Publisher's Weekly Review
Intense police inspector Gunnarstranda and his easygoing aide, Frank Frolich, tackle the murder of recovering drug addict Katrine Bratterud in Dahl's entertaining third crime thriller featuring the Oslo cops to be made available in English (after The Man in the Window). Bratterud's nude, raped body turns up the morning after a party given by Annabeth s of the Vinterhagen Rehabilitation Centre and her husband, Bjorn Gerhardsen. It seems Bratterud came to the party with one boyfriend, left the party to meet another boyfriend, then went off on her own. Everyone has secrets to hide, and the two detectives have to contend with planted evidence, false confessions, red herrings, and, perhaps, a spurious connection to an unsolved murder decades earlier. Despite modern forensics, Gunnarstranda and Frolich rely on old-fashioned interview techniques, dogged comparisons of stories and time lines, to unravel the lies in a whodunit full of psychological insights. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
Dahl's third novel for an American audience is his longest, but also one of the best. Katrine, a recovering drug addict, disappears a few hours after leaving a party in her honor (celebrating her recovery), and the next day her naked body shows up in a ditch. Oslo detectives fat Frolich and grumpy Gunnarstranda (familiar from The Fourth Man, 2008) doggedly pursue the case despite a lack of clues or suspects. Despite its considerable length, the book moves rapidly, as much of the text is dialogue, either between Frolich and Gunnarstranda, or conversations with suspects and informants. As the investigation continues, characters and events from her past emerge, and Dahl neatly ties them into the ongoing investigation. More a psychological thriller than a police procedural, the novel focuses on Katrine and the people from the recovery center. Dahl has quickly become one of our leading authors of psychological crime fiction, and his books deserve the large audience enjoyed by Ruth Rendell, Minette Walters, and other established masters of the form.--Moyer, Jessica Copyright 2010 Booklist
