Category: Norway

I like to read series I’ve invested in from the start, and thankfully, this entry in the Hanne Willhelmsen series lives up to the ones I really liked in the series. It’s a story revolving around the murder of 3 members of a wealthy shipping family and a seemingly unconnected freelance writer, all around Christmas…

I was disappointed with this entry in the Hanne Wilhelmsen series. The investigation was too bogged down, and the police procedural elements were so thorough or in such long chapters as compared to the brisk short chapters in the rest of the book that the book didn’t flow for me. No Echo deals with the…

Anne Holt’s characters and plots make her one of my favorites: fast-paced stories with a social conscience and a memorable lesbian detective. Dead Joker is a downer. Hanne Wilhelmsen is going through personal and professional burnout, and it’s rough going. The book starts with a decapitation (most Holt books aren’t so gruesome at the beginning)…

Everyone just read Karin Fossum already. It took me until book 3 in the Inspector Sejer series by Karin Fossum to be a convert, but now I am. As the book started in the head of a schizophrenic young man having horrifying visions, I wasn’t sure what I was in for. Thankfully it’s not gruesome book,…

I’ve read a lot of Anne Holt, in part because her approach on writing a series is to have a few recurring characters whose place in the story varies. Some of the early books in the series feel like thrillers or police procedurals while 1222 is a locked-room sort of mystery, and Death of the…

Fear Not by Anne Holt, translated by Marlaine Delargy Originally published as Pengemannen, 2009 Vik/Stubo book 4 I borrowed this book from the library. Anne Holt writes a couple intersecting series set in Oslo as well as standalones, and they are one of my current favorite series even though I can’t point to an individual book…

Eva’s Eye by Karin Fossum, translated by James Anderson Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013 Originally published as Evas øye, 1995 Inspector Sejer, book 2 I bought my copy of the book. I backtracked in my reading of the Inspector Sejer series to read the first installment, Eva’s Eye, also published as In the Darkness, and I…

Death in Oslo by Anne Holt, translated by Kari Dickson Vik and Stubo book 3 Sphere, 2009 Originally published as Presidentens valg, 2006 I bought my copy of the book. Death in Oslo is kind of a misleading title: this book is about the disappearance of the United States’s first female president during her first state…

The Snowman by Jo Nesbø, translated by Don Bartlett Knopf, 2011 Originally published as Snømannen (2007) Harry Hole book 7 I bought my copy of the book. After a few detours to the shorter, stand-alone stuff Nesbø has published in the last year or so, I’m finally back to the Harry Hole series for the…

What Never Happens by Anne Holt, translated by Kari Dickson Grand Central Publishing, 2008 Originally published as Det som aldri skjer, 2004, also published as The Final Murder I borrowed this book from the library Vik and Stubo book 2 I’m a huge Anne Holt fan, even though I started with a book far into…