Love and Other Lies

Starred review from November 30, 2020
A fictionalized version of terrorist Anders Breivik’s slaughter of 77 people at a Norwegian summer camp in 2011 provides the backdrop for this stunning psychological thriller from McPherson (A Line of Blood). British journalist Cal Curtis, who’s based in Oslo, and his Norwegian wife, Elsa, have been happily married for 17 years. They have raised their teenage daughters, Alicia and Victoria, by a code of stringent moral honesty, but their Scandinavian ideals of fairness, openness, and freedom begin to collapse when Alicia disappears from her summer camp outside Oslo during a terrorist attack. Cal is hopeful that Alicia’s alive, but why is Victoria holding back something about her sister from her parents? Meanwhile, Bror
, Elsa’s former lover and the leader of a far-right quasireligious cult, criticizes the way Black police chief Ephraim Tvist is handling the investigation, causing Cal to suspect Tvist’s competence and motives. McPherson dramatically highlights the tensions between Norway’s native and immigrant populations as the plot builds to a devastating conclusion. This powerful, thought-provoking novel deserves a wide readership. Agent: Grainne Fox, Fletcher & Co.

February 1, 2021
Brothers Paul and John Andersen detonate a bomb in downtown Oslo, then cross the fjord to Garden Island, where a girls' empowerment assembly at a summer camp is underway. There, posing as police, they systematically murder 91 children in the name of white supremacy. Scottish expat Cal Curtis and his Norwegian wife, Elsa, wait desperately with other parents on the shore, until they are called to identify a girl, who turns out not to be their older daughter, Licia. Nearly a year later, the police haven't made any progress in locating Licia, and Cal and Elsa face a widening gulf in their marriage. Meanwhile, their younger daughter, Vee, throws herself into investigating her sister's disappearance. When she locates a videographer who documented the island attack from a helicopter, it becomes clear that the Oslo police chief, Ephraim Tvist, has been harboring secrets, prompting Cal to lobby for the chief's removal. But Cal doesn't anticipate the gut-wrenching twist that will bring the brothers' evil mission still closer to home. Cal's outsider perspective adds a layer of alienation to the family's rising anxiety, all of which adds to the oppressiveness of the bleak Scandinavian landscape. As it becomes clear that Vee is hiding something about what led up to the tragedy, McPherson sensitively explores a family in crisis. Highly recommended for book groups.

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