American author Sharon White is known for her poetry, short stories and non fiction books, which have a calm, philosophical feel to them. She’s written one other novel but enters the crime fiction fray with If the Owl Calls by Night. Set in Norway in 1979, it has a cryptic title and a literary vibe that intersects with Nordic noir due to its setting. It takes place alongside a formative moment in Norwegian history – the construction of the controversial Alta Dam, which led to the country’s first proper recognition of its Sami population. From this real world conflict, White’s fictional story takes flight
The story begins as Oslo detective Hans Sorensen travels to Finnmark, northern Norway, to investigate the attempted sabotage of the dam by activists. The massive construction project is threatening the Alta River, traditionally a lifeline for local Sami people who depend on it to fish the wild salmon fishing water their reindeer herds. The project may even displace one of their villages.
When reindeer herders find the body of a young man in a remote ravine near Lismavarri, the question arises whether his death is connected with the attack on the dam. The victim is the son of a Russian embassy press attaché and his death could lead to a diplomatic crisis. The murder weapon seems to have been a wooden mallet, and a thin gold necklace, possibly belonging to a woman, is also found on the corpse. This leads Hans’ investigation to the farm of Olav Olstad and his family. Olav’s brother, Jorgen, was seen using a similar implement on the farm, but what would his motive be for killing a foreigner?
What’s more, two international students who worked on the Olstad farm have been missing for weeks – an American called Kathryn, and German citizen Gunter. Townspeople recall seeing Olav walking in the forest with Kathryn, but he denies any relationship with her.
Chapters alternate between Hans and Kathryn’s perspectives and reveal two complex individuals grappling with different issues in their lives. Kathryn, desperate to escape her life in America, is depicted as a young woman struggling with profound sadness and a desire to escape her identity, leading her into a vulnerable relationship with the older Olav. Some of this may reflect author Sharon White’s experience living in Norway years ago.
Hans, on the other hand, is struggling to recover from the traumatic death of his wife, Astrid, a year prior. He was born in the area, and returning causes him to confront a painful childhood – marked by his brother’s abuse and parental neglect – and his own Sami heritage, which he abandoned years ago. Though the locals trust him because he speaks Sami, he feels deeply disconnected from his own culture.
White merges the real-life cultural conflict of the period with the protagonist’s search for his Sami identity. Hans reads the letters of Emily Demant Hatt, a Danish painter who lived with his family and assisted with a book written by his uncle, Turi’s Book of Lappland. While the inclusion of the letters feels extraneous, our protagonist’s interest in Johan Turi, a famous wolf hunter who lived in the early 1900s, is more relevant.
If the Owl Calls is a literary mystery rather than a conventional, plot-driven procedural. Hans acts less like a detective and more like a man seeking purpose after his wife’s death by immersing himself in his history and culture. The novel can be heavy going, with sustained references to his wife’s death and his grief, resulting in a tone that is overly nostalgic and introspective. Fortunately this is balanced by other interesting characters, such as Eric Paulsen, the musician who blew off his hand while bombing the dam; Ingrid Morland, a well-known Sami singer; and Kari Finstad, a journalist from Bergen and Hans’s potential love interest.
While some recent Scandinavian crime fiction includes Sami characters within in a larger cast, White’s novel is unique for its thorough and deep depiction of the Sami population, encompassing their culture, folklore and modern-day challenges.
Also see Y Golau, the Welsh crime drama focusing on the sabotage of a dam.
Betty Books
Print
£15.22
CFL Rating: 3 Stars
