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A review by karisommers
Norwegian by Night by Derek B. Miller
4.0
Unlike anything else I have ever read.
The first half is a murder mystery. The second half is a police procedural. There are shades of Kurt Vonnegut throughout the entire thing. It does not fit neatly into any one genre.
The main character is a Jewish veteran of the Korean War who fought as a sniper but told everyone he was a file clerk. We are told much of the story from his perspective, which is probably unreliable. He may or may not have dementia. He has just moved to Norway with his granddaughter and her husband, following the death of his wife. He is haunted by the events of World War II, which he was too young to enlist in, and he still cannot comprehend how decent people allowed the holocaust to happen. He speaks to people from his past who have long since died.
When his upstairs neighbor (a complete stranger to him) is murdered, he goes on the run with the woman's young son, evading the killers as well as the police, not knowing whom he can trust in a foreign land. And somehow stays one step ahead of everyone...
The first half is a murder mystery. The second half is a police procedural. There are shades of Kurt Vonnegut throughout the entire thing. It does not fit neatly into any one genre.
The main character is a Jewish veteran of the Korean War who fought as a sniper but told everyone he was a file clerk. We are told much of the story from his perspective, which is probably unreliable. He may or may not have dementia. He has just moved to Norway with his granddaughter and her husband, following the death of his wife. He is haunted by the events of World War II, which he was too young to enlist in, and he still cannot comprehend how decent people allowed the holocaust to happen. He speaks to people from his past who have long since died.
When his upstairs neighbor (a complete stranger to him) is murdered, he goes on the run with the woman's young son, evading the killers as well as the police, not knowing whom he can trust in a foreign land. And somehow stays one step ahead of everyone...