A review by flying_monkey
Sister by Kjell Ola Dahl

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

3.5

I'm a big fan of 'the godfather of Nordic Noir', but this latest in his Oslo Detectives series is not the best. The biggest problem is that one of his regular duo, Frølich, was forced out of the police at the end of the last novel and now works as a private detective. This novel is almost entirely from his perspective, and we therefore get nothing of the interplay between characters or the internal police politics or indeed the really fascinating young female detective who seemed to be moving into a starring role in the last book. The plot relies on too many improbably coincidences and synchronicities: Frølich's new girlfriend's best-friend just happens to work at the same refugee centre which is the object of the detective's inquiry, and just happens to be related to another key suspect, Frølich just happens to be there to discover bodies and so on etc. etc. It's a shame because there was another potentially stronger story here, but it's still enjoyably mired in the contemporary European politics of race, immigration and corruption.
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