Norwegian detective William Wisting has taken over where Wallander left off – which delights me, because I’ve always found Jorn Lier Horst’s world rather more rewarding to visit. This is a long-running series but if you’ve just come to the books – perhaps because you’ve seen the TV version – then this story is skilfully…
The Wisting series of Scandi crime stories have become as comfortable as a snuggly sofa next to a roaring fire on a chilly winter afternoon. Although the cover blurb does its best to sell this carefully constructed mystery as a ‘pulse-pounding thriller’ it has far more in common with Wallander or Varg Veum than Harry…
William Wisting is the latest Norwegian detective to appear on our TV screens, and if you enjoy this style of calculated and complicated investigation then there’s a series of six books to look forward to. The first, Dregs, is very much cut from the same cloth as Wallander or Beck: this is Scandi crime and…
The boy of the title and prologue has nearly nothing to do with most of this book, so if you were expecting a ‘kidnapped child / distraught parent’ domestic drama then you’ve picked up the wrong kind of Scandi crime. All the stuff about the young lad who almost gets run over in the prologue…
If you rate a book by its historical context, social insight and technical accomplishment then this Scandinavian story would be a full-on five-star phenomenon. It’s a consummate construction of complex timelines set in WW2 in Norway, the mid-1960s in Sweden, and the 21st century. A cold-blooded killing committed in the past can only be solved…
This Norwegian investigation started off brilliantly. Private eye Varg Veum is ensnared in a savage trap, one sprung by his own degeneracy. During a period of emotional turmoil, Veum descended into the broke and barely-functioning chaos of an alcoholic binge which lasted several years. Now in recovery, with the promise of a stable relationship on…
Comparisons to Jo Nesbo and Steig Larsson are somewhat unhelpful here: this isn’t a speed-reading spoon-fed page-turner to be read in a frenzy of tension. It has more in common with the works of writers like Leif Persson, Karin Fossum, Henning Mankell and Gunnar Staalesen. There is almost as much to be gleaned in the…
In an extended moment of muppetry, I avoided reading Gunnar Staalesen’s Varg Veum series for decades. Every time a new episode featuring the Norwegian private detective arrived, my vision was averted. I looked the other way, put off by back-cover blurbs which compared the books to Henning Mankell, Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö. That old…
This is a brand-new translation of a Norwegian novel that’s more than 100 years old – so don’t pick it up expecting cutting-edge Scandi crime or the bleak brutality of Nordic noir. Instead The Iron Chariot offers a nostalgic interlude in the golden age of the private detective. Puzzle-solver and independent investigator Asbjørn Krag is…
This true-life story of human endurance is genuinely gripping, a factual account written with the requisite polish and panache to make it as riveting as any fictionalised adventure tale, yet every chapter rings with the echo of authenticity. It’s every bit as grim and as gritty as any noir novel, but does ultimate justice to…
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