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Faithless

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This is my first by this author and I don't know what I have been waiting on by not reading from her! This was such a good book! I was sucked in from the very beginning and couldn't put this down!

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This is a Norwegian thriller set in Oslo. Inspector Frank Frølich is called to the scene where a woman was dumped, wrapped in plastic. He quickly realizes that he knows her and thinks that their recent meeting may have had something to do with her murder.

Their paths crossed when he was on a stake out and arrested her for cocaine possession only to let her go because she seemed they couldn’t tie her to the person behind the distribution. Later their paths cross again at a party when Frank is introduced to the woman by one of his oldest friends and she’s introduced as his fiancé.

Did Frølich’s questioning lead to her murder? This isn’t the only case on his plate. He’s also got a missing university student who’s arrived from Uganda. All evidence suggests she was a studious young woman but her disappearance is casting serious doubts about what she may have been involved in aside from her studies.

This had all the promises to be a good mystery but most of the time I found it confusing. There were moments when I wasn’t sure which character was speaking and I could never form in my mind an idea of what the characters were like. The narrative seemed to jump around a bit and although this is the fifth book in the series, I don’t know that if I had read the series from the beginning it would have helped. Maybe. I will say the ending was unexpected and just wish the rest of the book had been as interesting as the ending.

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Typically, I don't read novels where the story is based in other than the U.S., but I always make an exception for books by Norwegian authors. For some reason, they always write superior novels, and this book definitely falls into that category. The dialogue is taut and believable, and the plot is about as devious as you can get. Want a great book for the weekend? This is it!

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Faithless aims to please any fan of Nordic Noir.
K.O. Dahl's trademark dark atmosphere and perplexing characters appear again in his newest to-English translation. While readers may not encounter Dahl's books in order, because they have been translated from Norwegian, they work well as standalone novels and can be read in any order.
Faithless has many of the same elements that I've seen in Kjell's other works, such as dark beguiling female characters, tension charged stakeouts and uncomfortable dinner party scenes. All of these tense elements add to the atmosphere of this Scandinavian story.
Faithless is not only an in-depth crime novel but a cultural experience with a hard hitting ending, the perfect read for these increasingly cold days.

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Dark dark Scandanavian noir (I hope things really aren't this bad in Norway) but it's interesting and a fast read. Frolich is your classic aggrieved and dogged investigator pulling threads to find a dangerously deranged killer. It's nice to have the opportunity to read another author and I look forward to more in the series but highly recommend an English language edit before it's published. The translation was surprisingly rough and might actually turn some readers away. Persevere, though, through the awkward parts and you'll find a new detective. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

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This novel is part of a series that I'd never read before. Like most Nordic crime thrillers, it's full of disturbing individuals and horrific crime scenes. Inspector Frank Frølich arrests a woman leaving the house of a well-known criminal. He then runs into her at a party, starting a complicated case in which he keeps getting more and more involved. He is also trying to find a young African student who went missing shortly after arriving in Oslo. As many other dogged detectives, he will pursue the case even when it starts destroying him. Some parts, like when one of the detectives walks in the basement of a building with long, dark hallways and the feeling of being watched, made my skin crawl. There were two issues that distracted me from the plot: one is that the author seems to go out of his way to be politically correct to an excessive degree. The other was the translation, which was not organic and felt forced. I still mostly enjoyed the story. I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/Trafalgar Square Publishing!

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Faithless is a newly translated book in the Oslo Detectives series featuring Frank Frølich and Inspector Gunnarstranda. Frølich has been invited to a school friend’s 40th birthday party. He has not seen his friend for some twenty years, but he goes anyway and discovers his old friend’s fiancée Veronika is the woman he just arrested for cocaine possession. The party is great fun, but when he is called out to his next murder case, the fiancée is the murder victim. Clearly he must tread carefully in this investigation.

There are too many connections on this case. Veronika is suspected of working with their original investigative target, Kadir Zahid who they wish was the murdered, too bad he has their own investigators for an alibi. Then there is the possible gang of thieves who seem to be robbing Veronika’s clients. There is a stalker, her fiancé of course, and then to complicate everything, a possible serial killer connection is made with a similar murder of a victim who resembled Veronika.

They manage to rule out the stalker when Gunnarstranda finds him dead. But they still have far too many suspects, including a psychologist who connects to all three victims. Team member Lena Stigersand risks far too much pursuing a private investigation and Frølich reaches too far when he finally figures out the last piece of the puzzle. These are detectives who care deeply and risk much while Gunnarstranda struggles to provide inspiration, mentorship, and restraint.



I liked Faithless a lot. It’s fair, we learn what the detectives learn when they learn it and yet it’s complex enough we aren’t rolling our eyes, begging them to put two and two together. Their leaps of logic happen in time with or even before my own. That makes me happy. The characters are complex individuals, but they are not filled out with the kinds of quirks that become tedious when repeated in book after book.

This is a Scandinavian mystery in the best sense, with professional cops who don’t fantasize about being Dirty Harry. Even when the detective color outside the lines, there is a respect for the lines and they suffer consequences and disapproval rather than glad-handed praise from people who think bullying is bravery and brutality is strength. Folks who like law-breaking, violent thugs for their police will be disappointed, even though there is some extrajudicial action.

I admire K. O. Dahl and look forward to more in the series.

Faithless will be released September 1st. I received an e-galley from the publisher through NetGalley.

Other English translations of books by K. O. Dahl are The Fourth Man, The Man in the Window, The Last Fix, and Lethal Investments.

Faithless at Orenda Books
Kiel Ola Dahl author site

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Kiel's story seems to hit several thoughts that are probably on all officers conscience mind when they come up against an old friend in a case, and wonder what they should do, should they op out of it. What should they do about each of their people when they have triggered several different scenarios where they have caught the villains and kept their mouths shut. This has given us two different ending to police officers who we liked in the story. It is a realistic ending and is well worth reading.

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4 stars
Veronika Undset is the murdered woman who was left in a dumpster burned and naked, wrapped in plastic. Inspector Frank Frolich and his team are investigating the case. Frank is a childhood friend of Veronika’s fiancé Karl Anders Fransgard who is also the main suspect in her death.

Some of the other officers on the case are: Stale Sender the ”murderer of asylum-seekers” as he is called behind his back and Lena Stigersand are police officers who are carrying on an affair – a very odd one, Mustafa Rindal is the boss of the team and the philosopher of the group and Gunnarstranda is another Inspector with the team. Another suspect is Kadir Zahid who is originally from Pakistan and is an all-around bad guy, thief and with his fingers in many enterprises.

The team is also investigating the cold case of young woman named Rosalind M’Taya who is missing and presumed dead.

When Gunnarstranda finds another dead body, the heat is turned up on the Veronika Undset case. The murdered man, Sivert Almeli was apparently following Veronika and taking photos of her. The cases get more and more complicated as more suspects in both cases are identified. The tension and the speed of the story ratchet up.

This book is fairly well written and plotted. It does, however, have a tendency to wander at times. I read another one of Dahl’s books and felt that it was better. The suspense starts out in this book almost immediately and increases throughout the novel. I like the police officers and the team got along well. I like police procedurals where there isn’t a lot of tension and infighting between the team members.

I want to thank NetGalley and Trafalgar Square Publishing for forwarding to me a copy of this book to read.

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