Max, a former Norwegian police officer now working in Florida as a private detective, returns to Norway and winds up investigating the death of his former colleague, Knut. The death has been deemed a suicide, but Max is skeptical. With the help of a local woman, he links Knut’s death with two others, and to some mysterious ancient rituals. Well written and expertly translated, this novel is especially recommended for readers who enjoy the Nordic Noir genre.

The Devil's Wedding Ring is a stand-alone novel that takes place in the Telemark region of Norway. From the author of the Minnesota Trilogy, Wedding Ring is Nordic Noir --combining the present and the legendary past, revealing an intricate darker side to a beautiful region.

Max Fjelllanger left Norway almost thirty years ago after an unsettling incident in his early career with the police. When he hears about the death of his former partner, Max feels compelled to return for the funeral. Knut Abrahamsen supposedly filled his pockets with rocks and walked into the water, but Max is uneasy about the verdict of suicide, partly because of where Knut drowned.

In 1985, both Max and Knut had been involved in the search for Peter Schram, a folklore researcher who disappeared on Midsummer Eve, and Max's own burden concerning that investigation revives his questions and guilt--especially about the corrupt sheriff who threatened him at the time. The case was never solved; the young man was never found. Max feels he bears some responsibility...and wonders if Knut, too, found the case haunting.

When Max discovers that Cecilie Weiborg, who had also been researching pagan traditions and the Stave Church in Eidsborg, disappeared on the previous Midsummer Eve, he finds the coincidence too close for comfort. Instinct tell him that the disappearances of the two folklorists and Knut's death might be connected.

In the meantime, Tirill Vesterli, a librarian who loves mystery novels and wants to be a detective, is concerned when a man who has been stalking her returns after an absence. She has her own theories about what happened to Cecilie Wieborg--she believes Cecilie's research into pagan folklore associated with the Stave Church in Eidsborg put the young woman in danger.

Tirill is the highlight in this novel that is full of dark and atmospheric landscapes. She is whip-smart, intuitive, and an intriguing mixture of quirky and practical. Max eventually (reluctantly) teams up with Tirill, and the two make an excellent duo, playing to each other's strengths.

Tales of the ghostly monk and pagan rites may be more than embellished folklore, and Max and Tirill find that secrets of the past are still being protected, regardless of the human cost.

Eidsborg Stave Church; source
More images of Stave Churches.

NetGalley/University of Minnesota Press

Mystery/Suspense. Sept. 26, 2017. Print length: 280 pages.

Even though I lived in northern Minnesota I find that of all the books Vidar has written I like this one the best of all. It was a faster paced book, everything happened much quicker, there was a history behind what was happening, besides three mysterious deaths to be solved. Max Fjellanger and Tirill Vesterli were the main characters in the story with many other characters as red herrings besides the murders. The story unfolds as Knut Pbrahamsen's supposed suicide and funeral take place in Norway and Max decides to go to it from his home in Florida. As the story unfolds Max decides to look into Knut's death. In this effort he meets Tirill as a librarian. We meet her looking out her 3 floor apartment window at a robed male looking at her.

The history of what is happening is interesting and it takes Max to meet many other characters until he has the basic knowledge relating to the idles known for different families and idles for everyone. Thrill is Max's guide as he follows up on this. It takes both them to learn enough to finally figure out how everything fits together. I really like this story so much I finished the book in one reading day which is unusual for me. I recommend this book highly for anyone to read.

Take a little hike through Norway’s history, explore old world religion, and slip into the shoes of a PI with Vidar Sundstøl’s The Devil’s Wedding Ring. I mostly loved it, and I’d highly recommend it to fans of thrillers, detective novels, folklore, mythology, and history in general. It follows Max Fjellanger, the man in charge of a private investigation agency, who visits Norway (where he was born and worked as a cop for some years) for the first time in decades to attend the funeral of an old friend, Knut. Soon, the intrigue begins to focus on a statue in the Eidsborg stave church. Immediately, the reader is swept off to some beautiful, moody Norwegian settings that somehow manage to both reflect and contrast Max’s doubts that his friend committed suicide. Then Tirill appears – a quirky, crime-novel-reading librarian who has thought something fishy (maybe lutefisky?) has been going on for some time. Basically, what really stands out in this novel are the characters, the style, and the real history at play in the plot.

