Dead Joker by Anne Holt

Published in Norwegian in 1999; published in translation by Scribner on July 26, 2016

The Public Prosecutor’s wife has been decapitated. The Public Prosecutor tells Chief Inspector Hanna Wilhelmson that he witnessed the murder and did nothing to stop it. Unfortunately for his defense, the person he identifies as the killer was seen jumping off a bridge some days before the murder occurred. The Public Prosecutor’s fingerprints are all over the murder weapon and unless the murder was committed by a ghost, it sounds like a slam dunk case for Wilhelmson. It appears, however, that nothing is a slam dunk in Norway.

In fact, unlike American law enforcement officers, those in Norway seem to be incapable of believing that anyone they arrest is actually guilty -- at least, that’s the impression I get from reading Anne Holt’s novels. They bend over backwards to keep an open mind and never stop looking for evidence that might lead to a different suspect. I don’t know if that’s how things really work in Norway, but it’s refreshing to imagine law enforcement officers who are aware of their own fallibility. American cops would be jumping up and down with glee to have such a strong case, but nobody in Dead Joker seems to think there’s enough evidence to convict the man whose fingerprints were on the murder weapon, who waited an hour to report his wife’s death, and who is blaming the crime on a dead man.

A related plot thread involves Evald Bromo, who has a weakness for little girls. Now he’s certain that his crimes are about to be exposed. His story intersects with that of a character who describes himself as an Avenging Angel (he is, in fact, part of a group of angels). Of course, the story threads eventually tie together. They do so in a way that is plausible, that doesn’t overreach, and that leads to a couple of mild surprises at the end.

I applaud thriller authors who take the time to flesh out their characters, but there are too many scenes in Dead Joker that focus on characters’ lives in ways that struck me as superfluous. I’m also not sure we need to know quite as much as we are told about characters’ meals and choices of attire. While the story sets up a dramatic change in Wilhelmson’s life, Dead Joker could have been shortened by 50 to 100 pages without losing meaningful detail, and the result would have been a better novel. I liked the resolution of the plot threads in Dead Joker and I like the way characters develop in this novel and throughout the series, but I would have liked the book more if the writing had been tightened.

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The Lion's Mouth by Anne Holt

First published in Norway in 1997; published by Scribner on February 9, 2016

The Lion’s Mouth begins with the murder of the prime minister in her office. Since prime ministers in Norway are too dull to assassinate, the murder puzzles Hanne Wilhelmsen, who (together with Billy T and every other law enforcement agent in Norway) is assigned to investigate it.

Although the prime minister was not in a locked room, the novel has the feel of a locked room mystery. The entrances to the office are limited. Security guards and a secretary should prevent strangers from gaining access to the office. It should not be possible to bring an unauthorized handgun into the building and no weapon is present at the scene. And, oddly enough, the prime minister’s shawl is missing, along with a pillbox.

The last person to see the prime minister was Benjamin Grinde, a Supreme Court Justice. That makes him a suspect, but an unlikely one. His detention for questioning by Billy T. nonetheless makes a good news story, one that is unearthed by Lise “Little” Lettvik, a chain-smoking, hard-drinking newspaper reporter who is far from little.

All of this is background to an intricate plot that also makes frequent mention of a statistically anomalous increase in childhood deaths in Norway in 1965. That fact comes up so often in the early-going that it will obviously tie into the main plot. The question is: how?

Anne Holt assembles a cast of potential murderers, all of whom seem to have an alibi. Whether the killer’s motivation was political or personal, how the killer managed the crime, and how it ties in with the 1965 spike in dead children are questions the reader is invited to ponder as the investigation moves forward. All of that is handled effectively and credibly. The answer to the mystery becomes obvious a few chapters before the police figure it out, but only a few. And that only means that Holt played fair with the reader, providing clues that the reader could assemble to arrive at the truth. A final reveal at the end, however, comes as a surprise.

Character development is about average for a murder mystery. The discussions of Norwegian politics and history are easy to follow, even for a reader (like me) who knows almost nothing about Norway. Holt’s prose is graceful in translation. I’m not sure I quite accepted the motivation of a key character to act as he did, and a coincidence that occurs midway through the story is a bit too convenient, but those are minor quibbles. All told, The Lion’s Mouth is a fine political mystery/police procedural. It isn’t outstanding but it is enjoyable and a nice change from American or British novels of the same ilk.

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Death of the Demon by Anne Holt

First published in Norway in 1995; published in translation by Scribner on June 18, 2013

Anne Holt creates an ominous atmosphere in Death of the Demon ... or maybe the Scandinavian setting is enough to do that. Title notwithstanding, Death of the Demon is a fairly traditional murder mystery, not a tale of the supernatural, although several characters are possessed by demons of their own design.

Twelve-year-old Olav, confined to an institutional foster home in Oslo, is consumed by hatred. Foul-mouthed and ill-tempered, Olav is a chubby boy whose ravenous appetite is rarely satisfied. His mother cannot begin to control him. On the same night the foster home's director is stabbed to death, Olav disappears. Chief Inspector Hanne Wilhelmsen investigates, assisted by Detective Billie T.  With Olav, the other foster kids, troubled staff members, and the director's husband and boyfriend to consider, there's no shortage of suspects in this whodunit.

From time to time, Olav's mother provides a first-person account of the difficult life she had raising the little terror and the unwillingness of social services agencies to help, until they finally showed up to take him away. The degree to which Olav's mother is responsible for Olav's misbehavior is unclear (she has a hands-off approach to parenting), but social workers and teachers are eager to blame her instead of reproaching themselves for failing to give her the assistance she persistently requested. Those passages are probably meant to add human interest while serving as an indictment of Norway's social services agencies, but (other than the very last one) they're a bit too obvious to add anything meaningful to the story.

Characterization is above-average for a whodunit. Hanne, who is more comfortable being an investigator than an administrator, has some regret over her decision to accept her promotion to Chief Inspector. Discord between Hanne and her domestic partner adds spice to the story without becoming melodramatic. Holt gives Hanne and Billie T. a workplace friendship without relying on the clichés that often accompany relationships of that nature. I can't say that any of the characters are particularly deep, but neither are they shallow.

The ultimate test of a whodunit is whether the "reveal" is surprising and whether the story is engaging. Death of the Demon gets a better-than-passing grade on both prongs of the test. Holt has a talent for misdirection, as evidenced by a final twist that gives the story an extra spark while imparting new meaning to the book's title.

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