Haunted by Death
By Gunnar Staalesen
On an inter-county bus ride headed for Bergen, Varg Veum happens to notice three people at a remote intersection. A few days later, he recognizes one of them under the headline…
Description
On an inter-county bus ride headed for Bergen, Varg Veum happens to notice three people at a remote intersection. A few days later, he recognizes one of them under the headline YOUNG MAN MISSING.
The three were due to take part in a demonstration against a fish-farming facility in the tiny village of Solvik north of Bergen. Veum’s natural curiosity leads him to Solvik and the chance discovery of a body in the sea. Is there any connection between the discovery of the body and the death of a journalist who was digging into the fish farm’s operations two years earlier?
How many secrets lay hidden in Solvik, a place where two families are contending for salmon fortunes, and where rumours spread like wildfire?
This is the twentieth novel in the Varg Veum series.
Foreign Sales The Netherlands, Uitgeverij Marmer Denmark, Lindhardt & Ringhof England, Orenda
Product information
Publication year2023
Praise
The book spans a wide range of themes, from discussions of fish farming to the undying relentlessness of village gossip. It is a chamber play using climate change challenges as a political backdrop, weaving together past and present. In this book, Staalesen masterfully captures the present moment, as reflected in the biggest headlines of recent times; times where discussions of salmon taxes and cases of “unknowing disqualification” have shaken our trust in our politicians. This lends the book relevance as it plays into bigger themes of our day and age, but simultaneously, this is a timeless detective story. […] The book stays true to what might be called the Veum genre, and joins the rank of really good crime novels.
Kjersti Egge, BAThis is an exquisite crime novel, where darkness and glimmers of light spread side by side, like a common thread throughout the text. […] a superb crime novel, with a chilling plot. Brilliantly penned by one of Norway’s best crime writers.
Simen Ingemundsen, Randaberg24