To be honest, by the third chapter, I was asking myself, “Who are these people again?” The reader meets Max, learns about Knut, then meets Knut’s widow and son, and then finds Tirill and her son – in the first three chapters. However, I soon found myself actually enjoying the challenge of trying to remember everyone’s names and connections. After all, that’s what Max has to do as a detective. There’s also some really fascinating characters in that mix. Tirill, first of all, is wonderfully quirky (not only through her personality, but she adds the occasional campy touch too, in the vein of Koontz’s Tick Tock), and by the end of the book I could picture her face in my mind. Later on, Åse is introduced as the desperate housewife of Professor Thue. Her raw energy is so powerful, every word she says, every movement, is dripping with it. I’d like to reread the book, just looking for craft tips on how to make a character so layered. Then there’s Sustugu – a scuzzy older man who’s been in trouble with the law more than once. The only thing he fears more than the cops are the eerie legends floating around the surrounding woods.

About the woods – there’s a fantastic balance of setting and plot in this novel, which makes it a real (I’m gonna say it) page-turner. Although you may find yourself creeping through the forests or studying old buildings with Tirill or Max, you’ll still be admiring the landscape and the architecture. The translator, Tiina Nunnally, certainly deserves credit for all that artful language as well. Anyway, this beautiful imagery and intense murder mystery blend is coupled with super short chapters. Personally, I think this is a reverse psychology deal. I know I can stop reading anytime, because the end of a chapter is the perfect place to stop. Still, the end of every chapter in this book just drew me even further in until it was almost impossible to put down.

Even with the cool characters, the lovely diction, and the intense plot, my favorite thing about The Devil’s Wedding Ring is the historical accuracy of so many central details. Eidsborg and Telemark, where the story mostly takes place, are real. The Eidsborg stave church – real. The Nikuls statue found in the church – real! Even the speculation that the statue was connected to ancient pagan rites is real! Because I’m such a nerd, at every mention of folklore or the Norwegian language, I was Googling the poo out of it – which made the thriller even more thrilling and created a deeper connection between me and the main character. If you’re not that much of a nerd, the author is generous enough to provide an epilogue where he separates fact from fiction.

So, if you’re looking for a fun bit of fiction with a compelling plot and enticing characters to help the relaxation flow, but you don’t want to feel guilty for slacking up on that knowledge stuff, this is the book for you.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. A former police officer and private investigator returns to his Norwegian homeland to attend a former colleague's funeral. Finding strange parallels between his friends "suicide" and a missing persons case from twenty years earlier, Max sets out to research what exactly is happening in this small town. He crosses paths with a librarian who has her own suspicions about the town. This book started out really creepy and it stays dark and creepy throughout! The writing was a little choppy at the beginning but the style grew on me as I read and I'm glad I stuck with it. A good read and scary.

Talk about atmospheric! You can almost breathe in the mossy, earthy air in the Norwegian woods where the action is set. Creepy rites, a gaggle of suspects and many red herrings make for a great read. Max Fjellanger has been living in Florida for decades but, when his old police partner turns up dead, he returns to the Telemark region of Norway where he was born. Max is a professionally successful detective who recently lost his wife, so he is a bit lost at the beginning. He starts looking into the case and soon finds a link to a disappearance thirty years back. With the help of Tirill, a librarian and Nordic Noir enthusiast, Max starts learning about the history of the place... and its ghosts. Honestly, if you're reading this book, chances are that you enjoy crime fiction, probably from Scandinavia, so it will be pretty hard not to identify with Tirill. She may sometimes make questionable decisions but, if you were in her shoes you'd probably do the same. I liked the turns that the story takes and the relatable cast of characters. Overall, a solid novel.

It had been a long time since I had read some Nordic Noir novel, and "The devil's wedding ring" made me wonder why.

On Midsummer Eve in 1985, a young folklore researcher disappears from the village of Eidsborg in the Telemark region of Norway. Exactly thirty years later, the student Cecilie Wiborg goes missing. She too had been researching the old, pagan rituals associated with the 13th-century Eidsborg stave church. And then Knut Abrahamsen, a former police officer from the area, is found drowned in the nearby Tokke River, a presumed suicide since his pockets were filled with stones.

