Review: Jorn Lier Horst – Ordeal

This is my second blog tour in a week which is unusual for me as I don’t normally take part in them. They’re wonderful things but I never seem to be able to read to a particular deadline. However, I definitely wanted to take part in this one as I’m a huge fan of Lier Horst’s writing. I think I’ve reviewed all this English translations on this blog and Ordeal is a worthy addition to the series.

Taxi driver Jens Hummel disappeared six months previously and Larvik detective William Wisting has been criticised for failing to solve the case. Now, evidence suggests Hummel was killed by Danny Brodin who is already in prison for murder. Meanwhile, Wisting’s daughter, Line, helps her friend, Sophie, open a safe inside her grandfather’s house and discovers an old gun and piles of cash. Sophie, already resentful of dead grandfather, tries to cover up the discovery dragging Line into her deception.

Lier Horst’s books are always an excellent mix of police procedural and character study which give them a special place in Scandinavian crime fiction. As I’ve mentioned in other reviews, the highlight of his writing is the relationship between William Wisting and his daughter. Line is now eight months pregnant following the brief fling she had in the previous novel, The Caveman. Line deliberately gives a misleading statement yet Wisting is sensitive to her predicament in staying loyal to her friend. It’s the portrayal of a loving father aware of his daughter’s idiosyncrasies. The town of Larvik is the perfect setting for Lier Horst’s plots: mixing provincial attitudes alongside encroaching twenty-first century problems of increased drugs and violent crime.

Hugely popular in Scandinavia, Lier Horst deserves a much wider audience in the UK and, hopefully, Ordeal will bring him new English-reading fans.