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Summary
Summary
Internationally renowned author Kjell Ola Dahl has attained cult status in his home country of Norway with his sharp, riveting bestsellers. Now, with his gripping and intelligent novel The Fourth Man , the master of Norwegian crime writing is crossing the Atlantic.
In the course of a routine police raid, Detective Inspector Frank Frølich of the Oslo Police saves Elizabeth Faremo from getting inadvertently caught in the crossfire. Some weeks later, Frølich coincidentally runs into her again--but their ensuing affair is no accident. By the time he learns that she is no stranger--but rather the sister of a wanted member of a larceny gang--it is already too late.
In the middle of one night, Frølich receives a call that a young guard has been killed in the course of a robbery. Scrambling to respond, he realizes that Elizabeth is no longer in his bed. In a turn of events cryptic, erotic, and complex, he finds himself a prime murder suspect and under the watch of his doubting colleagues. Led through the dark underworld of Oslo, Frølich must find out if he is being used . . . before his life unravels beyond repair.
The Fourth Man is a sexy, fast-paced psychological thriller that puts a modern twist on the classic noir story of the femme fatale. K.O. Dahl has crafted a dark, poetic, and incredibly complex crime novel for his US debut--the first in a series of detective novels from this rising international mystery star.
Author Notes
The highly acclaimed and award-winning crime writer K.O. DAHL's popular crime series is now rapidly becoming an international success, and critics around the world have labeled him as Norway's answer to Henning Mankell. Dahl has been awarded with the Riverton Prize, and has received nominations for Glasnyckeln (The Glass Key), the Brage Literary Prize, and the Martin Beck Award.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Little is as it seems in Norwegian author Dahl's U.S. debut, which features a tangled web of art theft, blackmail, torrid sex and double crosses. After femme fatale Elisabeth Faremo seduces Det. Insp. Frank Frilich of the Oslo police, Frank learns Elisabeth has a brother, the thug Jonny Faremo, and Elisabeth has used Frank as part of an alibi to help Jonny beat a murder rap. Later, Frank discovers that Elisabeth's female university mentor, Reidun Vestli, is also her lover. Reidun eventually turns up dead, as do Elisabeth and Jonny. Frank becomes a suspect in Jonny's death even as he begins to understand how an old robbery is connected to the murders. The entertaining if overstuffed plot is undermined at times by Frank's strange lack of reaction to Elisabeth's death and an unprofessional approach to forensic evidence relevant to the twist ending. Still, scenes like the one in which Frank finds himself locked in a sauna, doomed to become wrinkled to death, combined with the clinical style, make for an exciting read. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
The American debut of Oslo police inspector Frank Frølich, who succumbs to sexual obsession. In the course of a routine store shootout, Frølich rescues Elisabeth Faremo. He's mesmerized by her blue eyes and even more entranced when she appears, uninvited, sitting cross-legged in her undies in his living room. But Elisabeth is cagey, never revealing much about herself. So it's up to Frølich to uncover the facts: that she also has a lesbian lover and that her brother Jonny is part of a gang responsible for killing a security guard. Then Jonny drowns; Elisabeth's girlfriend is attacked and commits suicide; and bones found in a burned-out chalet retreat indicate that someone has killed Elisabeth. Put on leave because of his past relationship with Elisabeth, Frølich antagonizes his former associate Gunnarstrada by gnawing at the connected crimes until he comes face-to-face with a billionaire as obsessed with a Bellini painting as Frølich is with Elisabeth. Two attacks--one involving a motorcycle, the other a sauna--don't deter Frølich, who soldiers on, ultimately piecing together what lay behind those enchanting blue eyes. An absorbing study of sexual enthrallment, dogged police work and a harrowing twist or two: Fans of procedurals and prurience will snap this one up. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Dahl is an award-winning author in his native Norway, and The Fourth Man, smoothly translated by Bartlett, is his first U.S. release. This taut, spare, noir-flavored story begins when Detective Inspector Frank Frolich accidentally meets Elisabeth Faremo during a raid and soon becomes obsessively and erotically involved with her. Then Elisabeth's brother and his friends are accused of murder, and Elisabeth gives them an alibi and names Frank in her testimony. On forced vacation, Frolich refuses to give up on the case and endangers his career chasing after the increasingly mysterious Elisabeth, her other lover, and the murderers. As the investigation of the original robbery-homicide continues, the likely suspects keep turning up dead. The informant mentioned a fourth man is he more than just a shadow in the dark? Recommend to fans of Karin Fossum and Kjell Eriksson. Dahl is a formidable talent whose books may well become as popular in the U.S. as in Norway.--Moyer, Jessica Copyright 2007 Booklist
Library Journal Review
This hard-boiled debut novel featuring Norwegian homicide squad detectives Frank Frilick and his partner, Gunnarstranda, is a bit confusing at first. Focusing on the very sexual relationship of Frilick and Elizabeth Faremo, the sister of a crime figure in Oslo whom Frilick meets during a police raid, the plot moves slowly until Faremo's brother is murdered. So absorbed by his passion, Frilick is blindsided throughout the story, and his behavior is mostly reactive. Of course, Dahl will be compared with Henning Mankell, but his approach, at least in this book, is so much darker and cynical. The mystery is there, and the plot's twists and turns demonstrate why Dahl has won the coveted Martin Beck Award and several other crime fiction awards. For collections where Scandinavian mysteries circulate. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ 11/1/07; a Minotaur First Edition Selection; library marketing campaigns.] (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.