Hearing of the death of his former colleague and friend, private investigator Max Fjellanger feels compelled to leave his long-time home in Florida and return to his native Norway to attend Knut’s funeral. Even though they haven’t spoken in more than three decades, Max is not convinced that Knut killed himself.


This novel has everything you need in a crime investigation story. The writing is precise, and the story feeds you the exact bits of information needed to make you want to solve the puzzle. Everything is there for a reason and it makes you doubt everything and everyone at some point.
The characters are compelling and flawed, all of them, which makes them more relatable. Max has been long widowed, and he still wears the weight of his cowardice when he allowed himself to be threatened by the police chief 30 years ago. Tirill is a young mother and crime lover, scorned by the police whenever she tries to give her input about what could have happened. As they join efforts to investigate the events regarding the three disappearances, they meet the locals while they try to navigate through their lies and threats to solve the cases.

One of the fortes of this story is the use of real places and real Nordic myths that root into ancient medieval pagan rites. Gods and goddesses of fertility and the sacrifices people made to gain their favours.

If you want to read a good Nordic crime fiction, you should pick this one. You won't be disappointed.

Thank you Netgalley and Minnesota University Press for the eARC.
This is a terrific book about the return of Max, after 30 years of living in Florida, to his Norwegian roots. He has a Detective Agency in Sarasota, which he ran with his wife. After her death and hearing that his former friend and colleague in Norway is being buried after committing suicide, he decides to attend the funeral and return to Florida within a few days. But something tells him his friend was murdered and he and the local librarian, Tirill, team up to try to find the truth.
Tirill is a great character, a feisty single mother who is addicted to detective novels and described as having a hairstyle that was perfect, but then exploded... made me laugh.
This is a story set in the present, with tentacles reaching into Norway's turbulent religious past. It's filled with pagan gods, myths, ancient churches and a shadowy religious group who have killed to stay hidden. Max and Tirill, even though their lives are in danger, are determined to get to the truth and in the course of their probing find some unbelievable, chilling dealings.
I really hope there will be a followup to this book, I'd like to catch up and meet the duo again!

Very interesting and unusual story. I enjoyed reading this book.

Brilliantly written, with a gripping story that will keep you reading long into the night.
Loved it.

This is a scary Norwegian detective thriller about ancient traditions and modern murder.

The publisher's blurb tells us the plot and raves on about the author Vidar Sundstøl. Well the truth is that it's really pretty good. Vidar Sundstøl has done a good job.

I received a review copy of "The Devil's Wedding Ring" by Vidar Sundstøl (University of Minnesota Press) through NetGalley.com.

Stunning!
Scandinavian crime novels are becoming quite popular in the United States and I can now understand why.
Vidar Sundstøl expertly weaves the supernatural into a murder mystery with well-rounded characters and just enough suspense to keep you enthralled.

Scandinavian crime fiction has been all the rage lately and frankly the bandwagon is much too appealing not to jump on. There's something inherently moody and brooding about the atmosphere and the writing has a very precise (not laconic per se, but certainly economic, strategically so, all you need nothing you don't) sort of quality. This is a fine example of it, a murder mystery set in Norway around an old stave church. The main protagonist is a visiting detective, who returns to Norway from US after decades away for a funeral of an old friend, that may or may not have been a suicide. Probably not, though, otherwise there'd be no story. So he sets off on an investigation assisted by a local librarian with an amateur sleuth mind. It's a fun ride, it definitely succeeds at drawing you in and the ancient mythology aspect along with a local cult angle are certainly nice bonuses. Mystery suspense thriller fans should really check this one out. Very enjoyable read. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

Norway seems to grow super-talented authors like Kansas grows wheat. Typically, I'm not a huge fan of stories that take place in other countries, but I always make an exception for those from Norway. This particular book is just chock full of perversion, evil, and diabolical motives; what more could any reader want? The pace is wild, and the characters expertly drawn. The battle of "good versus evil" is mesmerizing, and those willingly or unwillingly entranced with a powerful but corrupt priest and his church are caught in a web of lies and deceit. Excellent read, and highly recommended.