May 22, 2006
The Scandinavian crime fiction juggernaut continues with Norwegian Holt's U.S. debut, a well-written if overly long suspense thriller set in Norway. The novel opens with the abduction of nine-year-old Emilie Selbu, the first of several such kidnappings, and the complex backstory of Aksel Seier, a man imprisoned in the 1950s for a young girl's murder and inexplicably released from prison eight years later. Johanne Vik, a former FBI profiler now working as an academic psychologist, is looking into the Seier case when Det. Insp. Adam Stubo asks her to help out with the case of the missing children, which gets more intense when the body of one of them is delivered to his mother with a chilling note: "Now you've got what you deserved." Both plot lines are compelling, but the author expends far too much narrative energy on the backgrounds of her many characters, and the connection linking the cases feels contrived. Nonetheless, this first in a three-part series to feature Vik and Stubo is a thoughtful, deeply disturbing exploration of a heinous crime.
Starred review from June 15, 2006
The debut of Scandinavian best-selling author Holt is sure to catapult her into the mystery spotlight. A serial killer is running rampant in Norway. Children are being abducted, returned to their parents murdered but with no apparent cause of death, and accompanied by cryptic notes proclaiming, -Now you've got what you deserved. - Norwegian Detective Inspector Adam Stubo solicits former FBI profiler Johanne Vik to confer on the case, but as the mother of a special-needs child, she is reluctant to enter the emotionally charged investigation. To complicate matters, Vik is already on a mission -spurred at the request of a dying woman -to exonerate an innocent man of an old murder conviction. Stubo, no stranger to personal hardship himself, finally persuades Vik to consult on his case. As the story progresses, Vik's two cases become entangled and fast-paced twists and turns plunge the reader into a nail-biting ending. Holt provides a gripping crime mystery in this first of a three-book series featuring Stubo and Vik. Highly recommended for all public libraries. [See Prepub Mystery Alert, "LJ" 3/1/06]." -Mary Todd Chesnut, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights"
Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Starred review from May 15, 2006
Oslo University psychology professor Johanne Vik hardly misses the emotional chaos of her former career as an FBI profiler. The Norway-born divorcee still has plenty on her plate, caring for her mentally handicapped six-year-old daughter and researching the case of Aksel Seier, a Norwegian man imprisoned for crimes she suspects he did not commit. When a series of young Norwegian children are abducted, Johanne becomes consumed by dark thoughts of the deviant mind behind the crime. At first, she steers clear of the case, which is spearheaded by Police Inspector Adam Stubo, a hulk of a man softened by grief over the recent deaths of his wife and young child. But when two of the children's lifeless bodies are returned to their parents' homes with attached notes that read, "" You "got what you deserved," she and Stubo join forces to stop the vengeful perpetrator before he strikes again. Meanwhile, the case of Aksel Seier is never far from Johanne's mind. Holt is a former minister of justice, a lawyer and journalist, and one of Scandinavia's most successful crime writers. Her American debut (the first of a three-book series starring Stubo and Vik) is both an impassioned commentary on the responsibilities of parenthood and an engrossing mystery with an ingenious final twist. Add this to the growing list of Scandinavian crime writers now being published in the U.S.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)