A(nother) Year of Orenda – Wolves In The Dark by Gunnar Staalesen

Today Mandie is sharing her thoughts on Wolves In The Dark by Gunnar Staalesen. I reviewed the book as part of Varg Veum week last year and you can find my thoughts here. Here’s what the book is about:

About the Book

Reeling from the death of his great love, Karin, Varg Veum’s life has descended into a self-destructive spiral of alcohol, lust, grief and blackouts.

When traces of child pornography are found on his computer, he’s accused of being part of a paedophile ring and thrown into a prison cell. There, he struggles to sift through his past to work out who is responsible for planting the material … and who is seeking the ultimate revenge.
When a chance to escape presents itself, Varg finds himself on the run in his hometown of Bergen.

With the clock ticking and the police on his tail, Varg takes on his hardest – and most personal – case yet.

Chilling, shocking and exceptionally gripping, Wolves in the Dark reaffirms Gunnar Staalesen as one of the world’s foremost thriller writers.

Mandie’s Thoughts

Wolves in the Dark is book 19 in the Varg Veum series and for me was certainly the darkest one to date that I have read in terms of the subject matter. Although he has slowly been getting his life back on track, he knows there was a period where he was most certainly on a self-destruct mission and does not necessarily remember everything he did or ever case he took on. When he is arrested for allegedly being part of a child pornography ring, he suddenly finds that he must revisit that time and try to remember anything that may shed some light on to who may be responsible for the position he now finds himself in and if his new relationship will survive what follows.

Veum is certainly in the fight for his freedom and although you can kind of understand why he took advantage of a situation and managed to escape the police; you do also have to wonder if once again his judgement should be called into question. As he digs deep into his memory banks, he uncovers much more than he ever expected and finds that it is not just children who are being exploited and abused.

I will admit that this book took me a little longer to read than the others in the series. This is nothing and something to do with the authors writing. Once again Gunnar Staalesen has produced an outstanding book with characters that have multiple layers that make them seem so real. His descriptions of the situations that the victims found themselves in was detailed without being graphic or sensational but made for uncomfortable reading and that’s where the struggle was. I found myself taking breaks from the book but there was just something that made me keep going back. I needed to know the ending and if Varg would remain free and clear his name and continue rebuilding the life he was trying to get back to. I can only put this down to the quality of the writing and this series is certainly becoming one of my favourites.

About the Author

One of the fathers of the Nordic Noir genre, Gunnar Staalesen was born in Bergen, Norway in 1947. He made his debut at the age of twenty-two with Seasons of Innocence and in 1977 he published the first book in the Varg Veum series. He is the author of over twenty-three titles, which have been published in twenty-six countries and sold over five million copies. Twelve film adaptations of his Varg Veum crime novels have appeared since 2007, starring the popular Norwegian actor Trond Epsen Seim, and a further series is currently being filmed. Staalesen, who has won three Golden Pistols (including the Prize of Honour) and the Petrona Award, and been shortlisted for the CWA Dagger, lives in Bergen with his wife.

Books by Gunnar Staalesen