Review: Sister by Kjell Ola Dahl

Sister by Kjell Ola Dahl

Publication Date: April 30, 2020

Orenda Books

Genre: Crime Fiction
Series: Oslo Dectectives, #9

Oslo detective Frølich searches for the mysterious sister of a young female asylum seeker, but when people start to die, everything points to an old case and a series of events that someone will do anything to hide… Suspended from duty, Detective Frølich is working as a private investigator, when his girlfriend’s colleague asks for his help with a female asylum seeker, who the authorities are about to deport. She claims to have a sister in Norway, and fears that returning to her home country will mean instant death. Frølich quickly discovers the whereabouts of the young woman’s sister, but things become increasingly complex when she denies having a sibling, and Frølich is threatened off the case by the police. As the body count rises, it becomes clear that the answers lie in an old investigation, and the mysterious sister, who is now on the run… A dark, chilling and up-to-the-minute Nordic Noir thriller, Sister is also a tense and well-plotted murder mystery with a moving tragedy at its heart, cementing Kjell Ola Dahl as one of the greatest crime writers of our generation.

Review

⭐⭐⭐

This year I pledged to read more genres outside of historical fiction so when I received an email from Anne Cater about a new Nordic Noir book I immediately jumped at the chance! And I'm so glad I did!

Frank Frølich is wrapping up his latest case as a Private Investigator when he meets Mathilde and begins seeing her. When she learns he is a PI she tells him about a friend of hers that needs his help. She works at a Refugee center and there is a girl there looking for her sister who left Iraq and traveled to Norway. She is worried for her sister and needs to find her before she is deported. With little to go on Frank doesn't expect to have much luck finding her and when a reporter contacts Frank to look into an old case involving a mysterious fire that claimed a lot of lives years before, the case takes on a whole new life. People begin dying and Frank is drawn into many investigations at once. It was like a Russian nesting doll...with each layer a new mystery is revealed. I loved that!

I really enjoyed Dahl's unique writing style and once the mysteries unfolded I was hooked. I am definitely going to pick up the other books in the series to see what I missed. Many thanks to Anne Cater and Orenda Books for the chance to read Sister!

About the Author

One of the fathers of the Nordic Noir genre, Kjell Ola Dahl was born in 1958 in Gjøvik. He made his debut in 1993, and has since published eleven novels, the most prominent of which is a series of police procedurals cum psychological thrillers featuring investigators Gunnarstranda and Frølich. In 2000 he won the Riverton Prize for The Last Fix and he won both the prestigious Brage and Riverton Prizes for The Courier in 2015. His work has been published in 14 countries, and he lives in Oslo.