This ninth book in the Norwegian Hanne Wilhemsen series, which takes place in 2011, certainly kept my interest, but it was tough going at times. Having previously read book 5, Dead Joker, a lot has happened in four installments. The problem also is that the books aren’t being translated in order, so readers can get totally confused.
Hanne Wilhelmsen is now confined to a wheelchair as a result of something occurring in a previous book. She had pretty much isolated herself after said occurrence but has finally emerged enough to return to the police force and take on cold cases, many of which she hopes can be solved from the isolation of her apartment. She’s assigned a young policeman, Henrik Holme who has a few ‘idiosyncracies’, to work with her.
The first case this new team tackles is the disappearance of a seventeen year old girl many years ago. In the meantime, the police force is dealing with the deadly bombing of a local Muslim community center and Hanne’s former best friend, Billy T., is afraid that his son might be mixed up in the bombing.
It should come as no surprise that Hanne solves both cases.
As I said in the beginning, the book was tough going at times. Holt skips around among Hanne’s search, the bombings and Billy T.’s efforts to find the truth about his son. The skipping around becomes disconcerting at times and makes it difficult to following which path we are reading about at any point in time.
Hanne and Henrik Holme make an interesting team and I wouldn’t be surprised if they return, however, I’ll have to think twice or reserve a lot of time if I’m going to read another Hanne Wilhelmsen novel because it was definitely a slow read.
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