Tour and Review - Faithless by Kjell Ola Dahl

The Very Pink Notebook is thrilled to be part of the tour for
Kjell Ola Dahl's, Nordic Noir, Faithless. 
With thanks to Karen and Anne at Orenda Books
for involving me in the tour and for an advance copy of the book.

Published by Orenda Books

15 May 2017

Copy - Received from publisher as part of Blog Tour

The Blurb

Oslo detectives Gunnarstranda and Frølich are back and this time, it’s personal… When the body of a woman turns up in a dumpster, scalded and wrapped in plastic, Inspector Frank Frølich is shocked to discover that he knows her and their recent meetings may hold the clue to her murder. As he ponders the tragic events surrounding her death, Frølich’s colleague Gunnarstranda investigates a disturbingly similar cold case involving the murder of a young girl in northern Norway and Frølich is forced to look into his own past to find the answers – and the killer – before he strikes again. 

The Very Pink Notebook Review

Although the blurb notes that the characters are 'back' and this novel is one in a series, it is perfectly readable as a stand-alone book.  I have been lucky enough to read quite a lot of Nordic Noir this year so when Faithless came onto the radar I was looking forward to reading it.

I have to say, I did struggle a little bit to actually get into it initially.  I found there were a lot of characters and story-lines and it all seemed a little disjointed to me.  I did find I had to go back and re-read parts on several occasions, but this is a slow burn book and gradually things did come together and I realised just what a complex plot the author has written.

The tone of the book - as you can gather from the synopsis - is very dark, however, Dahl has written in some absolute gems of cutting humour via the characters interaction and dialogue when in the police station / work environment setting.  For me, it made the characters very real and relatable.  Everyone knows the sort of characters you get at work and how annoying some of their habits can be and the author has tapped these into the story really well, lightening up what could be a rather grim read.

As I said, I did have to re-read a few sections and for me the writing didn't flow quite as easily as I like, but still it is confident and powerful writing with particularly nice use of imagery of Norway and

use of the weather to really add to the atmosphere building within the plot.  This book gives a very good lesson in showing and not telling.

If you like a gritty, complicated, police procedural novel to sink your teeth into then Faithless is a must read for you.

Faithless (Oslo Detectives) by Kjell Ola Dahl receives a Very Pink Notebook Rating of :

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About the Author

One of the fathers of the Nordic Noir genre, Kjell Ola Dahl was born in 1958 in Gjovik, Norway.  He made his debut in 1993 and has since published fifteen novels, the most prominent of which is a series of police procedurals cum psychological thrillers featuring investigators Gunnarstranda and Frolich.  In 2000 he won the Riverton Prize for The Last Fix and he has also been awarded both the prestigious Brage and Riverton Prizes for The Courier in 2015.  His work has been published in fourteen countries.  He lives in Oslo.

About the Translator

Don Barlett lives with his family in a village in Norfolk.  He completed an MA in Literary Translation at the University of East Anglia in 2000 and has since worked with a wide variety of Danish and Norwegian authors, including Jo Nesbo and Karl Ove Knausgard.  He has previously translated The Consorts of Death, Cold Hearts, We Shall Inherit the Wind and Where Roses Never Die in Gunner Staalesen's Varg Veum series.

The Finnish Invasion Blog Tour and Review - The Exiled by Kati Hiekkapelto

The Very Pink Notebook is thrilled to be part of Kati Hiekkapelto's, The Exiled, Finnish Invasion blog tour this week.  With much thanks to Karen at Orenda Books for involving me in the tour and for a copy of the book.

Published by : Orenda Books

15 November 2016

Copy : Paperback - Received from publisher as part of Blog Tour

The Blurb

Murder. Corruption. Dark secrets. A titanic wave of refugees. Can Anna solve a terrifying case that’s become personal?  

Anna Fekete returns to the Balkan village of her birth for a relaxing summer holiday. But when her purse is stolen and the thief is found dead on the banks of the river, Anna is pulled into a murder case. Her investigation leads straight to her own family, to closely guarded secrets concealing a horrendous travesty of justice that threatens them all. As layer after layer of corruption, deceit and guilt are revealed, Anna is caught up in the refugee crisis spreading like wildfire across Europe. How long will it take before everything explodes?

The Very Pink Notebook Review

Kati Hiekkapelto has brought alive a fantastic character in protagonist Anna Fekete.  I love her single-minded, tunnel vision of herself - crime fighting police officer, workaholic, because if she is that person, she doesn't need to worry about a personal life and finding out who she really is.  Only, in the case she finds herself embroiled when she takes a trip back 'home' she is forced to face up to some reality about her past.  Full of twists and turns and a plethora of unreliable and corrupt characters it is impossible to know who is telling the truth, who is noble, who is not.  I couldn't even attempt to second guess what was going to happen thus making this novel a real page turner. 

