Dreamless--A Novel

Starred review from December 22, 2014
The discovery of the body of an unidentified young woman with her larynx removed propels Brekke’s outstanding second novel featuring Chief Insp. Odd Singsaker of the Trondheim police department (after 2014’s Where Monsters Dwell). The one clue at the crime scene is an antique music box that plays a haunting lullaby, “The Golden Peace,” which was written by Jon Blund, a 17th-century troubadour about whom little is known. The inventive plot seamlessly moves from the contemporary case to a 1767 police investigation into Blund’s disappearance. While searching for the elusive culprit, the insightful Singsaker worries that recovery from brain surgery has compromised his acumen—and that his marriage to American detective Felicia Stone, whom he met while pursuing a serial killer in the previous book, was too hasty. Fans of bleak Nordic crime fiction will find plenty to like. Agent: Nicole K. James, Chalberg & Sussman.

December 15, 2014
This second installment of the Chief Inspector Odd Singsaker series weaves the murder of a Swedish balladeer in 1767 with a contemporary plot about a serial killer who pursues girls with beautiful singing voices. Set in the small Norwegian city of Trondheim, Brekke's tale of two murder investigations with musical themes is ambitious and well-researched but not always engaging. The historical plot includes lots of detail about Scandinavian life in the 18th century, when the water is so foul that beer or aquavit are the fluids of choice and class divisions impede the job of Police Chief Nils Bayer, who lives in a permanent state of debt and debauchery. Bayer is not as absorbing a character as Singsaker (Where Monsters Dwell, 2014), a 60-year-old detective recovering from brain surgery who's newly married to a young American woman and prone to ruminate on fate and mortality in a way that's reminiscent of Henning Mankell's mainstay, Kurt Wallander. He's looking for a serial killer who rips out his victims' larynxes and replaces them with music boxes that play a ballad that, legend says, will put anyone who listens to it into a sound sleep. The investigation moves along nicely, though it's a bit gory (in typical Nordic fashion). Brekke uses minor characters doing historical research to connect the cases, but he's not quite skilled enough to harmonize the two plots. Not the most gripping mystery around, but fans of Nordic noir with a historical bent might enjoy its combination of present and past.

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January 1, 2015
In Trondheim, Norway, an elusive killer leaves a music box playing a haunting melody on the body of a young woman whose vocal cords have been removed. When identifying the body proves challenging, DI Odd Singsaker's (Where Monsters Dwell, 2014) most promising clue is the music box. Music-history experts at Trondheim's Ringve Museum and the local university suggest that the melody is an unidentified historic ballad, and Singsaker feels the first twinges of suspicion as he uncovers a professor's improprieties with young singers. When another girl goes missing, Odd learns that she's slated to perform in a concert of classical ballads, further cementing his certainty that the song links the two cases. As Singsaker struggles to decode the melody's significance to the killer, Brekke deftly weaves an enlightening historical underlayer that reveals the lullaby's tragic origins. Brekke's storytelling epitomizes the atmospheric, cerebral blend of history and unflinching psychological terror that launched the Scandinavian crime-fiction trend; followers of Karin Fossum and Henning Mankell who haven't already discovered Brekke's Singsaker will appreciate an introduction.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)