A seemingly straightforward investigation into marital infidelity leads a PI and his ex-con assistant on a murderous trail,in a sophisticated,riveting,cunningly plotted historical thriller set in interwar and prohibition-era Norway.
Oslo,1938. War is in the air and Europe is in turmoil. Hitler's Germany has occupied Austria and is threatening Czechoslovakia; there's a civil war in Spain and Mussolini reigns in Italy. When a woman turns up at the office of police-turned-private investigator Ludvig Paaske,he and his assistant - his one-time nemesis and former drug-smuggler Jack Rivers - begin a seemingly straightforward investigation into marital infidelity. But all is not what it seems,and when Jack is accused of murder,the trail leads back to the 1920s,to prohibition-era Norway,to the smugglers,sex workers and hoodlums of his criminal past...and an extraordinary secret.
Both a fascinating portrait of Oslo's interwar years,with Nazis operating secretly on Norwegian soil and militant socialists readying workers for war,The Assistant is also a stunningly sophisticated,tension-packed thriller - the darkest of hard-boiled Nordic Noir - from one of Norway's most acclaimed crime writers. For fans of Sebastian Faulks,Lars Mytting,Mick Herron and Robert Harris.
Publisher: Orenda BooksISBN: 9781913193652Dimensions: 198 x 129 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
'An expertly crafted unravelling of mixed loyalties,love,lust,lies and trust,set against the background of a world increasingly on the edge of all-out war'- John Harvey
'Dark,gritty and compulsive...feels like a classic of the genre'- William Ryan
'A stylish standalone thriller...Dahl ratchets up the tension from the first pages and never lets go'- Sunday Times
Kommentar