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A review by markhoh
Scatter Her Ashes by Heine Bakkeid
5.0
‘’If only you knew”, I go on, “the strength of the human desire to believe, sometimes. How intense your delusions can be, and how willing you can be to breathe life into them. Human beings want to believe.” p400.
Heine Bakkeid delivers a second 5 star instalment in “Scatter her Ashes”, delivering quintessential Nordic Noir with all the elements that make this genre so appealing. Set in the transitional period between winter and spring in Norway, accentuating the atmospheric bleakness from the south to the Arctic north, Bakkeid brings Thorkild Aske, damaged, disgraced, and dark, ex-policeman to life in a page turning tale of human need.
While not quite as lyrical and poetic for me as Bakkeid’s first book, “I will miss you tomorrow”, I enjoyed it immensely. Thorkild Aske is the type of character I love, deeply damaged, giving opportunity to explore some kind of raw humanity, an opportunity to delve into the dark nights of the human soul, made even darker in the far north.
“Scatter her ashes” sees Aske connect with Milla Lind, famous Norwegian crime writer who clearly has a penchant for writing best selling Nordic Noir herself that the whole country seems to now about and has so connected with her character August Mugabe. Bakkeid highlights that Lind writes in a way that is a literary processing of her own sadness and loss, which is kind of intriguing to read a novel about some who writes the same kind of novels.
Milla Lind’s deep sadness centres around her missing daughter, who she gave up when she was a young child, unable to deal with the rape that resulted in her pregnancy. Aske is recruited to try to find her daughter after the previous private investigator is murdered.
Aske continues to deal with his own demons, regrets, addictions, mental health, delusions and emotional tumult. He is truly one of the more complex characters I have come across in this genre.
I thoroughly enjoyed this one, have been waiting to read it ever since reading the first book and I’m pleased to see it certainly did not disappoint.
Heine Bakkeid delivers a second 5 star instalment in “Scatter her Ashes”, delivering quintessential Nordic Noir with all the elements that make this genre so appealing. Set in the transitional period between winter and spring in Norway, accentuating the atmospheric bleakness from the south to the Arctic north, Bakkeid brings Thorkild Aske, damaged, disgraced, and dark, ex-policeman to life in a page turning tale of human need.
While not quite as lyrical and poetic for me as Bakkeid’s first book, “I will miss you tomorrow”, I enjoyed it immensely. Thorkild Aske is the type of character I love, deeply damaged, giving opportunity to explore some kind of raw humanity, an opportunity to delve into the dark nights of the human soul, made even darker in the far north.
“Scatter her ashes” sees Aske connect with Milla Lind, famous Norwegian crime writer who clearly has a penchant for writing best selling Nordic Noir herself that the whole country seems to now about and has so connected with her character August Mugabe. Bakkeid highlights that Lind writes in a way that is a literary processing of her own sadness and loss, which is kind of intriguing to read a novel about some who writes the same kind of novels.
Milla Lind’s deep sadness centres around her missing daughter, who she gave up when she was a young child, unable to deal with the rape that resulted in her pregnancy. Aske is recruited to try to find her daughter after the previous private investigator is murdered.
Aske continues to deal with his own demons, regrets, addictions, mental health, delusions and emotional tumult. He is truly one of the more complex characters I have come across in this genre.
I thoroughly enjoyed this one, have been waiting to read it ever since reading the first book and I’m pleased to see it certainly did not disappoint.