Requiem

May 21, 2018
Pedestrian prose and overly familiar situations undercut this twisted tale of revenge, the first novel from Tangen, a Norwegian crime book blogger. In 2014, jaded journalist Viljar Ravn Gudmundsson (an Icelander working for the Haugesund, Norway, newspaper) receives a series of emails describing murders that copycat lurid scenes in well-known Nordic crime novels. Viljar helps Chief Insp. Lotte Skeisvoll, who has the requisite family problem to distract her (a sister with a drinking problem), investigate the serial killings, with mostly unwanted contributions from grouchy, old-fashioned Kripos detective Olav Scheldrup Hansen. The main narrative alternates with short, creepy peeks into the psychopathic killer’s warped brain and excerpts of the four-year-old backstory of Viljar’s big scoop and a bad mistake that caused his fall from journalistic fame and his consequent psychological deterioration. Scandinavian noir fans have seen all of this before.

June 1, 2018
Four years ago, investigative reporter Viljar Gudmundsson found fame when he broke the explosive story of a Norwegian government minister coercing underage boys to trade sexual favors for prestigious internships. Tragically, the story also led to his teenage source's death. Guilt has now soured Viljar's taste for investigative reporting. Then, after a killer calling himself Maestro begins sending Viljar announcements of his next kills, the reporter is pulled into the hunt. Maestro, a self-styled vigilante, bizarrely models his murders on scenes from famous Scandinavian thrillers. When Viljar's personal connections to Maestro's victims become evident, he becomes a suspect and is forced into a desperate race to protect his friends and clear himself. Luckily, investigative savant Lotte Skeisvoll, the Maestro task force's lead investigator, has difficulty seeing half-broken Viljar as a killer. This Gudmundsson and Skeisvoll series debut is a gripping, suitably atmospheric must-read for Scandinavian crime-fiction devotees; Tangen draws in scenes from favorites Gunnar Staalesen, Jo Nesb�, Anne Holt, and Henning Mankell in a clever play on life's imitation of art.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

June 15, 2018

When world-weary journalist Viljar Gudmundsson receives an anonymous email that threatens to kill a woman who has gotten away with embezzlement, he dismisses it as a joke. Then a woman turns up dead the next morning and another email arrives. Gudmundsson is soon working with CI Lotte Skeisvoll to try to identify potential victims and stop the killer, but Gudmundsson's past, Skeisvoll's drug-addicted sister, and the federal investigator sent to help only complicate the case. Gudmundsson suspects that a story he wrote four years earlier that exposed a top government official's predilection for underage boys may be related to the murders. The story helped convict the official but also inadvertently unveiled the identity of the informant, ruining several lives in the process. That situation left the reporter with alcohol and anxiety problems, and now he wonders if he'll be the final victim as the killer gets closer. VERDICT Already an international best seller, this initially self-published debut by a Norwegian crime book blogger is true to the genre. A dark and slightly creepy thriller that fans of Henning Mankell and Arnaldur Indridason will appreciate. [See Prepub Alert, 1/22/18; library marketing.]--Melissa DeWild, Spring Lake Dist. Lib., MI

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 15, 2018

In this debut, self-published in January 2016 and quickly bought by one of Norway's premier publishers, journalist Viljar Gudmundsson thinks it's a joke when he receives an email whose anonymous sender promises to execute a woman for unexpiated crimes. A dead body materializes the next day, another email arrives, and Viljar soon finds himself working with investigator Lotte Skeisvoll.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.