Review by Booklist Review
Frank Frølich's private-investigation business hasn't exactly taken off since he left the Oslo police force, so he's hard-pressed to refuse when his new girlfriend, Matilde, proposes a case that his gut tells him to avoid. Matilde's friend, a psychiatric nurse at a refugee center, needs help finding the sister of a traumatized young asylum-seeker. It's fairly straightforward until Fredrik Andersen, a well-known exposé writer, inexplicably offers Frølich a huge sum to drop the case. After penning a controversial exposé of a an allegedly botched investigation into a deadly ferry fire, Andersen is now taking a deep dive into human trafficking in Norway but refuses to reveal his interest in the case. Frølich's investigation winds through troubling evidence of police corruption, a shocking murder, and a suicide that doesn't add up; he's hindered throughout by his ex-partner Gunnarstranda's suspicion that Frølich is withholding information. Dahl's straightforward, absorbing prose smoothly negotiaties the case's complexities and lays bare the new uncertainty in former police partners Frølich and Gunnerstranda's relationship (after 17 novels).
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Early in Dahl's outstanding seventh ensemble procedural (after 2018's The Ice Swimmer), failing Oslo PI Frank Frølich, who still misses the police job he left in disgrace, meets with Aisha, a teenage refugee from Turkey with some sort of serious psychological illness. Aisha hopes Frank will help her find her missing sister, Sheyma, who moved to Norway in 2005 and became a hotel worker. Unless Aisha is reunited with her sister, the police will deport her to Istanbul, where she's sure she'll die or kill herself. Frank agrees to search for Sheyma for free, but he soon learns from Fredrik Andersen, the author of a book about a 1988 ferry fire that killed 159 people, that she's in hiding and doesn't want to be found. Through Fredrik, Frank becomes entangled in a possible insurance fraud case involving the ferry fire. A murder raises the ante. Both cases stall, making the world-weary Frank feel as if he's a pawn in a much larger and more sinister game. This is a must for fans of Nordic noir. Agent: Anne Cathrine Eng, Gyldendal (Norway). (Oct.)
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