Published in ebook 29th February 2020 and in paperback on 30th April 2020 by Orenda Books.
Read April 2020.
Suspended police detective Frank Frolich, now working as private detective in Olso, finds himself involved in the case of the missing sister of an illegal immigrant - as a favour to a friend of his new girlfriend, Mathilde.
Although reluctant to take on a case on behalf of a client who is unlikely to be able to pay for his services, Frolich soon discovers that there is something very fishy going on here.
Before long he is mysteriously contacted by the author of an infamous book about a suspicious ferry disaster, who tells him things are not all they appear to be - that the woman he is searching for does not even have a younger sister and that he will be putting her in terrible danger if he continues with this case.
As the plot thickens, Frolich finds himself chasing several lines of inquiry around the fate of illegal immigrants in Norway and to do with the ferry accident, and bodies are starting to pile up.
Can Frolich get to the bottom of this strange case before it is too late?
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Sister is the most complex and devilishly plotted contemporary Nordic Noir murder mystery that I have read for a very long time and it kept me turning the pages until well into the night!
Our Norwegian protagonist, former police detective Frank Frolich, finds himself accidentally involved in a case that appears to be a simple one about a missing person - albeit one which he thinks has no chance of success, when his normal lines of inquiry draw a total blank on the whereabouts of an Iraqi immigrant called Sheyma, who apparently came to Norway some years ago.
But it is not long before Frolich finds he has stirred up a hornets' nest that brings him into contact with a host of would be clients who want him to perform jobs which confusingly conflict with each other and promise to drag him into the mire surrounding, not only the current sate of illegal asylum cases in Norway, but also the mystery surrounding a ferry disaster from 1988.
A case Frolich took only as a favour to his new girlfriend takes him into dangerous territory, as people he comes into contact start turning up dead and he is under suspicion of being involved in their deaths by the police - including his former colleague Gunnarstranda. What is really going on here? How do the threads of seemingly unconnected cases appear to be tangled together?
I can't give too much away here, for fear of giving spoliers, but this is edge-of-your-seat stuff and I found myself racing through the chapters in pursuit of the thrilling conclusions to all the wonderful threads Kjell Ola Dahl has wrought in this book. We are treated to a highly appropriate Nordic smorgasbord of subjects under the microscope, from of the treatment of asylum seekers, honour killings, conspiracy theories, corruption, mishandled investigations, and even the fallout from human relationships and loneliness, all of which make for an incredibly absorbing story.
This is the first contemporary thriller I have read from the pen of Kjell Ola Dahl, having previously only read his outstanding historical novel The Courier, but yet again he has managed to write a marvelous book with oodles of plot to keep you entertained and gobsmacked in equal measure - you do have to concentrate on this one ladies and gentlemen, but the result is certainly worth it. I should add that Don Bartlett has done another fabulous job with the translation of Kjell Ola Dahl's work here.
If you like your Nordic Noir pacy, complex and intelligent, with mysteries that will challenge your deductive powers - and quite frankly, who doesn't - then Kjell Ola Dahl is certainly the man for you.
I will definitely be seeking out one of his other Oslo Detectives books the next time I need to fire up my brain cells!
Sister is another winner from the quite simply amazing Orenda Books and is available to buy now in ebook format. It will alos be available in paperback from 30th April 2020.
Thank you to Kjell Ola Dahl and Orenda Books for providing me with a copy of this book in return for an honest review and to Anne Cater for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
From the cover of the book:
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.
About the author:
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.
About Orenda Books:
In 2018, they were awarded a prestigious Creative Europe grant for their translated books programme. Three authors, including Agnes Ravatn, Matt Wesolowski and Amanda Jennings have been WHSmith Fresh Talent picks, and Ravatn’s The Bird Tribunal was shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award, won an English PEN Translation Award, and adapted for BBC Radio Four’s Book at Bedtime. Six titles have been short- or long-listed for the CWA Daggers.
Launched in 2014 with a mission to bring more international literature to the UK market, Orenda Books publishes a host of debuts, many of which have gone on to sell millions worldwide, and looks for fresh, exciting new voices that push the genre in new directions. Bestselling authors include Ragnar Jonasson, Antti Tuomainen, Gunnar Staalesen, Michael J. Malone, Kjell Ola Dahl, Louise Beech, Johana Gustawsson, Lilja Sigurðardóttir and Sarah Stovell.
Thanks so much for this blog tour support xx
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