The Oslo Detectives are back in another slice of gripping, dark Nordic Noir, and their new colleague has more at stake than she’s prepared to reveal…
Pub date: 30 April 2020
ISBN 13: 978-1-913193-02-7
EPUB: 978-1-913193-03-4
Price: £8.99
Oslo detective Frølich searches for the mysterious sister of a young female
asylum seeker, but when people start to die, everything points to an old
case and a series of events that someone will do anything to hide…
Suspended from duty, Detective Frølich is working as a private investigator,
when his girlfriend’s colleague asks for his help with a female asylum
seeker, who the authorities are about to deport. She claims to have a sister
in Norway, and fears that returning to her home country will mean instant
death.
Frølich quickly discovers the whereabouts of the young woman’s sister, but
things become increasingly complex when she denies having a sibling, and
Frølich is threatened off the case by the police. As the body count rises, it becomes clear that the answers lie in an old investigation, and the
mysterious sister, who is now on the run…
A dark, chilling and up-to-the-minute Nordic Noir thriller, Sister is also a
tense and well-plotted murder mystery with a moving tragedy at its heart,
cementing Kjell Ola Dahl as one of the greatest crime writers of our generation.
My Review
I met Kjell Ola Dahl at the Orenda Roadshow. I bought a copy of Sister and he signed it. I had never read any of his books but I liked the sound of it. Then Anne Cater, who organises Orenda Books’ blog tours as well as running Random Things Tours blog tours, emailed to ask if I wanted to be part of the blog tour. Well, I could hardly say no, could I?
I have just finished reading this book. The post is scheduled for publishing in less than 12 hours. Blame CORVID-19, my anxiety is so bad I’m struggling to concentrate. However, I have finished reading it and I’m thoroughly stunned. I read half the book in one sitting, got distracted by crochet for a day, read about 40 pages more, got distracted again and then spent this evening reading reading 3/8th of the book. In two hours.
Oh, my goodness me, it was gripping.
Frankie Frolich, retired police officer and private investigator meets Mathilde while investigating some minor workplace theft. A few months later, their relationship has blossomed and she asks for his help. A friend who works at a refugee centre needs him to find the sister of one of her clients. Things start to go hinky from the start. A writer who lost his cousin to a ferry disaster and wrote a book about it turns up to scare him off. The writer dies. His uncle asks Frank to look into it. Mathilde’s friend dies. A Major appears and tries to find out information. A former colleague is acting strangely. No-one believes Frank when he tells them a ‘suicide’ was murder. Then the writer’s uncle doesn’t want information he asked for. Frank is very confused, and before the end he’s beaten up, single and still a bit confused.
I haven’t explained it very well. While the main case is about refugees and safety, the ferry disaster is a red herring that takes Franks concentration. I didn’t notice because I was so fascinated by the story. The narrative, the cases and events rise and fall with Frank and Mathilde’s relationship. Although I read it in two parts, when I was reading it I couldn’t put it down. It was intense, engrossing. I fell into the story and only emerged because I was so tired I couldn’t keep my eyes open. As soon as I finish writing this I’m going to bed.
The plot was complex and themes fascinating. I certainly have something to think about after leaving the story behind. I was appalled by the immigration team’s treatment of child refugees; empathy and understanding seemed absent, a cynicism and callousness touched every contact Frank had with them. The allegations of incompetence and police cover-up regarding the ferry disaster also bring up ideas about trust in public services and what happens when that trust is broken. I wonder what effect it had on Norwegian readers?
But there’s also the idea of home and finding safety. Alicia is hiding but from whom and why isn’t made clear until it’s too late. Frank is blundering into something complex, no one will give him all the information and then he’s blamed for things going wrong. If people had told him the truth in the first place he could have helped the people who really needed helping. Then there’s also the assumptions about who can be a murderer. I really didn’t see the answer coming. But love is powerful.
I’ve noticed with Norwegian noir (such as with Death Deserved) that the author doesn’t stick to purely narrative about the cases but meanders and has a recurring theme. In this case it was music. Long drives are punctuated by music, the music chosen by Mathilde and Frank on their journeys and investigations. The music tells us something about the state of their minds and their relationship, if we know the music that is. I don’t so I wasn’t in on it.
So, all in all, an intense Nordic Noir that takes you on a tour of Norway and it’s society with the pretty cover removed, in less than 300 pages.
THE AUTHOR
One of the fathers 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 he lives in Oslo.
Everything Is Better With Dragons 