French author Johana Gustawsson and her Norwegian counterpart Thomas Enger are each formidable and successful in their own right. Now they’ve joined forces for a brand new crime fiction series set in Norway. It features a psychologist with specialist skills working for the Oslo police department on a brutal murder investigation, all the while coping with the fact that her own son went missing seven years ago. Son is a slice of dark and devilish Nordic noir which began with an initial idea from Gustawsson and has been developed by the writing duo after both contributed to a short story collection.
The setting is Son, a village just outside Oslo, where two teenage girls have been murdered at an old lodge. Consultant psychologist Kari Voss is an expert in body language and memory – skills she uses to understand victims, survivors and perpetrators. The sooner interviews are carried out, the better, because everyone’s memory grows less reliable over time. Kari’s trained eye spots the things people give away with their expressions and actions. This is now a well established science but is relatively unexplored in fiction, which usually favours mainstream psychology.
The evidence places a young man at the lodge around the time of the double murder and he’s the prime suspect. Jasper was a friend of the two girls and Voss is asked to interview him, but it just so happens she already knows him very well. Jesper was her son Vetle’s best friend and they were together the day that he went missing. Because she knows him and with her psychological assessment of him, Kari is sure Jasper is not the killer. However, the police will take some convincing of his innocence. As the investigation progresses, it’s clear everyone in the community has something to hide, and what they know about the victims and the crime is based on a misconception. It makes for a satisfyingly complex and intense investigation.
What elevates the novel is Voss’s backstory. Because of Vetle’s disappearance, she feels like she’s in limbo. As the case starts she is even more vulnerable because her husband has recently died. She needs the distraction of an investigation, or even a cause to fight for, and so puts all her energy into proving Jesper is innocent. Luckily, her friend Chief Constable Ramona Norum is open to help her.
This is a taut, chilling psychological drama. The intensity of youth, relationships and beliefs heighten the tension. The small town life and secrets locked away feel really claustrophobic. The unusual nature of Voss’s expertise and the haunting uncertainty of the loss of her son, which resonates with the title of the novel, make her a fascinating character.
There’s a pathos and an ironic twist to the story that will hit home when you discover it and the ending will make you gasp or even cry. The moment you think it’s all over, another sock to the jaw gives an already intriguing and emotive tale something extra that you will never forget. Nothing prepares you for that, and advance readers have been discussing this for a while. You will be totally absorbed by the story and have empathy for the characters caught up in tragedy, both the recent murders and Vetle going missing.
There were no doubt plenty of complications when a French and a Norwegian author teamed up, in terms of language and sharing the writing. Fortunately, both are fluent in English and they settled on this common tongue for the new series. They have brilliantly overcome the extra hurdle to deliver a powerful tale – and that may usher in one of the most talked-about collaborations of the next few years. The good news is that Johana Gustawsson and Thomas Enger have sketched out story lines for three novels in this series, so if Son goes well Kari Voss will be back – and that really is something to look forward to.
Also see The Crow Girl by the Swedish writing duo Erik Axl Sund, which has been turned into a UK TV series by Paramount.
Orenda Books
Print/Kindle/iBook
£6.49
CFL Rating: 5 Stars
