ex-wife Nora is pregnant with another man's child, his sister Trine is implicated in the fire that killed his son and, with everyone he thought he could trust seemingly hiding something, Henning has nothing to lose … except his own life. 

My verdict
Killed follows on from the previous book, Cursed. I haven't read the first books in this series (just Cursed and now Killed), although I have bought them, but this didn't detract from my enjoyment at all. 

Yet again, Thomas Enger transported me to Norway, with investigative journalist Henning Juul on the trail of his son's killers and finally getting closer to the truth. This is a tense, fast paced and gripping read, pulling together various threads to tie up loose ends. I love the author's writing - the book is easy to read and filled with vivid descriptions of people and places - and I soon forgot that it was a translation.

Killed is a dramatic ending to a riveting series. The plot is dark, twisty and gritty, as Juul finds himself drawn further into the criminal underworld of Oslo, putting his life (and the lives of those around him) in danger. This is an emotional crime thriller filled with dark secrets, lies and revenge.

Faithless by Kjell Ola Dahl - Blog Tour

I am delighted to be today's stop on the blog tour for Faithless by Kjell Ola Dahl. Faithless is being published by Orenda Books in paperback on 15 April 2017. Read on for my review ...

Faithless
By Kjell Ola Dahl
Published by Orenda Books (Ebook - available now; Paperback - 15 April 2017)
ISBN: 978-1910633274

Publisher's description 

When the body of a woman turns up in a dumpster, scalded and wrapped in plastic, Inspector Frank Frølich is shocked to discover that he knows her... and their recent meetings may hold the clue to her murder. As he begins to look deeper into the tragic events surrounding her death, Frølich's colleague Gunnarstranda finds another body, and things take a more sinister turn. With a cold case involving the murder of a young girl in northern Norway casting a shadow, and an unsettling number of coincidences clouding the plot, Frølich is forced to look into his own past to find the answers - and the killer - before he strikes again.  

My verdict
Over the last couple of years, I've become a huge fan of Nordic Noir, thanks to the seamless translations published by Orenda Books. Faithless is no exception. The translation by Don Bartlett is perfect - the book is not only easy to read, but the narrative is rhythmic and fast paced.

I haven't read any books by Kjell Ola Dahl before, and this book is the fifth in the series, so I don't know the characters' back stories. But this didn't detract from the intelligent well-conceived plot. Faithless can easily be read as a standalone.

Inspector Frank Frølich is investigating the murder of a woman known to him - not only because he arrested her recently, but also because she was engaged to his childhood friend, who he hasn't seen for over 20 years. When the detectives link the murder with a cold case in northern Norway, they realise this isn't as straightforward as it seems. Meanwhile his colleague Gunnarstranda is investigating the disappearance of a university student - there's no trace of her, although there are plenty of suspects.

Faithless reads like classic crime, with well-developed characters, an atmospheric setting and a tangled web of secrets and lies. It's a whodunnit set in the modern world but with many throwbacks to the past. Nordic Noir detectives seem to use their heads and old fashioned investigations more than technology when putting together the clues to solve their cases. I had no inkling about where the story was going, or who the culprit was, or even how everything was going to be resolved, before the end. A great surprise and a highly satisfying conclusion.

The Oslo Detectives is another series to add to my very extensive reading list.

I received an Advance Reader Copy.

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