Hiekkapelto has chosen a subject matter particularly prevalent at the moment to address in this novel, one of immigration.  She uses a cross section of characters to voice the many, many opinions that can be heard far and wide about the issue and I felt she put down a very equal measure of a very real situation within her book.  The use of well thought out imagery of the Balkans by the author helps to darken and lighten the tone of the story and with the writing as sharp as the character the plot moves along at a good steady pace.  The balance of police investigation to Anna's private affairs was well proportioned and the author made me feel as if I got to know the inner workings of Anna's mind quite intimately, which helped me understand, as the reader, why she makes the decisions she does. 

I particularly liked the relationship between Anna and her mother, complex and highly emotional although in an indirect way rather than direct way it helped to explain how Anna can force herself to be seemingly so emotionless towards anything or anyone other than work. 

Although this is a fairly dark crime novel, it is written with a poetic feeling about it, with the descriptions about the Tisza, the mayfly hatching that makes the river blossom, the festival that all the inhabitants of the town are literally waiting for so they can celebrate.  It is a bright light of hope, in a novel who's subject matter is really quite bleak.

If you enjoy a good cat and mouse hunt then you will enjoy the translated version of Kati Hiekkapelto's The Exiled.

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Find out what others thought of The Exiled by following the tour.  Tomorrow I hand over to Blooming Brilliant Books :

 

Blog Tour : The Bird Tribunal by Agnes Ravatn

The Very Pink Notebook is thrilled to be part of Agnes Ravatn's exciting new novel, The Bird Tribunal, blog tour this week.  With much thanks to Karen at Orenda Books for involving me in the tour and for a copy of the book, in exchange for an honest review.

Published by : Orenda Books

1 September 2016

Copy : Paperback - Received from publisher as part of tour and for honest review

The Blurb

Two people in exile. Two secrets. As the past tightens its grip, there may be no escape… TV presenter Allis Hagtorn leaves her partner and her job to take voluntary exile in a remote house on an isolated fjord. But her new job as housekeeper and gardener is not all that it seems, and her silent, surly employer, 44-year-old Sigurd Bagge, is not the old man she expected. As they await the return of his wife from her travels, their silent, uneasy encounters develop into a chilling, obsessive relationship, and it becomes clear that atonement for past sins may not be enough… Haunting, consuming and powerful, The Bird Tribunal is a taut, exquisitely written psychological thriller that builds to a shocking, dramatic crescendo that will leave you breathless. 

The Very Pink Notebook Review

For the first few pages of this book I was really unsure how I would fare with it, I struggled a little with the style.  However, once I relaxed into it and let the narration take over, unhindered, I quickly became intrigued.

Although not a great deal of 'action' happens at the beginning, the two (and only) characters, Allis and Bagge, are such complex and intense people you want to find out how the simplest of things are processed in their very strange minds.  Just the day to day dance between the two is deeply immersive to the reader.  In a sense I felt I was intruding on an exceptionally long term of foreplay, even through the most mundane of day to day tasks.

Alongside this is the yearning to know the history of the characters.  We quickly ascertain Allis, a well known TV personality, has fled from the disgrace of infidelity (on her part).  It is more difficult to find out what is going on with Bagge however, because we only ever see his story through the eyes of Allis.  Allis is given glimpses of a dark side of Bagge, his mood swings, his strange dreams of The Bird Tribunal, the sly comments from the old women at the local store, but Allis only wants to believe in the gentle side she sees emerge.

I was intrigued what the title of the novel would relate to and when I did discover it I thought it was absolutely fascinating.

I also loved learning the story of Balder, which is punctuated throughout the novel and thought it was very cleverly interwoven to help enhance the story of Allis and Bagge.

If you asked me in which era this book is set I would struggle to identify it.  I felt as if it should be much older than what it is, given Allis is a TV personality and Bagge makes a comment regarding the house being over 100 years old built in 1890's, this steers it to be quite recent.  To be honest though it could probably be set at any time because both characters have chosen to remove themselves from the outside world, to create their own.

With its unusual writing style, I was inclined to use the words intriguing and fascinating a lot in the review and in summary these are the two I would use again, along with unnerving and enthralling.

This beautifully translated (Rosie Hedger) English Pen Award winning book receives :

About the Author

Agnes Ravatn (b. 1983) is a Norwegian author and columnist.  She made her literary debut with the novel Week 53 in 2007.  Since then she has written three critically acclaimed and award-winning essay collections: Standing, Popular Reading and Operation Self-discipline, in which she recounts her experience with social media addiction, and how she overcame it.  The Bird Tribunal won the cultural radio P2's listener's prize for this novel, a popular and important prize in Norway, in addition to The Youth Critic's Prize.  The Bird Tribunal was also made into a successful play, which premiered in Oslo in 2015.

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Read other reviews of The Bird Tribunal by following the tour:

 

COMING SOON : Blog Tour - The Bird Tribunal by Agnes Ravatn