Review: THE KINGDOM, Jo Nesbo

• Format: Kindle (Amazon)
  
  
• File size : 2309 KB
• Print length : 542 pages
• Publisher : Vintage Digital (September 17, 2020)Language: : English 
• ASIN : B084Q8YRBP
• Publication date : September 17, 2020
• Translated from the Norwegian by Robert Ferguson

Synopsis (Amazon)

Jo Nesbo, author of the number one bestselling Harry Hole series, is back with a tense and atmospheric thriller about two brothers bound together by dark secrets.

When Roy and Carl's parents die suddenly, sixteen-year-old Roy is left as protector to his impulsive younger brother. But when Carl decides to travel the world in search of his fortune, Roy stays behind in their sleepy village, satisfied with his peaceful life as a mechanic.

Some years later, Carl returns with his charismatic new wife, Shannon - an architect. They are full of exciting plans to build a spa hotel on their family land. Carl wants not only to make the brothers rich but the rest of the village, too.

It's only a matter of time before what begins as a jubilant homecoming sparks off a series of events that threaten to derail everything Roy holds dear, as long-buried family secrets begin to rise to the surface...

The Kingdom is a simmering and complex thriller full of unexpected twists, devastating family legacies and an ever growing body count.

My Take

A stand alone from Jo Nesbo.

There are plenty of little mysteries in this novel, not the least of which who is responsible for each entry in the growing death toll. There are secrets that no-one talks about.

Roy and Carl are the children of a "mixed" marriage: the father is American. To some extent the family is dysfunctional, the father violent, the mother ignoring what she doesn't want to admit observing, and Roy, the older, always protective of his younger brother, but sometimes powerless to do anything.

Roy has inherited the violent streak from his father, and often solves Carl's problems with his fists. Their parents die when they are just teenagers and they are watched over by an uncle. Eventually Carl, the more academic of the two goes off to America to university. Over a decade later he comes back with a beautiful wife in tow, who just happens to be an architect, and that is where the real trouble starts.

An engrossing but very long novel that explores the relationships between the trio and with those from the village who have been part of Roy and Carl's life for decades.

my rating: 4.6

I've also read

NEMESIS
THE REDEEMER
5.0, THE SNOWMAN
4.8, THE LEOPARD
4.7, HEADHUNTERS
4.7, PHANTOM
4.7, THE BAT
4.7, POLICE
5.0, THE SON
4.4, BLOOD ON SNOW
4.8, THE THIRST
4.4, MIDNIGHT SUN: BLOOD ON THE SNOW 2
4.3, MACBETH, Jo Nesbo

Review: HUNTING GAME, Helene Tursten

• format: e-book through Libby
• #1 in Detective Inspector Embla Nystrom series
• published 2016 
• Translated from Swedish by Paul Norlen

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

Helene Tursten's explosive new series features Detective Inspector Embla Nyström, a sharp, unforgiving woman working in a man's world. When one of her peers is murdered during a routine hunting trip, Embla must track down the killer while confronting a dark incident from her past.

Twenty-eight-year-old Embla Nyström has been plagued by chronic nightmares and racing thoughts ever since she can remember. She has learned to channel most of her anxious energy into her position as Detective Inspector in the mobile unit in Gothenburg, Sweden, and into sports. A talented hunter and prizewinning Nordic welterweight, she is glad to be taking a vacation from her high-stress job to attend the annual moose hunt with her family and friends.

But when Embla arrives at her uncle’s cabin in rural Dalsland, she sees an unfamiliar face has joined the group: Peter, enigmatic, attractive, and newly divorced. And she isn’t the only one to notice. One longtime member of the hunt doesn’t welcome the presence of an outsider and is quick to point out that with Peter, the group’s number reaches thirteen, a bad omen for the week. Sure enough, a string of unsettling incidents follow, culminating in the disappearance of two hunters. Embla takes charge of the search, and they soon find one of the missing men floating facedown in the nearby lake. With the help of local reinforcements, Embla delves into the dark pasts of her fellow hunters in search of a killer.

My take:

I found this novel a little difficult to get into which I eventually put down to the style and the translation. I found characters and places difficult to identify.

Embla Nyström is a tough lady. She has suffered from nightmares for years, linked to the disappearance of her best friend Lollo when they were teenagers from a nightclub. Embla never revealed to the police and parents the true circumstances of Lollo's disappearance, particularly the link to some gangsters. 

