by Thomas Enger & Jørn Lier Horst (T. Megan Turney)
SYNOPSIS
Incarcerated in a Norwegian high-security prison, a broken Alexander Blix joins forces with Emma Ramm to find a ruthless killer who has escaped from a German jail. Pulse-pounding Nordic Noir.
Alexander Blix is a broken man. Convicted for avenging his daughter's death, he is now being held in one of Norway's high-security prisons. Inside, the other prisoners take every opportunity to challenge and humiliate the former police investigator. On the outside, Blix's former colleagues have begun the hunt for a terrifying killer. Walter Kroos has escaped from prison in Germany and is making his way north. The only lead established by the police is that Kroos has a friend in Blix's prison ward. And now they need Blix's help.
Journalist Emma Ramm is one of Blix's few visitors, and she becomes his ally as he struggles to connect the link between past and present, between the world inside and outside the prison walls. And as he begins to piece things together, he identifies a woodland community in Norway where deeply scarred inhabitants foster deadly secrets... secrets that maybe the unravelling of everyone involved.
REVIEW
With Alexander Blix in prison, he is called upon to help his former colleagues when a murderer escapes from a German prison who has links with an inmate, Jarl Inge Ree, who he is currently staying on the same ward as. Initially reluctant to get involved, Blix learns that Emma is already looking into the case and as she starts to feed information back to him, his interest is piqued. Looking back into the past it soon becomes clear that something terrible happened one summer when Walter Kroos, the escaped prisoner, ended up staying at a campsite where Jarl Inge and his childhood friends used to live. With nobody willing to talk about what happened, it's up to Blix and Emma to put all of the pieces together to find out why Walter is so desperate to return to Osen, who he wants to get revenge on and why?
What I love the most about the Blix & Ramm series is the variety. Obviously there are returning characters, and some ongoing storylines but each of the four books has an individual theme making each book totally unique. Sometimes with a police procedural series, the books can start feeling a bit formulaic but certainly not this one! In Stigma, with Blix in prison, the storyline is able to explore what life is like for a police officer on the inside - a complete contrast to the previous books where Blix was running investigations in an official capacity, using traditional methods as opposed to him almost having to use psychology, violence and bargaining techniques to get the information he needs from the other prisoners in this case.
While Stigma is undoubtedly a 'Nordic Noir' police procedural, it (as well as the previous books in the series) has a slightly lighter feel to it than other books in the same genre. The subject matter itself is still very dark and the procedural elements of the case are incredibly thorough, but I think it has more of a universal appeal and would be totally accessible for anyone who is looking to try a book or series from this category for the first time.
The beloved and completely natural relationship between Blix and Emma, coupled with an intriguing historical mystery and moments of pure grit and tension, all mixed together to create another winner for this brilliant series. Talk about a power couple - Thomas Enger and Jørn Lier Horst can't do any wrong as far as I'm concerned. Please keep the books coming!
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Thomas Enger is a former journalist. He made his debut with the crime novel Burned (Skinndød) in 2010, which became an international sensation before publication. Burned is the first in a series of five books about the journalist Henning Juul, which delves into the depths of Oslo’s underbelly, skewering the corridors of dirty politics and nailing the fast-moving world of 24-hour news. Rights to the series have been sold to 28 countries to date. In 2013 Enger published his first book for young adults, a dark fantasy thriller called The Evil Legacy, for which he won the U-prize (best book Young Adult). Killer Instinct, another Young Adult suspense novel, was published in Norway in 2017. Rights have been sold to Germany and Iceland. Enger also composes music, and he lives in Oslo.
Follow him on Twitter @EngerThomas, on Facebook www.facebook.com/thomas.enger.77 or visit his website thomasenger.net
Jørn Lier Horst first rose to literary fame with his No.1 internationally bestselling William Wisting series. A former investigator in the Norwegian police, Horst imbues all his works with an unparalleled realism and suspense.
Thanks to Anne Cater - @RandomTTours, Jørn Lier Horst, Thomas Enger - @EngerThomas, and Orenda Books - @OrendaBooks for the opportunity to read and review
Fiction: Police Procedural / Nordic Noir
Publisher: Orenda Books
ISBN: 978-1914585760
Pages: 276pp
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