The #Bookvent Calendar 2022 – Day Four

#Bookvent – Celebrating my top reads of 2022

My day four #bookvent selection is part of a series which I have very quickly grown to love. With two central characters who have a shared past but a very different outlook on life, this book sees them in the middle of a case which is going to be a real game changer. Tense, shocking and, at times, very emotional, my fourth bookvent choice is …

Unhinged by Thomas Enger & Jørn Lier Horst

trns by Megan Turney

When a police investigator is killed execution-style and Blix’s own daughter is targeted by the killer, he makes a dangerous decision, which could cost him everything. Blix & Ramm are back in a breathless, emotive thriller by two of Norway’s finest crime writers…

When police investigator Sofia Kovic uncovers a startling connection between several Oslo murder cases, she attempts to contact her closest superior, Alexander Blix before involving anyone else in the department. But before Blix has time to return her call, Kovic is shot and killed in her own home – execution style. And in the apartment below, Blix’s daughter Iselin narrowly escapes becoming the killer’s next victim.

Four days later, Blix and online crime journalist Emma Ramm are locked inside an interrogation room, facing the National Criminal Investigation Service. Blix has shot and killed a man, and Ramm saw it all happen.

As Iselin’s life hangs in the balance, under-fire Blix no longer knows who he can trust … and he’s not even certain that he’s killed the right man…

Two of Nordic Noir’s most brilliant writers return with the explosive, staggeringly accomplished, emotive third instalment in the international, bestselling Blix & Ramm series … and it will take your breath away.

This book … It left me reeling when I first read it, it leaves me reeling thinking about it now. Everything about this story, and the absolute skill of the two authors, Thomas Enger and Jørn Lier Horst, put me on edge from the start. It is clear that this is going to be one hell of a story, and one hell of a story it is, the emotional, and personal, cost for Detective Alexander Blix almost too much to conceive. If you thought things had been thought for him and Reporter, Emma Ramm, before, trust me, you ain’t seen nothing yet. The book is superb, the clues drip fed to readers and the suspects kept at arms length until just the right moment. When the reveals come, they really make their mark, and whilst you may like to think you saw it coming, I’d bet pound to a penny that you really didn’t. The tension is high, the suspense only adding to the heart-pounding feeling that enveloped me right from the off. How cruel can the two authors be? Well, previous books have shown the answer to that is pretty dang cruel, but I still wasn’t expecting that.

I love the characters of Blix and Ramm, love seeing how their relationship has developed over the course of the series and how much they will do for each other. But this book is darker than I expected, or at least than I had hoped. The authors have been bold, shying away from the anticipated and leaving us far short of what could be classed a happy ending, and the book is all the better for it. The heart of the matter is an intriguing concept, one that has been explored carefully and with consideration, but it certainly makes you think. And I love this writing partnership. Even the acknowledgments are a work of art all on their own. With flawless translation by Megan Turney, you really want to give the series a try. Trust me.

You can read my full review here.

Happy #bookvent reading all

Jen