The two missing men were once a group of 3, who nicknamed themselves "the three musketeers". Then 12 months ago one of them drove his car at high speed into a tree on his way home from that year's annual moose hunt.  It is Embla who discovers the link between these three men to the disappearance of Peter's sister.

An interesting but demanding read.
The author reveals in her final words that Embla has already made an appearance in one of the Inspector Huss novels, but now, she says, it is time for Embla "to stand on her own two feet."


My rating: 4.4

Detective Inspector Embla Nystrom
   1. Hunting Game (2019)
   2. Winter Grave (2019)
   3. Snowdrift (2020)

I've also read (Inspector Huss series)
THE GLASS DEVIL
4.4, NIGHT ROUNDS
THE GOLDEN CALF
4.5, THE FIRE DANCE

Review: LYCKE, Mikaela Bley

• this edition published by Scribe 2017
• translated by Paul Norlen from Norwegian
• ISBN 978-1-925322-06-4
• source: review book from publisher
• 336 pages

Synopsis (publisher)

‘Death, death, death,’ she whispered to herself. But it was already too late. The panic was growing inside her.

On a cold and stormy Friday in May, a young girl disappears without a trace from outside Stockholm’s Royal Tennis Hall.

The missing girl is Lycke, and assigned to report on her story is TV4’s hot-headed crime reporter Ellen Tamm. As the police begin their search, Ellen starts her own investigation, delving into Lycke’s life: her family, the nanny, the kids who taunted her at school.

As Ellen is drawn deeper into a tangle of secrets, lies, and betrayals — and frustrated by the odd behaviour of Lycke’s family, as well as corrupt police, her upstart new boss, and the disturbing threats being made against her — she becomes more and more possessed by the task she has been given, tortured by the echoes of her own past, of the darkness that haunts her.

Will she find Lycke before it is too late for either of them?

Mikaela Bley’s debut, Lycke, is the haunting first novel in the Ellen Tamm thriller series, and is an exciting new voice in Swedish crime writing.

My Take

Ellen's mother thinks she should never have taken on this assignment. It will remind her too much of the tragedy in her own life when she was the same age as the missing child.  Ellen is the crime reporter for a TV station and a missing child is not really a crime story - not, that is, until a body is found or an abduction suspected.

For Ellen though finding the child becomes personal. She feels that the police are not taking the situation seriously enough. She has her own paid source within the police but even he at times gets it wrong. Ellen works extraordinary hours, trying to come up with new angles to follow up.

As Ellen interviews the mother, the father, the stepmother and the nanny, she gets uncomfortable vibes. This is not a child who experienced a lot of love. But she is only 8 years old, from a middle class family, and already she has been the object of a custody battle.

As the investigation continues Ellen herself becomes to object of hate email, and a vendetta by viewers commenting on her presentations. Her own past is thrown in her face.

My rating: 4.4

About the author
Sweden’s new Queen of Crime. Mikaela Bley is a new star among the Swedish crime stars, and with her debut, Lycke, she sweeps the floor with many of them.’
Mikaela Bley was born in 1979 and lives in Stockholm with her husband and two children.

Review: DEATH IN OSLO, Anne Holt

• this edition published by Corvus 2016
• Originally published in Norwegian in 2006
• translated by Kari Dickson
• setting Oslo January 2005
• ISBN 978-1-7823909-5-4
• #3 in the Vik & Stubo series 

Synopsis (publisher)

The gripping third instalment in Anne Holt's Vik/Stubo series. When the first female US president is kidnapped on a state visit to Norway, Johanne Vik and Adam Stubo must race against time to prevent a national security crisis.
Can the US president really just disappear into thin air...?

Helen Barclay, the first female of the United States, has been kidnapped on a state visit to Norway: it is up to the FBI and the Norwegian police to work together to find her. But their enemy is far more powerful than they could ever imagine.

The President's abduction represents the biggest threat to homeland security since 9/11. However, as Johanne Vik assists on the investigation she learns that the private life of President Barclay is also under attack. There are those who would stop at nothing to destroy the leader of the free world. And in a twist of fate, secrets from Johanne's own past are at risk of being revealed, jeopardising all she has worked for and endangering the lives of those she loves most...

My take

There are a few editing and plotting slips in this novel, not the least that between the covers the US President is Helen Bentley (not Barclay as stated on the dustjacket).

I had already "met" Joahnne Vik and Adam Stubo in a previous title in the series, and also Hanne Wilhelmson who becomes important in the second half of the novel in 1222.

