*Blog Tour: Sister by Kjell Ola Dahl

*e-copy of the book sent to me free of charge for review purposes. Today I'm on the Blog Tour for Sister by Kjell Ola Dahl (Oslo Detectives).

The Oslo Detectives are back in another chilling slice of Nordic Noir … 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…

‘Impossible to put down’ Guardian

‘Absorbing, heart-rending and perfectly plotted’ Denzil Meyrick

‘A masterclass in plotting, atmosphere and character that finely balances shocking twists with the coppers’ complicated personal lives’ Sunday Times

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.

My thoughts?

Sister is the ninth book in the Oslo Detectives series (and my first). It can however be read as a standalone (you know the drill, I now need to go back and start at the beginning!)

Frank Frølich, is an ex-cop turned Private Investigator and while stalking out a case of stolen goods meets his girlfriend, Matilde. She asks him to help a friend of hers who works with asylum seekers. One of them, a female is desperate to trace her sister who she believes to be in Norway.  He takes on the case.

He's then approached by an author, who is in the midst of writing his second controversial book on immigration. His first involved a tragedy where the police came out very badly.

Both cases take him back in contact with former colleagues who don't want him messing in what they see as police business...

I found the storylines carefully plotted, the characters interesting and the story had enough twists to keep the reader interested. Would highly recommend.

About the Author:

One of the fathers of the Nordic Noir genre, Kjell Ola Dahl was born in 1958 in Gjøvik. He made his debut in 1993, and has since published eleven novels, the most prominent of which is a series of police procedurals cum psychological thrillers (Oslo Detectives series) featuring investigators Gunnarstranda and Frølich. 

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.