PAPERBACK | £ 9.99 | ORENDA BOOKS
Description
When nineteen-year-old Iselin Hanssen disappears during a run in a popular hiking area in Bodø, Northern Norway, suspicion quickly falls on her boyfriend. For investigator Jakob Weber, the case seems clear-cut, almost unexceptional, even though there is some suggestion that Iselin lived parts of her life beneath the radar of both family and friends.
But events take a dramatic turn when another woman disappears in similar circumstances – this time on the island of Røst, hundreds of miles off the Norwegian coast, in the wild ocean.
Rumours that a killer is on the loose begin to spread, terrifying the local population and leading to wild conspiracies. But then Jakob discovers that this isn’t the first time that young women have vanished without a trace in the region, and it becomes clear that someone is hiding something.
And another murderous spree may have just begun…
My Review
Thanks to Anne Cater for organising this tour and to the team at Orenda Books for sending me a review copy. This is my first blog tour of the year, and Into Thin Air is the first book I read this year, on New Year’s Day.
A new police investigator joins the team at Bodo in northern Norway, fresh from several years in Oslo. She’s running from an abusive ex and an unsupportive employer. She arrives at a good time. The small investigation team need to discover the murderer of a Ukrainian woman found decomposing in old WWII bunkers; then a young woman out running disappears. Later an ‘influencer’ disappears on a group of islands covered by the same police force. In between chapters from various police officers there’s a civilian on one of the islands, obsessed with his neighbour harassing him, and an unnamed murderer.
It didn’t take me long to work out that at least one of the women didn’t match the pattern and there was at least two killers/kidnappers about, after the second kidnapping. There were a few red herrings (or dried cod – ick! Who in their right mind eats worm-riddled cod?) thrown in. I realised most of the kidnappings/murders narrated by the unnamed character are historical.
The multiple perspectives give the reader all the clues they need to work out what’s happening.
The description does not do this book justice. It’s so much more twisted than I expected! There are multiple crimes being investigated, and although most people think the killer is caught at the end, there’s definitely evidence that something more is going on. The departmental head is up to something, and I can’t decide if the police officer at the sex club is one of the investigators or the known stalker, or again, possibly the departmental head. I know who it isn’t, but that still leaves me with several potential suspects.
That will all make sense when you read the book. Please read it.
I enjoyed the way Jakob used his contacts, his ‘conspiracy board’ of missing persons and a dog always in need of a walk to make the connections and realise he was looking at multiple suspects. His budding parental role with his half-brother, who is a teenager, gives him a new perspective and some direction when he’s feeling lost six months after losing his wife. His potential friendship with a local reporter seems promising, but also dangerous. I look forward to reading about how things move on in the next book. Garm is a very cool dog.
Noora is a very sympathetic character; her abusive ex was bound to make an appearance, but he’s with her all the time anyway. She’s traumatised and even running to the Arctic can’t save her from it. If somehow he fell out of the helicopter into the North Atlantic…One pf the suspects is very like her ex and that does colour her responses to him and to her suspicions. It makes the story quite believable, the author appears to have done his due diligence in researching PTSD, trauma responses, and abusive relationships, how abusers hide their behaviour, and especially the response of authorities to survivors. Cover-up the police abuse scandals, at all costs, can’t have people realising the sort of vile arseholes they’re entrusting their safety to, can we…
The trials and tribulations of being adults, with families, add colour to the characters, and give a feeling of verisimilitude to the story. I enjoyed the historical mentions that give the setting a sense of solidity. Obviously, the author is from the area and is drawing heavily on local knowledge, beliefs, and prejudices to bring it to life. It sounds like a very interesting part of the world to visit. But I’m only going that far north to visit a friend in northern Finland.
I found the finale exciting, tense, and powerfully written. It was well worth the build up and the reveal is cleverly done. I found this book engrossing and recommend it to fans of the genre.
I do worry that the stalker will get to Noora while she’s in hospital, though. Usually, I think that sort of person needs to be dropped into an active Plinian volcano, like Vesuvius, but dropping this character into the North Atlantic would be more fitting. Feed that bastard to the fish!
Ørjan Karlsson (b. 1970) grew up in Bodø, in the far north of Norway. A
sociologist by education, he received officer training in the army and has taken part in many missions overseas. He has worked at the Ministry of Defence and is now head of department in the Norwegian Directorate for Civil Protection.
He has written a wide range of thrillers, sci-fi novels and crime fiction, and
been shortlisted for or won numerous awards, with a number of his books
currently in production for the screen. He lives in Nordland, where the Jakob Weber crime series is set, and Into Thin Air is the first book in his first
detective/police procedural series.
Everything Is Better With Dragons 