The Ice Swimmer

Starred review from August 20, 2018
Lena Stigersand, one of the decent, talented, hard-working Oslo police detectives in Dahl’s ensemble procedural series, takes center stage in the excellent sixth installment to appear in English (after 2017’s Faithless). When the body of political aide Sveinung Adeler is removed from an icy Oslo fjord shortly before Christmas, Lena takes charge of the case. As she investigates Adeler’s suspicious death, she uncovers international intrigue involving a prominent Norwegian politician and runs into opposition from Norway’s National Security Service. A second case, in which a homeless drug addict apparently committed suicide by jumping onto some train tracks, raises the stakes. Lending assistance are grouchy, intuitive old-school detective Gunnarstranda and still-suspended Frank Frølich, Gunnarstranda’s trusted partner. Meanwhile, Lena must deal with a troubled fellow detective, her mixed feelings about her new journalist lover, and the brutal necessity of confronting her own mortality when she’s diagnosed with breast cancer. Fans of Scandinavian noir will be eager for Dahl’s next book. Agent: Anne Cathrine Eng, Gyldendal (Norway).