Translated by Ian Giles
The start of a new series of Scandi-crime novels written by a seasoned hand augurs well. Norwegian, Ørjan Karlsson, has written a host of other crime novels and thrillers and obviously decided it was time for a change for his 16th novel.
Karlsson grew up in the town of Bødo, which is just inside the Arctic Circle – the capital of the Nordland district of Northern Norway. This is the main setting for Into Thin Air. After a suitably chilling prologue in which an abductor in a modified camper van checks on the naked woman bound and gagged in the back of his van, we’re ready to meet our two main protagonists.
Jakob Weber is the Chief Investigator of the Nordland Police. He has a dual purpose this morning; the town cemetery where his wife Lise is buried is beside the airport and his Jack Russell terrier knows the way to Lise’s grave. Then shortly he will meet the new addition to his team off the plane from Oslo, At the airport arrivals, he bumps into Sigrid, a local journalist, with whom he is friends.
‘I’m here to pick up a colleague,’ Jakob said. ‘What about you?’
‘Celebrity alert,’ Sigrid replied. ‘Marte Moi, better know as “Nature Lady”, has decided to showcase Lofoten to her followers. First stop is Bødo before she heads on to Røst and Væroy and then the full tour of the archipelago. You know, the Svolvægeita pinnacle, whal watching, the village at Henningsvær, trip on a fishing smack. The whole tourist caboodle.’
‘And that merits a full camera crew from the local news?’
Sigrid looked askance at Jakob. ‘You don’t know who Nature Lady is?’
‘Should I?
Sigrid puts him right by showing him Nature Lady’ social media. She’s a big influencer and Sigrid and her crew move away to document Marte’s arrival, leaving Jakob to greet Noora Sande, his new investigator. No-one knows Noora’s real reasons for leaving the capital and a promising career at Kripos, but we soon discover it’s to escape the clutches of an abusive and coercive ex, who happened to also be a colleague. Instantly I was reminded of William Shaw’s DS Alexandra Cupidi who has to leave London after an affair with a senior officer was exposed; but unlike Noora, there was no whiff of abuse in Cupidi’s move.
I must say I took to Jakob and Noora immediately. They may fit the stereotypes of flawed master and acolyte with a secret, but they’re both drawn so well. Jakob is known for living and breathing his cases, but remaining approachable and a good man. However, he is still grieving the loss of his wife six months earlier, and his boss Råkstad, known as ‘The Crow’ behind his back, thinks he is slacking. Råkstad also lets Noora know that she wasn’t his first choice for the position when she introduces herself upon arrival at their HQ. Yes, Råkstad is the archetypal pompous ass of a boss, (but his boss isn’t!). Jakob and Noora are joined by Armann and Fine to make up the four-strong detective team.
It’s time now sadly for a crime to interrupt proceedings. There’s no time for Noora to get settled though, for a call comes in about a missing nineteen-year-old. Iselin Hanssen was out running on hiking trails and hasn’t been seen since. It seems she’d had an on-off relationship with her boyfriend Casper, her bestie Mona knows she spent a secret weekend off with an older man, but no-one knows why she would have been abducted. It’s clear to Jakob that everyone is withholding information.
When another disappearance happens on the island of Røst near the tip of the Lofoten archipelago, the circumstances are too similar to ignore. Could it be a copycat abduction, or the same person committing the crime? It’s all hands to the deck as a team from Kripos will join Noora and Armann, as the missing woman is, yes, Nature Lady. Unforuntately for Noora, one of the officers from Oslo is Leo, her abusive ex.
To make things worse, Jakob discovers this isn’t the first time a woman has gone missing in Røst. It happened nearly thirty years previously, and there was a big search for a camper van, said to have been seen. But it was never solved. Could it be the same perpetrator?
Suspicion soon falls on Simon Michalsen, who happens to own a camper van, and is in regular dispute with his neighbour, Peder Skarvheim, a middle-aged man on crutches who lives with his bedridden mother. Could Michalsen have caught the Bødo ferry and abducted both women? It’s a possibility. Is it the same camper van? There are too many questions at this point.
I won’t say any more as it gets complicated and many things happen to lead our investigators down one trail or another, and Noora’s situation with her ex’s presence is challenging to say the least. We know that resolution will be reached – at least in some of the strands – but given that this is the first book in a series, Karlsson cleverly leaves several things hanging, so we can hope for a development in the story arc of the Bødo crime squad and maybe some of the other characters we met in this novel. It may have very nasty crimes in its pages with women victims, but Into Thin Air was a pacy read and a solid police procedural. I’m glad to have met Jakob Weber and his team and look forward to reading more of their investigations.
Source: Review copy – thank you. Orenda paperback original, 324 pages. BUY at Blackwell’s via my affiliate link (free UK P&P)