The plot is an interesting one- the disappearance/kidnapping of the American President while on her first overseas state visit. Norway had been chosen because it was "friendly" and relatively small, but the President had chosen to come on Norway's National Day. In retrospect the visit was low key and the President was not accompanied by the huge entourage that had been expected. When she disappeared overnight from her hotel, the investigation becomes a struggle for power and control by the Oslo police, the FBI and the CIA.  Sightings of the President are at first numerous and then she disappears completely.

Despite some plot threads that for me were not sufficiently resolved, an engrossing read.

My rating: 4.4

I've also read
4.8, 1222 - #8 in Hanne Wilhelmson series
4.5, THE FINAL MURDER- #2 in the Vik & Stubo series
4.5, A GRAVE FOR TWO -#1 in the Selma Falck series 

Review: A GRAVE FOR TWO, Anne Holt

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 4004 KB
• Publisher: Corvus (4 July 2019)
• Sold by: Amazon Australia Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B07K1ND4K8
• Translated from Norwegian by Ann Bruce

Synopsis (Amazon)

Selma Falck has hit rock bottom. Having lost everything - her husband, her children and her high-flying job as a lawyer - in quick succession, she is holed up alone in a dingy apartment. That is until Jan Morell - the man who is to blame for her downfall - rings her doorbell, desperate to overturn a doping accusation against his daughter, Hege - Norway's best female skier. He'll drop his investigation into Selma, but only if she'll help... With just weeks until the Olympic qualifying rounds, clearing Hege's name, and getting Selma's own life back on track, seems impossible.

But when an elite male skier is found dead in suspicious circumstances, the post-mortem showing a link to Hege's case, it becomes clear to Selma that there is a sinister web of lies, corruption and scandals lurking in this highly competitive sport. As time starts to runs out, another person is found dead, and Selma realizes that her own life is at risk...

My take

The first instalment in Anne Holt's new crime series featuring Selma Falck.

It is December 2017. In February 2018 the Winter Olympics will be held in PyeongChang in South Korea, and Norway is looking to confirm its position as top of the tree in cross country skiing. Hege Chin Morell is the key to this success, but now she has returned a positive test to a banned substance. Norway's team is yet to be finalised.

Selma Falck, once Norway's top lawyer, has become addicted to gambling. And worse, she has embezzled funds from her clients  and particularly from Jan Morell. Now 50, Selma was also, in her day, a world class athlete. And she is also godmother to Norway's top male skier.

This novel features a very high level of complexity with several intersecting plot lines, plus a number of different narration techniques. To be honest, I found it pretty hard going, slow reading, for much of the time, but thankfully everything seemed to come together at the end.

My rating:4.5

I've also read
4.8, 1222
4.5, THE FINAL MURDER

Review: COLD FEAR,Mads Peder Nordbo

• this edition published by Text Publishing Australia 2019
• ISBN 97819111231301
• 376 pages
• #2 in Matthew Cave series
• source: my local library
• translated by Charlotte Barslund

Synopsis (Text Publishing Australia)

When Danish Journalist Matthew Cave’s half-sister Arnaq disappears, leaving behind only a trail of blood, he realises they are both pawns in a game of life and death.

As a young US soldier stationed in Greenland, their father took part in a secret experiment with deadly consequences. Accused of murder, he was forced into hiding.

Desperate to discover the link between these two disappearances, Matthew is joined by Tupaarnaq, a young Inuit woman, who returns to Nuuk to help her only friend—and to settle a few scores of her own.

But, as things begin to unravel, Matthew begins to wonder: Is the father he has been searching for his entire life actually a cold-blooded murderer? And is Tupaarnaq really who he thinks she is?

My Take:

There are several threads which connect this novel to the earlier title GIRL WITHOUT SKIN and I'm not sure it would work to read it as a stand-alone.

As we learnt in the first novel Danish journalist Matthew Cave has moved to Greenland after personal tragedy. He has links to Greenland as his father was a US soldier stationed there 24 years earlier, but Matthew has always believed he is dead and has not seen him for nearly 25 years. Now he learns that his father is probably alive.

The novel is set in two time frames - the first with his father in Greenland in 1990, taking part in an experiment to improve human and animal tolerance to extreme cold: and the second set in Greenland in 2014 with Matthew investigating some local deaths and searching also for his father.

There are characters in this novel to whom were introduced in the first novel, as well as the current political situation in Greenland.

I found the action of the novel complex and a little difficult to follow at times.

My rating: 4.4

I've also read
4.5, GIRL WITHOUT SKIN