Published in paperback 26th March 2026 by Orenda Books.
From the cover of the book:
Everyone here is lying…
Expert on body language and memory, and consultant to the Oslo Police, psychologist Kari Voss sleepwalks through her days, and, by night, continues the devastating search for her young son, who disappeared on his birthday, seven years earlier.
Still grieving for her dead husband, and trying to pull together the pieces of her life, she is thrust into a shocking local investigation, when two teenage girls are violently murdered in a family summer home in the nearby village of Son.
When a friend of the victims is charged with the barbaric killings, it seems the case is closed, but Kari is not convinced. Using her skills and working on instinct, she conducts her own enquiries, leading her to multiple suspects, including people who knew the dead girls well…
With the help of Chief Constable Ramona Norum, she discovers that no one – including the victims – are what they seem. And that there is a dark secret at the heart of Son village that could have implications not just for her own son's disappearance, but Kari's own life, too…
***********
Seven years ago Kari Voss' son, Vetle, went missing from the village of Son, on his ninth birthday. It was an unbearable blow for a woman grieving the loss of her husband, but the hope that Vetle is still alive keeps her going through the sleepless nights.
When two sixteen-year-old girls are brutally murdered at a summer cottage in Son, Kari's job as a consultant for the Oslo police, specialising in body language and memory, drags her right back into the past. The girls were Vetle's childhood friends, and the police think they have the person responsible in custody - Vetle's former best friend, Jesper.
Kari is convinced Jesper is innocent, but her instincts tell her he is holding something back about what he knows. Kari, with the help of Chief Constable Ramona Norum, decides to investigate the murders herself. She soon realises that everyone here is lying about what happened that night, but does that make them capable of murder?
When two brilliant authors like Johana Gustawsson and Thomas Enger decide to team up, you know that magic is going to happen! The first part of their brand new joint venture, the Kari Voss Mysteries, is everything that I wanted it to be and more, thrumming with suspense and the luscious noir vibes that have made their names.
Kari Voss makes a fresh and exciting protagonist for a crime story of this kind, as she is neither a police officer, nor a private detective. Instead, she is an acknowledged expert in her own field, whose impressive skills have dubbed her the 'human lie detector'.
Alongside the police procedural elements (sometimes from Norum, and sometimes from Kari herself), Gustawsson and Enger weave in lashings of lovely stuff about body language and the unpredictable nature of memory, hinging the twists and turns on exceptionally clever psychological reveals that go far beyond those uncovered by more conventional means - backed up with informative explanations about Kari's techniques, which fit naturally into her inner musings and the conversations she carefully manipulates with the small cast of characters. As expected, everyone in Son is hiding something, but Kari eventually gets to the truth about the murders - and finally has some answers about Vetle's disappearance too.
The resulting story is a Nordic noir journey through the darkest of small-town secrets and lies, made up of an addictive blend of fact, fiction, atmosphere, and visceral chills - and it leaves you with a parting kiss that will have your counting the days until book two arrives. I cannot wait!
*A version of this review was originally published in March 2025 for hardcover publication.
Son is available to buy now in hardcover, paperback ebook and audio formats now. You can support indie publishing by buying direct from Orenda Books HERE.
Thank you to Orenda Books for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review and to Random Things Tours for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the authors:
Johana Gustawsson:
Born in Marseille, France, and with a degree in Political Science, Johana Gustawsson has worked as a journalist for the French and Spanish press and television. Her critically acclaimed Roy & Castells series, including Block 46, Keeper and Blood Song, has won the Plume d’Argent, Balai de la découverte, Balai d’Or and Prix Marseillais du Polar awards, and is now published in nineteen countries. A TV adaptation is currently underway in a French, Swedish and UK co-production. The Bleeding – a number one bestseller in France and the first in a new series – will be published in 2022. Johana lives in London with her Swedish husband and their three sons.
Thomas Enger:
Thomas Enger is a former journalist. He made his debut with the crime novel Burned (Skinndød) in 2010, which became an international sensation before publication. Burned is the first in a series of five books about the journalist Henning Juul, which delves into the depths of Oslo’s underbelly, skewering the corridors of dirty politics and nailing the fast-moving world of 24-hour news. Rights to the series have been sold to 28 countries to date. In 2013 Enger published his first book for young adults, a dark fantasy thriller called The Evil Legacy, for which he won the U-prize (best book Young Adult). Killer Instinct, another Young Adult suspense novel, was published in Norway in 2017. Rights have been sold to Germany and Iceland. Enger also composes music, and he lives in Oslo.
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